VIA POSITIVA: YES! IN DEED! JULY 8, 2018 EMBODYING HOSPITALITY Readings: Luke 10:1-10: I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Galatians 6:1-10: let us not grow weary in doing what is right ACIM, Chapter 19: The Holy Spirit has given you love's messengers Our song this morning comes from former Beatle bassist and songwriter Paul McCartney. He released this song "Let 'em In" with his band Wings in 1976 on their album Wings at the Speed of Sound. Back in June, a woman named Sarah Sanders went to a small Virginia restaurant to eat dinner with her family. After being served a cheese plate, the owner of the restaurant called Sanders aside and told her that the staff was uncomfortable serving her and that she and her family would need to leave. Sanders, who is, of course, the press secretary for President Donald Trump, left without incident, but was sure to post about her expulsion on social media afterward causing a huge dustup that has left people on both sides of the issue talking about many issues, including civility, the right to stand up for what you believe, nonviolent social action and whether or not we should be live out our values in a tit-for-tat manner. I think what's lost in all of this conversation is one thing: Hospitality. That word evokes a kind of civility, I suppose, and also opens up a fresh can of worms about how it gets practiced and whether we all are deserving of hospitality, or if some of us, perhaps 1
because of the nature of the work we do, or the content of our character, should instead be offered hostility no matter how civilly it may be offered. Professor and author Richard Kearney writes that there are two models of hospitality. One calls for prudent discernment about the guest in question. This is a conditional form of hospitality that seeks to understand whether the person being offered hospitality is worthy of it or whether we may be endangering ourselves if we openly extend our hospitality to someone who turns out to be a serial killer or a serial liar as the case may be. The second model of hospitality is "deconstructive" and it is unconditional. This form of hospitality flings open the doors to everyone, no matter who they are, what they've done or what they might do once they're in the door. This was the kind of hospitality that was most often practiced in Jesus' time, mainly out of necessity. When a stranger wandered into town, there were usually no Holiday Inns where they cold flop for the night. More often, they relied upon the kindness of strangers who knew that leaving someone to fend for themselves could put them in physical danger from either starving or being assaulted. They erred on the side of love, and welcomed whoever came in. This law was so important to the Hebrew people that the scriptures say that the utter lack of hospitality practiced by those in Sodom and Gomorrah led God to destroy them. In today's Jesus story, we find our guy relying on this unconditional system of hospitality as he sends seventy of his followers out two-by-two to spread his message of love and unity. He instructs them to enter a house and offer peace. If that peace is accepted by anyone in the house it doesn't say everyone then they can stay. There are some conditions for their stay, however. They're to stay in that one house during their whole visit and "eat what is set before you" which can be a big deal for those still concerned with strict Jewish dietary laws. While Jesus expects his followers to find unconditional hospitality in the towns where they visit, his instructions are clear that they are to offer the same in return and not demand special dietary accommodations. If a follower is gluten intolerant, he may have to eat a lot of bread. Instead, they are to become the very embodiment of unconditional hospitality. What that looks like is this: When someone's knocking at the door or ringing 2
the bell, you don't put any expectations upon them and they put none on you. Instead, you just let 'em in. Breathe deeply. Jesus knows that what he's asking his disciples to do is not easy and he doesn't sugarcoat it for any of them. "I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves," he tells them. On top of that, he tells them to go, not just unarmed into that land of wolves, but without a bag, a purse or even sandals! That just seems like a prescription for being eaten! And that's the point the ego protests all of that. The world is full of wolves, the ego tells us, and the best way to defend against wolves is to arm yourself. Only a stupid person goes out amongst wolves with nothing to protect themselves, says the ego. Jesus is not asking us to be stupid he's asking us to be who we truly are divine, loving, innocent, smart people who know that if we arm ourselves with our ego, that loves to divide, attack, compete and judge, we'll never encounter true unconditional hospitality in this world, and more importantly, we'll never understand how to give that to others. The Apostle Paul picks up on this message in his letter to the early Christian community in Galatia. They're having a bit of a challenge in showing hospitality not so much to strangers but each other, accusing one another of transgressions and just not doing this whole spiritual thing right. Paul tells them, "Look, this living into your Christ consciousness isn't an easy thing, especially if you're going to insist on letting your ego be your guide." Instead, he tells 3
them, before you can properly extend hospitality to those around you, you really have to learn how to give it to yourself. "All must test their own work," Paul tells them, "then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads." When someone comes into our midst, we cannot offer them hospitality based on their work, or the load they carry. We must offer it based upon our own work, and the load we carry. Unless we have done our own inner work of compassionately welcoming every part of ourselves including the glutton, the liar, the greedy, the tyrant and the deceiver within our own hearts and minds we'll never be able to receive anyone else on their own terms. Jesus and Paul are telling their followers exactly what A Course in Miracles tells us millions of years later: "In my defenselessness my safety lies." If we embody unconditional hospitality it doesn't matter what the other person does when they enter into our space whether they laugh with us or kill us. This bodily world is not where we should or are even able to truly meet anyone. Instead, unconditional hospitality greets everyone on that spiritual, higher consciousness level beyond this illusion. That field out beyond all ideas of right doing and wrong doing as the Muslim poet Rumi put it centuries ago. I know, y'all think I just went crazy in this moment. "You expect us to open the door and let in people who could physically kill us?" Jesus would. He allowed Judas into his world, and it was his betrayal that set off a chain of events that led to Jesus' bodily death. Jesus knew one of his followers would betray him, but he let them all in anyway even knowing it would one day cost him his life. For Jesus, hospitality is all or nothing. He ate with the outcast as well as the Pharisees and invited a betrayer into his inner circle. This level of commitment to hospitality is why Jesus said, "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." Who wants to go to work harvesting that field if what you reap may kill you? Y'know what? We're all going to die anyway, so the question is, do you want to die knowing you extended love whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself? 4
Or, do you want to die knowing you could have sown more love in the world and reaped more love in return if you had just been willing to open the door, and let 'em in no questions asked, no matter who they are? Breathe deeply. So, was the owner of that restaurant right to kick out Sarah Sanders and her family that night? I've struggled with this question and am of two minds on it. On one hand my ego's hand it felt good to see someone treated in the same manner that others, such as the LGBT community, have been treated when they are refused service by a public establishment. On the other hand my Christ consciousness hand I fully believe that any public establishment has a duty to serve all who come through their door. Discrimination, against anyone, is always wrong. The way to overcome this divide is by being willing to experience a miracle or a change in perception. It's been said that perception is reality and it's very true. If you expect to see nothing but discrimination and tit-for-tat actions and politics happening all around you, then that is what you will see. You will see a world torn apart by hatred, tribalism, greed and despair. But, you can choose another way to view the world one that does not deny any of those things but seeks to look through them so a new consciousness can take root within a consciousness of love that if cultivated properly and long enough will change everything that is happening in this bodily world. 5
Instead of sending out messengers of fear that will only bring back dark tidings of hatred and division, A Course in Miracles tells us that messengers of love also reside within us. Just as Jesus sent his messengers of love, we can send ours out into the world as well. "If you send them forth, they will see only the blameless and the beautiful, the gentle and the kind," the Course says. "They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escapes their notice. And they will return with all the happy things they found, to share them lovingly with you." And my ego says, "Oh, you want to live in la la land where you think everything is good and nothing bad is happening." And my higher self says, "No. I want to live in reality with a capital R, where everything that I know is bad right now is illusion, which doesn't mean it doesn't have bodily effects, but it does mean that I have the means to change it, if only I can see it differently, through the eyes of love instead of fear." Seeing the world with love offering it unconditional hospitality does not mean being stupid or being a doormat. It means living in an intelligent fashion that clearly identifies who the real enemy is the ego. In our collective madness of the ego, we have created this world where people starve. We have created this world where a tiny fraction of human beings hold not just the majority of the wealth, but the majority of the power. We, together, have created a world where embodying unconditional hospitality is insane, because it could get you killed, just like it did Jesus. But Jesus knew, and Paul and the writer of the Course all knew, it's this egoic world that's insane. To overcome this world, we need to go sane, we need a new consciousness that can see through the egoic systems and look with compassion and unconditional love at the body-encased spirits who are caught up in those systems. We do not fight people we fight systems. Even Jesus knew this as he hung, dying on a cross. He surveyed the innocent souls in human suits around him and felt unconditional hospitality for them all and said, "Forgive them, God, because they don't know what they're doing." 6
Jubilants, as Paul told those early followers, we reap what we sow. If we continue, in our egoic insanity, to sow seeds of discord, if we continue to sow seeds of anger, if we continue to sow seeds of outrage, guess what the harvest time will bring us? If we're tired of discord, anger and outrage, then I suggest we start planting something else. I suggest that we stop sending out messengers of fear that keep coming back to us with dispatches from the egoic systems of hatred and division. Instead, let us sow peace. Let us sow joy. Let us sow compassion. Let us sow hospitality. Let us sow every joyful thought and emotion we can think of so that when the harvest comes, that's what will overflow from our storehouses. Then we can invite anyone and everyone to partake in our abundance, no matter what the world thinks about them. I know, this moment in our history is overwhelming. Those in Galatia felt overwhelmed at their own situation and Paul's advice was this: "Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all " That includes anyone and everyone caught up in this system of fear who arrive at our doorstep just looking for a nice meal. Jubilants, someone's knocking at the door, somebody's ringing the bell. Do me a favor, open the door and let 'em in. 7