Today’s post is the first guest post in the series Hospitality and the Kingdom of God.
Lynne M. Baab (www.lynnebaab.com) is the author of numerous books on Christian spiritual practices. This article is excerpted from her 2012 book, Joy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your Congregation, which has a chapter illustrating numerous ways congregations can engage in hospitality together. Lynne’s latest book will be released in June 2014: The Power of Listening: Building Skills for Mission and Ministry, and she would argue listening skills are essential in giving and receiving hospitality.
Discern together – Supper at Emmaus by Roy de Maistre
Both the Old and New Testaments encourage hospitality, but one story has shaped my understanding more than any other. On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, a disciple named Cleopas and another person—perhaps a friend, a sibling, or Cleopas’s wife—left Jerusalem before news of the resurrection reached them. Both of them had been eager followers of Jesus, and they walked home to Emmaus disconsolate and discouraged because Jesus had died. A stranger on the road joined their discussion, asking them why they were sad. They told him about Jesus, their hopes about his kingdom, and the dashing of those hopes at his crucifixion. The stranger, extremely well-versed in Jewish history and the Hebrew scriptures, told them his perspective about the life and work of the Messiah.
When Cleopas and his companion reached their home in Emmaus, they invited the stranger in for a meal. When the visitor broke bread at the table and blessed it, they knew instantly that this was Jesus, now resurrected and still alive. After their moment of recognition, he vanished. They thought back to the conversation on the road, and realized the thrill of hearing him explain his own mission in his own words. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
These disciples invited a stranger into their home for a meal. They were the hosts, the ones who asked him in, but at the table this guest turned things upside down. The stranger broke the bread and blessed it, becoming the host. Like Cleopas and his companion, Christian individuals and congregations today are increasingly exploring ways to provide hospitality. As they do, they are experiencing the presence of Jesus, who is present in friend and stranger. God invites us to extend the rich welcome that we ourselves have been offered.
Hospitality plays a role in the Bible from beginning to end. The Jewish sacrificial system involved contributions of food that were consumed in festivals in the Temple. Some of Jesus’ most memorable encounters with individuals occur in the context of hospitality in people’s homes. Two examples are his discussion with Mary and Martha about the “one needful thing” while Martha was preparing a meal (Luke 10:38-42) and Jesus’ extension of loving grace to an outcast woman who washed his feet with her tears in the middle of a dinner (Luke 7:36-50). Several of Jesus’ parables present vivid pictures of feasts; one example is the parable of the great wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14. In his last meal with his disciples, Jesus invited them to adopt a celebration of remembrance and presence that involves bread and wine.
New Testament believers viewed hospitality as an essential component of ministry. In 1 Timothy, the good works attributed to bishops and widows above reproach include hospitality (1 Timothy 3:2 and 5:10), and being hospitable occurs throughout the epistles in lists of recommended behavior (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Peter 4:9).
It is no accident that two of the post-resurrection stories involve Jesus acting as host. In the Emmaus story, Jesus begins as a stranger and guest, but then is revealed to be the host of the meal. In the incident on the beach in Galilee, Jesus helps the disciples catch fish and then cooks it for them (John 21:1-14). Both of these stories are a culmination of the generous and hospitable earthly life of the Son of God. Jesus was hospitable in spirit before his death, speaking with honor and respect to outcasts, and he demonstrated hospitality in concrete forms—involving bread and fish—after his resurrection. We are invited to go into the world with the same spirit and goals that Jesus had (John 17:18). Sometimes we are stranger and guest, and sometimes we are host. Sometimes our hospitality involves food and sometimes we act hospitably in our words or other deeds. In all roles, we are called to be open to the people we encounter in a spirit of hospitality and welcome that reflects the generosity of the God who has welcomed us.
This post is out of date. Please see find the lastest post here.
- Hospitality and the Kingdom of God is as many of you are aware the Godspace theme for the next few months. There is still time to contribute if you are interested but for those who already have your interest stirred and want to read more on the topic here are some books to consider reading:
- Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine Pohl. This is still my absolute favourite book on hospitality and the theological perspective that should turn our world upside down.
- Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love by Lonni Collins Pratt with Father Daniel Homan. This is an inspirational book on the tried and true Benedictine way of life and hospitality.
- Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating by Norman Wirzba. This excellent book is not specifically about hospitality but hospitality is such an important part of how we eat that I think it needs to be included here.
- Take this Bread by Sara Miles. This is a wonderful and challenging memoir of how Sara was converted and then reached out with passion through the sharing of food at the communion table for those at the margins.
- A Meal With Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community and Mission around the Table by Tim Chester. Another thought provoking book about God’s purposes in the ordinary act of sharing a meal as an opportunity for grace, community and mission.
- Befriending the Stranger by Jean Vanier. Living together in peace, kindness and hospitality is the radical way of life for the L’Arche communities, which Jean Vanier talks about here.
- Stone Soup was put together by Unilever and the United Nations World Food Programme to mark World Food Day in 2008. Just a great example of hospitality!
- Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus by Christopher Smith and John Pattison. This is another must read for anyone who wants to move beyond church as a place to go to church as community and a place of hospitality and belonging.
- Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes by Shauna Niequist. This book is a compilation of essays and recipes centered around food, community and connection. It “reminds readers of the joy found in a life around the table”.
- A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community by John Pavlovitz. A challenge to the modern day Christian church to model the real hospitality of Jesus – where everyone has a seat at the table.
- Practicing Hospitality: The Joy of Serving Others by Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock. I have not read this, but it is definitely on my reading list for the next few months.
- A Christian View of Hospitality: Expecting Surprises by Michele Hershberger. This is another one on my reading list for the next couple of months.
- Friendship at the Margins by Christopher L. Heuertz and Christine D. Pohl. Another challenging book about what it means to live in community and hospitality with those at the margins.
- Realities of Faith by Basilea Schlink. The Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary that Basilea Schlink founded has an incredible story of hospitality and God’s provision.
- Hospitality (Christian Reflection) (A Series in Faith and Ethics) by Robert Kruschwitz, Ed. The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2007. “Hospitality, once central to Christian life, has been tamed”, says Kruschwitz. Is the practice of graciously welcoming one another, especially the stranger, a lost art? Fourteen reflections. The link is the pdf that can be downloaded for free!
- Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference by Letty M Russell. This is another book I have not read but it piqued my interest. Russell draws on feminist and postcolonial thinking to show how we are colonized and colonizing, each of us bearing the marks of the history that formed us. With careful attention, she writes, we can build a network of hospitality that is truthful about our mistakes and inequities, yet determined to resist the contradictions that drive us apart. This kind of genuine solidarity requires us to cast off oppression and domination in order to truly welcome the stranger.
- The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality and Foreign Language Learning by David I. Smith and Barbara Carvill. The title says it all. This is a must read book for anyone studying a foreign language or working cross culturally.
- Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers by Elizabeth Newman. Christian hospitality, according to Elizabeth Newman, is an extension of how we interact with God. It trains us to be capable of welcoming strangers who will challenge us and enhance our lives in unexpected ways, readying us to embrace the ultimate stranger: God.
Great Recipe Books To Use For Hospitality
- The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. This delightful book intertwines cooking and theology to produce a refreshing book filled with wisdom about cooking, hospitality and life.
- Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette. From the monastery to the kitchen. This is a great collection of simple, inexpensive but nourishing recipes. It is worth checking out his other books too.
- Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook is compiled and authored by Schlabach with assistance from Kristina Mast Burnett, recipe editor. I love this cookbook with stories, proverbs and recipes from around the world.
- Its companions More with Less and Simply in Season, are also valuable resources for inexpensive seasonal cooking.
- There is even a Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook, which at this stage, I have not experimented with but it teaches kids about where food comes from and how to prepare it – always a fun part of hospitality.
We are so excited about our retreat on Camano this year that we wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to attend. We have just posted our early bird special rates.
The theme for this year is Brigid and the Hospitality of God. This is yet another aspect of our focus on Hospitality and the Kingdom of God, our theme here at Godspace for the next few months.
Come join us on Camano Island WA for this wonderful weekend. More details here
- share a time of guided retreat and reflection beginning at 9am Saturday morning with coffee and snacks. enjoy the prayer trails and prayerful activities during the afternoon celebrate with a BBQ potluck dinner that night.
- Both kids and students will have a program designed especially for their time at the Retreat.
- We also invite you to camp with us Friday and Saturday nights, and to share morning and evening prayers and a time of reflective worship Sunday morning.
- Find out about the different options here
Jesus, who welcomes all who come to him, shows us the pattern that is repeated in Eastern hospitality and in the Celtic way of life. The idea that the one I welcome is the “Christ in the stranger’s guise” calls me to recognize the image of God in all persons and the presence of God in all creation. This understanding changes my attitude toward every person. I open my heart and seek the good, rather than raise my walls of defense and look with suspicion. Celtic spirituality teaches not only hospitality to the stranger but welcome to the poor and the marginalized.
At the retreat we will use the life of Brigid, one of my favourite Celtic saints, to guide us. She became abbess at the monastery of Kildaire where, under her leadership, a thousand meals were reportedly served each day. I always use Brigid’s Feast as a grace for our retreats. This year our liturgies, songs and scripture readings will also revolve around her love for the poor and her generous hospitality.
Each year our Saturday meals are potlucks with delicious salads and desserts contributed by attendees. This year we would like to start collecting some of these wonderful recipes to help us get to know each other better. So if you plan to come, write out your recipe with your name and contact information send it to us so that we can make these available for other attendees. This year’s retreat will be a grand summer celebration of welcome and feasting. We hope you can join us.
Celtic retreat
your kindness melts my hard, cold soul.
your beauty fills my dull, sad eyes.
Yesterday there was another school shooting. This time right in my backyard. In fact I had been at Seattle Pacific University walking across the area where the shooting occurred, just a couple of hours before. One person died, three others injured, one still critical. It is probable that more would have been killed if were not for a student, John Meis, volunteer security guard sprayed the gunman with pepper spray and tackled him, with other students then jumping on top.
The horror of the senseless loss of life, the pain and agony of family, the trauma to those around hits my heart with great heaviness. When will this gun violence stop I wonder? When will we realize that there need to be restrictions on sales of guns?
Guns do not make a nation or a family safer. Quite the contrary according to this article published in the American Journal of Medicine last year. The U.S. has more guns and more gun deaths than any other country in the world.
One of my biggest struggles with living in the U.S. has been the acceptance of violence as a way of life – even amongst Christians. And maybe we will not see a change in the gun laws here until Christians change their attitudes. We are not called to violence we are called to peace. The images of God’s kingdom are of a peaceable kingdom in which there will be no death or violence or war.
I think it is time that we not only embraced this imagery but practiced it. Can you imagine how different our world would look today if followers of Jesus all laid down their guns and looked for peaceful ways to resolve conflict and violence. Until we are willing to do that I don’t think that we will see any change in the violence of our society or in the attitude towards guns.
What do you think?
Table fellowship
As you know I am getting ready for the upcoming blog focus on Hospitality and the Kingdom of God. Have been doing lots of reading, thinking and praying about it.
When I decided on this topic I had no idea how impacting it would be on my own life. It is helping me to rethink the focus of my faith and how I practice it.
Communion not conversion. Eating together, sharing life and fellowship together this is the place where we are inspired by Christ and fed by him to go out and do his work in the world.
So many today find church boring and irrelevant, but eating is relevant for all of us. And when done properly with us all sitting down together, relaxed, laughing, sharing stories, it is the richest experience of Christ and Christ’s family we can ever have.
This morning I found my thoughts focusing once again on the two occasions we read about Jesus eating with his disciples after his resurrection. Christ comes in the stranger on the Emmaus road. His true nature is recognized only when he breaks bread together with his fellow travellers. (Luke 24:30, 31) We also find him by the sea of Galilee, preparing breakfast for his closest friends. Here he is recognized when the nets almost break with the abundance of God’s provision. And then they break bread together, sharing their lives with the living Christ. (John 21:13). Even when Jesus appears to the disciples together it is at the dinner table, and he proves who he is by eating with them (Luke 24:42).
How much, I wonder, does our fast food, TV dinner lifestyle disconnect us from Christ and God’s family? Eating alone, isolated from our human families, unaware of where our food comes from and of those who have produced it, strips us of both our humanity and our divinity. To be made in the image of God means to eat together with friends and strangers alike. It means to make the excluded feel included, as Jesus did by sitting down with the tax collector. It means to see abundance when others see scarcity, as is demonstrated by the feeding of the 5,000. And it means to be caught up in a foretaste of the kingdom banquet feast, as the first disciples were when they ate the last supper together.
We need to rediscover the joy of eating together – not just of sitting down at table, but the joy of growing and preparing food together. Perhaps its time we all joined the Slow Food movement, a global, grassroots organization linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.
Chris Smith and John Pattison authors of Slow Church will be with us Monday night. In this wonderful and timely book they remind us that:
Slow Food and the other Slow movements hold important lessons for the American church. They compel us to ask ourselves tough questions about the ground our faith communities have ceded to the cult of speed. And they invite all of us—clergy, theologians and laypeople—to start exploring and experimenting with the possibilities of Slow Church. Not as another growth strategy, but as a way of re-imagining what it means to be communities of believers gathered and rooted in particular places at a particular time.
I think that they are right. We need to learn that at the centre of our faith is the communion table, a place of rich fellowship and shared life, an experience that cannot be hurried if we truly value our faith and the faith communities of which we are a part.
What do you think?
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!