Weekly Sermon: 03-01-2026 - Holy Hospitality

The Holy Gospel According to Luke.

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was rich.

He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd,

he could not because he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus because he was going to pass by that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus,

hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

All who saw it began to grumble and said, he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, look, half my possessions,

Lord, I will give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.

Then Jesus said to him, salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham.

For the son of man came to seek out and to save the lost.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ. You may be seated.

This Lenten season, as we count down to Easter, we are focusing on discipleship.

The weekly videos that are being emailed out are about your personal spiritual life.

And the devotional book that goes with the videos look like this,

and they can be picked up in the gathering area.

You can also download them with the email. There's also a family devotional

book also out in the gathering area.

The discipleship class that I'm teaching after worship during Lent is about

developing as a disciple in your daily life.

And on Sunday mornings, we are focusing on how we live together as a discipleship community.

And it's called Better Together.

And each week in worship, we will name commitments that help us become the strongest,

most loving, healthiest community possible.

And at the end of this season, we will gather these commitments into a covenant of our life together.

And today, our theme is holy hospitality.

And I learned this from one of my growth coaches. And I thought,

boy, I wish somebody would have taught me this before I was into ministry for 36 years.

Um, so here we go.

I used to think that I understood what it meant to be welcoming.

And I thought of myself as one of the most welcoming people and perhaps pastors

out there, being interested, being polite, smiling,

listening, always inviting people out for coffee, going out of my way to make

sure that I greet people, especially newcomers.

We're so glad you're here, getting contact information, following up with texts

or emails to be sure to follow up with people and take them out.

Of course, all of these things are important, and I am genuinely interested

in people and their lives and stories.

But before we moved to this area from St.

Louis, Missouri, an acquaintance invited me to lunch to tell me his story,

and he brought me to a much deeper understanding of what it really means to

fully welcome and honor people. I will call him Joe.

When I first knew Joe, his name was Gina.

He started out by saying, who I am and what I went through is not about politics.

It's not about being part of any movement, marching for a cause,

carrying a poster, or being part of a group.

I understand that this is very important for many people, but that is not me,

and it is not a part of my story.

I have always known myself to be a male.

From when I was a child, I have known that I am a guy from the inside out.

My body did not fully match who I am, my inner identity, who I knew myself to be.

So I sought medical care for what I experienced as a medical condition.

Just like you went to the doctor when you had cancer and you needed surgery and medicine,

I went to the doctor because I needed surgery and medicine for my medical condition.

Now my body matches who I have always known myself to be.

Joe shared that the most accepting person

in his life is his grandmother who

also knew who joe truly was since childhood now joe gave me a tremendous gift

that day because he was not Not only sharing his own experience and the treasure of his story,

but he was taking time to stretch me.

And help me realize that sometimes when we are working hard to include people,

we can also exclude them without meaning to.

Joe was saying to me, please don't label or categorize me.

I am my own person with my own story. And as a pastor, please pay attention

to this and try not to do this to other people.

Joe wanted people in his life who could accept that he was simply someone becoming who they already are.

So I had to ask myself, how do I still categorize or label people in my mind,

even subtly, for my own comfort or attempt at understanding?

Because we all do that, don't we? We all have categories or labels for people.

We don't intend to judge people or box them, but we do.

And it happens sometimes even before we're consciously aware of it.

People are safe or unsafe. People are normal or kind of weird.

Church people are, they're not church people.

Someone who looks like a potential friend or someone who we'd rather start walking the other way.

Right? I mean, it just happens, right? Sometimes before we're even aware.

At St. Luke's, we trumpet everywhere. All are welcome. It's on the altar.

And we are welcoming. The most welcoming church I've served in all of my years of ministry.

But sometimes, maybe what we might mean is we're welcoming to people who feel

familiar, someone whose life we understand or can identify with.

I didn't know that I could identify with Joe's story until he said that he could identify with mine.

We both needed some big medical treatment.

Wow, that was a great connection of our stories.

I hadn't thought of it that way. Isn't that awesome? That was awesome.

My husband, Dan, I think I've told this story to some of you before.

He was doing an interim in a small town in Potosi, Missouri,

and he met a woman at a church at an acquaintance's house. He was doing a small

group in somebody's home.

And somebody really encouraged a friend of theirs to attend and meet my husband, a Presbyterian pastor.

And she told him the story that she finally got up the nerve to go to a church

because she was feeling so lost, not the church he was serving.

She had piercings and tattoos, but she was really feeling lost, so she went to church.

And at the end of the service, someone told her not to come back.

Dan shared the love of God with her, that Jesus loved her at this house where

this small group was meeting.

But of course, she'll never go back to church.

Now, of course, nobody here would ever say that to anybody.

But after that conversation with Joe, I

realized I have to be careful that such messages are not communicated by body

language or stares or inquisitive looks or what seems to be an innocent comment

about dress or piercings or ink or tattoos.

Because love gets tested at the edges, at the places that stretch us or make us uncomfortable.

And that is exactly where Peter finds himself in our reading from Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

He's hungry, he's praying, he falls into a trance and he receives a vision and

the sheet drops from heaven and it is filled with animals that his faith has

taught him not ever to eat.

And the voice says, Peter, get up, kill and eat.

And of course, Peter is like, no, right?

Religious people often say no when God is trying to stretch them.

And he says, surely not, Lord, because Peter is not just being asked to try a new food.

He's being asked to violate generations of obedience and holiness and what is

right or had been right in the eyes of God.

And the voice says, what God has made clean, you must not call unclean.

So now this is changing everything.

And so Peter is not being asked to lower his faith standards.

He's being asked to see differently.

And you know what? This had to be repeated three times. You know,

we often don't get it on the first try, right? We need repetition.

That's comforting, isn't it? God doesn't expect us to get it on the first try, right?

Peter is the rock on which Jesus builds the church. He needed it three times,

right, in order to get it.

So then he does it. Peter gets the message.

And then he walks into the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, a non-Jew,

a foreigner, an outsider, someone's home in which he would never have entered

before. And what does he say?

He's transformed. He said, I truly understand that God shows no partiality.

God shows no partiality, not just with food, of course, with people.

Now there's no Jew over Gentile, no insider over outsider, not one culture over

another, not us over someone else who might make us uncomfortable.

Peter doesn't make Gentiles acceptable. God already has.

Peter's heart and mind have to catch up with God's grace, God's love.

God calls Peter to practice holy hospitality to non-Jews without labels and

categories because of who they already are.

People created and already loved by God.

Jesus brings Zacchaeus a similar message in our gospel reading.

Zacchaeus is unclean for a different reason, not for ethnic issues, but for moral ones.

A tax collector, a collaborator with the Roman oppressor, a cheat, a sinner.

We can hear all the categories and labels in the reading.

Jesus ignores all of them, and he does something scandalous instead.

We could always scound on Jesus to be scandalous, can't we?

He does not wait for Zacchaeus to repent of his cheating ways.

Jesus invites himself over to his house first.

Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down because I'm coming over to your place.

Belonging precedes good behavior. Grace comes before transformation.

This is the true good news of God's love in Jesus Christ.

Before he is nailed up on the tree of the cross, Jesus invites Zacchaeus down

the tree in love and invitation.

We do not become acceptable to God by cleaning up and climbing up,

we do not earn our belonging.

Jesus Christ has already crumbled every dividing wall with his death and resurrection.

On the cross, all separations fall.

In the resurrection, Christ's life fills us with his power and possibility and his life.

And through Jesus' presence within us, we are freed to live differently like Peter.

Through his power, transformation is now possible.

And this is what happens to Zacchaeus in Jesus' presence.

And like a good Lutheran, he responds with gratitude and generosity,

giving to the poor, repaying four times those whom he had defrauded.

So salvation is not just at the end of time.

Zacchaeus experiences transformation now, that day,

through being welcomed by Jesus beyond categories and labels because of who

he already is, someone created and loved by God.

Transformation in Christ.

So what does this mean for our congregation that freely, openly,

loudly, proudly announces that all are welcome?

It means that we are committed to the behaviors of holy hospitality.

We welcome all people because Jesus Christ welcomes us like Zacchaeus,

even when we didn't deserve it.

We receive grace before transformation.

Belonging before good behavior. Jesus, you know, I had never really thought

about that. I never put this into a sentence before.

Of course, it's true, duh, but Jesus died on the cross before you were even born.

I'm like, you know, I need to meditate on that for a while.

Jesus died on the cross before we were even born. We had salvation before we even existed.

I need to meditate on that. That is profound and amazing.

I mean, duh, we know that for centuries. But when you really think about that,

that we had salvation before we even existed, that is really awesome, isn't it?

Talk about grace before good behavior. How about grace before existence?

And that is so wow. I'm like, I wrote that sentence and I'm like,

I never thought of it that way. Have you thought of it that way?

You were saved before you even existed.

That is like supercharged exponential grace.

Okay, I'm off the text, but wow, that just fires me up.

So this means when someone walks into the church, we assume belovedness by God.

Welcome them because of who they already are. People created and loved by God.

And as much as humanly possible, we try to suspend putting labels and categories.

When someone dresses differently, speaks differently, identifies differently,

we resist the urge to evaluate.

We assume belovedness. Belovedness, what a great word. It means when someone

confuses you, surprises you, choose curiosity instead of commentary.

Nobody comes to church to have someone comment on their piercings,

their tattoos, their clothes, their hair, unless you are giving them a genuine heartfelt compliment.

Lead with dignity. Look people in the eye and smile and introduce yourself.

You know, this is harder than it seems sometimes. And I've had encounters with

people where I have to internally coach myself.

Look them in the eye and smile. Look them in the eye and smile.

And this has happened to me more than once. At one of my churches previously,

I had, it wasn't on Sunday, it was the week, somebody came in to the church

and his head was shaved. This is a freebie. It's not in there.

His head was shaved and he had like billiard balls tattooed on his head here.

Six, six, six in each one. And I had a hard time.

Not, right? Not reacting, not looking at that.

And I had to say to myself, smile and look him in the eyes, right?

So we have those encounters where it's hard. So I'm not, I don't mean to say

that this is automatic or easy. We encounter people where this is challenging,

and I have had that experience myself.

But holy hospitality is not about affirming every opinion or erasing differences

or pretending that this is always easy.

It's remembering that everyone comes with their own story and being curious about it.

It's about honoring the image of God in front of us and making a human connection

and having a real conversation and offering a relationship.

And some people have talked to me and they're like, well, I don't know what

to say. and I don't know what to talk about. Guess what?

I do. I'm going to help you with that.

And all we have to do is use the word offer. O-F-F-E-R, offer.

It's so easy. You're offering a relationship, so offer.

O, occupied. What keeps you occupied during the week? We don't ask about jobs

because they could be retired. They could be a homemaker.

They could be a student. What keeps you occupied?

F, tell me about your family. Tell me all about your friends, O-F-F.

Entertainment, what have you done for fun lately?

Recreation or hobbies. What do you like to do in your free time?

You know, I love reading books. How about you? O-F-F-E-R.

What keeps you occupied? Family, friends, entertainment, recreation, or hobbies.

Boom. There's a whole conversation. Everybody can do that. You can remember it, right?

There you go. Now you know how to have a conversation with people right after

church. Have an offer conversation with somebody that you don't know very well.

Boom. Okay. The wonderful thing is you don't have to understand them in order to love them.

That's another genius thing. God didn't make your understanding a condition of love.

Isn't that awesome? We don't have to understand people to love them or to welcome

them, to have them belong, to be in community or to do mission with them.

Most people are up there going, yeah, Pastor Linda, I don't understand you.

That's cool. That's okay. I don't either. So Genesis tells us every human being

is made in the image of God.

Acts tells us God shows no partiality. Jesus hung out with Zacchaeus and every

negatively labeled person of his time.

Romans says, welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you.

Not cautiously, not conditionally, but courageously because we trust grace.

We affirm belovedness in everyone God made. And so let's raise our hand.

Can we agree that we will put up our welcome and practice holy hospitality together?

Who's in? We're amping up our welcome.

We're knocking over the light. I'm so excited. And we're going to practice holy hospitality. Okay.

Who said church isn't fun? Okay.

Now, imagine what happens when we all offer our holy hospitality together.

Can you imagine being here where no guest is scanning the space and wondering if they belong?

Where people along the gender and sexuality spectrums do not wonder if they're

merely tolerated, but they experience their whole being that they belong and they're beloved?

Imagine those who are struggling bringing real questions and finding space for being who they are.

That is Acts 10 alive and happening here.

That is Zacchaeus climbing down from the tree alive here.

That is the body of Christ made real here in Richardson, Texas.

And when we live this way, not perfectly, of course, but certainly prayerfully, then St.

Luke's becomes a sign of the resurrection in a divided world because the risen

Christ is still widening the table.

The Spirit is still stretching our hearts.

And St. Luke's, we get to be a part of this holy, beautiful,

wonderful work in bringing about the kingdom of God. Let the church say amen.

Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness. Be of good courage.

Hold fast to what is good. Render to no one evil for evil.

Strengthen the faint-hearted. Support the weak. Help the afflicted.

Honor all people. Share the love of Jesus and rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Changing lives as disciples who love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God, and we will. If you're inspired by this week.