Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
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On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
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What is the nature of discipleship? According to Luke, Jesus declares discipleship is hospitality.
“There once was a religious and devout woman who was filled with love for God. She went to church every morning. And every morning she met children and beggars calling out to her for help. But she did not even see them since she was so immersed in her devotions.
One day she went to church in her usual manner. She pushed the door but it would not open. She pushed it again and tried another door but found the doors all locked.
Distressed at the thought that she would miss the service for the first time in years, and not knowing what to do, she looked up. And there, right before her eyes was a note pinned to the door.
It said, “I’m out there!”[i]
In today’s reading from Luke Jesus is talking to people at a dinner party. You can tell from the way Luke writes about the situation that there is tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. “The Pharisees were watching Jesus closely,” Luke writes.
Remember, the Pharisees were not bad people. They were the ones who closely followed religious rules and applied them in their lives. They studied Torah. They shared their wealth with the poor. They were the upstanding citizens of the day. Some Biblical scholars even suggest that Jesus may have been one of the Pharisees based on his frequent interactions and conflicts with them along the way to Jerusalem.
Jesus first shares a conventional wisdom of the day with the guests at the dinner party, “Be humble. Real honour does not come from self-seeking choices, but from what is conferred on you by others.” He adds comments to indicate that God is the ultimate source of the honour – God will humble those who exalt themselves and exalt those who humble themselves. Jesus is saying that humility, not status-seeking should be the way of life for his disciples.[ii]
If Jesus ended his remarks here, he may not have escalated the existing tension between him and the Pharisees. There is no harm in telling people to be humble. There is not much discomfort in hearing a radical young rabbi say that ultimately it is God, not people, who decides on who is great and who is not.
But then Jesus goes too far and offends the host who has graciously thrown a party at which he is a guest. Jesus asserts that the kind of people one should invite to dinner is not one’s friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbours, but the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
Jesus challenges both the host and the guests. Genuine hospitality requires unconditional generosity where you offer something without expecting anything in return. Genuine hospitality requires that you offer something to those who you think are least deserving of your generosity. Genuine hospitality is not merely inviting only those who are near and dear to you – what we normally do – but invite those who usually get left off the invitation list – those who are not welcome or spurned by us for justifiable reasons.
I hear Jesus challenging the Pharisees and his disciples to go beyond normal conventional wisdoms and rules of social engagements. “Move beyond the norms you are comfortable with!” is what I hear. For Jesus, discipleship points to radically living out the meaning of hospitality in one’s life.”
The kind of society Jesus urges his disciples to imagine and establish is a society beyond the norms and conventions of his day. It is a place where people can live without the need to be first. It is a place where people can live in harmony where they do not have to compete against others to be better than their neighbours. It is a place where values are not defined by how much we are worth in terms of acquisitions but by who we are in building a society where radical acts of compassion and kindness are the measure of a person. Discipleship requires such acts of radical hospitality.
It is easier said than done. Some may say that it is an impossible dream.
There is a church building in South Korea that was converted from a traditional Korean house. It is an “L” shaped house with beautiful ceramic tiled roof. There is a glass display case similar to the one we have here across from the church office. At the center of the display case are old photos of the lay leader who was the first convert of the Christian faith in that town in the early 1900’s and a photo of the first Korean minister of the congregation.
In the early 1900’s in Korea, as in other countries, a caste system was deeply entrenched. People were divided into distinct classes: an upper class, a middle class, a lower class, slaves, and the untouchables. Although the class system was not a primary marker for one’s financial status, being part of the upper class almost guaranteed upward social and financial mobility.
One’s social status was inherited from the ancestors. So if you were born into an upper class, you belonged to that privileged class regardless of your financial situation. At the other end of the scale, you inherited the status of slave if you were born to a mother who was a slave. Slavery was a norm and hereditary. The caste system was rigid and unchanging from one generation to the next.
There was an upper class land owner in that Korean town who converted into Christian faith. The religious conversion of an upper class man, who enjoyed the privileges of the caste system, to a religion that espoused “equality” for and of all, was a miracle in itself. As a result of his conversion, the rest of his household, including his slaves, became Christian. Much like the early Christian church.
When the Korean church was selecting a leading elder for the congregation, the land owner was the obvious choice. The land owner, while he was honoured to be nominated, believed that one of his slaves had a deeper faith, and bowed out of the nomination. As a result, the slave became the leading elder of the congregation.
The congregation, like all the Christian churches in early 20th century Korea, had always had foreign missionaries as their ministers. This congregation, however, felt that they were ready to have a Korean minister lead the congregation and that one of the members would be trained for ministry. The land owner was again nominated for the position for he was the most educated amongst them and had a good reputation and wealth. The land owner once again backed off, saying that his slave, now the leading elder, was the one who should be trained for ministry since he had the deepest faith.
The history of the congregation proudly states that the slave became the first Korean minister for that congregation. The land owner, after his conversion to the Christian faith, promoted, supported, and freed his slave, and in the end served under his former slave’s pastoral leadership. Such an action would have been seen as socially unacceptable and would have brought shame to the family. Many of his extended family members and his peers would have shunned him for his irresponsible and reckless action.
Giving up his privileges of being upper class may have been one thing but lowering oneself beneath one’s slave by working as an elder in a congregation that is pastored by one’s former slave was impossible for anyone at that time to imagine. But the land owner believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ commanded him to live out the unconditional generosity God had shown through Jesus Christ. The congregation flourished and thrived because of the embodiment of the liberating words of Jesus through the land owner. Hospitality – creating a Household of God where even a slave can become a leader – was the foundation of Christian faith in Korea.
The land owner’s actions show that genuine hospitality is moving beyond being generous and moving toward those whom we think are less deserving of our generosity. For the followers of Jesus, hospitality is about creating and building a Household of God where everyone – even those who are social outcasts – are actively sought out to be invited, welcomed, cherished, and embraced as part of the community. Genuine hospitality is personal & public, social & economic, and religious & political choices and commitments.
Building a society founded on God’s vision requires more than a humble attitude. The kind of mind-set we need is a radical hospitality.
When our actions as church do not reflect our faith, church would be the wrong place to seek God. If we believe that a church building is the place of encountering God, we may be missing the message from God saying, “I’m out there!”
What would it mean for us to “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind – those who cannot repay us? What would it mean for us to live out God’s radical hospitality in our lives?
In 2008 we are going to celebrate 100 years of ministry in our neighbourhood. There are so many things we can discover, learn and celebrate about our 100 years of ministry – friendships created and fostered; faith lives deepened and enriched; laughter and tears with our neighbours; burdens shared and lightened; a community to cherish and celebrate. But most of all, our discipleship must continue to be deeply rooted in a commitment toward making a safe and welcoming space for all who are challenged in spirit and body. For we are followers of Jesus of Nazareth – a master who acts as a slave to his disciples by washing their feet and washing away the prejudices and misconceptions that only the strong survives and gets honoured.
The kind of society we are actively imagining and working for is a place where hospitality means opening our doors and going out to meet and invite all who are in need of God’s compassion. We are called to be disciples of radical hospitality. May we continue to be challenged by the Gospel of Jesus to imagine beyond our seeing and see through the compassionate eyes of Jesus.
Amen.
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