Sermon notes for United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH, Sunday, September 23, 2012.
There's an unforgettable scene in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, when Jean Valjean, recently released from serving almost 20 years in prison for theft, having wandered the streets for the four days since his release, knocks on the door of Bishop Myriel. He thinks that he's coming to yet another inn whose innkeeper will turn him away on account of the yellow passport he has to carry and show which states that he's a former convict. To his surprise the Bishop welcomes him in saying, "Sit down, sir, and warm yourself. We are going to sup in a few moments, and your bed will be prepared while you are supping." The man realizes that this is no innkeeper and soon finds out that he is in fact in the home of a bishop. During the evening, Jean Valjean is treated to a warm room, gentle care and kind conversation. The bishop calls him brother and treats him as if he were.
There's an unforgettable scene in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, when Jean Valjean, recently released from serving almost 20 years in prison for theft, having wandered the streets for the four days since his release, knocks on the door of Bishop Myriel. He thinks that he's coming to yet another inn whose innkeeper will turn him away on account of the yellow passport he has to carry and show which states that he's a former convict. To his surprise the Bishop welcomes him in saying, "Sit down, sir, and warm yourself. We are going to sup in a few moments, and your bed will be prepared while you are supping." The man realizes that this is no innkeeper and soon finds out that he is in fact in the home of a bishop. During the evening, Jean Valjean is treated to a warm room, gentle care and kind conversation. The bishop calls him brother and treats him as if he were.
“This
is not my house;” the bishop says, “it is the house of Jesus
Christ. This door does not demand of him who enters whether he has a
name, but whether he has a grief. You suffer, you are hungry and
thirsty; you are welcome. And do not thank me; do not say that I
receive you in my house. No one is at home here, except the man who
needs a refuge. I say to you, who are passing by, that you are much
more at home here than I am myself. Everything here is yours.”1
Jean
Valjean wakes up in the middle of the night and, unable to get back
to sleep, gets to thinking about the six sets of silverware he had
seen during dinner.
He sneaks out of his room to the cupboard where
the silverware is kept and putting them in his bag, flees from the
bishop's home.
The
next morning there is a knock at the bishop's door and it is three
policemen holding Jean Valjean by the collar. The bishop slowly
makes his way to the door and to the surprise of all looks straight
at Jean Valjean and greets him exclaiming,
“'Ah!
here you are!'...'I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave
you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for
which you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry
them away with your forks and spoons?'
Jean
Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable Bishop with
an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.
'Monseigneur,'
said the senior officer of the police, 'so what this man said is
true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is
running away. We stopped him to look into the matter. He had this
silver—' 'And he told you,' interposed the Bishop with a smile,
'that it had been given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with
whom he had passed the night? I see how the matter stands. And you
have brought him back here? It is a mistake.' 'In that case,' replied
the senior officer, 'we can let him go?' 'Certainly,' replied the
Bishop. The police released Jean Valjean, who recoiled. 'Is it true
that I am to be released?' he said, in an almost inarticulate voice,
and as though he were talking in his sleep. 'Yes, you are released;
do you not understand?' said one of the police. 'My friend,' resumed
the Bishop, 'before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them.'
He
stepped to the chimney-piece, took the two silver candlesticks, and
brought them to Jean Valjean. ….Jean Valjean was trembling in every
limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically, and with a
bewildered air. 'Now,' said the Bishop, 'go in peace. By the way,
when you return, my friend, it is not necessary to pass through the
garden. You can always enter and depart through the street door. It
is never fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or by
night.' Then, turning to the police:— 'You may retire, gentlemen.'
The police retired.”
Jean
Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting. The Bishop drew near
to him, and said in a low voice:—"Do not forget, never forget,
that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man."
Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised
anything, remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words
when he uttered them. He resumed with solemnity:— "Jean
Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is
your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and
the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God."2
The
hospitality that the bishop shows to Jean Valjean stems from his
understanding of who he is as a Christian. The bishops does not
consider his home, his
home and he does not consider his things his
things.
He doesn't see Valjean as convict, but as brother. What is the
source of the bishop's psychosis?
This
kind of insanity is the foolishness of the good news of Jesus.
It
is a reflection of the radical welcoming that God has shown to us in
the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord.
In
today's gospel we read about the heated political debate that the
disciples were having as they were walking on the road. Their big
concern? Who will be the greatest in the coming kingdom?
Which
one of us is greater than the others.
Jesus
must have heard some bit of their conversation because when they get
to their destination he asks them, “What
were you arguing about on the way?”
The
disciples – naturally embarrassed to have to answer this question –
fall silent.
Jesus
then teaches them saying, “‘Whoever wants to be first must be
last of all and servant of all.'
And
in the house where they were there was a young child and Jesus,
illustrating his point brings the child among them and takes the
child into his arms, saying,
‘Whoever
welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes
me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
In
our world, the one who makes the most money is the one who holds the
most power and often the most glory.
But
Jesus tells us that it is not so in the kingdom of God. Rather in
the kingdom of God, the last is first and the greatest person the
servant.
When
he brings the child in among the disciples he's demonstrating that in
the kingdom of God the “least of these” are the top priority.
The
kingdom of God is an alternate mode of existence where clothing the
naked, feeding the poor, showing hospitality to strangers is showing
hospitality to God's own self.
In
Jesus' parable of the last judgment in Matthew's gospel the king
says, “Truly
I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are
members of my family, you
did it to me.”
And
the child that Jesus welcomes among the disciples is an example of
this.
‘Whoever
welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes
me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
This
hospitality that is asked of us is at the core of what it means to
live as worshippers of God.
For
God has welcomed us. And when we welcome others we are welcoming
God.
When
the Bishop welcomed the least of these, the Bishop welcomed Christ
and when we welcome children into our midst we are welcoming Christ.
“Truly
I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are
members of my family, you did it to me.”
Our
sentence for today from the faith and covenant states: “We strive
for mutual understanding thus avoiding offense as set forth in the
Word of God.”
Our
required reading for this week's Pastoral Theology and Care class was
a book by Emma Justes about listening.3
Listening,
the book states, is one of the most profound ways that we can show
hospitality to our neighbor.
We
live in a fast-paced world where people are on the go constantly,
when long conversations can be considered liabilities to our urgent
schedules.
We
live in a world of heated rhetoric and polarizing tribal relegations
of left, right, upper, lower, in and out, cool or uncool, normal and
weird. And we all live with these categories in our minds. How
might we listen to the left, right, the uncool, the weird, the
strange? How might we welcome the other into our midst and listen
with charity and unconditional love?
Listening
might be one of the most difficult ways that we extend hospitality
because when we listen well we are really giving of our very selves
to the neighbor, receiving their joys and sorrows into ourselves and
giving them the gift of time and presence.
The
book talks about four aspects of hospitality that also are aspects of
listening.
They
are: vulnerability, humility, thoughtful availability, and
reciprocity.
- Four qualities of hospitality
- vulnerability
- may bring uncertainty
- may bring pain
- “when we open our doors to strangers, we put ourselves and our loved ones at risk. When we open... [our] door, or our heart to someone else, there is the potential of being hurt. We realize that there's a risk in being vulnerable. Hospitality (and the vulnerability it involves) does not happen without our openness to another – opening up to their presence and the impact it may have on our lives.” (Justes, 9)
- may bring criticism
- “vulnerability, as we are open to others, opens us up to criticism, which we do not become vulnerable to when we remain closed” (Justes, 9)
- may bring change
- “vulnerability requires great courage. To face the risk of the unknown; to face the inevitability of change in one's life; and to do so freely is a challenge for any of us in our bravery quotient.” (Justes, 10)
the
bishop was made vulnerable in welcoming an ex-convict into his house
– he lost his silver.
- humility
- “offering hospitality involves humility on the part of both the host and the guest. In acts of hospitality the primary focus is on the one in need who will beocome the guest and recipient of the hospitality. By being the guest, humility is already part of the package. The guest is the one in need and the host is the one who has something the guest needs.”
- “the host who welcomes the guest with arrogance and showiness violates the true nature of hospitality, and may be satisfying her or his need to receive appreciation from others. “Look! What a fine host!” is not the response one seeks when offering true hospitality.
- “when hospitality is offered – offered with humility – it is done with a sense of one's limitations and recognition of the limitations of the others involved – family members and the guests who have been received.” (Justes 12)
- “humility is the recognition that one has limits, and includes awareness of the limitations of others and the appropriate boundaries within which we function.” (Justes, 12)
humility
is a proper recognition of who one is before God and other human
beings.
The
bishop recognized that he was a brother of Valjean and mutually a
recipient of God's welcome and grace. He gave Valjean his best wine.
Rather than establish himself as superior to Valjean, he gave
Valjean some of his best goods.
- thoughtful availability
- “present to every need of the guests, anticipating what they will want or need next – alert to serve.... Groh further describes his concept, 'To be a host like Abraham is to make one's personal presence available to the guest – to form a receptive alliance with the guest.' 'At your service' seems like an appropriate phrase to reflect thoughtful availability.” (Justes, 12-13)
- “thoughtful availability means going beyond the needs of food and drink, to being alert to other needs for the comfort of the guest.” (Justes 13)
- “Simon's attention directed toward Jesus was so intent on and captive to his defensiveness that it was very far from being thoughtful availability.... Simon's hospitality (inviting Jesus to his house) was really all about Simon's needs, not the needs of his guests.” (Justes 13)
- “as hosts we give our focus of attention to those who are our guests. Concerns about other matters are made secondary while we attend to the needs of our guests. Thoughtful availability directs our attention toward our guests and what we have that they need and we can offer them.” (Justes 13)
the
bishop wastes no time in giving Valjean food and the comfort he has
gone without for so long. He gives him conversation as he eats and
does not force Valjean to reflect on his painful past but treats him
as if he were an equal and tells him of places and people that would
be helpful for him when he goes on his way. He remains a presence of
charity and grace and available to meet the needs of his guest were
they to be voiced.
- reciprocity
- “Hospitality involves a giving and receiving process. When we are given to generously, we must be able to receive generosity offered to us. When we are guests, we offer what we bring to the situation in which we are cast as the receivers. When we function as hosts, we give generously and must be open to receive what may come to us from our guest who originally came to us as one in need.” (Justes 14-15)
- “some of us in the church, and especially in ministry, find it difficult to receive from others. Offering hospitality requires our willingness to receive from others even as we are the ones in the position of offering hospitality.”
- “The real gift from the guest is found in the relationship – in what transpires in their connection as host and guest.”
- “being able to put ourselves in the shoes of another person is a part of hospitality that may be understood as reciprocity.”
Hebrews
13:1-3: “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers,
for by doing that some have entertained
angels
without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though
you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though
you yourselves were being tortured.”
The
bishop welcomed Jean Valjean who in turn became of force of great
good for the least of these in France.
The
bishop received the gift of being a means of redemption for Valjean –
who was then a means of redemption for others, the least of these.
**
Hospitality and Listening
- “Hospitality involves the acts of welcoming and receiving, which are the essence of listening. When we indicate that we are willing to listen to someone, we have welcomed that person. When we listen and hear another person, we have received them. When we listen, we open ourselves not only to hear, but also to being vulnerable to our own pain as well as to the pain of the other. We recognize humility – having a right perspective on ourselves – which is required in order to be able to offer appropriate hospitality and effective listening.”
1Hugo,
Victor (2010-12-16). Les Misérables (p. 67). Public Domain Books.
Kindle Edition.
2Hugo,
Victor (2010-12-16). Les Misérables (pp. 86-87). Public Domain
Books. Kindle Edition.
Challenging message today - thanks!
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