MENU

Hospitality
Tag Archive

On September 3, 2022 By In Culture, Family and Children

Dispelling Hospitality Excuses 

Guest Post by Randy Booth

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY.”

―Romans 12:9-13

It’s a common trait of humanity (even redeemed humanity) to sit in judgment of God’s word. It all started in the Garden of Eden, where our first parents wanted to decide what was and was not good for them. God has some pretty good suggestions, some of which we’re willing to follow, but in other matters, we’ll need to think about it a bit more. We do need to be pragmatic. God’s word might work out for a lot of people, but sometimes, my extenuating circumstances lead me to conclude that it’s not going to work for me. There are exceptions to the rules which can exempt me.

Now hospitality isn’t the only area where we’re tempted to think like this, but it is one of the common topics where excuses for not following the clear and simple command of Scripture are frequent. Like Adam and Eve, we think we know better than God what is good for us. Below are several commonplace excuses why we can’t be “GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY.” I hope to challenge them all.

1.       I’m Not Good at It.

We’re seldom good at the things we never do. Practice makes perfect. One of the reasons God wants us to be given to hospitality is so that we will get good at it. Less-than-perfect hospitality is still hospitality, and it is still obedience to God. Read a book (e.g., Face to Face, Steve Wilkins). Get some advice. Watch others who are good at it. Ask some questions. You can learn to do this. You can get better at it. But you can’t get better at it if you don’t do it. You know what to do (i.e., be “GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY”), now set out to learn how to do it. If needed, get some help doing it. If you do these things, the only reason left for not doing it is, “I don’t want to do it.” That would be a sin.

2.       My House is Too Small.

Your house can’t be that small. It might be crowded, but I’m pretty sure that many saints from the past, who were GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY, had houses smaller than yours. If you’re an American, your house is probably bigger than the houses of most Christians in the world. Moreover, you don’t even have to have a house to be hospitable; have a picnic!

3.       My House is Too Dirty.

If your house is dirty, there are two options: 1) clean your house; 2) swallow your pride and have people over to your dirty house. The command to be GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY is not a conditional command. God doesn’t say, “Be GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY if your house is clean.” Cleaning your house is an option; showing hospitality is not an option.

(more…)

Read more

On December 29, 2018 By In Culture, Family and Children, Men, Politics, Theology, Worship

Extending the Christmas Season

Guest post by Steve Wilkins written on  December 23, 2016 & published by permission

Stretching Christmas
For many people Christmas comes on December 25 and is over December 26. The tree is taken down along with the lights and the other decorations, and everyone begins setting the house in order for the new year. No more Christmas hymns. No more celebrations (well, until New Year’s Eve). Christmas comes but once a year – and thanks be to God, because we’re exhausted!

So, if I were to ask, “How’s your Christmas going?” most people would give me the blank stare. But according to our calendar (and I mean the Church calendar), Christmas is just getting started on December 25. Christmas day is just the beginning of a “season” numbering twelve days (the “twelve days of Christmas”).

During this season of celebration we remember not only our Savior’s birth (the feast of the Nativity on December 25) but our first martyrs (St. Stephen, December 26), St. John the evangelist, and the murder of the boy babies in Bethlehem by Herod (“The Feast of Holy Innocents”). Then on January 1, we commemorate the circumcision of Jesus (circumcised on the 8th day). All that before closing out our celebration of Christmas with the Feast of Epiphany on January 6!

Christmas is intended to be a “season,” not just a day.

You say, “But who can stand this? By Christmas day I’m already worn down to my last frazzle!”

Well, granted, given the way things are presently, changing our practice and getting into the new rhythm of the Church calendar is going to take some time — and realistically, it may now be impossible to turn the culture away from the present “tradition.” I’m not quite sure how to go about it or what it would look like. But somehow, I think it would be good to try to get back to the old rhythm of the Christmas season.

The fact that we have lost the rhythm of the various “seasons” has contributed, at least in part, to the fleeting joy (and often extended depression and disappointment) we have during these times — and here, I’m speaking especially about Christmas — the celebration is simply too brief to be appreciated fully. The traditional Christian calendar gives us a different rhythm for life and time — especially Christmas time.

And following the Christian calendar is not just another way to thumb our noses at secular ideas of the “Christmas season.” The twelve days are important because they give us time to reflect on what the incarnation and birth of Jesus means. We need the twelve days to celebrate the wonder of God becoming man and all that was accomplished by our Savior.

Why twelve days? No one knows for sure. Perhaps this was to be an analogy to the twelve tribes of the old Israel that have now been transformed into the new Israel. Or maybe the 12 days signify the twelve months of the year pointing to the fact that Christ is with us not just one day but year-round.

Whatever the intention, the twelve days give us an opportunity truly to rejoice and reflect on the great mercy and grace of God in giving us His Son.

We have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection and have now entered the “new heavens and new earth” (though not yet perfected). Whether we are called to martyrdom, or to prophetic witness, or simply to faithful living in the joys and sorrows of our daily lives, we must live all of our days in the knowledge of our blessedness: redeemed by Jesus and in Him made acceptable and beloved in God’s sight. We are part of the society of people whose world has been turned upside down, and we are to live out this truth that overturned the old world and made all things new.

Observing Christmas as a season helps us to move beyond the sentimentalism that has become so much a part of “Christmas” and commemorate the true significance of Jesus’ birth. It enables us to see that Jesus’ coming truly transforms all things. It marked the end of the old world (under the dominion of sin and death) and the beginning of the new. And it reminds us of our new identity and purpose. We are now children of the King and are called to rejoice and give thanks and show the world the new destiny that now has come in Him. To celebrate for twelve days (as opposed to one) enables us to realize afresh the significance of what happened in Bethlehem and it declares to the world the remarkable reality that Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil and established a kingdom that shall have no end.

So, I don’t know exactly how to begin to do this, but it sure seems like a good idea to me. Stretching Christmas out over a number of days — making it a more full (and perhaps a more relaxing and refreshing) celebration — might bring far more benefits than frustrations; it just might bring us more joy than worry; more peace and less hustle and fuss. Whaddaya say? I think we should give it a shot.

Steve Wilkins is Pastor of Church of the Redeemer in West Monroe, Louisiana.

Read more

On July 16, 2014 By In Family and Children

Practicing Hospitality

Guest Post by Rev. Gregg Strawbridge

Just a little after the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Flavius Claudius Julianus, was born in 332. He became infamous: Julian the Apostate. He tried to reinstate paganism despite the fact that he was the last of the Constantian emperors of Rome. Augustine reports how Julian the Apostate (the Roman emperor, 361-363) would not permit masters of rhetoric and grammar to teach Christians. Why? Because the liberal arts were “conducive to the acquisition of argumentative and persuasive power” (City of God, 18). Philip Schaff, wrote of this episode in Church history:

“Julian would thus deny Christian youth the advantages of education, and compel them either to sink in ignorance and barbarism or to imbibe with the study of the classics in the heathen schools of the principles of idolatry. . . Hence he hated especially the learned church teachers, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen, Apollinaris of Laodicea, who applied the classical culture to the refutation of heathenism and the defence of Christianity…” (Church History, Vol. 3, pp. 53-54).

While he suppressed Christians through these educational policies for a time, there was something that he could not suppress: the hospitality of Christians. In Julian’s Letter “To Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia,” he complained against Christians, “the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but ours as well,” and “it is their benevolence to strangers” that keeps Hellenistic religion from greater acceptance.

The concept of hospitality is woven into the fabric on the gospel. The Father sent Jesus as the bread of life for the world. He showed the ultimate kindness to those at enmity with Him (Rom. 5:8). Though the world rejected Him at first, by His grace, He efficaciously called us to Himself and continually serves us. The terms translated in the NT strongly convey the concept: Philoxenia literally means, love for strangers or foreigners. Hospitality is kindness to strangers (Rom. 12:13, 1 Pet. 4:9). Another term, Xenodocheo (a verb) means literally to “lodge strangers” (1Tim. 5:10). Jesus taught this in Luke 14:12–14:

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

When we welcome others, strangers, foreigners, those that are different, this approaches the idea of hospitality. Many times, we have our friends over, whom we feel comfortable with and know that they will repay the kindness. This may be good to do, but it misses the mark of the biblical commands of hospitality. Hospitality takes us beyond our comforts into those awkward and somewhat fearful places of risking ourselves and our goods, without knowing or caring about a return. When we truly show hospitality, there is sometimes an occasion for complaining, e.g., since we did not get any return on our investment. This is why Peter adds a second exhortation to being hospitable: “Be hospitable to one another without complaint” (1 Pet. 4:9). Why would he have to say this? Because welcoming and serving those you know least and who are not your close and comfortable friends sometimes creates the occasion of guests not responding graciously.

If you knew your next guests would not be very gracious, would not be very grateful, and would even do some damage to your property (e.g., one of the kids break a dish), would you still serve them? The biblical answer is that true hospitality does not look for reward or repayment here or now. It acts on the basis of grace already received and gives without the need for human repayment. In this way the gospel can be preached through casseroles and cupcakes, through burgers, brats, and blueberries, when these are freely and graciously given.

I think once we have a right mind about hospitality (stranger love based on grace and looking for no repayment), then we must apply this to our own church circumstances. Hospitality is a means of loving people to Christ and to the means of grace in your church. It provides a means of general ministry for you and your family. It provides opportunities with visiting missionaries, pastors, or Christian workers.

Let Me Get Specific

  • Schedule it. Set a regular time to reach out to those you don’t know well.
  • Set a goal: Every family in the church over a set time period, starting with those least known to you.
  • Write it down: Make a list of people who may need to be encouraged by your service.
  • Practice kindness:
    • “Some folks make you feel at home. Others make you wish you were.” Arnold H. Glasow.
    • Learn to ask meaningful questions; make the conversation about your guests; seek to understand their spiritual journey; focus on knowing Christ, not secondary matters; don’t be negative; look for gifts and graces in guest’s lives; ask for matters about which you can pray and then pray.
    • Practice serving and hosting in peace: Proverbs 15:17 – “Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred.” Proverbs 17:1 – “Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife.”
  • Volunteer to house missionaries or traveling servants of the Lord.

Hospitality by hosting families for a meal can be a wonderful service. Unfortunately, we sometimes fall into the pattern of hosting those who least need it. One of the challenges in the Church today is the tendency for divisions along social and/or economic lines. Some perceive themselves as “normal” and view others not like them as “fringe.” There are those that have less means and space. They may feel intimidated by others and fear that what they could offer is “not good enough” for another family.

Epiphany in the kitchen. Some years ago an acquaintance invited our family to a meal along with another family, whom we also did not know very well. There was a slight amount of concern on my part: will this be enjoyable, awkward, stressful, peaceful? As soon as we arrived, we were put to work cutting up vegetables, sautéing mushrooms, peeling shrimp, filling up water glasses. We did not know these people very well and very soon we were conversing freely in the kitchen. The meal was great, but I hardly remember it. What I do remember is that the experience of simple preparations drew me into their lives.

Here’s a way to help overcome those self-made (imagined) obstacles. Bring all kinds of people in to share at your table and have them help in preparing the food. There is a place for simply serving others without their co-laboring. But I think some shared preparation opens up several possibilities to help overcome that awkwardness of a first invitation, of not knowing a person well, especially they are not at your exact socio-economic place.

  • Preparation together changes the conversation to what is naturally before you and eases you into other conversation.
  • Working together in the kitchen breaks down those imagined barriers.
  • Providing guests with a needed service (however small) provides a way for them to feel even greater acceptance.

Consider some meals that work well with shared preparation:

  • Salad – Most people can cut up vegetables (and other toppings). Some can mix herbs, oil and vinegar for homemade dressing. This can be a full meal or just the first course of a meal. We often do this by preparing some steak and/or salmon ahead of time for a chef/steak salad with a side of bread.
  • Homemade pizzas – If you can make a good crust, then great. Otherwise pre-mades are widely available. Have guests cut veggies, mushrooms, sausage, create special sauce (tomato sauce, garlic, olive oil, spices). Serve it in courses starting with a cheese pizza, then a veggie, then a classic italian, then a dessert pizza, etc. Let the guests lead on the selections. Get everyone involved and let everyone choose.
  • Hotpot – This is now my favorite such meal. It is a little like fondue without all the specialized equipment. Hotpot seems to be a pan-Asian meal that varies from region to region. It begins with a broth based soup and is very simple to make. Crock pot a chicken or a duck, strain the fat and bones. Add water and spices. We like ginger and five-spice for a truly Asian taste, but it can be bland to begin. Cook a large bowl of rice and/or rice noodles. Put the pot (on an electric burner) on the table. Let guests cut up veggies, mushrooms, shrimp, scallops, peel eggs (we like quail eggs), thinly sliced beef, tofu, etc. Everyone gets a bowl with rice. The first course is just broth on the rice. Then add an assortment of veggies (guests can select) to the pot and let them cook for a few minutes (keep adding water to it). Serve the second veggie course and notice the change in the broth. For the next course try a different assortment of veggies with mushrooms (in the pot). Then tofu, then seafood, then beef. This meal promotes conversation and a long time at the table. Remarkably, no one left stuffed after about 10 courses!

These kinds of meals provide an opportunity to share in the preparation, as well as show something about the gospel. When we welcome others into the fellowship, we share Christ and build up the Body. Many different ingredients go into the pot, but it becomes one meal. Hospitality within the Body of Christ keeps this in mind. We are not all alike, but we are like Him. We are not the same, but we belong to the same Lord. We are not much separate, but become a mighty army under our one Head, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Gregg Strawbridge is the Pastor of All Saints Church<>поисковое продвижение ов в яндексе

Read more