Last week, we celebrated the baptism of Jesus and the beginning of his earthly ministry.  In a few weeks at the beginning of Lent, we will study the time of testing that Jesus spent in the wilderness.  But for the next few weeks, we will hear about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and today we read about the calling of the first disciples.

            In the portion of John’s gospel just preceding the verses we read this morning, John the baptizer saw Jesus walking by and exclaimed to two of his disciples, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’  Eager to hear more, the two men followed Jesus to where he was staying.  It was 4 in the afternoon – and at 6 the next morning, they were still with him.  One of those two was named Andrew.

            We don’t hear all that much about the ministry of Andrew, but Andrew was so excited about finding the Messiah, that he went home and found his brother and told him about Jesus.  His brother was Simon Peter.

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            In this morning’s gospel portion, Jesus is on his way to Galilee.  On the way he finds Philip and says to him, ‘Follow me’. – and he does.  In fact, he becomes so excited about meeting the Messiah, be goes and finds Nathanael.  As Nathanael approaches, Jesus calls out in a way that shows he knows the kind of person Nathanael is.  And when Jesus says that he saw Nathanael under a fig tree, first century hearers would have understood that Nathanael was a teacher sine teachers usually sat in the shade of a tree to do their teaching.

            Nathanael also becomes a disciple.

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Andrew found Peter.  Philip found Nathanael.  Throughout the gospels we will hear about people finding the Christ and then finding their friends and family and telling them that they have found the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God.

            Jesus now has four or five of his 12 disciples.  As we look at their names and think about what we will read about them doing in the next 3 years of Jesus’ ministry, we must wonder why them?  Was there something Jesus saw in them that the rest of us just don’t have and could never achieve?

            Perhaps not: they were selfish, they were proud, they were bigoted and they lacked faith.  Even Simon Peter, one of the inner circle of disciples would deny Jesus in Jesus’ darkest hour.  To modern ears, we would consider them failures and certainly wouldn’t want to count them among our friends, but Jesus welcomed them as he would welcome so many others who came seeking the truth of God. Jesus practiced ‘Radical Hospitality’.

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            At out session retreat last week, one of the things we looked at were the great ends of the church as they are outlined in the constitution of our church.  We discovered that it’s easy to be so overwhelmed with day-to-day issues that we lose sight of the bigger picture.  We become so concerned with the day-to-day operations of the church that we forget the reason Jesus called us here.  You know the saying, ‘When you’re up to your elbows in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the primary objective is to drain the swamp.’

            We decided to study a book called, ‘Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations’ by Robert Schnase.  Schanse is a bishop in the United Methodist Church who has a heart for churches that want to more faithfully follow Christ – and for those outside the church whom God is calling it.  Schanse offers five practices that can draw us closer to God and in doing so, grow the church.  They are:

            Radical Hospitality

            Passionate Worship

            Intentional Faith Development

            Risk-taking mission and service

            Extravagant Generosity

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This month, we are studying Radical Hospitality.

Christine Pohl has written a book called 'Making Room - Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition'.  She writes that the term 'hospitality' has ‘lost its moral dimension, and in the process, most Christians have lost touch with the amazingly rich and complex tradition of hospitality’.

            Today when we think of the word 'hospitality' we think of big family dinners – of people just like us who think a lot like we do and who will someday return the favor.  When we think of this kind of ‘hospitality’ we know that even through dinner is at our house this year, next year it will be Aunt Matilda’s turn and we can get a well earned rest from our labors.  But the true practice of hospitality is something greatly different.

            In the 21^st century, we see hospitality as something nice to do if we have the time and the resources, but in ancient cultures, it was an obligation.  If a stranger appeared at your door, it was your obligation to care for them – to give them the best that you have to offer - for three days.  This included providing food and shelter and clothing and even protection from harm. 

In the Biblical record, we first hear about the practice of hospitality in Genesis 18 when Father Abraham looks up and sees three men approaching in the heat of the day.  This is a familiar story to us, how three men appeared who were on their way to Sodom and how they told him that his wife Sarah would bear a child.  The Old Testament text has many references to the importance, the commandment, to show kindness to the strangers among us, remembering that we were once strangers in a strange land.  The writer of Hebrews knew this story well because in Hebrews 13:2, we read: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.   The verse that precedes it is just as insightful (Hebrews 13:1) Let mutual love continue.

The practice of hospitality was not just for a past time in another country.  Kindness and hospitality are meant to be hallmarks for all Christians for all time.  In the early Christian church, it was hospitality – the willingness to care for the stranger – that was one of the greatest evangelism tools of the fledgling church.  Jesus relied on it.  When the disciples were sent out two by two they were told to rely on it.  The apostle Paul relied on hospitality as he traveled from city to city preaching the good news.

Jesus relied on the hospitality of others during his years of public ministry.  And he did more that accept that gift from others – he gave hospitality back in full measure to everyone he met.  Jesus never failed to welcome those whom others would have turned away: the sick, the lame, those with bent backs and crippled hands, the blind, the deaf, the leper, the adulterer, the tax collector, the woman, the foreigner, the imperfect, the sinner.

To call ourselves Christians is to take on the name and the identity of ‘little Christs’ – to be in the world - and to the world – the embodiment of the ministry of Jesus Christ to those we meet – and this is nowhere more important than in the practice of hospitality – kindness not to friends – the gospel record has many references that warn us about only welcoming those who can invite us back – kindness to the stranger, the foreigner, the one not exactly like us, but the one whom God has invited into our midst.

How do we do that?  First, we invite them in.  Anyone here ever gone shopping for a new car?  Isn’t that a lot of fun?  I remember once a salesman actually told me I should buy a certain car because the color matched my eyes.  That wasn’t a very good reason to buy a car and it wasn’t a very good reason to trust that salesman either.

Who do talk to when you’re in the market for a new car?  Sure we read consumer magazines, but we talk to other people – people we trust.  We ask them for recommendations and opinions and we go forward from there.  To many people, getting an invite to church from the pastor is just like getting a sales pitch from a car salesman – certainly biased and not altogether trustworthy – but a recommendation from a friend, a word from a satisfied customer – not that’s the way to find out about a car.  It’s the way to find out about a church, too.

Are you happy here?  Have you found the hospitality of God in this place?  Do you hear the Word preached?  Does worship with this congregation make a difference in your life?  If it doesn’t than perhaps you need to find a different church – but if it does, is there no one in your life who needs to know that they are welcome and wanted here?  Is there no one you know who does not need Christ in their life?  Will you let someone live and die in darkness because you don’t like them enough to invite them to church – or is there someone you won’t risk offending as they turn their backs on God and march into Hades?  Invite them in.

Once someone is here of course, we need to welcome them in.  We welcome them in through many forms.  We keep the building clean and neat.  We greet them with a smile and a handshake.  In the last few months, Kelly and I have tried to remove the Christian jargon from the bulletin so that those who perhaps have never come to church will know what is going on.  Soon we’ll be sprucing up the narthex, chapel and office areas to make them more welcoming.

Of course we would never invite someone into our homes and then ignore them, but for many who enter the church – any church – this is exactly what happens.  We believe that we are a friendly church but studies have shown that mostly we are friendly among ourselves.  If a visitor comes in we might shake their hand during the passing of the peace, but after that we ma treat them as if they weren’t there.  What would Jesus have to say about that?  Would we treat Jesus that way if he were to return and join us there?  Welcome them in.

After that we need to connect them in.  The church is a community of faith, the family of God and we need to welcome and provide hospitality beyond the doors of the sanctuary to let people know that they are loved throughout the week, not just here on Sunday mornings.  Is there a stranger among us?  We can invite them to join us for lunch.  Invite them to Bible Study or a PW meeting – invite them to help with some project here or elsewhere.  We can seek them out at the high school basket ball game.  We can initiate conversation when we see them at the grocery store. 

We can take the first step in reaching out to them to help them connect to the community of faith.  We can show them that we believe they have value because Christ says they have value.  Connect them in.

The church – and everyone who calls themselves a Christian is called to practice hospitality just as the early church did – just as Jesus did – by welcoming everyone who comes into our doors - by caring for everyone outside them – not be judging, not by categorizing but with the same openness and love that Jesus showed to all who came his way.

People need to know that God loves them – and they will know it first by knowing that we love them – and we love them because God loves them.  God calls them to faith and the table of our faith just as God calls us.

And let us remember that the hospitality we offer is the hospitality of Christ.  When we offer hospitality we are inviting others to know and share the person of Jesus Christ.  Sure, we may invite people to see the Church at Christmas to see our decorations.  We may invite them to hear the choir do special music, hear our children sing or even hear that crazy preacher of ours, but that can’t be the end of our invitation.

            Jesus invites us to be persons of faith.  When those first few disciples began to follow Jesus, he looked at them and saw them as they were.  He knew their strengths and their weaknesses – and he offered them hospitality anyway – can we do less?

            The good news for us this day is that through Christ we can and through Christ we will.

Amen.