Hospitality to strangers

I had two different people ask me once how many people come to St Clement’s. The first person went to a thousand-person megachurch. She said to me, “So, like, how many people do you get on a Sunday?”

I said, “Oh, about 65/70…a hundred at Christmas and Easter.”

She said, “Aw; cute!”

The second person was a colleague working in a congregation of 12. She said, “How many are you seeing on a Sunday these days?”

I said, “Oh, you know, 65/70 and then about a hundred at Christmas and Easter.”

She said, “That’s practically a revival!”

Interesting, huh, how what we think about numbers of people in church is informed by the pew we’re sitting in on any given Sunday? In the New Testament letters, the writers to the early churches don’t often begin, “So, how many are ya’ll in Corinth getting now?” Or, “I heard Priscilla and Aquila’s place is in the thousands!” 

No, most New Testament letters begin with a greeting, naming individual people rather than numbers. Then there is an affirmation from the writer listing the good works of hospitality the community has been doing, the ways they have been bringing glory to God in the name of Jesus. The writer usually goes on and addresses any interpersonal issues in the community, where one or two or a group of people are struggling to love one another. 

The letter to the Hebrews is one such example of a New Testament letter written to a growing faith community. There are 4 issues, it seems, the Hebrews are struggling with: 1) welcoming the stranger among them (the stranger more often than not the Gentile who had joined this community of Jews who were now confessing Jesus as Messiah; 2) visiting those in their community who had been put in prison because of their allegiance to Jesus, namely, those who had been detained and were awaiting trial; 3) husbands who had been sneaking off to the Roman baths and not to meet their wives; and, 4) putting a limit on what you keep for yourself from your earnings. I saw a meme the other day that said in modern terms what I think the writer to the Hebrews was getting at with this last one. It read: “Why do we put income caps on disabled people but not on billionaires?” 

I’ll leave it to your personal discernment to decide which of the above might call to you as an individual. In terms of our church community as a whole, I’m drawn to the call to practice hospitality to strangers. When the writer to the Hebrews is urging the recipients of their letter to show hospitality, they emphasize that this hospitality should be especially to those they don’t yet consider part of their community. The writer famously says, “For some by [showing hospitality to strangers] have entertained angels without knowing it.” 

The reference is to the Hebrews’ own ancestors: Abraham, who welcomes two strangers into his home who are later described as angels even though he doesn’t recognize them as such; Tobias, in the book of Tobit, inviting the archangel Raphael to join him on his journey, though he knows Raphael only as a stranger. The point the Hebrews writer is trying to make? To practice hospitality, especially to those you don’t yet recognize as one of your own, is to find that line between heaven and earth a little less opaque.

The letter to the Hebrews is a letter written to a growing faith community. I wonder what it would look like, if instead of asking our churches, “How many do you get on a Sunday?” we asked, “How is your church growing in their practice of hospitality to strangers? To people who might never darken the doors of your church on a Sunday?”

Some of you will know that occasionally I wear another hat as regional dean for North Vancouver. It means I provide general pastoral support for the clergy in this area. This summer, we had the privilege as a deanery of partnering in a summer day camp for children. Each of the four Anglican churches in the North Vancouver deanery contributed—financially as well as in other ways. In terms of costs to run the camp, we had to come up with $5000 to match a $5000 grant from the Diocese. And, do you know? It wasn’t the church that “gets” the most children on a Sunday that gave the most financially. It was the church that gets the fewest. They gave 6x the amount of the other churches. I think that’s remarkable! They could have said, “We don’t really have any kids, so we’re not doing children’s ministry right now.” 

But they chose instead to practice hospitality to strangers, to children they might never even meet. 

I wonder, in what areas are we as the Parish of St Clement growing in our knowledge and willingness to practice hospitality to strangers? To practice hospitality to people we might never meet or people who might never come to church on a Sunday? I think of our ministry to refugees and newcomers, some of whom are Muslim. I love a saying I’ve often heard from our refugee committee: “We sponsor refugees not because they are Christians, but because we are.” Indeed, those newcomers who we’ve sponsored who are Christians aren’t even Anglicans! Some newcomers may settle in North Vancouver, but many will live in Surrey or other parts of the lower mainland. Some stay for a year in BC and then move to another province. Still, our call to practice hospitality to those “outside” our community remains.

I think of another example that’s maybe a little closer to home: our upcoming Swing Dance coordinated by our People’s Warden Donna and Ingrid, a member of our choir. They’re aware, as are you, I’m sure, that not all of us are swing dancers in this church. But there is growing interest in our neighborhood, beyond the doors of St Clement’s, from folks who enjoy social dance who would love a place on the North Shore to hang their dance shoes. Some of the folks who are interested might end up coming to St Clement’s on a Sunday (one or two already have!). Some might not. Whether you’re planning to come to the event in September to dance, to volunteer, or just to enjoy the live band, perhaps I can encourage us to think of this event as our very own St Clement’s ministry of hospitality to strangers? After all, we were all once strangers to this place when someone invited us in. Amen.