Hospitality

We are going to continue a series that Pastor Greg kicked off last weekend called Uncommon Unity.

And today I want to talk to you about something that is of vital importance for us as Christians.

And it's key because we are losing relevance in our culture, whether we realize it or not.

And what we're going to talk about today might be the key to restoring the witness of the church in the eyes of the world, where she's increasingly losing credibility.

There are honestly about a thousand other things I'd rather talk to you about today.

Because, you know, when I'm up here, I like to preach the hits, you guys.

I like to talk about worship and beholding the beauty of Jesus, or as Paul calls it, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

I want to talk about revival and spiritual awakening, but I do think it's very, very important for us to consider what we're going to talk about today.

And I want to begin by sort of outlining for you where we are in our cultural moment.

We find ourselves sitting at the intersection between two very dangerous, potentially dangerous cultural trends.

The first one is one that I actually talked about last time I was up here in a sermon entitled The Family You Choose, if you want to reference that.

The first cultural trend I want to talk about is the epidemic of loneliness we're experiencing in Western culture, particularly here in America.

And I want to share some stats with you just as a way to sort of paint the picture for what loneliness is doing to our culture.

Three out of five Americans report experiencing chronic loneliness and feelings of missing out, or what the cool kids call FOMO.

One out of five millennials, meaning people of my generation, would say that they don't have a single close friend.

Where industries are emerging to combat feelings of loneliness, loneliness, and isolation.

One example being the website rentafriend.com.

This is a real thing.

And on the front page of rentafriend.com, emblazoned on the homepage, you will see this statistic.

It says that over right now, presently, over 600,000 people are making$40 an hour providing platonic companionship to people who feel lonely or isolated.

So on the one hand, you have the rise of loneliness, and then on the other hand, we're also experiencing this equally dangerous cultural trend, which is the decline of Christianity in America, both numerically and in terms of influence.

Let me read you some statistics here.

The fastest growing religious category in America are the nuns, N-O-N-E-S, not N-U-N-S.

The nuns.

These are people who have no religious affiliation at all.

Some of them are hostile, most of them are pretty neutral and consider Christianity or any semblance of faith to be largely irrelevant.

In 2020, Pew Research discovered that about around 64% of Americans identify as Christian.

That might sound like a high figure, but consider this just 50 years earlier, in about 1970, that figure was upwards of 90%.

Gen Z, those who were born between 1999 and 2015, any Gen Zers in the room, wave at me.

Just a few of y'all.

Well, here's some bad news for you guys.

The percentage of atheists amongst Gen Z is twice the national average.

Now, at risk of overstating the importance of today's message, I do believe that what we're going to consider together could be the answer or the solution to both of these realities.

And the answer is this practice of radically ordinary hospitality.

Radically ordinary hospitality.

That language isn't original to me.

I'm actually borrowing it from a gal named Rosaria Butterfield.

Rosaria Butterfield at one point was a tenured professor of English and women's studies at Syracuse University.

She identified as an atheist feminist lesbian.

And she was militantly opposed to Christianity and Christians in general.

She thought that Christianity was responsible for everything wrong in the world.

And at the time, there was this movement emerging of Christian men called Promise Keepers.

Anybody familiar with Promise Keepers?

Yeah, a few hands.

And she actually wrote an op-ed in a New York newspaper, lambasting promise keepers specifically, but Christianity in general, levying accusations against us, like saying that we were the oppressive patriarchy and the embodiment of chauvinism.

And in response to this op-ed, Rosaria Butterfield got a series of mail, got some letters.

This was back when mail actually came like in person, not electronically.

She had some fan mail, some people who were like, Yeah, stick it to him, Rosaria.

And then she had some hate mail.

And one letter stuck out to her.

It was a letter from a local pastor who invited her over for dinner.

Now, at the same time, Rosaria was actually in the process of writing a book in which she was making the case that Christianity is everything that's wrong with the world.

And so she decided to take this guy up on his offer, if for no other reason than to do some academic research to make her case.

So certainly she walked into this man's house, he and his wife, expecting to be bombarded with defensiveness and bigotry and narrow-mindedness, but instead she was met with respect, grace, curiosity, love.

Or in other words, hospitality.

To make a long story short, one dinner led to another, and before long, Rosaria Butterfield gave her life to Jesus.

Listen to how she describes hospitality in her book.

Come on, one church, if you're gonna clap, let's do it.

Listen, though, to how she describes hospitality in her book.

The gospel comes with a house key.

How juicy is that language?

The gospel comes with a house key.

She says, radically ordinary hospitality.

Those who live it see strangers as neighbors and neighbors as family of God.

They recoil at reducing a person to a category or label.

They see God's image reflected in the eyes of every human being on earth.

Democrat, Republican, gay, straight, rich, or poor, doesn't matter.

Those who live out radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all, but as God's gift for the furtherance of his kingdom.

They open doors, they seek out the underprivileged, they know that the gospel comes with a house key.

How lovely is that?

How convicting is that! If I'm not preaching to you, I'm preaching to myself this morning.

Now, before we go any further, I do need to define some terms.

I'm not sure what comes into your mind when you hear the word hospitality, but for me, the first thing that jumped into my mind was Disney World, the most magical place on earth.

I thought about their hotels and restaurants and the some 70,000 people that they employ in the hospitality industry.

That's what came to mind for me.

I'm imagining that what might come to mind for you when you hear the word hospitality is Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Any Chip and Joanna fans in the room make some noise.

You think about Chip and Joanna Gaines or Martha Stewart before she went to jail.

That's what you think about.

You think about a farmhouse with a wraparound porch and the scent of amazing meals made in a kitchen that seems to have been plucked straight out of a catalog.

But hospitality is a deeply biblical word and practice that was largely responsible for the spread of the gospel throughout the first century.

Christianity started with about 120 people in a dusty upper room on the edge of the Roman Empire.

And in three centuries' time, it goes from being this fledgling religion to the dominant religion of the day.

And it did so without the help of big churches and bright lights and social media and celebrity pastors, and that gets me wondering how in the world was that possible?

It was possible because, number one, of the potency and power of the gospel.

But it was also made possible because of the manner in which that gospel spread.

The gospel spread one life, one relationship, one meal at a time.

In Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 9, it says this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Verse 11.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in player and prayer.

Player and prayer.

Y'all get up here and do this.

It's harder than it looks.

Share with the Lord's people who are in need and practice.

Talk to me.

Hospitality.

Practice hospitality.

Now that word in the Greek, the word for hospitality in the Greek is a compound word.

It's the word phyllo xenia.

It's made up of two words.

The first word phylos or phylos, meaning love.

It's where we get the word Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

And the second word being xenos or xenia.

It means, it literally means stranger or outcast.

So the word there for hospitality in the Greek philoxenia literally translated means to love the stranger or to love the outcast.

This is the opposite of xenophobia, which of course means the fear of the stranger or the outcast.

And you see this theme of hospitality threaded throughout the rest of the New Testament.

Just a few references for you.

Hebrews chapter 13, verse 2 says, do not forget to show hospitality to strangers.

Hebrews 13:2

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 9 says, show hospitality to one another.

1 Peter 4:9

How many of you know we got to get this thing right within the walls of the church before we can embody and exhibit this sort of love outside of the church?

Don't get many amens there, but that is good preaching.

Get this one.

This one's particularly convicting to me.

And the qualifications for a pastor or an elder outlined in 1 Timothy chapter 3 or Titus chapter 1.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention Titus 1 · chapter mention

Listed among the many vitally essential qualities, such as being sober-minded, being able to control your anger, being able to teach, listed among these qualities is the call to be hospitable.

Think about the myriad of reasons why a pastor falls from grace.

We hear far too many stories of this sort.

Abuses of power.

Or sexual promiscuity or infidelity.

But when's the last time you heard a pastor fall because he refused to open his home to guests?

There it is.

So when scripture talks about hospitality, it means a little more than Chip and Joanna gains.

Here's my best attempt at a definition.

If you're taking notes, write this down.

When Scripture talks about hospitality, it's talking about a radical welcome and curiosity by which strangers and even enemies can become neighbors and friends.

Let me say it to you again in case you missed it.

Hospitality is a radical welcome and curiosity by which strangers and even enemies can become neighbors and friends.

In a world full of cancel culture and political polarization, the spirit of hospitality says, instead of building more walls, I'm going to build a bigger table and I'm going to invite more people to have a seat.

Now, that sounds great in theory, but let's get practical for a moment.

The first thing I want us to consider is where does the motivation for this sort of hospitality come from?

Well, the motivation for our hospitality should flow from the divine hospitality that has been shown to us by God through his son Jesus.

You see, the mistake you and I often make is we think that in our following of Jesus, we're essentially doing him a favor.

Like he just needed a companion, like he just needed a wingman.

We often think that if Jesus were here in Columbus, Ohio in 2023 and he were picking his disciples, he could do a lot worse than choosing me.

He'd probably, probably choose me.

But the problem with that is we fail to remember that we weren't always on the inside.

We weren't always a part of the in crowd.

In fact, Ephesians chapter 2 tells us in verse 12 to remember.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

That means to call to mind often.

Remember that at one time you, and I'm not just talking about the person next to you, I'm talking about you and me.

You were once separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now, somebody shout, but now.

Come on, say it like he saved you.

Say, but now.

In Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Jesus.

And that is good news.

Now, why are we called to remember such a reality?

That we were once outsiders.

It's so that we might have empathy and compassion and grace for the outsider, considering we were once one as well.

And this is essential to what it means to follow Jesus.

A few times throughout the Gospels, Jesus talks about why the Son of Man came, the Son of Man being one of his favorite ways to refer to himself.

He says this in Luke chapter 19, verse 10.

Luke 19:10

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

This was Jesus' mission.

This is why he came, to seek and save that which was lost.

And then in Mark chapter 10, verse 45, he says, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

This is the message through which you and I have found new life in God, in Christ.

It's by believing upon the finished work of Jesus, by believing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and tying ourselves to that reality by faith.

This is the message.

But then check this out.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 19, it says, the Son of Man came eating and drinking.

Matthew 11:19

I don't know about y'all, but that's the sort of savior I'm down to follow.

It says the son, eating and drinking.

This was the method.

This was the means by which Jesus loved the outsider into life that is only found.

Eating and drinking was the means by which Jesus made outsiders into insiders.

Now what you have to understand is that one of the primary reasons, perhaps the number one reason, in fact, why the Pharisees wanted Jesus crucified was because of the company he kept.

We're told of this scene in Luke chapter 15 where Jesus has amassed a group of followers, and Scripture tells us that he has surrounded himself with tax collectors and sinners.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And the Pharisees catch wind of this, and it offends their sensibilities, the Pharisees being the religious elite of the day, they catch wind of this and they say, Who is this man who dines whose chairs table fellow?

Who is this Jamoke who's out here eating with tax collectors and sinners?

We can't have that now, can we?

Now, tax collectors, the the scandal of this, the real scandal of this, is nearly lost on us because we don't have the cultural equivalent of a tax collector.

And the guys from the IRS do not count.

But tax collectors in the social strata of the day were the worst of the worst.

These are people who lied and stole from their own family and friends to pad their pockets.

These tax collectors were utterly despised, the utter utterly despised.

These were the deplorables of the day.

It would sort of be like if Jesus were to receive one of those cards in the mail, letting him know that a registered sex offender has moved into his neighborhood in Jerusalem, and Jesus decides to have him over for dinner.

Or imagine you go downtown to the Pearl.

And while you're waiting on your table, you catch eyes with Jesus, who's sitting at the bar sharing a meal with a member of the KKK.

This is sort of what's going on here.

And not only is Jesus hanging out with these people, he's sharing table fellowship with them.

You gotta catch this.

A meal meant more back then than it does in our day.

To share table fellowship with somebody was to extend to them a sort of welcome, and uh it was almost to be vulnerable in a sense, because they didn't have restaurants to go to.

So to share a meal with somebody meant that you were literally inviting them in your home around your table, and that's why they killed him.

Because he kept eating with sinners and the worst of the worst.

Now the table might mean a little less in our day than it did then, but nevertheless, the table, our meals are still means by which we either bring people in or we keep people out.

Called to mind the image of a diner down south in the 1950s with a sign out front that said, whites only.

Now thank God we've come a mighty long way.

But even still, I want you to consider, consider, and be honest with yourself, who it is that you're sharing your meals with.

Most often we share our meals with people who look like us, think like us, we curate the people we share our meals with based on a set of shared interests and values.

When is the last time you sat knee to knee with somebody who was on the opposite end of the political spectrum?

When's the last time you sat down with a Muslim with no agenda and just sought to hear his heart or her heart or her story?

It's not common for us.

Now, I I don't want to villainize the way that you share your meals.

But I do want to say it this way.

And forgive me if this is harsh and heavy-handed.

That's not my intention.

I want to be deeply deliberate and pastoral here.

Pastor Greg actually mentioned a couple weeks ago that one of the ways that you can tell that you've made God in your own image is if God hates all the same people you do.

We laugh at that, but it's true.

Another reason I want to submit to you, another way, rather, that you can tell that you might be making God into your own image is if when you consider the folks that you're sharing your meals with, if they all look the same way you do, they all think the same way you do.

Because what you're doing is you're missing out on the mosaic, on the tapestry of what it means to bear the image of God.

Now, how beautiful would it be?

Go with me here.

How beautiful would it be if the people we shared meals with, if the people we did life with, were as diverse as our appetites, right?

I got some divisive foods up here.

We got some Hawaiian pizza.

I'm not sure, cameraman, if you can if you can zoom in on this.

Now, just by a show of hands, keep your booze to yourself, all right?

How many of you think that that pineapple has no business being on pizza?

Wave at me.

How many of you are down with the Hawaiian?

Pizza.

You're like, yeah, more.

Okay, great.

Here in about 11 minutes and 35 seconds.

We're gonna do an altar call.

I expect you to be the first ones down here.

Because y'all are weird.

How about this?

Sushi.

Any sushi fans?

Sushi fans?

Yeah.

How many of you are like, nah, bruh?

That's not me.

Nobody, everybody's a big sushi fan.

One of my favorite sushi stories is told by Dustin and Christy Poole.

Their business is their own.

I'm not gonna put their stuff out there, but if you hear, it's a good laugh.

You should ask them about their encounter with sushi.

Suffice to say, they hate sushi, okay?

How about this?

Anybody, anybody like some uh jalapeno, some spicy food?

Yeah.

Listen, y'all, they can't make it hot enough for me.

I'll go to an Asian joint or an Indian restaurant, they'll say, uh they'll say, uh, on a scale of one to five, how how spicy do you want it?

I'm like, give it, make it an eight, and I promise I will not send it back.

They never trust me, but but I love spicy foods.

How about this one?

This is just for all the gluten-free folks.

How about some bread?

That's it.

Listen to me, y'all.

Nobody's gluten-free in heaven, okay?

So it's like, that's a joke.

If you're gluten-free, you belong here, we love you.

Please don't email me.

Ryan.breath at one dot church.

Send it over.

What if the people we shared meals with were as diverse as our appetites?

Anybody ever sat down with somebody and they ordered something off the menu that you found repulsive?

Here's what I'm guessing you didn't do.

I'm guessing you didn't kick them to the curve, you didn't banish them from your social circle, you didn't take to Twitter later that night and say, uh, anybody who likes blue cheese is a terrorist.

They're trying to force down my throat their blue cheese agenda.

Now, if you like barf with your wings, that's on you.

But I'm guessing, I'm guessing not too many of us are doing that.

Why?

Yeah, I said it.

You can email me for that one.

Why don't we do that?

It's because we know that they are more than their love for blue cheese.

We honor them.

Remember, Pastor Greg taught us last week that honor is to stay connected.

We continue to believe the best about them.

We stay curious about who they are.

We want to hear the rest of their story.

And who knows?

Maybe over the course of relationship, you might awaken them to the wonder of ranch dressing with their chicken wings.

Come on, somebody.

That's the loudest clap I've gotten all day.

Hold that thought.

We're gonna get to you in a second.

Here's what I'm not trying to do, you guys.

I don't wanna I don't want to trivialize this by equating somebody's political convictions per se with something as silly as blue cheese.

But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that we live in a deeply divided culture.

We are deeply divided, we're divided across lines of race, gender, religion, politics.

We're so quick to categorize people in terms of us and them.

And for those who are on the outside, we look upon them with suspicion and fear.

Here's what we do: we're essentially dehumanizing these people.

We reduce people to their worst characteristic, and we lump them into a group alongside of other folks just like them whom we hate.

Republicans, Democrats, gay folks, straight folks, poor, rich, and we we don't care to hear their story, there's no nuance about them any longer.

We dehumanize them.

But Jesus says, not so with you, not so with the people of God.

He says in Matthew chapter 5 that if all you do is hang out with the homies, that's cool, but you really need to love your enemies.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Love those who think differently than you do, love those who voted differently than you do, love those who look differently than you do.

This is the Shane Huey translation.

He says in uh verse 56, he says, if you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?

Do not even pagans do that.

Listen, here's what I'm not saying.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be thoughtful with who we are in relationship with.

I'm not saying that you um can't be surrounded by like-minded people.

Here's all I'm saying, you guys.

I'm saying let's believe in the possibility of a meal.

Let's be crazy enough to consider this being more than just a few moments together.

That this could be an act of love and welcome by which somebody who is feeling intense loneliness could experience belonging, by which somebody who is diametrically opposed to you could be loved into a relationship with Jesus.

Maybe they might change their mind, maybe they don't.

Maybe they might change yours for the better, hopefully.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be measured with who we invest in or who we share our lives with, but I'm saying, can we can we just be crazy enough to believe in the possibility of a meal?

Because I tell you this much, you guys, a divided church is the worst witness to the world.

And we wonder why we're losing relevance.

Jesus prayed it this way in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

He says, Lord, I pray that they would all be one, just like you and I are one.

This is this is Jesus' hope for you and I that we would that we would be united.

Not the same, not uniformity, not homogeny, but united around the person of Jesus.

I want to leave you with this thought, with four minutes left.

This begins by asking better questions.

This is only made possible if you and I have the courage to ask better questions.

The question should not be, are you in or are you out?

Are you on my team or are you on somebody else's team?

A better question to begin with is what is the orientation of your heart?

What is the trajectory of your life?

A sociologist by the name of Paul Hebert explained it this way in a framework that he called bounded and centered.

Bounded and centered.

I hope this lands with you the way that it did for me.

This literally revolutionized my thinking.

Hebert says that a bounded set begins by defining the edges, by establishing a perimeter.

And with that perimeter in mind, you determine who's in or who's out.

He uses the example of apples.

He says, whether you're a Granny Smith apple, a rotten apple, or a juicy red apple, as long as you're an apple, you're in.

Now, this boundary for us can be many things.

It could be politics, if you're a Republican, you're in, Democrat, you're out, or vice versa.

It could be sexuality.

If you're gay, you're in.

If you're homosexual, you're out, or vice versa.

A bounded set begins by establishing a boundary and determining who's in and out.

He also offered what he called a centered mindset.

A centered mindset.

A centered mindset foregoes the boundary at all.

No longer do we categorize people as in or out, or us or them.

Instead of building walls, instead of establishing a perimeter, you instead establish the center.

And it does not matter how near or far you are to that center.

What matters is the orientation of your heart.

Let me give you an example here.

Let's take sexuality.

I know that there are a myriad of convictions in this room, and that's okay.

But the Pharisees, for instance, based upon a bounded mindset, would have resided comfortably on the inside because they kept all the laws, they were sexually impeccable, they would have been on the inside, but the entire time their hearts were far from Jesus.

Now a centered set makes room for the woman caught in adultery.

By nearly every measure, this woman would have been on the outside, she would have been one of them, she wouldn't have been on our team, she was a harlot, a prostitute.

This woman in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

She's on the inside now.

I love this centered set mentality because it foregoes boundaries and it replaces it with honor and curiosity and the hope that there is no one beyond the reach of God's grace.

I heard it said this way by one preacher.

He said, in Australia, there are two primary ways by which cattle farmers herd cattle.

The first is they build a fence, they keep them in, they establish the boundary, either you're in or you're out.

That's one way to do it.

The other way is they they dig a well at the center of the pasture, and they invite everyone to come and drink.

So whether you're near or far, it doesn't matter as you're moving toward the center.

Our center, one church, is Jesus.

And I just believe that Jesus is a little bit more like a well than a fence.

And he invites us all to come and drink.

I want to invite you to stand with me.

Let me make this as practical as I possibly can as we close, and then Sister Christy's gonna sing us a song and lead us in worship.

The average person, under the sound of my voice, will consume around 21 meals this week.

21 meals.

That doesn't include your snacks or your Starbucks runs.

21 meals.

What if we were crazy enough to believe in the possibility of a meal?

And we believed in the scandalous love of God.

And we really believed that nothing was too broken beyond what he can fix, that no one was so far gone that they were beyond his reach.

What if we really believed that?

And we took one meal and we shared it with somebody who was on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

Somebody who was in a completely different socioeconomic class, different tax bracket.

What if our managers and CEOs in here shared a meal with the interns?

We just got curious.

We created places and spaces of belonging and welcome, marked by curiosity, by which strangers could become neighbors and maybe even enemies could become friends.

One meal, and I tell you what, we would eat our way into the kingdom of God, you guys.

I hope you feel empowered by this message.

Because not too many of us can preach like Pastor Greg, not many of us can sing like Christy Poole.

Although, if you can, please let us know.

But we all gotta eat.

We all gotta eat.

The charge today, church, is to live like Jesus, who displayed radical hospitality, places of welcome and belonging for the ones whom the rest of the world had considered outcasts.

Jesus welcomed them in.

And ultimately, welcome them home.

Let's be that together, amen.