“Eat What is Offered You” a sermon based upon 1 Kings 17:8-16, Luke 10:1-11. June 9, 2013 Humber United Church, Corner Brook, NL

God’s word came to Elijah: get up and go to Zarephath near Sidon and stay there. I have arranged for widow there to take care of you. Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the town gate, he saw a widow collecting sticks. He called out to her, “Please get a little water for me in this cup so I can drink.” She went to get some water. He then said to her, “Please get me a piece of bread. As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any food; only a handful of flour in a jar and a bit of oil in a bottle. Look at me. I’m collecting two sticks so that I can make some food for myself and my son. We’ll eat the last of the food and then die.”  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go and do what you said. Only make a little loaf of bread for me first. Then bring it to me. You can make something for yourself and your son after that. This is what Israel’s God says: The jar of flour won’t decrease and the bottle of oil won’t run out until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” The widow went and did what Elijah said. So the widow, Elijah, and the widow’s household ate for many days. The jar of flour didn’t decrease nor did the bottle of oil run out, just as the Lord spoke through Elijah.

Luke 10:1-11
After this Jesus appointed seventy-two others and sent them ahead of him, in pairs, to every town and place where he intended to go. He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So ask the God of harvest to send out workers into the harvest field. Go! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The realm of God has come near to you.’ When you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The realm of God has come near.’
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You probably know that one of my favourite movies is “Sister Act” - because there are so many parts of it which can be mined as messages for the church.

There are two scenes I want to note today - the first is the Monsignor and Mother Superior discussing bringing this “poor woman” into the convent to hide her, and Mother Superior is only too happy to offer hospitality - until Mother Superior actually sees Deloris Van Cartier, the Vegas lounge singer. When the Monsignor reminds her she has made a vow of hospitality to everyone, regardless of who they are, Mother Superior responds “I lied.”

A little later, we see Deloris, now Sister Mary Clarence sitting down to eat, and finding the food not to her liking - she’s used to much fancier fare. In fact, she’s downright rude about what’s put in front of her.

The word hospitality comes from the Latin ‘hospes’, which is formed from ‘hostis’, which meant to have power. The meaning of "host" can be literally read as "lord of strangers." But ‘hostire’, from which we get the word ‘host’, means to equalise or compensate.

In the Homeric age, hospitality was under the protection of Zeus, who also had the title 'Xenios Zeus' ('xenos' means stranger). It’s where we get the word “xenophobia” - fear of strangers. Xenios Zeus emphasised the fact that hospitality was of the utmost importance. A stranger passing outside a Greek house would be invited inside by the family. The host would wash the stranger's feet, offer food and wine, and only after the guest was comfortable, could the host ask for a name. Hospitality was about making a stranger equal to the host, making the stranger feel protected and cared for, and when the stranger’s time with them was done, guiding them to the next destination.

Did you know that hospitality, a welcome of strangers, was considered most important not only to Greeks, but to both Jews and Christians. Nothing was more important than showing hospitality - offering strangers a generous and cordial welcome by providing a sustaining environment. People believed that in the next life God would serve them as Host, and would show them the same kind of hospitality, the same kind of welcome as they had shown to strangers during their time on earth.

Elijah speaks to a widow who says she has so little food that she and her son will at one last meal, and then die. Elijah responds that if she makes him a small loaf of bread, the food will not run out, but will be enough for all of them for more than one meal. I also note that this woman is not of the Hebrew faith. Zarephath was a city in Zidon - about where Lebanon is. She would not have been one of the covenant children of Israel; she and her son are dying of starvation and when Elijah found her they had nothing left to eat but "a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil.” Yet though she and Elijah were different ethnic backgrounds and different faiths, she shared from her tiny hoard - and the flour and oil didn’t run out, and all of her household was fed, throughout the famine, including Elijah who remained with them.

Jesus’ instructions the disciples were to go to one place and stay there until the time was up. Don’t go from house to house. Eat what you are offered, because the people there have worked hard to prepare what they have, and just as they share with you, so you have an obligation to share as well.

I know that I have told this story before, but it bears re-telling. Many years ago, when Norio was working on his PhD at Michigan State, we lived in student housing. Over 30 different ethnic groups lived in tiny one and two bedroom apartments, and virtually all had little money - and often ran out of something before the end of the month. Yet there was always enough in our supplies to help someone else with something - if I ran out of flour, someone else had some; if they ran out of oil, someone else had some. In good weather we had community meals - everyone bringing something and everyone going away fed well. For me, it was a clear case of a community in action and a living out of the word.

Hospitality, in the Christian church, is demonstrated first at the table, with the most common elements of everyday life - the word of God on our table. So when we come to table we are eating the word, and in doing so we live out the eating of what is offered. We ingest the word of God.

In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 3 verses 1-3, God tells Ezekiel to eat the scroll with the words on it, and it will taste like honey. In order to be able to preach the word, Ezekiel had to eat the word, he had to ingest the word into his own body.

In the words of Jesus “eat what is offered to you”, I hear an echo of the same thing. Jesus was repeatedly criticised by religious leaders for being willing to eat with everyone, even outcasts, sinners, the poor, those of other faiths or no faith. For Christians, sitting down at a table with strangers in an unfamiliar place is the same as sitting at the table with Jesus - or it should be - and eating the word. God’s word comes to us in the food placed on the table before us. We cannot be Christians, we cannot tell our stories, until we have first eaten the word. What that means is that God’s word comes to us in the sharing of a meal - regardless of who it is with - and that is how understanding begins to take place, how common ground is established. So Jesus is also sending the disciples out to learn first, and to preach second. He sends them out to find a common ground. He sends them to preach the word of God but he also sends them to hear and eat the word of God. He says “If they are not willing, shake the dust from you sandals and move on.”, but I think - honestly - that he knows that once people sleep under the same roof together and eat at the same table together, the rest will take care of itself.

Just for a moment, jump back to Sister Act. Mother Superior admits that she is far less adept at giving hospitality than she would like to think. The arrival of Deloris, as Sister Mary Clarence, brings the very being of the Holy Spirit into the convent. She is chaos, the wind of God, the making of something new. She upsets every apple cart, knocks down every single barrier Mother Superior has so carefully constructed. The other sisters have been *thinking* it, but Sister Mary Clarence *does* it. Fences come down, doors open, people find the church relevant - and the church becomes a part of the neighbourhood, instead of a bastion keeping people out and the sisters in. Mother Superior notes how dangerous it is outside, and forgets those people who have to live with the danger *all the time*. Mary Clarence gives the whole convent new confidence, and a new understanding of what hospitality really means. And in one telling line, Sister Mary Patrick notes “after all, that’s why we became nuns in the first place.” They became nuns in order to offer God’s great hospitality, and to receive it from the community around them.

The table is that one of our traditions which is completely central to our identity as Christians. It represents the vast generosity of God offered without judgment. The table represents God’s unconditional love and hospitality. We come to the table to eat the word of God, to take it into ourselves so that it becomes a part of us. May it be so.


Sources:
1. Jesus and Hospitality, a sermon by Rev. Thomas Hall.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality
3. Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor sermon “Eat This Book”,  Festival of Homiletics May 2009.
4. Movie “Sister Act” - Maggie Smith, Whoopi Goldberg
5. http