Entertaining Angels
Pentecost
15 year C Sermon Luke 14:1-14, Hebrews 13:1-2
Celtic Rune slide
The Celtic rune of hospitality
I saw a stranger yestereen.
I put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place. [pause]
And in the sacred name of the Triune
He blessed
myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones. [pause]
And the lark said in her song:
Often, often, often, goes the Christ…
In the stranger’s guise
John Chrysostom slide
A quote from St John Chrysostom… echoes
this
If you can’t find Christ in the beggar at
the church door
you won’t find Him in the chalice
you won’t find Him in the chalice
Letter to the Hebrew’s slide
As the letter to the Hebrews reminds us
today
Don’t forget
to show hospitality
to strangers,
for by so doing
some people have shown hospitality to angels
without knowing it.
to show hospitality
to strangers,
for by so doing
some people have shown hospitality to angels
without knowing it.
Entertaining angels slide
Regardless of
whether you believe in angels…I’m sure you can hear that each of
these is poetically trying to capture
something about the will of God…something about the Kingdom of God…and our place in it as it breaks in…to our human dimension of
time and space.
Jesus does the same thing in our Gospel
reading today… invoking an image of the God’s kingdom…
and once again…he uses a banquet to do it…
Banquet slide
He’s the guest of course…he’s also a stranger who wanders around teaching…what the breaking in of God’s reign looks like.
And by the way…if you’re in any doubt about
that…
it’s clear from Jesus’ teaching…
it’s clear from Jesus’ teaching…
that the Kingdom looks like seriously good news…like a party even…particularly if you’re one of the lost
and the least…
the broken and unclean.
the broken and unclean.
There’s a sense in which Jesus is teaching about etiquette…for living in God’s
dimension…which he insists is at hand…
when you’re a guest in God’s kingdom…and if you care
about …being a good guest…well…just
be grateful you’re invited …don’t
assume you’ve got a special place…
above anyone else.
And as a host…well…
model yourself on the ultimate host.
When you offer hospitality, don’t just invite people who can invite you back…but when you give a banquet…
Poor cripple word slide
just like the ultimate host…
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame,
and the blind.
And you will be blessed…Why?
Because they can’t repay you…that’s true
generosity…true graciousness… just like you’ll find in God’s dimension.
So be clear…Jesus
instructs…you are offer hospitality without strings… just as God offers you. [pause]
Eastbourne slide
So how are we doing…here in Eastbourne…As a church here at St Ronan’s? How are we doing as neighbours?
Oh don’t be silly Diane…
The poor the cripple and the lame and the blind…
that’s not Eastbourne…
you can’t compare that story to Eastbourne…to
our church…
to my
neighbourhood. [pause]
Oh yes I can…and so can you…so
can we…in fact we’re supposed to do it! It’s called doing contextual theology…
talking about God in our context.
You already know that to preach a sermon
I have to exegete
a biblical text…I have to analyse it…
To apply
Jesus teaching to our lives today…to
our context…
we have to exegete our own community…we have to ask questions about it…God sort of questions...Contextual theology sort of questions…
we have to exegete our own community…we have to ask questions about it…God sort of questions...Contextual theology sort of questions…
That is if we want to apply Jesus teaching…to our lives where we are…and to our life as a faith community in Eastbourne…
And I’m sure we do…If we aspire to show
the hospitality of Christ in this
community …in this neighbourhood…then
we need to build a contextual bridge
between Jesus teaching to those first century Pharisee’s and our community in 2016 Aotearoa…
to the Pharisees…Jesus’ list of who to invite…next time…
the poor beggar, the crippled, the lame,
and the blind…
were unclean…their afflictions viewed… as
evidence of sin… unclean…
To build a contextual bridge with our community
in Eastbourne that’s faithful to
Jesus’ intensions… we have to ask
ourselves – who are the people in Eastbourne we’d normally exclude…
as unclean…or ‘sinful’ or strange…or to be
avoided?
Let’s take a little time with that…Talk to
those closest to you…
Can you think of any people or groups in
Eastbourne who might fall into those
categories?
Discussion.
White
Board…
If
they get stuck ask who are the people or groups who might think they’re not
welcome or worthy?
When St Ronan’s make plans to offer an
event of hospitality to our community…what’s our motivation… [Don’t
forget mainly music…no strings attached!]
Discussion
White
board
How deliberate are we to include people who might not think they’d be welcome? Why?
Ok…these are things we might think about
in the year ahead as we make our plans. We live here…we know from Jesus’
teaching how we are to live…how we are to show the hospitality of the Kingdome
of God.
Angel slide
So let us pray.
Bless us with strangers, Lord. Bring
before us, in our midst, the presence of Your
Presence, in the frame of the Familiar Stranger. Bring the thought of them to our
minds, with Your sweet Presence. Help us we imagine what might become. In faith
we ask that you cast them bodily into the light of our day, and make them Your
messenger to us, by some
bizarre God-incidence. And cause them
to be blessed as we are blessed, perhaps even seeing you in us, as you in us unite, and as we both partake of that gift that can only
come from You.
Make me to see as they depart us, as they
skip a merry tune,
the vision of that resonating truth in the
warble of the lark.
Often, often, often, goes the Christ
In the stranger’s guise. In his name AMEN.[i]
Let us sing Korowai Tapu…
