HOSPITABLE LIVING

SEPTEMBER 1, 2013
Pentecost 15

ad lib sermon including...

Hebrews 13

¹Let mutual love continue. ²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. ³Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. ⁴Let marriage be held in honour by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. ⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ ⁶So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’ ⁷Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. … ¹⁵Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

You sit there nervously as they come up the aisle. They’re scanning their tickets. It looks like your jig is up. Yes, ‘you’ are sitting in ‘their’ seats. All you wanted was to get a better view and when you saw those empty seats, you thought “why not?”. Now, you give the embarrassed smile, apologize and climb up to the nosebleeds. It is rare that we make decisions in this life that affect only ourselves – that is obviously true for our co-workers, friends, family. But we are connected to people we don’t even know. And so, how we relate even to the stranger matters. How will we choose to be part of their lives and let them into ours? Jesus had some ideas about that. 

Luke 14

¹On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. …  ⁷When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. ⁸‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; ⁹and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’  ¹²He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’