hospitality for hostile times
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."
Hebrews 13:2
"An environment of welcome + a transformation of identity = a new humanity."
Beautiful Resistance
Last night, I had dinner with some new friends that lasted five hours.
Seated around a table at Selah Springs Ranch in Brady, Texas, I laughed until it hurt, felt my heart moved with compassion, and learned things about the stories of others that filled me with joy.
Texas and New York are different worlds. In some ways, the cultures feel like they belong in two different countries. Yet, with people I barely knew, some I had just met, and some older friends, I felt my heart moved.
I have not felt my heart open towards others that much since I can remember.
The dinner was framed as an “Intentional Dinner.”
Each person brought one question to ask the table designed to help us learn about and understand each other that evening.
Here are the questions we asked that carried us well into the night:
If you could return to any memory of your childhood, when would it be, and why?
What do you like most about yourself?
If you could be an expert at something for thirty days, and then your expertise disappeared, what would it be and why?
If you only got to know Jesus and what He offers in this life and nothing in eternity, would you still follow Him?
What was the first moment that you knew for certain God was real, and was it what you expected it to be?
What is one thing about yourself you want to change over the next ten years?
What is the single greatest moment you have experienced with your child (or you remember experiencing with your parent/s)?
What is one purchase you could make now that would satisfy your inner child?
What’s your least popular opinion?
Over crispy chicken thighs, baked garlic butter rolls, sweet potato medallions, vinegar beans, buttermilk pie, and Bluebell ice cream, I drank from the cup of hospitality until my heart was full.
The church talks about “the table” a lot; some churches even name themselves “The Table,” but last night, I felt the power of the table.
One quote I have used and returned to over the years is from The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani, where he writes…
“The English word hospitality originates from the same Latin root as the word hospital. A hospital is literally a ‘home for strangers.’ Of course, it has come to mean a place of healing. There is a link between being welcomed and being healed.”
He continues…
“Our homes are to be hospitals—refuges of healing radiating the light of heaven. And our dinner tables are to be operating tables—the place where broken souls are made whole again….When we lower our defenses, when we remove our façades and our peepholes, and we begin to be truly present with one another—then the healing power of the gospel can begin its work.”
Last night, around a table of friends, some scar tissue from my heart was removed. The healing power of the gospel once again did its work.
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As the election approaches here in the US, I am again reminded of our society's broken and fractured nature. I can’t think of a more practical way to begin healing our cultural divides than the table.
Jesus’ use of hospitality was one of His most powerful tools for forming a new humanity out of the cultural chaos of His day. Welcomed to His feast were tax collectors and zealots, Pharisees and prostitutes, the lepers and the lost.
Jesus believed that by creating an atmosphere of welcome for all, He could help transcend cultural debates and humanize the other, enabling the kingdom of God to move forward.
While watching the forthcoming movie Bonhoeffer, there is a powerful scene towards the end of the film where Bonhoeffer is serving communion before he faces his death. He invites one of the Nazi guards, a believer, to join them. Amidst the pain and the protest, Bonhoeffer says,
“It is not our table; it is the Lord’s, and He has invited us all.”
You have a choice about how you will be remembered in our time of cultural division and crisis: as one who furthers hatred and division or as one who models another way. Jesus created space at His table for you, and we have an obligation to invite others.
Is it time for you to host an intentional dinner?
Is it time to create a place of hospitality in the middle of a culture of hostility?
Why not…
Prepare the questions.
Invite the guestlist.
Ready the food.
Hospitality may be the church's best weapon in the middle of the culture war.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers.
Jon.
