Sermon for St Edward’s, Sun 31 Aug 2025, readings: Luke 14: 1, 7-14; Hebrews 13:1-8. 15-16
Our readings today are all about hospitality. And not just inviting your mates round for a meal kind of hospitality, but kingdom style hospitality. Jesus was invited to dinner at the house of one of the pharisees. Never one to miss a teaching opportunity, he talks to them about meals and dinner, and how they should be.
So never one to miss an opportunity, flags and roundabouts have been the order of the week, and not inviting people to the UK’s table. So how can I make those a teaching opportunity to think about hospitality?! and I might not be going where you think so just withhold your judgement for a moment…
So, let’s start with Luke and the 2nd half of our Luke passage. Jesus said to those gathered, pharisees, lawyers, educated people, and it feels quite pointed, as he says, when you invite people round you shouldn’t invite those you know you can gain from, which is clearly exactly what the pharisee has done. And that was societal normality, in a culture that valued position, honour, power, as we talked about last week, networking over a meal was valuable, it was about building worthwhile connections, being seen with the right people. But, Jesus says, no you should invite those who can’t repay you, or can’t benefit you. The poor, the blind, and so on. i.e. the people who were usually outcast, the ignored, those who were never going to be invited for dinner anywhere!
and when you do, he says you will be blessed and repaid in eternity.
Because the way the world does hospitality is conditional. Think about it, who do we invite into our homes? Those we know and love, those we have fun with, family. Weset the plan for the evening or lunch. What we will eat and when, and where. In the dining room or the kitchen table.
You know I wrote a piece once about my kitchen table. In it I wrote about the table being a gift from God and it really has been, for many reasons, but one is that it has hosted so many meals and conversations with such diverse people. Home groups, prayer times, coffee with neighbours, waifs and strays. That table has seen so much emotion, so much prayer, so much sharing. We have been free with our invitations to sit around that table, that we still have by the way. It very nearly got sold on moving here but I am so thankful we didn’t!
So who do we invite to share our lives? those we connect with pehaps, that we like, that we respect. We might ask, particularly at the moment, who do we invite into our country? Is it just those we can gain from? Just hold on to that for a moment because I want to challenge us all on that.
Jesus’ form of hospitality is unconditional, it’s for all. It’s for ‘the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind’ as he says, for the outcasts, the refugees, for the people who annoy us, the immigrant, the street community, the rejected, the person we just can’t face talking to, the people who have different politics than us, the tories, the reformers, the liberal lefties and the greens. It means welcoming the other, the one different from us, the stranger. It means going out of our way, not just giving second best or good enough, it’s getting out the best china, the fancy tablecloth, the Christmas cutlery. It’s the kind of hospitality that makes us uncomfortable or even vulnerable. We don’t know what to expect, what is going to happen, what will be said. It means lowering our human expectations, about learning to be in difference. it’s exactly what we are modelling here at St Edward’s.
I know that some of us disagree quote profoundly on some matters of theology, and yet we find a way to be together in our difference. We are not ensuring our position is the right one, but listening to one another.
Last weekend across the country George crosses appeared on roundabouts and flags flown all over the place. Some of us were appalled, some were glad of a ‘peaceful protest’ against our country’s immigration system at present. I’ll be honest I was not a fan. I found it offensive and othering, the opposite of a ‘love your neighbour’ approach. But I was challenged by a fellow member of clergy and the News Agent podcast, not to label people and to listen to why people are worried about immigration.
And clearly there are some, hopefully the marginal few, who do want to cause agro and there are plenty of racist comments out there which are wholly unacceptable, but I realised that just as much as I feel all should be welcomed here and I have made no secret of that. there are also many others with genuine concerns about immigration.
And I did feel challenged by my clergy friend because here we are at St Ed’s trying to create a welcome for all and yet here I was labelling those with a different view to me.
As I posted on our FB page, as a nation we seem to have lost the ability to disagree well or to seek to understand one another in our difference.
Do you know, it is interesting that St George was not the original patron saint of England, in fact there have been a few, including St Edward the Confessor after whom our church is named. George’s heritage is actually both Turkish and Palestinian, he fought for the Roman army, and is revered as both a Saint in the western church and by Muslims. He is the very model of mixed cultures and difference. So I wonder if we can learn something from St George and seek to understand one another in our difference. There are those who are angry, worried, fearful, and anxious from both different political viewpoint this week.
Some of us have very different political views but are all welcome here. Maybe some of us would have flown the flag this week and others would not. But as a family we need to listen to one another, to seek to understand each other and truly learn from each other. not just with flags but in all things.
As I’ve said before it is messy and untidy here, it’s not labelling one another, as church it’s hard to define us. People don’t know what box to put us in. And yet people are intrigued by us, want to know how we are doing it, how we are learning from one another. Were making an impact in this town. Just this week a fellow clergy asked if they could visit and find out more about what we are doing.
I think what we are doing here is kingdom hospitality. It’s bloody hard at times, I know that we might have to swallow our feelings or even our pride, it’s saying sorry more often. We might need to listen to opinions we disagree with in order to understand. We might have to lower our own expectations to welcome another in. But what we are building is radical generosity, it’s abundant grace, it is letting go of judgment and exclusion – whatever that looks like – and opening the door to each other more often.
Amen
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