The Vitality of Hospitality

Luke 5:12-15

As I was driving the kids home from school last week, I thought I took a wrong turn as I didn’t recognize the terrain. Since we moved here, it had been forested area, packed with trees, but no longer. It was all stripped down to make way for yet another housing development. According to a Fox13 article, our city is expected to triple (~16,000 today) in the next 10 years and currently has 8,500 homes scheduled to be built in the next decade. The Lake Wales we know today won’t be that same little town tomorrow. And that is going to change our life. Things began to change for Jesus too as word spread of all He was doing.

We are in a unique situation; we don’t have to work hard to go look for people to connect with for the sake of the gospel, as people are coming to us! The question isn’t so much how do we find them, but how fast do we run? Ha ha, no. This is an opportunity that we can grasp. Ministry is here and it’s calling! It won’t send you a schedule request, though.

Ministry is Usually Inconvenient

This passage is surrounded by Jesus teaching – whether it was the disciples in the boat or the Pharisees in a crowded room, it’s clear Jesus was busy doing ministry – building the early phase of his following when the leper found Him. Notice Jesus didn’t ignore, but responded to the interruption.

We may think we have other things or more important things and I know how often I get myself stuck because I think I should be doing one thing, but then I bump into this other issue or opportunity. If we are too focused on our agenda, we will miss the opportunities happening right in front of us. Last week I was working early prep on this sermon, when the music team interrupted me due to technical issues during music practice. I didn’t want to help initially. Its funny that God reminded me of the very passage I was working on to refocus me. In that moment, I was needed elsewhere than what I planned. My plans do not take precedent over God’s.

Ministry is Driven by Others’ Needs

The leper came up to Jesus. It was an amiable confrontation; a stopping of His progress, an imposition. This person, who wasn’t a follower, wasn’t a teammate, wasn’t even known to the group, pushed his way to Jesus and begged for help. He put himself over Jesus, and yet Jesus helped regardless.

Ministry would be so nice if it were our idea, we could work our plans, all on our timetable. That would be a dream, for sure. But ministry isn’t the things that we want to do when we want to do them, it doesn’t show up when your house is clean and picked up, and it can’t wait for you to handle something else first. Real ministry, real opportunity is a glorious imposition. Ministry happens when others need you, not when you want to work with them. I didn’t have time to sit on the phone for an hour with my friend. My friend’s openness to prayer and faith that only came when he was diagnosed with cancer. Even still it was hard for him to accept, but he began to open up to it at all only when he was afraid and vulnerable. I would have preferred him open up years ago, but that didn’t happen. He was only open when he felt he needed the help.

Ministry Isn’t Afraid to Touch

Put yourself in the leper’s shoes for a moment. He was unclean! A reject in society. Remember during covid when we were wiping down our grocery bags? Think of the risk in going up to Jesus, to stopping Him – what if He said no? What if he got arrested? This is the Jesus paradox.

This is the Jesus paradox—the touch from Jesus that launches a contagion of grace for those who believe, repent, turn, and follow, a contagion of grace that allows the believer to love those who hate in return and to pray, serve, and sacrifice so that others, like the nameless Hebrew slave, can know that God is alive and rescues those who call.

The Gospel Comes with a House Key, 29

Jesus wasn’t afraid to touch a leper. He turned clean what was dirty – for all of us. His touch is an act of gentle grace that changes a life forever. With the Holy Spirit, we can touch others in the same way. People are coming to us, driven by their needs, wants, and issues. Ministry – our opportunities to be hospitable and show God’s love abounds around is. We don’t have to go, we only have to open our hearts and our homes. Why our home? It’s perfectly strategic. The comfortable setting allows others to feel comfortable at all times and a kitchen is the key centerpiece to all relationship-building activities – because of food.

Next Steps

Radically ordinary hospitality may resemble the social-gospel practices of liberal churches and non-Christian mercy communities, for radically ordinary hospitality engages in some of the same practices: we gather people in close, we feed and clothe the poor, we accept people where they are, we care for the needs of the body, and we seek to restore the dignity of each human being. But here is the big difference: radically ordinary hospitality practiced by biblical Christians views struggling people as image bearers of a holy God, needing faith in Christ alone, belief in Jesus as the rescuer of his people, repentance of sin, and covenant family within the church.

The Gospel Comes with a House Key, 32-33

1. Read Rosaria Butterfield’s The Gospel Comes with a House Key. Ask yourself what that looks like in your life.
2. Schedule time in your day to interruptions; time to be available to others.
3. Imagine your home as a center for ministry. What would be your unique gift to others?

Radical, ordinary hospitality sees everyone as image-bearers of God and willingly touches others to give life. Our city is turning into the perfect place to live this out. See the opportunity and act!