FROM GOOD TO BETTER

(With apologies to Jim Collins)

SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 10:38-42

I love to collect odd little stories from the news. One of the oddest came to my attention last week. It had to do with matters of hospitality about which our text speaks. As you may know, hospitality was one of the greatest courtesies to be extended in ancient times and is still a valued commodity today.

This is a story about a robber in Washington, D.C. I am indebted to my esteemed colleague, the Reverend Jane Anderson, for passing this on to me. This story came from the Associated Press.

It started about midnight on June 16 when a group of friends was finishing a dinner of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp on the back patio of a District of Columbia home. That’s when a hooded man slid through an open gate and pointed a handgun at the head of a 14-year-old girl.

Everyone froze including the girl’s parents. Then one guest spoke.

“We were just finishing dinner,” Cristina “Cha Cha” Rowan, 43, told the man. “Why don’t you have a glass of wine with us?”

The intruder had a sip of their Chateau Malescot St-Exupery and said, “Damn, that’s good wine.”

The girl’s father, Michael Rabdau, 51, told the intruder to take the whole glass, and Rowan offered him the whole bottle.

The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants.

The story then turns even more bizarre.

“I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said before apologizing. “Can I get a hug?”

Rowan, who works at her children’s school and lives in Falls Church, Virginia, stood and wrapped her arms around the armed man. The four other guests followed.

“Can we have a group hug?” the man asked. The five adults complied.

The man walked away a few minutes later with the crystal wine glass in hand. Nothing was stolen, and no one was hurt.

Once he was gone, the group walked into the house, locked the door, and stared at each other – speechless. Rabdau called 911, and police came to take a report and dust for fingerprints.

“We’ve had robbers that apologize and stuff, but nothing where they sit down and drink wine. It definitely is strange,” said Commander Diane Groomes, adding that the hugs were especially unusual.

In this news story we see hospitality taken to a new level. The would-be robber gets a glass of wine and a group hug.

In our text we find two kinds of hospitality. One is of the kind which we ordinarily expect when we go to someone’s house for a meal. There is a flurry of activity in preparing the meal; or rather there has been a flurry of activity before you arrive. In our text Martha is beside herself with the preparation for the guests who had arrived in her home. Her sister was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening as he was speaking. Mary’s hospitality was hospitality of another kind. It was the hospitality of attentiveness. Often this text leads to a Martha bashing and an elevation of Mary. It is true that Jesus did urge Martha to not be so busy that she missed out on important things. I don’t wish to do any bashing, but to point out that the two kinds of hospitality are entirely appropriate and a part of the Christian church’s mission.

I know that there are many of you who have read Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great. He lists eleven great companies, one of which is Kimberly Clark, as you are aware because so many of you work or have worked for that corporation.

I want to paraphrase Jim Collins’ title. I propose that Jesus is saying to Martha, “What you are doing is good, but it could be better.” He is not saying that hospitality of the household kind is bad, but there is hospitality of another kind.

Often in the church we equate busyness with virtue. It is true that we need to express our faith through our actions. However, if we have no ground for our actions that grows out of our faith, we are merely doing good works. This is good, but it could be better.

God knows that First Congregational United Church of Christ of Appleton is a place where faith is put to work through our many missional activities. Today our youth are headed to Delbarton, West Virginia to serve the populace there in whatever way they can. In August a delegation from our church will go to Kenya and partner with our brothers and sisters there to improve a sanitary water system. We work in our advocacy of justice for all through ESTHER right here in our community. We have sent delegations to Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi to aid in recovery from Hurricane Katrina. We have engaged in building for Habitat for Humanity here in Appleton and in Mexico. All of these have been undertaken at great personal financial expense to the participants. These have been good and useful mission activities, but if Christ is not at the center they remain just good works of well-meaning people. This is merely the hospitality of busyness if Jesus’ words are not heard. I know that all of the aforementioned activities are undertaken because the participants have heard the call of Jesus to service and have responded to that call to extend the hospitality of Jesus to others.

We do well as a church, but we could do better. I have cited statistics that say that our attendance at worship has slipped in the last twelve years, while our membership has stayed at about the same level. How will we hear the word of Jesus if we are not present in worship? How will we offer the hospitality of attentiveness if we do not hear the word that informs our actions? I know that I am preaching to the choir, of course, because you are here.

This past year some of our Adult Education events have been cancelled due to lack of interest. How can we hear the word if we do not give ear when it is offered? We can do better.

We are about to launch ourselves on a new venture in faith as we go into the new church year with a new Senior Minister and a wonderfully talented and hard-working staff. Give ear to what is being offered by way of God’s word through worship and education that our hospitality may not only be good through our actions but better because we are attentive to God’s word.

Sermon preached by Reverend Jake Close at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on July 22, 2007.