May 25, 2003
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I have
talked several times since January including at our May board meeting in the
June issue of our newsletter, about how a small group I was in at the beginning
of the year discerned what it means to be a revitalizing congregation. We agreed
that a revitalizing congregation is one that continually finds ways to keep its
ministries fresh and relevant. Certainly no one here wants us to offer
ministries as stale as last month’s bread, or so rooted in the way things used
to be that they have no meaning for the way we are now, now for the way we want
to be in the future. We want to
fresh and alive. What
does it mean to be a revitalizing congregation? We named these five
marks: 1)
A
revitalizing congregation is vision driven which means that it can answer the
questions, who are we, what do we value and believe, where are we headed, how
will we get there, and according to a leading church growth consultant, what is
the end result we hope to achieve? 2)
It is
spiritually grounded – it prays, worships, practices generous stewardship with
its resources, does mission, education, and evangelism. 3)
It
calls people to passionate faith – God loves us, Christ redeems us, the Holy
Spirit sustains us, we ought to feel good and respond with eagerness and joy to
our faith. 4)
It
practices risky and radical hospitality; it welcomes people to the communion
table and to dinner tables, and discussion tables, and wherever else God’s
people gather. 5)
And,
a revitalizing congregation practices a mentality of abundance, that when
managed faithfully always provides enough, rather than a mentality of scarcity. Today I want
to focus on the fourth mark of a revitalizing congregation, risky and radical
hospitality. Hospitality
can call us away from our tendency to think only of ourselves. The writer
Kathleen Norris describes a time when she was overwhelmed by stress and her
husband was suffering from a periodic bout of depression, which in turn
depressed her. One day she met a colleague who was passing through the town
where she lives. He was on his ways to visit relatives following the sudden
death of his wife. When Norris invited him to spend time in her home, the
presence of a guest and the opportunity to show hospitality brightened her
husband’s mood, and it brightened her mood. The friend was moved by their
hospitality, decided to stay in town and to treat them to dinner the next night.
Everybody felt better. Kathleen Norris describes the effect of hospitality this
way: “Late that
night, as my husband and I were preparing for bed, I said that I was relieved to
discover that hospitality was still possible for us, as debilitated as we had
lately seemed to be. I read somewhere, in an article on monastic spirituality,
that only people who are basically at home, and at home in themselves, can offer
hospitality. We had both been so inward lately as to lose sight of that. But
hospitality has a way of breaking through the defenses of [our depression and
stress]. Our friend had told us, as he said goodnight, that he felt refreshed
for his long drive the next day. We were refreshed as well, the grace of
hospitality having given all three of us much more than we had any reason to
expect.” (Kathleen
Norris. Amazing Grace, “Hospitality” New York. Riverbend Books. 1998, p.267) Hospitality
is risky because it welcomes new people into our space. It is radical because it
gets at the deep roots - that is what radical means, of being the church.
Radical hospitality is about showing the love and respect of God to others. It
is displayed when we use good manners, when we learn each other’s names and
use them as we say hello and goodbye. We practice hospitality when we create a
warm and inviting environment in this place and wherever we represent this
congregation. That is what the church is called to do. We want the church to be
warm and welcoming because we face enough hostile inhospitable environments in
other places. We
have known hostile environments. By a show of hands or a nod
of the head, how many of you remember going to get a drink of water from a
public water fountain, and you had to pay attention to whether the sign above
the fountain said, “White Only” or “Colored Only”? Who
remembers that by law or by custom there were business practices that said, you
may spend your money here, but you cannot try on the clothes, or enter through
the front door, or come in at all? In this nation’s history there have been
signs of inhospitality: no Irish, no Jews, no Blacks, no Hispanics, no Asians,
no Moslems, or anyone we think may be a Moslem, no Gays. Some us will
in these days of budget cuts in the city and state, hear people say you once
were included, now you are excluded, helping the neediest among us is no longer
for the common good, now it is a luxury, and we can no longer afford it. Those
practices were and are wrong and unwelcoming in secular society. When the church
practices and participates in them they are sinful and they do great harm to the
body of Christ. What’s the church to do? We are called to practice
hospitality, to welcome people into this sacred space, with politeness and the
joy of Jesus Christ. Matthew
25.35, tells us that Jesus said, “For I was hungry and
you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger,
and you welcomed me”? Can you
remember what it felt like to be a stranger somewhere, even in the church and
somebody greeted you and helped you to feel welcomed? They remembered and we
remembered the advice in Romans 15.7, “Welcome one
another as Christ has welcomed you, to the glory of God.” Jesus said
in the Sermon on the Mount that we are the salt of the earth, what we do flavors
the world, and that we are the light of the world – God’s love, and peace
shine through us. When we offer radical and risky hospitality, when we provide a
safe place for ourselves and for people who have been injured by the world and
sometimes by the church we are doing the will of God. When Peter
found himself summoned to Cornelius’ house as he rested and dreamed on a
rooftop he had to think about what it means to receive and to offer hospitality.
The dreams he had prepared him to witness to Cornelius. Up on the rooftop, Peter
saw a sheet with every kind of animal on it, when invited to eat, he said he did
not touch unclean things. God spoke to him and said, “all
that I have made is clean, it is from my hands, do not turn away.” When
he got to the house, Peter was invited to preach and teach and as he did
something incredible happened. He did not get a hostile reception; he was able
to witness a conversion. The Holy
Spirit showed up, Cornelius and his household spoke in tongues, they praise God.
They echoed the songs we heard this morning, as they proclaimed, “I Know That
My Redeemer Liveth” and “Come Praise The Lord”. Peter who
had come to accept the hospitality of a Gentile household, is moved to say “if
the Holy Spirit is in them, how can we not offer them the waters of baptism? Can
we not offer them the hospitality of God and welcome them into the church of
Jesus Christ?" Then he has them baptized, they invite him and his
companions to stay for a while, and the family of God is expanded. His friends
were stunned and later on Peter will have to explain himself to a church
council. They will have some questions for him. “Peter, why were you in a
Gentile’s home? Did ate with them? You baptized them? You received them as
brothers and sisters in Christ? What is up with you Peter? Some of us
have had to answer some questions about the way we practice hospitality, though
I am pleased to say not very often. What about this statement of affirmation?
How can you open your doors to those people? We can respond this way:
1) These are not our doors, they are God’s doors attached to God’s
house, and we are the stewards and host of this place. 2) Those people are
God’s people and some of them are some of us. 3)These doors have been open
already, they were open so that we could receive Jim Osuga, and Stanley Lepley,
and Alcoholics Anonymous, and Courage, Inc., so this congregation could receive
you and me. What is up
with our statement? Nothing is up with it. We have simply acknowledged that
“Christ’s call reached across the worldly divisions of race, nationality,
ability, gender, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status.” We have said to people eager to receive what we have, “can
anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy
Spirit just as we have? We are not
the only congregation trying to be faithful and hospitable. In his May
newsletter article, Greg Widener, the pastor at East Columbus Christian Church
calls his congregation to one aspect of greater inclusiveness. He writes: “What many
East Columbus folks do not know is that when I was in search for a pastorate in
1998, I prayed that God would lead me to pastor an inter-racial church. The fact
that this congregation had folks of more than one color was a sign to
me that this might be the right place for me. “I feel
strongly that since the New Testament church was racially integrated, only an
integrated congregation can portray the gospel as God intends. Jesus is for
everyone – pure and simple. For years, many churches in the US sent
missionaries around the world to preach the Gospel but refused to integrate the
church at home. Race prejudice, [and I would add any other negative prejudice],
simply won’t do, nor will hypocrisy work when we don’t live out the claims
of the Gospel. In the future (if it is not already true) congregations must be
willing to reach out to everyone because persons of all races will constitute
the neighborhood. Do we really believe that the gospel is for everyone? If so,
let’s get busy and show the world that we do in fact believe it!” (The
Christian Voice, May 2003). It is
important for us to say that cultural diversity is a value we hold here. It is
good for us to celebrate that we get this one right. I received an e-mail from
Suzanne Webb a few days after she preached here May 4. I want to share what she
said to me about us: “Your congregation is exciting and responsive. The
diversity will only grow I believe!” I believe it too, and I want you to
believe it along with me. I want you
to believe it and not worry that we will grow too diverse, we have strong values
on which we stand and with which we ask others to agree. We are not saying that
diversity means anything goes, we are not without purpose and discipline here.
We can say that in all of our diversity and hospitality, here is where we stand,
we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
We trust in the grace and power of God. And because we do, we are here
for the long haul, even when the place feels strange – and it will be strange
when we start to grow. But it will be good. Remember the
letter Jeremiah wrote to people in exile. He told them to build houses, plant
crops, marry and raise families, to invest themselves in where they were. Settle
down, settle in, seek the good of the city, God will take care of the future.
God knows what is in store for us. Listen, Jeremiah says, “For
surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for harm to
give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah
29.11). We will be a
welcoming and revitalizing congregation when we realize that is here mirror
imaged in our diversity. God has plans for our well-being. God through Jesus
Christ is here standing with us, and pulling us into the life that God holds for
us. God is here through the Holy Spirit giving us the breath and fire we need to
declare that all are welcomed here. God is here
and we are here now. Let’s stay a while and receive a give God’s gift of
hospitality to others. Let’s stay a while and invite others to join us and
declare with Peter, “I truly understand that God shows
no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears, any one who respects God
and does what is right, practices justice, compassion, lives in hope, honors
God, is welcomed by God” (10.34).
We are
people who are called to practice radical and risky hospitality, hosts in the
household of faith on behalf of the living God. Brothers and sisters, welcome
one another, as Christ has welcomed you, to the glory of God. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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