A Sermon delivered to St. Timothy
Lutheran Church, Charleston, WV
on 6/29/2014 and based on Matthew 10:34-42
Have you ever felt excited and happy
- and terrified at the same time?
I know I have! We used to live north
of Chicago, not too far from Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee,
Illinois. Whenever we went there, we’d immediately head for the latest and
greatest ride. Currently, the park boasts the world’s tallest, steepest and
fastest wooden roller coaster. Here’s a picture of it.
Here are some other things that are exciting and scary at the same time.
A Wedding: (Cindy and I in 1977!)
Having a baby (Me with daughter Leah in 1979)
Giving the car keys to your teenage
daughter: (Leslie in 200?)
And that’s how I feel about our
practicing our subject for today. I’m excited about it, and even blessed when I
actually do it, but if I really think about it gives me pause, to say the least.
If you haven’t guessed it by now, it
involves the word ‘Receive’, from our text in Matthew 10:40,41: "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward."
There are two Greeks words for
‘receive’ in play here. The first is ‘Dechomai’ (de kohm a he) – to Give Access
to someone – as a visitor. It also includes the idea of Hospitality, or
welcoming someone – especially a stranger.
The second is ‘lEpsetai’ (Lepset a
He) – to obtain or to get.
So the sense of the text is ‘the one
who grants access or hospitality… shall obtain or get the reward…
This passage always puts me in mind
of the Shunamite woman in
2 Kings 4:8-10. She noticed that the
prophet Elisha frequented her neighborhood and because there weren't any
Holiday Inns at the time, she used her wealth to build a room in her house
specifically devoted to the prophet’s use. She received the prophet’s reward: namely the
gift of a child. God blessed her with a son after years of barrenness. And when her son fell ill and died, God also blessed
her by reviving the boy and bringing her son back from the dead.
This story points to our experience
with Jesus. We too can receive the ‘prophet’ – Jesus Christ – in to our home,
our heart, and our reward is to receive
a Son – and then also to receive him back from death –presaging our own
resurrection life in Christ. But we can also ‘receive the prophet’ by recognizing
him in other people – any other people, not just the
prophet or righteous people.
One of my heroes of the faith, St.
Benedict of Nursia, thought long and hard about receiving people and he
wrote some very specific instructions to his followers about how to live it
out. Listen to this passage from the Rule of Benedict (RB) chapter 53: On the
Reception of Guests…
“Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,
for He is going to say, "I came as a guest, and you received Me"
Benedict also bases his instruction on another
passage from Matthew (Matt. 25:35 – 40), that contains a very similar idea to
our reading today: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me...Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Based on these verses, Benedict writes that: “In
the salutation of all guests, whether arriving or departing, let all humility
be shown. Let the head be bowed or the whole body prostrated on the
ground in adoration of Christ, who indeed is received in their persons.”(RB
ch53)
Jesus is to be recognized in the person of the
guest at the door – especially the poor guest. Benedict again: “In the
reception of the poor, and of pilgrims, the greatest care and solicitude should
be shown, because it is especially in
them that Christ is received…”!
Can you imagine hearing a knock on your door and
opening up to see a bedraggled and suspicious looking person standing there? –
And then bowing down in adoration of
Christ standing there at the door?!
If you’re like me, your first instinct would
likely be to call the police instead!
Incarnational Reality
Anglican writer Esther deWaal
comments on this aspect Benedict’s version of Hospitality:
“The Rule presents no abstract or
remote theological treatise on God and his mysteries. Instead it is pervaded
with the idea of sacramental encounter
with Christ in the circumstances of everyday life and in material things, but
most particularly in people. (Seeking
God, the Way of St. Benedict by Esther deWaal, pg. 115)
Remember, a sacrament is an outward
and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality – and a sure and certain
means of grace. What we see outwardly is a sign of a deeper spiritual reality –
in this case, the basic reality that Christ took on human flesh and dwelt among
us. To
receive a guest, then, is to practice the reality of the Incarnation, the
Presence of Christ in our everyday life – even in the person who doesn’t look
much like Christ.
There is an echo here of Mary and Joseph seeking
lodging in Bethlehem. As we open our door to the stranger, we are making room
for Jesus at the ‘inn’. See what I mean
about exciting and scary at the same time?
Some Provocative Definitions of Hospitality
So, having considered a brief theology of
Hospitality, let’s think about some other definitions, or aspects of
Hospitality:
Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun and
a noted commenter on the Rule of Benedict. Here are a couple of her thoughts
about the nature of Hospitality.
[slide] “Hospitality is the
willingness to be interrupted and inconvenienced so that others can get on with
their lives as well…[it] is an act of the recklessly generous heart (Joan
Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, pg. 131,132)
A recklessly generous heart! What would it be
like to live that out?
Perhaps we have a Biblical example in Abraham
and Sarah, who entertained angels in their tent and received the message that
they would be parents of Isaac, the son of Promise. (Gen. 18).
Another example would be Mary, who received the
angel Gabriel’s message that she would become the mother of Jesus with the
hospitable words, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me
according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
This is how you receive Jesus - with a
recklessly generous and open heart!
Here’s an example of an open and
generous reception:
In May of 2000, the Russian Orthodox
Holy Cross Hermitage moved from St. Louis to Wayne, WV. Cindy and I
read about this in the newspaper, and one Sunday evening when we were taking a
drive out in the country, we decided to try to find the monastery. We couldn’t
remember where it was, so we went to the local Wal-Mart and asked at the
service desk if they knew where we could find the Hermitage. “Oh, yeah”, said
the lady at the desk. “Those guys come in here all the time!” And she promptly
told us how to find the monks.
The Monks of Holy Cross Hermitage, Wayne, WV.
When we got there, we gingerly
knocked at the door of the double-wide trailer that served as the kitchen and
dining hall, and the Abbot, Fr. Seraphim, greeted us warmly, told us that they
were having ice cream sundaes, and promptly invited us in to have some! I don’t
think I've ever had such a warm or incongruous welcome in my life.
As Joan Chittister observes: “Honor,
courtesy and love are the hallmarks …for hospitality of the heart (RB 52 Chittister, Wisdom from the Daily, (WDD)pg. 127).
This practice of hospitality requires
us”…to pour ourselves out for the other, to give ourselves away, to provide the
staples of life, both material and spiritual for one another. (Chittister, WDD
pg. 123).
Just by way of contrast, though,
here’s a story about what it looks like when the practice of Incarnational
hospitality fails:
Kathleen Norris is a Presbyterian lay
woman and a Benedictine oblate, or associate member, who has spent much time
with the monks of Blue Cloud Abbey in North Dakota. She relates how one time, a
friend of hers went to a Benedictine monastery for a retreat and was at the
visitor center asking one of the monks some questions. The monk was short with
her and finally said to her, in an exasperated tone, “I don’t have time for
this; we’re trying to run a monastery here!”
He had missed the point completely.
Receiving guests is absolutely fundamental to running a monastery. Even as
Benedict himself matter-of-factly states: “A monastery is never without guests
RB 53).
Fortunately the monk came back the next
day and apologized profusely to the woman. He had finally gotten the message,
even if somewhat late.
As we see from this example, if we are open to
receiving Christ in every person, this may cause inconvenience. John L’Heureux (‘loh-row’) expresses this challenge in
his poem,
“The Trouble with Epiphanies”:
Christ came into my room
And stood there
And I was bored to death.
I had work to do.
I wouldn’t have minded If he’d been [handicapped]
or something –
I do well with [the handicapped]
– but he just stood there, all face,
And with that [darned] guitar.
I didn’t ask him to sit down:
He’d have stayed all day.
(Let’s be honest. You can be
crucified just so often;
Then you’ve had it. I mean you’re
useless;
no good To God, let alone to anybody
else. )
So I said to him after a while –
Well, what’s up? What do you want?
And he laughed, stupid,
Said he was just passing by
And thought he’d say hello.
Great, I said, hello.
So he left.
And I was so [… ]mad
I couldn’t even listen to the radio…
I went
And got some coffee.
The trouble with Christ is he always
comes at the wrong time!
(In Monk Habits for Everyday People, by Dennis
Okholm, pgs 87, 88 )
Yes, indeed, He always shows up at
the ‘wrong’ time. But the Scripture tells us that ‘in the fullness of time’ God sent forth His Son …(Gal. 4:4,5)
and ‘at the right time’ Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). God’s timing
is always just right, even when it seems wrong to us and we can’t control it! I saw a great poster the other day, shared by
a friend on Facebook. There’s a wonderful, tranquil picture of a person sitting
on the beach, with the caption:
“Relax, nothing is under control! “
To be a people who truly welcome Christ in others, we must
realize we are not in control – not of our lives, our homes, our calendars, or
our deaths. Therefore, we should relax and entrust ourselves to the tender mercies
of God, put up our Christ-detecting radar and await His visitation.
But here’s where it gets scary. If
Christ comes to my door one at a time, I’ll be inconvenienced...or worse! And what if he comes by the trainload?
– and keeps on coming day after day, train after train?
If I am too welcoming, I may become
overwhelmed. Benedict recognized this and provided for a ‘Guestmaster’ to
regulate the interactions of monks and guests to preserve the order and
stability of the monastery and not allow it to be overrun with the demands of
guests. Hospitality and good order can and must coincide.
But despite the dangers, what are the
Rewards of Hospitality?
Kathleen Norris writes that “Benedictines
often tell me they receive so much from their guests that they could never
repay it, and many guests feel the same way about the hospitality they receive" (Norris, Amazing Grace, pg. 266).
Opening ourselves to others often
provides a unique experience that enriches our lives and leaves us feeling
blessed and challenged.
Dennis Okholm, a protestant College
professor, tells of spending a week at a Benedictine monastery with a group of
six of his students. At one point, the students were invited to participate in
giving their reflections on the readings at the evening Mass – in itself a
gracious act of hospitality.
At the end of the week, the Abbot
said to the assembled community, “We need to thank these students for coming to
us. By their presence in our midst they have challenged us to examine ourselves
to see whether or not we live the life we profess.” (Monk Habits for Everyday
People, pg. 83, Dennis Okholm).
So, there are two questions to ask in
our practice of receiving the guest:
1) Did we see Christ in them?
2) Did they see Christ in Us?
The ‘gift’ of the stranger – the
‘reward of the prophet’ may be the challenge to examine ourselves: Do we live
the life we profess?
This applies not only in our private
lives, but in our corporate practice as a worshiping and fellowshiping community.
The metaphor of family is important
to us as Christians, but often this same way of thinking about ourselves as the
Church is oriented towards the nuclear family; those who are single or widowed
or without a spouse may not feel as if we are truly welcoming to their needs. The
visitor may or may not feel welcome. Therefore, we as the church need to
seriously think about how we receive people of all situations in life.
This is not easy for us, because we
tend to create a comfortable nest and to gravitate towards those like
ourselves. When the stranger, the person unlike us, enters our midst it
challenges us to see past the outward appearance, to see Christ, and make Him
welcome. This always requires us to look beyond the outward appearance to our
common humanity and to remind ourselves that we are made in His image and when
we welcome the Other, we welcome Him.
Let me also make a suggestion about Receiving
Christ in Communion.
As you hold out your hands to receive
the bread, make a cradle to receive the newborn Christ. Think too about what
Theodore of Mopsuestia said. Writing in 350 AD, in Homily XV, Theodore wrote, '...do not approach with hands extended and fingers open wide. Rather make of your left hand a throne, for your right as it is about to receive your King, and receive the Body of Christ in the fold of your hand, responding, 'Amen.'
So - - - receive Christ the King, your Savior, come to
you as a child in the manger, as you partake of the bread of heaven. Welcome
him with a hospitable and open heart as he comes to you in worship, but also as
he will visit you tomorrow and every day in the form of other people –and
obtain the reward of the prophet: Salvation, peace, and openness to change and
growth in scary – but exciting encounters with the Risen Christ. AMEN.
