Radical hospitality in tough times...

NOTE: Here are this week's sermon notes for Sunday, March 8, 2009. For the remainder of Lent I will be exploring some of the important commitments and practices that are essential for building authentic Christian community - koinonia - in these days of confusion and fear. My reflections grow out of the very real needs of my current church which is wrestling with the hard work of growing beyond the past and into the present. If you are around, it would be great to see you at 10:30 am on Sunday morning.

Radical Hospitality: Part One
I just returned from a few intense days of study and reflection in New York City at the International Arts Movement conference (see yesterday's posting) - and had a quick trip to Cleveland, Ohio, too, where I had the privilege of preaching for two friends from the Bay Area - and I have to say: I AM GLAD TO BE HOME! Don't get me wrong: I love to study and be with friends - I am nourished by the intellectual richness of sophisticated theological inquiry and experiencing new styles of worship - but I have been called to be in ministry with... you.

God has called us together to do some important work in these tough times. So let me say again that I am glad to be back because this feels like home. And part of the work of being back home has to do with deepening and enriching our sense of community:

+ Christian community - koinonia as they call it in scripture - the experience of radical and generous hospitality in the presence of Christ.

+ Not ideas or ideology - not concepts or programs either - but an encounter with the heart of Jesus for this moment in time.

The Bible puts it like this in Acts 2: All the believers lived in harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met. And they followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw so every day their number grew as God added to those who were being healed.

For the remainder of Lent, I'm going to be teaching and cajoling you - challenging and encouraging you - to say nothing of teasing and inviting you - and all of us together - to not only consider what the Biblical mandate of radical hospitality means for our church, but also to help me find new ways of making this real within and among us. For, you see, radical and generous hospitality is how others know that Jesus is in the house. They really don't care if we're high church or low - it mostly doesn't matter whether we use an organ in worship or guitars, drums or ancient a capella psalms - and most people are not attracted to worship because we call ourselves Reformed, liberal, evangelical or Catholic.

No, the only thing that grows a church - and the only blessing that we really have to offer the world that it can't get any other place - is an encounter with Christ Jesus and his love made flesh within and among us. Think about this for a moment:

I'm not kidding. The world does entertainment better than the church. It could be Vegas or Disneyland or Six Flags - it could be movies or music, theater or sports - dancing or food. The world excels in entertainment and does it better than the church. Same is true with health care - and social services, transportation, politics and manufacturing. If we are honest, the ONLY thing that we in the church have to offer the world that it can't get better any other place is... the loving presence of Jesus our Lord. That is our calling and sole reason for existence.

So, let me first suggest for you the four broad ways that we can give shape and form to Christ Jesus in our congregation - the four essentials of Christian community, if you will - and then three other insights that are critical if we are to move from word to deed, ok? Are you with me?

One element of authentic Christian fellowship is teaching - sharing wisdom - about God's love in action. I'm talking about study and reflection, conversation and questions, doubt and clarity as well as the commitment to go deeper. Remember how St. Paul put it: when I was a child I thought and acted like a child, but when I grew older it was time to put childish things away. Let me be clear: the teaching ministry of authentic fellowship is about growing up and growing deeper in Christ's love:

+ It takes practice to make Christ's love flesh among us

+ It takes commitment to take up the Cross and follow into those places that scare us

+ And it takes a life time of learning from our mistakes and experiencing God's forgiveness

Everybody, you see, can love another person a little bit for a short time - that's just part of being human created by God. What we can't sustain, however, is a deeper and more long-lasting love - a Christ-like love - because that requires help. Power from above AND commitment. Our ministry of teaching is part of this help: it shows us both what God's love looks like in action and how people before us have made it a part of their lives.

Different traditions, of course, will emphasize different parts of Christ's love: our Roman Catholic friends use their voluminous catechism, many of our evangelical cousins rely on Calvin's Institutes or the Heidelberg Catechism. Our way of sharing the heart of Christ's love is grounded in the stories - the stories of both the Old and New Testaments - rather than a strict enforcement of doctrine. It is a less rigid teaching ministry, one open to nuance and personal revelation. I rather like the way that Mary Farrell Bendarowski puts it in her essay, "Lump in Your Throat Stories: Narrative Art, Religious Imagination and an Aesthetic of Hope."

We have come to understand and acknowledge as good news rather than bad that human beings construct religious meaning systems, that, as Gordon Kaufman has said so often, theology is imaginative construction... so we emphasize stories that go back and forth across disciplinary borders. We are discovering... that in order to keep our religious traditions... vital in a plural culture we have to learn how to tell and receive stories that ravel back and forth across may kinds of boundaries: between and among very different kinds of religious traditions; across the chasm of polarized stances on various social and ethical issues; between those who inhabit the realm of religion and those who see themselves as dwelling in the land of spirituality and secularity; among theologies that range from - and sometimes mix together - the premodern, the modern and postmodern; across the continuum from one part of our own lives to another.

She calls this way of teaching an aesthetic - not a theology - but an aesthetic of hope. A way of seeing God's love in action beyond the limitations of words and doctrine - a way of claiming the possibility of light in the darkness and healing within our wounds - that nourishes generosity rather than selfishness. As our text says: the believers were together in harmony, holding everything together in common and selling whatever they owned by pooling their resources so that each person's need was met.

A second essential for authentic fellowship is sharing: generosity - caring for those from the core of our being rather than from what is left over. And perhaps the best story of what this looks like comes at the end of the healing of the boy possessed by demons. After Jesus brings health and stability back to the child who had wandered the hills and howled like a wolf, he is left restored but naked.

+ The young man wants to go with Jesus and his roving community but he is told that he needs to go back home - he needs to get things right there - his family and friends need to see that he is well.

+ Jesus looks at his disciples and tells THEM to clothe this boy - and please recall that there are no WalMarts around or Goodwill Stores either - they are alone on a cliff by the sea. So, the story implies, Jesus showed the disciples what was required: from Peter he took a shirt, from Simon some sandals, from John a belt, etc.

The community shared their resources so that this once lost and broken soul could return to his home and be embraced. Sharing is the second essential component to authentic Christian community.

A third essential involves eating with one another on a regular basis - more than periodic potlucks as much fun as they are - and why do you think this is an essential?

+ Can you name stories and experiences you know of Christ's table fellowship?

+ What about some of your own favorite banquets or feasts: what happens?

+ Do you recall the Emmaus Road story where the disciples' eyes were opened in... what? The breaking of bread.

Makes me think of that old parable about the difference between heaven and hell. It seems that both heaven and hell look a lot alike: both are filled with long banquet tables upon which are massive bowls of wonderful food, but the only eating utensils are chopsticks two feet long. In hell, everyone is starving and angry because they try - and fail - to feed only themselves while in heaven there is deep satisfaction because the people have discovered how to feed and serve one another.

This brings me to the fourth essential: prayer. There can be NO deep fellowship without learning how to trust God and discern God's presence in good times and bad. And while there are all kinds of prayer - singing and silent, long and short, formal and spontaneous to say nothing of dancing and yoga and body prayers - the heart of the matter comes down to listening for God and opening our hearts to the Lord.

+ Does that make sense: listening for God and sharing our heart in an open way?

+ My hunch is that these two acts are at the core of all authentic prayer and they require practice because most of us have a hard time being quiet and listening.

+ We're pretty good about articulating our own needs, but not nearly as good about listening and waiting on the Lord.

Try this with me: let's be still together for two full minutes... what happened? See what I mean? Our Buddhist friends call this monkey mind - thoughts jumping all around like a monkey - so we have to practice being still before the Lord. Well, these are the four time-tested essentials for cultivating Christian community within and among us: teaching, sharing, eating together and prayer. Any thoughts or questions? Now let me add three other important interpretations:

+ Authentic Christian fellowship always includes all the believers: no distinctions or discrimination can be tolerated in the body of Christ because there are NO second class citizens. Think of Galatians 3: 28 where Paul reminds us that we are ALL equal - Jew and Gentile, male and female, rich and old, slave and free.

+ Authentic Christian fellowship also always encourages unity amidst our diversity: We are ONE body, with many members, right? We talk about one mansion with many rooms, too. Our tradition likes to say: in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things, charity. Just think who Jesus included in his community: women and men, zealots and tax collectors, children, rich and poor.

+ And authentic fellowship is also committed to meeting the needs of those who are wounded: our first calling is to people, not buildings or idea, but living souls formed and created in the very image of God. How did the old song put it: they will know we are Christians by our... what? Not buildings, not our instruments and not what translation of the Bible we prefer. They will know we are Christians by... our love.

Look at what that love looks like in today's gospel where Peter and Jesus rebuke and argue with one another. Mark 8 shows us a fascinating example of authentic Christian community in action. Now there are lots of parts to this story worthy of comment but what really interests me at this moment is the easy and accepted way that Peter argued with Jesus.

+ Peter challenged Jesus when the master announced that he was going into Jerusalem to face the shadow of the Cross. And this wasn't because Peter was stupid or stubborn. He loved Jesus and did not want him to die. So he yelled at him and demanded that he change his mind.

+ Really - he loved Jesus - and felt safe enough with him to get angry and argue. Did you get that? I have to believe that the Christian community Jesus constructed was a place where it was safe to raise not only questions, but challenge others in love. They knew how to fight fairly and openly - to question and argue with those they loved - so that God's will could be revealed.

+ And even if there were hurt feelings - and I have to believe Peter felt hurt when Jesus called him a Satan - there was also cooperation, forgiveness and moving forward in this community. They worked things out - even after disappointment and betrayal - because that is what the community or body of Christ does: bring healing and hope and restoration to what is broken.

Does that make sense? If it wasn't safe - if the disciples had not already experienced the love of God in Jesus and a real deep forgiveness and hope - Peter would not have been so bold. But he was - he wasn't quiet - he challenged and spoke up.

And my friends that is what we are going to need as we enter our own challenges and fears this year. We have some hard choices before us about money and mission, purpose and ministry, our future and God's will - and we CAN'T continue to do things the same old way. Do you recall the classic definition of insanity? It is doing the same old things the same old way and expecting different results. We are being called - I might even say pushed - into letting the past be the past so that we can find Christ's new way in this strange and tough time.

I am certain that what was true for the first community of Christ will be true for us: when we get down to the essentials of living into the stories, eating with one another in love, trusting God in prayer and meeting the needs of others by sharing than God will be faithful. God will bless and nourish us. I have felt that love within and among us. It is real. Now we must nourish it so that it can grow deeper. Lord, may it be so now and forever.