Pastor Tim points out that as much we struggle with strangers, we’re often much better at hosting them than we are fellow Christians. Scripturally that’s a problem, since the Christians we criticize are part of the body of You Know Who…
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From Pastor Tim — Hospitality is a lot more foundational to the Bible than you might be aware. So foundational in fact, that in the Old Testament, hospitality was seen as something very practical, but with divine implications.
In Genesis 18, Abraham bent over backwards to host three heavenly strangers. And then a few chapters later in Genesis 24:31, Laban invites Abraham’s servant into his home by saying, “Come in, O blessed of the LORD. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.” And this chance meeting had actually been orchestrated by God.
The Old Testament even portrays the interaction between God and the Israelites as sort of a divine hospitality. Remember that the Hebrew people didn’t have a home, and in their journey to find one God hosted them by provided manna (Exodus 16-17). And when they did find a home, it was one that was provided by God. Even King David recognized this when he said in Psalm 39:12, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.”
As Pastor Foley noted in Friday’s video, the New Testament model of hospitality closely mirrors the Old Testament one. It was both a practical and a spiritual exercise, and hosting was most often directed towards strangers and people who did not share the same values as the host. These ancient Christians were acutely aware of the fact that their hosting had eternal implications (Matthew 25:31-46). Hebrews 13:2 drives home this point when it says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
When my wife and I have hosted people in our home, it consisted of having friends and family over for dinner and occasionally an overnight stay. We opened our home to people that we knew or at least that we knew would reciprocate our invitation. There is nothing wrong with this type of hospitality, although it minimizes the divine encounter that is often seen in the Bible.
Last month, I wrote that our family had a goal of hosting someone in our home at least once a month, and we have been blessed to have been able to host people about once a week during the months of March and April. It’s not something that we’re naturally good at, but we are willing and thankful to be used by God in this capacity. Now, God has been challenging us to continue to host, but to do it with people that we are not as comfortable with.
We took that first step two weekends ago, by hosting a couple that we had only met about a week earlier. Then last weekend, we hosted a lady that we had never met before. We shared our home, our food and our family worship time together with these people. Admittedly, all of these “strangers” were also believers, so we still haven’t opened our home on a regular basis to people with values different from our own.
My wife and I recently met a lady who moved into a townhouse down the street. We don’t know much about her, except that she is all alone with no family in the area. She seems nice enough, but we really have no idea of her background or her spiritual beliefs. We will be opening our home to this woman in the coming weeks and in so doing we hope to share in the divine encounter that was so common in the scriptures.
And we won’t stop hosting family and friends, but we will include more people (like this woman) in our already established goal of hosting someone at least once a month.
One of the massive deterrents to opening one’s home to guests is the following hypothetical question that occurs in the mind of the potential host:
But what would we eat???
The incorrect (and hospitality-withering) notion behind such a query is that when one opens one’s home to guests, one should field a spread for which emperors of Rome and kings of England would pine, so drab would their palace fare be by comparison.
But let me commend a simple theological corrective:
Don’t do that.
And let me be clear: I am not saying, “It’s OK if you can’t blow the doors off the pantry every time you entertain.” Instead, I am saying:
Don’t do that.
Let’s lay up some scriptural warrant for this claim, along with some theological commentary. First, Luke 10:38-42 (NIV):
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Now, the midrash.
Notice that the scripture indicates (v. 39) that it was Martha who opened her home. Notice further that the scripture characterizes Martha’s behavior (v. 40) as “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.”
Notice finally Jesus’ observation (v. 42) that “few things are needed–or indeed only one.” Jesus’ remark should not induce a Billy Crystal-like mystical meditation on what is the one needful thing??? Instead, it should cause us to bump into this telephone pole truth of Works of Mercy:
The purpose of a Work of Mercy is to mirror the love of God into the world.
So here’s the lightning bolt of truth:
If you change your menu because you are hosting guests, you have lost focus and become distracted by all the preparations that now have to be made because you have lost your focus.
In contrast, opening your home as a Work of Mercy means asking the question:
Without changing what is already planned for dinner, how can I mirror the love of God into the world?
That is the one needful thing.
So do not read this blog post as my effort to comfort you if your cherries flambe does not burn evenly from one end of the dining room to the other.
Instead, consider this my challenge to you to embrace a whole new way of thinking of the Work of Mercy of opening your home:
When you open your home, focus on opening your home.
Don’t focus on transforming your dinner menu. The Lord’s presence within–and your revealing of it–will take care of that all by itself.
But remember this: If you cook yourself silly in the kitchen to impress guests, you will have distracted their attention–and yours–from the one needful thing, namely, the presence of the living God.
This is the brilliant insight of Monseigneur Bienvenu, the bishop in the musical, Les Miserables. The bishop’s mastery of the one needful thing is evident in his simple, unadorned invitation to the grace-famished Jean Valjean.
Read, and then let us both go and do likewise:
Come in, Sir, for you are weary,
And the night is cold out there.
Though our lives are very humble
What we have, we have to share.
There is wine here to revive you.
There is bread to make you strong,
There’s a bed to rest till morning,
Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.
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