Proper 17 Year A 8/30/2026
Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Our second reading today keeps us in Romans chapter 12.
And St. Paul gets right to it…
Expressing that our faith should be lived out among the church and the people around us.
It’s not a private faith…
that we keep to ourselves…
It is a faith that shapes the way we think and live…
One that shapes the way we live in our relationships with other people.
Our faith…
By the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us…
Shapes the way we live.
It should impact the way we think about what is good in this world…
And what is evil in this world…
It impacts the way we handle suffering…
And the way we treat others.
And so on.
Paul gives us a number of admonitions regarding our behavior.
Loving others and loving what is good in this world is important.
Helping those in need and resisting what is evil in this world is also important.
It is a great section of Bible reading…
Words to live by, for sure.
What I want to focus on today is the 13th verse…
This is how it puts it in our translation:
Contribute to the needs of the saints;
extend hospitality to strangers.
Two important things – Generosity and Hospitality.
Let’s talk about Generosity first…
Contribute to the needs of the saints.
The word contribute is the verbal form of the Greek word koinonia.
Which might be familiar to some of you…
As it is a popular Christian word.
It generally means fellowship.
In the classical Greek world if two merchants co-owned a fishing boat, they were in a state of koinonia…
It was shared…
It was a joint venture…
It was a business term.
But in early Christianity, the word went from a business term to a word that was used to describe the bond between the saints…
The relationship between Christians…
And how these Christians shared in the nature of Christ in communion.
Thus, one of the early words used to describe Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Communion (what we do at the altar here) – was koinonia…
The word “communion” comes from the Latin translation of koinonia.
It is the sharing of Christ’s body and blood.
Paul used the word here in Romans 12.13 very deliberately…
As people of Jesus Christ, we are to share (koinonia) with the needs of the saints… the holy ones.
We contribute to the church…
We contribute to those in need…
Helping the short comings of others…
But not under compulsion or forced giving…
The church does not exercise some sort of holy tax.
As St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth:
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
(2 Corinthians 9.7)
So we give out of our abundance…
From what we have…
From the blessings of God.
For some this may be a little compared with others, but for the person giving it may be a substantial amount of their budget.
For others they might give a small fortune because of the financial blessing that God has given them.
But regardless of our “social status” or our “bank account size” …
The people of God are to be generous, just as our heavenly Father is generous.
We are to help those in need.
To be givers…
To share.
I am reminded of a story from history…
Where one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by.
The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler,
no right even to lift a solicitous hand.
Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins.
A courtier was astonished at his generosity and commented:
“Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar’s need. Why give him gold?”
Alexander responded in royal fashion:
“Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit Alexander’s giving.”
We give from the blessings we have.
Generosity is a character trait of the followers of Jesus.
And so is hospitality.
Our reading says: extend hospitality to strangers.
Notice that it says strangers…
So, hospitality is not just to friends and family…
The ones we know…
But to the new neighbor who just moved into our neighborhood…
Or the visitor at church…
Or to the person we meet at a community group.
Sometimes when we travel, we stay with family and friends…
But in North America we live in a world where there is an abundance of hotels…
The first century world was very different.
Scholar Douglas Moo writes:
The need to give shelter and food to visitors was great in the New Testament world, there being few hotels or motels. [1]
In the first century you were at the mercy of the hospitality of others.
And being that Rome was the capital of the Empire…
The need for hospitality for strangers and visitors was all the more important with the volume of people coming and going from Rome.
This is probably why Paul emphasized hospitality to strangers in his letter to Rome, here.
Now the wording in our verse (in Greek) suggests that we not just consider being hospitable…
Nor does it mean to just practice hospitality…
but to pursue it…
to seek after being hospitable to strangers.
3rd century Theologian Origen of Alexandria wrote this:
We are not just to receive the stranger when he comes to us,
but actually to enquire after, and look carefully for, strangers,
to pursue them and search them out everywhere,
lest perchance somewhere they may sit in the streets or lie without a roof over their heads. [2]
This is not to say we throw all caution to the wind…
Some can do more and offer much more than others can.
But all of us can be kind and inviting to the strangers around us…
And helping those in need.
I remember our neighbors the second week that they were in their new home…
(this was about two years ago)…
My wife and the neighbor’s wife had met and exchanged pleasantries.
It was early in the morning…
I was getting ready to head to the church office…
and I heard a knock on the door and I went and opened it…
There stood a man and three kids that I did not know…
He was my new neighbor and his children…
His wife was on the phone with him and had just talked with my wife.
He had somehow locked himself outside of their house and their van was in the garage and it was time for them to leave to go to school.
He was in a pickle…
He did not know what to do and his wife sent him to our house…
He looked as confused as I did.
Tera called me and said give them the keys to our van so that they can get to school.
I couldn’t drive them, because of my own responsibilities that I had…
My practical side and caution came to my mind…
I just met him…
They just moved here…
And now I am to give my keys to my mini-van to drive them to school?
Is he a good driver?
Should I check his driver’s license…
What if something happens to our van?
What if this is all a set up?
Nevertheless, I listened to my wife…
I gave him keys to our van and wished them well.
And it all worked out fine…
In fact, I think he put gas in the van before he returned it.
Hospitality to strangers.
Hospitality and generosity were hallmarks of early Christianity and they should be traits of Christians today.
And just like the early Christians…
we don’t just give to those in need, and we aren’t to be hospitable with visitors and strangers just because it’s a nice thing to do.
We are to do these things because precisely Christ Jesus did these things for us.
He transformed our life through sharing and hospitality.
He shared his life with us… for us…
He offered himself on the cross for our sins…
Not because we can pay him back…
Not because somehow we deserved it…
God gave his only Son for us…
While we were sinners…
Enemies of God…
Jesus died on the cross and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins.
He also invites us to the table with him…
To the fellowship of all the saints…
The heavenly realm…
The throne room of God…
The supper of the lamb…
To be with him forever and ever…
Face to face with Jesus.
Again, not because we deserve such wonder and joy…
But because we serve a God who gives and is hospitable…
He shares and He invites.
And because we have been given so much…
Because we are invited into the family of God…
We share…
And we invite…
The promise we have in Jesus is that he invites all sinners to come and repent…
And he made the way for that forgiveness by sharing his life on the cross.
In fact, before we became followers of Jesus…
We were the stranger…
We were the one in need…
And Jesus shared with us…
And invited us.
This is the Gospel…
May we go and share this good news with the people around us…
Inviting them to come and see Jesus.
Amen.
[1] Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, TNICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996),780.
[2] Quoted from John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans, TBST (Downers Grove: IVP, 1994), 332.
