10/9/22 Romans 15:1-9 “Radical Hospitality”

07 Oct 10/9/22 Romans 15:1-9 “Radical Hospitality”

10/9/22   Romans 15:1-9       “Radical Hospitality”

I’m going to start a sermon series today on helping us to be more fruitful in our lives and in our church.  I normally don’t do series preaching because I usually don’t feel qualified to think that I know what we need to hear.  This is the job of the Holy Spirit.  After all, I am just a person like the rest of you.  I’m no better or no worse.  Therefore, I shy away from this type of preaching.  But I also think that the Lord has laid this on my heart.  He has given me the resources and He wants me to preach this to you.  The resource is the Holy Bible and a book by Robert Schnase called “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.”  We will be looking at this for the next 4-5 weeks.  Hopefully we can learn more about how to make you and your church work better.  Everything will be filtered through Scripture.  And what better Scripture reading than ours from Romans.  I believe that this reading contains 7 ways to be more fruitful and we will be referring back to this.  Today we will talk about radical hospitality.  This takes the hospitality that we have and kicks it up a notch.

Robert Schnase talks about when he worked in a hospital for a clergy training program.  One night he was called to the emergency room to support an older man whose wife had been brought in by ambulance.  That morning was a normal morning for this elderly couple and as they were eating dinner that evening, she had a heart attack.  Shortly after Robert arrived to visit the elderly man, the doctor came to them to say that she had died.  The doctor then handed Robert an envelope with her wedding ring, a necklace and her eyeglasses.

This poor man was just stricken with grief so Robert asked if he could call his pastor.  Well, he didn’t have one and he didn’t have a church.  He asked if he could call a family member and was told that they were scattered all over the country.  He tried a coworker but the man had retired from another city.  He asked if he could call a neighbor and found that he didn’t know any neighbors because they had only lived in their apartment building for 3 years, 3 years!  So, Robert helped this fellow with the required paper work.  He held his hand and prayed for him.  He visited with him and finally he gave him the envelope and watched him as he walked into the night, alone.  Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not how life is meant to be lived.  I would guess that we wouldn’t have to go far into our community to find someone like this, someone this lonely.

I think that the first thing that we want to do is be aware of each other in all that we do.  I think that it is really hard for us to get our minds around this concept but it was even more foreign in the time that Paul was writing this.  In the olden days there was no real concept of helping each other.  There were no hospitals if you got hurt.  There were no fellowship halls to help out the lonely.  The poor were definitely on their own.  If you had a physical defect, you were doomed to poverty if you even survived.  It was only the rich and powerful that had any of these things and they were still very limited.

Then along came Jesus and He had some pretty radical ideas.  He was the first person to treat all people as if they were all important people.  He went around telling the poor that they were actually people too.  He helped the sick and the lame.  It was no wonder that He was so popular amongst these people.  Jesus was a person who showed people that God actually cared about them.  He invited everyone to join Him as He first demonstrated radical hospitality.

Paul, on the other hand, came from a background of the Jewish faith where they would only extend themselves to the people of their own faith.  In other words, they watched out for themselves only.  A vast majority of their growth came from their raising big families.  So Paul wasn’t really familiar with hospitality either.

Then Jesus came into his life and everything changed.  He put aside the ways of the Pharisees and the Jewish people.  He even went a step further than many of the disciples when he included the Gentiles.  He would go out and preach to everyone.  He knew that Jesus was the answer to everything for everyone.  This is a concept that has been lost to many Christians even today.  So where Jesus showed us radical hospitality through His caring for everyone, Paul showed us that we can all be a part of this if we repent and come to Jesus.  Through Paul we find that everyone has a chance, even the lowest of sinners, to turn their life around and extend radical hospitality to all.

Before you get the wrong idea here, I would like to say that there are places that do a fairly good job of hospitality.  They welcome their visitors and visitors are invited for coffee either before or after the service.  People give up their assigned seats, the places where they have sat for years.  I have preached in churches where it is very difficult to gather the congregation back together after we pass the peace and that is ok.  You see we do a lot of things that help us to care for each other.

But I think that there are ways that we can go above and beyond the call to hospitality.  Have you ever put yourself in someone else’s shoes when they come through your doors or tune in for the first time?  Have you ever thought about their anxiety?  They don’t want to be overwhelmed but they do want to be made welcome and to feel at home.  At one of the churches we served, Sharon made three pillows for those who have problems sitting.  You should check to see if your church needs some sitting pillows.  There are many ways to extend care to each new person who comes through your doors.  They may be visiting family in the area and never come back but you are to extend all you have to them also.  You should have people ready to help others with the bulletin and your song books.  Maybe some of your older folks need a ride in the winter.  There are lots of ways.  Please try some of these out.

I think that one of the problems we have is that we do not speak up.  We get an idea and then we don’t tell anyone about it.  We are getting better at this but we still need ideas from everyone on how to make people feel better.  Many of you know that I have ideas all the time about these kinds of things.  If I can get one to work out of 20, then I’m doing pretty good.  Whenever we are dealing with people, we need to be able to withstand this type of rejection.

In order to do these types of things you have to quit thinking of yourselves and start to think in terms of the common good for the people of God’s kingdom.  In Paul’s world, everyone was out for themselves.  This is almost an understandable situation because when you are living in very poor conditions where you have to get your food every day, you become self-centered.  You need that food!  These people were not very advanced for the most part.  There was a definite division between the rich and the poor.

Most places in the world we still find a very definite division between the rich and the poor.  You may think that is not so in this country but I think we often feel like that because most of us are very rich by standards around the world.  And even in this country that is so wealthy, we often like to think only of ourselves.  I think as a society, we are totally selfish!

You can walk into any bookstore or online bookstore and you will find shelves of books on how to make you better.  You can go to any gym and it will be to make you feel better.  Most of the foods we eat are to make us feel good.  We live in a world that is all about us.  Everything is me, me, me.

So imagine how these ancients felt when Jesus and now Paul are telling them that they have to be concerned about the welfare of everyone around them.  This would be a bit shocking to them and it is shocking to us today.  We have been programed in this country to be very independent so we don’t need anyone to help us.  I guess that is ok to a very limited extent.  And I don’t think that Jesus was talking about socialism. I think that many theologians make a mistake here as they want us to be socialistic. Rather I think He was talking about looking after our neighbor.  You are to treat your neighbor as yourself.  I think Jesus just wants you to care for those around you.

So how do you care for others in terms of radical hospitality?  I think that you have to be really aware of people’s needs.  I think you all know how I feel about Jesus by the way that I preach.  Well, maybe, someone listening doesn’t quite feel that way.  I say that is just fine.  No one in our churches has to have the same feelings as I do.  We are all on this journey with Christ together and we are all at different places on the road.

This means that when you go out and invite others in to worship, that you do it in a way that they will not feel threatened.  People generally don’t respond too well to get in your face tactics.  If you tell people that they better come to church or they will go to the devil’s home, then they probably won’t respond.  But if you approach them with love, the chances are much greater that they might come to church and if they come to our church or broadcast, I will see to it that they get the message of salvation.  I dare you to go out this week and tell someone that you have the best church broadcast by far in the eastern half of North Dakota.  You won’t be lying.  I think that you do.  You never know, you just might spark an interest in someone to come and investigate what you have.  You might get someone new to tune in!

And this all leads into the most important part of radical hospitality.  You should be following the example of Jesus.  I would like to remind you that Jesus traveled around by foot as was the custom of the poorer people.  He not only mingled with the lepers but He touched them and healed them.  He sought out prostitutes and people of questionable character and told them how to have a better life.  Notice He told them they were wrong but He extended them grace at the same time.  This is an important concept!  He would even dine with the tax collectors who were basically little more than thieves.  There was no one He would not talk to if they sought Him and even if they didn’t seek Him.  According to Jesus, there wasn’t a person who didn’t deserve at least a chance with Him.  He even went up against the Pharisees and the rich who continually rejected Him.

When Jesus is in your church, you don’t care who walks in your doors.  I know that there are people who are having a real struggle in life.  I know that there are people who cannot afford to put anything in our collection plate.  I know that there are people here who have problems that I know nothing about.  And you know what?  This is ok.  You are welcome here.  I don’t care how broken you are or what your situation.  Come into the presence of the Lord and let yourself be healed.  We will help you no matter what or at least we will try.  We want you to know that you might be able to make some of your new best friends right here.  If you want us to leave you alone for a bit, we will.  We will try to do whatever it takes so that you can have an hour each week to hear about the love that Jesus has for you.  This, my friends and neighbors in Jesus Christ, is radical hospitality.

We once went to a church in the area where they did some of these things and they grew and grew.  One of the things they had was a greeter who stood outside the door and he wouldn’t let you by unless you gave him at least a handshake and returned his great smile, and often times this came with laughter.  As time went on, I got to know this guy a little better and found out that he was always this outgoing, robust person and everyone loved him.  Radical hospitality.

I have also been in churches in this area where you are able to go in and worship and no one even talks to you.  They do not help you.  They are not even friendly.  You leave wondering how they even survive.  What kind of church do you think you should be?  Should you just not care about your neighbors or do you want to be the church that goes the extra mile to help others feel welcome.  This week I would like all of us to do a little thinking.  What do you do that is good and how can you make it better?  What is it that you don’t do that maybe you should do?  How can you be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in all situations around you?  If we all start thinking a little more radical about our hospitality, we will get a few good ideas.  I know that there will also be ideas that we will be unable to do because of our size or location or whatever.  Talk about these ideas anyway and maybe they can be modified.

Through all of this there is one thing to keep in mind.  There are at least 60% of the people in our area out here in rural North Dakota who are unchurched.  Some of these people will die that way and that is very sad.  But I would say that a majority of that 60% are waiting for someone to ask them to church.  Maybe they are waiting to be picked up for church as they cannot drive.  Maybe you could pick someone up and go out for breakfast and church.  All I can say to you is to invite, invite and invite.  Tell people of this wonderful church that you attend or this one online.  Let us try to welcome all we know into the loving arms of Jesus Christ.

Most of you here today know about the love that Jesus has for you.  You know how He blesses and blesses you until you are about to burst from blessings and then He blesses you some more.  Take this extravagant love that Jesus has for you and show it to your neighbor, friend or family.  Remember that Jesus loves you more than anything else and He wants you to share this love with all you know.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.