Even small acts of hospitality, like giving someone a cup of cold water, can make all the difference. The readings for this Sunday are very rich. In this sermon I reflect on the generous hospitality I saw at a wedding, and weave together the Gospel, the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, and Paul's letter to the Romans.

Proper 8 Year A

Transcription of a sermon given on

June 26, 2011

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Arroyo Grande

By Rev. Valerie Hart

In the Gospel reading today Jesus talks about hospitality, and that even small acts of hospitality, like giving someone a cup of cold water, can make a great deal of difference. I had a chance to see that at work this past weekend at a wedding. I didn’t know the bride’s family very well. I had met a few them but I didn’t know the whole family. Something happened that told me a lot about this family.  There was a man at the wedding who had never met anyone else who was attending. He was a stranger. He had been invited to the wedding, but he came having never met in person anyone there. You see the bride was adopted. Her birth dad had given permission for her to find him, so when she became an adult she looked him up. She had contacted him over email and they had communicated a little bit on Facebook and through email, but it never worked for them to meet in person. And then she invited him to her wedding.

Now you can try to imagine what it would be like to be a man meeting your biological daughter for the first time at her wedding. What would it be like walking into a wedding where you didn’t know anyone at all? That takes a lot of courage. What impressed me was that he was made 100% welcome. Everyone from her family, the whole wedding, treated him like family. He was seated at a table with other family members. Many people spoke to him and made him feel comfortable and welcome. To me this said a great deal about bride’s family - about her parents, about their love for one another, about their love for their daughter, and about their love for all people. A little bit of hospitality made all the difference.

Of course it can work the other way as well. As I was reading background material and ideas for the sermon today I read the story of a pastor who spoke about a man in his town that he knew well. A respected businessman, a good man who lived a good and generous life, but he never came to church. So this pastor would keep inviting him to come to church and he would say “nope, not comin’.” So finally the pastor asked him why. This time the man was in a place where he was ready to tell him. He said that when he was eleven years old his family had decided that it would be good for he and his brothers and sisters if they had some religious training. So they took him to Sunday School. He got to Sunday School and he loved it. He loved hearing the great stories of the Bible. He loved the music. He loved coloring. He loved everything about Sunday School and he was all ready to come back. But at the end of the Sunday School class the Sunday School teacher pulled him aside and said to him - in a very nice way I suppose - “You know son when we come to church we always dress in our best. I don’t want to see you coming back to church dressed the way you are today.” And he looked down at his handed down overalls with holes in them, which were his best clothes, and he never came back to church dressed that way. Well he never came back to church until he was dressed in a brand new suit and laid out in a box for his funeral.

I’m sure that that Sunday School teacher meant well. But it wasn’t being hospitable. It wasn’t being welcoming. It wasn’t seeing the need of the child.

Little acts of hospitality can make a huge difference. Even giving a cup of cold water. It is interesting when you read the Gospel that Jesus doesn’t give many “Thou Shalt Nots”. Oh, occasionally he does, but usually he is telling us what he wants us to do. He wants us to love one another as he loves us, to be hospitable to one another, to see the poor, to give a cup of water to the thirsty. He doesn’t dwell on rules and regulations, but on compassion and love.

If we look at the reading from Roman’s that Paul wrote we find that Paul teaches that we are free from the Law through grace. Things have changed. With the resurrection of Christ everything has changed. We no longer are slaves to a bunch of rules. We are not controlled by the “Thou Shalt Nots”. But Paul had a dilemma because there were some people that when he told them that they were free from the law said, “Okay good, I can do whatever I want.” And they were doing things that weren’t good for them or weren’t good for the people around them. Things that weren’t even respectful of their own bodies. And Paul said, “No, no, no, you don’t quite get it. We are free from the arbitrary laws, but we are slaves to Christ and therefore we want to serve Christ.” There are places in Paul’s letters where he delineates what that looks like, especially in the letters to the Corinthians, because it appears that the Corinthians didn’t quite understand the concept of freedom. So he had to delineate some “Thou Shalt Nots”. But what is most important about what Paul says is that we are a new creation. We are a new creation in Christ. Everything changed with the resurrection. Our relationship with God and our relationship with one another have changed, just as everything changed with Abraham. Before Abraham, and even after in some places, human sacrifice was common.  At the beginning of this story Abraham believes he needs to sacrifice his son to God. Because that is what you did. You made sacrifices to your God. You sacrificed that which was most valuable to you and often it was your own child because you wanted to appease God. You wanted to appease the anger of God. It was as if human beings could do something to take care of God. And then God would owe you something. But things changed with Abraham. Abraham was willing to offer his son. He loved God that much, but God said that is not what it is about. I will provide the sacrifice. God doesn’t need anything from human beings. God has everything that God needs. God wants relationship with human beings and with Abraham the relationship with God became one of friendship rather than one of duty and fear.

Then God provided the sacrifice in Christ to take another step in the relationship between God and human beings. This was a new creation, a new way of being with God, an opportunity to live in grace.

Every day we say the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.” Then we say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Right there, central in that prayer, is the coming of God’ reign, the time when God will truly rule the earth. When the earth, all of the earth, all of creation will be as God intended for it to be. God will be in charge, a time when God’s will is how people will respond. The resurrection of Christ opened a window to that new world. That is the new creation, where this earth will become what God intended. Where human beings will treat one another the way we are supposed to - with love and compassion.

We are called to be part of the transformation. We are called to bring on the new kingdom.

If you look at history it is pretty amazing that a small band of followers of Jesus in less then 300 years expanded to cover the entire Roman Empire and become a force to be reckoned with, even though they were illegal. Even though they were persecuted. But Christianity spread like crazy. What was it, what was it that made the church grow so much then? It had to do with how the Christians lived their lives. They lived their lives bringing in the new creation. They lived their lives to be the new kingdom. They treated each other with compassion and love. They brought in and welcomed everyone. Hospitality for everyone - male, female, free, slave, rich, poor, gentile, Jew - anywhere, any language.  This was a community that fed one another; it was not like the rest of the Roman Empire. When plague came people were left because their family didn’t want to catch it. They left people to die alone. The Christians, however, took care of one another, nursed one another back to health. When people were hungry they fed one another. When they were alone they were invited into community. They shared what they had. They had a little taste of what the kingdom of God looks like. Where people love one another as Christ loved us. By the way they lived in their communities they taught people about what love looked like. They didn’t have an army. They didn’t have much money. Most of the early Christians were poor. But they had something more powerful. And when you look at the history of the Christian church that goes into different areas, the missions that were often most successful were ones where it was a doctor who brought healing, or they brought food, or in some other way were being hospitable and caring for people.

We are called, each and every one of us, to help bring on the kingdom of God. When we pray the Lord’s prayer it is our responsibility to do what we can to make this world what God intended - to let the reign of God come through us. It comes through those small acts of hospitality. Those times of charity and love when we feed people, when we welcome people, when we comfort people, when we give them even a cup of cold water.

Welcoming the stranger

During the season of Pentecost year A I have discovered that there are a number of Sundays where I have no record of a sermon I gave, so I am unable to post a sermon every week. When I don't have a sermon to post I am going to share some reflections on my experiences visiting churches around the country during my retirement. 

Since I have retired at the beginning of February I have been traveling a lot in my RV and attending a different Episcopal Church almost every week. All of them have been places where I am not known, so I walk in as a stranger. It has been wonderful to experience the variations in worship, membership and energy in these churches, and I have always left feeling touched by God.

But it has left me thinking once more about how we welcome the stranger in our midst. It is something that I focused on and preached about while I was a rector, but now it has an additional meaning to me. Each week I am the stranger, and I have an opportunity to experience something of what a visitor might feel.

Why is it so important to think about how the church welcomes strangers? Each person who walks through the door of the church on a Sunday morning is there because they have been nudged by God. Each one’s story is different. Some are there because they are lonely and looking for community and friendship. Some are feeling a need to be of service. Some have come because they are hurting and need to experience the healing love of God.

If the church is to be a true expression of God’s love everyone in the church needs to honor and be intentional about welcoming the stranger. Remember, that stranger may not be a stranger for long. Perhaps your new best friend has just walked through the door, all you need to do is say hello. Perhaps he or she is the Sunday School teacher, or alto for the choir, that people have been praying for. Perhaps this new person will revitalize the men’s group or help develop a brand new ministry that will change the church. Each one who walks through the door of the church brings unique gifts from God. If they do not feel welcome in your church, God may lead them to one where they will be welcomed and appreciated.

Pentecost Sermon

Pentecost is one of my favorite Feast Days. I love honoring the power of the Holy Spirit. Here is a sermon I gave in 2011. It included some reflections on a Pentecost Eve several years before when I watched a wild fire growing closer to my home.

Pentecost

Transcribed from a sermon given

June 12, 2011

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

The Rev. Valerie Hart

Pentecost - the coming of the Holy Spirit. I love Pentecost. I love the energy of the Holy Spirit, and the presence, and the power and the surprise. Because one thing about the Holy Spirit is that it tends to surprise us. It is not domesticated. The Holy Spirit does what it will and transforms what it will. The images for Pentecost - fire, wind, breath, red hanging down from the ceiling, flames coming out of people’s heads. All these wonderful, wonderful images of strength and power.

When I was a kid the Holy Spirit was always called the Holy Ghost as it was in the first song that we sang. I know I’m dating myself saying that, but as a little kid my image of the Holy Ghost was Casper the friendly ghost. Anybody remember Casper the friendly ghost? You know the Holy Spirit was sort of this friendly warm fuzzy thing. Well, it can be. The Holy Spirit can be comforting; it can be a breath that heals. Just like on a hot day, a breath of cool wind can be refreshing and healing, or on a cold night a fire can be warming and feel really good.

But if you have been watching the news at all lately, you know that wind and fire are not always comfortable. We’ve had horrible tornados in the middle of this country, where the wind comes into a town and it swirls around and knocks down everything, picks it all up, mixes it all together and throws it all out. And right now there is a fire going on in Arizona that has covered hundreds of square miles burning everything in its path.

Wind and fire. I remember one Pentecost Eve on a Saturday night where I lived in Brentwood East of San Francisco. We lived out in the country on a hill and we noticed early in the evening, looking off of our back patio that there was some smoke in the hills. And then we noticed that the smoke appeared to be getting larger and coming closer. And then we heard and saw the airplanes going over dropping water just behind the last hill. And then we started seeing flames and it started to get a little nerve wracking. And then the sheriff came and knocked on the door and said: “You don’t have to evacuate yet, it’s still on the other side of the road, but you should be ready to evacuate.” I thought, “Wow, this is a Pentecost.” Wind was blowing; it was hot, now this was Pentecost.

When you know you might have to evacuate you find yourself in a very interesting position.  It makes you take stock of what’s really important. The first thing is that we would have to figure out how to get the dogs and cats all in one car. That would be the first thing, the animals. But after that, what do you take with you? Some pictures? The computer? Some important papers? Some things your children made? What do you take? What’s really important? And the more we thought about it we realized that all that was really important was the dogs and the cats and that everybody got out alive because all the rest was just stuff.

Well, fortunately, the fire stayed on the other side of the road and we didn’t have to evacuate. But it made me rethink things. What are the priorities? What’s really important? The next day we got up and the hillside was all charred and black. If you have seen hillsides where there has been a fire, you know and it is not a pretty sight. Everything was destroyed and burned. And hillside looked like that all summer long, reminding us of the power of the fire. And then the rains came. And in the part that was burned the green came up really fast. Because all the left over from the year before was gone. All the weeds, all the stubble was gone and all you saw was the green shoots. Then as spring came the wild flowers were extraordinary. I’ve never seen wildflowers the way they were on that burned hillside. Everything that would interfere with the wildflowers growing had been burned away and the ash was a great fertilizer. It was the most beautiful hillside I’d ever seen.

Wind and fire can be destructive, can be disorienting. The Holy Spirit can be like that sometimes too. The Holy Spirit can come upon you all of a sudden. Everything gets turned around. It is like a tornado, everything that you thought was true gets confused. You don’t know which way to go; you don’t know what’s important. Everything is up in the air because you are being transformed. Of course the Holy Spirit sometimes comes upon you when you need comfort; and when you need comfort it is soothing and helpful. But other times you need purification, other times the Holy Spirit comes upon us and burns, burns away the dross, burns away the stuff left over from our past. Burns away the guilt we still hold onto, burns away the anger we have at others. Burns away memories we may not even know we have. And sometimes that can be hard, and that can be painful. But that’s God’s love.

If you have ever been in love, whether it be with a spouse, or a grandchild, or with Christ, if you have ever been in love and you have felt that passion of love you know at times it burns. It burns good, but it burns. When you are not with the person, it hurts, when you are with the person there is a flame. Everything gets shifted and changed. Nothing looks the same. Colors are not the same. When you read a love poem, suddenly it is “Ah, that’s what this is about!” that you never understood before. Everything has changed.

When the love of God comes upon us as the Holy Spirit everything is changed. Our ears are open to hear in a new way. Have you ever been reading scripture or listening to scripture in church and it might be a passage that you’ve heard many times before, but all of a sudden a word or a phrase just jumps out at you. It’s like if you are reading it on the page it’s in bold and it just stands out and suddenly you understand it in a way you never understood it before. That’s the action of the Holy Spirit. Opening our hearts and minds to hear.

The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples for one purpose - to empower them to be sent out. To empower them to be instruments of God’s love. To empower them to go into the world and say ‘God loves you. God came as Christ. God wants us all to know that He is with us.’ To empower them to tell that good news, to share it in whatever way they could. And it comes to us for the same reason, to empower us to be instruments of God’s love. 

In order to do that we have to be free of things about us that get in the way. If you are kind of shy and you don’t like to talk people, well maybe that’s going to get burned up so you can talk. Or maybe the gift you have is a gift as an artist, but when you were in fifth grade the art teacher said, you don’t have any talent and you made the mistake of believing that. The Holy Spirit needs to come in and say ‘nope, they were wrong. You are an artist.’  There’s that wonderful passage from Corinthians that talks about that we all have gifts and they are all different and they are all empowered by the Holy Spirit. And these gifts are there for one purpose, to strengthen the body of Christ. To empower us to be sent out into the world as Christ was sent into the world. That’s the power of love - to transform us and empower us.

When we gather today we invoke the Holy Spirit.  When you in you life finally say, ‘Okay God, whatever,” God just might take you up on it. And it will be amazing. Maybe it will feel like fire or like a tornado has gone through your life, but it will empower you and strengthen you to be the instrument of love that God intends for you to be.