Beyond Hospitality to Family

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[0:00] going to jump into the final two chapters of our book study. It feels like, in some ways, it feels like it went a long time, and yet today as I stand up here it feels like it went just pretty fast that we got to this point. So we're looking at chapters 9 and 10 today and this week on Thursday. In chapter 9 we see a jump from immigration as this inconvenient but yet an opportunity to be missionaries to something much deeper. So what stemmed as maybe not something that feels great or something that we take grudgingly, as it now becomes more of a time to partner together. So chapter 9 encourages us to see the immigrants not as objects of our missionary efforts but as partners in Christ's mission. The authors also tell us that because immigrants are our mission partners, they are members in the body of Christ, that we are asked to do more than offer them occasional hospitality, but instead to become a true family in Christ. And they quote Sung Chan Rah to make this point. And just a reminder, we've had Sung Chan Rah here. We've read a couple of his books. And I'm partial to the things he says because he was a professor he was a professor of mine, and he's a brilliant guy. Anyhow, so the authors quote

[1:41] him to make this point. Hospitality is temporary, like hosting a dinner with kimchi once. But But real inclusion means it becomes part of ongoing life, stocking kimchi in the refrigerator regularly. This transition challenges churches to relinquish control and embrace cultural diversity as part of their common life.

[2:09] As a church, we are much better off if we integrate the voices of immigrants into our life as a congregation. We can renew the church's mission by embracing diversity as central to our identity and our calling. So hospitality means allowing the stranger to come in.

[2:34] But we want to renew our mission by making them part of our church life, our church culture. We want to embrace their culture and bring them into our culture and bring them into our church. And meld them together.

[2:51] So to explore this further, we're going to look at Luke 10, 25 to 37. And we'll be reading from the NLT today. And again, it's not up on the screen. So if you want to take time to open the Bible or your Bible app, go ahead. But here we go. Luke 10, 25 to 37.

[3:13] One day, an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by saying, I'm going to test you. By asking him this question. Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus replied, what does the law of Moses say? How do you read it? The man answered, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. Right, Jesus told him. Do this and you will live. The man wondered, how can I do this? And he wanted to justify his actions. So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

[3:55] Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance, a priest came along. But when he saw the man laying there, he crossed to the other side of the road, and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there. But he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn.

[4:49] The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I will pay you the next time I am here. Now which of these three would you say was the neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? Jesus asked. The man replied, The one who showed him mercy.

[5:15] Let's pray. God, thank you for this word. We ask your blessing upon it. May you guide us with your spirit to hear what you would have us hear today. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, in our reading, a lawyer asked Jesus a question that still, if we're honest, echoes in our own hearts. Who is my neighbor? Who do I have to be nice to? The bad people? Do I have to be nice to bad people? We may not be so bold as to call people good and bad people, but in our hearts, we kind of think that, don't we?

[6:05] Jesus answers not with a definition of a neighbor. Instead, he answers with a story, which we of course know as the Good Samaritan. A man is beaten, robbed, and left half dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest sees him, passes by. A Levite sees him, passes by. But this Samaritan, who is an outsider, a foreigner, and someone despised, stops.

[6:36] And he sees. And he's moved with compassion. So he binds the wounds. He lifts the broken man onto his own animal. He pays for his care. And not just a little bit. He pays a good amount of money. Two silver coins was a lot of money. He promised to return. So he's not just going to leave him there and be like, my job is done. He's going to come back. And Jesus asks, which one of these was a neighbor?

[7:10] And the answer is clear. If it's not clear to you, then you've got a long way to go and you're being deliberately obtuse. The answer is clear. It's the one who showed mercy. But now listen to 1 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul says, you are the body of Christ. And each one of you is a member of it. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. What if Jesus' parable and Paul's teaching are actually saying the same thing, like singing the same song but in a different key? The neighbor is not just someone near you. The neighbor is someone who belongs to you.

[8:04] Our neighbor is a member of our body. Paul tells us that the body has many parts. Hands, feet, and hands. Feet, eyes, ears. No part can say to another, I have no need of you. And the parts that seem weaker are actually indispensable.

[8:24] So when the Samaritan stopped on that road, he did not treat the wounded man as a problem or a burden or a stranger. He treated him as a part of himself. When one part of your body is bleeding, you don't sit there and debate, does it really need care?

[8:47] Do I have to be the one to care for it? Instead, you respond. You tend to the wound or you call a doctor, but you take action. You protect it. You might even sacrifice for it by, let's say it's a foot, you overcompensate by limping and putting weight on your better foot. So you might sacrifice it for it. So too with our neighbor. Now let's back up here and explore the story a bit. Who are our characters? We have the traveler, and this traveler is a Jewish man. He's traveling alone down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Well, it's only about 17 miles. The elevation drops over 3,000 feet. Many people wouldn't want to make this journey alone. It's rocky, and bandits hide in the crevices and the rocks and the caves. But in this story, the man is alone, and he encounters exactly what people fear, the bad people. They beat him up. They strip him of his clothes. They leave him for dead. In fact, Jesus notes that he's half dead. And so, he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story, he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story, he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story, he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story, he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story,

[10:32] he decapitates the man he decapitates. Right here in this story, he decapitates the man he decapitates. just like this man was in Jesus's parable. So today we're putting the immigrant in place of the traveler in this story.

[10:49] Now by chance, a priest walked by and passed on the other side, leaving him there. A priest, of course, is someone who would lead the religious services, teach in the temple, and so on and so forth. And then they say a temple worker, this is a Levite who passes by, and a Levite might be someone who leads worship. They make sure the things are set in place, and they lead the actual worship service. So their primary role was to help facilitate worship, and for both of these two men, their lives revolved around the temple or the tabernacle. And we would naturally expect that guys like these would be willing to stop in order to help someone.

[11:39] And before we give them too hard a time, it's really quite possible that they were on their way to lead worship services, which would have required ceremonial cleanliness. So if they were to stop and help this man, they would run the risk of being unclean, either because they had contact with his blood, or because they really weren't sure if he was dead or not. He looked dead. He could be dead. it's possible. However, the temple was in Jerusalem and Jesus notes that these men were going down the road which is away from Jerusalem, so this ceremonial uncleanliness is not really a valid consideration. Maybe they were still worried about it. We don't know. So then Jesus gets to the turn in the story. A Samaritan comes along and we know the Samaritans and Jews did not like each other, in fact they avoided each other at all costs. Their feud went back for centuries and yet this Samaritan gets off his animal, binds up his wounds, takes him to an inn and pays for the care. What would the hospitable thing to do have been? Maybe the Samaritan could have flagged down a Jewish person to help a fellow Jew. Maybe the Samaritan could have brought him to the town and and then just left him. But the Samaritan goes way above and beyond hospitality,

[13:13] and he shows a deep love for this stranger whom he's supposed to despise. The scripture says he was moved to compassion upon seeing him. The religious expert was starting to feel deeply uncomfortable at this point and trying to find a way around what Jesus was very clearly saying.

[13:37] And so Jesus explodes his narrow little question of who is my neighbor? And it soon becomes, will you be a neighbor? And going back to 1 Corinthians, Paul deepens it further. The one in need is not just someone you may choose to help. They are a member of the same body. To ignore them is to ignore ourselves. To wound them is to wound not one. Not ourselves, but yes, ourselves, but also Christ.

[14:08] To care for them is to participate in the healing of Christ's own body. We've been thinking that the immigrant is a stranger, thinking that we need to offer hospitality to the stranger, do our part for a time and move on. But what if the immigrant is not a stranger who needs our temporary hospitality?

[14:31] What if we realize that the immigrant is a part of our body and they need to be a part of our family, someone we love unconditionally as ourselves, someone not to serve, but to serve alongside? In Jesus's story, this hero is a Samaritan, a foreigner, a cultural outsider.

[14:55] To the original listeners, the Samaritan was the immigrant, the one who did not belong, the one who was suspect. The one who did not belong, the one who was suspect. Yet it's the immigrant who reveals the heart of God. And today, who lies wounded along our roads? Who is vulnerable or displaced, uncertain of welcome?

[15:18] The immigrant, the refugee, the one who speaks with an accent, the one navigating systems that were not built for them, the ones who fear being unseen or unwanted. The one who speaks with an accent, the one navigating systems that were not built for them, the ones who fear being If they are one body in Christ, then the immigrant is not a stranger to a body. They are not simply a guest to the body.

[15:43] They are a full-on member. Paul says, the parts that seem weaker are indispensable. We often treat immigrants as though they are optional to our common life. But scripture says they are indispensable. Their gifts, their faith, their labor, their culture, these are not threats to the body. They are actually nourishments to it.

[16:09] Think of exploring other cultures as nourishing the body of Christ, as feeding it healthy, good for you vegetables and grains and whole foods. And if you don't incorporate other cultures into the body of Christ, then you're surviving on a, well, it may seem like you want to do this, you're surviving on a diet of chocolate and only chocolate your whole life. You're withering inside because you're not giving it what it needs.

[16:48] When one member of the body is marginalized, the whole body limps. When one is excluded, the whole body is diminished. So notice that the Samaritan's mercy is not just sentiment, but it's also a way of saying, oh, I'm going to be He's not just thinking, oh, I have compassion for that poor guy on the side of the road and I'm going to walk along the other side just like the two before me. He doesn't sit and stare and wish someone would come. It costs him. It costs him his time. It costs him his safety. It costs him money. It costs him his reputation.

[17:31] And so, we have to be more compassionate. And so, our love for immigrants and our love for our neighbors, even the bad people, should come with a cost. It can't be lip service or prayers that don't require anything of us. It must be embodied love.

[17:49] It means listening before judging. It means advocacy when policies are hurtful. It means being inconvenienced for the sake of the people. the gospel. It means hospitality in our homes and in our churches. It means sometimes being uncomfortable. It means refusing to let our fear write our theology. First John 3 18 says, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. We must move beyond treating the immigrant as a guest in our home. That's lovely and nice but we must start to see them as irreplaceable members of our own family because that's what they are, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And for our own family, our sacrifices of love come without question. Remember how I said not to give the priest and the Levite too hard of a time because maybe they were on their way to a worship service? Well that, sure. That may be true. But sacrificial love doesn't care about excuses, not even really good ones. True sacrificial love either finds a way or makes a way to carry out the actions of love. Why couldn't that priest have flagged someone down? Why couldn't that Levite have stayed there until someone else came? Why couldn't they have said, today I put compassion before my duties? In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul insists

[19:40] that God has arranged the members of the body so that there may be no division but that the members may have the same care for one another. The same care, not lesser care, not cautious care, not conditional care. The same care you would give your own hand if it were cut. The same care you would give your own child if they were in danger. So ultimately this parable points to Jesus himself. He is the Good Samaritan. We were the ones beaten and left for dead by sin and violence. Christ came to us when the others passed by. He bound our wounds. He bore our cost. He promised to return. And now as his body we are called to continue his mercy exactly as he gave mercy to us. When we encounter the immigrant, the refugee, the displaced, Christ meets us there. The question is not, are they one of us? Or will I benefit from this? Or what do they add to the body?

[21:01] The question is, will we recognize Christ in them? Because Benjy almost had it right. We have to love the bad people, but ultimately there are no bad people, right? Ultimately we all have Christ inside of us. We only have to recognize it in each other. We are one body and in this body there are no strangers, only members, only neighbors, and only God.

[21:33] So let us go and do likewise. Let us bind wounds and divide and cross dividing lines. And let us remember when one member suffers, everyone suffers together because our neighbor is not outside our body. Our neighbor is not someone to give temporary hospitality to. Our neighbor is in our home and is indeed God. We are one body with us. Let's pray.

[22:07] God, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would help us to extend hospitality beyond hospitality and to welcome into our homes and into our families and into our lives not just the immigrant but all who are hurting and all who are oppressed and broken and desiring you. These things we pray in Jesus name. Amen.