Communion as Hospitality

In 1989 I took a vacation that I don’t think I will ever forget. It was to the Island of Maui in late November. If you’ve ever been to any of the Hawaiian Islands, I’m sure you will agree that they are paradise on earth. But it’s not just the great weather, the ocean views, and the beautiful beaches. The tourist activities are incredible. I decided not to bore you with posting the 800 pictures I took. But some of the highlights of my trip were snorkeling above the reefs; touring the pineapple fields; hiking up to the top of the volcano; and one of my most memorable activities, waterfall jumping.

But Hawaii is also the picture of hospitality. And the highlight of my trip was the traditional event that every Hawaiian tourist must experience. The Luau. It is, in fact, at the very center of the Hawaiian custom. But did you know this was not always so?

Believe it or not, in ancient Hawaii, men and woman had to eat their meals apart. Commoners and women of all ranks were also forbidden by the ancient Hawaiian religion to eat certain delicacies. This was all changed in 1819 by King Kamehameha II. Can you say that with me? Kam-e-ha-meh-a. King Kamehameha abolished the traditional religious practices and put on a huge feast. This feast where the King ate with women was the symbolic act which ended the Hawaiian religious taboos, and the luau was born.

The favorite dish at these feasts is what gave the luau its name. Young and tender leaves of the taro plant were combined with chicken, baked in coconut milk and called luau. The traditional luau feast was eaten on the floor. Bowls filled with poi, a staple of the Hawaiian diet made from pounded taro root, and platters of meat were set out and dry foods like sweet potatoes, salt, dried fish or meat covered in leaves were laid out on top of mats made of ti leaves. Utensils were never used at a luau, instead everything was eaten with the fingers.

These royal luaus tended to be big. One of the largest ever was hosted by Kamehameha III in 1847. The list of foods prepared included 271 hogs, 482 large calabashes of poi, 3,125 salt fish, 1,820 fresh fish, 2,245 coconuts, 4,000 taro plants and numerous other delicacies. Hawaiians used to thrown these feasts as celebrations for special occasions such as the launch of a new canoe.

Luaus today are not as big as those hosted by Hawaiian royalty in the 1800s, but they are a lot of fun and feature the same traditional foods… and of course, utensils are now allowed. Today, these types of luaus are still held, for example one to celebrate the first birthday of an infant. Your participation at a luau makes you ohana, or family. It is the greatest Hawaiian symbol of welcome and hospitality. (source: www.polynesia.com)

Now to us folk who live on the mainland, hospitality can also conjure up other images; white tablecloths, candles and RSVP invitations. A backyard barbecue, Christmas open house, a cup of coffee with a neighbor. The whole idea has fallen on hard times. Budy schedules, working mothers, the disappearance of servants, and the rise of a highly mobile population has combined to make genuine hospitality seem a thing of the past. We wistfully think of the “good old days” when neighbors dropped by or when company for supper was a regular occurance. Was hospitality just a passing fad, now obsolete, its usefulleness over?

In our scripture text this morning, Jesus must not of thought so. He apparently was facing the same decrease in hospitality as he gathered his disciples around him for their last meal together. In the Old Testament the stories of hospitality are rich and numerous. In the lives of Semitic peoples, hospitality was not an option in life, but a moral obligation. The harshness of the desert life made nomadic people sensitive to the needs of those who appeared at their tents seeking food and shelter. And it wasn’t just among the Hebrew people, many followers of pagan religions also considered it a duty.

Yet in the New Testement hospitality has a different flavor. Inns and hostels that sprang up along Roman roads offered placed to say, which lessoned the importance of private accommodations. The strong sense of community was breaking down and with it the practice of hospitality. Even though the Romans like to throw their own lavish banquets, it was not their custom to offer hospitality to wandering strangers. By the second century of the Common Era, hospitality had become something of a burden. The result was that people had to be reminded to show hospitality. And as it became less impromptu, it began to require rules. Invitations became more formal. Banquets, weddings, social occasions; all required an etiquette. It was to this reality that Jesus addressed his disciples on his last evening with them, and he was reminding them of the importance of hospitality from their ancient scriptures, the Torah.

You see, Old Testament hospitality was not just about offering food and shelter to strangers, it was also marked by sacrifice. Killing an animal was regarded as a sacrificial act. Therefore when meat was eaten on festal occasions it carried sacred significance. In these sacrificial meals, the people and their God came together at the same table to partake of the same holy food. Eating together resulted in being drawn together, in a renewal of the covenant bond. Hospitality became an expression of the covenantal relationship with God and other human beings. The guest if accepted into the family community and receives food, not only for the body but for the soul. Through fellowship, story sharing, and being welcomed, the guest goes forth renewed and restored.

Through our hospitality, it is possible to imitate God’s loving care. Our compassion and pity mirror God’s grace. There’s an old Arabic proverb that says, “The one who has bread is debtor to the one who has none.” When we have received God’s blessing of food, we bestow that blessing on others by sharing it with them, we owe it to them.
Both the Old and New Testaments stress that the primary recipient of hospitality is to be the stranger. However, strangers are not necessarily those different in culture, race, or socioeconomic status. They may be members of our family, or friends or neighbors who have become alienated from us. When we offer hospitality to anyone “estranged” from us, some curious and unexpected results occur. To offer hospitality to a stranger is to welcome something new, unfamiliar, and unknown into our life. Strangers have stories to tell which we have never heard before, stories which can redirect our seeing and stimulate our imagination. Hospitality to the stranger gives us a chance to see our own lives afresh. Genuine hospitality to the stranger calls us to do the following:


1) Value the strangeness of the stranger, accepting their differences without fear, annoyance or distrust. The guest is not someone for whom we are doing a favor, but one who is honoring us.

2) See yourself through the eyes of the stranger and either be affirmed or be willing to learn and change because of what has been revealed to you about yourself.

3) Recognize that we are strangers too. God’s faithful people have always been “exiles and strangers on the earth.” Abraham, himself, was a wandering Aramean. Even Jesus had no permanent place to lay his head at night. We to, are but travelers on a journey to somewhere yet discovered.

4) Bring about reconciliation and renewal for the one who is alien or lost. You just might be the one person in someone’s live that can offer them the healing they’ve desired.

5) Finally, you extend hospitality to God by showing lovingkindness to those in need. Jesus said, “When you show it to one you’d normally show the last, you show to me.” (source: Breaking Bread: The Spiritual Significance of Food, Sara Covin Juengst (1992: Westminster/John Knox Press).

I want us to consider some recipes for action, as we go and practice hospitality to each other and to strangers. The communion table is the place that we gather on a monthly basis to practice this covenant between each other and God. But this sacred symbol of hospitality doesn’t happen just here. It happens every moment that we share in an experience of giving and welcoming. Think of everything that you do for another as an act of hospitality. That’s why we don’t put restrictions on who can or can’t receive communion in this church. Although some might say you have to believe the same way, or have at least been baptized first, I don’t think that’s what Jesus intended to happen. He even extended hospitality to Judas, the one that, according to some texts, betrayed him. Jesus never turned anyone away, and neither should we. For it is in the moment that we embrace the stranger, we embrace God.

Drawing Power

* John 12:20-33 - Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 



Magnets are an important part of our daily lives, serving as essential components in everything from electric motors, loudspeakers, computers, compact disc players, microwave ovens and the family car. Their contribution is often overlooked because they are built into devices and are usually out of sight.

Understanding the scientific properties of magnets can be a bit overwhelming at first. But there are some interesting principles about magnets that can inform or theological discussion today. At the very basic level, the motion of charged particles such as electrons produces magnetic forces. This magnetic force may cause attraction or repulsion, depending on the movement of the electrons, which may pull magnets together or pull them apart.

A magnet attracts iron, steel, nickel, and certain other materials. The attracted materials then become magnets themselves in a process called magnetization. For example, if you were to place a nail near a magnet, it would become magnetized and would then attract a second nail. Magnetization occurs because the magnet causes particles called electrons in the atoms of the nail to align along the magnet's lines of force. The atoms with aligned electrons then act like tiny bar magnets themselves.

Magnets have many uses in our everyday life as well as in our homes. We see them most frequently clinging to our refrigerator with pithy sayings or our favorite photos. However, the most important use of magnets in your home are the ones found in electric motors. Believe it or not it's electromagnetic and permanent magnets that help keep your blenders, vacuums, CD players and washing machines all running. They are also termed "heads" when referring to your VCR.

Scientists have also discovered that many animals, including pigeons, honey bees, salmon, tuna, dolphins and turtles are able to detect the earth's magnetic field and may use it to help find their way. Particles of magnetite have been found in the body tissues of these animals. They suspect the particles form part of a system that sense the geomagnetic field. Certain species of bacteria found in the water have also been found that use the geomagnetic field to find their preferred habitat. Each bacteria use the particles as tiny compass needles to guide them along the electromagnetic field. (Source: www.sdmiramar.edu/faculty/fgarces/ChemProj/Ch100_F2K1/Chem100Page/YarbroughL/magnet portfolio.html#hm)

After listening to this scientific summary, I’m wondering if you caught on to some of the properties of magnets that just might “attract” you to the Good News this morning. It is helpful to remember a few things about the ministry of Christ. He spoke pretty straightforward about it in verses 25-26 of our Gospel text.

If there is one sure thing we can say about Jesus’ life—it was a life of great extravagance—in the truest sense of the word. He was extravagant in his reckless and scandalous expenditure of his life for the sake of the world's life. That is what the author of John's gospel wants us to hear today. Christ gave his life away without thought of gain or reward. He loved people wastefully. As a result, his life was not a very prudent life. It was not a very conservative life. It was not a very cautious life. It was not - by the standards most people use to measure things - a very successful life.

He shunned no one, not even adulterers, not even tax gatherers, not even neurotics and psychotics, not even those tempted to suicide, not even alcoholics, not even poor people, not even beggars, not even lepers, not even those who ridiculed him, not even those who betrayed him, not even his own enemies. He shunned no one. And the words that describe his ministry seem to be words of sorrow, poverty, rejection and radical unpopularity —words of agony and loss.

“As I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.”

That is what John wants us to get from his gospel. It is something at the very heart of what John believed Jesus was all about. Jesus was a magnetic force in the world, because he knew his purpose. He understood his reason for being. And in the midst of a religious society that determined its connectedness to God according to how connected they were to wealth and power, Jesus message was a shock to the system. He believed that his connection to God demanded sacrifice and service to others.

It is the ultimate paradox, of course: lose life in order to gain it. That statement reflects the essence of all that Jesus said and did. It gave his life meaning. Trust life so much that you are free to give it away without thought of return. Apparently, he expected us to live our lives like that - so selflessly, so innocently, without thought for tomorrow - that our lives would seem to be profoundly careless. Was that not the kind of trust that marked the character of his life?

That paradox: giving our lives away in order to gain them is supposed to characterize the Christian life as well. We, too, are called to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters, as he did, that our lives take on the very same sorrow, poverty, rejection, agony and radical unpopularity that summarized his life. After all, he did not tell us just to "make it up as you go along". He called us to live the only life he considered worth living, which is, of course, the life he was and is.

From so many conversations I’ve had with other clergy within our denomination and outside of it, it seems that most churches these days are about preserving and maintaining what they possess. What do we need to do in order to reduce the deficit, repair the boiler, pay the staff, and keep the photocopier running? That's the stuff that usually takes up nearly all of their time and energy. Instead the very elementary question that we need to ask—in whatever church we find ourselves, is—do we have and hold what we do have and hold with integrity? The answer to that, of course, is that we do, IF we are free to give it all up for the world as a witness to the ministry of Christ, as a sign of dying in Christ, and as a way of attracting others to Christ. (Excerpts from Barry J. Robinson’s sermon “Paying the Rent” for April 6, 2003 – www.fernstone.org).

From the outside looking in, Jesus magnetic personality does seem to be a downer in our consumerist society that values ownership and affluence. But I think his way of being was so much deeper than we really understand. In fact, we are just beginning to unlock the secrets to his teachings. Jesus drew so many people to him, not just because of his philosophy about God; he knew who he was. He knew his purpose. He understood his reason for being.

One of the great laws of the universe is the Universal Law of Attraction. It states: We attract whatever we choose to give our attention to—whether wanted or unwanted.

This Law is Universal because it does not matter who you are, where you live, what your religious beliefs are, what year you were born...the Law is true for everyone equally. It is as true as the Law of Gravity. Most of the time, we attract by "default" rather than by deliberate choice. We just sort of go through our day, focusing on problems that need to be solved or on things that did not feel good nor seem right. In so doing, we are actually creating more problems, more of what does not feel good and more of what does not seem right.

Think of yourself as a huge magnet. The kind that pulls metal to itself from afar off. It doesn't "try" to attract, it simply does attract. It is the same way for us. Whether or not we are trying to attract, we ARE doing so all the time. And we attract the likeness of what we think about. If we are thinking about a lack of something, we are attracting more lack (scarcity). If we are thinking about something we love, we are attracting more of what we love and enjoy. I know it sounds incredibly simple, and it is. We humans are actually very powerful attractors and we can use this wonderful, God-given power to attract more of what we want in life-simply by paying attention to where we place our thoughts and desires. Picture your heart as a powerful magnet. Your heart is the "vibrator" of all the signals that attract.

Think of a radio. It has many different stations. To tune into a station you dial a specific frequency. As soon as we turn our attention to something it begins its journey to us. To be rid of something you do not want in your life, simply tune in to a different vibration (frequency or radio station)—to something that you do want. Just as magnetic fields are created by the motion of charged particles like electrons, our thoughts and emotions will create our reality. The first principle of the Law of Attraction is;

In order to attract what you need, be very clear about what it is you want.

The next principle of the Law of Attraction concerns magnetization.

You attract or repel negative and positive emotions by aligning your thoughts with what you want.

The more you focus on what you don’t want, the more likely you will get it.

And the third principle of the Law of Attraction;

Allow what you want and need to come to you.

You can do this through detecting the greater force that is around you; trusting that God and the universe will bring to you all that you need, and allow that to guide you.

Just as the magnet attracts and repels, we have the opportunity to gain clarity in knowing precisely what we want, through the many "contrasts" that life offers us. The key to successfully using contrast is to observe it briefly and use it to help you decide what you do want. This takes a little practice, since our habit is to talk about, tell others about and focus on what we did not like.

Our ministry, our work if you will, is to let go of all resistance and believe that what you want will come to you—simply because you want it. Jesus did the same. He knew his purpose, we focused on that intention, and he transformed the world by following it. And Jesus challenges us to follow to. Let go of your life as it is, being reckless in your love for God and others, and you will have God’s life—without illusion, real and eternal. The Universal Law of Attraction also confirms it: in order to receive love, you must first give it. How will you give love this week? And how will you receive it? (Source: www.law-of-attraction-info.com/whatisloa.html)