Love Your Enemies

Series: Sermon on the Mount
July 4, 2021 - David Stockton

Good morning, good morning. Happy Fourth of July! Whoo hoo! Living in America. It’s good living in America. I lived in another country. It’s nice living in America.  A lot of great things here and it is really good, it’s worth celebrating, for sure, what we have. And I’m thankful to be in America. I’m also thankful to be in church and able to share the word of God and learn from the word of God with you today.

It’s funny how these things happen. We’re going through the Sermon on the Mount and we’re kind of coming to the end of this little mini-series within the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus gives six examples of the greater righteousness that he wants us all to live into. And he talks about anger and lust and divorce and keeping your promises and bearing false witness and how to love each other and not respond in resentment, but deal with people correctly. 

Then today our sermon is on loving your enemies. And it’s the Fourth of July and America is the way it is. I was like, “aye-aye-aye.” On one hand, we’re super clever to figure out how to be so strategic in the way we’re planning these things. That didn’t happen. This is all by default. And if we knew this was coming we probably wouldn’t have planned it this way. 

But with all that being said, I’m going to sit down for this message, so that what I say feels a little less offensive, maybe. In first service they gave me a little chair. I was literally sitting in a stool way down here for the whole intro. And I could not get over how awkward it felt. And finally I said something and Nick Orso ran up and got me a big boy chair. So I’m feeling a little bit better.

But maybe I needed to start so low and be so unoffensive, and even look like a little kid, because first service, they’ve got problems, you know? Maybe.

Jesus actually was sitting down when he preached this message. He was sitting on a hillside with his people he was calling to him saying, “Hey, come follow me. And if you follow me, let me tell you what it’s going to be like.” And he was sharing with them. So it was real encouraging, Jesus kind of saying, “Stick with me and this is what’s going to happen.” And today he does talk about loving your enemies. 

I need to start out asking if you can feel the tension. Can you feel the tension in America? Can you feel the tension in church in America? Can you feel the tension in your own families? Maybe even in your own soul? 

If you can’t, how about this? Mask or no mask? Vaccine or no vaccine? Conservative or liberal? Woke or not woke? Racist or anti-racist? Affirming or not affirming? Love is love or homosexuality is a sin? Now can you feel the tension? In case you didn’t you feel a little more tension? Yeah. 

Well, if none of that has really stirred up the tension, then what if I say the name Patrick Beverley? Teaching on loving our enemies, got to say Patrick Beverley. 

For those of you who don’t know Patrick Beverley, he plays for the Los Angeles Clippers and was enemy number one for the Phoenix Suns basketball team. I literally wrote this out. His defense and cheap shots and trash talk and flagrant fouls will not be quickly forgotten by any Suns fan. However, there’s consolation for all of us because we won! 

And I do mean “we,” because I was very strategic about what I would say when I was watching their games as if not to jinx them in any way possible. I actually have — I’m going out on a limb here — I have Kawhi Leonard shoes. But he was injured and so when I played basketball last time, I decided it was okay to wear them because he was injured. If he was not injured, I would not have worn them. I would have found some other shoes to wear. Okay. Nobody’s with me anymore.

But if we would have lost, oh, the hatred and tension would have been even more palpable. Basically, think like Phoenix needed this win for us to be able to walk forward in unity. We actually have a men’s retreat, and I’m speaking at it pretty soon. And I was like, Man, if the Suns can pull off this championship, this men’s retreat is going to go so well. If they can’t, we really got to deal with a lot of unity problems, you know? 

But in this tension, in this reality that we go through, and obviously I’m joking about all of these things with the Suns and all that, it’s fun and all of that, but it has its place. And Patrick Beverley and all, I’m sure he’s just doing his job. And I don’t like the way he’s doing it and stuff like that. 

Anyway, there’s this picture that came to my mind when I was in a worship time recently and about to speak to a group. And if you don’t know, this is Nebula and this is from Avengers Infinity War. Basically, this lady is being tortured by her dad because he betrayed her. It’s not a real prodigal son father story. It’s much the opposite.

But this image, what it is is, basically, he has this power over her, and when he squeezes his hand it pulls her apart. Like, literally, you can see the parts of her head being pulled apart, and her arm being extended. And what I felt like the Lord was saying is that so many people are walking around with this kind of tension. They feel — if they’ve hung in there at all — if they haven’t gotten drunk every day, or found other ways to ignore or escape the pain — if they stayed in the relationships that are so difficult for them because all these medial, political or theological differences, they feel like they are fragmented. They feel like they are fractured, literally. As if their heart is being pulled apart and it is not whole anymore. It hurts. It has been such a prolonged disruption that they’re barely making it. 

Yet that tension of being in relationships and loving in a way that costs you something is the love that Jesus is calling us into. He’s calling us into that tension as priests called by his name with one hand holding on to heaven and one hand holding onto earth. There’s a tension. There’s a pull. We’re standing in the gap in a way that does cause a lot of challenge and pain. That’s why we need each other. That’s why we need biblical counsel. That’s why we need Life Groups. That’s why we need mentorship. That’s why we need the Spirit of God every single day, to be at his feet in quiet and stillness so he can bring us back to wholeness. So that we can love in the way that we’re supposed to. That’s a little bit of what Jesus is trying to teach us when he tells us to love our enemies.

And just so we know that this isn’t just happening out in society, this isn’t just a Republican/Democrat situation, but this fracturing is actually happening inside the Church. It’s not unsusceptible to it. 

This guy wrote an article, and if you’re trying to deal with some of that world where you’re having divisions theologically or within the Church and you want some good information on that, this article is so good. Just email me and I can send it to you.

It’s a guy named Skyler Flowers, he’s a pastor in Mississippi or something like that, somewhere down south. This is what he says: 

New fractures are forming within the American evangelical movement, fractures that do not run along the usual regional, denominational, ethnic, or political lines. Couples, families, friends, and congregations once united in their commitment to Christ are now dividing over seemingly irreconcilable views of the world. In fact, they are not merely dividing but becoming incomprehensible to one another.

Can I get an amen? Anybody feeling that tension? I am. Majorly. 

It’s into this space that Jesus says this in Matthew 5:43:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This is the way he kind of rounds out the six examples of what the greater righteousness is. He’s trying to teach us something about God’s love and the love that he’s trying to lead us into. He’s trying to teach us a little bit about his worldview and the worldview of those who are following him. 

And again, his disciples, when they heard this, those who had gathered, they didn’t hear this and then feel beat up afterwards. In Matthew 7:28, I’ve said it so many times already, when they heard this, it says that they were amazed at his words. And that they were amazed because he spoke as one having authority, unlike the Pharisees. 

And basically what they were saying is, when they heard this, they felt like this was amazing that he actually believed they could live into this. And that he had so much substance to what he was saying that they could actually follow him, stay close to him, and he would get them there. That was the response that they had to these words.

Again, I appeal to you, as you hear this and as it hits you— wherever you might be — please hear the tone of Jesus’ voice, please see the look in his eyes as he’s saying this to you, just saying, “If you will stick with me, if you will take my hand, if you will tuck your life right in here behind me and go with me, you will see this stuff show up in your life. And more importantly, the people around you who God has called you to love, they’ll start to see this stuff show up in your life.”

We brought testimony after testimony of people coming up and saying, “I was here, I took Jesus’ hand, and it took a year, it took five years, it took ten years, it took whatever, and now I’m here and this stuff is showing up, even to those around me,” saying, “The Lord has shown up.” And it’s been fun. It’s been good.

This is the last of those. Be perfect. So I want to unpack a few of these phrases, and then ultimately I want to talk about love, a biblical view of love, the love of God, the love that Jesus is wanting to produce in our lives and have us live into.

Here he says, “Love your enemies and pray for the persecutors.” And basically this is that greater righteousness that he’s calling us to. Not a shallow love. Not a love those who love you, but loving those who are hard for you and difficult for you.

This is only possible, remember this greater righteousness is only possible with the blood of Jesus that he gave freely, that washes us clean of all of our unrighteousness. We have to remember every day as we fall, as we falter, and as those around us do as well, that the righteousness of God is and always will be stronger than the unrighteousness of man. That is one of the best news of the gospel. 

That’s the whole point of the resurrection. Man’s unrighteousness — we did our best to get Jesus down in that grave — but God’s righteousness was greater. And Jesus rose from the dead. So it’s his blood that gets us there, but it’s also his Spirit living inside of us that empowers us to walk in this way, in this greater righteousness.

So, in this aspect of loving your enemies, he says if we love them we will be children of our Father in heaven. I thought that was an interesting phrase, that somehow when we live into this type of love it’s identifying ourselves as children of our Father in heaven. Jesus alluded to this in kind of a little bit of a way when he said that, “They’ll know you’re my disciples by your love for one another. They’ll know that you’re kind of with me because you’ll be so good at loving one another.”

Here Jesus is saying that if you’ll love your enemies, you’re actually kind of living into his aspect of being part of the family of God. And this is challenging for us. But God loves the whole world. God loves everyone. He delights in every person that he has created, even the ones you hate. He loves them. He delights in them. He looks at them and he sees a bit of his own reflection. They carry that Imago Dei, that Image of God. They were formed from the same dirt as you were — all of them. They were endowed by the breath of their Creator in the same way that every single of one of us was. Whether they’ve chosen to do good with that or evil, it doesn’t change the fact that they are still a person that God made, that God loves, that God has a good plan for, that Jesus died for. And that’s really hard to believe sometimes. It’s really hard to receive sometimes. 

But then Jesus goes on and says, “Not only are you living into that family of God, that kind of universal love of God,” but he’s saying, “Just remember that God sends his rain on the just and the unjust, that God lets his sun rise on the evil and the good. That basically, God every day is giving good gifts to the most evil person on the planet by giving him life or giving her the sun or the rain.”

That kind of love, that kind of unconditional, benevolent love is very hard to grasp and understand. But that’s who our God is. It’s who Jesus is. If we follow him, he’s wanting some of that love to stir up in us. That’s a challenge.

And then he goes on to say, “If you love those who love you…” is the next phrase… “What good is it if you love those who love you? What good is it if you greet your own people?” What an interesting way to unpack that. Love your enemies. That feels safer. That’s broad. It’s like, Whoa. Think of our enemies. Think of the Hitlers out there. That was like dubbed out. When I said Hitler. We don’t even say that name here. That was cool. But anyway, like, it’s like we talk about enemies and oh, those evil people over there. It kind of removes it. 

But then Jesus brings it so close to home when he says, “What good is it if you only greet your own people?” And this is where my sermon is like, oh, no. Fourth of July. No. Because I started thinking about who my enemies were and it was like, “Ah. I don’t know if I have enemies. I mean, come on.” But then, if I think about the people who I would consider not my people, the people who I disagree with, particularly medically, politically or theologically, oh, I’ve got some of those people. Oh yeah, I’ve got some of those people. Ooh. The tension. Tension.

But that’s what Jesus is saying here. And I love the word greet, which is so interesting. Because in the Greek, the word greet basically has a little bit of a spectrum to it. It could mean enfold in your arms, which is a pretty serious greeting, you know? Like French greeting or something, I don’t know. In Europe they’re always kissing each other or something. But this is like greeting in that way. But then there’s also another kind of other side of it where it’s salute. And I’m like, okay. I love how Jesus gives us a little bit of like, “Okay, maybe you can only salute right now. That’s okay. When you’re dealing with somebody you disagree with, that’s not your people, that’s on the other side of the political aisle, or the other side of the Covid aisle, the other side of the theological aisle, maybe it’s hard for you. Maybe all you can muster is a salute.” He said, “I’ll take that and we’ll work on the ‘enfolding in your arms’ later.” 

But it just got so real when you put it in that context. Because we’ve had a lot to divide over. And the demonization that we have begun to practice, not just as Americans, but as Christians, is super intense and I think super grievous to the Spirit of God. 

I was asked what my sermon title was today and I said, “Love Your Enemies,” because it’s general and nice and all of that. But I think if I was really going to pin it down, I feel like then Spirit is saying that we need to stop demonizing people. That’s the first step toward loving our enemies. Just because they wear a mask or don’t wear a mask, doesn’t mean they’re a demon. And your little jokes about it, or your little comments, Jesus hears them. And I think it really does grieve our Father’s heart just as if my kids are belittling each other or demonizing each other. 

And I get that there’s deception out there. I get that there is right and wrong, good and evil. No doubt about it. But we’ve got to be careful with the way we’re talking about God’s family, God’s kids, and dealing with them. And we need to be willing to greet even people who are not our people. This is where that confirmation bias — you know we just love hearing what we love to hear. 

Jesus isn’t necessarily saying you’ve got to go and fold them in your arms all the time, but we need to at least salute them. Salute them from afar. Sometimes that all you can do. “Hey, kid, bye, that’s all I’ve got, man.” It’s okay.

And lastly he says, “Be perfect.” And the word perfect here obviously is a huge challenge to us. And I don’t want to take away too much of what Jesus is saying here, because Jesus does have high hopes for us. But the word in the Greek is teleios, which means a little bit more like complete. Be complete. And we can take that a step further and be mature. Like this is something that God is wanting us to grow into. 

Jesus’ followers will be complete in their love for others. Whether they deserve it or not, whether they agree with you or not, whether they have done absolute evil or not, there is a reality of love that God wants us to do. And it’s going to take a lot of maturity to love in those hard places. A lot of maturity to handle that tension. 

Going back to basketball, whenever I think of the word maturity, I think of Michael Jordan at the free throw line, at the end of the game in a stadium that’s not his own, just how intense those moments are, and yet his basketball maturity was in a place where he could just do exactly what needed to be done in that moment.

The goal for us is that Jesus wants to grow us up. And the people that are so similar to him, so filled with his Spirit, that when we’re faced with those super intense moments, what comes out of us is love — his love. 

So we need to define what love is. Think of the person who has hurt you so bad, or who is currently trying to ruin your life when you think about loving your enemy. If you can’t think of anyone — hallelujah! That’s awesome. It’s wonderful. In Jesus’ day, they could think of them. It wasn’t hard for them to think of them. The fragmentation happening within Judaism in that day was intense. Within the Jewish community there was so much division and hatred for the other. Within the nations surrounding them, Samaria which was part of them, so much ethnic hatred and division. And all of that was just underneath this massive hatred and division of the Roman Empire, where basically the Romans were citizens and had rights as citizens — everybody who wasn’t a Roman citizen was basically just worthless and their lives didn’t matter. 

When Jesus was talking about loving your enemies, for them it was a little easier to come by maybe than us. And I’m not trying to say that’s true of you. You might be very easily coming up with enemies. But in that context he’s saying we need to love each other.

So now, think of the person or persons who have disagreed with you. Jesus says we need to love them. In fact, he says that if you don’t love them, you have a lesser or Pharisaical, counterfeit righteousness that won’t help you into the kingdom of heaven. He’s serious about this.

So what does it mean to love practically? St. Thomas Aquinas — I love this. I use this all the time  I love this definition of love. Kind of weird to say, but ..

To love is to will the good of the other.

Real simply. That’s where love is a choice more than an emotion. If you haven’t figured that out yet, figure it out right now. It’s an act of our will. Emotions can follow. But emotions are not in charge of whether that decision is made. But to will the good of another and if you look at love in that context, it becomes a little simpler. To get to a place where in my heart of hearts, as I’m considering or as I’m confronted with my enemy, that ultimately, at the end of the day, my prayers, my speech, my conduct toward this person is in line with this definition of love where I really do will the good of them. I want them to find God’s plan for them and to flourish in what God has for them in my heart of hearts.

There’s another guy, Francis Turretins, and he was trying to unpack a Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley, I forget which one of them — sorry. I mixed myself up now. But anyway, this is a little bit of trying to unpack what he was saying about God’s love. And what he did was he divided God’s love into three different aspects: Love of complacency, love of benevolence and love of beneficence. 

These are just old English words, so bear with us here. But complacency, not at all what we mean before, but it actually means to delight and the play on that is that you’re so comfortable in that person’s love. Like, why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near? You have this complacency that you settle into every time this person is near. Again, old English whatever. But basically it means that you delight in this person. 

This is what’s so amazing about the love of our God. He delights in every single person. His goal, his hope is that we would have every tribe, every tongue, every nation gathered before him. Of all their different political beliefs. Of all their different maybe even theological beliefs to some extent. All under the supremacy of Christ.

I’m not saying there is multiple ways of heaven. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Absolutely. But we all come to Jesus with different kind of baggage. Different opinions and beliefs and theologies that need to be submitted to the greater council of Christ. But we all come and God’s plan is he wants it all represented under the blood of Christ. Not just one color. Not just one creed. Not just one faith. Not just one denomination. He wants it all. It absolutely has to come through the very narrow door that is Jesus Christ. No doubt about it. It’s only his blood that gets us in.

But we’re going to all get to heaven, a bunch of us, and we’re going to get their with some great disagreement in a lot of earthly things, a lot of nonessentials. We might not even be sure what are essential and nonessential. We have different lists there, too. But God delights in everyone. Like, literally, every morning when everyone wakes up on the earth, God’s like, “Oh, I like that one. Do you see this one, what he’s doing? I put this little weird thing there. I love that weird.” He put it in all of us.

So that’s an aspect of God’s love that I think is extremely difficult for us. I’ve seen people that are a little more like this in their love, and they’re amazing to be around. And I’ve seen people who have zero of this in their love, and they’re kind of fun to be around because they’re hilarious how they talk about people and how much they don’t like people. So I think they’re funny, too. It’s something we’ve got to grow in. But this is something I think in some ways it’s not directly what Jesus was talking about in this passage. 

But love of benevolence. This is to will the good of the other unconditionally. This is what I was talking about with Thomas Aquinas, that God really does have a good plan for everyone. And that’s his will that non should perish but all should come to everlasting life.

And love of beneficence. This one’s a little different. But this is where delight and the will come to action. This is to act kindly toward another. And os this is a little bit fuller definition of a biblical perspective of love, that God is wanting to grow us up in each one of these things.

Maybe you’re good at one of these things and you’re not at the other two. You need to hang on to Jesus and see what he can do.

Then we have 1 Corinthians 13 definition of love that is so different than anything American or Valentine’s Day or Hallmark Channel, whatever. “Love is patient, love is kind.” What I think is interesting is that it rejoices in the truth at the same time. Then he finishes that all up saying, “Love always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres.” No matter what the other does. No matter what at the feeling is. This is the way God loves us and this is the way he wants us to love his children.

In this, it was interesting because then my mind started to go into all these ethical dilemmas and scenarios. Should Dietrich Bonhoeffer have tried to assassinate Hitler? Did he unpack these scriptures correctly or not? It’s Fourth of July. We’re going to pray for the military. Aaah! How do we unpack these things in a nationalistic type way? Have mercy, Lord. And again, I am not that brilliant. And there have been a lot of brilliant people who have written a lot of brilliant things, and they are not quite sure what to do. And I get all of that. And I would like to have conversations, and I hope this message actually stirs some of those conversations. 

But what I can offer to you is what I think Jesus would say. How in the world could I have the audacity to say what Jesus would say? Well, because he told us some stories that he used to illustrate the kind of love that he longs for. Actually, one time he was asked by someone about loving, or like what I should do. And Jesus said, “Well, you should love your neighbor. That’s the greatest commandment.” And he said, “Who’s my neighbor?” And so Jesus answered what it means to love your neighbor in that context. But interestingly enough, he told the story of the Good Samaritan, right? So the Samaritan is the enemy of the person asking the question. In multiple ways. The Samaritan represents the enemy.

So basically, Jesus, who’s so sneaky and just kind of like undoing people all the time, he answers the question about what it means to love your neighbor by showing this person how the enemy loved the neighbor. He uses the enemy as the example. And in this story you have a guy who was walking down the road and he gets beat up by thieves and robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. And then a priest comes by and has things to do so he kind of goes to the other side of the road and carries on. 

Then a Levite, who basically was supposed to be a priest. He comes by and again, he’s got the same situation where it’s like, “Oh, it’s almost the holy day. I can’t really get unclean if that guy’s dead so I’m moving on.”

Then a Samaritan, the hero of the story, and you get the connotation a little bit by Jesus that this Samaritan is someone who’s a true Samaritan, he’s been marginalized. He’s been outcast. Maybe hurt, abused, oppressed in some way. Yet he’s walking down this road and he looks and sees a Jew beat up on the side of the road and he goes to him. He tends to his wounds and he gets him up on his donkey and takes him to the next town. He puts down money to make sure the guy’s got a place to stay so he can heal. He gives a little extra money so the guy’s got some food. And he says, “I’m going to be back to check on him in a little bit.” 

Then Jesus said, “Who loved their neighbor?”

In this Jesus was doing something extremely, extremely challenging. He probably sat down when he said it. Because this is the kind of love that he’s asking us to live into. And, yes, we need to will the good of the other, but then we need to be looking for those opportunities that God’s going to put in our path to actually do something about that will. 

So I had to unpack this, because I have some situations in my life. I have a guy who’s basically said he cannot walk with me anymore because of a theological stance that I have that we’re divided on. I don’t think it’s a salvation essential issue, but it’s one that I’m definitely not anywhere and he said he can’t walk with me anymore. And this is a good friend. 

And I have another situation where I’ve been kind of friends with a guy who’s homosexual. And I was there the first time I found out he was homosexual because I was asking him about his girlfriend and he answered weird. And I was like, “So do you have a boyfriend?” And he was like, “I just broke up with my boyfriend.” So we were able to engage in that situation and kind of talk about how the struggle and the pain that he’s going through and kind of minister in there. He knows where I stand and I know where he stands. He was genuinely kind of asking the question, “Can I honor God as a homosexual?” And I was like, “Uh, I don’t think so. But I still can be in a relationship with you and still be friends and we can still embrace each other.”

And then years go by and he ended up getting engaged to that same person he broke up with and he’s super excited about it. He’s now convinced that he can honor God as a homosexual and he wants to show the world how to do it. So sometimes all I’ve got is the salute. It’s a little tougher. But I still want to live into the relationship as God sees fit. So if an opportunity comes to show love or kindness I want to be ready there. I don’t want my heart to have gone cold. 

Then I’ve got another person who is a pastor of a church here in Phoenix. We’ve been getting to know each other more and more. We’ve had some great times together. He’s awesome in a million ways. Loves Jesus deeply. We finally got to the end of our last conversation. I was asking him questions and listening and basically found out that he feels like the best way that I could really kind of support him and serve him and what the Lord’s calling his church to is to get super politically motivated and active and inline with what he believes is important politically. And I was like, “Oh…” My heart just sank a bit because the conversation ended. He doesn’t know where I stand. I know where I stand. And we’re very, very in opposition politically. 

But this question came up in my spirit. Can we serve each other and serve alongside each other so that Christ can be magnified in our city even though we differ politically? And I was just kind of stuck. Then I felt this other question come up in my spirit, which maybe wasn’t so much from my spirit, maybe more from God’s Spirit. Is the unity of the Spirit more powerful than the disagreements or divisions in politics? And I didn’t want to answer that question. But the answer is yes, obviously. The unity we have in the Spirit has to be more powerful and stronger than any of our political divides. 

And then there was another question that came. If we can’t do this in the Church, why are we praying for this to happen in society? We’ve got to start with the family of God first. It’s where the Awakening is always supposed to start. So we’ve got to live into some tension. And we’ve got to find a love that is not ours. Because ours is not going to endure the tension. We’ve got to tap into a love that made the world. A love that sent his own son to die for the sins of the world. A love that is so consistent. A love like that Samaritan, who’s ready.

And the second example of love that Jesus gives us is the story of the Prodigal Son. This is that same love of God expressed, where the son came to the father and said, “I don’t want to be your people anymore. I disagree with you. I think you’re wrong. I think you’re old fashioned. And I want my inheritance from you, because to me, it’s as if you are already dead.”  And the father says, “Okay,” and gives the son the inheritance. The son leaves the boundaries. Leaves the perimeter of what the father has given him and goes out and spends the money in the way that he wants to. 

And we follow the story of the son a little bit. But I want to talk about the father, because I’ve always been intrigued. What was the father doing while the son was away. And the only way we can guess what the father was doing while the son was away was to know that someday, on a random day, not a day that the father knew, the son was walking home and the father had seen him a long way off. So in some ways, that means to me that every day I think the father went to the edge of his boundary, the edge of his property, knowing he couldn’t go with his son into all the sin, but he was not going to stay so far away, he was not going to pull to the other side, but he was going to say, “I will go all the way to the edge and I will look with a longing, with a prayer, with a hope in my heart, with love in my heart, hoping that one day I might see you coming back home.” 

And in this story he did. When the son got there and the son had the whole plan, “Father, I’ve sinned against you and I’ve sinned against heaven,” the father interrupted and said, “No, no, no. We’ll get to all of that stuff. But right now what you need to know is I love you and I never stopped. I never will. And you belong right here and here’s a robe and here’s a ring. I’ve been coming out here every day and I can’t tell you how happy I am that you came home.”

That’s the heart that should be in the followers of Christ — even to someone who basically left you for dead. We’ve got to be careful we don’t create walls for the people that have left. The Church is a place where some of that deconstruction, healthy deconstruction should happen so people don’t have to go and do it in the world. So we need people like Jesus who are willing to go eat with tax collectors and sinners. People who are willing to go to the edge of the boundaries, into the margins with the love of God. Secure in their understanding and orthodoxy, but not afraid to go into those spaces where people are really struggling, trying to figure out what’s true, what’s up and what’s down, what’s right and what’s wrong.

I’m not telling you I know how to do this perfectly. But I’m trying in a few relationships to continue to live into this. To break it all down, I think we should will the good of our enemies or those who are not our people or disagree with us. When presented with an opportunity, we should try and do good for them somehow, some way. If it can be an envelopment in your arms, great. If it can just be a little salute, hey, take what you can get. 

We should, on occasion as the Spirit leads, we should even create opportunities. We should try and put ourselves in places that are hard and the tension is real. Not so often that it’s killing us, but from time to time. And maybe take somebody with you. 

I love what one of my teachers, Dan Riccio says:

Learning to live with extreme tensions can be decades long as a process. But also, I feel like there is grace for us to take one step at a time.

He’s saying this out of his own pain and his own experience. 

So I just want to take a minute now and pray. I want to pray for our enemies. And if that word applies, go ahead and start there. But if you’re not sure how to use that word enemies, you could pray for those who are not your people, those who are on the other side of you with some sort of ideology, maybe even theologically.

Now, just so you know, I’m super theological. I’m big on theology. I thin kit’s so important. I love it. That’s the place where I have the hardest time dividing with people. So I’m not trying to say there aren’t real essential things. But I’m saying there are a lot of things that are not essential that we make way too important — more important than Jesus does, I think. So you can pray for those people. Let’s just be still for a minute.

Jesus, we thank you that you love us just the way we are, but you love us enough to not leave us the way we are. What our nation needs is you. The only thing really worth uniting under is your name, Jesus. I pray that your name would really be magnified in America. And Jesus, I also want to echo your prayer for your church, for your people, that we would be one, that we would be willing to living within that tension to see you glorified and you’d raise up prophets and pastors and preachers and leaders in the church that would really help us see how to get there. 

Lord, I pray that you would really help us to do our part to stop the demonizing. Thank you that you didn’t demonize us, Lord, but instead you reached out and gave your life for us. We do pray that America would be great, great in all the economy of heaven’s measurements, Lord. We pray that your great wisdom would fall upon our nation and that true justice would show up here, Lord. Another great move of love would flow out of your church, Lord, and build your kingdom right here. Thank you, Lord. Amen. 

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Radical Hospitality

Marty Caldwell
Series: Church Around the Table

Ryan Romeo: 

Good morning, Living Streams Church. David is out. He is in his second home, if you know David. He is in Belize right now, a place he loves. We always joke on staff. We feel like we’re one of two kids he has, and Belize is like that second kid. He’s over there, which is awesome. We’re so excited for him. He’s going to be back here next week.

Right now it’s my pleasure to introduce our guest speaker, Marty Caldwell. Marty’s with Young Life. He’s been to over eighty countries. He travels the world talking to young people. If you know anything about Young Life, for us it’s such a big deal. We love Young Life. I was a big part of Young Life growing up. So please join me in warmly welcoming Marty Caldwell.

Marty Caldwell:

Thanks, Ryan. By the way, David was part of the seeds planted that helped us get Young Life started in Belize. And they had their first weekend camp just a few weeks ago. There’s an inner connectivity in all of this. 

Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I do want to say this: If you’re going, “I am not thinking that’s going to come out of my mouth, it’s not in my spirit. There’s a sadness, or there’s a loss, or maybe there’s a sickness in me.” — I want you to know, in the kingdom of God and in a family like Living Streams, when you’re on this side, this is the day that the Lord has made, “Let us lament and have peace in it” is equally important.

It’s not a smiley face on the lament. If you read the Bible, there’s a lot of lament in the Bible—sadness and sorrow. And we’re not afraid to enter into that. And we’re not afraid to welcome you into that. If you’re in here and, “This is the day the Lord has made and let me lament,” you get to lament. Because this is part of God creating larger hearts, a more compassionate people. And even the ability to have  both of these things: joy, celebration, worship and victory—absolutely. Equally: compassion, gentleness and lament. 

We are a people that God is making to have bigger hearts. We can do both of these things at the same time. But usually, it’s a little more one or the other. I just want to say one thing: If you’re here with a spirit of lament: welcome, welcome, welcome. Holy moly. You got out of bed this morning and you went to church in sorrow. That’s courage. That is courage. And I just want to say I’m impressed. Welcome. You don’t have to raise your hand. You just sit with this. 

But if you’re here on this side, I mean, same thing. There’s no greater welcome over here or over there. The Lord has made this day and we are gong to rejoice and be glad in it. But we are not afraid to enter into the lament and show compassion to those who are in that spirit today. That’s the reality of the kingdom of God and Living Streams is a place to express that. Welcome into it.

This morning, what I want to do is to talk about the radical hospitality of Jesus. I don’t know. Hospitality is one of those words that needs a better marketing group. Because, for the most part, hospitality is one of those boring, ordinary words. Well, yeah, like some flowers or candles, you know, maybe some cookies, baking, sort of ordinary. By the way, I think actually there are lots of elements of hospitality that are ordinary; but in today’s world, which is so divided, so polarized, so “us/them,” that the radical nature of the hospitality of Jesus, and the radical nature of the hospitality of the body of Christ, is absolutely, stunningly subversive and radical. 

So it may have some ordinary actions to it, but it is always a response of our hearts realizing that the God of the universe welcomes us. So if you would, pray with me: 

Lord, we’re so glad we get to be here this morning—together. You welcome us. You want us. You love us. You like us. You want to be with us. Well, this is just stunning, because you are God! You made all time, all geography, all universes, and you want to be with us and you welcome us into your presence. Wow! Help us to capture that but also to be captured by that, so that we may express radical hospitality in our own lives and our homes, our places of work, school, restaurants, neighborhood. Because we want to do your work your way as an expression of knowing how much we are loved. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

A simple definition of hospitality—I looked it up in the dictionary. I didn’t like it, so I made one up: 

Any action or set of actions, or words, or experiences, or touch, or smell, that says to another person or group of people, “I am so glad you are here. Come on in. Let’s be together.” 

And really, for this morning, if you’ll allow me, I’m going to use hospitality and belonging and welcome almost interchangeably. I think hospitality is kind of the inner core—the dynamic—but the expression of hospitality is welcome and belonging, belonging and welcome. 

The first one, of course, to express that is the God of the universe. He says that to you and me whether we’re broken, whether we’re falling away, whether we’re joyful or lamenting, or absolutely in prodigal country. He says to us, before we behave and before we believe, that we belong. This is the radical nature of the gospel. It is not like any other religion. It’s not like the rules and regulations that we would set up, that we would expect: Well, you have to have the belief test and then the behavior test and then you get to belong because you’ve learned the secret code. You’ve learned the secret belief. You’ve learned the secret behaviors, and then God says, “Ok, now you belong with me.”

Christ most expressly says, “You belong with me.” 

“Well, wait a minute. I don’t know the belief system.”

“You belong with me.”

“I certainly don’t behave.”

“You belong with me.”

This is the hospitality of God. If you don’t think that’s radical, just read the newspaper. Actually, just look at your own family. This is not how things work. This is how the gospel works. The gospel is this radical person, Jesus Christ, who expresses to a broken and hurting world, “You belong with the God of the universe.”

Stunning. Really. That God is radically hospitable to us. And if you believe this, if you have this at your core, you are most free then to express radical hospitality to others; which is most simply expressed in the second greatest commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. Ultimately, hospitality, welcome, belonging are of the same kind. They are “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is it. Sounds so ordinary. Sounds so every day. It is. It is ordinary. It is every day. But if you think it’s easy, your life is not like mine. This is hard work. This is costly work. This has to be a practice.

Here’s what Paul says in Romans 12. He’s kind of riffing.

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 

This is getting harder as we go.

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 

And this just stands out there, screaming at me:

…Practice hospitality.

And this is what I would like to inspire you to. Practice hospitality. I really like the language of that because it’s a little bit better for me than “be hospitable.” Because what if I can’t be hospitable? Well, okay, good. You can’t. But what if you practice? Okay, I could try that. Practice. I’m not good. I have this muscle of hospitality right here. Here we go. Try to lift it. “I can’t lift it.”

“Okay, get something lighter. Practice.”

So this morning, what I’d like to encourage you in, is practice hospitality. Young Life is really kind of a laboratory for this with disinterested, lost teenagers here and around the world. I have a picture of a greeting. This is Tanzania, so this is probably mostly muslim kids. These are kids with no background in Christ. We set up a welcome for them. The little three wheeler coming down, and these are flags of all of these nations, back behind here is a wedding band and about a hundred people that are saying to teenagers that don’t feel welcome in their neighborhood, don’t feel welcome outside of their neighborhood, often not in their own family, maybe nowhere, not in their school, this is a hundred people or so, singing, dancing, screaming, flag-waving, “We are glad you are here!” It’s beautiful chaos. This would be like any Young Life camp anywhere around the world. This just happens to be Tanzania. 

A really iconic moment for me of hospitality, and the importance of welcome happened a few years ago, kind of our first camp in Tanzania. All of the kids had come. They’re already here. This is kind of the start and this is the finish. One kid had missed the bus. So he missed out on the greeting. 

And I kind of go, “Well, you know, we’ve got to get dinner going. It’s a little bit late. I’ve got to button things up. But just have him come and he’ll walk into dinner and somebody give him a high five and it’ll be great.”

The Africans go, “Oh, no, no. We do the same greeting.”

I go, “Wait a minute. For the one kid?”

“Yeah.”

So he gets on the bus by himself. We’ve got to all wait out there for about thirty minutes. He comes down that road. It’s hilarious. It is a bus driver and one kid. But by that time, all the kids that had been welcomed had joined us. So now it’s about 350 people and they have set up a gauntlet for him. And he is being greeted like he is a rock and roll star. High five and he’s disoriented. I think what he had felt was the shame of missing the bus, the “maybe I shouldn’t have come,” the “maybe I don’t belong.” And he is overwhelmed. 

And what’s interesting to me is, not just the believers who had done the first welcome, but now everyone’s in on the welcome. There is something fundamental that God has wired to us in Genesis 1 and 2, that is to be welcoming. And then there is something fundamentally broken from Genesis 3 on that says, “Play small, play safe, guard, don’t share, be in the background, be with people like you.”

There’s you know, 150 muslim kids and then 50 atheist kids and 50 nominal Christian kids. And they’re all welcoming this one kid. No duh. Did that kid meet Christ? Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. He met Christ. He hears the gospel. He’s experienced the gospel because he’s had a whole world welcome. “You belong. You belong. You belong.”

“Well, wait a minute! I’m late. I missed the bus. I probably shouldn’t be here.”

And this expression—and believe me, this is loud as any proclamation could be—it’s as fine-tuned and powerful as any sermon could ever be. So when you think about the radical hospitality of God, the radical hospitality of, “You belong with me,” also think about your own chance to express that gospel message to others who feel like they don’t belong. To say to them, with your words, with your actions, “You belong. You are welcome. We are so glad you are here.”

Luke 15:

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Which of course, in the Middle East a couple thousand years ago, and still today, if you come into someone’s home and you share a meal, often hospitality has to do with food. Good. Something fundamental going on here together. Always has to do with conversation. Also has to do with eye contact, learning names, to say with our body, with our words, with our actions, with our very spirit, “I am so glad you are here.”

And really, when you think about that, I think this is generally true with Living Streams, as David and I talked about this a few months ago, the idea of radical hospitality and that being one of the dynamics of Living Streams, we really did think we’re going to hire a high school band for the parking lot. And then we’re going to get a bunch of people to come in early to create a gauntlet so that everyone coming in got a high five, or a hug, or a “We’re glad you’re here.” 

We were defeated by the logistics, but the heart and the idea were good. But just imagine you coming in this morning and there is a band in the parking lot, and they’re wailing out some John Philip Souza tune, and they’re kind of marching, and you’re all, “What’s going on?”

And then somebody says, “Oh! They’re here for you.” 

“Huh?” 

“Well, yeah. That’s the welcome band. They’re here playing so that you know how welcome you are.”

“Wow.”

Then you walk into the foyer and bunch of people are high-fiving. They’re here for you. This is the kind of place this campus desires to be.

But here’s the cool thing. What if we brought the marching band to your neighborhood, or your house, or your back yard. And really, the marching band is probably some great barbecue, probably some great drinks, probably some fun and games in the back yard. And you’ve got some neighbors coming over and they feel this welcome. They are treated with “We are glad you are here. You belong.”

“You’re one of those weird-o religious people.”

No response needed. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

Okay, did they make the direct connection of, “Oh, I bet God’s glad I’m here”? Of course not. But hospitality is an experience of the good news that we belong with God in relationship. It’s an experience. It’s the beginning of what I call the non-verbal proclamation of the gospel. 

Think about your own life. There were things that happened around it that told you you belong, that brought you in. You just didn’t know what they were. What you said was, “I want what they have.” Because hospitable people create a curiosity—especially in today’s divided world. This is a very subversive activity.

Luke 19:

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 

Think about this. We’ve got Zacchaeus. He’s a turncoat, he’s a tax collector, he’s stealing from people, he’s a liar and a cheat, he may live in a big, empty house on a hill and—ha ha!—he’s also short. And I think what you must imagine is a powerful, wealthy, but isolated, alone individual. And he wants to see what sort of person Jesus was. He didn’t really want to meet him. He doesn’t want to go hear a lesson, he wants to see what sort of person he is.

4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. 

I mean, Zacchaeus knows his internal life. He knows what he’s done. He’s going to spiritual prison and here’s the religious guy, the country rabbi that’s calling him out. He didn’t have that in mind. He climbed the tree because he wanted to see what sort of person Jesus was. Not to meet him. Not to talk to him. Not to get a lesson from him. But just to see him. Kind of a curious guy. Remarkable to me. Jesus knows his name.

By the way—become good at names. Know the names of your neighbors, the names of the people you sit next to in school. Go to one Starbucks. Learn people’s names. Go to one grocery store. Learn people’s names. Got to go shopping with my wife sometimes to get one gallon of milk. It’ll take an hour because she’s got to talk to everybody in Safeway. The guy that cuts the meat, the guy stocking the shelves, she knows all of the people that are checking the groceries. She walks in. They stop her. “Susan! How’s your mom?”

I’m going, “Give me the milk. Let me out of here.”

She’s one of my teachers in hospitality, welcoming and belonging. But just think about how crazy that is. It’s a subversive act. Go into the Safeway and learn people’s names and honor them for their work and ask them questions about their life. I promise. Experiment. Practice on this. Just try this for a couple of weeks. Same grocery store. Learn people’s names. Validate their work. Ask them questions about their life. 

It’ll be a little weird at first. They’ll go, “Oh man. There’s a weird-o here. Better call security.” But they’ll get over that pretty quickly because that’s one human being validating another. And the human being that knows Jesus saying to the other one—regardless of where they are—“You belong. You are loved. You matter. Your work matters. I see you.”

A lot of hospitality is seeing, noticing, watching, sometimes the sad one, sometimes the isolated one, sometimes the one celebrating, but no matter what, an outward expression of the love of Christ is to notice. This means we have to slow down a bit. You know, you’re really not noticing people when you’re doing this (on phone), you’re doing that. It’s not happening. The idea that hospitality is cheap and free is incorrect. It’s actually pretty expensive. It costs time. It costs money. It costs some comfort. There’s a little bit of discomfort related to hospitality. But this is the whole subversion of the kingdom of God. It starts with Christ in the middle.

Matthew 25:

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

This is Jesus speaking.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I’ll stop there. 

Luke 19:

5 …“Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

That Jesus. Doesn’t he know? The religious. Powerful. “We have a reputation to guard here and now you’re going with Zacchaeus? He’s the enemy. He’s been trying to destroy our town.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Like, even just being welcomed, your name is used, “Come down, I’ll be with you.” His life goes upside down from everything he’s ever known. I have to think that comes from a vacuum of not belonging. But this belonging and the special nature of Jesus to notice, to “I see you, Zacchaeus,” is the thing that flips his life upside down.

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The very purpose of God: seek and save the lost. And this is why broken people are so quick to be sought and to find Jesus. In self-sufficiency, “Everything is going my way,” it’s a heck of a lot harder to find Jesus. You find him most often in desperate moments, in lonely moments, in broken moments, in recognition of, “I don’t have it.” Yeah. You don’t. Me neither. 

So what do we do? We’ve got a Savior. Died for our sins and rose to offer us life now, in hope and freedom, enjoying everything good. 

Back to Matthew 25:

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Wow. So when serving and giving our lives away to those who are lost or broken and lonely, and maybe different from us, maybe we have to enter into a little of our own discomfort to express the love and the knowing and the “I see you” and “you belong” and all of those things, what happens is, Jesus says, “Yeah. You did that to me.”

“But no, I thought I was doing it to them.”

“Yeah, anytime you’re doing it to them that way with your hospitable heart, this is what you’ve done to me.”

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

The practice of hospitality begins in the human heart. We realize that God has been hospitable to us, so 1) we are grateful. If you realize how hospitable, how “You belong, Marty, with all of your stuff,” the natural response is gratitude. We can express that in worship. We can express that in prayer. We can express that in generosity. We can express that in service. But a heart that is grateful is a heart that is true; because it recognizes what God has done and what he has said to us and how he activates that within us.

Then it causes us to begin to practice more hospitality. It frees us up. Hospitality is a subversive and courageous action in a divided culture. Actions, words, memories, smells, even touch. You’ve got to be careful in the climate today. But read the signals. You can tell if someone’s a hugger. Hug them. You can tell if they’re not a hugger. Shake their hand. But just pay attention. See, look. A handshake can be very welcoming to a person that needs a handshake. Maybe you shake the hand in a different way. Maybe you put the other hand on there. 

In Ethiopia—this is so cool, so humbling—any older person, a younger person comes and shakes hands and they always put their left hand and they lift it up, because the young person does not want to be a burden on the older person. For once to lift their burden. Is that cool? Like a cultural hospitality. A sign of respect. A sign of eldership. A sign of “I want to be last. I want to be a light to you.” And you see this all over Ethiopia. It’s intentional. It’s thoughtful. We think about what will help them feel welcome most often in the home, but it really can be everywhere, noticing, affirming blessing.

I want to tell you about one of my hospitality heroes, Holman Mendoza. I brought a picture of him. It’s a picture of my job with Young Life. Rapha Allejo, the Director of Young Life in the Dominican Republic, Carlina Poe, Director of Young Life in South America, and Holman Mendoza, Director of Young Life in Nicaragua. If you know anything about the politics in the eighties, the Sandinistas were being fueled by the Russian government; whereas the United States was funding the Samosa government. I’m not going to get into the politics, because there are two stories worth telling on both of those sides. 

But Holman was born in the eighties. He was raised as a revolutionary. I’ve seen his textbook. He showed me his second grade math textbook. One AK47 plus two AK47’s is how many AK47’s? This is how he’s learning math. Two hand grenades plus two hand grenades is how many hand grenades? The Sandinistas realized, “If we don’t start raising up revolutionaries, that will want to join our army and kill the enemy, then we’re going to lose this war.” 

So Holman was raised to be a Sandinista revolutionary and his weapons were really going to be hand grenades, AK47’s and whatever he could make available to do violence to the enemy—until a guy named Emerson who played basketball, didn’t speak Spanish very well, walked into his neighborhood and said, “Do you want to play basketball?” Holman and his friends started playing basketball again and again and again. His Spanish wasn’t very good and neither was his basketball. But he had one and they didn’t have a basketball and they loved to play. They played everyday until Emerson said, “Holman, I want you to come to this Young Life camp with me.” 

Remember, he’s consorting with the enemy. “I’m supposed to hate you. You’re supposed to hate me. But we’re playing basketball together. I’m really not sure about this.” But he just caught him on a whim and he doesn’t have something better to do, to go to this Young Life camp. He meets Jesus. He eventually becomes a volunteer leader, he gets a college degree, eventually goes on the Young Life staff. This is about fifteen years ago.

But he told me a couple of years ago a thing that really flipped me upside down. He goes, “Marty, I was raised to be a revolutionary. My weapons were going to be those of destruction.” But he said, “I’m still a revolutionary at heart. So I have new weapons, because I want to change my nation. I want to change Central America. I want to change North America. I want to be part of God’s changing the world. My new weapons of revolution are love and service and prayer and hospitality. But I want to fight with the same passion. I want to love my enemy. I want to welcome those who feel like they don’t belong into the welcoming arms of the family of God.”

This is the subversive nature of the simple but radical, ordinary hospitality. And really, my admonition to everyone here today: practice. Just do something. “Okay, I’m going to practice that. I’m going to learn a name. I’m going to take a little more time at Starbucks. I’m going to have my neighbors over—my actual, real neighbors, the ones that live next to me. I’m going to invite them over for a barbecue.”

Well, yeah, should you have a Bible study right away? Yeah, I kind of don’t think so. Have a barbecue. Make good barbecue. Find out the beverage of their choice. Serve that beverage. It might not be your beverage. But this is the idea of hospitality, that this tribe, Living Streams, would be those who are most hospitable. And there really isn’t something that’s more hospitable or expresses hospitality better than breaking bread. That this is our symbol in the body of Christ. It’s actually a revolutionary act to break bread together. 

You can pass out the elements. When you think about this, this is God welcoming you to his table. Why? “I don’t know the theologies or I don’t know the doctrines, or maybe I do but I forgot them." Or maybe, “I’m not living them.” “I know them but I don’t live them.” No matter what, the welcoming nature of God is expressed most regularly and most simply in the act of communion. That God says, “You belong with me. You are mine.” We are brothers and sisters.

I would propose to you that not only is taking communion together an act of hospitality, it’s also an act of revolution. We are not going to live by the world’s values. We’re not going to think it’s about stuff or achievement. We are going to think about the love God, experience his love, and love people. 

This is the place within the church, the tribe of the church, that we come together and God expresses that belonging. I actually think the most stunning thing about communion was the first one, when Jesus offered communion to Judas. I can’t believe this. He knew the betrayal. He knew what was going to happen, and he still says to Judas, “You belong with me.” So what this says to me is, no matter how far you have drifted, no matter how far you are, if this is your first time in church in twenty-two years, God says, “Glad you’re here.”

I mean, it’s nice that we say, “Glad you’re here.” But it’s a little bit nicer and lot more powerful that God says, “Glad you’re here. Welcome home, welcome home. Let’s share a meal together.”

And so communion expresses this idea of hospitality so beautifully. Theologically commanded in Scripture, and also it is an action, seemingly ordinary, but, like hospitality, subversive, powerful and a lot more than the sum of the parts. 

On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread. He gave thanks and he broke it. He said to his friends, “This is my body broken for you.” So let’s take and eat the bread, the body of Christ.

And likewise, he took the cup, pretty ordinary in its day, always an expression of hospitality, always an expression of, “We are friends in this together.” And in particular, that this is all new to you, this is the blood shed on a cross for your sin and mine and an offer of sweet forgiveness forever. Not just the past stuff, but the today stuff and that tomorrow stuff which will come. Forgiven once and for all and again and again and again. And it’s why he has commended communion to us—so that we would remember that well. The blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sin, the new covenant. The old is passed away, behold, the new has come.

If you feel like you don’t belong, I have failed. Please don’t let my failure become yours. You belong. The whole Bible, all of God’s history, every one of his expressions is to say to you and to me and to call us by name, not some generic somebody, “Hey, Dude,” but to say to us, “You belong. You’re with me. We are together in this thing called life and I want you to have it in abundance.” 

And for that very reason, you belong. We belong. Why? Because that’s what God wants. And he has a way of getting what he wants. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank you for your hospitality toward us. We’re a little bit nervous about being revolutionaries, but we can certainly invite our neighbor over. We can love them and we can pay attention. We can get to know the guy at Starbucks and remember his name, the gal at the bank that cashes the check, the guy at Safeway that’s mopping the floor, our neighbor, the one that’s next door and behind us. We ask for the gift of names and we ask for the practice of hospitality, that we would always be known as “those weird-o’s that welcome everybody. They’ve got something different.”

Indeed. The Holy Spirit indwells and expresses itself most beautifully in receiving God’s love and expressing his love by loving other people. We just admit, Lord, we need help on this. Probably going to fumble a few times. But that’s not news to you. We ask for help. We ask for your fruitfulness and your thriving in our lives. I pray in Christ’s name, amen.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.