July 7, 2024

My friends, grace and peace to you from our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our Gospel reading includes a pretty succinct summary of the disciples’ missionary work: “They went out and preached that people should turn away from their sins. They drove out many demons, and rubbed olive oil on many sick people and healed them.” I think there’s a lot more to the story than that.

So this morning I want to lead us on an imaginative journey. I want us to put ourselves in the sandals of a disciple who’s telling a more complete version of this story. I think it might go something like this.

“We were having a great time following Jesus as he ministered to all kinds of people. His teaching opened our eyes to what the prophets and the Law really meant. He did the most amazing things – healing people and driving the demons out of those who were possessed. And we never had to worry about anything. Somehow we always had enough food and a warm place to sleep at the end of the day.

“Then one day, Jesus pulled us aside and said he was sending us out. He told us we’d been apprenticing with him long enough, and we needed to stretch our wings. I had this pit in my stomach as he gave us authority to heal and cast out demons. Could I really do this? And I was so scared when he told us not to bring anything except a walking stick and our sandals. We were used to Jesus taking care of everything. How would we do this ourselves?

“Philip and I walked five miles the first day and found ourselves in this little village. We didn’t know what to do, but we remembered what Jesus did when we came to a village. So we found where everyone gathered – the village well. After a while, we struck up a conversation with a man named Jonah. We told him we were apprentices of Rabbi Jesus, and we had good news to share with the village, and we were hungry and tired. Jonah brought us back to his house where he washed our feet and prepared a dinner.

“Over that meal at his table we started talking about life. We talked about the things that bring us joy and the things that scare us and the problems that seem too big to overcome. And as we listened to Jonah’s deepest longings and losses and talked about Jesus, his eyes and ours lit up as we saw what the Good News of God’s Reign for the entire village. And the things that happed after that were amazing.”

Today’s Gospel is an inflection point – a transition for Jesus’ apprentices. Up to now, they’ve been witnessing the power of God’s Reign in bringing food, health, and wholeness to the powerless. Now Jesus has sent them into the world to do the same thing he’s been doing – embodying and proclaiming the good news of God’s reconciling presence and purpose for the whole creation.

But Jesus – ever the good master for his apprentices – hasn’t just been telling them what they need to do. In getting himself invited into other peoples’ spaces time and again, he’s been showing them all along what’s at their heart of their shared ministry – of our shared ministry – hospitality.

We usually think about hospitality as something we offer. Especially when it comes to churches. Every church seems to have at least one group whose mission is to make people feel welcome. At Christ Church, we do this really well. We offer visitors a smile when they walk through the door, a warm handshake at the peace, and visit with them at coffee hour. Sometimes at Christ Church we go even bigger – when we offer a community meal or open our doors to Hope and Harbor’s homeless shelter.

But this morning Jesus is teaching us something else about hospitality. He knows that the church gathered in his name won’t know how to join in God’s mission of bringing healing, peace, and good news to the world if we don’t know the people God is sending us to serve. And a critical piece of that work is inhabiting the space of the other – learning who they are and what they care about by being with them.

Jesus reminds us today that we aren’t only called to welcome people in. Following Christ demands that we seek the hospitality of others. That’s why Jesus sent the disciples out with only the things they needed to travel. They needed to practice the skill of seeking hospitality.

For churches, the idea of entering into someone else’s space can be weird. We can only do it if we give up our safety – our power – and become vulnerable. We have to become dependent on the kindness and generosity of others. Receiving generosity with humility and grace is far more challenging than putting on even the most complicated dinner. But the reality is that learning how to receive hospitality is a keystone habit for successful, growing 21st century churches. It’s incarnational theology. Instead of trying to find a place for others in our church, we ask if there is a place for us as a church in the world around us – the very same question Jesus asked by entering time and space.

So how do we practice seeking hospitality? How do we – like the disciples in my story – find the village well? It’s easier than it might seem. We just have to remember how Jesus did it.

One way is to move some of our activities into a public space. Can we, for instance, hold a meeting at an elementary school or a coffee shop? As we receive hospitality, what might we notice about the building, or the things on the walls, or even the people we meet, that help us understand what the Good News means to those around us? What might we learn that we’d miss if we stayed in our own space?

Another way we can do this is to be a guest in our own house. Just a few weeks ago we hosted the local Juneteenth celebration. And let me tell you, it was simultaneously weird and amazing to walk into a parish hall filled with 75 complete strangers. But those of us who were here can tell you how rich an experience it was to invite ourselves into the event, and how it was an opportunity to develop relationships with new people.

I think we can identify with the disciples today. It can be fun – or at least easy – to come to church and worship. To hear about Jesus and his ministry. But being asked to go out and do it ourselves? That’s a hard transition to make on our journey of faith. But if we can take the brave step of seeking hospitality, then like the disciples, we, too, will be amazed at what we can accomplish together with the Spirit. Amen.