Our Old Testament lesson comes from Amos chapter 5. Amos chapter 5. Hear now the word of the Lord. Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation O house of Israel. Fallen no more to rise is the virgin Israel forsaken on her land with none to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God. The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek me and live, but do not seek Bethel and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba, for Gilgal shall go surely into exile and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and it devour with none to quench it for Bethel. Oh you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth. He who made the Pleiades and Orion and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth. The Lord is his name who makes destruction flash forth against the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress. They hate him who reproves in the gate and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him you have built houses of hewn stone but you shall not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins. You who afflict the righteous who take a bribe and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil that you may live. And so the Lord the God of hosts will be with you as you have said hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord the God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, in all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, alas, alas. They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing, those who are skilled in lamentation. And in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, says the Lord. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light. as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You shall take up Sikuth, your king, and Kihun, your star-god, your images that you made for yourselves. and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. This is the word of the Lord. Amos 5 is a classic example of the Old Testament remnant theology. God is going to send his people into exile for their transgressions. Or to use Paul's language, He is going to break off branches. Amos says to the remnant, seek good and not evil that you may live. And so that the Lord, the God of hosts will be with you as you have said, hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. we are called to hate evil and love good. And in view of Paul's language of the living sacrifice, that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, if you recall last time we saw that when Paul talks about offering ourselves as living sacrifices, it's because of Jesus' once for all offering of himself as the sin offering, that we then offer ourselves in in union with him as a part, you might say, of his peace offering, to use the Old Testament language. That's what a sacrifice is in the Old Testament. A sacrifice is a peace offering. So when you think about what Amos is saying, Amos is saying, the voice of the Lord through Amos, I hate, I despise your feasts. Now he's just said to hate evil, and God says he hates your feasts, because he hates evil. Wait, wait, wait, didn't God command the feasts? God says, well, well, though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look on them. Why not? Because the people of Israel are not offering themselves as living sacrifices. They've missed the point. They think going through the motions of the rituals is all that matters. In order for burnt offerings and grain offerings to be acceptable, there must be a living sacrifice. Of course, this is the problem Israel has, because in order for our living sacrifices to have value, there first has to be a sin offering that gets us through the entrance to the Holy of Holies. And that's what Jesus has done. Jesus has offered himself as the sin offering, as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. And in order for him to do that, he had to offer himself as a living sacrifice. He had to be a true and upright man. Only then, only because of his obedience, could he offer himself as the sin offering in our place. And so that is why our hope and our trust is always in him. Our psalm of response in Psalm 31 sings about the importance of our hoping in Christ, not concerning ourselves with things too great and too marvelous for me, but resting calm and quiet like a weaned child with his mother, that picture of contentment and rest. Our New Testament lesson comes from Romans chapter 12. Hear now the word of the Lord from Romans chapter 12. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world. but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves. but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is the word of the Lord. Let love be genuine. You hear a lot about the importance of being authentic. It's not a bad thing. Being authentic is a good thing, especially when you consider the alternative would be to be fake, to be counterfeit. So what does it mean to love with authenticity, genuine, unhypocritical love? Francis Schaeffer once wrote that the mark of the Christian was love and that love and holiness always must go together because you can counterfeit, you can have a hypocritical one of either. The counterfeit love is a sort of niceness, that sort of permissiveness that lets people get away with whatever they want to do and you find that in a lot of more liberal churches where it's about do what feels good to you. But that's not real love. That's the counterfeit. And you can find a sort of counterfeit holiness. That's a sort of legalism that insists on adherence to a set of rules that doesn't always get at the heart. And you can find that in conservative churches that go astray. But it's not really holiness. That's a counterfeit holiness. It's legalism. But Francis Schaeffer pointed out that you can't do both of these at the same time. You can't counterfeit love and counterfeit holiness at the same time because it winds up falling apart. Genuine love will always be holy. Genuine holiness will always love. And that's really at the heart of what Paul says in our passage today. A spirit-empowered, Christ-centered, gospel-driven love must always characterize the church. Paul says this love is genuine. It's without hypocrisy. The Greek word here, more literally, would be unhypocritical, unhypocritos. There's no place for an insincere love in the Christian church. A fake love, an insincere fellowship, a half-hearted community have no place in Christ's church. Proverbs 23 warns against this when it says, do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy, do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. That would be an example of hypocritical love. What can I get out of this relationship? He entertains you, he offers you friendship only because of what he gets in return. I remember a man who, I had a good friend who was just a brilliant concert pianist. And a fellow, an acquaintance of mine told me, ah, you should stay close to him because that'll give you lots of benefits in the future. And I was like, no, I should stay close to him because he's my friend, not because of what it gives me. How often have you heard people raise the objection that Christians are hypocrites? I know it's sometimes tempting to say, oh yeah, well, come and join us and then there'll be one more. I'm not sure that's the best answer. The best answer is, I think, to confess that too often it is true. And not just in churches out there, but right here. Because if we're honest with ourselves, How often have we thought about what we get out of it? What benefit do I get? And every time we're focused on ourselves and our own benefits, then we're being something less than genuine in our love. As we go through these verses, we need to confess that we have fallen short of what our Lord Jesus has called us to do and to be. Paul had said in Romans 11 that we Gentiles should not get cocky, but should remember that if God cut off the natural branches to graft us in, well, then he can cut us off if we rebel like they did. That's why Paul opens this chapter by saying, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Because Jesus is the sin offering. He is the atoning sacrifice. And we are a part of his peace offering. The sacrifice that expresses the communion that now exists between God and man in Jesus Christ. And so love is without hypocrisy. In verses three to eight, Paul had addressed how Particular gifts should be exercised in the church, in the general categories of prophecy and service, and then in the particulars of teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy. And now he turns to the inward disposition that should drive that outward exercise. So in verses 9 to 13, the focus is on your disposition. And then he'll go on in the rest of the chapter to talk about particular situations, but this is what should characterize Christian love. What is genuine love? Now, one of the fun things about verses nine to 13 is that in Greek, it's all one sentence. I don't blame the translators for translating it the way they did. It's a very good translation. But, and also it's, Each verb, as you look at your translation, each verb that you see there is actually a participle or adjective modifying the word love. So each of the verbs, and that's why it's rendered as an imperative, that's exactly how you should translate it, because each of the verbs is saying this is what love is, this is what love is, this is what love is. We often talk about 1 Corinthians 13 as being the love chapter. I would argue that Romans 12, 9 through 13 is the love sentence. This is what love is. So let me give it to you in a somewhat woodenly literal form so that you can hear it in that structure. Let love be without hypocrisy, detesting the evil, clinging to the good, loving each other affectionately with brotherly love, leading the way in honoring one another. not hesitating in eagerness, but seething or boiling in the Spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, enduring in tribulation, persevering in prayer, sharing in the needs of the saints, pursuing hospitality. The way Greek grammar works, if you follow an imperative with a string of participles, all the participles gain that imperative force. So that's why, again, the ESV translates it very well. But I want you to see as we go through this, that this is all part of one command. You can't sort of pick and choose between which ones in verses 9 to 13 that you want to do. It's all part of what genuine love looks like. If you want to know what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, this sentence, verses 9 to 13, tells you, here is what love is. He's not saying that it's just an ideal description of what love should be. He's commanding you to act in this way. And he starts by saying, let love be genuine. Now, it's easy. I suspect all of us, when we ask, if I ask, do I sincerely love others? Probably most of us, all of us will come away saying, of course I do. I think about Linus from the Peanuts comic strip when he said, I love humanity, it's just people I can't stand. Now, some might prefer to say it the other way, oh, no, no, I love individual people, it's just humanity I can't stand. But Paul will not let you escape so easily. It's why he quotes Amos 5, hate evil and love good. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. detests what is evil and clings to what is good. Now, does it sound odd to start by saying that the way that you should learn how to love in a genuine, non-hypocritical way is by hating? That might sound odd. But you must hate evil in order to love well. Unless a person hates evil, he cannot love. If you just think about it for a moment, I mean, easy example, if someone assaults your wife in front of you, and if you don't hate him for that, I'd say you have a serious problem. That hatred should lead you to do something about it. Hatred is not inconsistent with love. Indeed, it's not even inconsistent with your love of your neighbor who is assaulting your wife. Why do I say that? Well, is it a good thing for your neighbor to be assaulting your wife? No, obviously not. So, letting him get away with it would not be love for either party. You love your neighbor, therefore you won't let him get away with something that's bad for him. Now, I realize that's a far more, sort of, in the moment you're not thinking through all of that, but that's what's actually That's actually what you're doing because if you love God, then you must hate all that is opposed to the one that you love. If you see your neighbor wandering down a dangerous path and you do not warn him of his danger, you don't love him. Love will hate evil and cling to what is good. And that's, if you think about it, does God hate evil? Yes. Why does God hate evil? Because it's harming that which he loves. And so that's where we should have that same mind in ourselves. And as the next phrase suggests, we should demonstrate this love to one another. Love one another with brotherly affection. Paul has been calling us to recognize that we are one body, one people, one family in Jesus. And so we should love one another as that one family in Jesus with brotherly affection. John Chrysostom commented on this verse that you should love one another because you are brothers and have been born from the same spiritual womb. That's where you sometimes hear the phrase, you know, blood is thicker than water. Well, as we come to baptism today, I would suggest it's actually the other way around. Because when we are baptized into the one body, when we are baptized into the family of Jesus, that bond is stronger and deeper and more permanent than any blood relation. And you should love all Christians with that same brotherly affection. As one father put it, if you think that someone is ungodly, do you know any Christians who you would consider to be ungodly? Remember that Christ died for the ungodly. And if you think that because your brother is a sinner you don't have to love him, well, remember Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But if he is righteous, then he is much more worthy of love, for God loves the righteous. If we cling to the good, then we will see the gifts and the graces of others, and we will love them because we see the gifts and graces of the one we love in them. When we look around and we see others following Jesus, that should cause us to love them more. genuine love shows honor to one another. Indeed, the way Paul puts it, that we should outdo one another in showing honor. That if we love our Lord Jesus and we see Jesus at work in those around us, we should praise that and encourage that and show honor to those who have walked in Jesus' ways. prefer others to ourselves. I love the Desert Fathers and how they did this because if you went to one of the Desert Fathers out in the deserts of Egypt and you said to them, ah, what does it mean to be perfect? They would almost invariably say, oh, you ask about perfection, I know nothing about that, I am such a sinner. You should go talk to Abba so and so, he is so much more holy than I. And so you could wind up in a little sort of merry-go-round of the desert as each of the desert fathers would say, oh, I know nothing about perfection. And they would praise the gifts and the graces of others outdoing one another in showing honor because they recognize, oh, me, I'm a sinner, but I see the gifts and graces of God in others. And so they would praise those gifts and graces. Now it's perhaps noteworthy that verse 11 is at the center of this sentence. And in these 12 sort of imperatival adjectives, there are five on either side of the two in the middle. And the two in the middle are be fervent in the spirit and serve the Lord. And I'm going to suggest that even though the ESV does a lowercase s on spirit, I would suggest we should do an uppercase S. This is the Holy Spirit we're talking about. And just previously he's used another word not related to pneuma for the inward part, the spiritual part of us. So when he uses pneuma here, I'm inclined to say that be fervent in spirit is a reference to the Holy Spirit, and especially because it's paired with the Lord Jesus. So it's, and especially being fervent is the word for being fervent, boiling something. So, boiling in the Spirit, serving in the Lord. Some of the early fathers translated this, aglow with the Spirit. The point in this triad here in verse 11 is the energy that drives our love. What is it that motivates you? What is it that drives you in loving those around you? Do not be slothful and zeal, but be boiling over with the Spirit. Paul told us in chapter 8 that God has given us the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of His Son. And so Paul says, don't be timid, don't be tardy, but as the fire of the Spirit heats your life, boil and bubble over in your service to Christ. The picture here is a reminder to us that the energy for loving others is not something you have to cook up for yourself. You are not the energy source for your labors. The Spirit of God is, and you are called to rest on him, to wait on him. You are not called to be the Energizer Bunny running on your own battery, because of course, even the Energizer Bunny is going to run out of batteries. your zeal, your eagerness in love and service, comes from the energy of the Holy Spirit, the working of the very life of God himself. And that's where our problem is, that we very often try to take over for God. As soon as we start talking like this, we know better, but it doesn't stop us from doing it until we're reminded that we're doing it. Because, practically speaking, we wind up thinking that we know things better than God, and so we can handle things without him. Again, as soon as we say it, we're like, well, that's silly. Why would I think that? And then we go do it again. But, just as a thought experiment, if you think that you have the energy to take over for God, if any of you think that, could you please, at this moment, just like turn the sun off? Make it go down? Oh, you can't do that? Well, then maybe you shouldn't try to take over for God. We're not God. We can't do this. Genuine love, sincere love, does not try to get ahead of God. Genuine love serves the Lord out of the energy that the Spirit of God provides. The energy of the Spirit is an inexhaustible resource, but not a resource that can be manipulated for one's own benefit. Just ask the Philistines. they captured the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was where the Spirit of God dwelt with Israel. And by capturing the Spirit of God, were they able to manipulate the Ark of the Covenant to do what they wanted? Now, even if you don't know the Old Testament story that well, you may have seen the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, and quite frankly, that's one thing they got right in the movie. Because, you know, the Nazis capture the Ark, and are they able to make it go for their purpose? Of course not. Oh, and was anybody else able to? No. That's one thing. It was so tempting, I'm sure, for the filmmakers to say, oh, but good guys could use it for their purpose. No. I really appreciated that about the movie. No mere mortal can manipulate the Spirit of God to get what they want. You must use the power of the Spirit to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And that focus on the proper end, the proper goal, is what Paul brings out in verse 12. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Because the context for our boiling over in the Spirit, the context for our loving service to Christ, is in fact tribulation. Troubles, difficulties, hardships. This is where we live. But genuine love rejoices in hope. Now, joy and hope are both eschatological in nature. They're both forward focused on what is the end that we are aiming towards. Joy is that momentary glimpse of our hope. And so when we rejoice in hope, we are expressing our longing and our confidence that what we hope for, indeed the one whom we hope for, our Lord Jesus himself, is in fact already sitting at the right hand of God, and since he has joined us to himself, our hope is sure. Where the story is going is toward Jesus. as one commentator put it, there is nothing which makes the soul so courageous and venturesome for anything as a good hope. When you're hope, what is the thing you're aiming at? Any other hope will disappoint you. Any other hope will not result in joy. If you're hoping for material prosperity, if you're hoping for a good family. If you're hoping for anything short of our Lord Jesus himself, that hope will disappoint. That hope will fall apart. Because genuine love rejoices in hope, is patient in tribulation, and is constant in prayer. Paul has already told us in chapter eight, who hopes for what he sees? Because of the hope laid up for us in heaven, our Lord Jesus, we therefore rejoice even in the midst of tribulation. And that joy is what enables us to be patient in the midst of trouble. Not that we like trouble, but in the midst of trouble, we rejoice in hope. And in the midst of trouble, we are constant in prayer. Genuine love continues in prayer. Authentic Christian love is a love that prays. because we are energized by the glow of the Spirit. It goes back to what we've often seen, that if you're not praying about something, it's because you don't think you need God to handle it. You think you can handle it on your own. And that's why we need to be constant in prayer. Because our king, our Lord Jesus, sits on the throne. He rules at the right hand of his father and he has given us his spirit as the first fruits of our inheritance so that we might bring our petitions to him. And so we pray week by week, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are asking that God would turn us away from our petty kingdoms of one to his glorious kingdom. And then Paul turns to some of the more immediately practical considerations. Love shares in the needs of the saints and pursues hospitality. Notice again, the context is trouble. There are needs in the body. There are people who are suffering. And the honor that we show to one another should include a communion in each other's needs. Genuine love, unhypocritical love, cares for the needs of the saints. Theodore of Tarsus put it this way, the point here is that we should honor the saints and take care of their needs until they no longer have them. Now, if you're just thinking, oh, write a check, no, Taking care of needs is not primarily a financial thing. Taking care of needs is caring for the person, which may involve money, but it's not primarily about money. It's primarily about what are the needs. Anytime you're dealing with poverty, you're dealing with far more than a resource problem. Poverty is always a relational problem. when I was a PhD student at Notre Dame. My income put me well below the poverty line. But there is no way you could possibly call me poor because, relationally, I was very well-connected and we never lacked for anything. No, we weren't poor, even though it was... Poverty is not fundamentally about lack of resources. It's about a lack of relation first with God. with others, with self, with creation, all of that's involved. So that's where, sure, yes, we have a diaconal offering each month so that we can share in the material needs of the saints, but writing a check does not exhaust the meaning of koinonia, fellowship, sharing in the needs of the saints. Our financial contributions to those in need should be overmatched by the giving of our time, our energy, our lives, authentic, genuine love, shares, has fellowships in the needs of the saints. And that's why I always love how just every once in a while I hear something about, oh, wow, I didn't know that was happening. Things in the congregation where people are looking out for each other and helping each other in all sorts of ways. I love the fact that I don't know half of it because it means that you're doing it without feeling the need to sort of trumpet the fact that you're doing it. So it's just, it's a delight to see and to hear those things. And also, just a note at our session meeting, we have now authorized the restarting of the service coordinators team. So if, notice that we can sort of do better at this. So if you have questions about that, or if you're wondering what that means, talk to me, talk to one of the deacons, talk to one of the elders. We'll be appointing people to that team in December. So if you have interest in, I realize, Service coordinators is more the coordinating of things, so it's not necessarily the doing, but it can help with the doing. But just if you're interested in how do I help one another more, talk with us and we'll connect you. But Paul adds to this idea of sharing the needs of the saints, he also says that we should pursue love of strangers. That's what the word hospitality means. Unfortunately, in our world, we've totally redefined hospitality to mean having your friends over. The word, literally in Greek, means love of strangers. So the basic concept has to do with caring for, you might say, outsiders, oftentimes travelers. The classic biblical stories of hospitality are the stories of Abraham in Genesis 19 or 18, where Abraham welcomes the strangers, and then Lot in the following chapter where he welcomes the strangers and the angels and the men of Sodom attack them. So showing hospitality can be costly as the biblical stories show us. And it's not something that just happens. Paul says you have to pursue it. Now what's interesting is the word translated seek to show Is the same word used in the next verse for the one who persecutes you? It's fascinating. Persecute hospitality. I know, hopefully people do not think of themselves as persecuted by your hospitality. But it's striking that he uses the same word in back-to-back verses, suggesting that you should pursue hospitality with the same zeal that is shown by those who persecute Christians. If you think about it, what sort of zeal, if they're persecuting Christians, what sort of zeal is that like? Well, that's how zealous we should be in our love of strangers, in our love of those who are outsiders and are helpless. Now, true hospitality is not entirely dead in modern America, I'm delighted to say. I've mentioned this before but it's been a while so I'll say it again in this context. If you are ever traveling and you would like a place to stay, Let me know. I may be able to find you somebody. I've on many occasions reached out to PCA or PC or other reformed pastors and elders because I happen to know from the Apostle Paul that they are all given to love of strangers. Because Paul says that in order to be an elder or pastor you must be given to hospitality. So I know that every elder and pastor is out there is good at this. At least if they're taking the scripture seriously. And here's the thing. They are. It's been amazing as I've made these calls, and just over and over again, the answer is, yes, of course. The one time I was turned down, the church secretary was very confused, because she had never gotten a call like this, and said, I don't think we do that. And I got a call 30 minutes later from the pastor saying, oh, yes, we do. Probably he had never done it before, but when he heard it, he was like, oh, right, sure, of course. I'll admit, I have gotten these calls now a couple of times. It used to be I said I hadn't, but every once in a while, it really does happen. Now, I will say the Mennonites are way out in front of us. For decades, they have published books where if you're a Mennonite traveling across the United States, I'm sure it's now all online, but back then, they would publish books saying, here are all the homes across America of Mennonites you can stay with. So they're out in front of us. But on the other hand, hey, if you're ever traveling and you want a place to stay, let me know. And actually, it is oftentimes really helpful when it's a pastor-to-pastor connection. Because I'll admit, sometimes you get a random call from somebody you have no idea who it is, and you're like, can I trust them? Good question. But when I get a call from a fellow pastor saying, hey, I got a member coming, can you help them? I was like, oh yeah, sure. So that's the sort of thing that hospitality is talking about. We ought to be the sort of place that practices hospitality, love of strangers. And I mean, seriously, a good place to start, a very simple place to start, is look around you today. If there's somebody in this room who you don't know, then at the moment, that person is a stranger, And so you can practice hospitality by greeting them and welcoming them. And even, in fact, perhaps especially as you come forward to the Lord's Supper, if you don't know the person who's walking beside you, introduce yourself. You're certainly not going to offend the Lord of the Feast if you take the time to show his love to the stranger who walks beside you.