From the Pulpit

According to some historians, one of the first references to the notion of southern hospitality goes all the way back to 1835 and a man named Jacob Abbott.
Apparently in the 1830s, inns and taverns in the south weren’t really known for their quality and cleanliness. But according to Jacob Abbott, the reason for such shabby and poor looking establishments had to do with the fact that they were so infrequently needed because travelers, more often than not, were simply invited to stay in someone’s home for the evening. Or as Abbott described the matter: “The hospitality of southerners is so profuse, that taverns are poorly supported. A traveler, with the garb and the manners of a gentleman, finds a welcome at every door… Such is the nature of southern hospitality.”
Well, for those of us reared in the south, it’s easy to hear Abbott’s words and give a knowing nod of agreement. After all, there really does seem to be something known as southern hospitality. Yep, for whatever reason, people in the south just seem to be a bit friendlier and more laid-back.
Turns out Jesus, in his own way, also knew something about the importance of being welcoming and hospitable. Or as he puts it in chapter ten of Matthew, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous.”
Of course, there’s more to Jesus’ charge than just the notion that people are to be nice and welcoming. In the verses leading up to Jesus remarks he is open and honest about the cost of discipleship. While he calls Peter, Andrew, James, and the rest of the twelve disciples to go and spread the Good News, he makes it perfectly clear such work on their part will often bring them into conflict with the world.
Among other things, Jesus tells them he is sending them out like sheep into the midst of wolves and that there’s a solid chance they’ll be dragged before councils, governors and kings in order to be flogged because of their testimony.
Yet despite all that, his followers are still charged to be hospitable. Even though there will be those who will persecute them, they’re to be welcoming and gracious. So Jesus’ call to be hospitable is more than just the need to be nice. It’s to be welcoming even though the world can often be a very dangerous place.
There’s an old story about Saint Francis of Assisi and a wolf. As legend has it, a wolf was terrorizing a small town known as Gubbio. Whenever anyone left the gates of the city, they met the same fate — death by the mouth of the wolf.
Until, that is, Assisi decided one day to go and meet with the wolf. Leaving the city gates, Assisi headed toward the woods and when the wolf saw him coming it charged, baring his teeth and ready to kill. But as the wolf approached, Assisi made the sign of the cross and said, “Come hither, Brother Wolf. In the name of Christ, I order you not to hurt anyone.” And with that, the wolf came to a stop and the two proceeded to talk.
And after a while an agreement was reached. The wolf, who had been eating people because there was no more food in the forest, agreed to stop terrorizing the village and the people, in return, agreed to feed him. After that, the wolf and people of Gubbio lived in peace until the wolf’s passing several years later. And when the wolf died, the people, according to the tale, actually wept in sorrow.
Well, the world is like that, isn’t it? It’s full of wolves and all sorts of dangers that can make it hard for us to be open and welcoming. We look at the world around us and all that seems to be going wrong with it and our gut instinct is to simply run and hide. No doubt about it, the world can be and IS a scary place.
And yet we’re sent into the world by Jesus Christ nonetheless. We’re sent to be welcoming and gracious despite the very scariness of the world around us. According to a well known writer, Parker Palmer, in the Japanese self-defense art of aikido, people are trained to develop what’s called soft eyes. You see normally, when a person feels threatened, the natural biological response is for their vision to narrow and become more and more focused. The narrowing of vision corresponds naturally to the narrowing of options the person is available to consider.
In other words, when threatened, a person resorts to the two most basic survival instincts — flight or fight. But in the self-defense art of aikido, people are trained to keep their eyes open so they can consider all the options available to them — hence the term soft eyes.
And that, it seems to me, is what Jesus calls us to do as well. In a world that can sometimes be scary and where people often do amazingly foolish and crazy things, we’re to have soft eyes nonetheless. We’re to have eyes that remain open and welcoming rather than hard and narrow. After all, it’s kind of hard to love the world when the only two choices we’ve left ourselves are flight or fight.
The Rev. Stephen Yates is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Destin.