May 22, 2022 – 6th Sunday of Easter

The risen Christ wants to enjoy our hospitality – not at our front door but completely within our homes.

Let us pray.  Gracious God, we give you thanks for the gift of your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us.  Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day.  And may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

I want to begin this morning by looking at the First Reading, initially, from the Acts of the Apostles. This book was written by Luke, and it’s meant to be a record of the mission activity of the early Church. There are a few subtle points that Luke slips into today’s account and I want to point those out. The story is about Paul’s missionary journeys, and at the beginning of this reading, he is still in what we would call Turkey – Asia Minor. But he sees this vision. It says, “During the night, Paul had a vision. There stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” So Paul and his group cross the Aegean Sea and come eventually to the city of Philippi in Greece. Now this marks a considerable expansion of the missionary effort from Asia, and now to Europe. But notice that when they arrive, they don’t engage with an Jewish groups. And instead, they engage with some Gentile women and, in particular, Lydia. Now notice that the vision was of a man in Macedonia, but Luke records that they went first to these women by a river.

So, imagine, it would be a little bit like this for me, as a white male of European descent – imagine if I was visiting Ottawa for the first time, but I didn’t go to the Parliament buildings, and I didn’t go to the Anglican Cathedral. But instead, I engaged some persons of colour in a downtown park and, after having a deep and meaningful encounter with them, I accepted an invitation to stay overnight at one of their houses! That’s just how radical this story actually is.

So, I want us to reflect on our own approach to hospitality, and especially in our own homes. Who gets inside your front door? Maybe a person that is canvassing for some kind of effort or cause that you wish to support? And you invite them in so that you can write them a cheque. Or perhaps it’s a neighbour from down the street whom you’ve greeted several times on the sidewalk and so you feel comfortable to invite them into your front hallway. Who gets invited into your living room or reception room – maybe some new friends, a colleague from work, or maybe your parish priest?

But who gets invited for dinner? Now that’s probably only people that you know and trust – someone that you’re comfortable with, someone for whom conversation would not be a challenge – it would be very easy-going and natural.

But who gets invited to stay overnight in your home? Probably family members and maybe some kind of “family-like” friends that you’ve known for a long time – people that you don’t mind if they see you wandering around in your pajamas and a housecoat. And then, who get invited to live with you – perhaps even share your bed? In my generation that would only be your spouse - nowadays – maybe only your committed lover. But this is a person you’re okay with seeing you at your best and at your worst.

We all have different levels of hospitality – boundaries – who gets inside our home and how far do they get? Now keeping the same levels – the same kind of grid about increasing intimacy, and the hospitality that you offer in your home – where does God – the Risen Christ end up? Try to think of it in the same terms – what are you willing to share with God? What is your comfort level? Do you engage with Christ in the front vestibule of your home? Perhaps you’re a member of a church that you attend occasionally, and offer some financial support. But your sense of religion is pretty well around circles of that church. There’s an accepted religious protocol at your worship services. You’re comfortable relating to, and through, the written prayers and sung hymns. That’s your comfort level.

Or does Christ get invited into your living room? Perhaps you have some degree of comfort connecting with God. You’re a regular church attender. You serve on one of the church committees, and you even say grace at a meal once in a while, when it’s a special celebration – perhaps it’s a prayer that you learned many years ago and still have committed to memory.

Or maybe Christ gets invited to dinner. Holy Communion is a very important part of your church practice. You serve in several ministries at your church. You care deeply for its ministry and mission. It’s important for you to be learning more about your faith through courses and bible study groups. And occasionally you pray and read the bible at home.

But what does it look like to invite Christ to live with you? Your engagement with Christ is daily. You share your greatest hopes and your deepest fears with him. And now you bring the richness of your daily intimate relationship with Christ into the worship of the church. You actually strengthen and enrich the church’s worship by your presence, and you are keenly interested in ways to express the love of Christ that you enjoy in your daily life. Prayer and Scripture reading are part of your daily engagement with Christ, and you are only too aware of the world’s need to experience life as God intends it. And you try to make that happen in your local community through the grace that God gives you.

So where is Christ in your home, and in your life? And where does Christ see himself with respect to your hospitality? Today’s passage from John’s Gospel has something to say about this. You heard these words, Jesus saying, “Those who love me will keep my word and my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.” The risen Christ has moved into yours and my home, or at least tried to. We may have only let him into the front hallway – the living room – or for a meal in the dining room. But Christ is looking for and desiring intimacy with you and me. And we may experience that as a challenge just like we do when the neighbour in your front hallway wants to come all the way in for a coffee. Or the out-of-town friend that you invited for dinner wants to stay for a week! Why are we anxious and uncomfortable? We don’t yet have the trust of familiarity with that person to feel comfortable inviting them more deeply and more intimately into our home and into our lives. But what then about the risen Christ? This is what he says to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.” Christ already knows our hesitations – knows our indifference – knows our secret desire to live independently on our own – and yet completely accepts us as we are - assures us that nothing we do or don’t do can change that love and acceptance. So even if you restrict Christ to the chat over coffee in your living room, he knows what you’re hiding in your bedroom closet, and his plan is still to move in and live with you.

So even if you enjoy the formal fellowship with Christ at his table here, and receive the gift of himself through communion, when you go home after service and get changed out of your church clothes, and maybe put on sweatpants and a T-shirt, he is right there with you, because he and God, the creator, have made their home inside you and me.

So where is your hospitality toward God? Ponder that question deeply. Reflect on it as you receive Christ’s meal of Holy Communion and reflect on it as you sing our final hymn this morning that quotes God’s loving truth that “you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” How much are you willing to love God? And even more importantly, how much you willing to share your life with God and let God love you! Amen.