"Hospes"

A wermon preached by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) based on Romans 6:12-23 and Matthew 10:40-42.

One of my favorite words in the Latin language is the word hospes, this word is typically translated “host,” but, interestingly enough, it is also the word used to describe a “guest” or even a “stranger.” It almost seems as though hospes is an oxymoron, but the fact is no one gets to play the role of a guest, until someone else indicates a willingness to play the role of a host.
It seems that the church today tends to play the role of the host. There is no denying the fact that churches are comprised of mainly ageing members, and are struggling financially and having difficulty increasing the participation of its members. Perhaps, that is why churches today tend to focus a great deal on hospitality and expand a lot of energy learning and putting into practice the habits of being a good host.
There was a rather interesting story that appeared on the front page of the United Church Observer a number of years ago. It described a couple who were on vacation in Canada, and decided to worship with a local congregation in Ontario. To their surprise they were not greeted at the door on both their way in and out. Nothing that transpired between the time they walked through the doors of the church on their way in and the time they walked through those same doors on their way out amounted to an acknowledgment of their existence. There was no word or gesture of welcome of any kind. Which is why they experienced absolute joy when they arrived, after church, at the local Tim Horton’s restaurant, where immediately upon their entrance, the waitress flashed them a warm and welcoming smile.
I read that in the hours preceding his execution on June the 11th, 2001, Timothy McVeigh left a final statement – it was the poem, “Invictus” by the British poet William Ernest Henley. Henley wrote the poem in 1875 as an expression of the kind of heroic individualism that resonates to this day. The poem concludes with these words: “I am the mater of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
“Invictus” expresses our common human aspiration to live a life of proud independence. We mortals want to be our own master. We prefer not be under any lordship outside of our own ambitions. This statement is not in harmony with the witness with the gospels, especially our Scripture Readings this morning. It seems that Paul is more in harmony with the witness of Bob Dylan in which the singer declares; “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” The the plain fact is, that all of us inevitably serve some kind of lord. We all choose a master. It is only a matter of which master it is.
Paul recognizes two general kinds of master. We will become either slaves of “sin” or slaves of “obedience,” which is to say God. Although most of us serve both of these masters at times, we usually arrive at a basic orientation toward one or the other.
P.T. Forsyth said; “The purpose of life is not to find your freedom but to find your master.” And certainly there is a lot of truth in that statement. Those who choose Jesus find a path that opens into life.
In the parable “The Rigorous Coachman,” the author tells about a rich man who purchased a team of excellent, faultless horses for his own use. However, he was not a coachman. After several weeks, the once proud horses were nearly unrecognizable. They were sluggish; their stamina was gone; and their pace was inconsistent. They displayed bad habits and odd quirks. So the rich man summoned the king’s coachman, who knew the horses. The royal coachman drove the horses for a month, and, as they became familiar with his voice, the transformation in the animals was amazing. They held their heads high; their eyes were sharp and bright; and their pace was magnificent. The capacities were in them all along. It all depended on whose voice they recognized and followed.
As I said few moments, I find it rather unusual that the same word can mean both guest and host in Latin. For that matter, I am also somewhat awestruck by our remarkably short and crisp discourse in our Gospel Reading for this morning. It comes at the tail end of the tenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel: a chapter in which Jesus provides the “apostles mandate,” if you will. And the intriguing thing about these words is that Jesus’ assumption is that his disciples are likelier to be guests than hosts. In a very real sense, he is sending them out into the world not so that their hospitality can be tested, but rather so that the world’s hospitality can be tested. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” Jesus says, “and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Jesus appears to assume that his followers will be on the receiving end, rather than the offering end, of hospitality.
Certainly, one who studies the History of Christianity could argue that it could have been no other way for those first-century Christians. I mean, after all, they were a part of a tiny, struggling movement. We, on the other hand, are part of an established church. Therefore, it is only right and proper, or so seems, that we be sensitive to our obligations as hosts. And perhaps, that’s is why the Latin language found it natural to use the same word to describe both a guest and a host. For the simple reason that the offering of true hospitality (in other words being a host) requires from us the same willingness to be vulnerable that is so much a part of the receiving of true hospitality (in other words being a guest).
But, then again, isn’t that the real essence of the Gospel. One commentator puts it this way: “Our belief that God-in-Christ, who can be presumed to have been very much at home in God's own space, nevertheless chose to vacate that space and temporarily become a guest in our space, that we might one day become year-round guests in God's space.” And how beautifully put!
Someone once said; “Our primary missions during our time on this earth is for us to learn how to receive and how to be received; how to welcome and how to be welcomed; how to be a host; how to be a guest; in the process learning how to be vulnerable, how to be open. That we might become guests worthy of a welcome. That we might become hosts worthy of a visit.”
Paul reminds us that, having been freed from the slavery to sin, we are free to totally and faithfully serve God and one another – to become hosts! That meant nothing short of sanctification – being “set apart” for a wholly different kind of life the end of which is not death, but eternal life in Christ Jesus. What Christ has done for us in freeing us from the slavery to sin that we might become hosts, can best be summed up by lines from George Matheson’s hymn, “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.” The final verse of that hymn reads: “My will is not my own, till thou has made it thine; if it would reach the monarch's throne it must the crown resign; it only stands unbent amid the clashing strife, when on thy bosom it has leant and found in thee its life.”