What's Cooking for Sunday

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Since my sermon was so short last week, Rwth said I could try again this week. We like to keep you guessing about who is preaching any given week anyway.

We use Thursday to finish our sermons at home, so whoever is preaching the coming week will usually be hard to find on "Sermon Writing Day" (or as I like to call it, "eating cereal straight from the box while I stare out the window with writer's block day.")

Here is what I have cooking for Sunday:

William Temple, the renowned British scholar, teacher, and theologian (and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942-1944) is often quoted as saying something to this effect: 

“The Church is the only institution that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members,”

Similarly, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Letters and Papers from Prison:

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men (and women) of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”


Our lectionary texts for Sunday are Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 and Luke 14:1, 7-14.

In the Hebrews text we are told “Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this some have been hosts to angels without knowing it.” 

And Luke shares another story of Jesus and the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Jesus offers a parable about where they should be sitting and who should be on the invitation list: When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.


The sermon title is “Radical Hospitality” although that may not be the best name for it The focus is really the nature and mission of the church, but I do think that gets lived out in significant and profound ways through hospitality – how we invite, welcome, include and support those who are (yet) part of the Church. 

Anyway, put those two quotes in a pot with the two passages of scripture and let it simmer. You can let me know how it tastes on Sunday.  Probably needs some salt.


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