Clothesline #8

Greetings to all on 10 SEP 2005

Word for the Day
Hospitality - The love of strangers or guests. From the Greek philoxenia, love and stranger. Sort of an oxymoron; don’t you see?

Quote for the Day
“Our contemporary situation is surprisingly similar to the early Christian context in which the normative understandings and practices of hospitality were developed. We, like the early church, find ourselves in a fragmented and multiculltural society that yearns for relationships, identity and meaning. Disturbing levels of loneliness, alienation and estrangement characterize our mobile and self-centered society. People are hungry for welcome but most Christians have lost track of the heritage of hospitality.” [1]

Website for the Day
www.gocn.org This is the website for Gospel and Our Culture Network.

Thought for the Day
This month we’ll look at part one of two in the matter of hospitality. In Genesis 18 Abraham and Sarah received unexpected guests and quickly offered them refreshment which included a meal with meat served. Meat was a luxury and not part of the typical daily meal. Do you remember the extreme example in the next chapter? Lot was willing to hand over his two virgin daughters to the homosexual townspeople in order to placate the crowd so that his angelic visitors could enjoy a peaceful evening. A good host was expected to provide food, safety and shelter to the traveler even if he was a stranger.

In 1Kings 17, Elijah was sent to the brook Cherith for refuge from the impending drought. When that source of water dried up, Elijah moved on to a little town called Zarephath. There he found the widow and her son. We know that Elijah was blessed by her hospitality, but have we overlooked the point that the host was also blessed by allowing her guest to remain? Perhaps we have been missing out on the blessing of hospitality.

Consider one more example in Luke 24.13-35 where we find the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. As the disciples approach the end of their walk with the incognito Jesus they seem to just naturally invite him and, in fact, constrain him to “stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” Not only did Jesus go with them but he even ate some broiled fish! Did he really need the fish? I don’t know, but Jesus knew how to be a gracious guest as well as host.

When I was a teenager, my mother usually had a Sunday meal prepared for us as well as our “company.” I can still recall those feasts of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits with milk gravy or perhaps the same sides with a pot roast. Maybe banana pudding, too! That was one way that my parents established friendships and welcomed new people into our fellowship. How many of us today even invite people to the restaurant with us? And that’s still not the same as being in someone’s home. Reaching out to people, even fellow Christians, has become problematic because of our cluttered schedules. Henri Nouwen says, “Being busy has become a status symbol, and most people keep encouraging each other to keep their body and mind in constant motion.” [2] Have you ever been to a party where you felt that the host was overly concerned with providing busy-ness or regaling the guests with stories? Or, have you ever been that host? Perhaps, instead, we should provide both guest and host with some freedom and “space to listen ...(with) openness to discover the gift of the other.” [3]

Now reflect back over the examples and stories and consider this statement: the hospitality of the host allows the guest to reveal himself. Isn’t that what happened in the Bible examples? In verse 35 of the Emmaus account we find a powerful conclusion, “...he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Jesus was made known in the breaking of the bread. Who among us will let Jesus be made known in the breaking of the bread? The gift of hospitality is timeless.

May God Bless,
Mike Toole
clw, ed.

1. Christine Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1999, p.33
2. Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out, Doubleday, New York, 1975, p.52
3. ibid. p.74