Hospitality in the house of God

Date: 13 Janu­ary 2019 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Luke 15:11–24
https://sermons.seetal-chile.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Serie_Willkommen_daheim.jpg
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

This ser­mon con­nects the annu­al the­me «Wel­co­me Home» with a cur­rent chall­enge in con­gre­ga­tio­nal life that we are facing. Name­ly, we ask our­sel­ves how, inspi­red by the hos­pi­ta­li­ty in God’s house, we can deri­ve a com­pre­hen­si­ve wel­co­ming cul­tu­re for the see­tal chi­le. In this endea­vour, we find strong impul­ses in the para­ble of the father with the two lost sons. 


Every Janu­ary we hold a so-cal­led visi­on ser­vice. The­se ser­vices are meant to open our eyes to the future. We talk about what spi­ri­tu­al mea­ning the the­me of the year could have for our con­cre­te con­gre­ga­tio­nal life. Spe­ci­fi­cal­ly, today we want to look at hos­pi­ta­li­ty in the house of God and draw con­clu­si­ons for our­sel­ves. Jesus paints this befo­re our eyes very impres­si­ve­ly in the para­ble of the father with the two sons.

Welcome culture in God’s house

Jesus con­tin­ued: «A man had two sons. The youn­ger son said to his father: «I want my inhe­ri­tance from your pro­per­ty alre­a­dy now».» (Luke 15:11,12). He could just as well have said: «I wish you were dead.«Becau­se you nor­mal­ly only get the inhe­ri­tance after the death of the father. This son could not wait. With the money in his pocket, the youn­ger son com­ple­te­ly tur­ned his back on his pre­vious life. Jesus here paints us a pic­tu­re of the worst pos­si­ble beha­viour that was pos­si­ble in the cul­tu­re of that time. The son had trea­ted his father dis­re­spectful­ly. His deeds were not trif­les. He was an adul­te­rer and spent the money on pro­sti­tu­tes. When the­re was no money left, he even sank so low as to take a job as a pig her­der. Pigs were the epi­to­me of impu­ri­ty for Jews.

Jesus could not add any­thing that would make the son worse off. The youn­ger son is ful­ly awa­re that he has mes­sed up. That is why he wants to go back to his father. He does not expect to be wel­co­med as a son. He was just hoping for a job as a day labou­rer. «So he retur­ned home to his father. He was still far away when his father saw him coming. Full of love and com­pas­si­on, he ran to meet his son, embra­ced him and kissed him.» (20). The father ran to meet him. That’s not what a rich man did in tho­se days. But love was stron­ger than social norms. 

«His son said to him: «Father, I have sin­ned, against hea­ven and also against you, and am no lon­ger wort­hy to be cal­led your son».» (21). A say­ing lear­ned by heart (17ff). The­re is some truth in this thought. It is true that his actions were unwor­t­hy of a son. But let us look at the father’s reac­tion: it seems as if he does not even hear the rehe­ar­sed apo­lo­gy. The father knew what was going on in his son’s heart. He felt that he was sor­ry. Not­hing else mattered.

«But his father said to the ser­vants, «Quick! Bring the best clo­thes in the house and put them on him. Get a ring for his fin­ger and san­dals for his feet. And slaugh­ter the calf we fat­ten­ed in the sta­ble.» (22+23). The calf, inci­den­tal­ly, is the only cha­rac­ter for whom this sto­ry ends bad­ly! «Becau­se my son here was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found again. And a cele­bra­ti­on of joy began» (24).

The three gifts are of gre­at importance:

A robe – rela­ti­onship restored

This was not a dir­ty, used robe, but the best robe in the who­le house. Per­haps it even belon­ged to the father hims­elf. It sym­bo­li­ses that the son has been res­to­red to the posi­ti­on and all the rights of a son. The father never stop­ped loving him. But now he was also com­ple­te­ly res­to­red. The robe also sym­bo­li­ses the cove­ring of the son’s shame.

One Ring – Power of Att­or­ney Restored

It must have been some kind of signet ring, like the ones used on offi­ci­al docu­ments. Ever­yo­ne knew that it was a sign of his father. Wit­hout this seal, ins­truc­tions on a docu­ment had no bin­ding aut­ho­ri­ty. So the ring is a sym­bol of power and aut­ho­ri­ty to car­ry out busi­ness on behalf of the father. This boy, who had squan­de­red his father’s wealth, was put back into ser­vice, so to speak, and was again allo­wed to con­duct busi­ness in the name of the father. He had access to all the infor­ma­ti­on. What a vote of con­fi­dence. He was allo­wed to give orders again and ever­yo­ne had to obey him becau­se of the ring on his finger.

San­dals – Posi­ti­on in the fami­ly restored

Third­ly, he asked the ser­vants to bring him san­dals. In a Jewish house­hold, only the father and the sons were allo­wed to wear san­dals. So the father has made it unmist­aka­b­ly clear that this boy – regard­less of his deeds – is still his son. With all the rights that go with it.

Welcome culture in the seetal chile

This exam­p­le of hos­pi­ta­li­ty in the house of God should inspi­re us as see­tal chi­le. The local church should repre­sent the house of God on this earth. Hos­pi­ta­li­ty is a divi­ne qua­li­ty that we are to live. It is striking that it is men­tio­ned as a cri­ter­ion for elders. «An elder must be a per­son who leads an impec­ca­ble life. He should be faithful to his wife. He should have self-con­trol, live pru­dent­ly and have a good repu­ta­ti­on. He should be hos­pi­ta­ble and able to teach others»(1 Timo­thy 3:2; cf. Titus 1:8). The peo­p­le of the church lea­der­ship should also go ahead in this mat­ter and set an exam­p­le. But being a host is not only a lea­der­ship task, as we will see in a moment.

The fol­lo­wing four steps are stages in our wel­co­ming culture:

1. initi­al contact

Like the father in the para­ble, we want to approach new peo­p­le proac­tively but tactful­ly. (I don’t think we should kiss them.) We also want to be proac­ti­ve by invi­ting peo­p­le. The busi­ness cards prin­ted on the the­me of the year and available at the exit can also ser­ve this pur­po­se. Who could you invi­te to the house of God, which is the church, this year?

The son retur­ned emp­ty-han­ded and with a dama­ged repu­ta­ti­on. The Father accept­ed him uncon­di­tio­nal­ly and let him expe­ri­ence His bene­fi­cent grace. The­re was no pres­su­re, no expec­ta­ti­ons, only accep­tance and for­gi­ve­ness. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, we Chris­ti­ans are not neces­s­a­ri­ly known for the­se qua­li­ties, but rather for cri­ti­cal scru­ti­ny and jud­ge­ment or even con­dem­na­ti­on. A sin­gle woman gave up her body to men in exch­an­ge for pay­ment to get her child over the hump. To be less expo­sed to pain, she took mind-alte­ring drugs. When told that she should go to the church for help, she said: «I alre­a­dy feel bad. I don’t want to feel worse.» I dream of a church whe­re peo­p­le walk direct­ly into the arms of God’s bene­fi­cent and invi­ting grace repre­sen­ted by peo­p­le. Would­n’t it be nice if we were known for extra­or­di­na­ry empathy!

On our web­site you will find the words «belong, belie­ve, behave». Peo­p­le should imme­dia­te­ly belong. Through the expe­ri­ence of uncon­di­tio­nal accep­tance they beco­me open to faith in Jesus Christ. And only then – through the power of the Holy Spi­rit – are they chan­ged in their beha­viour. God rea­ches the goal with every human being – also with me.

Just as the Father cover­ed the shame of the Son with the robe, we are very con­cer­ned that peo­p­le are never expo­sed here. That is why the­re are no open pray­er ses­si­ons and no forced say­ing hel­lo to each other.

2. crea­te contacts

In a second step, new peo­p­le should be able to net­work. The father in the para­ble imme­dia­te­ly had a calf slaugh­te­red and threw a feast. A par­ty is a gre­at way to build rela­ti­onships in a plea­sant set­ting. Recent­ly I heard a pas­tor say that par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in a church retre­at replaces three years of ’nor­mal» church life in terms of crea­ting cont­acts. We are always try­ing to find spaces whe­re peo­p­le can easi­ly build rela­ti­onships. This can be at the thanks­gi­ving fes­ti­val, on the Isra­el trip, during the Chrisch­o­na holi­days or every Sun­day in the bis­tro. To make it a litt­le easier to con­nect the­re, we want to crea­te a cor­ner whe­re peo­p­le can come.

Sym­bo­li­sed by the san­dals, the son’s posi­ti­on in the fami­ly was res­to­red. He was com­ple­te­ly part of the fami­ly again and the­r­e­fo­re also had access to all the infor­ma­ti­on. It has been poin­ted out to us that it is still too dif­fi­cult to get the infor­ma­ti­on. We want to impro­ve that.

Beco­me part 3

Through the ring that was put on the son’s fin­ger, his aut­ho­ri­ty was res­to­red. He was allo­wed to con­duct busi­ness and give orders in the name of the father. This gave him power to make a dif­fe­rence. Peo­p­le beco­me part of a Chris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ty when they are allo­wed to live their cal­ling and use their pas­si­on. We want to help peo­p­le to make a dif­fe­rence in the see­tal chi­le. Becau­se then some­thing real­ly nice hap­pens: they no lon­ger talk about «you», but about «we». They lea­ve the obser­ver sta­tus and beco­me part of the com­mu­ni­ty. An iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on hap­pens. And tho­se who iden­ti­fy them­sel­ves cri­ti­cise in an uplif­ting way and work for impro­ve­ments them­sel­ves. Tog­e­ther we invest our­sel­ves for a cau­se grea­ter than our­sel­ves. This pha­se beg­ins the pro­cess of tur­ning a guest into a host who wel­co­mes peo­p­le and makes them feel welcome.

The role of the church ser­vice is also chan­ging. Until now, it was an indis­pensable rech­ar­ging sta­ti­on. But now you begin to get the fee­ling that you have slow­ly but sure­ly seen it. This is a good sign, becau­se now it is time to prepa­re for the next pha­se. The chan­ge from con­su­mer to host must now take place.

4. beco­me a father

Hen­ry Nou­wen wri­tes in his excel­lent book «Take His Image into Your Heart» that the goal of a son should always be to beco­me a father hims­elf who makes God’s grace tan­gi­ble for other peo­p­le. A father puts his own needs and pre­fe­ren­ces in the back­ground in favour of «home­co­mers» in a won­derful sel­fless­ness. To him, the home atmo­sphe­re is more important than his own needs becau­se he has found the source of true life. He rests in hims­elf becau­se he has beco­me com­ple­te­ly at home with the hea­ven­ly Father. Are you alre­a­dy a father loo­king out for home­l­ess peo­p­le? We urgen­tly need spi­ri­tu­al mothers and fathers in see­tal chi­le to be able to deal well with the growth God has given us. Mere­ly sta­ting that new peo­p­le come and others lea­ve is unwor­t­hy of a father. Being a father or mother requi­res spi­ri­tu­al matu­ri­ty. We want to be chal­len­ged to take steps of growth during the year.

The 95-year-old Pablo Casa­ls, con­side­red the grea­test cel­list the world has ever seen, had an exem­pla­ry atti­tu­de. A young repor­ter asked him one day: «You are 95. You are con­side­red the best cel­list in the world and yet you still prac­ti­se six hours a day. Why?«To which the lat­ter repli­ed: «Becau­se I think I’m making pro­gress.» We have not yet rea­ched the goal and should make pro­gress every day. This is how we beco­me matu­re in Christ.

 

Willcomeen dahome! As a who­le con­gre­ga­ti­on, we want to take a big step for­ward in this topic this year – and not only with the adults, but also with the child­ren. The­r­e­fo­re, a pro­ject has been star­ted within the visio­na­ry lea­der­ship whe­re the­se four points will be dealt with inten­si­ve­ly. The idea is that we will hold a com­mu­ni­ty forum on the topic in due course.

Becau­se Jesus Christ left his home and came to earth as a stran­ger, we can find a home with the hea­ven­ly Father. We are allo­wed to come emp­ty-han­ded, are warm­ly wel­co­med and are allo­wed to beco­me more and more at home. That is grace! This grace should beco­me a per­so­nal expe­ri­ence for our­sel­ves and new peo­p­le in the see­tal chile.

 

 

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Luke 15:11–24

  1. How do you rate the wel­co­ming cul­tu­re of see­tal chi­le and whe­re do you see room for improvement?
  2. Which of the four stages do you feel you are in? What would it take to reach the next one?
  3. Have you been able to deve­lop deep rela­ti­onships? Which ves­sels have been helpful?
  4. Do you see yours­elf as a guest or a host in see­tal chi­le? What is the impact of one or the other?
  5. Do you know the fee­ling that the ser­vices no lon­ger have the same rele­van­ce for your spi­ri­tu­al life? What could this mean for your heart attitude?
  6. Using the imagery of the para­ble, how might one descri­be God’s grace?