So Loved // The Lost Art of Hospitality

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

We're gonna jump in. We're gonna jump in. So much good stuff happening. Hey, listen, I'm gonna catch you up. If you're just joining us for the first time in the last few weeks, um, I'm gonna catch you up. We're in this little initiative called So Love, the thousand moments of love and action.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

We just believe that God has called us into a season of um of actually opening our mice to stop, to pray for, to be with, to love the people in our lives. And uh, I'm gonna read to you a few stories that have come in this week. And listen, you can always participate. So many of you guys are doing these moments already.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Um, you uh what I want to encourage you to do is to actually stop, write them down on your phone. Just remember to text us. We want to share these stories. It is not about bragging. Okay, just I just want to let you off the hook. It's when you share these stories, it's not about you getting glory for anything. All of this is anonymous, all right? So when we share these stories, it's about stirring up others to stop for the one. Every moment counts.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Amen. So I want to share with you uh a few stories. You guys with me? Okay, here's a few that came in this week. Somebody said this I prayed a blessing over a woman who was holding an estate sale. She thanked me and said she would remember this prayer for the rest of her life. Okay? Again, simple moment. Somebody else said they ordered supplies for the teacher baskets that you just heard about that we're bringing to Heatherwood Elementary. That was their moment of love and action. They just simply placed an order so we could bless teachers. Uh others brought coats in, bought coats from a local uh a local store and donated them to the coat drive for the homeless that we're doing right now. Somebody else said this, they gave thank you treats and notes to three colleagues in another department who helped cover their tasks for that week. Somebody said this. I was texting a friend. He has been in a difficult season at work and uh uh and and personally. He was given a great opportunity for a new job, but was feeling some guilt and shame for how might how this might affect his family. I'm paraphrasing this one a little bit. But I reminded him that we need to put our trust in God and believe his plans are good for him and his family. All right, so that was his moment of love and action, texting a friend to encourage him. Somebody else said this I never have cash on me, so I'm not able to in the habit of giving cash away. But I happen to have $50 from random events. So I was walking out to my car in a parking lot, and an elderly guy, he was clearly living out of his car and had a flat tire, the Holy Spirit whispered, You actually do have $50 in your pocket. Go give it to him. Somebody said this, our neighbor went into hospice and passed away on Friday. I've been helping them, helping the family by bringing in mail and notifying neighbors and collecting keys she had been given out. This one's fun. This actually happened last week in this room. This was not necessarily a person taking love and action, but receiving a love and action, which I just gotta tell you, that counts too. All right. So if you've received a moment of love and action, text it in. Text it in, all right? We got a thousand to go, baby. So you gotta keep rolling it in. Somebody said this. I'll share this on behalf of the loving actions of another church member. This last Sunday I leaned towards a woman sitting next to me and asked, What does it mean to leave the 99? She briefly said it was about searching for the one lost sheep of a hundred. But then she excused herself and left her seat. I thought, gosh, I didn't uh gosh, I needn't have bothered her in the middle of Amy's message. In about 15 minutes, she came back and offered me a piece of paper with the entire message from the Bible written out in long hand, Luke 15, 4 through 7. And I thought, this is what our church is all about. And I cry out in gratefulness as I write this. She didn't know, she heard this phrase, leave the 99. It's a phrase that if you're in church world, you know what that means, but like if you don't know that story, like that's uh that uh that might be confusing. Somebody heard that, wrote the scripture out in long hand, said, Here, here's what this means, and gave it to her so she could understand. See, guys, this is what it's about. It's about moving beyond what would be convenient to what would be a moment of self-sacrifice and love. Amen? So keep it up, guys. Let's keep moving. There's so many, so much more to go. Uh, moments of prayers, moments of sharing meals, moments, moments of service, moments of looking out, stopping and pausing for the one. Here's why all that matters. Following Jesus, you guys are with me on this, following Jesus is more than an exercise in spiritual self-improvement. Spiritual maturity is measured by the way that we love. That's how it's actually measured in the kingdom of God. So the fruit of this is actually seen in the way that we extend the grace and the love of God to our neighbors and our friends and our co-workers where we live and where we work and where we play. How many of you guys know the Holy Spirit insists on making Christ's love known? The Holy Spirit inside of you insists on making the love of Jesus known. For those who are filled with the Spirit, this is what is bubbling up inside of you. It becomes natural, it's now part of your genetic the kingdom DNA inside of you is percolating for someone else to experience what you have experienced in Christ. And so when we take these tiny moments, we're sowing seeds one at a time. And you don't know what seeds had already even been planted before you even got there to do your moment of love in action. But what happens is as we are faithful to sow seeds or to nurture seeds that have been sown, the result is it becomes a flourishing, a cultivating of opening openness to Jesus, conversations, relationships, prayers. The work of the Holy Spirit over time just happens one moment at a time, and we get to participate with what he's already doing. So this matters for a lot of reasons. I think it really matters right now because how many of you guys know we're in a moment marked by increased hostility, isolation, and suspicion of the other. That is what's happening. Hostility, the current mood of our nation, and I don't really need to remind you of this because you already know this, but we just it's it's good to name, to know what is the state of where we're at. The current mood of our nation is one of unease, suspicion, and againstness. Some of this is due to the upheaval happening in Washington, but also I think it's even broader than that, just globally, there's a growing fear of are we gonna be okay? Am I gonna be okay? Are they gonna be okay? And what happens is when we start asking those questions, it kind of leads to that unsettleness, which starts to grow into suspicion, what starts to kind of move into I better protect my self-interests before I take care of anybody else's interests. Okay, this is the water that we're swimming in right now, and so that has a lot of continue uh uh uh uh consequences. One is loneliness, and this is something that was already a problem. The amount of Americans who said they have no close friends has quadrupled since 1990. 50 percent, 54% of Americans reported feeling that no one knows them at all. 40% of zero close friends were confident confidants. Some of you know what that feels like. Even in the church, we can feel that sometimes. And so a lot of the design of our culture is is now you know it is actually designed to continue to keep us further isolated. And so then when hostility and suspicion add to the mix, it doesn't go the right way. It's not going the right direction. So what what what that means is that in the face of this reality, listen to me here, in the face of this reality, we have a choice as a church. Are we going to participate in and pass on the contagion of hostility, suspicion, and isolation or are we going to move in the opposite spirit towards others in the power and the spirit of God? Are we going to participate in what's happening? Or are we gonna swim upstream through not through our own just our own uh striving and self-effort, but through the power of the spirit to say, despite what's happening all around, I'm going to choose to stop and to see and to love. Why? Because that's what Jesus has done for me. Anyone with me on that? So this is the movement that we're in. This is the Jesus life. Okay, so if you have your Bibles, open up to Luke chapter 24. Over the last couple weeks, we've been exploring these one-on-one moments with Jesus, how he just kind of shows up in people's lives. He creates these moments in everyday life. These moments aren't happening in a church building, they're happening on streets and around wells. And he seems to show up in people's life when they least expect it and then invite them very close. I'm gonna show you another moment that for us help us to enter into the Jesus life together. All right? Luke chapter 24, we're gonna start in verse 13. This is just after the resurrection. Okay. This is Jesus died on the cross on Sunday, he resurrected, and then he starts appearing to disciples, okay? While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopus, answered, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? And he said to him, said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word, before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and they did not find his body. They came back, saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he was going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened. And they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened us up to the scriptures. Amen. Amen. So this passage is a beautiful one. In the wake of extraordinary events, a couple disciples were moving out from Jerusalem and they were walking to Emmaus, and and uh and we see that Jesus shows up incognito to companion them on the journey because apparently he didn't have anything better to do. And so I always wondered that I'm like, wow, it's like this was how he decided to show up to two disciples. He could have been on a world tour at this point. He decided to show up to two disciples and just be with them on this journey. He didn't immediately make anything known about himself, which he could have, but rather we see that Jesus started to ask questions and just to listen to what they said. He didn't correct them, he didn't he didn't sear them too quickly. He just said, Hey, what are you talking about? And then he played dumb. Have you heard of Jesus of Nazareth? I don't know. What things are you talking about? Tell me, I want to hear it from you. How are you experiencing? What are you thinking and what are you saying about this? And then it was only after spending time with them and listening to them process and avail themselves and the content of their heart that he began to open up the scriptures with the law and the prophets and and and and the psalms, and he began to reveal everything that was supposed to be true about the Messiah, which was him. And he began to illuminate their understanding with the truth. And even then he stayed with them, and they invited him at that point to share a meal with them, to come to where they were staying. And so he took the bread at when they were over a table. We come to this final scene where he took the bread and he blessed it and broke it. And it was only at this point that it says that their eyes were open and they could see him for the first time and realized it was Jesus, and realized the entire time this is why there was something inside of me that was churning, because that was Jesus the entire time. See, the setting for this revelation was not in a church, it was in a home around the table. This became the catalyst, this became the moment where Jesus revealed himself. And it's a beautiful scene where he embodies, like he does in many other parts of Scripture, the way that Jesus shows up to others. Zacchaeus in Jericho, to the Samaritan woman around the well, if you listen to Amy's message from last week, so much of how Jesus ends up showing to others happens to be around a table and uh sharing a meal or a cup of water or the breaking of bread, which tells us what? Which tells us that as we're looking to be like Jesus and to love others like him, we have to remember that hospitality is central to the gospel. Hospitality is central to the gospel. The word companion is actually broken up into two different words. Com, that means with, pan, that many of you know it means bread. It actually means one who you are with over bread. That's what it means to companion somebody. In the ancient world, it's lost on us in today because many meals, uh eating today in our culture is not for many, is nothing more than functional or utilitarian. I need to eat, so I buy food to eat. But in the ancient world, to invite somebody over for you for a meal or table fellowship was a way to reconcile with them, to make strangers into friends, is the way to spend the most intimate time with those who you considered friends. And some argue that this is exactly why Jesus was killed, because he ate with all of the wrong people. He was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And while we don't believe that he was actually a glutton or a drunkard, you have to wonder, he got that reputation somehow. Because Jesus liked to be around tables, right? Over 50 references in the Gospel of Luke is uh relates to food. And somebody said it like this in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is always either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. Come on. That was the best thing you heard all day. Tim Chester, who wrote a book on this very concept, a meal with Jesus, he pointed out that in the Gospel of Luke, there's a phrase that appears two different times. The Son of Man came, dot, dot, dot. And there's one time that talks about his mission, what he came for, and then one time that talks about how he did it. And once in one that says, the son of man came to seek and save the lost. That was his mission. Then later in Luke, the Son of Man came eating and drinking. That's how he fulfilled his mission. See, Jesus, because he didn't have his own home, he had a way of opening up other people's homes. And he said, I'm coming over for dinner. And some somehow he would be able to play the guest and the host at the same time. He would use these moments to listen, to offer wisdom, to take a conversation deeper, and then in certain times to say, Hey, come and follow me. You can stop doing whatever you're doing, and you can come follow me too. And we have to remember that for most of church history, hospitality played such a key role in the expansion of the gospel. Okay. Hospitality, the actual Greek word is this word, phyllozenia. Philo, which we know is this is the word, one of the words we have for love in the scriptures. But xenos is the word for stranger. Hospitality is the love of the stranger. It's the love of the stranger. And it's it's it's actually the exact opposite of xenophobia, which is the fear of the stranger, the fear of the other. Which, going back to where we started, that is part of what we contend with is moving from xenophobia to the love of a stranger, because that is what hospitality is, according to Jesus. It's expressing the welcome of God to all through tangible acts of love and service, namely through giving food and shelter and relationship. It's about opening a space to see and to understand the stories of others, the ones that normally we would write off, right? It's to see the world through their life, their eyes, even if on the surface we can think of any reason not to do so. It's choosing to be with them, trusting that they have a gift to offer as well. Henry Nowen, in his fantastic little book called Reaching Out, which I would highly recommend, he says this is that this is our vocation to convert hostility into hospitality, the enemy into a guest, and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced. And this wasn't just with Jesus, this just became the operating system of the early church. Romans 12 13. Paul writes, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality. I'm sorry, sorry, first Peter four verses seven through nine, actually. He says this, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and be sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. He continues, above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. So the end of all things is at hand. Show hospitality. The world is ending. Go invite somebody for dinner. This is how central this was to the expansion and to the to the showing of love, the extension of the gospel. Hebrews 13, 1 through 2. Let brother brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. So the writer of Hebrews seems to think listen, don't stop, because this could be your opportunity to even welcome an angel into your very home if you have eyes to see and a heart willing to open. Furthermore, 1 Timothy 3 and Titus talks about the qualifications for leaders and elders and pastors in the church, and both of the lists include hospitality, among many other things, about something that is critical for leaders in the church, which is really interesting because we've heard of a lot of leaders getting disqualified over all kinds of different things. I've never heard of a leader being disqualified for being unhospitable. But that's how important it was. It made the list of qualifications for elders and leaders in the church. It's central to the way that we are to live. Now, to be clear, hospitality and entertainment are not the same. This is where we get mixed up, okay? Because as soon as I say hospitality, some of you are already thinking Martha Stewart. All right, and you're thinking, I can't do that. I'm not that. I can't do it. I don't have the home, I don't have the table. You're thinking massive meals and new recipes and decorating your whole home. You know, others of us might think of like kind of the indie kinfolk magazine, which is these Instagram worthy charcuterie boards out in a flower, a field of flowers. With high-end cheeses perfectly wrapped in butcher paper and twine, while the kids run around just completely, you know, blissful and free, and uh, you know, somebody in the photo has just a tasteful tattoo on their forearm, everything is just right, and it and it's like, and you look at it, you're like, my life just does not look like that. I'm not having charcuterie boards in fields, right? And and not only that, it's like if that's our definition of hospitality, how do you do that if you're poor? How do you do that if you're sharing an apartment with two other guys and nobody's quite cleaning the house well enough? How do you do that if you don't have any high-end dishware? See, when you that we have to separate our modern version of entertainment versus hospitality. And in entertainment, when we're entertaining, we feel this responsibility to offer something just in and of ourselves. I am the host, you are the guest. But hospitality is different. And we see this in the life of Jesus. Hospitality blurs that line. Wherever Jesus went, he was both the host and the guest. He always came to both give and receive. Henry now and again said this. Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger in our home, but they also tell us how that they how they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host. A good host is the one who believes that his guest is carrying a promise he wants to reveal to anyone who shows genuine interest. So a good host is one that pulls the best out of their guest. And it's a it's a it's an environment of mutuality. See, entertainment often is sporadic, and you've heard me talk about this where you know you're invited to my house three Thursdays from now, right? It's just a moment in time, but hospitality is a life, it's a posture of heart. You feel hospitality when you're with somebody and you feel welcomed into their life. You feel the welcome of God because it's the way that they look at you, the way that they're present with you. And you feel drawn out, which is what Jesus did, right? With the men on the road to Emmaus. He drew them out from where they were. He created a safe and fearless space for them to process their disappointment without getting corrected or scourged. He gently led them back into a proper understanding that's aligned with what God was doing the whole time. But it was it was a it was a it was a generous walk to Emmaus. So entertainment is different than hospitality because hospitality is a posture of heart. It can happen when you have five minutes or when you have five hours. You can be hospitable while drawing water, water from a well, or while waiting in line at the DMV. It's a way of being with others that they are free to be themselves, which is why entertainment is different than hospitality. Entertainment is about reciprocity. I have you over for dinner, and I expect in two weeks you are going to have me over for dinner to cook me just as good of a meal. But that's not hospitality. Hospitality is the willingness to give with no expectation of return. And even Jesus in other times would say, in fact, it's better that you invite somebody over to your home that has no capacity to pay you back. That's who Jesus wants us to surround ourselves with. Because it's in the opening up of our hearts and our homes that something can be made clear of the world that Jesus is creating. Because Jesus was prophetically living into what he was inviting us into for all of time. See, as Jesus was living, he was announcing, hey, there's there's a day coming where there's going to be a great feast. And so he didn't came just to announce that as a metaphor, but to actually live into it literally. So when Jesus started to surround his table with those who didn't belong, with those that nobody quite understood, it was a prophetic picture of the day that we're headed for, which everybody is invited to the table of God. And then we get these glimpses of being able to do this. And it's beautiful, right? When you get to experience this. We had the blessing a couple weeks ago of being able to bring a meal to some friends of ours who recently the um the mother passed away at a very young age from the fight with cancer. And uh and so the last several months this whole family was reeling, and um we've been trying to befriend them a little bit, and we offered to bring them dinner, and uh, which is obviously easy for Megan because she's insane in the kitchen, all right? Insane. And she's so good. I happen to, you know, I have a couple tricks up my sleeve, so I do one of my two tricks, which is a brisket, all right? Because people feel so loved when they have a really good smoked brisket. So I so I'm like, this is my love and action. So I cooked a brisket, brought it to this family, and we got a chance to go share a meal with them and uh and just hold up in a space. And and we not only brought him a meal, we sat down and had the meal, and it was amazing because in this particular setting, it was around the table, um, uh the husband of you know, the widow that uh whose spouse had just passed away, he started uh walking me through the final moments in the last week that he spent with his wife. And he hadn't talked about it with anybody since it happened. But it was in this moment I was blessed with the opportunity to just say, I'm just gonna hold open a space, I'm just gonna listen. And he started just walking through moment by moment of every little thing that was said, every moment that meant something. And you could tell as he was he was speaking, you know, he was he was he was trying to be as present as he could with the with the spouse that he loved for decades. And uh and and he reminded me, he's like, Man, I really hate the church though. He's like, I'm not going back to church. I really hate church. Uh so what the funny thing is, he knew that I'm a pastor, but he didn't know that Megan and I are the church as well. Because the church is people, the church is not a building. You guys know that. Church is people. So he he told you he was telling me how much he hated the church while he was confessing to the church how much he loved his wife. And I could just tell it was a moment of healing, even his daughter said, He hasn't talked about this since it happened. So to me, it was a gift. It was both the hosts and the guests, but as the guest, I got to receive his confession of how deeply he loved his wife. And you gotta know that affected me deeply. But I was able to hold open, you know, an environment which is uh, you know, which is made easier with a brisket and a few modellos, too, to be honest. And it was, but it was it was a it was a generous environment where we both got to just kind of uncover the profound meaning in life. And I think in in the process, I was able to minister to him and continue this friendship with him, right? Because that's what hospitality means. Hosp hot the word hospital, the word hospital, the word hospice, hotel, hostel, they all actually derive from this word hospitality. Hospital is derived from hospitality. Author Sky Jathani, he said it like this. He said the English word hospitality originates from the same Latin root as the word hospital. A hospital is literally a home for strangers. Of course, it has come to mean a place of healing, but there is a link between being welcomed and being healed. Listen to this. Our homes are to be hospitals, refuges of healing, radiating the light of heaven. And our dinner tables are to be operating tables, the place where broken souls are made whole again. When we lower our defenses, when we remove our facades and our peepholes, and we begin to be truly present with one another, then the healing power of the gospel can begin its work. So, what if instead of seeing our homes as castles that we retreat to to wall off from the world, we instead saw our homes as outposts or kingdom ministry? It's the home base for the extension of the gospel in our neighborhoods. What if every single home in this room was a beacon of light, not a fortress to keep everybody out? What would that look like to move that direction? What if the table was the church's best weapon in the midst of a culture war that continues to go deep in division? What if we've been given the solution by Jesus and that starts with his table? Yeah? In just a moment, we're gonna receive communion together and we're coming into land here. We're gonna receive the Lord's table together. But I just want to just reframe this in for us here today as we're seeking to live the Jesus life by the power of the Spirit. I want to ask you this today. When in terms of hospitality, who is God inviting you to hold a space for, even through a meal or a coffee or a glass of water? Who is God in your life wanting you to hold open a space for? The reality is you eat roughly 21 meals a week. What would it look like to take one of those and to share it with somebody else this week? In a way that would you slow down and were present with them the way God is present with you. 21 meals a week and maybe a few coffees or happy hours in between, right? What would it look like to create a space in your life for a stranger or even an enemy? To befriend them as if on a long walk, to ask questions, to hold open a space. And then maybe somehow in the breaking of bread and sharing of a space together, something about the revelation of Jesus becomes even a little clearer in that time. Because you're modeling for them what Christ is inviting them into. So we have a choice about how we're gonna be remembered in a time of cultural division and crisis. We have a choice. Are we gonna be ones who further hatred and division or ones who model a different way? Jesus created a space at his table for us. And it's our turn to do the same for others. Amen? And so that's really what this comes down to. We're not trying to do anything that hasn't been offered to us first. Do you understand that you have been invited to a table with Jesus? You've been invited to the table of God. When we receive communion, which we're about to do, when we receive communion, the breaking of the bread, the drinking of the cup, Jesus said this is the way he wanted to be remembered because it was that's how we practice union with him and union with each other. We get to share union. And it's as we come home to the Father that we get to extend that to others. And so before we even receive communion, I just want to ask you if you're here today and you have felt like a stranger in the house of God. And you are wondering even for yourself, am I welcome here? Is there a place for me? Have I done anything? Have I gone too far? Or am I still invited into this? I want to say to you and speak to your heart today that you, through the body and the blood of Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, he has made a way for you. He has saved a seat for you at his table. And he wants you to come home. It's time to come home. And the way you do that is just say, Jesus, I'm coming home. You can just pray that prayer wherever you're at. Even if you're a believer, but you feel like you've been living not at home, you're not at home with God, just say, Jesus, I'm coming home. And it's as simple as that. It's trusting in his word. Ephesians 2 15 says that he has broken down in his body every dividing wall of hostility, making peace through the cross. And this is why we end here in this moment, coming to the table of the Lord, so that we don't speak of it out there, but we come home right here, that He has welcomed us.