Creekside Church Sermon of June 27, 1999 "The Hospitable Habit " Matthew 10:40-42	Rev. David Bibbee
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The sabbatical gave me a different vantage point. On Sundays, I wasn't the pastor in the pulpit. I was another person in the pew. I worshipped in ten different churches, and tried to pick ones where no one knew me and therefore wouldn't relate to me as a pastor or offer preferential treatment. It was an eye opening, and not always pleasant experience. What I remember most was not the church buildings, though I worshipped in some beautiful ones. It wasn't the sermons, though I heard some fine ones. It wasn't the music or other aspects of worship or even Sunday school, though the quality of the worship was edifying and Sunday school was enlightening in most of them. What I remember most is what I experienced least in most of the churches I visited...something without which the church is as warm as Antartica...a simple, yet indispensable Christian virtue called hospitality.

I have heard horror stories from first time visitors not having a single person speak to them. Listening to them, I made allowances for the exaggeration factor, but not after I visited a church where the only person who spoke to me was the pastor in the greeting line after worship, and even he seemed nonplussed by my presence.

Of the ten churches I visited, I returned to just two...a Lutheran and a Methodist church where from the time I stepped from the car until I left the building, the members went out of their way to welcome me. They greeted me in the parking lot, at the door, and at the entrance to the sanctuary. They made sure someone sat near me in worship. I was escorted to their fellowship time which was held every Sunday and was introduced to some of the other members. I was also fed fat chocolate donuts. Afterwards, the kids and I were invited by a family to their home for dinner. The approach of these churches wasn't pushy or inauthentic, but relaxed and genuine.

First impressions are lasting impressions, a church may have wonderful worship and programming, be housed in a beautiful facility situated on a choice piece of real estate, but if it doesn't have a spirit of warmth, welcome, and hospitality which is the hall mark of a Christ-infused fellowship, it is more a private club than a church. The positive reception I experienced in two out of ten churches wasn't accidental. It was intentional. Their hospitality wasn't an add-on designed to get warm bodies to help pay the church bills. It was a part of who they were. They understood that hospitality is the predominant posture of Christ's people, and was at the heart of Jesus' ministry.

Throughout the Bible is woven a continuous thread of understanding. To be a lover of God means that we of necessity will be hospitable to and a lover of other people. In the Old Testament it was an unquestioned, sacred obligation to provide food, shelter or refuge to sojourners who showed up at your door. Strangers were to be treated with dignity and respect. In Exodus 23: 9 the Hebrew people were told to remember that they were once strangers in Egypt, and therefore must look upon others with the kindness with which God looked upon them.

In the gospels we have an even fuller appreciation of the need for hospitality. We see how often Jesus ministered to those considered unworthy of hospitality. He partied with tax collectors and prostitutes. He accepted an invitation into the home of a leper. While dining in a Pharisee's home, a woman labeled a sinner wet Jesus' feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and then anointed them with ointment. When the Pharisee criticized the woman, Jesus told the host that she was a better host than he was. "You gave me no water to wash my feet. You gave me no kiss. You didn't anoint my head." These were the customary expressions of hospitality for a guest. Jesus told the parable of a great banquet in which the invitation was extended to the poor and crippled and those on the margins of society.

Not only did Jesus extend hospitality, but he was also the recipient of it. The welcome you give and the hospitality you extend to the one standing at your door goes further than you think. There was a notorious sinner who wanted to make amends for his past, but he wasn't allowed to enter any church in town. He then told his woes to God. "They won't let me in, Lord, because I'm a sinner." "What are you complaining about?" God replied. "They won't let me in either." "As you have done it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done it unto me." In today's text Jesus tells the disciples whoever shows hospitality to them, shows it to him and to the one who sent him. Hospitality has a long reach. A verse from Hebrews 13 conveys the importance of how we receive others, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing this some have entertained angels without knowing it."

Last weekend in Sunday school John Berkebile mentioned something we should consider more often, and that is, "Why were people so attracted to Jesus?" He was nothing like the spiritual sourpusses of the religious establishment. He drew in those that establishment religion had cast out. He stepped across the artificial barriers which separated people. He welcomed children. He spoke to women in public. He listened to those who had no voice. He offered forgiveness. He offered God to those who had no hope. There were no strangers to Jesus. To all he extended the invitation, "Come." This is what attracted people to Jesus. Jesus' disciples and the church they formed. But what about us? Why aren't more people drawn our way? Why do they gravitate to other churches? What do they have that we don't?

Churches in long time decline often look for the holy grail that will turn things around. "Let's hold a revival! That used to bring people in." But research has shown that only one quarter of one percent of people who come to church do so because of a revival. "Let's put an ad in the paper." Sorry. A mere three quarters of one percent of visitors come because of advertisements. "We have great music here. This should bring them in." We do have great music, but only 2.3% say that they visit a church because of fine music. "Well, then, let's buy into one of those sure-fire programs that turns churches on the brink to bursting at the seams." Only 2.1% of visitors come because of special programs. "Okay, let's get a different pastor...one with lots of charisma who doesn't fish." Sorry again. Only 7.5% of those who visit a church and stay do so because of the pastor. "Brochures! That's what we need." Well, we already have brochures...nice ones too. You each have one in your bulletin this morning.

I want you to take a close look at the brochure Paula is holding. Watch carefully at what this brochure does. "Brochure...bring us a visitor! You heard me, go fall into the hands of someone who needs the church." Notice the brochure doesn't follow orders very well. It can't deliver itself to anyone. And even if it does find its way into somebody's hands, the research says that only 2% of people visiting a church come because of it. There is one factor which accounts for 66% of all people who visit churches. They come because someone like you invited them.

Vital, growing churches don't possess some resource we don't have. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of using you to reach another. You don't have to pass out tracts or go up to a stranger and say, "Hi! I'm David. Are you saved?" We need to remember directions. Hospitality doesn't wait for others to come to us. The word apostle means, "One who is sent." Jesus sent his disciples out to the people to establish relationships with them which in turn would help them discover a relationship with God. Hospitality doesn't wait for people to come to us. It moves toward them.

The members of a Lutheran church learned this lesson from their children. Low tables and little chairs were set up at the outside doors for children to serve lemonade to incoming and outgoing worshippers. But the kids didn't stay at the tables. As soon as the cars entered the parking lot the kids would run sloshing lemonade up to the car and welcome the worshippers with lemonade and a smile. Watching the enthusiasm of the children fanning across the parking lot to give a cold drink of lemonade...what was it Jesus said about the rewards of giving a cup of cold water? From the spontaneous action of children, the church took their cue and embraced hospitality in all aspects of their ministry, and because of it, became a transformed, growing church.

Hospitality is not a gimmick for growth. If it is simply an add-on, people will see right through it. Hospitality flows from the fellowship of Jesus Christ. As Christ welcomed us, we welcome others. When I think of the scent of Christ's love which should permeate every church, I think of the sign above the counter in a New York Delicatessen which reads, "If you don't smell it, we don't have it." Hospitality is so necessary because it is in such scarce supply. We live in a dangerous world. We warn our children about strangers, and for good reason. Walking down the street, you don't want to look a stranger in the eye for fear of what they might do. We are suspicious of those who are different. Unknown people with unknown intentions scare us. To practice a little Christian virtue like hospitality is risky. But with the times being what they are, sharing a kind word or gesture may be the only sign of love another person may experience.

I was struck by a little sentence I read this week. "Our best friends were once strangers to us." Think of how diminished your life would be had you not taken the steps to welcome your friends into your life. Not every stranger will become a friend. But do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. By not welcoming the stranger, we deny ourselves a blessing God may have given us.

Brace yourselves! You're going to hear a lot about hospitality in the months ahead. We already practice Christian hospitality in effective ways, but we must be far more effective. God won't bless us if only a few practice it or if it is only visible on Sunday morning. I challenge Elkhart City to find concrete ways of expressing hospitality in every phase of our ministry, and with this in mind, let me leave you with a story of how hospitality brought love to strangers.

Like many of us, a certain teacher named Miss Thompson found it difficult to love all of God's children the same. Teddy Stallard was a boy she found hard to like. Teddy didn't seem all that interested in school. His hair was unkempt. His clothes smelled. There was little to really like about Teddy, so whenever Miss Thompson marked his papers, she got a strange pleasure out of putting X's by his wrong answers and red F's at the top of his papers. Perhaps she should have known better; she had access to his records, and knew more about him than she would admit. The records read:

First grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but has poor home situation.

Second grade: Teddy could do better. Mother is seriously ill. He receives little help at home.

Third grade: Teddy is a good boy, but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year.

Fourth grade: Teddy is very slow, but well behaved. His father shows no interest.

Christmas came and the boys and girls in Miss Thompson's fifth grade class brought Christmas presents for her. They crowded around to watch her open them. Much to her surprise, there was one from Teddy Stallard. It was characteristically ugly-wrapped in brown paper with, "For Miss Thompson from Teddy" written on it.

When she opened it, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume. The boys and girls began to giggle, but she had enough grace to silence them by putting on the bracelet and some of the perfume. Holding her wrist up for the others, she said, "Doesn't it smell lovely?" At the end of the day, when the children had left, Teddy lingered behind. He came up to her desk and softly said, "Miss Thompson...you smell just like my mother...and her bracelet looks pretty on you too. I'm glad you like my presents."

When Teddy left, Miss Thompson was down on her knees praying for God's forgiveness. The next day the children in room 401 had a new teacher. Miss Thompson had become a different person. Committed to loving her children with a passion unknown before, and especially the slow ones. Especially Teddy. By the end of that year, he had showed dramatic improvement. He caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some.

The years went by and Miss Thompson lost touch with the fifth graders of that class until one day she found a note in her mailbox. It simply read: "Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class from high school. Love, Teddy Stallard."

Four years later another note: "Dear Miss Thompson, They just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I have loved it."

And four years later again: "Dear Miss Thompson: As of today I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I'm getting married next month, and I was wondering if you'd come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now. Dad died last year. Love, Teddy Stallard."

Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy's mother would have sat. She deserved to sit there, because beneath the stony surface of a life she found hard to love, she heard the sound of wings, and helped set an angel free. Don't nenglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing this some have entertained angels.

There are many people who are in need of a family...a family like this one. The family of God.

So what are you waiting for? Get up and get moving! You wouldn't want the Welcome Wagon to leave without you!

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