Clayton Presbyterian Church
November 12, 2006
Foreign Hospitality
In college I went on a mission trip to Russia. There were so many new things that I saw that made an impression on me. There was the fear and mistrust the people felt after Communist rule. There were churches that were 1000 years old and still standing! There was both beautiful and depressing architecture. But more than anything else, the thing that left a lasting impression upon me was their hospitality. We were hosted in many people’s apartments and served meals. It didn’t matter how well-off the families were, the meals were always a banquet. And while it took me a while to figure it out, I learned a valuable lesson—when in Russia, do not clean your plate. I was doing it because I thought that it was polite. For them, it was the responsibility of the host to make sure that their guests always had food. So, I would clean my plate, they would pile more on. You can tell that it became this vicious circle as I was getting fuller and fuller. I must have gained 10 pounds that summer. They knew about hospitality.
What they knew is that hospitality is not just about food. Food is not an end in itself. It is the means to an end and that end is the making of strangers into friends. They served us food as if we were family. They made us feel at home, like we were one of them. And so they overcame the barriers that divided us, which many times was a language barrier. We often communicated with one another through sign language, as if we were playing the longest game of charades on record. Nevertheless, we became friends. Do you know that this is exactly what God did for us? Listen.
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:11-19
11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision"—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God. (NRSV)
To understand this passage you need to think of two groups that are completely separate, like Tarheel fans and Wolfpack fans. If you are from North Carolina, you just can’t be a fan of both teams. It is either one or the other. If you love the one, you are required to hate the other.
The Great Divide
In our text there are two groups: the Jews and Gentiles, or Jews and non-Jews. It was circumcision that drew the distinction clearly between the two. It was the outward sign of an inward division. Circumcision marked off who was “in” and who was “out.”
Scholar William Barclay described just how intense this division was:
The Jew had an immense contempt for the Gentile. The Gentiles, said the Jews, were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. God, they said, loves only Israel of all the nations that he had made…It was not even lawful to render help to a Gentile mother in her hour of sorest need, for that would simply be to bring another Gentile into the world. Until Christ came, the Gentiles were an object of contempt to the Jews. The barrier between them was absolute. If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, the funeral of that Jewish boy or girl was carried out. Such contact with a Gentile was the equivalent of death.
Now to our 21st century ears this just seems like nationalism, or even worse, racism. Nevertheless, as ugly as this seems, it was under girded by a deeper theological reality. To understand this, we need to go back to the beginning.
It was in the beginning when God created the world and all that was in it, including humans, and it was all good. It was we who rejected God. We sinned. We rebelled and decided that we wanted to do things our own way. We filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Those differences being the fact that God was not going to enable our disruptive and destructive behavior. We created a wall of division between us and God. It is a testament to his love for us that he let us go and did not force us to follow him. As much as we would like to play down the division between us, to minimize the consequences of our sin, we can’t. Our sin creates something akin to the Grand Canyon between us and God.
Did God leave us in this situation? No. Instead he created and called a particular people, through whom he was going to save his creatures, to redeem the world, and to restore things to their rightful order. This was to be the Jews special mission. They were God’s chosen people. So, on the one hand, they were right to have an attitude that there was something distinctly, and divinely, different about them. On the other hand, they let it puff them up and they were filled with pride and hubris, instead of love toward their fellow creatures. They had forgotten that they were only chosen because of God’s grace, not because they were better.
The Dividing Wall
This division between the Jews and non-Jews was also visible in the Temple in Jerusalem, that most holy place where the Jews met God. The temple was centered around a series of concentric circles. Only the high priest was allowed all the way in the center, the Holy of Holies. Outside of that was the court of the priests. Then there was the Court of Israel, the one for Jewish men. There was another one for the women. But outside of all of these was the courtyard was where the Gentiles were to remain. There was a wall between them and where the Jews could go.
In our text this morning, Paul is explaining what Jesus did through is resurrection. He saves us from our rebellion. He forgives our sin. He heals our wounds. He destroys the power of death. But then in the passage we read Paul is unpacking things further. He says that Christ has removed the division between the two groups. He has torn down the dividing wall. He has made peace where once there was only hostility. He did this by taking the judgment of God on himself. Jesus was God’s chosen one, a Jew among Jew, but he was also became the outsider, the one under judgment, when he went to the cross. That is how he united the two groups in his body on the cross.
When we read this we need to remember that we were the outsiders. We were outsiders. We were the foreigners. In verse 12 Paul tells us to remember that we were the foreigners, the strangers, the aliens. We were the ones under the judgment. We had no hope of remedying the situation and we were without God in the world. But now, declares verse 13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
But God has showed us hospitality. In verse 19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.” Before we met Christ, we were the outcasts, the strangers, and the aliens. But now, we have been included in God’s people. We have gain citizenship in God’s Kingdom. We now have rights and freedoms. We have been included into the family. This is what hospitality is all about.
That’s why one powerful way to understand what God has done for us in Christ is to think of it as hospitality. He has overcome the strangeness, even the hostility, between us and he has made us one of his family. We are no longer outsiders, but insiders. We have received the welcome of God.
Being Hospitable
What do we do with this? I want to suggest two things. First, it says that Christ came proclaiming peace. We, believers, have heard that message and have received that gift. We should then become proclaimers of that same peace. We should help other people to understand what has happened in Jesus. That he has remade humanity, so it is no longer a collection of competing tribes, but a unified whole in him. We should help others to understand and experience the good news of Jesus and the cross, so that they too come make the move from outsiders to insiders, so that they don’t have to be strangers and aliens. But they can become the friends and family of God. Do you know someone that needs to hear the good news this week?
Secondly, we need to express that truth in our actions. We need to practice hospitality. We need to extend the welcome of God to those around us. Consider the actions of Phyllis Williams.
A Refuge for Refugees
"What we did wasn't that remarkable. We just learned to move over," says Phyllis Williams of University City, Missouri, outside of St. Louis. In 1980, while living in Illinois, Phyllis and her family began "moving over" for the next seven years to provide housing for 32 immigrants.
"At that time, the plight of the 'boat people' fleeing from Cambodia and surrounding countries got my attention," Phyllis says. "I had just quit my teaching job, so I had time to become involved. Refugees were literally being dumped anywhere."
When the sponsor for a Hmong family of six dropped out, Phyllis and her family stepped in. "This widow and her five children had lived primitively. For the three months they shared our four-bedroom house, we learned rice can be eaten for every meal. Our Hmong family always complained of being hungry if rice wasn't included. Rice goes well with vegetables, meat, and yes, it's great with spaghetti sauce!"
Pantomime sufficed for simple communication. When Phyllis found an Asian grocer, her house guests went shopping with her to point out items they recognized.
Because Phyllis and her family wanted to share the underlying reason for their hospitality--their love for Christ--most of the foreign guests attended church, too.
Grateful for the temporary quarters but lonely for the fellowship of other Hmongs, the family eventually moved on. Today they live near Boulder, Colorado, and are active in the local Hmong Alliance Church.
The departure of the Hmong family made room for a stream of international wayfarers--Ethiopians, Cambodians, and a Laotian girl. That girl recently completed her college education and affectionately calls Phyllis and her husband, Edward, "Mom and Dad."
Empty-nesters now, Phyllis and Edward keep in contact with their extended family through letters and visits. Phyllis admits she didn't grow up wanting to be a missionary, but she wouldn't trade her "home missions" experience for anything. We were just giving some strangers a start in a strange land."
The Williams extended the welcome of God to those who were aliens and strangers in a strange land.
Discerning Our Call
How might this church extend the welcome of God to the strangers in our midst? We our surrounded by new residents who have moved here from other parts of the country. There are an incredible number of Hispanics who have moved here looking for work. How might we show them the hospitality of God to these aliens? And what about their children? Can we use our building in the service of community groups who need a place to meet?
More personally, how might we use our houses as vehicles of hospitality? By global standards, our houses are mansions? How might we use them to be vessels of God’s hospitality? Even more personally, many of us enjoy warm family lives. These are an amazing blessing and gift from God, especially when there are so many who would give anything to have such a family life. How is God calling us to be good stewards of our family lives? Perhaps it might mean something as simply as inviting a family to share Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with your family.
We have received the welcome of God, that is what Jesus was about, welcoming us back to God, even though we had rejected him. As those who have received such a gift, we should talk about pray, asking God, “What do you have for us to do to extend your welcome?” This is our purpose.