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DRAW THE CIRCLE WIDE February 17, 2008
“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.” Romans 12:9-10, The Message They have names. They are real people… children of God. They just happen to have no place to call home right now… at least no place other than next to the steps at the south entryway of our church building. The neighbors who live along 14th don’t appreciate their living arrangement. When I am most honest with myself, I don’t appreciate it either. I would prefer that Leo and Susan move on and find another place to call home. I find it embarrassingly difficult to come in on Sunday mornings and walk past them each sleeping behind their own pile of worldly possessions. I am not comfortable seeing them outside the door when I am locking up after the Sunday evening class ready to go home to my nice, warm house. Their presence reminds me of all that I am not. I try to say good morning like I mean it. I try to smile and pretend that their presence doesn’t bother me. I try – but it isn’t genuine. Our custodian, Greg, on the other hand, offers the hospitality that eludes me. He brings them coffee when he arrives at work each morning and unlocks the doors so they can come inside and use the “facilities.” He has negotiated with them a place to store their stuff and a way to make sure that things are kept clean. Greg’s smile is genuine and his compassion is real. The truth is I need to practice what I preach.
Practicing what we preach. Diana Butler Bass, in her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, challenges us to become practicing Christians. She challenges us to take Christianity seriously as a way of life by joining in Christian practices. Over the next few weeks, in preparation for her visit on the first weekend in March, we will be exploring several of these practices.
We must begin with the practice of hospitality… the practice of welcoming strangers into the community... welcoming all into the heart of God’s transformative love. For Butler Bass, if we are to be a church with a strong, vital, growing ministry, hospitality must rank as one of our strongest practices. Are we willing to “draw the circle wide” as we welcome any and all who come through the doors of our church? Are we willing to draw the circle “wider still” as we go out beyond the doors of this building and offer God’s transformative love in all that we say and all that we do? It is true…“the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe.”* We must embrace the practice of hospitality. The church must be a place where strangers can become friends. This is foundational in our spirited lives. The way we treat each other is the best expression of our beliefs.
Now, I need to be really careful with my words so please hear me. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a warm and friendly church. Those saints among us who have been gently pushing us to be more welcoming have done a great job. Over the past couple of years, there has been a transformation, of sorts, when it comes to getting outside of ourselves and being friendly. Just last week, I heard from someone who has attended our church for several months. She offered that she is overwhelmed by how welcoming we are to her. I believe her words were “Everyone is so friendly and nice.” She notices our efforts. Many thanks to all of you who are a part of our welcoming ministry.
But, in these days when “church growth experts” are everywhere and church growth books are a dime a dozen, Diana Butler Bass offers words of caution. She reminds us that true Christian hospitality can’t be a gimmick. Hospitality is not about more money or more members or even more notoriety in the community. The goal of hospitality is not to become the biggest or the best. Hospitality is a practice not a product. Butler Bass cautions against neatly packaged programs from church growth gurus. Her words can sting a little. Her words call us to reflect on the reasons for our welcoming practices. But her words are important for us to hear. She writes “True hospitality is not a recruitment strategy designed to manipulate strangers into church membership. Rather, it is a central practice of the Christian faith – something Christians are called to do… Hospitality draws from the ancient taproots of Christian faith… Christians welcome strangers as we ourselves have been welcomed into God through the love of Jesus Christ.”**
The New Testament is full of the stories of Jesus, calling people to the practice of extravagant and genuine hospitality. To borrow another’s words, “Jesus was not primarily a teacher of correct beliefs or right morals but of authentic human relationships.”*** When faced with a hungry hoard, the disciples would have sent them all away but Jesus asked them to offer the hospitality of their own bread. In the parable about a wedding banquet and invited guests who were too busy to come, Jesus challenges the listener to go out into the streets and invite the most-often-unwelcomed to become guests at the table. When a group of friends had to tear the roof off a house in order to get help for an ailing man, Jesus made room in a crowded house. And, in Paul’s letter to the early Christian Church in Rome he reminds the believers to practice their Christian faith saying, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it… Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.” It is clear that from the earliest days of the Christian faith, Jesus’ followers were recognized by what they did – practicing hospitality and forgiveness in an inhospitable and unforgiving world.
Theologian, priest, and author Henri Nouwen acknowledges that “… in a world of strangers where fear, anger, and hostility build walls between people and chip away at soulfulness… ‘if there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.’” **** It is so important to feel welcome and become a part of a community. It is no longer possible, if it ever really was, to sustain a Christian life alone. We need each other. We need the encouragement that comes from being a part of Christian community. It is here that we practice “practicing what we preach.”
We do live in a world that would separate us at every turn. We are constantly being divided up by what we believe and how we vote and which team we support… by our age or ethnicity or gender… by how we look and where we live and who we love. We live in a world that defines us more by our differences than by all the things we have in common. The fears and hostilities of the world would have us all live as strangers. But the way of Christian hospitality has us welcome strangers and become friends… genuinely, deeply, and faithfully. As Butler Bass affirms, the practice of Christian hospitality “opens the way for all people to be the same under God, part of the family, welcomed for who they are in all their own uniqueness.”*****
As Christians “we are to welcome strangers as we ourselves have been welcomed into God through the love of Jesus Christ.”** True hospitality it more than just knowing each other’s names – although we can start by caring enough to know each other’s names. Hospitality is more than offering a cup of coffee – although sitting down with coffee and a donut with someone new to you is a good first step. True hospitality is more than sitting with our friends when we come to worship – although it couldn’t hurt for us to sit a little closer to each other and to what’s happening up here!
Did you know that usually, when a person ventures into a church community for the first time, there is a reason they come? Something is happening in their lives that is important and they are trusting us to care. True hospitality mean caring enough to listen to another’s story… really listen. True hospitality mean agreeing to disagree on the stuff that doesn’t matter and being willing to hold each other accountable on the stuff that does. True hospitality mean accepting another person exactly as they are and offering God’s love through your life.
We have a twenty-nine year old son who is involved in a spiritual practice that is new to us. There is no doubt in my mind that there are many pathways to God. As I have tried to discover what is drawing him to this practice, I have heard the spiritual teacher offer the idea that it God is going to be known in the world today, God will be known in us… because of us. It makes me laugh sometimes, because the spiritual teacher believes that this is a brand new concept… that no one else has ever said this before. And it also makes me cry to think that somehow this is believed to be something new. We, as Christians have failed to make God’s presence known in the world.
True hospitality means offering God’s love through your life. Strangers become friends as we begin to know each other’s hearts. “True hospitality is not a recruitment strategy designed to manipulate strangers into church membership. Rather, it is a central practice of the Christian faith… something Christians are called to do.”**
On Thursday I went to Portland for a meeting and while I was there I took the chance to have dinner with our daughter Erin. We got to talking about all kinds of things from the mural they are working on in the art class she teaches to one of her favorite students who is on his way to the national geography bee to her recent success cooking a whole chicken perfectly to her new tattoo on her foot – a math symbol which means “contradiction.” In the midst of our conversation she started talking about her church and what is important to her and why she chose to go to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton. She has shared reasons with me before… the choir… the family that invites her over for dinner every Wednesday night before choir practice… the invitation to play her guitar for worship… etc. But this time she told me that what is really important to her is that her church family notices when she isn’t there.
I think that this has something to do with Christian hospitality. Hospitality isn’t just about welcoming those who are here… it is also about noticing who isn’t here. It isn’t just about welcoming people through the doors. It is also going beyond the doors and out into the world. It is about becoming family to each other… family in the best and noblest and most loving and accepting sense of the word. It is about becoming family to each other… a family that cares and loves and listens and understands and misses and celebrates and holds on and lets go. Christian hospitality has everything to do with loving from the very center of who we are and with drawing the circle wider and wider and wider until our loving know no borders. It takes practice but I believe that we can practice what we preach!
* Point 5 of The Center for Progressive Christianity’s” 8 points ** From Christianity for the Rest of Us, pages 81-82 *** From “Living the Questions” **** From Christianity for the Rest of Us, page 79 ***** From Christianity for the Rest of Us, page 82
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