"Being a Christian is not a one-moment miracle of salvation. It takes practice" (p. 75).
1. When have you been offered hospitality in a way that was spiritually meaningful to you? When have you offered hospitality in a way that challenged you spiritually?
2. Who are the strangers in, around, or near you? Your congregation? What would it mean to welcome those people into your life? Your church?
10 comments:
1. When have you been offered hospitality in a way that was spiritually meaningful to you?
I think that the local Catholic Church hospitality committee must be non-functioning in most parishes that I have attended. Catholics seem to enter, pray, receive, and leave, without looking to the right or left. I have found greater welcome and communication at my son's Central Presbyterian, Austin.
When have you offered hospitality in a way that challenged you spiritually?When I was a minister to the sick in our St. Mark's Parish, years ago I found that visiting the seriously sick and dying and taking them Communion was a spiritually challenging Christian 'practice' of hospitality for me.
When have you been offered hospitality in a way that was spiritually meaningful to you?
A 'traditional' practice in most churches is to offer hospitality to the bereaved of the community through preparing food for the family and friends after a death and funeral. I think this is STILL a most important practice of the church and has meant so much to me both physically and spiritually at the death of a loved one. I am most appreciative and this is a practice of Christian love that most can accept.
1. The biggest hospitality offer I've had that comes to mind is the Lutheran Church I attended in the late 1970's. I was allowed to take communion there by the youngish minister there who advocated for SEMINEX as an alternative to the Missouri Synod. That was going against the church, but he said to me it was "the Jesus thing to do." We both laughed. He also advocated for me when the school board didn't renew my teaching contract. I had been instrumental in forming an AFT (American Federation of Teachers) chapter in the school district to counteract the very conservative Missouri Teachers Association, and he viewed my non-renewal as a punishment and attempt to break apart that group.
Probably the most spiritually challenging offer of hospitality I've made was to a co-worker who was frightened of an ex-boyfriend. She was worried mostly for her elderly mother with whom she lived on a rural farm. I offered to let her stay with me until she decided what to do legally (restraining order, etc.) if she thought he would leave her mother alone. She was reluctant to put me in harm's way, but I convinced her that the apartment was safer than the rural farm. She decided to get a restraining order about three weeks after moving in with me. The boyfriend left town because the law was involved, and she moved out after about five weeks. She married another man about a year later.
2. Strangers would be Chattanoogans of other religious traditions, immigrants I serve at Walmart, people at work with whom I seldom converse, and people in my congregation with whom I don't share the same religious/political viewpoints.
I would love to welcome any of these people into my life, church, and the community Bonnie and I are envisioning. I am not sure how to do that.
I love the quote in the original post:
"Being a Christian is not a one-moment miracle of salvation. It takes practice!"
1. When have you been offered hospitality in a way that was spiritually meaningful to you? When have you offered hospitality in a way that challenged you spiritually?
As a youngster in a Baptist church, I remember that there were youth leaders who did offer hospitality to members by hosting various functions in their home. In the Lutheran church, my encounters mirror that that Zorro so well stated in which most of the members "seem to enter, pray, receive, and leave, without looking to the right or left."
The chapter's illustration of the pre-service praise service's welcoming of the diverse congregation was touching with its practices resulting in "a congregation in which wayfarers and strangers have become friends." The welcome table for the homeless in Washington, D.C. was also a lovely expression of hospitality.
The offering of hospitality is something that I am very weak in. I think this is probably because I have not felt accepted myself. This is definitely an area that I need to work on.
2. Who are the strangers in, around, or near you? Your congregation? What would it mean to welcome those people into your life? Your church?
Unfortunately, being friendly and welcoming are not attributes of our church or of myself. There are few visitors/strangers at our church. A few years ago, however, a visitor shared his story of hardship with my husband who then began giving him money to try to help him out. His demands escalated and after he said that he didn't want to get help from area charities because he was tired of their canned goods made us realize that he probably wasn't that hungry. We told him to contact the church elders if additional assistance was needed.
This experience coincides with the realization that our church as well as most others that I am aware of now keep their doors locked and refer charity seekers elsewhere primarily because of safety issues. There was reference to the dangers of hospitality in the chapter, but I do think that this is a rational fear.
1. When I was young before my father died, I felt hospitality in the church. I had a cousin who believed in practicing her life around the Church of God. One year, I drove from California to Indiana to visit relatives. I surprised my cousin, waiting to join her in church services, we both cried. I felt welcomed warm inside in her church. I do welcome family and friends into my home usually with a warm hug, which I feel comfortable giving. The Lutheran Church from my experience has not found a way to make people feel welcome.
2. For the past 20 years we have lived in a small village in central IL I have not ventured out to much to make friends. I did attend church, most folks around her seldom smile, let alone talk to what they consider a stranger. Twice a month I visit the hairdresser here in the village, even after 20 years in the same house, hospitality takes on a completely new meaning for me today.
Today I attended St. Martin of Tours in Chattanooga.
http://www.stmartinsec.org/
The Bishop was there to accept new members by renewal of baptismal vows, and my daughter, Cori, was one of those accepted. Granddaughter Olivia sang in the children's choir. We were welcomed to the luncheon reception after the service. This church seems to be practicing hospitality very well.
In his sermon, the bishop quoted someone who said, "Don't tell me what you believe; show me what difference it makes in your life." And he also said that our job as Christians is to support/encourage one another in our search for a deeper walk with the Lord.
My favorite quote from this chapter is this: "Christians welcome strangers as we ourselves have been welcomed into God through the love of Jesus Christ. Through hospitality, Christians imitate God's welcome."
I recently attended the funeral of a friend who embodied love. Everyone who spoke at the service spoke of Belle's love for everyone around her. As a shy, quiet introvert, I do not always practice the kind of love that Belle exemplified - but because I believe that love is the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, I want to become the kind of person that others will remember as someone who loved.
1. When have you been offered hospitality in a way that was spiritually meaningful to you? When have you offered hospitality in a way that challenged you spiritually?
Like Zorro's first comment above, I recall most readily the time a church did NOT show hospitality. My son and I had moved to another city, and a church near our new home had what we'd heard was a good youth group. That Sunday, we went to their morning service, which was already very full of people. Nobody was willing to let us into a pew. Finally, I got some folks to let me stumble past their knees into the middle of a pew, way down the long center aisle. As I sat down and looked back at my son behind me, I saw him striding back up the aisle and out the front door. He sat outside in the car waiting for me until the service was over. I was too timid to crawl back over those knees and leave, though now I wish I had. We never went back to that church, and my teenage son quit going to church at all.
Reading AuntyDon's account of inviting a woman to stay with her reminded me of a time when my children were still young. A neighbor about half a mile from me called, asking if she could bring her 2 or 3 children (I forget) to get away from her abusive husband. I moved my car out of my garage so she could park inside, out of sight. They stayed only one night, and I hadn't thought of that incident in decades.
2. Who are the strangers in, around, or near you? Your congregation? What would it mean to welcome those people into your life? Your church?
Since AuntyDon answered this question in October, she has started serving as a volunteer at the Community Kitchen where the homeless are fed.
When I was pastor of a church near downtown that was dwindling in numbers but had a large old brick building, I often had people arriving at the door requesting money for food. I didn't have a "fund" to feed them, so anything I gave them came from my own pocket. One day, all I could give a man was the sandwich I'd brought for my own lunch -- and he thankfully gobbled it down. He really was in need and hungry.
Another time, a man wasn't willing for me to go with him to buy his lunch a block away, so I took that as his not being hungry but hoping for cash for other things -- maybe drugs. He didn't get it from me.
Zorro, I like the quote you shared: "Don't tell me what you believe; show me what difference it makes in your life."
Allison, I agree with you that "I want to become the kind of person that others will remember as someone who loved."
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