Who doesn’t like to be invited? To a party. To a happy hour. To a shindig. To a significant moment in a person’s journey. The graduation ceremonies may be long, the toddler birthdays might be over the top, the dog parties perhaps somewhat ridiculous. [Only in Seattle!] Even still, the fact remains that we love to be invited even when we can’t participate. Jesus was the best at this. He threw the best parties and he threw the net far and wide.

Everyone was invited. To the table. To share life. To belong.
 
Likewise, I believe that as followers of Jesus, we are called to invite others. But not necessarily to a prayer or to a church service as tradition might dictate. But into the radical hospitality and welcome of Jesus. Into a new community and a new way of life. For we’ve been talking about reinterpreting the gospel in our day and in our time so that it truly is good news to our neighbors. And not a bummer. [And by the way, it’s so sad when it’s a bummer. This is not the gospel that Jesus preached, for bummer ≠ good news.]
 
And so my working theory is that we have invited people to the wrong thing. To a gospel too small. To a prayer, a set of beliefs, a code of morality, a Sunday school club that is in stark contrast to Jesus’ invitation. For his invitation was to be a part of a new revolution of love, a new reality of forgiveness and grace and freedom that defied empire and lifted the oppressed, and it was for everyone and everything. For Jesus did not invite others to say a prayer or to go to the temple. 

Jesus invited the people of his day into a new community, a new culture, and a new way of life.
 
This is why we call ourselves The Practicing Church. For we believe that we are called to a way of life that must be lived out in a community of faith. We cannot do it alone. For I believe that it is the gospel, this way of love lived out in the community, that will ultimately be good news to our neighbors.
 
But hospitality is everything. We see it in the early church. Rodney Stark describes it this way in The Rise of Christianity, ". . . Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear, and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world. . . . Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fire, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services. . . . For what they brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable."
 
As I read this, I am amazed by this new community and their radical hospitality, generous love and solidarity with those who were suffering. We need this now more than ever. As we grow increasingly divided, as communities are displaced and families are pulled apart, as violence dominates the headlines, and life becomes more and more fragmented. Oh what if this was true of the church today?
 
I think it’s important to note that we do not have the gospel without this radical call of Jesus to those who are not church folks, not like us. Jesus modeled a scandalous and highly controversial faith that welcomed and included those in society who were not welcomed and included. He befriended those on the margins, those who were invisible, those who were oppressed. And he was highly criticized by the religious people of the day for hanging out with the wrong people. But we must understand this.
 
This. Is. The Gospel. It’s essence being radical welcome and inclusion. We see this as Jesus welcomed women, Samaritans, crooks, adulterers, and lepers, many who were considered to be no less than dogs in society. No one is outside of God’s mercy and grace. And in fact, in the economy of the kingdom, the least is the greatest. And when we see the gospel transform communities, it breaks down all the divides. The kingdom is for everyone. Slave and free. Rich and poor. Educated and uneducated. Jew & Gentile. Christian & Muslim. Indigenous and refugee. Black, brown, yellow, red and white. Straight and gay. Conservative and liberal. Everyone is welcome. [See Extravagant Welcome]

I love Celtic Christianity. The prayers, the poetry, the music. It calls to me, awakens me, and stirs my soul. Last week, I blogged about St. Patrick and his call to those outside the church [the barbarian]. And I discussed how this was also Jesus’ call and I would propose the call of the church today in response to the Missio Dei or mission of God. There is a lot to be said about the way Celtic Christianity emerged, but today I want to simply emphasize the idea that "the church" consisted of monastic communities that embedded themselves in the neighborhood. And the way that they shared the gospel with the “barbarian” tribes was by going to them, setting up camp and living in proximity. They would befriend the Irish Celtic, engage them in conversation, listen, learn and build on the stories of the people there. Eventually, as people came to know Christ, they would plant an indigenous church right there in their neighborhood.
 
I think it’s significant to note that Patrick wasn’t doing church as usual. This was a whole new way of being the church. Patrick wasn't following the typical model of the Roman Christian Church; and thankfully, he was removed far enough from the empire to experiment. For the Roman way wouldn’t have worked at all in the Irish Celtic context. There were no towns in which they could set up the usual parish. Instead there was rural sprawl with only cattle trails and small settlements and tribes spread throughout the countryside. And so Patrick did not construct a large church building and wait for the people to come to him. Imagine the folly of such an endeavor! No, St. Patrick and his missionary teams went to the people and lived among them. Likewise, is it not also folly for the American church today to construct large buildings and expect the people to come to them? For the Missio Dei calls us like Christ to GO and to LIVE AMONG the people in an incarnational way.

[Jesus] became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. [John 1:14 MSG]

St. Patrick had one thing that is most likely the greatest single thing we can learn from him. He understood the people. He had been given the gift in his years as a slave to understand the culture, the context, the language and the stories of the Irish Celts.
 
There is no shortcut to understanding the people. When you understand the people, you often know what to say and to do and how. When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe Christianity’s High God understands them too. [George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism]
 
Patrick created indigenous expressions that emerged from listening, learning and living with the people. How do we also listen to the stories of our place in such a way that we can then interpret the gospel in the language and the context of our neighbors? And I think we have to get over our fear of the “other” - including other narratives and beliefs. I think we’ve been taught in our Christian silos and ghettos to fear any story, belief or paradigm other than our own. And while we hold to the truth of our triune God, often God reveals himself in and through the stories and narratives within culture.

​We see this in Acts where Paul preached at Mars Hill, explaining Jesus through their own story of the unknown god. St. Patrick and his team also did this. They knew well the Irish’s fascination with the number 3 and rhetoric triads, which then opened up a way to understand the Trinity. They knew the Irish’s love for heroes and legends that made way for them to understand the story of Jesus and the grand narrative of God. They knew the Irish’s love for nature and nature’s creatures that made way for God to be revealed in the natural world. And so there was continuity of story. God was already at work here and Patrick and his teams would live among the people, with the people and build upon what God had already revealed. And so what are the narratives of our own culture today? And how can we listen well enough and long enough to begin to live out the gospel in a way that is truly good news to our neighbors?
 
Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have. 
​[-ancient Chinese poem]

​by Jessica Ketola