Benito Carbone - Showing Hospitality to One Another | 4:5:25

Ah, it's nice to be in church this

morning. It's nice to see all your

faces. Um, I'm here to talk about

something. That's why I'm here, right?

Um, but I'm going to break down a

parable that you all most of you guys

will know. I'm going to break it down in

a few ways today. Hopefully, it teaches

you something worthwhile and encourages

you as you go um from here. I think it's

school holidays or has been school

holidays. I haven't we haven't had youth

on so they just drag me at the front

every week. But um I'm keen to share

with you guys and I feel like um we can

all learn something together. How does

that sound? Cool. Let me pray and then

we'll get into

it. God, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for every person who's here.

Um you see all all of us, all of our

hearts, uh everything that we bring. And

Lord, I just pray that you meet us where

we're at. um that our hearts are open to

you. Um that we can hear from you, we

can respond God. Um guide my words. Um

let it be you that speaks uh through me

and not not my own own um yeah what

whatever I bring that is not from you

God. In your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. So what if Jesus taught the

parable of the good Samaritan today in

this church in this very place today

this specific day? I'm going to get you

guys to close your eyes. I'm going to

tell a story. All right? And it's the

parable of the good Samaritan but the a

modernday redux kind of bonito if if I

if you can say that. Um please don't get

upset. Uh but yeah, close your eyes. An

expert in the Bible stood up to test

Jesus. Teacher, he said, "What must I do

to inherit eternal

life?" Jesus said to him, "What is

written in the Bible? What do you read

there?" He answered, "You shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, and

with all your soul, and with all your

strength, and with all your mind, and

your neighbor as yourself."

And Jesus said to him, "You have given

the right answer. Do this and you will

live." But wanting to vindicate himself,

the man asked Jesus, "And who is my

neighbor?" Jesus

replied, "A man from Taparoo was heading

down to vote in the election and was

jumped by bandits with knives. They took

his money, stripped him, beat him, and

took off, leaving him half

dead. Now, by chance, a Labour voter

wearing a Vote Albo t-shirt and a

welcome refugees hat was going down that

road, walking back to their house in

North Haven. "Just my luck," the man

thought to himself. "They're a bleeding

heart. They'll care for me." But when

the Labour voters saw him, they passed

by on the other side.

Likewise, a liberal voter wearing an

Australian Christian lobby t-shirt

walked past their cross necklace draped

over their

shirt. Awesome. Liberals care for the

freedom and protection of

individuals. But when the liberal voter

saw him, they walked

past. Then a third person headed his way

after leaving the election booth. It was

a Green supporter dressed in denim, Doc

Martens, and pro-abortion pins. When

they saw him, they were moved with

compassion to

act. They went to him, taking their

jacket off to cover his wounds. The man

had no ambulance cover, so the Greenie

called their partner to pick him up in

their car, and together they drove him

to the QE and made sure he saw

treatment.

The next day they took out a couple

hundred dollars and gave it to the nurse

and said, "Take care of him and give

this to him when he's ready to be

discharged." So Jesus asked, "Which of

these three do you think was a neighbor

to the man who fell into the hands of

the bandits?" The man replied, "The one

who showed him

mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do

likewise.

Open your eyes. What do we

think? The focus of the next few weeks

of church is on how we treat one another

and each other. I'm opening the series

with something we've chosen to

prioritize as a church moving forward,

and that is

hospitality. Welcoming the guest, loving

the stranger.

Now I want to make clear at the start

hospitality is a spiritual practice like

prayer, like solitude, like Sabbath,

like time in community. These are things

that bring us closer to God. These are

things that we do to draw near to God,

to see God, to to know him. Hospitality

is not a spiritual gift. I think

sometimes we say that people have the

gift of hospitality in um in an

encouraging way because they're so good

with people. But it doesn't specify in

the Bible that hospitality is this

spiritual gift that that some people

receive and others don't. It's a

spiritual practice that all of us do

that God commands all of us to do.

Um and our church has recognized the

importance of hospitality and community

to the point where now we give 30

minutes of the service. the first 30

minutes of the service to time spent

together welcoming and loving on each

other. And I think this is an important

and necessary move. I was probably one

of the people who who pushed for

something like this. I think our church

is loving. Um I think our people the

people that come here on a Sunday are as

authentic as the day is long. But I

don't think we've typically done

hospitality well. Um let me generalize

for a second. I know we're not meant to,

but I'm going to. Um, we come here

authentically as ourselves to be with

the people that we love, right? We're

tired after long weeks, perhaps having

served at Popup or Youth or Prime Time

or wherever else that this church

community does, and we just want to

receive a lovely morning of

encouragement, a warm worship set, an

interesting message that inspires,

coffee with a friend. We don't want to

be challenged. That's for the rest of

the week. Maybe the last thing we want

to do is welcome a guest, a stranger,

and be invested in hearing their story

and discovering who they are. Being

hospitable is hard. I I know there are

some extroverts here and there are some

introverts here, but I feel like I'm

quite extroverted and hospitality when I

get to a Sunday, when I get to times of

the week where I'm just tired, just

feels like the last thing I want to

do. And church should be safe. Um, don't

get me wrong, church should be a safe

place where you can just be yourself and

you can feel how you feel. Um, and not

be cast aside or or discouraged because

of that. Um, but because church is

safe, there is space for us to be

challenged. To step out of comfort and

love each

other. Hospitality is the daunting first

step. Hospitality is the action of

making others feel safe and at home.

here. We love because we know what love

feels like. We know how love has

impacted us. But at times we don't live

that out. I remember clear as day family

who came here about 18 months ago. Um

first the father came along wanting to

go back to the place his grandmother

took him as a kid. Um and then he he

enjoyed it enough that he brought his

partner and their their young child. um

they'd moved down from the Northern

Territory and they were uh I guess

looking for community and they found

something here and a few services went

by that they came along to. Um

eventually we had an end of year service

where we were celebrating volunteers

um which ended in lunch. Some of you

guys might remember it. I think it was

the end of the year before last. Um they

hung around and we set up tables to sit

down and have lunch on. And as people

started to sit down and everyone got

ready to eat, they just they just kind

of got crowded out. Um they ate on their

own and um left quickly. And sadly, we

never saw them again. Um I'm not saying

this is solely the reason they didn't

come back to church. Maybe they moved

back up north. Maybe something else

happened. But I've always felt a pang of

sadness when I think about them. I

remember thinking to myself, I'll go say

hey once I've finished eating and and

chatting with the young adults, but by

the time I was ready to go over, it was

too

late. And I guess it what's even more

sad is I don't even remember their

names. It's hard to balance authentic

community and

hospitality. We need the genuine

connections and the deep

relationships. These God-given things

sustain us. They're important. They are

good. And it's easy to justify depth

over these introductory surface

conversations that feel fleeting and

unimportant. But we were all strangers

once.

What changed that was the choice of one

person to welcome the other, to love the

other? Let me ask you, for those who

have been at Pop-Up Kitchen, why is

Pop-Up Kitchen a more hospitable space

than our Sunday gathering? Why do for

those who haven't been, Pop-Up Kitchen

is is a blast of people coming together

and talking and sharing about their week

and and there is so much love in that

space and so much care for one another.

Um, and I think it's not even a question

over whether it's more hospitable than

today than gatherings like today. I

think it is. Um, but what what are the

reasons that pop-up is more hospitable

than a Sunday gathering? Does anyone

have anything that they would want to

shout out? any reasons that it it it's

more hospitable? I've got a couple of

ideas, but if anyone's got anything,

yell it

out. Coming out of your comfort zone.

Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe it's unchurched people.

Old memories of shame. That's deep.

Melvin, anything else?

the expectation.

Yeah, that's a good point. Going there

with the expectation of talking to

people. Anyone else?

Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. All right.

Yeah. 100%. I think the round tables

help that we sit around tables and talk

to each other. I think the people sit

and listen. Um people are there to sit

and listen. But I think popup popup

popup

um is so welcoming and hospitable

because people recognize their need of

love. Um they love the stranger because

that is how they wish to be treated.

It's not perfect and it's not always

neat, but I would argue that any genuine

relationship is not neat. Um there's a a

boy who used to come to youth as an

adult now. Um I remember being

challenged by this because um he didn't

fit the mold. Um later on in his time at

youth, he confessed to be a Satanist. I

don't know how you can reconcile um

satanic beliefs with Christian beliefs.

I was pretty honest with him about that.

But one thing that he always challenged

me was with was his hospitality. He

would go out and talk to people. who

would go out and make others feel

welcome and and and chat and talk to to

the ones that maybe we would as leaders

or or whoever else were considering like

how do we approach this this

conversation with a young person, but he

just went out and did it. And I think

his um there were other things going on

there, but he was so hospitable and I

think it came out of his uh recognition

that he wanted to be loved. So, he loved

others and he cared for others. And it

wasn't perfect and it was messy, but

maybe that's how it has to be sometimes.

Who knows the story of the woman uh with

the alabaster jar of perfume? It's in

it's a story in the Bible. It's in every

gospel, so it must be somewhat

important. And each gospel tells it a

little bit differently. Um so I'll try

and synthesize the information um a

little bit myself. But Jesus is at a

dinner sitting with at the table of

Simon, a Pharisee. Um, a woman with a

sinful

past, probably Mary Magdalene, welcomed

into the house by breaking a bottle of

perfume worth a year's wage, anointing

Jesus' head and feet with the perfume

and washing his feet with her tears.

It's an intense scene of hospitality and

devotion from Mary, and it's really

culturally foreign to us, and I don't

think we quite know what to do with it.

But I will say one thing.

Her

hospitality, her love was driven by her

desperation to be

loved. She put everything on the

line. All that all that she had, her

money, her standing, all of it. And

Jesus loved her in return. He forgave

her sins. As it says in

Luke, maybe in our secure relationships

and safe community, we've forgotten just

how much we needed God's love when we

first reached out to him. Maybe we've

forgotten just how much we are still in

need of his

love. Because those

boxes, you know, I've skipped a page

here and it might be important, it might

not be, but I'm going to talk to you

really quickly. If you can get this. My

PowerPoint's not working here. I was

just on a roll. Um, I've got the Good

Samaritan story up there. But I want

these boxes of that Jesus calls us to

live by. Um, of loving God with

everything. They're hard to tick. Like

love the Lord your God with all your

heart and all your soul and with all

your strength and with all your mind.

These are things that are non impossible

for us to to to complete on our own.

And hopefully his grace thing works

otherwise we're not getting eternal

life.

Um you know what what J Judas does in

that story of me of Mary and the

perfume. He asks why the perfume was not

sold and the money given to the

poor. You know what the Pharisees say?

If this man were a prophet, he would

know who was touching him and what kind

of woman she is. That she is a sinner.

Why does why do these people say that?

Um let's have a look at this story. Um

let's look at the story of Good

Samaritan and then we'll draw back to

it. The expert in the law, he wanted to

justify himself. If neighbor was one who

he shared circles with, he'd be feeling

pretty good about himself. If neighbor

was those he had a relationship with

already, he would be feeling pretty

content. But Jesus flips this on the

scholar's head. All of a sudden, two

high-ranking Jews, a priest and a

Levite, they were they organized the

temple and looked after the temple. The

expert in the law would have associated

righteousness with these two people. He

would have seen himself as familiar to

these two pe people. But those two

people neglected the dying men. While

the Samaritan, the unclean one, the

outcast, showed neighborly love to the

man who'd been

attacked. You have to see that the

expert of the law thought pretty highly

of himself in his question to Jesus. And

who is my neighbor? He felt as if he had

ticked those boxes of loving God with

his heart, soul, strength, and mind. And

if he tick the box of loving neighbor,

he's inheriting eternal life. He's he's

going up and and celebrating the rest of

eternity with Jesus. But in one swift

move, Jesus points out that God does not

give the life of the kingdom, eternal

life, to those that do not love.

Um why does Jesus do that? I think um a

theologian Walter Lyeld um I'll read out

a quote that he where he points this

out. But this man needed to learn that

God does not bestow the life of the

kingdom on those who reject the command

to love. Such rejection shows that they

have not truly recognized how much they

need the love of God

themselves. Such rejection shows that

they have not truly recognized how much

they need the love of God themselves.

People reject the action of love because

of this in their own lives. And um like

I said, these love commands are

impossible. They're a nice aim, but

they're impossible. They're they're a

goal to achieve. We should love God with

all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That's part of what we're doing here.

But they're impossible until we

recognize our own need and receive God's

love. Because out of God's love, can we

then love God and love others.

I think knowing Jesus as your Lord and

Savior, truly feeling his grace and

peace, knowing that truth will change

your life. Um, knowing that he died for

you, he rose again, that he loves you.

These truths transform your life and

change your life day by day, decision by

decision as you choose to live out of

the abundance of love that Jesus had for

you instead of the scarcity of not

having enough love to go around.

Um truly feeling his grace and peace and

that love is the key to hospitality and

every one another in the book that you

will learn about over the next month or

two. Because in truly knowing and seeing

Jesus and spending time in relationship

with him, you'll look back and realize

your own incapacity and need, you will

look at the beauty of Jesus and turn

back to yourself and look at how frail

and imperfect you

are. You'll look back at the world and

see how broken and in need of saving it

is. Without these revelations,

hospitality isn't required. Without

these revelations, generosity is only

needed as a means for your own gains.

And this is what Judas and and the

Pharise Simon the Pharisee are saying

when they reject Mary and they reject

Mary's gift of hospitality and gift of

devotion to Jesus. Judas thinks that the

money should have been sold and given to

the poor. And the Pharisees, Simon the

Pharisee says, "What are you doing

associating with this sinner?" They do

not see how much they need the love of

God, how much they need a savior. They

only see how much Mary needs a savior.

And so they fail to act in love and

choose to judge

instead. In seeing our own desperate

need for a hospitable Jesus, we begin to

see that need in everyone

else. Everyone needs hospitality, no

matter how different they are to us or

how good the front is that they put on

as they walk into church.

This quote gets thrown around a lot, but

to love another is to see the face of

God. And what does that mean? I was

contemplating it this week, but really

simply, God is present in our acts of

hospitality to one

another. When we love the other, we see

God. God is working in that situation.

God is moving in our lives and the lives

of the other. Do you want to know God

more?

Be

generous. Do you want to see God more in

everyday

life? Love one another. You'll be amazed

at how he shows

up. I'm going to tell the Good Samaritan

story one more time because why not? But

I'm going to put us in the story. Um,

I'm going to put us in the place of of

the Pharisees because if we're the

prevailing like religion of today, if we

are the church, the the community of

God's um people of pe followers of

Jesus, we are in the place of the

Pharisees. The Pharisees were the ones

trying to follow God. And maybe they

weren't doing a great job, but let's be

honest, sometimes we do a pretty bad job

as well. But let's say a man falls off a

bicycle at the front of

church. He hurts himself, needs

treatment.

Um, who's the priest in this

church? Let's say it's sorry, Dad. It's

you. Um, so Pastor Ben walks past, sees

the need there, like, oh, that's a hard

fall. That's a nasty fall. But he's got

to start the service. He's got to got to

come inside. He's got to get things

going. He's got a community of uh of

believers to shepherd. Um, so he doesn't

help. Now, we've got who can be the

Levite? It could be a lot of different

people in this church who help uh

organize this community and help sort it

out. But I'm going to say our

hospitality person. I don't know if

she's here today. Linda, how are you?

Yeah, Linda wanted to help. She saw the

man fall off his bike, but she had a

hospitality team to organize. She had

coffee dishes to wash and and thing the

communion uh emblems to get ready for

the service cuz how important is

communion, right? We have to we have to

take this moment with Jesus and and

celebrate his life and death on the

cross. So Linda walked past. Yeah.

So who's helped this man who has fallen

off his bike?

I think what Jesus is trying to say and

kind of the equivalent of a Samaritan in

our story is an atheist visited a

church. It's a family from maybe the

footy club across the road who see it

happen and walk over 100 meters because

they saw it happen. Maybe it's a someone

walking on the street who hates what

we're doing. Maybe it's one of the

neighbors who gets mad at us when we

start the service too early or or the

music's

playing. But we are the first two. We

are the priest. We are the

Levite. Let me ask you, what would it

have taken for the Pharisees to have

showed

care? If you think about it, they would

have obviously had to care for the

person. It would have taken time. It

would have taken effort. It would have

taken money. It would have taken

complete change of their their entire

day. They would have had to perform some

purification ritual because they aren't

allowed to touch blood or things that

are unclean.

What would it take for us to become like

the third person? What would it take for

us to become the

Samaritan? God commands us to love and

show hospitality. It's not a gifting.

It's not for the

extroverts. Our challenge, it's always

our challenge when we sit here. It's to

act because it's a great joy to belong

to a great community. But a great

community is built by all those who

belong to it. We all want to be a part

of a church that's alive and active and

I think we are. But for all of us who

are a part of this church, it's both a

privilege and an obligation to

contribute to the life of it. As I think

William Barkley um said and dad shared

on last week, but this is the part of

like our journey of disciplehip. We take

up our cross, but taking up the cross,

never forgetting what the cross

represents and the sacrifice that once

took place on it. We serve Jesus out of

his servitude to us. We love because he

loved first. And that's my encouragement

to you guys. Whenever you can't be

stuffed chatting to a new person or

actually arriving to church on time,

it's 10:00 a.m. Uh remember Jesus

instead of turning

inward. Remember the strength to

actually turn

outward comes from

Jesus. It doesn't come from your own

strength. It doesn't come from asking

the person next to you to come say hi to

the person with you, although it might

be helpful. It comes from Jesus. He will

guide your steps. He will help you to be

hospitable. And that's I'm not going to

focus on giving you tips on how to be

hospitable today because they are handy,

but they undermine the focus of

hospitality, which is Jesus. when we try

and strategize and when we try and plan

how to be hospitable and have helpful

tools on well when you go up like shake

their hand and say hello if you say

their name back you have 50% more chance

of remembering it or whatever else um is

handy. I've heard a lot of different

tips of hospitality, but nothing has

helped me be hospitable more than just

going ahead and talking to the person,

acting, living out our faith, not being

stuck in the in the church walls and and

in the nice encouraging message, but

going out and living it and being the

church. Remember, a moment of presence

with one other person, with one another

can make its mark for all of

eternity. A conversation, a shared meal,

a prayer. Jesus uses moments like this

to change

lives. Just one moment of presence with

another person can echo through

eternity. I'll finish with a quote and

we're going to

pray. It's from the Bible

project.

Our instincts to self-preserve are

strong, but our imagebearing identity is

stronger. We were created by a God who

gave and continues to give

abundantly. King Jesus shared like a

servant because he knew and trusted what

he had with the father and the

spirit. He has called us into the same

generosity and empowered us with a

relationship with the father and the

spirit.

How will we respond to him

today? Let's close close your eyes.

Um and take a moment to think of the

person you can show hospitality to today

or during the week or next week or

whenever. But please act on

it. Take a moment to think of a person

says in John 13 that they will know us

by our love.

But in everything that you do, in this

hospitality challenge that I'm setting

forth to you, this spiritual practice

that transforms your own life as well as

the life of another, start with the

revelation that you yourself need love,

that you need a

savior, that you needed

Jesus, that you will always need

Jesus, and go from there.

God, we thank you for this morning and

the chance to gather

together. Help us to look beyond

ourselves, to turn outward when it's

easier to turn inward, to not

self-preserve, but to to love one

another. You give us the strength, Lord.

You give us the opportunities to be

hospitable, and I pray that you help us

to act on them.

Because God, without

hospitality, we're nothing. We're we're

a closed group. We're a we're a sect

that dies out, Lord. But when we welcome

the stranger,

we're welcoming

you. Welcoming the opportunity for

others to know you, to others to be

transformed by you. We're welcoming the

opportunity for you to to work in our

own lives and and work in the lives of

those that we care

about. God, help us to sew when it's all

we want to do is is reap and and and

enjoy the benefits of the efforts that

we've already put in.

Lord, help us to continue to take the

chance to love

people and give them the opportunity to

to be loved,

Lord. Yeah. Transform our hearts.

Continue to transform our hearts as as

we look to you,

God. In your name we

pray. Amen.