Holy Hospitality Revisited

`Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'    
Matthew 25: 37-39

The Judgement of the Sheep and the Goats  - Fra Angelico

Notice that those who did feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, and clothes the naked did not recognize Christ either. It is a good reminder for us as well. We are called to be Christ's hands and feet in the world, and if we do it for the right reasons, we will not even realize that we are doing something out of obligation. It is those who serve because they feel their salvation depends upon it that will be judged the more harshly. We serve because it feeds us; an unseen hand guides us into service with love, care and concern, not because it is an obligation or a ticket into heaven.

Enter into the Joy of Your Master

The Parable of the Talents is a problematic one from the get go. A landowner goes away, entrusting his three slaves with his money. Two of the three slaves double the master's money and are well praised for doing so, but the third, the cautious servant, is cast into outer darkness when he merely returns his master's money. He says he was fearful of losing it, so he buried it. He says he was afraid of his master's reputation as a harsh man, so he played it safe. Surely the moral of the story is not: "For all those who have, more will be given, and for all those have the least, they will be cast into outer darkness." No, that doesn't sound like Jesus' methodology at all.

Upon reading the text again this week, I found this small line that almost seemed inconsequential, but then I noticed the same lie appears twice in the text. The line reads, "Enter into the Joy of your master." And perhaps this was it. Perhaps this was Jesus' message to us all. Perhaps the point is to claim our blessedness; to claim our belovedness as children of God. God has bestowed each of us with an abundance of gifts, gifts that God would have us use; gifts that God would have us claim. The point is to enter into God's joy: to enter into the process of life.

The cautious servant did not claim his gift and work to multiply it for the sake of the Master. He buried it. He lived in fear. Fear is a problem because fear paralyzes us; renders us unable to live life as citizens of the Kingdom. God has no use for those who will not enter into God's joy. To enter into the purview of God, we must allow ourselves to enter into God's joy. For without it, we cannot do what God' has given us to do.

Choose This Day Who You Will Serve

 "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." Joshua 24:23

Household gods             The Israel Museum - Jerusalem

I remember with utter fascination the passage in Genesis 31 about Rachael stealing Laban's "household gods" and Jacob's warning her about keeping them.  The idea fascinated me: household gods?  And many years later, while on a visit to the Holy Land, I encountered actual archaeological remains of these "teraphim" at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. I stood by their case, mesmerized. Why would any of the ancients believe that these little terracotta statuettes would hold any power over them? They seem pretty benign.

In the readings for this Sunday. we discover Joshua warning the people of God's wrath if they would not give up worshiping the gods of their ancestors. So what is it about worshiping other gods?  What's the risk? Well, for starters, God made it clear in the first of Ten Commandments: You shall have no other gods but me.  So we know it is so. And yet, like our ancestors before us, we in the 21st century have plenty of other gods who threaten to draw us away from putting God first. 

Money and power come to mind, but what if we have little of either?  There are still things that seep into our daily existence that may crowd out God.  Innocuous activities like television, the Internet, and going to the gym, while not injurious to the soul, may prove to be lethal to our spiritual souls. 

This week, schedule a time to be alone with God each day; a time for prayer, scriptural reading, and listening. Pay attention to those activities that try to encroach upon your time with God. What are they? 

"Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." Joshua 24:23