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Hospitality
Today at work I was getting surprisingly hungry around 2:30 pm. This was after eating a great lunch of a chicken breast, mac-and-cheese, corn and a soda. It was one of the heartiest lunches I have had in a while but nonetheless I was hungry at 2:30 pm.
You would have to know me to understand what happens when I get hungry. I become like one of those bears you hear about that breaks into someone's home and eats all the food in their cupboard. The results can be devastating. I always convey this hunger to my co-workers mostly because I am looking for some sort of empathy. I don't get much empathy from them. Sometimes I do end up with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or something else to hold me over till dinner.
As a single guy, my dinners are not exactly what you would call fabulous. A good night might involve a salad from Wendy's (if I am thinking healthy).
In my despair, my co-worker asked me if I would like to go to dinner at his house. His fiance is in town from South Carolina and was cooking chicken and potatoes (this is probably my favorite meal). My response, one word, "Definitely!"
This gesture of offering me a meal was an example of true hospitality. It didn't need to be planned out weeks in advance, didn't need a committee at the church to make it happen and didn't need to be a big party. He showed me Jesus by inviting me to a dinner at his house.
Just last week, I was having dinner with another friend who was telling me of a radical idea from widespread hospitality. He called it "Lifehouses". A "Lifehouse" is a home of a Christian couple who extend God's tangible grace and provision to those in any sort of need. Lifehouses, in his vision, would be established around the world in big cities and little towns. These homes would be available for those in need of a place to stay, be physically and spiritually nourished by Jesus followers.
I love this idea. I am challenged to model Jesus' hospitality in our American culture. Quite frankly, it is hard. Hospitality, servanthood, Jesus parties are a foreign idea to Americans.
Jesus invited all the wrong people to his parties. He was hospitable to all those who no one else was hospitable to. I was invited to Jesus' party. I am one of those guest that should not have been invited but He invited me.
I love Jesus' parable in Luke 14:
But he said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'"
This is a hard teaching because on the one hand I rejoice because I was the guest who was not initially invited. God chose me in the darkness and brought me into the light. I partake of the banquet that I shouldn't have been invited to. The Kingdom banquet is filled with those who didn't deserve it. The hard part comes when I think of who I am inviting to the Kingdom banquet. I am challenged by Jesus' teaching to go out to the highways and call them in so that his house will be full.
May God's Spirit fill me and give me strength that I may proclaim the Kingdom to everyone and compel them to come in.
