Mutual love

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

September 1, 2019

17 Proper C

          In June, when I was doing Learning from London, one of the Sundays I worshipped at St. James, Piccadilly.  The people were welcoming, the sermon was good, the congregational singing was wonderful, and the experience was enough to make me believe that if I lived in London, St. James would be my church.

          One particular aspect of the worship sticks out in my mind, however.  For the Great Thanksgiving, the prayer over the bread and wine asking Jesus to be present in them, the entire congregation was invited to gather around the altar.  The space was large and level with the rest of the floor so totally accessible.  However, there were probably 200 people in the congregation that June morning.  We all fit around the altar, some closer than others, obviously, but how on earth was communion going to be served to this huddled mass of people?  This looked to me like organized chaos at best.

          However, St. James celebrates communion with all the people around the altar every Sunday.  And what happened was a lesson in what happens when each person is more concerned that the person next to them is fed than that they are fed.  The experience was actually quite orderly as everyone was patiently making sure that everyone received the bread and the wine.  Did this take a little longer than if there had been a nice, orderly line?  Probably.  Was it a little chaotic at times?  Yes.  But the distribution of communion totally worked because everyone was concerned for everyone else.

          Both the reading from Hebrews and the parable Jesus tells this morning remind me of my experience at St. James.  In the parable, Jesus seems to be giving common sense advice about seating arrangements at a banquet. Do not chose a place of honor for yourself in case someone more important arrives and you are booted to a seat of less honor.  Instead, seat yourself at the lowest place so the host can invite you to a higher place.  On the surface, this looks like common sense.  However, Jesus ends the parable by saying “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  This is not common sense.  As a general rule, those who exalt themselves seem to be exalted and those who humble themselves seem to be humbled. But in the upside down, inside out world of gospel values, Jesus’ instructions are not common-sense advice about how to keep from being disgraced at a dinner party.  Jesus’s advice is about how to live in such a way that our lives reflect gospel values, where others are put before ourselves and the goal is that everyone is fed.

          In the reading from Hebrews, we hear the admonition to “Let mutual love continue.”  Your vestry wrestled with this passage on Tuesday night at the vestry meeting.  What does mutual love look like?  However, Hebrews answers that question in the next verses.  Mutual love looks like showing hospitality to strangers and recognizing the angel in our midst, and  remembering those in prison, or those who are being tortured.  In other words, mutual love looks like caring for those with no one else to care for them.  Mutual love looks like being faithful in our covenanted relationships and being free from the love of money, so that our focus can be on others and not ourselves. 

          What, we might reasonably ask, is mutual about extending hospitality to those who are unlikely to return the gesture, or remembering those in prison who are unlikely to reciprocate? 

          The letter to the Hebrews was likely written in the mid to late first century to encourage Christians who were being persecuted.  The mutual love they are to let continue is their mutual love for each other.  However, mutual love is not love that turns in on itself.  The persecuted first century Christians would be very tempted to circle the wagons. Instead, mutual love is love that spills over into love for people they do not even know.  The author is reminding the faithful of the story in Genesis 18 where God appears to Abraham in the form of three strangers and Abraham offers them hospitality.  The Christians who were being persecuted were understandably suspicious of anyone they did not know.  But Hebrews encourages them to let their mutual love spill over to hospitality to strangers who may be God in their midst.  Our baptismal covenant calls that “Seeking and serving Christ in all people.” 

          The prophet Jeremiah reminds us this morning of the hospitality God offered the Hebrew people as God led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness, into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and other good things.  The people, however, did not respond to God’s hospitality with hospitality of their own and God is livid.  The people are not caring for the widow and orphan.  They have put themselves first at the expense of others. They are worshiping gods who promise temporary security and prosperity, forsaking the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob, Rachel, and Leah.  God expects the mutual love between God and the people to spill over into love that cares for others.

          Let mutual love continue.   My experience at St. James, Piccadilly is a parable for me of what real mutual love looks like in action, where everyone is concerned that everyone else is fed, trusting that there is always plenty, and living like there are angels in their midst.  Gospel hospitality is not worrying about where we will sit at the table but recognizing that there is a place for everyone.  Our work is to make sure that everyone has a seat.  Gospel hospitality remembers the hospitality God has shown us.  Our work is to offer that same hospitality to everyone. 

                                                                                                Amen.