Servant Hospitality
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 15, 2026
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. The scripture I have chosen to support my message is form Luke 14:12-24 from the New Revised Standard Version.
He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
It seems appropriate that the catalyst to bring back our joy that we are looking at this morning is serving and hospitality – or what I would like to label “Servant Hospitality.” I believe this is what we see in the life and ministry of Jesus and is our calling as both individuals and as Quakers. Servant Hospitality embraces each of our Quaker SPICES or Testimonies in its own unique way.
Most people think servant hospitality has a lot to do with being welcoming, serving or assisting others, helping people feel welcomed, having a sense of belonging, or you could even say, allowing others to become full participants of whatever is happening.
It has also become about being at ease with people and sensing an amount of safety - yet that was not always the case in our Abrahamic religious history. Servant Hospitality looked a bit different in the ancient Near East than in America, today.
And this was mainly due to servant hospitality being offered to complete strangers.
Marjorie J. Thompson in her book “Soul Feast” (which I consider a primer for experiencing the Spiritual Life in a Christian context) says this about servant hospitality in ancient times,
“People who appeared from the unknown might bear gifts or might be enemies. Because travel was a dangerous venture, codes of hospitality were strict. If a sworn enemy showed up at your doorsteps asking for food and shelter, you were bound to supply his request, along with protection and safe passage as long as he was on your land. All sorts of people had to travel at times through “enemy territory” which meant the hospitality to strangers was a matter of mutual survival. It was a kind of social covenant, an implied commitment to transcend human differences in order to meet common human needs.”
Wow, can you even imagine that in our world, today! I think it is time for us to reinstate this “social covenant” in our day and age. It makes me wonder how the early Abrahamic faiths would have viewed those heading to the US Borders, today, and our responses to them. Many outside our country sadly now see us as “the enemy or the United States as enemy territory.” Maybe people in ancient times were more like us than we know.
Thompson continues, she says:
“[Servant] Hospitality was a hallmark of virtue for ancient Jews and Christians. But in scripture, [servant] hospitality reflects a larger reality than human survival codes. It mysteriously links us to God as well as to one another…[Servant] Hospitality in biblical times was understood to be a way of meeting and receiving holy presence.”
As Quakers who embrace the theology of “That of God in everyone we meet,” this means then each encounter with our neighbor (enemy or friend) is an opportunity to meet and receive holy presence.
Just look around you in this room – you are in a room filled with opportunities to experience holy presence, right now, if you choose to.
Or think about this coming week, you will be having meals around tables with family and friends who also are opportunities to experience holy presence.
Or think about your communities or workplaces, or schools and the opportunities you will have to experience and receive holy presence there.
That is if we are able to see with “servant and hospitable eyes.”
I remember when I was studying to be a pastor, Sue and I attended a Renovaré Conference, where we were given a copy of The Rule of St. Benedict. Ironically, it was a Quaker, Richard Foster who was gleaning wisdom from this foundational work about living in community. In the book Foster pointed out this passage:
“Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,
for He is going to say,
“I came as a guest, and you received Me” (Matt. 25:23).
And to all let due honor be shown,
especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims.”
Receive ALL like (or as if they were) Christ.
Or maybe we could simply say, receive ALL as a “holy presence.”
Receive all as if we believed that there was that of God in them no matter a guest, a person of faith, or a pilgrim or seeker.
Jean Vanier, philosopher, theologian, humanitarian and founder of the La’Arch Community wrote about servant hospitality in “Befriending a Stranger” saying,
“In the midst of all the violence and corruption of the world God invites us today to create new places of belonging, places of sharing, of peace and of kindness, places where no-one needs to defend himself or herself; places where each one is loved and accepted with one’s own fragility, abilities, and disabilities. This is my vision for our churches: that they become places of belonging, places of sharing.”
When we start to receive people differently and see with servant and hospitable eyes that of God in them, then we are evoked to create new places of belonging and sharing.
I believe one of the biggest problems with churches and Quaker meetings today, is that they too often have stopped creating new opportunities for belonging and sharing. It is easier to run through the motions, or come and sit in comfort for an hour or so and head out for brunch, but that is not how we build community.
I love all the ways we create opportunities here at First Friends to help people find a place to belong and share.
· Connection Dinners for new attenders.
· Threshing Together and Soul Sister gatherings.
· Meeting for Reading Events.
· Seasoned Friends gatherings and road trips.
· Grief Gatherings for those grieving.
· Children’s Ministry for our young and youth.
· Bowling and Baseball Events for our community.
· Small Groups in homes and at the Meetinghouse.
· LGBTQIA and Nero-diversity programs to help us be more welcoming to all people.
· Working with Exodus to welcome and support refugee families.
· Having trainings like last week to learn how to stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors.
And that is only a few of the great ways we are creating opportunities for welcoming, belonging and sharing.
Slowing down and spending time with people for the purpose of developing community, friendships, and deeper relationships is essential to servant hospitality.
Marjorie Thompson went a little further, she says this about the essence of servant hospitality.
“[Servant] Hospitality means receiving the other, from the heart, into my own dwelling place. It entails providing for the need, comfort, and delight of the other with the openness, respect, freedom, tenderness, and joy that love itself embodies.”
Folks, Hospitality is an expression of love. Or maybe I should say, it is an expression of unselfish love.
In our scripture text for this morning, before Jesus shared his parable, he decided to say a couple things to his host. He says in v. 12,
“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.”
In other words, you don’t give in order to get something in return.
Why not? Because when you behave in this way, it means that you are looking for a selfish gain in some way. Instead, Jesus tells the man in verses 13-14,
“invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”
In Israel, the crippled, the lame and the blind were obviously the poor of the society. These were the people who, because of their physical disabilities, could not work, and therefore they could not earn a salary. Most of them depended on charity to survive.
Why should you invite them? Precisely because they can’t repay you. This is the exact opposite of the worldly way of thinking – you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.
Nobody gives in this way, in a spirit of unselfish love.
But this is how we are to respond, this is the true essence and nature of servant hospitality – it is a concrete expression of our unselfish love for our neighbor.
Also, I categorize this type of servant hospitality as a justice issue or part of Christ’s social gospel, because hospitality to strangers often is considered “doing justice.”
Interestingly the biblical meaning of justice is simply conveyed as “right relationships with one another.”
So, showing kindness to the nomad or vagrant, helping the immigrant or refugee, or offering support to the widow or orphan, taking in the homeless or poor, and offering hospitality to strangers (even enemies) – these were ALL expressions of just relationships with one’s neighbor in scripture.
Take a moment to really think about this…who are the nomads, vagrants, immigrants, refugees, widows, orphans, homeless, poor, and strangers in our neighborhoods?
Who are the people who cannot repay us?
Who are the people who are neglected by the mainstream of culture?
Where do they live and spend their time? Why are they neglected?
We often look at the extremes and point outside our own four walls, but the reality is too often the strangers are also in our midst. Just maybe the stranger is
· someone who feels alone,
· someone who has no friends, no one to talk to.
· someone who gives and gives but is never recognized by others for using their gifts.
· someone struggling to keep their marriage together and afraid to admit they are struggling.
· someone suffering from depression or melancholia.
· someone who is ashamed by what they have done or what has been done to them.
· Someone who is addicted to pride or power or prestige.
· Someone who is scared or wishes they could be stronger.
· Someone who lives in fear because of the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the status they are seeking.
The reality is each of us in this Meetinghouse all have at one time been or maybe currently are strangers.
· We all want to be welcomed.
· We all want to belong.
· We all want to be full participants.
· We all want to be needed.
· We all want to be delighted.
· We all want to be loved.
· We all want to be in right relationships
· We all want to be seen and known.
This is why it is so important that when we practice servant hospitality, as John Fenner at Parker Palmer’s Center for Courage and Renewal claims, it is an “appreciation of otherness.” He says,
“Appreciating the value of otherness, for me, goes beyond tolerance – beyond “you’re welcome as long as you play by our rules.” Appreciating the value of otherness entails a level of engagement, inquiry, dialogue, and interaction in which all members can freely share their gifts, learn from each other, and ultimately grow spiritually together. This is hard work and takes time and practice. It takes a willingness to be stretched and to sit with discomfort. It takes a belief that there is “that of God in everyone.”
So whether at Meeting for Worship, around our kitchen table, at your work meeting, with your yoga class, or wherever you are called to be a servant and hospitable this week, remember to have servant and hospitable eyes, receive all like Christ, help people to feel that they belong and are appreciated, and remember that we are all strangers seeking to be known.
Let me close this message with a Prayer of Hospitality by Liz Dyer
Give us eyes to see the deepest needs of people.
Give us hearts full of love for our neighbors as well as for the strangers we meet.
Help us understand what it means to love others as we love ourselves.
Teach us to care in a way that strengthens those who are sick.
Fill us with generosity so we feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give drink to the thirsty.
Let us be a healing balm to those who are weak and lonely and weary by offering our kindness to them.
May we remember to listen, to smile, to offer a helping hand each time the opportunity presents itself.
Give us hearts of courage that we will be brave enough to risk loving our enemy.
Inspire us to go out of our way to include those in the margins.
Help us to be welcoming and inclusive to all who come to our door.
Let us be God’s hospitality in the world.
Amen
Now, as we enter waiting worship this morning, take a moment to ponder the following queries,
· How might I embrace Servant Hospitality in my daily life?
· Who do I need to work on receiving as Christ or Holy Presence in my life?
· What would help me “appreciate the value of otherness”?