This is an adapted quote from 'Common Prayer', a Liturgy for ordinary radicals.
This appears at the beginning of the month of May. It certainly challenged me and I'll tell you why below...
'Hospitality is one of the marks of the early church. Jesus was always going to people's homes, and his healings and teaching often happened around a dinner table or in a living room.
The early church ate and met in each other's homes.
It has been noted that when the disciples were sent out with nothing at all (no money, no extra clothes, no provisions), it was not because Jesus wanted them to suffer in poverty or to be left alone in the street; it was because they were to rely on the hospitality of others.
Not only were the early Christians to practice hospitality; they were to depend on it. There was no 'us' and 'them.' My became a cussword for Christians. My house is no longer mine but is God's, which means it is open to all...
...Our Saviour came into the world dependent on hospitality, from the moment he was born in a borrowed manger until he was buried in a donated tomb. What is more, Jesus longs to meet us face to face in the disguise of the stranger, the guest at our door. Christ looks at us longingly, eager for us to answer the call and invite him into our lives.
There are beautiful stories of Christian hospitality happening all over the world. One of our favourites comes from Christians living along the border of the US and Mexico. They like many of us, became deeply concerned about the struggles of undocumented brothers and sisters and the plight of many recent immigrants to the US. They insisted that laws don't dictate how we are to treat immigrants, but Scripture does, and the Bible speaks unquestionably about a God of hospitality and grace, who is a refuge to the widow and orphan and alien. As God's people, we are to be like that. So these Christians on the border opened up their homes as sanctuary houses, and helped undocumented friends get legal help. But they did not stop there. They decided they also wanted their lives to be a witness to the world, so they organised worship services along the border, in which hundreds of Christians on the Mexican side of the wall joined hundreds of Christians on the US side of the wall. There they worshiped Jesus together. And they served each other communion by throwing it over the wall.'
By throwing it over the wall. They have a physical wall, but it is representative of so many walls and barriers that we build (often subconsciously) around us, between certain people groups and ourselves.
I live in suburban London (just about!) where those who have 'made it' in the city come and make their dwelling away from the hustle and the smoke. It's funny, I've spent the majority of my life living in such environments, but I've never really been at peace with it. There is something about suburban neighbourhoods that unsettles me. I think it's the 'private' factor.
It's not something that is so easily found in urban or rural neighbourhoods, but for some reason (probably several reasons that I'm not going to explore here and now) in these areas a man's home is his castle more than anywhere else. We lift up the draw bridge and live as independently as we please. Now I know a good few people who are actively fighting against this mentality through sharing and this notion of hospitality, living in a more open way and doing the interdependency thing, but it is a trap that is incredibly easy to fall into.
I am challenged by the idea of my house being open to all - no matter who they are, especially if they are poor and in need. I think that is something for us all to ponder on, what does that look like in our situation (not so we can use that as an excuse to water it down to something less radical for our situation, but so that we can think practically and actually do something different!).
I think the aspect of this description of Christian hospitality that most challenges me is our ability to break down another wall that I at least have built up in my faith praxis.
The divide between hospitality and worship.
Now I know that 'what you have done for the least of these, you also do for me' so in a very real and concrete sense, hospitality to others is worship to God. But there is something about living with integrity and as a witness that maybe demands something more. For those Christians along the US/Mexican border it looks like throwing the elements of communion over the wall, for Jesus it was principally in environments where hospitality was being practiced that he healed and taught.
Have I, somewhere in my mind, separated explicit worship to God, praying for healing, sharing God's word - as something to be done in other contexts (church services and other meetings) and the practice of hospitality - done in the home?
I'm not suggesting that every time we have people over we break out mission praise and spend hours in meditative prayer, but I am aware that dividing things up in this way can shrink our vision of God and what worship is all about. It might be as simple as thanking God for each other and for the food before you eat, even if you know the person you have over never does that, or as you chat, offering to pray for issues that come up.
Of course this is something that needs to be done sensitively and with wisdom, but I know I often shy away of doing such simple things.
I have met many people who are incredibly hospitable and do all this very naturally, may we all take their example and our call to hospitality seriously and knock down those walls.
This appears at the beginning of the month of May. It certainly challenged me and I'll tell you why below...
'Hospitality is one of the marks of the early church. Jesus was always going to people's homes, and his healings and teaching often happened around a dinner table or in a living room.
The early church ate and met in each other's homes.
It has been noted that when the disciples were sent out with nothing at all (no money, no extra clothes, no provisions), it was not because Jesus wanted them to suffer in poverty or to be left alone in the street; it was because they were to rely on the hospitality of others.
Not only were the early Christians to practice hospitality; they were to depend on it. There was no 'us' and 'them.' My became a cussword for Christians. My house is no longer mine but is God's, which means it is open to all...
...Our Saviour came into the world dependent on hospitality, from the moment he was born in a borrowed manger until he was buried in a donated tomb. What is more, Jesus longs to meet us face to face in the disguise of the stranger, the guest at our door. Christ looks at us longingly, eager for us to answer the call and invite him into our lives.
There are beautiful stories of Christian hospitality happening all over the world. One of our favourites comes from Christians living along the border of the US and Mexico. They like many of us, became deeply concerned about the struggles of undocumented brothers and sisters and the plight of many recent immigrants to the US. They insisted that laws don't dictate how we are to treat immigrants, but Scripture does, and the Bible speaks unquestionably about a God of hospitality and grace, who is a refuge to the widow and orphan and alien. As God's people, we are to be like that. So these Christians on the border opened up their homes as sanctuary houses, and helped undocumented friends get legal help. But they did not stop there. They decided they also wanted their lives to be a witness to the world, so they organised worship services along the border, in which hundreds of Christians on the Mexican side of the wall joined hundreds of Christians on the US side of the wall. There they worshiped Jesus together. And they served each other communion by throwing it over the wall.'
By throwing it over the wall. They have a physical wall, but it is representative of so many walls and barriers that we build (often subconsciously) around us, between certain people groups and ourselves.
I live in suburban London (just about!) where those who have 'made it' in the city come and make their dwelling away from the hustle and the smoke. It's funny, I've spent the majority of my life living in such environments, but I've never really been at peace with it. There is something about suburban neighbourhoods that unsettles me. I think it's the 'private' factor.
It's not something that is so easily found in urban or rural neighbourhoods, but for some reason (probably several reasons that I'm not going to explore here and now) in these areas a man's home is his castle more than anywhere else. We lift up the draw bridge and live as independently as we please. Now I know a good few people who are actively fighting against this mentality through sharing and this notion of hospitality, living in a more open way and doing the interdependency thing, but it is a trap that is incredibly easy to fall into.
I am challenged by the idea of my house being open to all - no matter who they are, especially if they are poor and in need. I think that is something for us all to ponder on, what does that look like in our situation (not so we can use that as an excuse to water it down to something less radical for our situation, but so that we can think practically and actually do something different!).
I think the aspect of this description of Christian hospitality that most challenges me is our ability to break down another wall that I at least have built up in my faith praxis.
The divide between hospitality and worship.
Now I know that 'what you have done for the least of these, you also do for me' so in a very real and concrete sense, hospitality to others is worship to God. But there is something about living with integrity and as a witness that maybe demands something more. For those Christians along the US/Mexican border it looks like throwing the elements of communion over the wall, for Jesus it was principally in environments where hospitality was being practiced that he healed and taught.
Have I, somewhere in my mind, separated explicit worship to God, praying for healing, sharing God's word - as something to be done in other contexts (church services and other meetings) and the practice of hospitality - done in the home?
I'm not suggesting that every time we have people over we break out mission praise and spend hours in meditative prayer, but I am aware that dividing things up in this way can shrink our vision of God and what worship is all about. It might be as simple as thanking God for each other and for the food before you eat, even if you know the person you have over never does that, or as you chat, offering to pray for issues that come up.
Of course this is something that needs to be done sensitively and with wisdom, but I know I often shy away of doing such simple things.
I have met many people who are incredibly hospitable and do all this very naturally, may we all take their example and our call to hospitality seriously and knock down those walls.
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