In our series on "Partnership" we have covered a great deal of ground. We started off by looking at the Beginning and saw that God entered into partnership with the humans He created, commanding them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. He could have created the earth full of people, but He left that up to us. He could have subdued the earth He created, but instead, He asked us to subdue it, working with Him. Partners with God, here on earth. Not equal partners, but partners nonetheless.
Since then we've looked at various topics under the theme of partnership: partnering with God and each other in the church in the stewardship of the Truth revealed in the Scriptures; partnering with God in the use of our money; in the care of creation; partnering with the Prince of Peace as peacemakers with a ministry of reconciliation; partnering with the Holy Spirit in the exercise of the freedom Christ won for us; last week we looked at partnering with God in the area of our sexuality.
And in all these we've seen that we can attempt these things on our own, but we only do them properly when we work in partnership with God and with each other in the church. Hence the Elders invitation to the fellowship to enter into partnership with us here at Meadow Way as we seek to partner with God in the service of His Kingdom. We believe, and hope we have convinced you, that "Partnership" holds so much more promise and hope, than "Membership."
Now, none of this means that membership is the wrong term to use in your relationship with the church; we believe partnership is simply a better term to use to describe our relationship with the church ... it goes deeper. Membership implies being a part of, whereas "Partnership" implies being a partner with; in the one you are a member, in the other you are a partner. In marriage, we would never dream of saying: "I am a member of this relationship" ... "No! I am a partner in this relationship." In the New Testament, the church is the Bride of Christ ... we are His partner. Membership often implies duties ... partnership (in the Biblical and not the legal sense) implies love. When you love, you do things because you want to, not because you have to.
In the context of the Apostle Paul's words two weeks ago: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free ... You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free and Jesus' words So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed ... in these contexts, partnership is the language of freedom. With Christ, you and I are truly free, and it is a freedom that is defined by one word: Love.
You've got to listen to what I say now really carefully and think about what it really means: Love God ... and you can do whatever you want to. Love your spouse ... and you can do whatever you want to. Love your neighbour ... and you can do whatever you want to. This is not an original idea, it comes from Augustine. He wrote:
“Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
Today we are looking at Us and Them and asking the question, in partnership with God and each other, what is our relationship with foreigners or strangers? Our reading from Hebrews reminds us to treat strangers with hospitality.
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
This love of the stranger and the foreigner has been urged on the people of God since the time of Moses. In Lev 19:34 we read:
the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Jesus repeatedly underscored hospitality to the stranger as an essential characteristic of His disciples (Matt 10:40-42; 25:31-46). The frequency of this command throughout Scripture testifies not only to its importance but also to the tenacity of xenophobia (fear of strangers) in society and among the people of God.
Jewish people were never called to keep themselves racially or ethnically separate. It was, and is, faithfulness to God's covenant, covenant fidelity, not race, that made (and makes) one part of God's people. Paul makes this point quite specifically in two different letters. To the Galatians (3:28) he writes:
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
To the Colossians (3:11):
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Now, remember, I come from a country which turned "Us and Them" into a diabolical system of legalized separation and they interpreted the Scriptures in a way that fully supported the system of apartheid; and in that system, Scriptures like these didn't mean exactly what they seemed to mean. I'm ashamed to say that I remember the first time I shook hands with a black man, and I remember it because I knew it was against the law for a black man to be in a white area at that time of night. I was 19 years old and the leader of the Methodist Church, Rev Andrew Losaba, was visiting Methodist churches and he came to ours (white, of course) on a Friday night, in defiance of the law. Needless to say the church was not as full as it was on a Sunday. But whether you come from a country like mine, or any other country, we are all very good at creating "the other" ... creating "us and them."
When we were looking for a home and we mentioned a particular area, some said to us: "You don't really want to live there, Cedric." Again to my shame, I didn't ask why, because I understood what they were implying and didn't want to embarrass them. Us and Them.
Us and Them pervades everything ... I just have to say "Ipswich or Norwich" to get some of your juices going. Nathanael asked: Can any good thing come from Nazareth? (Jn 1:46), but we can all fill in the blank in our own lives: Can anything good come from .... ? Is there anyone you would rather your son or daughter didn't mix with or, heaven forbid, marry? Us and Them pervades everything.
Evidently the most discriminated against group in Europe (which still includes us) is ... the Roma people, sometimes called Gypsies ... they evidently aren't always made to feel welcome.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers ... this is not a Biblical suggestion.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ... in the recesses of your heart, are you still pagan.
And, how do you feel about your enemy? Us and Them.
Again from two weeks ago, we saw that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. When we love, there is no Us and Them. There simply cannot be, because, as we saw at the beginning of this series on Partnership when Gavin preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan, my neighbour is every person I come into contact with and I am called to love my neighbour as I love myself. Jesus turned that into: do to others what you would have them do to you (Mt 7:12).
Us and Them ... I don't know who them is for you. Sometimes one even finds Us and Them in the church ... some people who you will have nothing to do with, perhaps not even exchanging greetings when you meet here. There is no room for that in Christian fellowship. No room. Unlike the pagans, who choose who they will love, we love all. When the world looks at us, it ought to see what it saw when it looked at Jesus ... people who refuse to do anything other than love.
Us and Them disappears when we love.
So, let us love.
