What our parents and other adults were trying to teach us remains true – manners matter. They are one of the ways we learn to navigate the world, and even when we disagree, manners help us tell the truth in love in a way that neither disrespects nor dehumanizes others.

We do need manners, but being a Christian is about more than being polite to each other.

Like the Hebrew Christians, we believe the words we heard in our Psalm this morning, God’s name, God’s very being is majestic, there is no God greater than the creator of the universe. There is no savior greater than Christ, there is peace and no power more sustaining than the Holy Spirit.

But they had some questions, and we have some too. How shall we live in Christian community? We believe, but how will we know how to behave? Maybe we need some lessons in Christian etiquette.

Emily Post, the arbiter of manners for decades, says "manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use" (Emily Post quotes www.brainyquote.com ). For Christians, the guiding principle is the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ. How we relate to our community here and beyond these walls is indeed more than manners, it is a matter of responding to God’s love for us by acting lovingly toward others.

So we may turn to Emily Post for guidance on how to set a table, and about how we to have a good conversation there, and we may want to consult with B. Smith and Martha Stewart about what to put on the table, but today, thanks to Louise Russell, we hear a word from Hebrews that guides us on how we treat those we invite to the table.

We are called to let the love we have for the church and for each other continue to grow. When we are in loving relationships, we look out for the beloved, we want what’s best from them, and for them. The ones we love, the source of our joy and hope. It is not about agreement, but about seeking the best for us. My sisters and I do not agree all the time, but when we talk on the phone the call always ends the same way. "Love you", one of says. The other always responds, "love you too".

A congregation without love for God and for one another is at community in danger of dying. We are not dying. It has been a rough year for us, and it is not over yet, but as we move together, if we will love one another as we go, we will be able to face the future with more hope than doubt and fear, and more assurance than insecurity.

As we show our love for each other, we will be welcoming to others. We are called on by God to share our hospitality and to know that you just might be welcoming an angel. Hospitality is not just what we do to be nice, it is a spiritual gift to be used to the glory of God and to show that in the church of Jesus Christ, there is always room for others. It is the gift we offer to say to the world that the church is not a private club or a closed association that asks God to bring us just enough people to get by and no more. We rightly love the verse that tells us that as we show hospitality, we may be entertaining angels without knowing it. But hospitality is much more than angelic surprise. It is a sign of God’s welcome, that is why we "welcome one another as Christ has welcomed each one of us, to the glory of God" (Romans 15.7).

When these verses were written, there were no Westins, Hampton Inns, Hiltons, or Holiday Inns along the road. Travelers had to depend on the kindness of strangers for lodging and protection, and hosts had to be sure about their own safety.

People had to be sure that the traveler meant no harm, a letter of recommendation from someone known to the community, or a note granting safe passage was often required. The practice continues today as a new ambassador presents credentials from their government to the head of state in the country they will serve. Some of you maybe moved from one congregation to another, not just by coming forward, but with a letter of recommendation from your former congregation. The letter testified to your Christian character, it said welcome this person, receive this family in the name of Jesus Christ. Then a stranger received became a guest who enjoyed the protection of the host, they were safe. Then the guest leaves the home, and if they have been treated well, they will have gained a friend (Harper’s Bible Dictionary. San Francisco. Harper & Row. 1985, p. 408-409).

Can folks who are not part of the Christian community practice hospitality? Of course they can, they do it everyday. The difference is that we receive people into the church first as guests, not as strangers and we pray they will grow to be friends and members here with us because we want to share their gifts and because that is what Jesus has asked us to do, "as you welcome them, you welcome me" (Matthew 25). We do it because we are hospitable people. And we do it because it is true that the stranger-guest-friend might just be one of those angels we do not recognize, sent to us with a message from God about what it means to be church.

Angels come to us when we are hurting and hopeless to show us the presence and love of God. You remember the angel, the angel came in the form of a friend who sat with you and cried with you and then fixed a meal for you when you were too numb and raw with grief to do anything, or that person who helped you find your way in a strange town, or the one who hands you a grocery store gift card when the money and food are about run out.

The angelic presence comes when we are offered comfort, when we hear good news in the middle of bad times, when we sing songs of hope even as we are surrounded by despair and doubt. Thank God for those angels sent by God. Practice hospitality in the name of love, because we never know where angels tread.

"Let mutual love continue" (13.1). Practice hospitality. And then, show your love for God and one another by remembering those who are persecuted and imprisoned as if you were there with them.

Can we hear this word to live with compassion and empathy as a word for us? Do we hear this word of instruction: "Behave as though you yourselves were in prison with them, as though you yourselves were being mistreated…to do so means refusing to distance oneself from those suffering out of fear of becoming the target of the same mistreatment, providing for the needs of prisoners who depended on those outside for food, clothing, and all other needs, even though this meant exposing oneself as a fellow Christian, and being present with the sufferers in every way that might encourage and give relief" (New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville. Abingdon Press, 1998, volume 12, p. 163).

Suffering with those who are in prison has nothing to do with coddling criminals, or being soft on crime; it has everything to do with being Christ’s representative in places where people are hurting on this earth. It is to remember that Jesus said one of the ways he will know who was faithful to him will be, "did you see me in the face of the sick and imprisoned, did you turn your back and pretend that you never heard of me and so had no good news to share?

It is not just good manners, it is about loving those who have been locked away, locked out, some for good reason, but all still all sons and daughters of God. And if we see them that way, maybe they will see themselves as God’s own. Maybe true penitence will happen, maybe real lives will really change.

We are called to let our love for each other continue, to show hospitality and to visit prisoners. Now show we are called to show our love for God and church in the way you deal with your most intimate commitments and in the way you handle money.

What is that advice? Simply this: treat your most precious relationships as holy and sacred. One writer describes the holiness of marriage like this: "At the heart of the Hebrew concept of marriage is the notion of covenant – a legally binding agreement with spiritual and emotional ramifications. God serves as witness to the marriage covenant, blessing its faithfulness but hating its betrayal. The Lord’s intimate involvement renders this legal commitment a spiritual union, "so they are no longer two, but one" Matthew 19.6" (Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1548).

Committed relationships are not always easy. Relationships are not always made in heaven an no one is obligated to stay in an abusive relationship, because there is nothing loving about an emotionally or physically abusive relationship. Hebrews understands that, and many of you do too. It seems to me from watching my parents forty-six year marriage, and from watching many of you as you enjoy decades long marriages and as you plan on long marriages and deeply committed partnerships, that you have figured something out. In these days when marriage issues are political issues, when who may marry is more and more a matter of legislation than of the heart, you know that the best way to defend committed partnership and marriage is to tend faithfully to your own, and to respect the relationships of others. You know that it is a faith commitment more than a political ideology that connects you. You know that at the center of your love for each other is the God’s love for you both. Move in integrity and faithfulness.

Finally, God calls us to be good stewards of all God has given us. Avoid the love of money. Understand that money is a necessary tool for living in our society. It is not an object to be loved. So, we are called to be content – but that is not easy when there is just enough, or not quite enough money to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, gas in the tank. Be content. But we need more. We have things to get done, we have ambition for the church, and our children, and ourselves. God, how can you ask us to be content? That means settling, it means making do, and we just can’t do it anymore.

To be content means to look at what we can do with what we have today. We take the resources we have now and work with them, to get more – ten percent more would make us happy – to use creatively and wisely, to join with others, to declare that with God’s love we have enough to start to move, we need not be stuck where we are.

That is how we honor God, build relationships, and do justice. God calls us to more than good manners, we are called to a life of faithfulness. Our response is to offer ourselves to God.

With more than manners, we give ourselves to God and say: I have confidence that guides me from heaven and I will not be afraid. I will love, I will welcome, I will show compassion, I will be faithful, I will be wise, I will be bold in my faith, and praise God everyday for the love we have in Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God. Amen.