Hospitality ~ Invitation

The invitation:

Come…bundle up with your boots and woolies to gather under the almost full moon and around the bonfire!

Come…celebrate the darkness on the Winter’s Solstice Eve and give thanks for the Light that is coming!

Come…there’ll be hot cocoa, wassail*, and s’mores.  Bring a plate of cookies if you’d like but it’s not required.

Come…Friday, December 21, 6:30 – 8:30; come for 20 minutes or stay for 2 hours!

Come…follow the luminarias to the barn in the back!

                                                         

   The luminarias were lit…

                                            

The fire roared…

 

                                                   

The table was spread…

 

                                          

A snowperson was built (at least 8 feet tall)…

                             

And, Winter began!

                                                                                

*Wassail:

Mix together 1 gallon of apple juice, 12 oz can of frozen orange juice and 3 cans of water, and 6 oz can of frozen lemonade and 3 cans of water.  Put in cheesecloth or teaball: 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon cinnamon or 2 short cinnamon sticks, and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and put in the pot.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or more.  Makes your house smell wonderful.  Serve hot!

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Hospitality ~ Creation

 

In this season of Advent, the theme at Pine Island Presbyterian Church is Hospitality.  So in this space I’ll wonder on screen with words, images, and verse how hospitality may be offered… to the stranger, to ourselves, to the Holy One, by the Holy One.  I’ll begin with Creation ~ looking for signs and ways of hospitality, welcoming, new life…

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light…

                                    

“Let earth receive her King…

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.”

     

 

…and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

      

 

... by the tender mercies of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us…

                            

                           

“Love the guest is on the way.”

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“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”

Come, Ye thankful people come, Raise the song of harvest home.

Creator of all seasons, Giver of autumn: with grateful hearts we offer our thanks for the gift of life itself, for each of the earth’s seasons, for each day, for each hour, for each breath we take.

All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storm begins.  

O Holy One, You invite us to a life of paradox.   In this season we both gather up what has been planted  and we are called to let go, to release our need for control.   Thank You for the farmers harvesting their crops and for the trees losing their leaves ~ both which invite us to this paradox of faith.   

God our Maker, doth provide, For our wants to be supplied.  

God of Abundance, indeed You provide in familiar and mysterious ways.   We offer these words of gratitude for Your provisions…    

Come to God’s own temple come, Raise the song of harvest home.  

In all times, in all places, with all people, You are present.   Wherever we are, we are in Your temple and for this we offer our thanks.    

All the world is God’s own field, Fruit unto his praise to yield.  

We marvel at the ways You bring us together, the stories we each  bring from places near and far, the experiences that have shaped  our lives and now add fragrance to our lives.  We praise You for  Your fields everywhere and offer our prayers for all Your people  living and working in each corner of the world, seeking to share  the message of Your love and grace.   

Wheat and tares together sown, Unto joy or sorrow grown.  

It is by Your grace that wheat and tares grow side by side,  both the joys and sorrows filling our lives.  In this season  of Thanksgiving, with an emphasis on family, we name those  who live in times of despair and sorrow right now, asking for  Your abiding love and comforting grace to be present with them…   

First the blade, and then the ear, Then the full corn shall appear.  

Over and over the natural world reminds us of Your wondrous ways.   Quiet our hearts, O God, when we are anxious about the future.   Give us pause to wonder at the miracle of the seasons and  the cycle of growth of all living things.   

Lord of harvest, grant that we Wholesome grain and pure may be.

You call us Your beloved and desire that we draw closer to You.   This day we ask Your blessing on our fellowship, our sharing,  our seeking, our desires that we may grow in our likeness of You.   This, and all prayers, we offer in the name of the One who fully lived Your love.  Amen.

 

(Adapted from the one of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”)

                                                                         

 

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Table Manners

                        

One of my favorite memories of my Reformed Theology class in seminary was the discussion about children and Holy Communion.  During this time my daughters were 5 and 8 and the professor was also the mother of a young child so that added credence to her statement.  She spoke of the practical theology of inviting young children to our Lord’s Table in the same way that we include our own children at our family table long before they fully understand the why’s and how’s of being fed.  They learn table manners and the faith of being family by being included, not to mention receiving food for nourishment.

This past Sunday was World Communion Sunday and the service at Pine Island Presbyterian Church was rich and full.  We sat in the round – well it was more like 3 sides to a square – which offered a different perspective as we considered our sisters and brothers in faith in all walks of life.  For the serving of Communion we gathered in a large circle and served one another while singing “Let Us Break Bread Together,” without our bulletins in hand.  I was standing next to a young girl and I saw her singing with the rest of us, from memory, while receiving the bread from me and then turning to her left to serve her dad.  Clearly she has been to the Table many times previous – she knows the words to sing, she knows to receive the bread and dip it in the chalice and to share the bread with her neighbor.  She has been included.  She is a member of the family.

When hospitality has been extended to the youngest in our midst, who are sometimes the vulnerable and overlooked, then we know we can extend an invitation to the Table and to our community of faith to ones beyond our worship circle.  Our Table Manners in worship shape our faith manners on Mondays and Tuesdays and all the others days of the week.

I’m grateful for all the people and places who shaped my table manners.  I’m grateful to be a part of a community who is intentional about its table manners.  I hope the same for you.

 

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Which comes first?

She spoke of it at two different thymes in the service: at the beginning of the service, as the pastor reminded us of this being a Communion Service, she told us that this is God’s Table and all people are welcome; during the Communion Liturgy she again said, “This Table belongs to God, not to the pastor or the elders or those with power, this is God’s table and all are welcome.”  Because she spoke of it twice I thought this must be really important to her.

The sermon title was “Hospitality and Healing.”  I pondered those words, in particular, the order that she chose and I wondered if it matters that hospitality comes before healing.  We had a chance to talk about this after worship.  I shared that I thought hospitality indeed needs to come first – a safe and welcoming place – for healing to follow.  Yes, she agreed and that is why she spoke twice about God’s hospitality and the Table belonging to God.

In one sense I believe the Gospel is all about hospitality ~ providing a safe place for people to be at home, to look honestly at one’s own needs and fears, to be fed physically and spiritually.  Hospitality, then, has endless faces: a plate of food, a place of shelter to rest and care for one’s body, a listening ear and heart to hear words of fear or abuse, a community with which to laugh or sing or tell stories, a table to create and share one’s creative expression, a space that offers dignity for all walks of life, an invitation even to be made uncomfortable thus being open to new growth (see Milton’s challenging words here.)  And when we have experienced that safety, that hospitality, if even a small glimpse, healing begins. 

God’s Table offers every possible face of hospitality ~ all those we can become and all those we have yet to imagine.  The invitation is given to all: come, the feast is prepared.  Receive, that healing may begin.  And when we have experienced healing we are able to offer hospitality, and the circle of giving continues.

Blessed are they who receive hospitality and share hospitality.

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