The Widening Table: When Hospitality Replaces the Gospel

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:03:02] The season of Lent. Forty days of reflection, renewal, and return.
[00:03:12] In the early church, Lent was a time when new believers prepared for baptism on Easter, spending these weeks learning what was the heart of Christian faith. This year, we return to those same roots, to what was central to the life and ministry of Jesus. Our Lenten
[00:03:31] One worship series is called Tell Me Something Good because we are hungry for good news that runs deeper than the headlines, wider than our fear, and firmer than despair.
[00:03:45] Each week will reflect on the heart of Jesus' message, radical welcome, love of neighbor, care of the vulnerable, and the courage to live compassionately in a divided world.
[00:03:56] In order to go deeper with that, we will have devotionals at each door that you can grab.
[00:04:01] are for personal use that you can use that have scripture, art, and lots of things. You are also invited to sign up for a small group during this time to kind of dig deeper into those. There's a
[00:04:11] sign-up sheet outside, and there's also on Sign Up Central, which is hamlinchurch.org backslash signupcentral, and there's all types of small groups that you can get involved in this season.
[00:04:23] It's just six weeks. You can do anything for six weeks. So if you're here in the snow on Ash Wednesday, you can do anything, right? So tonight, as we begin Ash Wednesday, we hear something good
[00:04:35] indeed. The good news is that all are invited. All are invited here. Every one of us is called to come to God's table just as we are, beloved, imperfect, dust, and spirit intertwined. So the
[00:04:53] ashes that we received here tonight will remind us of our mortality, yes, but also of our belonging to God, to one another, and to this wider community of grace. You are invited to take part in the imposition of the ashes as you feel led when you are called, and you'll get
[00:05:13] instructions in that time. So friends, settle in. Take a deep belly breath. Let us center our hearts open to God's presence and to this good news of welcome.
[00:05:32] So friends, rise as you are able, in body or in spirit, for our call to worship.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:44] If God threw a party, all would be unbidden.
[00:05:49] If God hosted a dinner, there would be a seat set for each of us.
[00:05:54] If God prepared a banquet, this is the good news.
[00:06:04] God is throwing a party.
[00:06:07] God is hosting a dinner.
[00:06:09] God is preparing a banquet, and all are invited.
[00:06:14] Let us worship this invitational God.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:06:18] I don't know what this is like.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:08] If someone declines your invitation again and again, as humans, we just stop inviting them.
[00:09:19] We get the hint.
[00:09:21] We know they're not coming.
[00:09:23] We'd assume they'd rather be someplace else than with us.
[00:09:28] But with God, things are different. No matter how many times we overlook or ignore God's outstretched hands, God will never stop reaching for us. So with that good news in mind, let us go to God in prayer. Please join me in the prayer of
[00:09:52] confession. Gracious God, you invite all of us to your table, the faithful and the doubting, the restless and the hopeless, the addicted and lonely, the lost and confused.
[00:10:09] You invite all of us, regardless of who we are or where we've been, but we fail all do the same. When given the opportunity, we are guilty of casting judgment on others.
[00:10:26] We draw lines, assume the worst, create cliques, accept exclusion, forgive our harmful ways.
[00:10:37] This Lent, show us how to love others the way you love us, with hope and prayer.
[00:10:47] Siblings, please listen, please hear, please feel these words of forgiveness.
[00:10:56] No matter how many times we mess up, no matter how many times we lose our way, no matter how many times we decline God's invitation, God will never stop inviting us to the table.
[00:11:15] There is and always will be a seat saved for you.
[00:11:21] So join me in these good new words.
[00:11:26] We are forgiven again and again.
[00:11:30] We are invited again and again.
[00:11:34] We are loved from the beginning to the end.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:11:37] Thanks be to God, our inviter.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:15:32] the Gospel of Luke. One of the dinner guests heard Jesus's remarks. He said to Jesus, happy are those who will feast in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied, a certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people. When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to
[00:15:56] tell the invited guests, come, the dinner is now ready. One by one, they all began to make excuses.
[00:16:05] the first one told him i bought a farm and i must go see it please excuse me another said i bought five teams of oxen i'm going to check on them please excuse me another said
[00:16:20] i just got married so i can't come when he returned the servant reported these excuses to his master the master of the house became angry and said to his servant go quickly into the city streets, the busy ones in the side streets, and bring the poor, afflicted, blind,
[00:16:44] and lame. The servant said, Master, your instructions have been followed, and there is still room. And the master said to the servant, Go to the highways and the back alleys, and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled the word of god for the people of god good evening

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:17:19] it takes a certain type of person to come out on a night like this for a service of repentance and penitence thank you for your presence here this evening and thank you to the many of you
[00:17:33] who are joining us online. This is an important night. It is an important marker in our faith tradition on Ash Wednesday as we begin the journey of Lent. Marked by ashes, symbols of our shared
[00:17:53] humanity and the fragile beauty of life. When we hear, remember that you are dust. It's not only a reminder of mortality, but it's also an invitation. Come, all are invited. You are invited. As we heard, Jesus tells us a story about a banquet, an image of abundance, joy,
[00:18:31] and belonging. But it begins first with refusal. The first invitees all make excuses. One has bought a piece of land. Another is busy with busyness. Another newly married and distracted by personal concerns. None of them come. So the host sends his servants out again to the streets
[00:19:02] and the alleys to find people experiencing poverty, people living with disabilities, and people who are generally excluded or unseen. And still, there is room. So the invitation widens again. Go out to the highways and the back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house,
[00:19:32] my table will be filled. Here in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus's good news comes through casting a vision of God's kingdom, a feast that keeps extending, a table that never runs out of room, a host who refuses to stop inviting until all are fed. This parable feels particularly alive
[00:20:06] for us in the Twin Cities, in Minnesota, as we've been living through a season of fear.
[00:20:14] Federal occupation, surveillance, and disruption that has scarred our immigrant and BIPOC neighbors and impacted every aspect of our community life together. While we've seen some easing of the immediate tension as of late, the fear has not fully lifted, and we do not know when
[00:20:44] or if it will. So families stay vigilant, and children still ask questions no parent should have to answer. And yet, amidst this uncertainty, we've also witnessed something remarkable.
[00:21:04] every day Minnesotans have declared often quietly but always powerfully we want to live in a state where all are invited neighbors have opened their doors to one another cooked meals for strangers accompanied those who are
[00:21:30] targeted and said by their actions and their words you belong here it's easy we know that in anxious times our tendency is to shrink our tables to draw boundaries to keep ourselves safe but what we've seen instead from church
[00:21:55] basements to neighborhood mutual aid networks to grandparents on street corners around schools and daycares is quite the opposite somehow in this moment, while fear was rising, compassion deepened. When a few were pushing people out, many people of faith and conscience stepped forward to make room and welcome
[00:22:28] more people in. I don't know that I have ever witnessed a more truer example of the gospel in action than what we've seen in these past 10 weeks in minnesota it is a banquet unfolding and unfolding among us a table that keeps expanding in parking lots on protest lines
[00:22:57] in sanctuaries at kitchen tables people gathered in the spiritual art of neighboring just as jesus taught and that my friends is good news actually if we kind of back up in the story before Jesus even tells this parable he directly instructs his
[00:23:24] listeners that when they host a meal they shouldn't invite only those who might one day return the favor or might one day invite them to a party instead he tells them in no uncertain terms to invite those who are the most unlikely to be invited
[00:23:46] to a banquet. It's a reminder that our tables, literal and spiritual, are meant to dismantle hierarchies, not reinforce them. We host not to elevate ourselves, but to mirror the hospitality of God. In a season when we as a people are conditioned to compete for security,
[00:24:16] Jesus invites us to practice generosity. In a moment when systems are built and reinforced even to exclude, Jesus calls us to expand our guest list. This is the radical hospitality of kingdom of God, the upside-down kingdom where those on the margins are honored,
[00:24:43] where those left out become central, and where scarcity gives way to abundance.
[00:24:50] Now, I know you. I know you, my Hamlin Church friends, this beautiful community and neighborhood. You are people who are on board with this kind of hospitality.
[00:25:08] You are people who come to this place because we practice that at this table as well as out at the brick oven and down in the community room at coffee hour and even out at the state
[00:25:20] fairgrounds of the dining hall. All our welcome is core to your DNA. It is central to your faith.
[00:25:31] It is who we are as a church. A wider table, a broader welcome. We are always trying to do that better. And I have seen you do it time and time again in these last 10 weeks. But what I want
[00:25:49] you to really dial in on tonight, what I want for you to really hear in this moment and see that when we read this parable closely is that something remarkable emerges.
[00:26:07] The host never gives up. The host never says, that's enough. Stop welcoming. When the first guests decline, the invitation doesn't end. It expands. The doors open wider, the streets grow longer, and the calling becomes more urgent. This is the deep truth of God's nature. Relentless
[00:26:39] hospitality. God keeps searching and reaching until every seat is filled and every soul is fed.
[00:26:49] And what I really, really want you to hear and to know about this tonight is that this invitation includes you. This welcome that you extend so freely, so generously to others is yours to receive as well. Many of you, I know, are so quick to serve but slow to believe that we belong.
[00:27:31] Yet God's call is personal and persistent, not because we've earned it, but because we are beloved. And this divine invitation doesn't come only once in our lifetime. It comes again and again and again. Sometimes it's grand and sometimes it's hidden in the ordinary. It's
[00:28:04] renewed every time we open our hearts, slow our pace, and say yes again to love. Some of you know I am a big fan of the late-night comedian Stephen Colbert. Any Colbert fans out there? Yes, amen,
[00:28:25] amen. Many of you likely know that Colbert himself is a deeply devout person, a deeply devout Catholic. But there were moments when his faith wasn't always so strong. Recently, I heard him tell a story about his return to faith. After college, he was living in Chicago and wrestling
[00:28:49] with loneliness and depression. One day, out while walking on the street, he was handed a small Gideon New Testament. He tucked it into his pocket and went on his way and later kind of noticed it
[00:29:09] and opened it to the Sermon on the Mount. And he read it. And the beauty of those words in Matthew chapter 5 broke him open. He began to weep. That simple, unexpected encounter, a stranger's
[00:29:35] quiet invitation became a turning point in his life it wasn't a persuasive preacher on a Sunday morning or a well-crafted argument that changed him it was an invitation and then a willingness to say yes to grace even
[00:30:03] when he didn't know that he was hungry for it that moment is a parable for us this Lent. Watch for the invitations. Watch for your invitation. Watch for the invitations to give and to receive. They may arrive disguised as interruptions, a
[00:30:34] stranger's kindness, a line of scripture, a knock on the door, a call from a friend.
[00:30:41] in each we are offered a choice to make excuses or to make space to pass by or to come in hear this the good news is the invitation still stands for you for me for all who need a place to belong come back to the table of relationship
[00:31:17] with God. Slow down long enough to notice the holy in your midst. Remember that no one, no one is too distracted, too broken, or too late to be welcomed. And once you have felt that welcome,
[00:31:48] extend it become the servant in the story going into the streets and alleyways the overlooked and anxious places of this world saying come in there is room for you here so dear friends as we live through these uncertain times and as we journey through this lenten season
[00:32:16] we listen for the quiet persistence of God. May this be our rhythm for the next 40 days, receiving and giving, being fed and feeding others, finding home and helping others to find it too, until every heart mirrors God's own and every

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:32:44] seat at the table is full you are invited thanks be to god amen at a time when the world seems to be spinning hopelessly out of control there's deceivers and believers and all in betweeners
[00:33:49] that seem to have no place to go well it's the same old song it's right and it's wrong and living is just something that i do and with no place to hide i looked in your eyes and i found
[00:34:22] myself in. Look to the stars, dried all of the pearls, and I've nearly gone up in. Now my hand has something that's real, and I feel like I'm growing. And in the shade of an old
[00:35:04] Down by the river sat an old man Sat in sails, spinning tails Fishing for whales With a lady that they both enjoy It's the same old tune It's the man in the mood It's the way that I feel about you
[00:35:45] And with no place to hide I looked in your eyes And I found myself in you I looked to the stars Tried all of the bars And I nearly got up in smoke Now my hand's on the wheel
[00:36:22] Of something that's real Amen. Thank you, Micah.

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:36:59] Dearly beloveds in Christ, the early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection.
[00:37:10] And it became the custom of the church that before the Easter celebration, there should be a 40-day season of spiritual preparation.
[00:37:20] During the season, converts to the faith were prepared for holy baptism.
[00:37:27] It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the participation in the life of the Church.
[00:37:43] In this way, the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.
[00:37:56] So I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God's holy word to mark a right beginning of repentance
[00:38:20] and as a mark of our mortal nature.
[00:38:23] Let us now bow before our creator and redeemer as we pray over the ashes.

[00:38:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:38:30] Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth.
[00:38:40] Grant that these ashes may be a sign for our mortality and penitence.
[00:38:46] so that we may remember that only by your gracious gift we are given everlasting life.
[00:38:54] Through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:38:59] God formed a human from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being.
[00:39:10] The ashes remind us that we are both dust and also spirit.
[00:39:15] We are mortal. We have a finite time in this life to do what we're here to do and live the lives we're meant to live.
[00:39:24] And then it's too late. So start now.

[00:39:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:39:30] Lent invites us to ponder both our mortality, our bodies and our createdness, and also the spirit that makes us alive, that makes us more than just dirt.
[00:39:42] the ashes on our foreheads invite us to open ourselves to the spirit friends as you are so moved I invite you to come forward we will have several stations for receiving the ashes to here at the front where you are invited to kneel
[00:40:04] along the communion rail and we'll also have to for the choir back here as well and when you come forward you're invited to kneel if you're able or to stand at the rail and we will mark you with the sign of the cross either on your forehead or on your hand if you
[00:40:21] hold out the back of your hand and indicate that you're welcome to to kneel at the rail for a moment and pray or to return to your seats by the side aisles everyone is welcome all are invited

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:40:36] come let us receive the ashes and please stand as you are able and hear these

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:47:34] words of sending forth for our Lenten journey as you leave this place when you meet anger speak with love when you meet fear speak with hope when you meet pain speak with gentleness when you but no matter what speak this good news for the
[00:48:03] good news of the gospel is love and justice for all an invitation to a table that never ends joy that surprises and non-violence that transforms the good news of the gospel is alive in the world. So go forth speaking, for if you won't,
[00:48:28] then who will? Thanks be to God for this good, good news. Go in peace. Amen.