A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” In the Gospel today Jesus is getting at an idea he is going to flesh out further later in the Gospel. It is the idea that in other people we can find Christ. In this section it is all about welcoming Christ in the stranger, and that in the act of hospitality you are welcoming Christ. Later on, in Matthew 25, he expands that even more: I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was naked and you clothed me; I was in prison and you visited me; I was injured and you bound me up; I was a stranger and you welcomed me. The people asked when did we ever do any of this, Jesus? When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or in prison or injured or a stranger? And Jesus said whenever you did to the least of these, you did it to me. This is a broadening of the idea we get in the Gospel today: that in another person we can find Christ. In the act of hospitality, in the act of service, we can find Jesus.
This is not something new. Jesus is the incarnation of God and if we look back to the very beginning of the Bible, to the first Book of Genesis to the creation story, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,” it goes on to say that we, people, humanity, were made in God’s image. Whenever we look at another person, we are looking at the image of God. When we welcome another person, we are welcoming the image of God. Whenever we feed someone who is hungry, we are feeding the image of God, or we give a drink to the image of God, or we visit the image of God. In a sense Jesus is building on that idea of the creation story. God’s created order is one in which God’s very image dwells in people, so when we act for other people, we are acting for God.
This is the same idea we get from the Prophets. The Prophets say the two major sins are idolatry, the turning away from God, and oppression, the turning away from your neighbor. Those things are interrelated. They are one and the same, because in that act of oppression you are violating the image of God, so the act of oppression is intrinsically the act of idolatry. It is all interrelated. These are the same solar system of ideas that in other people is the image of Christ.
The Gospel today is specifically talking about hospitality. Whenever we offer welcome to someone we are offering welcome to Christ. That is an idea that we have talked about a lot in the past. It is how we try to do ministry at St. Mary’s. But it is an interesting time to be thinking about this concept of hospitality. What is hospitality when we don’t have a home, our church, our physical building to welcome people into? Hospitality takes on new layers of meaning. We can’t welcome someone into our homes, which is something we can’t do because it is not safe. We need to stay home and keep our physical distance from people in order to keep people safe. But maybe that is, on its own, an act of hospitality. Things are beginning to get flipped around and get much murkier at this particular time.
The core, the root, is what is the best way to welcome somebody? It is not necessarily inviting them into your home right now. Perhaps the most hospitable thing is to go outside of your home, since being outside is safer. Hospitality, to offer true, loving welcome to someone, might mean putting a mask on when going to the grocery store. That will be a hospitable act because you are doing it for the other, you are doing it for the Christ in them. An act of hospitality is not necessarily bringing in someone close to you because that is not a safe thing to do. An act of hospitality is to maintain that 6-feet boundary. Six feet is hard to maintain, but to intentionally say I am not getting close to you is the hospitable thing. The way to honor the image of God within the other person is to maintain a bit of distance. For some people, those vulnerable among us, it should be more than six feet. Hospitality might be not to insist that they come out. The hospitality can be to call them on the phone instead of stopping by. The hospitality can be showing up for them in a ZOOM or Facetime or some other type of video conferencing so you can see each other, but not risk their safety. For certain people who are really vulnerable, the most dangerous thing is to get too close to them.
We will figure out all kinds of interesting ways to be hospitable at this time. As we look forward to gathering together in person again, we have all kinds of questions about hospitality. When we talk about reentering into the church building, how can we be hospitable? Having hand sanitizer, maintaining physical distance, wearing a mask at all times are acts of hospitality. Trying to keep activities short is an act of hospitality, because we know that the shorter the time frame, the safer it is. These are all things we can do to be hospitable. Another thing we can do is not insist that someone come out. As we begin to reengage to be together in person, one of the hospitable things we can do is not insist that people come back. This video service will remain for the vast majority who are not yet ready, or should not come back together with other people inside a church building. Hospitality is going to take on new meaning for us as we enter into the new phases as a congregation.
At the root of all of it is the question, how do I welcome the Christ that is within you? How do you welcome the Christ that is within your neighbor? It is challenging, because the ways we have to do it at this time are so strange and counter to how we have done it before. But this is what we have been given at this time, and as followers of Jesus, as people who want to seek Christ, it is exactly what we have to do. It is not only to think about what I want, and what I would do, but to think what is the hospitable thing for another. Sometimes it will mean welcoming people in, it will mean keeping distance, wearing masks for the wellbeing of others, washing my hands more often. It will be determining how to maintain a relationship with people who cannot or should not come out in person. How do I maintain hospitality for all of them? How do I welcome the Christ in all of them?
That is the challenge that is before us, and it will be with us for a long time. We can tell this disease is not going anywhere. We cannot wish it away. We will be struggling with this for six months, a year, eighteen months, two years, four years. We don’t know. But that is the point: we have to keep working at it with whatever is given to us at this time. How do I find Christ in this moment? I find Christ by welcoming him in you.
AMEN
