When Hospitality Leads to Healing
Reverend James A. Keeton, Jr., 7th Episcopal District
In an episode during the third season of The Andy Griffith Show entitled “Dogs, Dogs, Dogs,” young Opie finds a stray dog and brings him to the jail where his father, Andy, is the sheriff. Opie convinces Andy that the dog was hungry. Looking for food, Andy takes the lunch of his deputy, Barney, and feeds the dog. After Andy agrees that Opie can keep the dog as a pet, the dog runs away. The next day, not only does the dog return to the jail, but he brings three other hungry dogs with him. The four dogs eat, and they too run away. The next day, however, a total of 11 hungry dogs show up at the jail.
It is the actions of these dogs that show us the essence of the Christian Church. The faithfulness of the Church is realized not only when someone hungry gets fed, but also when he or she tells others where to go to get something to eat. Notice that the conditions of the dogs are much different after they leave the jail than before they arrive. They come hungry, but they leave filled. The Church is the place where all sinners come hungry for righteousness, and the Lord fills that hunger. It is then that they tell others where they can also get filled.
Consequently, the Church is not the place to affirm behaviors that are contrary to the Word of God. However, it is the place of healing and transformation. These are the real expressions of God’s moral attributes of grace and mercy. These attributes do not exempt us from leading lives that are consistent with the biblical witness. However, God uses them to make us into the people that God is calling us to be.
As we are only months removed from the 51st Quadrennial Session of the General Conference, this is not a time for us to confuse the concepts of hospitality and affirmation. The Church is the place where we show hospitality because all people are welcome. However, the Church does not have the liberty to affirm sinful behavior. We are all sinners, and the Church is the place where we find God’s grace to deliver us from sin.
At this crucial moment, we must be committed to the teachings of God’s word. This is not a time to delete language from the Discipline that is consistent with the Word of God, even with the current discussions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Under no conditions should we remove Section XV, Part B of The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (2016). In the Church, marriage is much more than a civil right, but it is a covenant relationship ordained by God. As we pray for our Zion, let us remember that the Word of God is the foundation on which the future of the Church stands.
