Mutual Love

 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

This morning Hebrews gives us a pattern for what the church should be now. With so much division in our world. With so many not being welcome in so many other spheres of life, entertain the stranger. Show your best because sometimes people have entertained angels unaware.

At a time when the church is hurting we are uniquely poised to be the place of hospitality. With buildings largely empty and not being filled with people churches have dared to dream what they can do with their empty spaces. One inner city church has made its space available for start up enterprises. First there is no charge for the business as it gets up and running. They now have three to four businesses operating out of spare rooms in the church. One is on the verge of becoming a nationally distributed tea company. It has brought the neighborhood around it back to life.

Play schools, clinics, shelter for the homeless, a distribution hub for those without start up apartment furniture the church is now using spaces which were empty and filling them. Let mutual love be your way, don't be greedy, be honest in your most intimate relationship because this is the foundation of what it is to show the hospitality of Christ to a hurting wor!d. 

We need this imagination at a time such as this. In a book entitled Canoeing the Mountains the author likens this time in the church to the expedition of Lewis and Clark. The church for too long and too many years has wanted to think the church of the past is the way church will work in the future. Like Lewis and Clark they came to the headwaters of the Missouri river and thought over the next mountain they would see exactly what happens on the east coast. Mountains that look out onto the Atlantic, except they thought they would see the Pacific Ocean. Instead they climb and find more and more mountains. So they are faced with a choice go forward map less and create the map or turn around and go home.

We look out on our horizon and see the mountains. We are too small. We are too tired. We have come too far. And like Lewis and Clark we can make a decision to make the map forward or turn around. Let mutual love be your guide, let hospitality make your way. The thing is making new life takes mountains and valley's; success and failure. Failure where we learn about ourselves and learn about our relation to God.

It is in giving in which we receive. When we let love and hospitality be our guide the joy of God will fill us. Will give us strength for the journey ahead. We just have to allow it to be our guide. One step at a time. 

Love and hospitality at a time like this is so different then the culture around us it will be a beacon of hope to those tired of division and wrangling. It is worth the effort to make a way to propel us into the future. The rural church is not dead, it is a vital part of the church. Chosen for a time such as this to do great things. We were chosen not because we were the most but because we were the least. Remember this as you think of ways to move forward in this place. Who is the least who could benefit from this place, used these spaces? Then go and offer up what we have to show the world one small step makes a huge impact.