Hospitality: Week of May 2
What?
Open up your home to one or more people who are outside your normal friend group.
Why?
We are creatures; God is the Creator. We are sinners; God is holy. Despite these differences, God took on our nature, died for our sins, and welcomed us into his family. He did not ignore us, look down on us with contempt, or entirely exclude us from his presence forever. Rather, he displayed divine hospitality, making room for and befriending strangers and sinners. He now invites us to do the same, extending his welcoming love to others. As we practice opening our doors to others, we learn to resist our tendency towards both self-centeredness and tribalism (the us-versus-them mentality) because it becomes part of our regular rhythm of life to engage our world in love, transforming strangers and outcasts into friends through the grace of Christ working itself out in every interaction.
How?
We must recognize, firstly, that practicing hospitality is not the same as entertaining guests. Jen Wilkin breaks down the differences concisely:
Entertaining is always thinking about the next course. Hospitality burns the rolls because it was listening to a story.
Entertaining obsesses over what went wrong. Hospitality savors what was shared.
Entertaining, exhausted, says “It was nothing, really!” Hospitality thinks it was nothing. Really.
Entertaining seeks to impress. Hospitality seeks to bless.
That last point is essential. Hospitality is not about creating the “perfect” evening with a spotless house and culinary masterpiece. It’s about making your home feel like home to others, especially those who look and think and act differently.
This will come naturally to some and be more of a struggle for others, but all of us can prayerfully take steps towards cultivating a heart of hospitality.
Start with prayer. Pray that the Lord would give you a generous, hospitable heart that desires to welcome the stranger, and pray that he would direct you to specific “others” whom you can befriend and love.
List out ways in which people might differ from you (e.g., age, gender, nationality, political affiliation, life stage, health choices, tastes/likes, neighborhood, etc.). Is the Lord leading you to reach out to someone who is different or “other” in one of the ways you listed?
Prayerfully find a specific person or persons who is “other,” and invite them into your home.
Open up your home and make them feel not as a guest but as a friend.
