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Trinity Episcopal Church |
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Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42
The Collect of the Day
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” (Matthew 10:40-42)
Extravagant Hospitality
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
When I was growing up my house stood on Highway 97 in Oregon, which was at that time, a major connecting road between California and Oregon. Hundreds of cars and trucks rumbled past our house every day. To the south was a roadside motel that had the feel of the Bates Motel from Psycho. Truckers would often stay there while their rigs were repaired at the large truck stop across the highway. To the east of the house on the other side of a large lake was a very large switching yard for the Great Northern and Southern Pacific railroads. Many, many trains moved through that yard, and sometimes when the din from the highway wasn’t too loud, we could hear the banging sound of the couplers on the railroad cars as they were moved and assembled into longer and longer trains.
This was a perfect rural neighborhood for adventure. There was always something to do, and trouble to get into. My friends and I learned how to make the truckers blow their air horns, and we learned how to dash across that busy highway without causing a wreck or being killed ourselves. When produce trucks would occasionally lose some of their load on the highway, we learned how to eat it and spit out not only the seeds, but also the gravel and asphalt. There was a railroad trestle across the lake, and, just like the boys in the movie Stand By Me, we learned how to outrun a train.
Because of all of that transportation, we also had a lot of transients in the neighborhood. In those days, the words my parents applied to these people were “bums” and “hobos.” My mom always kept the front door wide open with the screen door closed for ventilation. It was not at all uncommon for men either walking along the highways or riding the rails to come to the door and ask for food or a place to stay. Perhaps the open door was why those strangers came to our house. And my mother’s response was to make them a sandwich or two, which she wrapped in waxed paper, and if it was after dark, she would give them a blanket and invite them to sleep in the front yard. Oftentimes in the morning, the men were gone before sun up; the blanket folded up, sitting on the porch.
In time, after the interstate was built, the traffic on Highway 97 all but disappeared and so did the men who came to our door. Although my mother was intensely religious, she was not one to talk much about her faith. I asked her once why she helped those men, and in keeping with her nature she just shrugged and said, “Seemed like the right thing to do.” No Bible quotations about being welcoming to strangers, or caring for the poor. She just did what she did because it seemed like the right thing to do.
In today’s gospel lesson, Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Now that’s a verse my mom could have quoted. Welcoming the stranger is indeed part of the gospel message. But it is only a part. The real meaning of Matthew is deeper than that. And to get to that meaning, we need to know a little about Matthew’s community. Matthew’s church was a community of Jewish-Christians. But in the larger community around them were many Gentiles, and those Gentiles, unfamiliar with Jewish customs and rules, were coming into Matthew’s church. And that was causing considerable friction. Strangers were in the pews. They weren’t hungry, homeless passersby, but were people who were on a spiritual journey, and heard a message of hope in the gospel message. But there were people in Matthew’s church who insisted that in order to be part of their church community – their Jewish-Christian community – the newcomers had to adopt Jewish customs and rules. The writer of Matthew, like the Apostle Paul, disagreed. Matthew said, “No, whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Matthew is not simply talking about acts of kindness or charity toward children or the underprivileged. As Matthew uses the phrase “Little ones” he means Gentiles who were new to the faith. When he speaks about giving a cup of cold water to them, he is talking about a generous, no-strings-attached, radically hospitable welcome to strangers inside the church itself. He told his church that God’s word and promises are available to everyone. And because God’s presence is always and forever available to every person, he told the established largely Jewish-Christian membership not to impose restrictions on newbie Gentiles searching for God in Jesus. He warns the old ranks not to put stumbling blocks in their way (Mt 18:cf). He told the established Jewish-Christian members of his church that putting dogmatic requirements in the way of those seeking God was not right – indeed placing such restrictions on people seeking Jesus and a relationship with God might be downright ungodly. Paraphrasing from the eighteenth chapter of Matthew: “If any of you puts a stumbling block before someone seeking God, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the sea. There are enough people and situations in life that cause one to doubt in God, or just not believe. But in the church you don’t need to add to that! You surely shouldn’t make it harder for people by imposing your traditions or rules or laws on them!” (Mt 18:6-10) “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” (Mt 6:33a) Now that’s radical!
Matthew’s message applies to us as well. We all want our church to grow. And some of the plans that your vestry is working on will involve activities and functions that will bring new people to this place. The thought of bringing new people into this church is both exciting and challenging. Exciting, because with new people come new opportunities for relationships and connectedness. Challenging, because new people bring new ideas and diversity and may confront the status quo. But when Jesus tells us to “strive first for the Kingdom of God” he is “not calling us to be lopsided, rigid, inflexible religious knot heads for his sake.”[1] Our work as a parish is not to make Episcopalians out of newcomers or to hand them a pledge card. Just like Matthew’s church had to learn, our primary task is to open our hearts and help people experience the love and power of Jesus Christ.
We need to be extravagant in sincerity and radically hospitable. Why? Because “the more extravagant the welcome, the greater the refreshment, the deeper the grounding, the clearer the enlightenment, the stronger the inspiration that will flow from it.”[2] The more welcoming we are of diversity of thinking and ways of doing things, the more we will be inspired, rejuvenated, and joyful. And ultimately, we will be moved to lay claim to the sacred responsibility of expressing Christ in the world and being his agents.
Several years ago, a church I know decided to implement foot washing at the Maundy Thursday service. There was a lot of discussion about how parishioners would react to this action. Some argued that because foot washing was so clearly grounded in the gospel, how could anyone object? Others countered that Biblical or not, it meant touching another person’s feet. Still others thought that asking people to expose their feet was personally violating. Despite the reservations, the decision was made to go ahead. At the appointed time the clergy washed each other’s feet, and, remaining shoeless, they invited others to come forward. A few came forward to have their feet washed, but then quickly returned nervously to their pews, and immediately put their shoes back on. The next year, foot washing was again included in the liturgy, and a few more people joined in. Over the years, congregational participation grew to the point that many more foot washing stations had to be added. And in time, parishioners began washing each other’s feet in a totally inclusive gesture of radical hospitality and servant hood. Recently, this same church went a step further. Instead of just washing each other’s feet, they invited the homeless to come to church to not only have their feet washed, but also to have them massaged. This was not a simple, out-of-the-blue, gimmicky gesture. But rather this liturgical act was the direct result of how that congregation had developed and grown over the years. That congregation had adopted a special, deep, and long term interest in the plight of the homeless, and had opened its doors and hearts and pocketbooks to their needs. And as a result of their social activism and commitment to meeting people where they lived, the church grew. That church had become known in the community as community of energized, caring, devoted people who really did live out the gospel call.
“The ‘personal purpose’ of Christians is to ‘express Christ.’ The secret of life – in whatever ways it happens to be fleshed out according to the gifts we possess – is to first lay claim to this sacred responsibility. When this purpose becomes the lens through which we view the totality of life, then everything we do takes on a devotion and a dynamism. To be the living sign and symbol of Jesus Christ – of the faith that we profess – is the high calling that Jesus extends to us as his agents.”[1] As individuals, we need to answer that call. And as a congregation, we must to fulfill that purpose. And as our dynamism grows, we will not only be successful in building the Kingdom, our church will grow too.
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God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
1 How long, O LORD?
will you forget me for ever? *
how long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I have perplexity in my mind,
and grief in my heart, day after day?*
how long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look upon me and answer me, O LORD my God; *
give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” *
and my foes rejoice that I have fallen.
5 But I put my trust in your mercy; *
my heart is joyful because of your saving help.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt with me richly; *
I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.
Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[1] Thomas a Kempis. The Imitation of Christ as quoted in Synthesis 21(6): Proper 7. Boyds, MD: Sedgewick Publishing Co., June 2008.
[2] Evan Drake Howard. “Living the Word.” The Christian Century 125(12):21, 2008.
The Mission of Trinity Episcopal Church is to be an open and diverse Christian family dedicated to serving God and all creation by fostering spiritual growth through worship, prayer, education, service, stewardship, and celebration. |
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Copyright © 2008, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
26 June 2008
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