Luke 10.38-42

At first glance, this looks like a negative example — one that it is
even anti-hospitality or anti-food. But we know that Jesus was
definitely not anti-food. Jesus was known to dine with sinners, to feed
5,000 on a hillside, and his first miracle took place at a party,
turning water into wine so that the party was a success.

Food has always been an important part of worship, from bringing food
to the tabernacle as offerings and the priests sacrificing the animals
and knowing which part they were allowed to eat, to the Last Supper
where Jesus, as host, and the disciples gathered for one final meal
together.

In Acts 2 one of the practices of the early Christians was to share
meals together. That practice continues today as we occasionally share
fellowship meals together. Some churches (i.e. the Brethren Churches)
still have a meal together as a part of their Communion. They eat bread
and gravy together in the sanctuary and then share the bread and wine.

Food is a part of hospitality.
Food and drink invites us to gather in conversation and to linger in
one another’s presence. It invites us to spend time together.

In this story, Martha is busily preparing food, and her sister, Mary is
sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching. This reminds
me of Randy and I when we have company. We plan ahead if  the meal
is not quite ready or there are last minute preparations when the
guests come. I will finish with the preparations and he can
“entertain.” Take people’s coats; take them to the living room to be
seated; maybe find out what they would like to drink. But I am pulled.
I need to finish the meal, but I don’t want my guests ignored and alone.

Martha has chosen to prepare the food, but she is not so gracious with
Mary’s choice of listening with Jesus. Jesus response is one of
priorities. He does not condemn Martha’s choice, but commends Mary’s.

The guest comes first
Looking at hospitality, both are doing important things, but Mary
has  chosen the most important. And this brings us to an important
lesson about hospitality. If you have been exposed to business
etiquette you may have come across the mantra: “The customer is always
right.” The customer is more important than anything. Make the customer
happy and  they will be a customer for life.

In the case of hospitality, the guest is always comes first: their
comfort, their needs. “Hospitality occurs when we are not at home and
we  ‘receive’ the gift of feeling at home.”

In church, how do we make someone feel at home?
In the research for my class, as I and my other classmates interviewed
pre-Christians, when asked what they expected or wished for in a
church, the number one response was for the church to be welcoming,
inviting, friendly, accepting. You may think you are those things, but
obviously that is not
the message the church is sending.

If our goal is making a guest feel welcome, then it is more important
that we greet them and get to them a little than it is if we get to
talk to and visit with our friends. We are make a stranger feel like a
friend.

The importance of listening.
I may be pushing the meaning of our scripture text, but notice that
Mary is listening to Jesus. It is important to listen to our guests.

Host and guest sometimes reverse roles
Jesus becomes the real host. And isn’t God always the perfect host. He knows our needs before we ask.

The source of hospitality is love and it is shown through sacrifice
Jesus reaches out in his grace and his love. He sacrifices himself for
us. Jesus chooses our life over his own; he gives his life for ours. We
were strangers, and he died for us, so that we could be his friends, so
that we could be a part of his family.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3.1a)

"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13.34)

Extend hospitality to all.
Women? Why would a teacher spend time teaching women.

The “food” that lasts.
Mary has chosen the “food” that will last. In our hospitality do we offer the “food” that will last?

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

Matthew 25.34-40

Today, we’re talking about conversations. Conversation is one of the
primary ways that we relate to others. To get us started, let’s look at
a couple conversations that Jesus had with Nicodemus and the woman at the well.

These
two stories in John 3-4, where Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus,
followed by a conversation with an unnamed woman at Jacob’s well,
really go well together. There’s a …

• A man who is named and a woman who is unnamed
• A man who comes to Jesus and a woman whom Jesus approaches
• A man who comes to Jesus at night and a woman who meets with Jesus during the day
• A man whose status is high and a woman who is on the bottom side of
  everything (the fact that she was alone at the well during the day;
  other women went in groups during the cool of the day)
• Both talk about water, Spirit, life, Jews. Both show Jesus’ capacity for penetrating insight
• Both Nicodemus and the woman both want to engage him in spiritual conversation
• Nicodemus fades into the night; we can’t tell where his story ends; her story ends with a type of confession

These two conversations show that Jesus knows people at the
extremes; the implication is that he knows people in between as well.
Whereas the woman at the well appears to make an immediate response to
follow Jesus, Nicodemus’ journey was spread out over a longer period of
time. Read John 7.50-52 and John 19.38-42.

In the burial scene, Nicodemus moves from the shadows and identifies
himself with Jesus. Some people come to Jesus agonizingly slow, like
Nicodemus, whereas for the woman at the well was more instantaneous.

We tend to compartmentalize life — secular vs. spiritual. In Hebrew
culture, there were no words for secular/spiritual. It was just life —
and God was part of people’s lives. Our conversations should reflect
that.

It seems to me, evangelism isn’t a method as much as it is a
relationship, and a relationship involves conversations. It’s about
being who you are. If you are a follower of Jesus, and Jesus is the
center of our lives, then he will also be part of our conversations.

The good news is that, just as each of us has a unique DNA make-up,
so too we have different approaches to spiritual conversations (i.e.
evangelism). These six approaches come from Bill Hybels and Mark
Mittelberg’s, Becoming a Contagious Christian …

• Confrontational [Peter]
• Intellectual [Paul]
• Testimonial [Blind man, John 9]
• Interpersonal [Matthew]
• Invitational [Samaritan woman, john 4]
• Service [Dorcas, Acts 9]

What do you have to know in order to have spiritual conversations?

"Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you
are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." (1
Peter 3.15)

You don’t have to be an expert on spiritual matters. You don’t have
to know everything. You simply have to be on a spiritual journey of
following Jesus. When questions come up that you don’t know how to
respond to, as they often will, it’s an opportunity for you to learn
and grow in an area that you’ve not considered very much, perhaps.

Is it necessary to talk about Jesus in every conversation?
No.
Not every conversation has to be “spiritual.” If we’re living for God,
and Jesus is truly a part of our lives, I believe that will be
noticeable, and will sometimes lead to spiritual conversations. For
example, Nicodemus came to Jesus because there was something about him
that drew Nicodemus to him. The woman at the well, though she had never
met Jesus, was drawn to him through their conversation.

O God,
you have invited us to be in conversation with you since creation. And
you reach out to the world you love so much, one person, one
conversation, at a time. Please use us — our lives and our
conversations — to spread your revolution in this world! Amen.

Continue reading →