Greetings!
Hospitality to All
Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.
~Luke 14:15-24
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Rev. Cerna Rand
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A few years ago, while I was serving at the First UMC Chicago Temple, I had a opportunity to co-lead a youth mission trip of 20 to Tree of Life, a United Methodist Ministry in South Dakota. This ministry serves the Native Americans in the Rosebud and Crow Creek Reservations. Our team worked on various projects and also had some opportunities to learn part of the Native American rich culture. And, most importantly, we shared meals together. When was the last time that you prepared food for someone or for a group of people? Who did you invite? Was there enough food? How about the fellowship? When was the last time that a meal was prepared for you? In South Dakota, we had a kitchen crew of four people who took care of our daily meals. This crew happily cooked and served us delicious healthy meals every day.
One of the highlights was when we extended an invitation to a Native American family to join us for a Mexican lunch and a Filipino dinner. It was a great experience dining with a local family. It was a beautiful gesture of hospitality on both sides - for us to open our table for people that we did not know at first and for the family to dine with strangers from Chicago. It was a wonderful time to celebrate our cultures, differences and oneness with God.
Jesus told a parable about a "Great Dinner" (Luke 14:15-24). All kinds of people were invited to come to the banquet; "the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame" (verse 22). Everybody is welcome to God's community of faith regardless of who we are. Jesus embraces all kinds of people. The loving attitude of Jesus and the hosts extended the ministry of hospitality to all. People from the "streets and lanes of the town" did not feel like strangers.
A welcoming attitude is what God requires of us. All must be invited - the poor and the rich, the lame and the able, the sick and the well, the educated and non-educated, the meek and the proud, the sinners, our friends, our enemies, men and women, the young and the old, and people of different sexual orientations - and welcomed at the Lord's Table. We are members of an inclusive extended family of God.
Through Harvest 2020 we continue to reach out to new people with different traditions and cultures. When we share the Good News we celebrate our diversity and unity in Christ as children of the Almighty. When we minister to the un-churched, we establish new faith communities and new people become part of the body of Christ.
Through Harvest 2020 we extend God's invitation of welcome to others. The way we love, serve and care for others will show who we are as Christians, and the kind of God we follow and serve in the world. As Christians, our common mission is to spread God's love and hospitality to all people. Attending church on Sunday and participating in the Lord's Supper is empty, and does nothing for us, if we do not live the Word in our everyday life. This is the central message of the church: to model the great good news that God accepts and invites everyone to share in his kingdom. Join the movement of Harvest 2020 to welcome new faces to our circle and to let ourselves be made new in the process.Rev. Cerna Castro Rand
Pastor Prince of Peace United Methodist Church
Elk Grove Village
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