St. Peter's By The Sea
The Episcopal Church in Narragansett, RI
June 15, 2008
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Good morning and Happy Father’s Day.
The other day I was at CVS with my 3 year old daughter Ava and we were waiting in line at the prescription pick-up counter. Ava got bored standing there and so she went over to sit in the waiting area and she sat next to a young woman who was reading a magazine. After a little bit the woman can feel Ava looking at her and they both say hi to each other. Then the woman turns back to her magazine. And I hear Ava say to her, “Did you know that my name is Ava?” And there is no response at all from the young woman, who clearly doesn’t want to be engaged. And Ava looks over to me and goes “I don’t think she hears me.” So I call her over to me so she won’t pester the other woman. What I find amazing and delightful is Ava’s openness to strangers, and her assumption that they are as open and interested in her as she is in them.
This morning I would like to share a few thoughts with you about the strangers at our doors and being open to letting God into our lives. In this morning’s gospel we heard the story of Jesus sending out his first followers in pairs to the houses in the countryside. He gives “them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”
When I read the lesson this week my first thought was how scientists tell us we use only a fraction of our brains, and that there was a parallel with how we use only a fraction of our spiritual gifts. The New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan in his wonderful book on Jesus says that, “The kingdom of God was not, for Jesus, a divine monopoly exclusively bound to his own person … (rather) one entered the kingdom as a way of life and anyone who could live it could bring it to others.”1
Imagine that – living the kingdom as a way of life and brining it to others. Crossan also says that these first missionaries … “were predominantly healed healers, part of whose continuing healing was precisely their empowerment to heal others.”2
So these first apostles are examples to us of the amazing possibilities of our spiritual gifts and depths. Like them, we too are called to be healed, to live the kingdom of God as a way of life, and to be empowered to bring it to others.
But first we need to answer the door. As Jesus continues his instructions to the apostles, he tells them “whatever house you enter say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if a child of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not let your peace return to you.” And he says “Heal the sick and say to them, ‘God’s kingdom has come near to you.’ But if you enter a town and they do not receive you, as you leave, shake the dust from your feet and say, ‘Nevertheless, be sure of this, the realm of God has come near you.’ ” (Luke 10:6-11)
The key here is that we are the house that the Lord comes to, whether we understand that collectively as the church, or individually as God comes into our lives.
You know, I find this story of the apostles difficult when I try to imagine people coming to my door. When the doorbell rings unexpectedly at my house, I’m not all that excited like my daughter Ava, who thinks “Oh, who is this interesting person?” I usually think “Uh-oh – who’s this.” And when I go to the door and see two nicely dressed people then I think “Oh no – here are some evangelists.” I admit, I’m immediately suspicious and I think, here are some people who want to tell me what I should think and feel and want … they want my soul. So how were the first apostles different from this?
I think the biggest difference is that they come to bring something to you – if you want it. It’s an offering and not a conversion. And what is this something that they bring? Jesus calls it the peace of the Lord and it is a very real spiritual reality that can rest on people or depart from them. And I think this gift that the apostles received from Jesus and bring to others is twofold: it is an immediate and real experience of the Spirit, of the presence of God. And in this experience of the reality of the presence of God, we are healed and made whole.
Who among us would not feel patronized, annoyed, and even offended, by the experience of someone coming to our door and saying, “I have the answer! I’m here to save you!” But who among us would not welcome with all our hearts an authentic experience of the Spirit – of being touched and known and transformed in a very direct and personal way by God or by one of his emissaries.
This truth is that God is always coming into our lives. God may speak to us in a still small voice, or in dreams, or in other people, or even in the events of our lives.
There is an inner door of our heart or of our soul that we keep closed tight most of the time because it is the door to our most intimate, most real self, and we are afraid to open it. And it is at this door of our house, of ourselves, that Jesus stands and knocks. As he says to us in the Book of Revelation: “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
So our job is to inwardly open the door of our hearts and let the Lord in, so that we may be healed by his love and filled with his peace and his joy. And our job is to open our outer doors, the doors of our houses and of our churches and welcome the stranger who stands there.
Paul says in his letter to the Hebrews, “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Paul is making an allusion to the story of Abraham that we heard this morning, about how “The Lord appeared to Abraham … as he sat at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing there.” And then Abraham gives us an example of hospitality as he invites the strangers to rest and refresh themselves while a meal is prepared for them. And as the visit continues it becomes clear that these three strangers are angels, that is, messengers of the Lord. And they foretell that Sarah, who is barren, will give birth to a child. And here comes one of my favorite parts: When Sarah hears this, she laughs at God. Now, one might imagine that she laughs because she can’t bear the thought of having a baby in her 90’s – but more probably she laughs because it is so hard to believe in the reality of God and that He can come into our lives and transform it.
So Paul tells us to show hospitality to strangers because we might be entertaining angels in disguise. But as I have shared with you before, I think Jesus’ teaching here is much more radical, in that he affirms the reality of the sacredness of each person, including you and me. It is not that we might be entertaining angels without knowing it, it is that each person, each stranger who comes through our doors is sacred, is an angel of God, is a messenger of God, whether they know it or not, and whether we know it or not.
Jesus is very clear on this when he says, “Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:31-40)
So it’s not that you want to be careful because someone might be an angel in disguise, but rather that we all are, and until we really take that in we are missing what he is revealing to us.
When we answer the door, whether it is the door of our heart, or the door of our house, or the door of our churches, and we let God come into our lives, we begin to realize not only our own sacredness, but the sacredness of each person. And then we begin to live in the Kingdom.
In His Name. Amen.
1 John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 113.
2 Ibid, p. 109.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 9:27 am
Category: Sermons