Sermon Notes for January 7th
January 7, 2006
Ephesians 3: 12-1-12
“The Boundless Riches of God”
1. As a minister, one of my responsibilities is to visit people in the hospital as I did last week (two people from Cass Lake). How many of you have been in the hospital at one time or another? Or, at least visited someone in a hospital?
Today’s theme for communion is hospitality. We have used it before.
Paul links hospitality with Love, as he writes in Romans 12: 9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
In Hebrews 13, we read also:
1Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
The word there is entertain, but Eugene Peterson changes it back in his translation which goes like this:
1-4Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!
2. I bring this up, in part because, the word hospitable is derived, originally from the Latin word Hospitalia or Hospitalis which originally meant: HOSPITAL – WHICH WAS A PLACE OF REST FOR A STRANGER OR TRAVELER OR A PLACE FOR TAKING CARE OF THE INFIRM, THE SICK, OR THE NEEDY.
Hospitality is then derived from Hospital. It means to take care of and be generous toward those in need, who are sick, or in prison.
Of course, regarding hospitality we are reminder most specifically of the words of Jesus in Mathew 25:
35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
3. It sounds good, but as we know, we must be careful about how we go about being generous for it must be done in a spirit of humility – and not for the sake of making us feel important or self righteous.
As someone said, nobody really wants a hand-out … what they want is a hand – up.
Nobody really wants to stay sick or destitute, what they want is a chance to get back on their feet. So, we must be careful about how we show hospitality especially to those who we feel the desire to help.
When I was recently in the Twin Cities I was having coffee with a friend and his wife. As we left the coffeehouse a rather strange looking street person approached me asking for money. However, I decided to try to talk to her as I desired to go beyond a handout and see if she could get a referral to some place that would provide more comprehensive assistance. But, she would hear nothing of it.
At this point my friend Larry came over and gave her a twenty dollar bill.
You can imagine her response … but Larry wanted no accolades … and so we left … And, he refused to tell his wife how much he gave her. Later, as we were walking, I asked him about it, I said, “Sometimes you are always so tight fisted about money (and he is) and then, you turn around and just give it away.” And he said, I was down and out once … and so, you never, know, that woman could have been me>”
4. And I told him the story which was told to me by another Larry …the Rev. Larry Nielson. :This Larry is a graduate of Northwestern University - a very prestigious school. In his last church assignment he was at Wesley Methodist church in Minneapolis. The church runs a soup kitchen on Saturdays for the many homeless and low income people in the area. One day Larry was standing around talking to the people waiting in line and he spotted a man with a Northestern Univ. sweat shirt and learned that the man was suffering from some emotional condition and could not work. He was on disability. Later, Larry had a revelation when he, too, realized that "it could have been me!"
5. Perhaps we all have a story like that.
My story is about the time I was in 9th or 10th grade and one of my classmates was burned badly by a fire in a wood stove when his sister threw kerosene on it and it exploded. He lost most the skin on his back and in those days there were not the kind of skin graft treatments we have today. For weeks and months he lingered in the hospital. His church's youth group bought him a baseball glove to cheer him up but that was about it. So, concerned that he had few friends, I began visiting him in the hospital. Mostly we just sat and talked. After a while I began to realize that I was one of the only people who were seeing him. Later, after school was out in the summer I continued to see him. Then, I went away with my father on vacation. When I came back I was told that he had died of pneumonia.
When I look back on it, it was perhaps my first opportunity to really practice hospitality … in a hospital setting.And, looking back, I think now, although I didn’t really know it at the time, it was probably the very beginning of my ministry – for it was, by no means, the last time I was to ever visit someone in the hospital.
6. These are human stories, of course, but there is also a greater dimension to hospitality. And this is the hospitality of God. And this was demonstrated, of course by Jesus. For instance, hear these vivid words describing the situation very early in the Jesus ministry in Galilee by biblical scholar Dominic Crossan:
Jesus comes into an unknown village in Lower Galilee. He is watched by the cold, hard eyes, of peasants who have been living long enough at the subsistence level to know where the line is drawn been subsistence and destitution. He speaks about the rule of God, and they listen as much from curiosity as anything else. They know all about rule and power, about kingdom and empire, but they understand it in terms of taxes and debt, malnutrition and sickness and demonic possession. What they really want to know is what can this kingdom of God do for a lame child, a blind parent, a demented soul screaming in isolation among the graves at the edge of the village.
And then Jesus heals someone … or exorcises a demon … and people are impressed, they don’t quite know what to say … And, as would be expected, they invite him to stay at the home of the village leader … but, instead Jesus stays at the home of the disposed woman.
What kind of kingdom is this, they wonder?
7. What kind of Kingdom is it, we wonder?
For not only did Jesus preach the Good News about God’s kingdom, but he acted it out. He practiced radical hospitality. He ate with the sick, sinners, tax collectors, and all manner of people. And not just the poor, but also the rich, too. Everyone.
For we forget that the rich and well to do … need God’s kingdom, too.
Hospitality for the rich. Hospitality for the poor. Hospitality for everyone.
That is what the Eucharist, the communion is all about. Same food for everyone. Same bread. Same juice. All in equal amounts. Everybody being welcome at the table of the Lord.
Can it be any other way? Are some to favored. Are the poor better than the rich … the rich better than the poor?
Who, shall be first in the Kingdom of God?
8. And what are the “boundless riches of Christ” which Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians which we read this morning?
What is the plan of the mystery of hidden for ages in God who created all things?
Paul, was in prison at the time he wrote this by the way, awaiting trial in Rome. Let us hear it again, in the Eugene Peterson paraphrase:
1-3This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody in his kingdom. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
What Paul means here is that the message of Christ would be extended to the Gentiles … to the whole world … and was not just of the Israelites.
Then he continues:
4-6As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, and same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.7-8This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. 8-10And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and hospitality of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! 11-13All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
9. Doesn’t Peterson make things so clear … so easy to understand?
And this is the task of the church … to make it easy to understand. To help everyone to understand how important they are in the eyes of God. To reach out in word and deed to those who are lost, confused, sick, and in need of care. To practice hospitality in the name of Christ.
And to do it well … and in love … and in humility.
And in return we will receive abundant riches … love, peace, mercy, generosity, joy, and faith … all that we need and could ever want … all through, as Paul says, through the Mystery of Christ. Whose spirit we celebrate and call upon … with open hearts … today … as we participate in the Holy Eucharist with thankfulness and gratitude.
Let us pray …
Ephesians 3: 12-1-12
“The Boundless Riches of God”
1. As a minister, one of my responsibilities is to visit people in the hospital as I did last week (two people from Cass Lake). How many of you have been in the hospital at one time or another? Or, at least visited someone in a hospital?
Today’s theme for communion is hospitality. We have used it before.
Paul links hospitality with Love, as he writes in Romans 12: 9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
In Hebrews 13, we read also:
1Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
The word there is entertain, but Eugene Peterson changes it back in his translation which goes like this:
1-4Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!
2. I bring this up, in part because, the word hospitable is derived, originally from the Latin word Hospitalia or Hospitalis which originally meant: HOSPITAL – WHICH WAS A PLACE OF REST FOR A STRANGER OR TRAVELER OR A PLACE FOR TAKING CARE OF THE INFIRM, THE SICK, OR THE NEEDY.
Hospitality is then derived from Hospital. It means to take care of and be generous toward those in need, who are sick, or in prison.
Of course, regarding hospitality we are reminder most specifically of the words of Jesus in Mathew 25:
35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
3. It sounds good, but as we know, we must be careful about how we go about being generous for it must be done in a spirit of humility – and not for the sake of making us feel important or self righteous.
As someone said, nobody really wants a hand-out … what they want is a hand – up.
Nobody really wants to stay sick or destitute, what they want is a chance to get back on their feet. So, we must be careful about how we show hospitality especially to those who we feel the desire to help.
When I was recently in the Twin Cities I was having coffee with a friend and his wife. As we left the coffeehouse a rather strange looking street person approached me asking for money. However, I decided to try to talk to her as I desired to go beyond a handout and see if she could get a referral to some place that would provide more comprehensive assistance. But, she would hear nothing of it.
At this point my friend Larry came over and gave her a twenty dollar bill.
You can imagine her response … but Larry wanted no accolades … and so we left … And, he refused to tell his wife how much he gave her. Later, as we were walking, I asked him about it, I said, “Sometimes you are always so tight fisted about money (and he is) and then, you turn around and just give it away.” And he said, I was down and out once … and so, you never, know, that woman could have been me>”
4. And I told him the story which was told to me by another Larry …the Rev. Larry Nielson. :This Larry is a graduate of Northwestern University - a very prestigious school. In his last church assignment he was at Wesley Methodist church in Minneapolis. The church runs a soup kitchen on Saturdays for the many homeless and low income people in the area. One day Larry was standing around talking to the people waiting in line and he spotted a man with a Northestern Univ. sweat shirt and learned that the man was suffering from some emotional condition and could not work. He was on disability. Later, Larry had a revelation when he, too, realized that "it could have been me!"
5. Perhaps we all have a story like that.
My story is about the time I was in 9th or 10th grade and one of my classmates was burned badly by a fire in a wood stove when his sister threw kerosene on it and it exploded. He lost most the skin on his back and in those days there were not the kind of skin graft treatments we have today. For weeks and months he lingered in the hospital. His church's youth group bought him a baseball glove to cheer him up but that was about it. So, concerned that he had few friends, I began visiting him in the hospital. Mostly we just sat and talked. After a while I began to realize that I was one of the only people who were seeing him. Later, after school was out in the summer I continued to see him. Then, I went away with my father on vacation. When I came back I was told that he had died of pneumonia.
When I look back on it, it was perhaps my first opportunity to really practice hospitality … in a hospital setting.And, looking back, I think now, although I didn’t really know it at the time, it was probably the very beginning of my ministry – for it was, by no means, the last time I was to ever visit someone in the hospital.
6. These are human stories, of course, but there is also a greater dimension to hospitality. And this is the hospitality of God. And this was demonstrated, of course by Jesus. For instance, hear these vivid words describing the situation very early in the Jesus ministry in Galilee by biblical scholar Dominic Crossan:
Jesus comes into an unknown village in Lower Galilee. He is watched by the cold, hard eyes, of peasants who have been living long enough at the subsistence level to know where the line is drawn been subsistence and destitution. He speaks about the rule of God, and they listen as much from curiosity as anything else. They know all about rule and power, about kingdom and empire, but they understand it in terms of taxes and debt, malnutrition and sickness and demonic possession. What they really want to know is what can this kingdom of God do for a lame child, a blind parent, a demented soul screaming in isolation among the graves at the edge of the village.
And then Jesus heals someone … or exorcises a demon … and people are impressed, they don’t quite know what to say … And, as would be expected, they invite him to stay at the home of the village leader … but, instead Jesus stays at the home of the disposed woman.
What kind of kingdom is this, they wonder?
7. What kind of Kingdom is it, we wonder?
For not only did Jesus preach the Good News about God’s kingdom, but he acted it out. He practiced radical hospitality. He ate with the sick, sinners, tax collectors, and all manner of people. And not just the poor, but also the rich, too. Everyone.
For we forget that the rich and well to do … need God’s kingdom, too.
Hospitality for the rich. Hospitality for the poor. Hospitality for everyone.
That is what the Eucharist, the communion is all about. Same food for everyone. Same bread. Same juice. All in equal amounts. Everybody being welcome at the table of the Lord.
Can it be any other way? Are some to favored. Are the poor better than the rich … the rich better than the poor?
Who, shall be first in the Kingdom of God?
8. And what are the “boundless riches of Christ” which Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians which we read this morning?
What is the plan of the mystery of hidden for ages in God who created all things?
Paul, was in prison at the time he wrote this by the way, awaiting trial in Rome. Let us hear it again, in the Eugene Peterson paraphrase:
1-3This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody in his kingdom. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
What Paul means here is that the message of Christ would be extended to the Gentiles … to the whole world … and was not just of the Israelites.
Then he continues:
4-6As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, and same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.7-8This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. 8-10And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and hospitality of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! 11-13All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
9. Doesn’t Peterson make things so clear … so easy to understand?
And this is the task of the church … to make it easy to understand. To help everyone to understand how important they are in the eyes of God. To reach out in word and deed to those who are lost, confused, sick, and in need of care. To practice hospitality in the name of Christ.
And to do it well … and in love … and in humility.
And in return we will receive abundant riches … love, peace, mercy, generosity, joy, and faith … all that we need and could ever want … all through, as Paul says, through the Mystery of Christ. Whose spirit we celebrate and call upon … with open hearts … today … as we participate in the Holy Eucharist with thankfulness and gratitude.
Let us pray …
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