Pastor's Message

Greetings,

As I have been pondering the stories of Abraham and Sarah in recent weeks, I keep thinking about hospitality, about the centrality of welcome and invitation and reciprocity that are so much a part of our faith.  We love because God first loved us.  We belong to the household of faith and on Christ’s behalf we extend an invitation to others.  Like Sarah and Abraham, we are to welcome strangers, for we may be welcoming “angels unaware.”  Jesus is a guest, but he is also a host.  The Holy Spirit makes a home in the temple of our bodies.  One moment we are the recipients of grace and the next we are donors.

One image that keeps coming to mind is the way that Pam Roeth and I and others were shown hospitality when we traveled to Lesotho.  Here we were--foreigners, strangers, travelers, pilgrims.  We went there because we believed that we had a “mission” to help them, to give them some kind of gift.  And when we got there they made us honored guests at grand gatherings—twice this happened.  We were invited into simple austere homes in Soweto and in Maseru and even in the countryside.  I have to say, as a privileged, comfortable American, with lots of beautiful possessions, a very nice home, every modern convenience, I felt a little awkward being served and fed and hosted by these loving Christian people.  Yet they literally pulled out all the stops for us.  They rented large tents, they gathered people and children together.  Singers and dancers, young and old entertained us and regaled us with their performances.  We sat at a long table and shared in a great feast.  Before we left they gave us beautiful, handmade gifts.

Joining Hands—Lesotho is a very special kind of mission for us, for them and for the church at large.  We are trying to learn what it means to serve and to be served, to have a mutual, reciprocal relationship, to build a real partnership.  We are coming to learn that one-way mission, where we see ourselves as donors and our neighbors as recipients isn’t really true hospitality.  Our Basutho friends took pleasure in extending a welcome to us; they were blessed when we enjoyed their food and their culture.  And so the lines of giving and receiving become invisible.  We got a glimpse of real mutuality, reciprocity and partnership.

We are still learning.  But we have a fabulous opportunity to grow in this relationship.  Two of our friends, TMS Letela and Mali Majara are coming to California in July.  They will be with us in worship on Sunday, July 20.  Together we will share the Lord’s Supper.  They will share their stories with us after church and we will have lunch together.  During the week that follows, we will be joining others in our Presbytery in extending a warm welcome and letting them in on our lives and surroundings.  Who knows what God has in mind, but we do know that hospitality and welcome are at the center of the life of faith.  Pray for us and for Mali, Letela and Cindy Easterday.  Come to church and stay for lunch on July 20.  Think about playing host or guest during the week. 

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

(Hebrews 13:1-2)

Blessings, 

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