I was reading an article this morning that was quite challenging. The article focused on the practice of showing hospitality --- not just "entertaining". Check out a quote from it below and tell me what you think.
In earlier issues of the Missional Journal I have discussed the need for us to speak the good news and embody it. In a culture of alienation, hospitality becomes a powerful means of incarnating the truth that God in Christ has welcomed us. Christine Pohl, in what is arguably the best book on the topic, writes: “In hospitality, the stranger is welcomed into a safe, personal, and comfortable place, a place of respect and acceptance and friendship. Even if only briefly, the stranger is included in a life-giving and life-sustaining network of relations. Such welcome involves attentive listening and a mutual sharing of lives and life stories. It requires an openness of heart, a willingness to make one’s life visible to others, and a generosity of time and resources” (Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition [Eerdmans, 1999], p. 13).
Particularly important for modeling the gospel is hospitality directed to those living on the margins—the poor, the handicapped, the infirm, the immigrant. Jesus actually warns against throwing parties for friends, family, or rich neighbors. Such hospitality may have more the character of commercial exchange than of gift. Instead he counsels inviting those who cannot themselves repay. In this, he says, “you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).
I will be the first to admit that such hospitality is a challenge to western Christians. Most of us have little contact with people on the margins. We are often too concerned with our own safety and security to provide a safe place for others.
The busyness of life also diverts most of us from effective missional engagement. The practice of hospitality is quickly experienced as an intrusion: “It requires one to stop a busy, demanding routine for a period of time and focus attention on the stranger for the sake of the stranger. . . . It is an act that forces us to confront how our lives are driven by agenda and by demands that push away any relational encounter with another” (Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader [Jossey-Bass, 2006], p. 157).
The Missional Congregation: Practicing Hospitality
4 comments:
Jason,
As I've thought about this post, I've wondered why it is so hard, in the world we now live in, to take time to do something we all crave and relish in when we experiance it from someone else.
How good it feels to be welcomed into a home, or life, without judgement on lifestyle, wealth, physical appearance, community standing, or group relationship.
To take time to offer a cup of coffee, a piece of our time, a smile, a listening ear, and part of a caring heart seems too much of a sacrifice of our life. Sometimes I think, we(me) believe life is 'out there, somewhere, in the world. And we may miss something by slowing down and opening our doors to whoever God sends our way. But, as blood, the life source of our physical bodies, is held inside of our bodies and courses through our veins to give life; the message of the gospel is encased inside the body of the church, expressed through each believers willingness to invite the tired and weary world in for a rest, offering us the opportuning to reflect the life of Christ.
My dad was a wonderful example of this. He never knew a stranger. No matter what he was doing or where he was at, he'd stop and chat, smile and find something to uplift the person he was with. When he passed away, many told me, no one ever made them feel as good about themselves as he did. It mattered not to him, who they were or where they were in life. He was in no way, perfect, but he did have a handle on the hospitality. He knew, God was in control of his time and talents and wanted to treat others as he wanted to be treated.
Thanks for this post and reminding me of this.
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