Common actions, radical ideas

When I was younger and went to Camp Hope[1], I realized that there were very few times in which I as a camper had control over what went on during the week. But there was one or two times during the week in which campers got to have a feeling of control. The meals where your cabin set up the dining hall were the times when you as camper had a lot of power. You decided who you get to sit with, who gets to be the “hopper” (For those of you who have only attended Hope’s Buffet period, the hopper is the person who goes and gets the platters of food.) and you had the ability to save seats for your friends that were not in your cabin and if you were lucky, you got one of the coveted seats in front of the fan. All this time at camp and I never realized that doing this was going against Jesus’ teaching about places of honor. In fact, when I really give it some thought, almost every single time I’ve had people over to my home, I rarely invited people over whom I didn’t want there. Perhaps this is simply something we might overlook because it is not something we engage in anymore; having huge banquet where the whole town is invited is a relic of the past. Who would want to have a party where they hung out with people they didn’t like? I know I’ve never liked eating a meal at Camp where I wasn’t surrounded by people who made me feel good.

Instead, Jesus calls us to surround ourselves with four different people when we find ourselves in a moment of celebration. The people we ought to be celebrating with are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind (Luke 14:13). Now, just by a show of hands, does anyone in here think if they were to have a party this afternoon that they could honestly find four these four people without considerable effort? The problem which we run into if we really want to follow Jesus’ words is that we live in a country where our taxes and charities are already tending to the poor, lame, crippled and blind and although we can always do more to care for them, I’m not sure that we can live out the meaning of this gospel message if we seek to live this out literally. Instead, we need to realize that Jesus wasn’t just talking about people who were physically impaired but people who were spiritually impaired…people who have extra obstacles in their lives which they need help in overcoming if they are to eat a meal with Christ Jesus.
On Tuesday night, those of us on the outreach committee are going to meet to discuss how we can invite the spiritually poor, the spiritually blind, to begin a journey to meet a God who cares about who they are. We on the committee are going to be getting to know the families of the Vacation Bible School students who do not have a church home. Those on the committee are going to spend the next few months eating meals and getting to know those families, with the intent of sharing the love which only Christ can put in someone’s life. Some might consider this to be evangelism, and I guess if you think of it in the strictest sense of the word, it is, but part of the reason which we prayed the liturgy for Thanksgiving was because it is thanksgiving which is at the heart of the gospel story. We are able to give thanks by living the gospel by sharing something as simple as a meal, but more importantly, it is communion with God. Jesus isn’t asking us to fix everything in their lives; he just wants us to treat the people we don’t normally interact with like they are the most important people we know. We are being asked to be friendly, generous, gracious, and comforting to people who might never repay the favor. This sort of hospitality is a sign of acceptance, it tells us that we see other people as equals; it is a way of cementing fellowship.

Hospitality is something I’ve always been quite curious about. Last summer when I was working as a chaplain in the hospital, the word hospitality was used almost every day. One of my fellow chaplains used the word quite often and made it a goal to be as hospitable as possible. To be honest, I had no idea what the word meant. I thought it was being as nice and welcoming as possible to the people who were in the hospital. Sometimes it was something like getting an extra blanket or pillow, or other times it was getting a nurse or something along those lines. It always struck me as odd that this person was trying so hard to work on hospitality because she was already the most hospitable person I knew, at least when it came to being a good hostess. Then, just yesterday, I finally read a definition of hospitality that made sense to me. It wasn’t so much about an action as it was a way of life. Hospitality literally means in Greek, love of a stranger[2]. It doesn’t seem like an outrageous thought, but it really is a radical action.
There is another radical idea in the first half of the story today which I find extremely interesting which I always seem to fail at doing. Again, it’s another common, biblical concept which is fairly hard to live. It’s the idea of the first shall be last and the last shall be first, it is the idea that we are to live humble lives in order that we may be lifted up to places of honor by those who notice such humbleness. As I was studying some of the scholars about this text, I was extremely surprised to find a quote by a Greek historian by the name of Plutarch. I was surprised because I was supposed to read this text for my first semester in college, but I never got around to it. In fact, it stayed by my bed for all four years and I still never finished it, as I only read it when I had trouble sleeping. As far as I was concerned, Plutarch was the better than any sleeping pill on the market. But Plutarch said that “it is the small, apparently trivial act in which character is most accurately reflected.” And Jesus is calling us to be humble instead of choosing things which honor ourselves.

I know I used to try to do such things, but secretly, I was hoping for recognition. I was trying to outsmart others by being humble. I would try to be the last person to receive food in a community meal, and unlike in Jesus’ example, I did not receive recognition for it. Not that it’s such a bad thing, because now looking back, I’m much happier that I did not receive positive reinforcement for something I was doing selfishly. But around the same time as I had the idea to be the last in whatever line I was in, which I rarely do anymore, I started doing something which seems to work much better for me. I started holding the door open for people whenever I could. I started holding the door open for people at church, and then moved out to stores and restaurants. I’m almost always the last person to enter a building and I have to tell you, you learn amazing things about people when you do something as simple as holding a door for them. You learn who knows your name and whose name you know. You learn who is truly appreciative of small acts of kindness as well as who doesn’t want to look or speak to the person doing such a simple act. You also learn the people who you admire because they’re either willing to stand outside in cold or hot weather with you, or will hold the door open for you when you’re able. I did this at my home congregation for 3 years, every Sunday…and the last thing I learned is that if you do something for three years and suddenly leave, the church will soon buy an automatic door opener. (True story)

The challenge for all of us is show someone hospitality, to love a stranger this week on the simple grounds that God loves them too. Hold a door open for the rude person who knocked into you in the store… share a meal with someone that you know doesn’t belong to the family of God; do something, even if you know in your heart that you’re not doing it for the right reasons. Fake it till you make it. It doesn’t always matter why right now so long as it makes a difference in your life at some point and I hope that you come back to me next week and tell me a story about what you did, because even if it didn’t make a difference now, it might someday, and that is when we learn that our love is worth it. Amen.

[1] http://www.camphope.org/
[2] Fred Craddock. “Luke” Interpretation Biblical Commentary series. John Knox Press: Louisville. 1990. Pg 178