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Jan 28, 2018

Servant Leadership: Hospitality

Servant Leadership: Hospitality

Passage: Hebrews 13:2

Speaker: Michael E. Karunas

Series: Servant Leadership

Category: Leadership

Sermon Delivered at Central Christian Church January 28, 2018

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, because you just might be entertaining angels without knowing it.”  Put another way, you never know where Christ might show up; in whose face you might see the face of Christ; you won’t always recognize when, where, and in whom the Lord will show up – and you don’t want to miss that when it happens. 

Which is something Abraham and Sarah experienced first-hand.  If anyone could have given up on God, it was they.  If anyone would have been justified in thinking “Why trust in God’s Word?” it would have been Abraham and Sarah.  They were not expecting to have children.  They were both old.  Specifically, Sarah was beyond child-bearing years.  V. 11 tells us – with a modesty worthy of the Victorian Age – “It ceased to be with her after the manner of women.”  The problem was that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a nation of God’s people; that he would have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky.  But he couldn’t have thousands of descendants without the first one!  And it seemed that their time had run out. 

 

One day, three strangers approached Abraham’s encampment.  There was nothing to indicate they were special; or that they had any kind of important message for Abraham.  They were only seen as travelers passing by.  It was a hot, sunny afternoon and when he saw them from afar, he got up from the shady spot where he was resting and ran out to greet them.  No self-respecting man did this in public.  Running was something that children and servants did, but not gentlemen like Abraham.  But running showed his eagerness to offer hospitality.  And when he reached them he bowed down before them, offering them this gesture of great respect.  He encouraged them to hurry in from out of the hot sun and rest in the shady area of his tents.  As they sat down, he offered them a bowl of cool water to wash away the dirt from the road, which by now had settled in layer of grime on their feet.  He insisted on feeding them – just a “little bread,” he said - but by the time he was finished, they were served a multi-course meal of veal, cheese, yoghurt and bread! 

All of this he did for people who were – to him – complete strangers.  Yet after he showed them such great hospitality, they told him who they really were: messengers (angels) from God, revealing to Abraham that God’s promises can be trusted.  For they were there to announce that the time had come for Abraham and Sarah – even in their very old age – to have that first child which would give rise to a nation of God’s people.  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” 

The word hospitality comes from the Latin word “hospes” which can mean both guest and host.  “Hospes” is meant to imply a relationship between the guest and host where the guest is received with good will shown by the host.  It is where our words hospital and hospice and hotel come from.  These are all places where we think of guests (or patients) being treated with good will and shown the spiritual gifts of kindness, compassion and mercy. 

But “Hospes” is related to another Latin word “Hostis,” which literally means “stranger.”  Interestingly, though, this is where our word “hostility” comes from – which is clearly the opposite of hospitality.  And the similarity of these two words leads us to examine ourselves and ask: “How do we view and treat those who are strangers to us?  With hostility – to be feared?  Avoided?  Kept at arms’ length?  Or with hospitality – as potential angels in disguise?  And therefore to be welcomed with kindness, compassion and mercy?

As Christians we believe that we live both in the world, but are not of the world.  In the world, we are constantly aware of things like “stranger danger” and in many cases we’d be foolish not to.  And yet we are challenged by our “not-of-the-world” calling to treat others with hospitality.  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” 

When St. Benedict of Italy reformed the monasteries of Europe in the Middle Ages, he described how a good, ordered, religious community should function.  And there were three leadership positions he talked about most.  First was the Abbott.  The boss.  Makes sense.  Someone had to make sure that the rules were followed.  Next was the cook.  Also makes sense.  Monks had to eat.  But next in importance was the Porter – the doorman.  The Porter’s job was the answer the door – every time there was a knock - with grace and hospitality, because you never knew when you might see the face of God on the other side.  Even today, if you visit a Benedictine monastery, you are never refused entrance.  One of the brothers will be at the door to welcome you in.

In one monastery, the porter had spent the day opening the door at every knock and it had been a particularly busy day.  There had been a relentless stream of guests and visitors, each treated with the gracious hospitality expected of the monks.  As midnight approached and the last guest had gone, the exhausted closed the heavy door and bolted it shut.  Finally he was able to go to bed.  As he was shuffling up the stairs, he was comforted by the much older and wiser abbot.  The elder put his arm around the younger, offering him a thankful word for a good day’s work.    Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.  The porter, tired to his bones and having spent every ounce of kindness in him, stopped in his tracks, threw back his head in exasperation and shouted “Jesus Christ!”  The old abbot, however, slowly turned around and sighed, “Yes, you’re right.  We’d better go back and open the door.”

Today is week three of our sermon series called “Servant Leadership.”  Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”  Each week we are looking at a servant role in our church; some of the ones most associated with worship, with the goal of sharing the ministry of this church with more and more servant leaders.  Today our theme is hospitality.  In the history of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) there has never been as much attention given to roles involving hospitality as there has to deacons and elders.  But Gen 18 and Heb 13 are why we take hospitality seriously at Central today. It’s why we have greeters are the doors of the West Entrance every Sunday; why we have ushers who hand out bulletins as you enter the sanctuary; why we have someone standing in the welcome center all Sunday morning.  It’s why we have a table of coffee and snacks.  Gestures of hospitality are meant to make people feel welcome.  And in my career of serving churches over 20 years and interviewing new members along the way, nearly every one of them says that the reason they joined the church was that they “felt welcome.”  Everyone who finds a home here does so, in part, because of hospitality. 

Today we are offering you the chance to sign up and help strengthen the ministries of this church through hospitality.  If you are not already a greeter but would like to serve as one (welcome people at the West Entrance on Sunday morning); if you are not already serving as an usher but would like to serve at the entrance of the sanctuary and hand out bulletins to those entering worship; or if you’d like to talk to visitors more about Central and help us get their contact information so that we can begin building a relationship with them; you can sign up for all of those positions in the welcome center after worship.  We will then follow up with you about training…

(9:00) We have two positions that are specifically “hospitality” related.  We have a person at the hospitality, who comes early to worship to get the table of food ready for you to enjoy when you come in; and a greeter who informally walks around, greeting you and making sure you stop by the hospitality table and receive a connect sheet.  If you’d like to help us by serving in one (or both) of these ways, let us know.  We’ll talk with you about how often you want to serve and then get you on the schedule.  And we’ll have training on Monday February 5 so that everyone who signs up feels like they know and understand what is expected of them.