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7/5/09: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Series “B”)

Rev. Karen S. Cook

2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13 (pew Bible p.872)

HOSPITALITY FOR HEALING

Question: What do you do when a friend’s relative dies?
- Nothing? Ahh, no.
- you bring food
- you send cards
- you attend the wake/funeral
- you call
- you send flowers
What do you do when the doorbell rings?
- ignore it?
- peek out the window?
- yell at them to come in?
- let the dog or cat greet them?
- welcome them in
Every Thursday morning, I entertain a group of preachers at the parsonage. We gather to talk about the week’s bible readings, and more. I’ve been hosting this group for 9 years now, since I came here in 2000. Many of the faces have changed, but there is a familiarity with the Thursday morning ritual where I just let the clergy walk in the back door when they arrive. Puah, the dog, is not content with that. She greets each person as the come to the back porch – every week. Then she runs in and tells me someone is there. Then she runs back and leads the person into the living room. And then she announces the visitor again. She is an enthusiastic greeter. Puah loves Thursday mornings & so does Mr. KitKat. After Puah leads the people in, Mr. KitKat makes sure he greets everyone too. But cats are a bit different in their acts of hospitality. Dogs want you to know someone else is there. Cats want you to know that they are there!

I should probably take better lessons from Puah, the dog. She does her job as hospitality queen with gusto & joy. She gets up right away and bounces to the door – not just to see who’s there, but also to greet them. Every day, we have the opportunity to show hospitality. When you greet your family in the morning and when you say good night. When you kiss your significant other when they come in & when they go out. When you entertain. When you greet people in the workplace or the playplace. The way you interact with everything on God’s green earth…
There are all kinds of Christian hospitality that take place in our churches. Some of them are scripted, but others are not. It is because of hospitality that we print the Lord’s Prayer in the weekly bulletin – just in case someone comes to church for the first time. It is because of hospitality that we print large size bulletins & offer large print hymnals. Even if no one uses them, we have the hospitality issue covered. This year at Annual Conference, we finally got Holy Communion right! It took 8 years of very pro-active education, but finally, there was a gluten-free station at the clergy session. You’d think clergy would get it right, but we don’t even get it right for each other. Just like everyone else, it takes pastors many do-overs before we put out the generous hand of hospitality.

I heard this week that a congregation threw a going away party for their pastor who is gluten intolerant. They’ve known this pastor’s dietary needs for 5 years. They bought a big cake for the celebration. It wasn’t gluten-free. The party wasn’t about hospitality.

I saw some of the most dreadful hospitality this week when it came to hospitals & nursing homes. I watched nurses & aids go in and out of rooms without greeting patients & residents. I watched as they ignored the people around them, as they ignored the call light, as they rammed needles into people without telling them what they were doing, as they came up behind a patient & jerked them around in a geri chair & wheeled them away – all without a single word to the person they were “helping.” The lack of basic hospitality, called “greeting,” made it pretty impossible for any healing to happen. In fact, it made the person’s life worse.

Jesus went home, and his hometown does not welcome him. The open arms of hospitality don’t exist. They’d heard about little Jesus growing up & going from town to town healing all kinds of people. But they didn’t welcome him home. The village that raised him didn’t get the fatted calf, fire up the grills & throw a party. The people who watched him grow up didn’t even flock to him to hear the stories of his most recent adventures. His homecoming wasn’t greeted with even a little bit of hospitality. And he could do no healing there. It seems that for healing to take place, there needs to be hospitality first.
Since there is no hospitality, the people of Nazareth come across as mean-spirited, jealous and mocking. Jesus responds with some barbed words – “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown.” I wonder what He might have responded if anyone had said, “Hey Jesus, we’ve heard about you. Tell us about the lepers. Tell us about the storm at sea. Tell us a parable. Teach us to pray.” Given the way Jesus was greeted in his hometown, I wonder if we humans need to be treated with hospitality before we can respond in grace.

There is always another side of the coin, and you should know that I also got to witness the best of healthcare this week too. Words like,
- “My name is Eric & I’ll be your nurse this evening. Is there anything I can do for you? How’s your pain level?”
- “Hi. I’m a student nurse & you’re my first patient, but I know I can help you if you let me know what you need.”
- “I can feel you worrying. But I assure you we will get this tube unclogged & everything will be alright.”
All it takes for basic hospitality is to actively acknowledge that another person exists. When you take the next step, it’s more like they are the center of your focus. When you take it to the next step, you do to them how you’d like it done for you. When you take it to the max, you treat the other person like Jesus has treated you.

After this week, I believe there is a strong link between hospitality and healing. When there is hospitality, the door to healing opens. When there is hospitality, there is the possibility for all parties to experience transformation. When there is hospitality, things happen on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven can happen on earth when the doors of greeting & welcoming are open.

This Bible story tells us Jesus is powerless when ears are closed, when arms are folded in pre-judgment. Jesus’ powerlessness isn’t about Him – it’s about the people of Nazareth. Let me take it one more step. Jesus’ powerlessness isn’t about Him – it’s about us.

Is Jesus at ease among us? We hope so. Can he do any deeds of power here? We know He has. We can also do better. Are we creating a safe place for each other to grow up in Christ? If we remember each other from years ago & expect the same old, same old – does that keep us trapped as younglings? Or rather, are we walking alongside one another rooting for the best, encouraging growth not only in fellowship, but growth in Christ. Growth in Christ is a call to holy action. Just as Jesus sent out the disciples to care for the sick, He sends us out in that way too. This summer, perhaps consider visiting someone you haven’t seen in church for a while. Now that we’re having one worship service for the summer – it’s easier for all of you to see who’s missing. Jesus sends us out as His disciples every day of every week. It takes something intentional to create an atmosphere of hospitality wherever our sandals take us. From this morning’s lesson we know that deeds of power can’t happen unless we have open arms in this place, and as we take our leave, we take our hospitality out of the door with us.

Let Jesus be at ease among us wherever we go.

Amen.