Last week the Lectionary challenged us to bring life to others through following Christ’s example of love. This week, that love gets practical as the readings call us to embody God’s hospitality. If anything expresses the life that is unleashed through the Easter event, it is when we learn to see Christ in the stranger, and welcome them into our lives and hearts.

May your worship be a home for you and for the strangers among you this week.

READINGS:
Acts 16:9-15: In response to Paul’s vision, he and his companions go to Macedonia, where they preach to a group of women in Philippi. Lydia, from Thyatira (thus, a foreigner) is one of those who receive the Gospel message, and she immediately offers hospitality to Paul and his friends.

Psalm 67: An invitational psalm encouraging all the nations to praise God, to enjoy God’s mercy and receive God’s provision.

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5: John’s vision of the New Jerusalem, where the gates are never closed, but no evil can enter. God’s security and hospitality are offered to the nations.

John 14:23-29: Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit – God making God’s home within those who love God.
OR John 5:1-9: Jesus heals the sick man at the pool of Bethesda.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Taking last week’s vision of inclusivity even further, the Scriptures this week offer us a vision of hospitality as the model of God’s work in those who love God, and of the life which flows from it. In Acts, Lydia, the new convert, immediately understands that a life of following Christ is a life of hospitality – and offers hospitality to Paul and friends. In Psalm 67, all nations are invited into God’s mercy, security and provision – a vision of adoration for God’s hospitality. In Revelation, the vision of the New Jerusalem is one of God’s hopsitality offered to all nations, providing security, healing and food. In the Gospel, the vision is beautifully reversed – God, by God’s Spirit, seek to enjoy the hospitality of the human heart, coming to indwell us, and then lead us into lives of obedient love. In the alternative Gospel reading, the outworking of this love or hospitality of God is dramatically revealed in the healing of the sick man – who has, perhaps, become too “at home” with his illness.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: A vision of a hospitable world is a vision of hope, and also a challenge to the ways in which we fall short of this ideal. In so many ways, our world has developed a culture of suspicion and inhospitality. But, arguably the primary characteristic of Jesus’ first followers as they sought to live out the Gospel was hospitality, reflected in feeding the hungry (current equivalent: global debt relief and removal of unjust trade restrictions?), inviting strangers into their homes (current equivalent: humane and just immigration laws?), and serving and praying for the sick, the widow and the orphan (current equivalent: equitable health care and social care and upliftment systems?). For those of us who seek to follow Christ, our vote, and our voice in public dialogue, on these key issues are a significant influence in creating a more hospitable world.

LOCAL APPLICATION: Hospitality is the essential challenge of the Gospel. Matthew Fox, in his book Original Blessing, suggest that the true meaning of “holiness” is hospitality. Hospitality is, essentially, the offer of safety, comfort, nourishment and friendship to both friend and stranger. The Scriptures show that this is a high ideal in God’s purposes. What this means for us is, initially, an opening of our hearts to welcome the stranger and friend, offering safety, comfort and love. Then, this must overflow into practical hospitality, opening our ‘homes’ – our communities, our churches, our neighbourhoods and, yes, even our literal homes, to those who need shelter, safety, nourishment, acceptance and friendship. How, in your church and its worship, can you become more welcoming and more hospitable to those who are homeless and friendless?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
A Way Home
The Amazing Invitation
A Place For Us

Hymn Suggestions:
Where Cross The Crowded Ways Of Life
I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
Jesus, United By Thy Grace
All Who Are Thirsty (Link to YouTube video)
Always Forever (Link to YouTube video)
Creator King (Link to YouTube video)
Jesus My Desire (Link to Sacredise music page. Scroll down for mp3, chord chart & lead sheet)
Majesty and Mystery (Awesome God) (Link to YouTube video)
You Are (Link to Every god-Beloved Life CD page. Preview and link to free download in the left column)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Breaking Of Bread

Video Suggestions:
Psalm 67
Hospitality & Salvation
Hospitality

The power of Easter lies not just in the life it offers us, but also in the way we are recruited to be life-bringers. This week, the role of love in leading us to life – and enabling us to bring life to others – stands out in the Lectionary. Love is never easy, it is always messy, unpredictable and scandalously inclusive. But, if we seek to follow Christ, we cannot avoid the privilege and the responsibility we have to be people of love.

May your worship lead into this love of Christ, and into his life, a little more this week.

READINGS:
Acts 11:1-18: Peter explains to the believers in Jerusalem how the Holy Spirit was received by Gentiles in Caesaria.

Psalm 148: A psalm exhorting all of creation and all peoples to praise God.

Revelation 21:1-6: John sees a vision of the New Jerusalem descending from heaven, and a voice that proclaims that God’s dwelling place is now among people on earth.

John 13:31-35: Jesus’ new commandment – to love one another.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The Easter message shifts this week from Jesus’ offer of life to us, to the way we seek to live out that life as we follow him – and it’s a startling message of inclusivity and love. Jesus’ new commandment is frequently sung and quoted, but the “one another” that Jesus’ calls us to love is often limited to Christian believers. Now, in the lectionary, as the Gospel is laid aside the other readings, we realise that this “one another” goes much further. In Acts, we discover that the previously excluded Gentiles are now included in God’s Kingdom. In the Psalm, all of creation is included in this “one another” as the entire creation is exhorted to offer praise. And in John’s Revelation vision, we discover that God so includes all, that God moves God’s dwelling place (“heaven”) into our earthly neighbourhood. There can be no greater, all-encompassing statement of love for all from God. We have no more excuses for turning the Gospel into an exclusive message!

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: One of the big questions of our generation is “who is in and who is out?”. Global economic and trade regulations are designed to favour some (who tend to be the wealthy) and disempower others (who tend to live in third world countries). Political conversations are always being drawn in partisan ways with clear lines indicating who is on which side – and woe betide those who try to cross those lines. Religious communities and power structures, equally, have tended to focus on who is with us and who is against us. From geographical to economic to political to religious to racial to sexual to generational lines, our world is built on defining who is in and who is out. The prophetic Church, the Church of the resurrection, of love, of the God who lives among us, must be a Church that blurs every line, and invites everyone into the grace and love of God – and a Church that challenges the lines that exclude and oppress.

LOCAL APPLICATION:  In recent years the worship of the Church has been strongly divided along stylistic and generational lines. More and more churches are discovering, though, that any church or service that is built on division or exclusivity is bound to fail. Increasingly we are witnessing that the most healthy, vibrant and growing communities are those that include – that bring diverse people together to worship, to learn from each other and to learn to love one another. This is not easy, but if you seek to reach people who are not part of any church, if you seek to make an impact on your wider community, then we need to demonstrate that we can live the message we preach, and that those we seek to reach will be included and loved and brought into contact with a loving and inclusive God – not judged or condemned in the hopes that the fear of hell or God’s rejection will scare them into the Kingdom.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
How You Have Loved
A Love So Strong
Where Is The Love

Hymn Suggestions:
Come Let Us Sing Of a Wonderful Love
Love Divine All Loves Excelling
Praise To The Lord, The Almighty
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Everyone Belongs (From my CD Every God-Beloved Life. Link to Amazon mp3 download page)
You Are (Also from Every God-Beloved Life. Free download from the linked page)
God Of The Moon (Link to YouTube video)
Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace
Servant Song (Brother, Sister Let Me Serve You)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Breaking Of Bread

Video Suggestions:
Known By Love

Drama Script:
You’re Not Like Me

This week has been rather hectic! Apart from planning and leading worship in our Christmas services in our new church (Sea Point Methodist in Cape Town), my HP laptop has really given me trouble. The sound card has been dead for a few weeks now, but after waiting two weeks for the technicians to get the replacement main board to fix it, the wrong part was delivered! And then, the board they found to try and make it work anyway has left me without access to my hard drive. As a result, I decided to go ahead and take a plunge I’ve been contemplating for a long time – I replaced my old and dying laptop with a Macbook. This is my first post using this strange, but beautiful new machine.

The readings for this week in the Lectionary (Epiphany 2 – January 17) carry themes of love, caring, marriage, and the gifts that are always given when love is present. The possibilities for exploring how Jesus is revealed in love, and in us when we love, are very exciting. I offer just a few here.

READINGS:
Isaiah 62:1-5: Isaiah’s prayer for Jerusalem, and prophecy that God will restore her to be a place that people celebrate – even as bride and groom celebrate each other.

Psalm 36:5-10: A song of celebration for God’s unfailing love and care which includes all humanity and all of creation.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11: Paul’s teaching about spiritual gifts.

John 2:1-11: Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
God’s love for God’s people, and God’s commitment to care for all of humanity are described and celebrated throughout the Scriptures. Many of the readings for this week draw on the wedding metaphor – the celebration of Jerusalem like a groom who rejoices over his bride; the song of a God who loves unfailingly; the first sign of John’s Gospel, performed at the wedding feast. In the midst of all of these images is the truth that Paul describes in his letter to Corinthians – love always delights to give gifts to its beloved. As has been famously stated: “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” What this week in Epiphany seeks to show us is the complete, unconditional, self-giving love of God revealed in Jesus, but also the warning – the extent of our following Christ in the way of love is revealed by the extent of our giving. No giving, no love!

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: The central culture in the world of human affairs has evolved as one of getting and consuming. Of course, as will have recently been preached around the world, Christmas reveals this clearly and disturbingly. And the cost we have paid has been deeply felt in the last year. However, as Christ revealed in his life and teachings, the ‘culture’ of God’s reign is one of giving, sharing and preserving. Only by allowing this ‘Christ-culture’ to permeate our lives and world can we ever hope to address the great crises of our time – poverty, human trafficking, dread diseases, terrorism and war, and climate change. Imagine the difference if nations sought ways to give to one another, rather than exploit; if organisations sought to do well only by doing good; and if individuals learned that love for our neighbours is expressed through giving of time, resources, compassion and energy.

LOCAL APPLICATION: Every week in our churches an offering is received “for the work of God”. The Gospel question that we must face is this: How much of this offering is used to give to those who most need it – to uplift the surrounding community or to make some small contribution toward addressing the world’s crises – and how much is used to benefit only the church which receives it? All too often the message we send as Church is that our giving to God is much like paying taxes – not a gift of love, but a burden to be avoided or at least mitigated, as much as possible. Yet, as we allow the season of Epiphany to reveal to us again the Christ who died for love of us, we cannot help but recognise that our poverty in giving is a reflection of the poverty of our love. May the revealed Christ teach us to love truly – practically, sacrificially, generously, extravagantly.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Extravagant Love
Water To Wine
Where Is The Love?

Hymns:
This Is My Father’s World
The Church’s One Foundation
In Christ There Is No East Nor West
Come And Let Us Sweetly Join
Best For Last (New Hymn)
I Stand In Awe
Unfailing Love
However (Free download from the link on the right of this page)
May The Words Of My Mouth

Liturgies:
A Liturgy for Communion
A Liturgy for the Eucharist

Video:
Water To Wine
What Does Love Sound Like?
I Love My Wife

Images:
Cross Heart