Showing Hospitality to Strangers [1]

SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 25:31-46

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. [32] All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, [33] and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. [34] Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; [35] for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, [36] I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' [37] Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? [38] And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? [39] And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' [40] And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' [41] Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; [42] for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, [43] I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' [44] Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' [45] Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' [46] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

My 8 year old son Mark may have spoken to you at coffee hour last Sunday or the week before. He was selling popcorn as a fundraiser for the boy scouts. He also wanted to solicit our neighbors. But whereas here at church, he could freely roam around during coffee hour with his sign-up sheet and pencil in hand, my wife had to escort him throughout our neighborhood. We were worried about his safety. I'm sure that all the children in our congregation have been spoken to many times about the importance of avoiding contact with strangers. In this day and age, it's an essential lesson that we all must teach to our children.

But as adults, and as Christians, it's important for us to go deeper. Today, I want to talk about hospitality as the vocation of the church -- particularly hospitality to strangers.

When we look at scripture, and the tradition that has emerged from scripture, the theme of hospitality is everywhere apparent.[2] The people of God are recognized because they are the ones who will welcome strangers and treat them justly. Why is this so dominant a trait of both the Hebrews and the early Christians? Because the thing they were most grateful for was the hospitality that God had shown to them, and continues to show to each and every one of us. The Hebrew people, after being freed from Egypt, were refugees, wandering in the wilderness. Later, they were again held captive, strangers in a strange land, until they were freed a second time. These experiences made such a deep impression that they adopted laws which required them to deal justly and compassionately with any strangers they encountered. In the 10th chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, "You shall also love the stranger for you were [once] strangers in the land of Egypt."

In the New Testament, the emphasis is equally strong. Jesus is forever welcoming and talking and dining with people who are judged by his associates as strangers who inspire fear and enemies who evoke hate, including scribes, Pharisees, tax collectors, centurions, and women of ill repute. In addition to Jesus' persistent witness, notice that the Greek word for stranger, xenos, also means "guest".

This connection between stranger and special guest is not merely linguistic. It is a cornerstone of the foundation of our faith. In the book of Hebrews [13:2] we read, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it." This is the same perspective as that articulated by Jesus in his unforgettable story of the final judgement, so ably interpreted this morning by Rev. Walker and her group. The point of that most profound parable is to dash any claim we may make to recognize Jesus. That parable bores into our very souls because time and time again, each of us has passed by a beggar -- a stranger on the street -- and whether or not we held onto the coins in our pocket, we certainly held with confidence the view that the person we left behind was poor, perhaps homeless, and certainly not a contributor to society.

Yet those who shaped the Gospel of Matthew chose this story to be Jesus' final teaching before his arrest. Through this story, we are asked to acknowledge that our claim to confidence is misguided. For we are no different than the people of the parable. Remember, in the parable neither the righteous nor the UNrighteous recognized Jesus. What mattered in the final analysis was that some -- seeing before them only a stranger who was hungry and thirsty, a captive who was naked and sick -- seeing before them not the Lord, but only a stranger -- some of them offered hospitality: food and drink, shelter and clothing, and love.

Why call this a cornerstone of the faith, and not merely a motivational passage for social activists? Because we are a people who are loved, not just by any God, but by an incarnational God -- a God who chooses to live in our midst, and is living with us still. In the beginning of the Gospel of John, we read: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." "He entered the world, and the world treated him as a stranger."[3]

Because our God is more than an author of creation, more than an abstract notion of goodness; because our God took on flesh, and because the spirit of our God continues to live among us, not as a ghost or a hobgoblin, but as a stranger, who comes to us as one unknown, it behooves us to examine not only our attitudes towards strangers, but especially our actions.

After worship today, or on either of the next two Sundays, I encourage each of you to take an easy, next step in the process I have been discussing. Spend 30 minutes attending an information session on the Cleveland Interfaith Hospitality Network, and learn how you might invest a few hours, four times a year, to meet and help a few families from Cleveland who are homeless.

I expect that scores of us will decided to join hundreds of others in a dozen congregations like ours throughout this city. As we decide to live out this mission opportunity to offer some strangers a home for seven evenings, not only will we provide these hungry people with food and drink. Not only will we provide these homeless families with clothing and a place to sleep for a few nights. But something else will happen too. Something which is at least as important as the material help we will offer these strangers.

By participating in this mission, God is giving each of US an opportunity to come into contact with God's spirit in our midst. Every time we show hospitality to a stranger and treat a stranger as a child of God, we touch God's incarnational spirit in our midst. And what results from that touch is that we are transformed.

I need that transformation -- and I would ask each of you to examine your heart as to whether you need it too. Showing hospitality to our friends is easy. Expanding our circle of hospitality to this congregation is only a wee bit challenging -- although we could do a lot better at connecting with people in this congregation who are in one way or another a "stranger" to us.

But the invitation I now extend seeks to take each of us out of the familiar realm of the "known" into the unfamiliar realm of the unknown where the stranger lives. What I am certain of is that if we venture there with love in our hearts, we will discover in our midst an additional, unexpected guest. The renewal that unexpected guest can inspire is beyond all imagining. Amen.



Footnotes:

1. I considered calling this sermon Moving from Xenophobia to Philoxenia, but decided for something more accessible.

2. My gratitude to Plymouth member Jan Hulbert who brought to my attention Dorothy C. Bass'(ed.) book Practicing our Faith. Ana Maria Pineda's chapter on "Hospitality" has been helpful in formulating this sermon, as has Parker Palmer's The Company of Strangers, pp. 132ff, and Henri Nouwen's Reaching Out, pp. 47ff.

3. John 1:14 KJV and John 1:10-11 Moffat.