The Radical Hospitality of God

“Hospitality” is kind of a buzz word these days.  So much so that there is an entire hospitality industry consisting of restaurants, hotels, and other service industry businesses.  Churches talk a lot about being welcoming and hospitable, and if you do a quick search on the internet, thousands of sites and resources are available for people seeking to understand what the Bible says about hospitality and how to do hospitality better.  Currently I serve half time as the Synod Minister for Hospitality & Mission and supplement that by working for a local event company.  Which means a good portion of my day is spent immersed in this world of “doing hospitality”, and so I tend to see everything through a lens of hospitality.  So yes, it does matter how the tables are placed and what food is served and if everyone knows where the restrooms are.  It helps create the experience and makes sure everyone feels welcome.  That is what hospitality is about- creating a space of welcome that facilitates the experience you are hoping for your guest to have. 

But I think in that definition, we are limiting ourselves.  Because we are not called to practice hospitality, we are called to what I like to refer to as “radical hospitality”.  The kind of hospitality that does not simply welcome guests when they come in the door, but rather throws open the door, runs out into the street and yells “get in here, we’ve been waiting for you!”.  The kind of hospitality that was extended to us through a God who took on flesh in order to live among us, so that more would experience God’s  love and grace and acceptance. 

In our first lesson today, three men- 3 strangers- appear before Abraham and he offers to bring them a little water and a little bread.  After they have accepted that offer, he quickly begins further, more elaborate preparations-what began as a little bread and a little water became cakes from choice flour, milk, and a calf.  A great reminder that when God tells us to extend hospitality and feed the stranger- God really meant it! In this culture however, it was custom to hold back initially, so that the guest did not feel obligated to accept.  Once they accepted, THEN you could offer more.  So while this is a great example of hospitality, it isn’t radical hospitality.

No, radical hospitality is more than that, it is bigger than that.  Because we have a God that is bigger than that. Radical hospitality is what is poured out upon us in the waters of baptism.  Through nothing we have done or said, God says you are mine, beloved child.  When we baptize infants, God’s love and promise surrounds them and doesn’t hold back.  It doesn’t wait to see if they accept it- they really have no choice in the matter- which is maybe part of the point.  In baptism we hear the invitation that we are marked with cross of Christ forever- FOREVER!  And if any of you have ever experienced a guest who has overstayed their welcome, you know just how radically hospitable a “forever” invitation really is.

We see this transformation through baptism in our encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch.  This encounter between the Eunuch and Phillip may not seem that radical, but take a closer look.  This Eunuch was an Ethiopian- a foreigner.  That alone made him an outsider in 1^st century Jerusalem.  Plus he was a Eunuch, someone set a part as different.  And yet- “what is to prevent me from being baptized?”  - the answer:  Nothing!  Suddenly this outsider is extended the radical hospitality of God through the waters of baptism and now look what a slippery slope Phillip is headed down.  If even this outsider can be baptized, where are the limits?  Who else can now be included, as the old boundaries are broken?  Now this message of grace and love of Jesus is available to all.  This simple encounter with an Ethiopian Eunuch changed the story.  That is radical hospitality.

But how can we be sure that this is what Jesus really was saying his teachings?  Because in our Gospel lesson today, Jesus approaches a group of fisherman and simply says “Come”.  He picks the least educated, most unqualified of the bunch, and simply says Come.  He doesn’t ask them to do anything else.  He invites them to walk with him, talk with him, eat with him, share life with him.  Radical Hospitality- inviting others into intimate relationship, community, a place to belong.

And the beautiful thing is that Jesus continues approach us and simply say come- come to the table, come share this bread and this wine.  Come to the table, where all are welcome, there is always enough, and there is always room for one more. 

When we understand and experience the radical hospitality of God through the water and the wine, it changes how we respond to God’s people.

 In Southwest Minnesota, there are 6 Sudanese communities worshiping in Lutheran congregations.  There is no Lutheran church in Sudan, so how did they all happen to find homes in a Lutheran congregation?  Well when many of them were living in refugee camps, many of the supplies sent to the camps came in boxes labeled “Lutheran Disaster Relief”.  When they moved to the United States, they were assisted by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.  So when they were settled and were looking for a place to worship together they looked around and said “the Lutherans!  We know them!  Maybe we can worship 

there?”  

I share this not to brag about how great the Lutherans are, but to offer an example of how we live from a place of radical hospitality.  Understanding that we are called to live as God’s people together, we offer our support to our brothers and sisters in crisis, we offer our country as a safe place to live, and we offer to walk with them as they begin a new life.  Because we as people of God intentionally walked with them through the challenges of life, they didn’t have to wait to be invited in- they knocked on the door because they knew they would belong. 

In congregations in nearly every denomination there is lamenting because there are less people knocking on their doors, fewer people sitting in their pews.  But living from a place of radical hospitality, we are called to change the story.  If fewer people are gathering around the table, take the table to them.  After Hours Church in downtown Denver does just that.  As part of their time together, they make sandwiches to hand out the next day to those who need them. But it is not just about giving food to people who are hungry.  It is about offering a sense of belonging.  It is about intentionally seeing those who we often prefer to ignore, seeing them and being in community together, if even for a brief moment, to relay the message that, “you are mine, beloved child”. 

A word of caution, however:  any offer of hospitality comes with a certain amount of risk. When Abraham and Sarah welcomed the strangers, they risked danger- these strangers could have been bandits, looking for their next victims.  They also risked things changing.   If we had continued on in the story, we would have read about Sara finding out she was to have a child.  Once they offered hospitality to the stranger- there was no going back, life had changed forever. 

And living out the radical hospitality of God means we risk change as well.  When we invite people into our homes, we often say “make yourself at home”- it is not simply an offer of a meal, it is an invitation to relationship.  It is about inviting people into our lives, sharing our stories and hearing theirs. And inviting new people into our lives, our community means our community will change.  And so radical hospitality also means receiving the gifts they bring, creating a new way of being this community. 

We also risk being hurt.  When we open our lives and our communities we risk being hurt because we are imperfect humans and relationships are messy.  We risk people not wanting to hear the message we share, we risk people walking away.  But we do it anyway.

Fully immersed in the radical hospitality of God, we do it anyway because there are people who need to hear God’s message of grace, who need to know they have a place at the table, who need to experience the love of Jesus.  And the only face they have of Jesus today is ours. 

PS:  I initially I wondered about the appropriateness of talking about radical hospitality on All Saints Sunday.  But I wonder if it isn’t one of the most fitting times.  When we gather as God’s people, we experience the radical hospitality of God in the waters of baptism, in the bread and the wine, and in God coming to us in the Word.  And on All Saints Sunday, we rest in the Radical Hospitality of God, knowing the community of saints who have gone before us were welcomed by God who came running out to meet them shouting “beloved child, Get in here, I’ve been waiting for you!”