Hospitality

Family Values Week Four:  "Hospitality"  
This week I am continuing my sermon series entitled Family Values: Rediscovering What's Really Important with a sermon on Hospitality.
I think the best illustration of hospitality in action within the Christian community is revealed in the time honored tradition of potluck dinners.   Potluck dinners are so named because everyone who attends brings a dish to share with the community.  The idea is that when everyone brings something, there's plenty to go around and everyone gets a chance to share and sample to their heart's content.  I have had some crazy good meals at church potluck dinners.
I have a confession to make, though.  I am the guy that brings Kentucky Fried Chicken to the potluck.  I bring it, man.  Straight up in the box so everyone knows what it is.  I have NEVER taken home leftovers.
Church potluck dinners are almost always unfair, though.  Someone generally forgets or brings very little.  Someone else brings something that no one really wants to eat.  Then there are the "popular"
 dishes (see above) that run out quickly or dishes that people poured their heart and soul into because they knew it was going to be "on stage" at church.  There's a lot of disparity when it comes to potlucks.  They aren't very fair.
In keeping with the way we deal with most "unfair" issues like this, we probably should abandon the whole concept of potluck dinners.
After all, we wouldn't want the people who made Lobster Thermidor for the potluck to get mad at the people who brought tortilla chips and salsa. 
Yeah, that's not going to happen.  But this should make us think... 
It's pretty evident that Hospitality is one of the values that our culture used to value, but has gone by the wayside in recent years.  When I say "hospitality" I mean the value of welcoming the stranger, opening one's home to friends and family, giving of what we have to those that do not... that kind of hospitality.  It's as if we have decided that since we can't possibly solve all of our community's issues we don't really need to try at all.  We've become so busy and so distracted by the demands of our culture and the way individuality is stressed above community that we no longer take the time to open our homes, share meals, be welcoming.
 
There was a study done recently about the state of hospitality in America.  They discovered the following about the number of people who opened their homes and shared a meal with friends or family: 

6% - share home/meal once a week
21% - share home/meal once a month
12% - share home/meal more than once a month
37% - share home/meal a few times a year
24% - share home/meal rarely or never

There is this passage of Scripture in Genesis that I have been studying this week.  Abraham the Patriarch is minding his own business, sitting outside of his tent when he's approached by three visitors.  The reader is informed that one of these visitors is "The Lord," who wanted to pay Abraham a call in order to give him the good news that he would finally have a son with his wife Sarai.  That's the romantic and "important" part of the story.  But what Abraham does to welcome these strange visitors tells us a great deal about the welcoming customs of the ancient Near East.  

Abraham has no idea who these visitors are, but he welcomes them as if they were royalty.  He invites them into the shade and out of the heat of the day.  He washes their feet, and then he insists they stay for dinner, and goes overboard in making them an absolute feast.  

 When we dig into the historicity of these customs we discover that hospitality was one of the most important cultural values of the ancient Near East.  When a host welcomed a visitor, he assumed responsibility for the visitor's safety, security and well-being.  The host offered protection, amenities and sustenance.  The prophet Ezekiel cites a lack of hospitality as the deep-seated reason why the ancient city of Sodom was destroyed.  He called it the "sin of your sister Sodom"--a decided self-centeredness and lack of care for the stranger. 

In the Genesis story, Abraham provides all three to his visitors, and even wildly exceeds expectations when it comes to the meal.  The text suggests that he had over 60 loaves of bread made and he actually had a calf butchered to serve at the meal.  After all was said and done, Abraham stands off to the side while his visitors eat, ready to serve them if needed. 

This story is one that remains imbedded in the conscience of the Hebrew people for centuries.  In Hebrews 13:2, the author of the New Testament letter lauds Abraham's actions and calls for Christians to do the same because they never know when they might be serving "angels without knowing it."  

But we've experienced a decided decline in the practice of hospitality in our culture, and throughout our churches.  Churches and communities of faith practice the "us four and no more" approach to welcoming.  Christians have abandoned hospitality because of it's decided lack of fairness.  They worry about not having enough for themselves---enough time, enough privacy, enough money, food, etc.  They worry about how welcoming strangers into their lives will change things.  Instead of living lives of generosity, they live lives of scarcity.

The old Brothers Grimm fairytale about "Stone Soup" helps to illustrate what can happen when the community begins to realize that scarcity is not a good way of life:

This little story teaches us... 
Everything that was needed was found in the community.  Generosity creates generosity.  Strangers can sometimes help reveal the truth about who we really are when we are being our best selves.  

I think that churches and families need to realize a few things: 

First, if we fully engage in the practice of hospitality, things will sometimes seem unfair.  It might cost us something to be open and welcoming.  People might take advantage of us.  We can't let the unfairness of it keep us from realizing how holy it is to welcome. 

Second, we need to realize that people really do want to be open.  It is our true nature to welcome and to share.  Our culture feeds anxieties and fears that keep us from living into our potential in God through Christ.  

Third, we need to realize that what is good for our neighbor is good for us.  When we share, when we realize that we aren't just islands unto ourselves, when we begin living more intentionally in community we find that not only do we bless others, we find that we are blessed.  

Fourth, Jesus welcomed people.  That should be a 'nuff said kind of thing for those of us who call ourselves Christians.  

What does this look like practically?

I think it looks like intentional hospitality--welcoming without fear, opening our communities and families to others in a mutually beneficial way.  I think it looks like sharing our blessings without fear of having enough.  I think it looks like scheduling moments to be with our neighbors--both those who are geographically positioned and those who are defined as "neighbors" by Scripture.  I think it looks like a whole bunch of people, families and churches intentionally choosing to live like Jesus.

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