I am looking forward to seeing if we get any visitors for our “Open Day” on Sunday. Hard to say but perhaps there are a few local people who have maybe seen the electronic sign and thought “Hmm they seem like an interesting bunch. I wonder what goes on there?” And as someone said during the week, “whatever happens it has been a positive thing”, and I think that is a good point. People will have heard about Koonung Heights Uniting, those we have visited previously will have had an invitation for a reciprocal visit and I have seen people rise to the challenge of thinking about how we are present in our local community. All positive things.

Hospitality is at the heart of our faith. It was a sacred duty in much of the Middle East to provide hospitality to strangers. And could at times be a matter of literal life and death.

There is a well-known account of radical hospitality recorded in Genesis 18:1-15, where Abraham greets three strangers and which later inspired the New Testament verse in Hebrews 13:2: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

I was pleased to learn that Koonung Heights folk have visited other faith communities and are now in a position to extend the favour. It is important that hospitality is a two way exchange. If it is always one community or one individual offering hospitality it too easily carries the whiff of paternalism. It becomes a way of actually keeping people at a distance. You never become vulnerable and learn to receive. It is a form of control and reminds the other that you are in the upper position.

So, let’s be a welcoming, cheerful, faithfilled community on Sunday and in the name of the Lord God welcome any who come through the doors.