Community Picnic

This Sunday Christ Church will provide a free picnic to the surrounding community in the public park across the street from the church. It has been on the calendar for several months, but most of the planning has taken place within the last few weeks. The goal is to develop community within the church as well provide outreach to the people who live around us.

It also fits in particularly well with this Sunday’s readings. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,” the letter to the Hebrews states, “for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” I doubt that we will have three men wander by and tell one of our octogenarian couples that they will have a child (as happened to Abraham and Sarah, the couple the writer had in mind). But one never knows who will show up. At this point the outreach team is concerned that either no one will show up, or hundreds will show up. How to entertain angels is not high on the list of worries.

After attending a Sabbath meal given by a Pharisee, Jesus gives this caution: “Do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors…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.” I can’t say that Christ Church has deliberately sought out all those whom Jesus lists, but we have certainly put the word out around town. The idea is to welcome all who come, whoever they are. In addition to food, there will be live music and face painting and games. It will indeed be a Sabbath banquet.

So what happens if someone at the picnic decides to come to church the next Sunday? That will be a true test of hospitality. I hope they will be as warmly greeted as if they were being given a plate of hot food. It’s true that we don’t paint faces during the service and wander around listening to a musician in the warm sunshine. We do have a pretty traditional service. But that first impression – will it be a smile? A “glad you’re here” look? Will each person passing through the church door be welcomed as a possible angel, or as St. Benedict put it, as Christ himself? I hope so. In fact, if we got in the habit of welcoming everyone as Christ himself, including the people we know, we might actually become the church God wants us to be.

Pentecost 14: Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1,10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8,15-16; Luke 14:1,7-14.