Advent Hospitality

It has been a joy over the last few months to get to know many of you and hear your stories about how you first came to be a part of St. Michael’s Church. One interesting thing I have noticed is that many of you first came to St. Michael’s during Advent or Christmas. One person told me that she decided to come to church during Advent because she wanted to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Another person told me that she was at St. Michael’s for a community meeting and heard the choir practicing Christmas hymns; the music was so beautiful that she decided to attend St. Michael’s the next Sunday. Another member of St. Michael’s told me he came to St. Michael’s because someone invited him to come and see a friend in the Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve; he was so impressed with the joy and holy chaos of the event that he just kept coming to church.

These stories illustrate the importance of our hospitality and welcome during the Advent and Christmas seasons. We are offered the opportunity to invite people into the deep fullness of joy that we find in our worship and in our church community. Here are some ways that you can help offer hospitality and welcome:

• Invite, invite, invite. The number-one reason an individual starts attending a church is because someone has invited them. And, it is best to invite someone to come with you. Remember, it is hard to go to a church for the first time; people feel more at ease when they go with someone who can show them the ropes. We have many special events during Advent and Christmas that are great opportunities for an invitation?Advent Lessons and Carols, the St. Nicholas Day Celebration, or Christmas Eve.

• If you see someone new at church, introduce yourself. Welcome them. Invite them to come with you to Coffee Hour or a special reception. Introduce them to others in the church. Invite them to come back.

• Remember that more people feel depressed in December than any other month of the year. These seasons can be times of grief for people who have lost loved ones, or times of loneliness for those who are far from family and friends. Be sensitive to this, reaching out to people in love and support.

• Don’t be shy. Let people know the joy, connection, and meaning you receive from your church and your relationship with God.

• Be sensitive. Be gentle. Some people have been wounded or manipulated by the church. Let them know they are welcome regardless of where they are in their faith or in their searching.

Yours in Christ,

Mary

For those of you who missed it, below is the powerful sermon Brother Scott Borden preached on September 18 as part of our launch of the St. Michael’s Capital Campaign. The Gospel lesson for the day was Matthew 20:1-16.

Today I am here to talk primarily about stewardship and hospitality. It is my hope to help you reflect on the theological dimension of the work you are preparing to undertake in renovating St. Michael’s Church--and the money you are raising to do that. So when I looked at the reading from Matthew’s Gospel I was a bit dismayed. What, I thought, am I going to do with this, other than, perhaps, simply ignoring it?

But on deeper reflection I began to realize just how much today’s Gospel reading has to say about both stewardship and hospitality. It is a surprisingly relevant passage. Jesus begins the parable saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” This is a very important piece of context. We’re not learning about the ways of the world, but rather the ways of heaven. The normal rules don’t apply.

A landowner contracts workers at the start of the day, and more workers at the middle of the day, and even more near the end of the day. When pay-time comes, he pays them all exactly the same, even though some have worked all day long and others for only a short while. By the rules of this world, the landowner is unjust. Not everyone did the same work so, obviously, some deserve more and some deserve less. In this world, that is only fair. But Jesus is not telling us about this world; Jesus is telling us about God’s kingdom.

There are lots of great ways to reflect on what this passage says about God’s unconditional love, about our equality in the eyes of God, on how there is no higher or lower status in heaven--there are any number of great sermons to be preached on this parable. But I’m not here today to preach a great sermon. I’m here to talk about stewardship and hospitality. Stewardship and hospitality do play a powerful part in the story, though more by their absence than their presence.

In art, particularly in sculpture, there is a concept called “negative space.” In the case of sculpture, this is the empty space that fills in around the solid material. It could be a hole or a crevice. The negative space--what is not there--is just as important to the work as the positive space. What may look empty is, in fact, filled with meaning.

The workers in this story display an absence of stewardship--”negative stewardship space,” if you will. We expect, according to the rules of this world, that workers will have a limited relationship with their work. They are not interested in caring for the vineyard over the long term. They are there to sell their labor in exchange for payment. Their concern for the vineyard begins at the start of their day and ends when they get paid. So naturally those who have worked harder are offended when their labor is devalued.

But this particular vineyard is like the kingdom of God, not earth. The workers--that’s us--are not valued by the work we have done. Rather, we are valued for who we are: beloved children of God. That is the good news. The bad news, on the other hand, is that we don’t get to stop caring for the vineyard when we are off the clock, because we are never off the clock. Workers get to go home. Stewards are home.

Stewardship is a vocation, a calling from God. As Paul says in the letter to the Philippians, we are to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel. There are no time constraints on that. As stewards we are to care for our brothers and sisters, for all of God’s creation. It is entirely a labor of love, not work exchanged for a paycheck.

If the workers in the vineyard had the mindset of stewardship, those laborers who kept showing up later and later in the day would be welcomed as yet more stewards to care for the kingdom. Questions about who “earned” more or less would make no sense. The response would be joy, not grumbling. That is hospitality:  welcoming others in the name of God.

In the story as Jesus tells it, the workers are in negative stewardship space and negative hospitality space. Our baptismal covenant calls each of us to positive stewardship and positive hospitality. Our labor tending the vineyard and sharing God’s love with others is our joyful response to God’s gracious love.

Here at St. Michael’s, stewardship and hospitality take a very particular form right now. As you, the people of St. Michael’s Parish, embark on this Capital Campaign and the construction that it will fund, there are a number of challenges that you will face. What to do and how to pay for it may seem like the big, essential challenges, but they are really not the most important.

The most essential challenge is to accept that St. Michael’s Parish, like that vineyard Jesus told us about, is like the kingdom of God, not the kingdoms of this earth. You are not hourly laborers working for a paycheck, but stewards, caretakers, agents on God’s behalf. To be sure, the likeness between heaven and the parish is not perfect. But it is a glimpse, a beacon. Your positive stewardship and hospitality will not only be a source of joy for you, but a light for others.

At Holy Cross Monastery we have invested heavily in improving bathrooms. I’ve often laughed at the amount of time we’ve spent focused on that most mundane of rooms. It seems reasonable that, in a monastery, our thoughts and conversations will be turned toward lofty, transcendent things. When you think of transcendence, the bathroom is probably not the first thing that springs to mind.

Yet hospitality relies on simple and mundane things like bathrooms. And lights. And entrance ways. You take those things away and there is very limited opportunity for hospitality. An entrance, a bathroom, or a stairway that presents a barrier does not have a place in God’s kingdom. Welcoming the stranger, giving a drink to the thirsty, comforting those who suffer, these are ways that we welcome Jesus. There is transcendence in the most mundane things.

And I dare say if there is no transcendence in the little things, then there is no purpose in the loftier thoughts. A lofty reflection on welcoming the stranger as Christ is of no use if the stranger can’t get through the door, can’t get to the water fountain, can’t be with the community.

It is tempting to believe that spending on a building is unfaithful, especially when people are hungry and homeless. But following Jesus is not a path of simple and clear answers. The world is complex, and Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We must be pragmatic, but not pragmatic for the purpose of winning. We must be pragmatic stewards of God’s kingdom. An antiquated boiler or electrical system is no more a part of pragmatic stewardship than outrageous, appalling luxury or waste. We are stewards not just of a building, but also of the resources from God’s creation needed to run the building.

As you undertake this Campaign there will be opportunities to give of your wealth, to give of your time, to give of your imagination. I suspect you will have ample opportunities to learn and practice patience and charity as well.

Keep in mind that stewardship calls you to do what you can do and not to compare what you can do with what someone else can do. Those workers back in the vineyard wanted to be compared with each other, and that is not God’s way. If God were to reward us as we deserve, we would all receive no reward. We do not need to do better than others. We just need to do the best we can.

Making St. Michael’s more accessible, more energy-efficient, more functional, more sturdy--these are gifts that will bear fruit now and for generations to come. They are faithful responses to God’s boundless love.

They are not your only responses. You will still worship and pray. You will still reach out to those near and far who are in need. You will still feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, visit the prisoners, work for justice, and strive to make peace. You will still take sabbath rest.

And bit by bit, step by step, piece by piece, you will be building God’s kingdom. Amen.