Sermons

Woven through all of scripture, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, is the challenge of hospitality. In the book “Practicing Our Faith” Ana Maria Pineda describes hospitality as “the practice of providing a space where the stranger is taken in and known as one who bears gifts.” (p.31) Indeed, a case can be made that hospitality forms one of the key cornerstones of our faith. It is an essential part of what it means to be human. We are relational beings, with a basic need to be welcoming because we have a basic need to be welcomed, to know and to be known.
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Almost three weeks ago I sat down to decide on a title for this sermon. That’s always a tricky business and it becomes extra complicated when you factor in the reality that I would be reflecting on experiences which had not yet occurred. As many of you are aware, when I go away somewhere for a week or more, I often try to discover my sermon in the experience. I knew we would be traveling to beautiful places like Zion Canyon in southern Utah and the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. At the time it seemed a safe bet that the sermon would somehow reflect the wonders of nature in which we would be immersing ourselves. So I decided on the title “The Wonder of It All” and chose as scripture texts the creation story from Genesis and a creation related Psalm.

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Over and over again Jesus seemed to find himself on the receiving end of sharp criticism for the same basic offense. He was forever getting in trouble for the same thing. After awhile you’d think he would learn. But he just kept doing it. He stubbornly refused to submit to the instruction of the religious authorities of his day regarding this unseemly behavior. “Stop associating with ‘those’ kind of people,” they would say. To which his reply was simple -- “ ‘Those kind of people’ are who need my message the most.” So Jesus just kept hanging out with the “wrong” crowd, telling them in no uncertain terms that God loved them, and so did he.
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