PRACTICING OUR FAITH: HOSPITALITY
Matthew 25:31-40; Romans 12:3-13
January 31, 2010 - Rev. Janet Robertson Duggins
If you book a vacation at a fancy hotel, a quaint Bed & Breakfast inn, or Disney World… you will be promised, and probably will experience “warm hospitality.” It may be something you need and it may be restorative and enjoyable, but it will be temporary. And of course, you will pay for it! (And, very likely, the warmer it is, the more you’ll pay.) That’s how it is in what we now term “the hospitality industry.”
Hospitality as it’s practiced in the community of faith is an altogether different matter – not a commodity available only to those with money to pay, but a welcome for strangers, even and especially those who are the neediest.
I was amused at Diana Butler Bass’s comment in her book that in the church of her childhood nobody ever mentioned hospitality and the Christian practice of welcoming the stranger was not practiced… because there were no strangers to welcome! “We simply entertained those we knew. What constituted hospitality was a round of picnics, cocktail parties, and dinners at the homes of family and friends.”
That’s familiar, I think, that association of hospitality with food, and perhaps décor, and entertaining. It might bring to mind images of a warm circle of friends and relatives. Or we might think of other situations in which hospitality is aimed at making everything as perfect as possible, in order to make an impression – hospitality as a means to another end. The assumption is that if I do a good enough job with hospitality toward you, you will “repay” that hospitality by doing something that I want.
Hospitality is a currently popular word and idea in church circles, and I’d say that to most people the idea has generally warm and positive associations. And we want our church to be a hospitable place. But there is a danger of taking too much of our vision for hospitality from the culture around us. A nice building and food and superficial friendliness to people who look a lot like us does substitute for genuine hospitality in a lot of churches. Diana Butler Bass says that she sometimes has the feeling that “hospitality” is a code word for “promotion” with the product being the church.
Don’t get me wrong: I think food and a comfortable atmosphere contribute hugely to a hospitable welcome, at church or at home. And I certainly would like those who are guests at our church to want to come back and become a part of the community, just as I hope that those who are guests in my home will want to come back again.
But hospitality as Christian practice is much more. It isn’t automatically created just by doing this thing or that. It can’t be simply to make an impression, or to get a certain result. True hospitality isn’t a program or a tool; it’s a practice at the heart of the Christian way of life. It comes from someplace deeper than friendliness or a desire to impress.
It seems to me that we’ve talked a great deal over the last year or two about the importance of hospitality to the church, and also about some of the “nuts and bolts” of what being a welcoming community of faith involves. This morning I want to focus more on what’s at the heart of hospitality as a practice of Christian faith.
The scriptures see hospitality as a moral imperative. In the Hebrew scriptures we read about how
God called Abraham and Sarah to leave their homeland for a new place, which
made them wanderers for a long while.
Later their descendants were slaves in
As a result of this experience, their laws always required them to deal
compassionately and justly with strangers in their midst. “You shall also love the stranger, for you
were strangers in the
In the gospels, Jesus talks about hospitality a lot, and
again it is about welcoming the stranger.
He urges his followers not to invite just friends and those who will
“repay” their hospitality, but the poor and the lonely and the sick. To explain why, he tells a story of a great
banquet which represents the
Throughout the scriptures, those who offer hospitality are honored: Abraham who welcomes three travelers who turn out to be messengers from God. The widows who welcomed the prophets Elijah and Elisha into their homes, even though the times were hard. Zacheus who invited Jesus into his home. The unnamed woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. The early Christians who hosted house churches in their homes and provided for the needs of traveling missionaries.
There are many references in the letters of the New Testament to the importance of hospitality, as in Romans 12 which we read this morning. “Extend hospitality to strangers.” Peter urges his fellow Christians to offer hospitality ungrudgingly. “Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” .And the writer of Hebrews reminds believers, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it,” … a reference to the strangers Abraham welcomed and fed even before he knew they were God’s messengers. The idea is that hospitality is more than the practical provision for comfort and needs; it is the genuine welcoming and valuing of the stranger and guest.
In fact, the Greek word for “hospitality,” used in the New Testament, is “philoxenia,” meaning literally “love of the stranger.”
And here’s something even more interesting: “xenos,” meaning stranger, in Greek, also means both “guest” and “host.” So “hospitality” really implies not so much one person “doing” for another, but an atmosphere that brings people – different people, people who are in some way strangers to each other - together in love. It suggests a kind of mutuality to hospitality which is very different from charity or “volunteer work” or any superficial niceness.
If you think about it, in the stories, images and thought of the Christian tradition there has always been a blurring of distinction between host and guest, stranger and friend.
Think about stories of Jesus: He is welcomed to the wedding at
Think about communion: we are welcomed to the table and fed and nurtured by Christ… at the same time we receive Christ and welcome his presence into our lives…. while we also welcome one another into the community around the table.
Think about what happens whenever we are given help, or respect, or forgiveness… we in turn become enabled to help someone else, to see another person with new respect, to extend forgiveness. Think about how often when you start out thinking that you are the giver or the teacher, you end up feeling that you have received more than you gave and learned as much as you taught.
Hospitality - genuine hospitality – is so much needed in our world today. So many people are lonely or in need. So many people feel alienated at times even from those closest to them. So many people find that their lives don’t involve much real connection or conversation or sharing. So many are without a true sense of community or belonging.
At the same time, hospitality can be hard. It takes work. It’s not always terribly efficient, and our society prizes efficiency. Its results are uncertain, and we like to “know” what is going to be accomplished. It’s hard to admit that some of the people around us are strangers to us, and to actually begin to do something about that. Fear of “strangers” is powerful and prevents us from reaching out to someone who seems different. Some people’s needs are very great.
But Christians who practice hospitality intentionally and as an expression of faith sense God’s presence frequently and discover unexpected blessings.
Henri Nouwen says that hospitality is the creation of a space in which strangers become friends. It doesn’t necessarily set out to change people, simply to invite them into a place where change can take place. A place where they can experience God’s love.
That invitation comes from people who have themselves experienced hospitality that is at the heart of the gospel.
We have been welcomed by God. Jesus has called us friends. We know what love is, what grace is, what it is to be valued and to belong. Now we are both guests and hosts enjoying the gracious hospitality of the gospel of Christ. Amen.
Resources
Diana Butler Bass, Christianity
for the Rest of Us
Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a
Christian Tradition
Dorothy C. Bass, Practicing
Our Faith