Have you ever started a project, journey, mission, or endeavor with a single goal in mind, only to be completely and utterly redirected to a brand new frontier, one you hadn’t even considered before? I have. I once visited a church member’s son in the county jail at her request and ended up doing prison ministry for the next five years. Never in my life would I have guessed God’s redirection would land me there! But there was a guard at the jail who was a good Christian man, and he kept inviting me back to meet with new inmates who needed pastoral care. Every time I went, this man made sure I was ushered quickly into the clergy room and was offered a cup of water to drink. His hospitality in that cold and disarming place was part of the reason I returned for so long.

Something similar happened to Paul. In our reading today, he expressed his desire to preach the gospel in places where people have never heard of Christ. His immediate plan was to go to Jerusalem to extend the hospitality and the contributions of the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia to the Christians in Jerusalem. He wrote to the church in Rome that as soon as this mission was accomplished, he would return to them to receive their hospitality on his way to Spain, where the Gospel hadn’t been heard yet.

Romans 15 (Common English Bible)

²⁰ In this way, I have a goal to preach the gospel where they haven’t heard of Christ yet, so that I won’t be building on someone else’s foundation. ²¹ Instead, as it’s written, Those who hadn’t been told about him will see, and those who hadn’t heard will understand.

Travel plans to visit Rome

²² That’s why I’ve been stopped so many times from coming to see you. ²³ But now, since I don’t have any place to work in these regions anymore, and since I’ve wanted to come to see you for many years, ²⁴ I’ll visit you when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while I’m passing through. And I hope you will send me on my way there, after I have first been reenergized by some time in your company.

Hospitality was vital to the growth of the early church. Paul had to depend on the welcome generosity of the churches he had founded in order to make his way from Rome, his base of operations in the western part of the empire, to Antioch, his eastern base of operations. He relied on them to “send him on his way” after a time of being reenergized by their company.

²⁵ But now I’m going to Jerusalem, to serve God’s people.²⁶ Macedonia and Achaia have been happy to make a contribution for the poor among God’s people in Jerusalem. ²⁷ They were happy to do this, and they are actually in debt to God’s people in Jerusalem. If the Gentiles got a share of the Jewish people’s spiritual resources, they ought to minister to them with material resources. ²⁸ So then after I have finished this job and have safely delivered the final amount of the Gentiles’ offering to them, I will leave for Spain, visiting you on the way. ²⁹ And I know that when I come to you I will come with the fullest blessing of Christ.

Paul’s desire to make his way to Spain turned into an unexpected imprisonment in a jail in Rome. But there, he had the unexpected opportunity to preach to the emperor of Rome, as told in the last several chapters in Acts. He did deliver the offering to Jerusalem, and eventually made his way to Spain, but obediently followed God’s redirection in the meantime.

We learn two valuable lessons here. First, we are called to extend hospitality to others who are traveling through our town, beginning at home when people enter our churches for the first time. Is your church hospitable to newcomers and the surrounding community? Second, we see by Paul’s example that things don’t always go to plan. But when we allow God to direct our feet on the paths of God’s own choosing, we will never go astray. Thanks be to God!

Come on In! The Water’s Fine.