Sun. June 10 (Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld spoke from Luke 7:36 - 8:3 to ask, what does one do with uninvited guests, what is hospitality and forgiveness, and how should women be treated? This passage features Simon the Pharisee inviting Jesus for dinner, but failing to show the requisite hospitality to him. A woman performed the hospitality that Simon had failed to perform, and Jesus noted the difference in treatment between the one who had nothing to lose, and the one who had nothing to gain. Henry told a story that showed how even pastors today can fall victim to bad behaviour with uninvited guests. Henry then noted that Eugene Peterson once said that the word evangelism should be replaced with the word hospitality, and pointed out that our traditional picture of Jesus knocking at the door is incomplete. In reality, Jesus is asking to come inside and eat with us - at a banquet - to demonstrate our hospitality as we do our faith. In this passage, Jesus also tells the story of the two debtors, one who was forgiven much more than the other. The example is instructive, but Henry used two recent stories to point out how difficult that can be, for instance, in the death of Amish children at the school. Regarding women, Jesus also breaks a cardinal rule at this dinner by criticizing his host, who has been unkind to him. Henry contrasted this with the support generally shown by women to Jesus’ ministry. Henry concludes, notes if evangelism is hospitality, how evangelistic are we? What do we do with invited guests? What about forgiveness? What do we do with the undesirables in our community? All are questions that ought to make us beg for forgiveness. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday June 10th using your browser's preferred media player.