Hospitality and Abundance

Luke 1:7-14

I’m going to, intentionally, make a huge mistake in preaching. I’m going to expose exegetical work, it’s a no-no, like letting you slip show while you preach. Which really just means, I’m going to show off some things I know.

We start with the text. Completely unlike today, the ancient near eastern world had a clear understanding of power, hierarchy, honor, and shame. And this isn’t shame like Brene Brown talks about shame, This is a deeply embedded social structure, not an internal understanding of oneself. Here are some things about an honor-shame society.

There is honor in one’s name and one’s blood. 

It why the Bible references God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those are their honorable ancestors. It’s why there was always a list of genealogies. Or a reference to who someone’s father is. 

Honor can be passed on. 

Honor is understood in community

In the ancient world, honor defines your place in the system, so if someone does not respond to you with honor then that actually says something about the honor that you don’t have. Or if others treat you well, invite you to the best parties and seats at the table, that says something too. 

You need those around to you help define and reinforce your honor. 

Honor is limited. 

There is only so much to go around. And so who you spend time with will either add to your honor or take from it. 

Honor can be challenged and won from another. When you love your children equally, in the ancient world, well that might be true but only one is going to get all the money the resources, the titles, the honor. 

If we know what we’re looking for, we can see honor deeply embedded in the stories in the bible. even if we don’t know that’s what we’re looking at. It’s the shock when the youngest son becomes the recipient of the family’s inheritance. Or when Joseph dreamed his brothers would bow down to him.

It’s when the disciples asked Jesus for a favor, that one of them sit on Jesus’ left and the other on his right. The places of honor when men, always men, settle in to dine together. 

So let’s think about this table again. 

 This is a room full of powerful men. They’re watching Jesus, Jesus is watching them. They’re eyeing up each other to see who is the biggest of the wigs around. When it comes time to recline at the table, they scramble, because honor is gained by sharing the best company at dinner and they certainly didn’t want Jesus in the honorable seats because screw that guy.

Some of you may remember what this is like. The ways I see it, a high school cafeteria has such seating expectations. They are more often than not unspoken but you know when the rules have been violated. It’s why it is a movie and tv trope when the nerdy kid accidentally sits at the cool kids' table or when Regina George brings Kady up to sit with the plastics. 

Jesus offers those gathered, some sound advice. There is more honor in being moved up to the better seats and so much honor to lose when you have been asked to move down. That makes sense, be humble in the honor system. Make it work for you. 

But we know Jesus, He isn’t about sound advice in the systems of the world. He’s about overturning the systems. He isn’t about telling the powerful how to gain more power but turning power on its head. 

So he doesn’t stop with “be humble” but invite those with the least honor, the most shame to dine at your table.  The homeless, the sick, the hungry, the forgotten all of those who can offer you nothing. And those for whom it will cost you much.

Remember, honor is limited and when you spend time with people on the same level as you may be your honor splashes into each other. Or maybe you spend time with someone just above you, and some of their honor becomes yours but these folks, you will pour yourself out with no return. You will make yourself less.

You will lose your place in the world today.

That’s not an easy thing to hear, it’s not a great concept when we have to live in the world. Because as much as we want to believe that the world is a completely different place. There are some things that are the same. 

Haven’t you met someone, and known that they would be good to know, someone who might be able to helpful to you, who might be useful? You make a little mental note or jot it down, that this person is someone to hold on to. 

How many times have we ended meals with friends and said “we’ll have to have you over soon” as if there is some repayment instead of just a gift? 

And these are hard stories Plymouth because you are great, and you do good, and if someone is hungry you need them, and if they are need clothing you give it. but I know that when my dining table isn’t full of my crap it’s surrounded by people like me, who I know can return the favor, who invite me to things. who share my honor level. There is no expectation that they will repay but it is kind of assumed that can. 

But the call of Jesus is a bit different.

There is an old denomination out of Bohemia that started in opposition to the Roman Catholic church some 100 years before Martin Luther nailed those 95 theses. The Moravians Church was important to the starting of the Methodist Church. John Wesley was on a ship to Georgia when a storm started raging and most of those on the ship were filled with fear.  The Moravians stayed below deck and sang hymns, they were filled with such peace.

There is a legend about Moravian missionaries. They were so committed to bringing the good news of Jesus to the slaves in the Americas yet they were told that they could not do such a thing. So they sold themselves to a slave owner that they joined the slaves. Traveled by ship with them to what was known as the West Indies, worked alongside them. The true story is that they were told they could do no such thing and they worked their trades, carpenters, lived frugally and established churches for those enslaved. Before long there were schools for the enslaved children, long before abolition had come to the islands. Look, colonization and missionary work during colonization was super problematic but I do appreciate a people who said, “I have something to give, I can help, no matter the cost.” And then live and eat alongside those who can offer nothing but their lives and their stories. 

Today there is at least one pastor Moravian in our city. She works at an ELCA church and runs a restaurant in Sherman Park called Tricklebee Cafe, as in, “The Trick’ll be if anyone shows up.” It’s a locally sourced food, and a pay-what-you-can restaurant, in a local food desert. She knows there are those who will come and dine at her tables that can offer nothing in return and that’s what makes it a blessing because they can offer nothing but their presence, their stories, their experience, their gratitude. 

Tricklebee Cafe, 4424 W North Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53208

Plymouth, when we stop thinking about our tables at home and we think about our table here. 

Who are we missing?

Churches across the country, around the world, are dealing with declining membership and with that come declining income. Someone is having conversations about how those 2 things are related. Who do we invite to our table when we hope we will get something in return?

Who do we invite when we won’t?

Every Sunday we feast in our basement, is there someone who might need to feast with us?

We have this beautiful ramp, are there those who might still need assistance to find us, to come in, who are no less than the image of God?

We have made a comfortable and beautiful place for us to gather, who needs to feel safe, to have a home?

We gather every week, and throughout the week, we make a family within the choir, sewing upstairs, and book studies and conversation, who needs a family? A community? A friend? A kind word?

Here’s what Jesus was trying to tell those who could hear:

We do not live in a world of scarcity and limited honor or blessings, we have a God of abundance. Beloved Community, you are blessed because you have been given that which you can’t repay: grace, peace, love, blessing, hope. Enough to pass on to the world around you and have ever more to give. 

Beloved Community is both who we are and who we are growing into when we make space for, when we invite in, when we grow in relationships with no expectation just a belief, just faith that we have something to offer the world:

A story of a God of abundant love and grace, hope and peace.

A story of finding a home.

A seat at the table.

During the sermon, honor and shame was demonstrated with blue water in glasses. A limited amount was moved between various glasses. But, our God of abundance overflowed with pink and purple glitter water.