come sit beside me
This transcript is a re-work of some of the content Pastor John offered during his meditation on Sunday, July 2nd. To view the service and words shared in the service, visit our You Tube channel.
John: This summer I am coming to a realization that I tend to overcomplicate things. (Some who know me well are saying, “you are only now coming to that realization!)I know that at my age we start to think about simplifying and culling stuff and practices. But as of late I have been thinking about when it comes to church and matters of faith, it is easy to make things more complex. Nate: can you relate at all?
Nate: Well, I sometimes have the opposite problem. I actually tend to under-complicate things which in turn sometimes makes things more complicated if that makes any sense. For example there have been times I’ve been asked to do a concert here at the church. And the question comes up, what do you need in terms of support? My general answer is “Nothing. I’m just going to hire some musicians, turn on the lights, unlock the doors, and we’ll go.” Which….in my perfect world, that’s how it would go. But I’m always reminded by you or others that, “No Nate, we need to market it, we need someone to decorate the sanctuary, someone to make cookies, greeters, the list goes on and on.”
John: We are recording this here in Nashville known as Music City and it was the late great songwriter Harlan Howard who said “country music ain’t nothin’ but three chords and the truth.”
As a composer and musician what is your take on this simplicity/complexity juxtaposition?
Nate: That’s a great question. For the music itself, the simplicity or complexity of music varies greatly based on the style of music and what the music is trying to achieve. I’ve written both very simple and very complex music and neither is greater than the other. Complex music doesn’t necessarily make it good, simple music doesn’t make it bad.
(Cue up: Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring symphonic piece that picks up the simple Shaker song “Tis a Gift to be Simple”)
John: So, I think there is something to be said about amid all the noise and churn around us to simplify. Like with the sayings and teachings of Jesus. And what I am thinking about today are the words of Jesus when it comes to welcoming and hospitality. Particularly where Jesus is sending the disciples out. The words of Jesus are found in Matthew 10:40-42. Let me read them:
Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
10:41 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;
10:42 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."
Distilling it down: what do the teachings of Jesus have to say to us when it comes to our practice of hospitality. (That is not to say that the teachings of Jesus are simplistic. You can spend a lifetime trying to understand his parables - can be distilled down to a simplicity.)
In today’s episode we are going to reflect on these words about hospitality.
John (to Nate): what music comes to mind that powerfully conveys this theme of hospitality?
Nate: I think a great simple hymn of hospitality is “I’m Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table”. It’s a simple song of welcoming and hospitality where everyone is invited.
John: Well, let’s turn to your music. I will be back with a 10 minute reflection. As always thank you for listening and sharing and we welcome your comments.
Pastor John’s message
Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me… 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."
As I said in the opening, there is something to be said about amid all the noise and churn around us to distill things down to the essence. Which is not the same as simplistic. As a pastor in the Presbyterian church who has gone through the credentialing process of seminary and a post-secondary degree, it is easy to prioritize that brains are what’s required for a deeper faith, or to have faith at all. Pretty soon we forget what is core, especially with what are the core principles about how our faith in God makes a difference. Particularly when it comes to the sayings and teachings of Jesus. And what I am thinking about today are the words of Jesus when it comes to welcoming and hospitality. This saying of Jesus in Matthew 10 falls in the middle of Jesus’ short ministry and in the thick of his work with the disciples. Not everything was clear sailing: Jesus’ words create division. And there was discouragement.
Jesus’ immediate response to division and discouragement as you look at Matthew 10 and 11 is to offer thanksgiving that the gospel message is not something to be grasped by knowledge or wisdom or sophisticated reasoning. Faith, after all, as reformer Martin Luther would put it, is ultimately a gift of the Holy Spirit and cannot be conjured by our own strength or power. Indeed, Jesus’ teachings are hidden from the intelligent and revealed to the young and inexperienced, the simple and pure-hearted. And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones (this could be new or vulnerable followers of Christ) in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."
Hospitality is a reciprocal practice, involving both giving and receiving. Being the one who welcomes AND being the one who is welcomed.
I frequently reference Diana Butler Bass’s words as I follow her substack. In a recent post she writes: “It is this circle of mutual welcome, setting tables of water and bread, providing safety and shelter, that is the birthing place of the commonwealth of God.”
When Christians think of Jesus and welcoming and hospitality, we usually think of “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25). Hearing it, we tend to position ourselves as the host in the exchange, the one who opens the door. Our motivation? To be like Christ. Or perhaps, too, if honest, being the host, keeps us in the seat of control. We get to be the one who welcomes. But the words of Jesus “whoever welcomes you welcomes me” places us in the story differently. We are the stranger, a potential guest, not the host. That makes this teaching of Jesus a bit harder to take. We might enjoy welcoming, but perhaps feel awkward being welcomed.
About being welcomed, Marjorie Thompson writes of an experience of being welcomed in her book, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. Marjorie Thompson tells the story of her college graduation trip when her mother and her toured Scotland. On the day that they toured the Highlands, they arrived at their destination town rather late and the bed and breakfast in which they had planned to stay was full. Darkness had fallen and it was raining. They were simply given a boarding house to try and so the cab just dropped them in front of a house with no lights on. The cab left.
They knocked on the door and a surprised couple answered. They asked if they had room and when the couple answered that someone was already in the room, she said their faces must have reflected their washed out spirits. But they told them to wait outside the door and Marjorie and her mother heard muffled voices. The door opened and the woman told them to come in. She showed them to a lovely room with a warm bed where they sank, exhausted.
The next morning, they were served a scrumptious Scottish breakfast of eggs and sausage, toast and jam and wonderful Scottish tea. It wasn’t until they were gathering their luggage that they realized that the couple had slept on the sofa in the living room. They had given the travelers their own room.
While we may be blessed enough to extend hospitality, sooner or later, every one of us shows up at a door unexpectedly and unsure who might be on the other side. We need to be welcomed as we are, without qualification, accepted and cared for.
Matthew 10:40: "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” underscores both the reciprocity of hospitality and the necessity of welcoming strangers in a just society.
And about welcoming: Diana Butler Bass’s substack post highlights a quote from Dorothy Day who wrote:
“A custom existed among the first generations of Christians, when faith was a bright fire that warmed more than those who kept it burning. In every house then a room was kept ready for any stranger who might ask for shelter; it was even called “the stranger’s room.” Not because these people thought they could trace something of someone they loved in the stranger who used it, not because the man or woman to whom they gave shelter reminded them of Christ, but because — plain and simple and stupendous fact — he or she was Christ.”
Welcoming the stranger arises from our mutual humanity and shared vulnerability.
One way we are practicing this is on August 31st we are partnering with community organizations for a late afternoon/evening to bring awareness to substance misuse and other mental health-related issues impacting individuals and families in Middle Tennessee. We are hosting friends and strangers on International Overdose Awareness Day to end overdose (a national public health crisis), destigmatize ones who died from it and recognize the tremendous grief of the families and friends left behind. We are using our grounds to:
Provide an opportunity for public mourning without fear of being guilted or shamed.
Provide community members with information about the issue of fatal and non-fatal overdose. We will provide training on how to offer Naloxone to those who overdose.
Send the message to those struggling with substance misuse disorder that they are valued.
To inform people about the risk of overdose.
Hope you will participate and volunteer and come and learn - as we provide a witness of hospitality.
We are recording this episode on the heels of the 4th of July where we sing patriotic songs of welcome and the beauty of our varied land and its people. But in reality, our nation is struggling with how to move toward a society of larger hospitality. And we have seen it in the rulings of the Supreme Court this week – their decisions against affirmative action and LGBTQ rights circumscribe the spheres in which some people can participate in and benefit from the rights of citizenship and access.
In light of these words from Jesus: how do we welcome strangers who are unwelcome in other settings?
I really like how Diana Butler Bass puts it: “When the law fails to welcome and include, the practice of hospitality falls back to those who envision a truly accepting society — a community where all are welcomed and all are fed, a place of reciprocal generosity, humbled by the tender knowledge that (at any moment) we might be either host or guest. The New Testament is clear. When Caesar’s law rules against hospitality to strangers, God’s people inveigh against such laws. We welcome everybody. We respect the dignity of every person. If you turn people away, you are turning Jesus Christ himself away.”
Patrick Henry said (not the dead famous patriot who in 1775, said: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”) but the living Christian writer: “hospitality invites to prayer before it checks credentials, welcomes to the table before administering the entrance exam.”
Being a member of a church is not the same as being a member of a club. There’s really no protocol. There’s no entrance requirement. There’s no set fee. Unlike other organizations, we don’t limit ourselves to those who are like us. In fact, we celebrate our differences and grow into them. That’s the reason that we in the Presbyterian Church (USA) have open communion. Everyone is welcome at our table.
Hospitality is about more than kindness. Or making nice. Hospitality is becoming a prophetic practice.
Matthew 10:41: “ 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;”
So I said I have become more interested in simplifying rather than adding complexity. When it comes to hospitality, it distills down to this:
You have a place at the table when it comes to Jesus’ table: you are invited. You are a guest.
Who else is invited? Everyone
Jesus said: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.”
How hospitable are we to be? Very. It is core. Hospitality is not just welcoming or being nice; it is sharing who we are and at the same time opening ourselves for others to share themselves with us. Every heart and table is to be open. It might just be our greatest witness and activism – nothing less than the extravagant welcome of God.
Henri Nouwen once wrote that hospitality is “creating space”, not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. So, what that means is that if you open yourselves in hospitality, open yourselves to welcoming others, to gathering in together, you are also opening yourself to change. As we become part of one another, even those who are different from us (no, correct that…ESPECIALLY those who are different from us), we enter the Kingdom of God.
And here is the simple thought on welcoming and hospitality. It boils down to this mantra: “Come, sit beside me.” It is what Jesus says to you. It is what Jesus invites you to do with others. Think and pray about that in your life.
Today’s prayer is an adaptation of a very important affirmation of faith called the Brief Statement of Faith which is fitting for today’s theme.
Prayer:
O God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father, we trust in you. In sovereign love you, O God, created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. We acknowledge that we rebel against you, O God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring Your commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve Your condemnation. Yet, we are thankful that you are a God who acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, You, the God of Abraham and Sarah, chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing our cry, You delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage. Loving us still, you make us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, Like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still. And we praise you and thank you. Amen.