The Door to Healing is Hospitality - The 5th Sunday after Epiphany
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
February 04, 2024
Last Sunday I was watching the livestream on the Grace app and
during the Ministry Moment, Susan Buda and Spunky were wondering what Jesus has
to do with us and Susan said, “Jesus wants us to be well.” And as I was in bed
with COVID, that was gospel goodness right there. It lifted me up. Jesus wants
us to be healed and whole and well. That is the embodiment of Jesus for our
bodies and selves. Jesus knows that all people need him and all people need
belonging with one another to experience joy and abundance in life.
We are still in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark and
Jesus has come with his four disciples to the home of Simon and Andrew where
they find that Simon’s mother in law is unwell with with a fever. Jesus heals
her and lifts her up and restores her to life and she can be herself again. She
can live for the Lord. That evening, when the Sabbath had ended, people with
every kind of illness and every kind of unclean spirit or demon come to be well
too. The whole city was gathered around the door. What happens next? Can you
imagine if all of State College was suddenly in the Welcome Center?
This doorway matters. The first reason is that there the whole
city was at the threshold of the doorway. Jesus can close the door or open it.
Jesus meets them there. Jesus welcomes them there, he doesn’t
turn them away. Jesus doesn’t leave them in a place of continued isolation.
Jesus healed everyone who came. Because Jesus came to restore the kingdom and
usher in the the good news that people have lost sight of.
The second reason this doorway matters is that Jesus is the
door- the connection to God and to healing and wholeness. People experience
this most fully because they gather together around the door. They gather
around Jesus.
And Andrew and Simon’s mother in law and the disciples
themselves served, because they had been called to follow and lifted up to
serve Jesus’ mission. There they are too with hospitality. Probably even beyond
the door helping people to get to Jesus and offering what they need in
hospitality. And I bet since this was new to them it might have started to feel
like “how much longer do we have to do this? I wonder if they rolled an eye or
grit their teeth? Sometimes serving Jesus asks a lot.
But… maybe you can hear that “Hospitality” sounds like
“hospital.” They both come from the same root word which means “healing.” Have
you ever thought about how we show hospitality as being healing? Or when we
don’t that someone stays unwell?
Wherever people feel isolated because of illness, or disability
or other life circumstances, being welcomed into a home, or into God’s house,
can open the door to healing in Christ. And people often come to faith through
radically ordinary hospitality.
This matters in our world today because as Dr. Rosaria
Butterfield shared in a recent podcast, we can be on a “starvation diet of
community.” We are starved for community in spite of all of the devices that
supposedly help us to learn and connect. We like those early disciples are
called to share in restoring the kingdom and ushering in the the good news
where people have lost sight of it.
It’s the good news that was written long ago in places like
Psalm 68 where we hear that God is a father the the fatherless, a defender of
widows. That God sets the lonely in families. And in today’s psalm, Psalm 147
we, see God’s loving care for all of creation- God counts the stars in the sky
and calls them by name. God lifts up the brokenhearted and binds up their
wounds. God lifts up the oppressed. God provides the earth with rain and with
snow and with clouds. God makes grass to grow and gives food to animals. God
brings peace and God takes delight in us. We all benefit and we have a purpose
one unto another. Wherever people stand at the threshold seeking God’s love,
the gospel tells us Jesus uses hospitality to heal people.
How do we lose sight of this? How did those Jesus encountered in
his earthly ministry lose sight of it? It’s the age old challenge. Sin has the
power to fuel despair, and greed, addictions and harmful coping mechanisms. It
can cut us off from each other and distort how we see ourselves and the world,
even how we see wellness. It leads those in power to leave those who long to be
whole, stuck at the door where no one is answering. And yet we, like those
first disciples are called to follow Jesus and not the kingdoms of this world
and offer life altering hospitality and healing.
Hospitality, true faith centered hospitality, allows God’s power
to be released into the world. And it is often quite ordinary stuff. Seeing
someone and acknowledging them. Offering a hand to help, lifting people up when
they are down. Even a simple “hello” to a stranger can be a spiritual practice.
Seeing people with love and not judgment.
Hospitality is the connection that interrupts sin and reminds us
we are not alone. Jesus shows us that God designed deep relationships to be the
joy of life where people share meals, laughter and conversation around a table.
Where they know others and are known. There are so many ways we can experience
the satisfying goodness God offers by restoring community. It’s the kind of
love that slays loneliness and despair, and addictions and the patterns of sin
and lifts us up.
Practically speaking, it’s why I ask you at the sharing of the
peace to turn and wave to the livestream cameras. Because I remember the day we
got a letter from someone we have never met who said, “I am one of the people
on the other side of the blue dot you wave to.” It’s why I encourage you to
come and sit with Disciples Together or those we invite from Food Distribution
at Super Wednesday or at our events, because other people who come here are
hungry for connections just like you, but perhaps less able to make them. This
past Wednesday I got a phone call from one of the Direct Support Professionals
from the Skills group home near me. The guys at Super Wednesday wondered where
I was and one of them, Zack, needed to hear me say I was ok.
Loving connection is why our Card Ministry keeps extending
itself to send more cards to those whose world do not extend past their
doorway. And comfort makers make fleece throws for those facing challenges who
need a snuggle made with prayer. And its why it matters that when we see
someone new, we offer a gentle welcome. Because sometimes, someone decided to
come to a church today because they really need Jesus and we are here at the
doorway. Our whole purpose is to help make that happen.
Every day is a day for connecting and for serving and
remembering that because Jesus thought it was worth everything he had to give
to keep us in God’s love and care, we should strive to not see the world as a
bunch of “have to’s” or just
obligations. We get to serve Jesus. We get to help break the power of sin and
separation. We get to lift up and pour into people constantly. Because Jesus is
here to lift us up, and gather us around him and then remind us we get to live
for the Lord every day.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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