Rev. Richard Smith
Romans 12:13b Practice hospitality…
While we tend to think of the word “hospitality” as referencing the way the world of commerce and entertainment treats its patrons, it has applicability to our Christian witness in the world as well.
At its root, the word speaks to “the friendly and generous reception of visitors or strangers”.
Putting aside any tendency to confer that we welcome those who would want to harm us, I think we Christians can draw these important lessons for our daily living.
- Treating those we meet in our neighborhoods, business interactions, professional connections, spiritual communities and social gatherings with hospitality means affirming each person as a child of God who merits some positive overtures from us. There is so much good to be done, even in small ways, when we choose this way of relating to others. We don’t have to welcome everyone as a best friend, but we can welcome each person as someone to whom our good graces are extended.
- Helping our churches, our faith communities, be Jesus-centered places of caring hospitality is a much-needed work in our day and time. This means that we welcome those who come our way however he or she looks; whatever one’s economic or social status or lack thereof; whatever one’s gender; whatever one’s morality; etc. The Methodist Church mantra of “one heart, one mind, one spirit” expresses this perspective. Quite honestly, this is a work almost all churches need to take on. Quite often churches, generally unintentionally, are less-than-proactive in welcoming the different.
- Looking upon persons of different religious traditions or different languages or different backgrounds or different ethnicities as, again, children of God helps us build bridges of understanding and caring. When we treat one another as brothers and sisters under God’s umbrella, we tend to be more open to ways to assist one another. We reach out to one another rather than turn away from one another.
These are just some of the ways we can truly practice hospitality.
At the heart of this challenge is the understanding of Jesus that we are to be loving individuals and loving communities doing all we can to build bridges and connections rather than walls and disconnections.
Every Christian should take to heart Jesus’ riveting words from John 13:34-35, This is my command: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Truth is, the degree which we are truly hospitable – or not – is the degree to which we are truly vessels of Jesus into our fractured and broken world!!
May each of us look deep within our spirits and attitudes and deep at our daily actions to discern where we need to make changes for being truly hospitable!
There’s no better time than Lent, when we’re charged with honest confession and intentional growth, to take this life review on!
