"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple-- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

Introduction.

In ancient Greece if you went to party someone there might point out a man and say "he is a famous hypocrite", and you might ask for his autograph! Today if you were introduced to a well known hypocrite you might ask "are you a politician, priest or business person?  For us a hypocrite is a fraud- a person who says one thing but does another-usually the opposite. But originally hypocrite simply meant a person who was actor, one who played roles. It meaning has changed.

The same is true of the term ?hospitality'. Over the last generation it has been hijacked by large corporations - the hotel and restaurant industry to mean extracting large sums of money from their "guests". Hospitality has come to mean mints on pillows, Martha Stewart or throwing good parties and wowing guests with elaborate food and wine.

Because of this we struggle with the gospel passage this morning. It is very short and when we read it and think ?whaat!" But the original meaning of hospitality  was that of receiving all guests, visitors and strangers with generosity and goodwill.- providing protection, care and kindness to whomever might be in need. In Middle Eastern Culture, it was considered a sacred obligation to take care of the strangers and foreigners living among you. We see this in many Biblical commands and examples such the story we read two weeks ago of Abraham welcoming three unexpected visitors, providing food for them and them promising that Sarah would soon have her own child.

Jesus is really talking about what we might call ?radical hospitality' in this passage. Welcome all and sundry he says-not because you will make money off them but for two other important reasons.

1.      Because all of us carry the image of God, in a real sense when we are hospitable to any individual, but especially the weak and needy, we are offering hospitality to Jesus himself; but equally when we refuse to hospitality we are refusing Jesus. That is the sobering point of the sheep and goats parable of Matthew 25. "Go away" Jesus will say when we come before him-you rejected me, refusing to feed me, clothe, visit me when I was sick or in prison". But Lord they protest we never saw you in need. Jesus replied "but in so far as you refused hospitality to the least of my people you did so to me". There is a wonderful story come down from the early history of the church-Martin of Tours. This is tremendously challenging for all of us. Many, times in my life I have experienced radical hospitality, sometimes when I have been in real need. As a graduate student I traveled to Europe with 3 friends and had a wonderful vacation on the isle of Elba in Italy. On the way back we got caught in a terrible thunderstorm in Switzerland, everything was soaked Sisters of Mary in Darmstadt, Germany.  Resolute Bay Atlas Aviation.

2. Secondly says Jesus ultimately no good deed, however small or apparently trivial goes unrewarded. Maybe no reward comes to us in the here and now-but the here and now-this life is not the whole story. The time will come when God will have his final balancing. When quiet, humble folks generosity, care and hospitality which was ignored or overlooked on earth will finally be affirmed and rewarded.

The Benedictine Order of monks has always taken hospitality seriously. Benedict, their founder, taught "Let everyone that comes be received as Christ" Benedictine hospitality goes far beyond the exercise of the expected social graces ? the superficial smile or the warm reception of expected guests. Hospitality for Benedict meant that everyone who comes ? the poor, the traveler, the curious, those not of our religion or social standing or education ? should be received with genuine acceptance.

A modern writer puts it this way- "Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves.  It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers in a prejudiced world.  Everyone?everyone?is received as Christ.  When we let strange people or different ideas into our hearts, it not only changes us but it begins to reshape our world- our world becomes a world of potential friends rather than a world of probable enemies. Our Labrador Bridgit assumes every person she encounters is or will soon become her closest friend. Many visitors who are initially scared or indifferent to dogs are often won over.

But hospitality is more than simply thinking new thoughts or feeling new feelings about people we either thought harshly of before, or, more likely, failed to think about at all Hospitality means taking people into the space that is our lives and minds and our hearts and our efforts.  Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves.  It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world.  Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.

God has blessed us at Christ Church with a wonderfully diverse congregation. We have so many opportunities to give and receive hospitality and in so doing to learn to accept others who are different from us.

This week will we treat people who cross our paths as we would treat Jesus? How will that affect our interactions with others. We are not asked to take giant steps-just little ones-but to keep taking them so that one day Jesus will say to you and I "Come  to me you who are blessed for when I was hungry, thirsty, sick, naked and in prison you cared for me".                                                   

                                                                                           Amen. 

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 Isle of Gonave

 For an in depth understanding of the term of hospitality, the starting point is the etymology of the word itself. The word hospitality derives from the Latin hospes, which is formed from hostis, which originally meant a 'stranger' and came to take on the meaning of the enemy or 'hostile stranger' (hostilis) + pets (polis, poles, potentia) to have power. Furthermore, the word hostire means equilize/compensate.

If you combined the above etymological analysis with the story of Telemachus and Nestor you can develop in your mind the Greek concept of sacred hospitality.

First of all, Telemachus is a complete stranger for Nestor, however he was hosted and treated more than warmly. In the Homeric ages, hospitality was under the protection of Zeus. The God of the Gods. For that reason Zeus was also attributed with the title 'Xenios Zeus' ('xenos' means stranger). The semantic behind this was to highlight the fact that hospitality for Ancient Greeks was of the utmost importance. A stranger passing outside a Greek house, could be invited inside the house by the family. The host washed the strangers feet, offered him/her food and wine and only after he/she was feeling at comfortably could be asked to tell his/her name.

After having welcomed Telemachus, Nestor asks his unknown guest to introduce himself to find out that he was the son of Odysseus. By that time, the man in front of him was a complete stranger, a hostis as described in the etymological analysis of hospitality at the beginning. Nonetheless, Telemachus was equilized with his host. Another meaning that is included in the etymology of hospitality. Note also that one of the Nestor's sons slept on a bed close by Telemachus to take care that he should not suffer any harm. This means that hospitality for Ancient Greeks include also the idea of protection. Lastly, Nestor put a chariot and horses at Telemachus' disposal so that he could travel the land route from Pylos to Sparta in two days, having as charioteer Nestor's son Pisistratus. The last element of hospitality as can be realized is guidance.

Based on the story above and its current meaning, hospitality is about compensating/equalizing a stranger to the host, making him feel protected and taken care of, and at the end of his hosting, guiding him to his next destination.

Contemporary usage seems different from historical uses that lend it personal connotations. Today's hospitality conjures images of throwing good parties, gracious hosts entertaining, etiquette, Martha Stewart or even talk shows, or, the hospitality services industry as it relates to the entertainment and tourism business. On the other hand, hospitality used to be, and still is, a serious duty, responsibility, or ethic. Hospitality ethics is a discipline that studies this usage of hospitality.

In the western context, with its dynamic tension between Athens and Jerusalem, two phases can be distinguished with a very progressive transition: a hospitality based on an individually felt sense of duty, and one based on "official" institutions for organized but anonymous social services: special places for particular types of "strangers" such as the poor, orphan(s), ill, alien, criminal, etc. Perhaps this progressive institutionalization can be aligned to the transition between Middle Ages and Renaissance (Ivan Illich, The Rivers North of the Future).

Exodus 22:21 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Exodus 23:9 "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

Leviticus 19:34 "The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 10:18 "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

Perhaps the most extreme example is provided in Genesis. Lot provides hospitality to a group of angels (who he thinks are only men); when a mob tries to rape them, Lot goes so far as to offer his own daughters as a substitute, saying "Don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." (Genesis 19:8, NIV).

The obligations of both guests are stern. The bond is formed by eating salt under the roof, and is so strict that an Arab story tells of a thief who tasted something to see if it was sugar, and on realizing it was salt, put back all that he had taken and left.

The Rule of Benedict
Hospitality

RB 53

excerpted from Wisdom Distilled from the Daily
by Joan Chittister, OSB
Harper San Francisco 1990

Hospitality might seem a weak, even quirky recommendation for spiritual renewal in a world beset by uncertainty, tumult, and terror. After all, in American society hospitality has come to mean mints on pillows and instant customer satisfaction. As Homan and Collins Pratt comment, "the missing virtue of our era has been turned into a social grace that neither disturbs nor transforms" (p. 13). Far more than proper table manners or correct dining attire, Homan and Collins Pratt remind us that hospitality rests at the heart of Jesus' command to love one another and his practice of table-fellowship. They offer not a new spirituality, a new practice, to assuage our consumer passions, but the same old challenge of the gospel to break every barrier down by choosing to relate to those God brings into our daily lives. "Here is the core of hospitality: May I know you better? Will you come closer, please? No it will not be easy, but make no mistake about it, your life depends on this saving stranger coming to you and stretching your tight little heart" (p. 36).

 Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love. By Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2002. xxxviii + 233 pp. $16.95 (paper).

 Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a guest and a host, and it also refers to the act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill. Hospitality frequently refers to the hospitality industry jobs for hotels, restaurants, casinos, catering, resorts, clubs and any other service position that deals with tourists.