Pastor’s Corner:

Creating A ‘Welcome Home’ Church

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2
"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Rom.12:13
"Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." I Peter 4:9

"She said to her husband, 'I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.'" II Kings 4:9-10 (NIV)

Grace and peace to you all, members and friends of St. Ansgar Lutheran Church. The summer went by pretty fast, as it was filled with lots and lots of exciting events, as well as some sad ones: It began with the Synod Assembly in St. Catharine, Ont., my tenure call to this church as your full-time pastor, from pastoring three congregations to one (what am I going to do with all this extra time?), the death of my mother, my trip home to Ghana to attend her funeral, and on my way back to Canada, a side trip to Germany which included visiting Kitzingen, Esenach, Wartburg Castle (where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in Thüringen), and finally but not least a glorious and inspiring installation service to wrap everything up into a nice eventful season.
I take this opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and support, and for all the work you put into the preparation for the installation service. An indebted thanks to the leadership of St. Ansgar who did a great job of maintaining the ‘fort’, and to the lay ministers who filled in while I was away. We do have one more great event coming up on Saturday, Nov. 6th, and that is our annual Christmas Bazaar, another opportunity for us to continue the tradition of pulling together our energy and resources which always makes it a success.
Among all these events that took place, there is a theme I believe God has laid on my heart for a time and that is the “Openness to practice hospitality” and the emphasis is on hospitality. As most of you who know me well can verify, is that I speak a lot about things I have experienced, and this is one of those experiences. I also love to speak about individuals who have contributed in shaping my life and faith in God.
There are several people that come to mind, but due to space I will zero in on three women I have known in my adult life who have demonstrated and taught me about true hospitality. The first being my mother, because I grew up with her. Her name is Victoria. This woman practiced what I came to know later in life as an ‘open door policy’. The door of her home was always open to people, and I mean people from all walks of life. I remember as a young boy giving up my bed many times to visitors. When my mother cooked, it was as if she was feeding troops on a war field, her explanation always would be, “I want to be sure to have enough food in the house in case an Angel of God comes to visit so that he/she may have something to eat.” Lo and behold many such people came through our home and there was always something for them to eat. Our home came to be known as a ‘refugee camp’. “To the house of a friend the road is never long,” she would often say.
The emotionally wounded came to be ministered to, and found healing, those with marital problems came for a listening ear, the hungry had something to eat. I could go on and on. Fifty-three years later all these and many other events in our household made sense to me on Saturday, September11, 2004 at her funeral. As I glanced over the faces of over 600 mourners who came to pay their final respect, I said to myself, “How could a woman who never stepped into a class room, and could not read or write her own name touch so many people?” For a while, I thought it was all a dream. Then, the answer came to my mind ‘she touched all these people through her practice of hospitality’.
The second woman who comes to mind is Maria Heuberger and her husband Paul, who live in the picturesque town of Kitzingen, Germany. Kitzingen is tacked in the Franconia wine growing district in the valley of the Main River. I love to stay at their home. Not only is it great to be with the Heubergers, but Maria's home invites me to rest and rejuvenate. Her hospitality, and thoughtful, spiritual devotion shows her love and grace of God to anyone who steps through her door.
I am always blessed by staying at her home. The spiritual atmosphere in the Heuberger’s home is like living in the presence of God. Her hospitality has created a friendship that has lasted thirty years.
The third woman, and you guessed right, she is Danish. Her name is Maria Forum Jensen and her husband Arnie lived on a farm in Ølgod, Denmark. I first met Arnie and Maria Forum Jensen while on a speaking engagement in a church in Esbjerg late autumn in 1976.
After the service they connected with me through an interpreter, we had a great visit and as the saying goes the rest is history.
Maria invited me several times to her farmhouse, and she made sure I was not alone on Christmas or any other national holidays. She became ‘min Dansk mor’ and I became her ‘Sammy, min solbrændt søn’. Maria is an incredible woman of faith, and prayer warrior, and she lives out that faith in the practice of hospitality. This also has brought into existence a friendship that has lasted 28 years.
In II Kings, chapter four, we read about a woman in the town of Shunem who went out of her way to create a welcoming guest room for Elisha, a prophet of God. She made up a space on her roof (I'm guessing it was flat) and put a bed, table, chair, and lamp for Elisha to use whenever he traveled to Shunem. The Shunemite woman's hospitality meant so much to Elisha that he asked God to give her a child, and God fulfilled that request.
We may not all have a private room for our guests or be gifted with hospitality, but we can use the same principle and see that our guests feel comfortable and experience the love and grace of God in our midst. I know from the experience of being a guest how hospitality can convey God's love and grace in a personal way.
There is still good in our world, but the opposite is also true, there are hurting people in our world, and it is my prayer that St. Ansgar will continue the tradition of being a welcoming Church, a place where individuals will find acceptance, love and friendship with God. In the desert of hatred, there is always the oasis of love. Our homes, our congregation (as small as we are) can become a ministry tool as we seek ways to make our guests feel comfort. As they experience our love for them, they will be drawn to the Creator of this Love - God.
Finally, the installation service on Sunday, Oct. 24th, marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history and ministry of St. Ansgar Lutheran I believe. A ministry that looks forward, not backward, because when our memories exceed our dreams, then life is over. Memories are good, but dreams are better. Therefore we must allow ourselves to dream new dreams, for the Christian life is predicated by what we know in God. May God help us to see our home, our congregation as a ministry to those who would be guests at any given time. We pray that our guests will be drawn to God as they experience godly hospitality in our home and congregation (“for by doing so we may entertain angels without knowing it.”)
Shalom!

Your friend and pastor,

Pastor Samuel King-Kabu

Web Page prepared by:
Roger Kenner & Jette Blair.
Content-New Topics Last Updated: 2005/02/01
St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church - Montreal