Hospitality Matters

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Luke 15:1-10

    “So he told them a parable…”. Jesus loves telling stories.  Depending on how you count, he tells over 30 parables throughout the gospels.  He uses common, every day examples so that we remember these stories and can learn from them to grow in our faith!  We might have opinions about what genre of stories we prefer – fantasy, mystery, sci-fi – but who doesn’t love a good story?  As you may know, my sabbatical was planned around the theme of “Story Matters.”  I was able to journey with my family to learn more about our ancestry in Norway, Ireland, and Scotland, I was able to nerd out with my parents on a literary tour of England, and this was all wrapped up for me in a daily prayer exercise where I took intentional time to reflect on God’s story in the Bible and in my life.  And here today for our gospel reading is for me, some of the best stories Jesus tells, in Luke 15 – the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin.  Jesus knows how to tell some good stories.
    It just so happens that the countries we were traveling in this summer have a lot of sheep.  We learned that while the GPS may tell you it’s 2 hours to the next destination, when you encounter sheep on a two-lane highway in Ireland, you will simply just have to take your time as they take their time crossing the road.  Sheep farmers mark their sheep with distinctive paint spray of different colors so they can keep track of their sheep.  And we saw how raising sheep is a big business in the United Kingdom and Ireland – we bought Aran Island sweaters and enjoyed more than one meal of roasted lamb.  Sheep are of great economic value in these countries.
    So Jesus tells a story about a sheep farmer who takes a risk by leaving 99 of his sheep in the wilderness to find the one lost sheep.  In much of the world still today, let’s keep in mind that sheep are economic objects that mean profits for their owners.  They are not cute and lovable pets.  Losing 1/100th of your product isn’t nothing, but it does seem like a bit much for this shepherd to risk losing more sheep by going after this lost sheep in the story.  The point becomes clearer in the story of the lost coin – the woman has lost 1/10th of her income.  She will search until she finds it.  It’s a fair bit of cash, but it still seems a little extreme for her to throw a party with her friends and neighbors (probably spending the worth of the coin) to celebrate that she found this money.  So what’s Jesus trying to say here?
    Jesus tells stories that we will remember.  The examples he gives point us to a bigger picture, because he isn’t really talking about sheep and coins – he’s talking about people.  Remember who he is telling these stories to?  The Pharisees and scribes who are grumbling that “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  If you are familiar with Luke 15, you know that the third parable is the coup de gras for Jesus:  it’s a parable about two human beings, the older and the younger, prodigal son, and the love that their father has for both of them.  Now we get to the main point:  if items of economic value – animals and coins – are worth someone taking some trouble to recover and find, how much more valuable, then, are people to God?  Each person, each human soul, in fact, is worth all the trouble in the world to God.  There really is no putting a price tag or limit to what length God will go to bring people back into relationship with him.
    So I began this morning by saying we would talk about hospitality.  What kind of welcome are we offering to people who have been found by God?  Disciples strive to do what their teacher does.  Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them, Luke tells us.  So, how are we welcoming sinners and eating with them?  Who is missing, and to what lengths are we willing to go to share God’s love with them?  
I would venture to say that we here at Faith are proud that we are a welcoming church.  When we gathered for strategic planning now ten months ago, this was our collective definition of ourselves as a congregation: “we are a welcoming and accepting diverse community.”  If you had the opportunity to visit other churches this summer like I did, you know that churches vary in their ability to welcome widely and with gracious hospitality.  It’s an art more than a science!  As disciples, we are trying to live into our identity as a welcoming and accepting diverse church.  As we reflect on Jesus’ words and actions in our gospel for today, how can we continue to improve our welcome as the 99 or the 9 faithful who are waiting expectantly for that one lost one to make us whole, rather than grumbling with judgment.
    There’s another piece, though, about our individual walk with Christ as disciples.  Hospitality as a faith practice is outward and invitational.  Welcome is not only about how we behave in church when someone new walks in for worship or as we engage with them at coffee hour.  Jesus sends us out to go where he goes, looking for those places where those lost folks might be.  In our secular world today, you really don’t have to go that far or look that hard, let’s be honest.  Jesus challenges us to leave judgments and grumbling behind – yep, we’re looking for sinners, just like Jesus did, and guess what? We should not be surprised when we find sinners.  We should not be surprised either to realize that we are sinners, still, too, saved by grace through faith.  We acknowledge that we may be more like the anxious sheep left behind for a little while so that our lost brother or sister might be found by Jesus.  Disciples are called to follow in their teacher’s footsteps, but disciples also know that they are not the teacher.  By extending Christ’s hospitality to others and daring to go to people in places that may be a bit out of our comfort zone, we also acknowledge that it’s Jesus’ work to save the lost; we are simply his helper sheep, not the shepherd.  Jesus encourages an attitude of joy and rejoicing, rather than grumbling, when we welcome a lost one home.
    There’s one last story that many of us know well that I think is appropriate as we reflect on our ability to welcome people of all kinds into the Christian faith so that they might have a relationship with Jesus.  The task can seem daunting and intimidating.  But when we remember that all people are of inestimable worth and value to God, the little things we do to help people feel welcome make a big difference.  There was a man walking on a beach after a storm, and he saw a woman gathering up starfish that had washed up on the beach and throwing them back into the ocean.  He approached her and asked her why she was bothering to gather up these starfish and put them back in the ocean.  “There must be thousands of them, you’ll never be able to save them all!” he remarked.  She looked at him, threw another starfish back, and then said, “It made a difference for that one.”  Jesus is calling us make a difference, and our efforts at hospitality matters!  May we join him at the table in joyfully welcoming sinners and eating with them.  Amen.