Hospitality Session 1

Each year we try to focus our retreat on a spiritual discipline. We have done these retreats for several years, and I can remember several different topics. I remember early in my ministry while we were still here in Arkansas City, you all asked me to speak on Prayer. I remember David Kingrey speaking on discernment and making decisions together. The first year as your pastor we had David Williams speak, and we have had the current Barclay President come to speak. We have brought Michael Jay in from Indiana to speak on simplicity, Gary Damron spoke on our rich heritage as Friends. And most recently we have had students from Friends University speak on the importance of the Friend’s use of silence in worship. I cannot remember all the topics we have covered but I know that each of them have been important.

I have spoken several times over the years at this retreat. I spoke on prayer, I have spoken on our place within the community. We have used art and clay to demonstrate concepts. And I remember David Williams had us built brick altar to signify our foundation of prayer. He had us write prayers on the bricks and we stacked them. Unfortunately the camp did not want to keep that altar and they asked us to take the bricks back with us. That upset some, but over the years I have used those bricks to surround our meetinghouse’s landscaping. Our meetinghouse is surrounded with our symbolic prayers. Prayers that we have said in private, hopes that we have expressed in public, struggles we needed to overcome, and praises of God’s merciful hand meeting us and carrying us into the the future.

Today we meet again here at Camp Quaker Haven. We meet together with the hope to relax and regroup as a meeting or church. We come together to encourage each other and to refocus our attention on one spiritual discipline we have thought is important for us at this time and place. That discipline is hospitality.

When this was first mentioned, I immediately thought absolutely this is awesome. I was excited. I was thought this is exactly the right topic. And then I began to talk with friends. I usually try to find someone other than myself to speak, because part of a retreat is to hear a different voice, I made phone calls, sent emails, I even searched facebook to find the perfect speaker. I had a fairly long list. Each of the people I spoke to had the exact same reaction, they loved the idea. They thought it was one of the most important things we could talk about this year. And each of them said. “I do not know how to begin, because this has not been something widely spoken about.” I had friends of mine in tears because they knew that they wanted to speak, they knew that it is probably the most important thing we could speak about today. But they like I do not know where to begin. But there is something in the back of my mind, tugging at the strings within my soul that tells me that this topic this weekend is one of the most important things we can consider in our world today.

When we think of hospitality what comes to mind?

When we think of Christian hospitality does this concept change? Should it change?

As I prepared for this weekend I looked up the definition of the word hospitality. According to the Oxford online dictionary hospitality is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

I did not stop there, but I clicked the more button on Google, and it went on to say, It can also refer to the business of providing accommodation, food, and other services for guests, known as the hospitality industry. The word originates from the Latin hospitalitem, meaning “friendliness to guests”.

So when we think of the word hospitality we basically get two different branches, one points to hostel or hotel which gives us the hospitality industry. The other branch points toward hospital, where we provide care for those that are sick and injured.

Usually when I think of hospitality this is what I think about. There are times where it goes just a bit deeper and personal where I think of inviting people to a party of some sort, hosting them in our home or church usually sharing cake of the birthday variety. To me this was what it meant to be hospitable. As someone that is an introvert by nature, the idea of hospitality has never been at the top of my list of things to do, so it surprised me that I was so excited about the concept for this weekend.

I sat with the idea, I prayed over the idea, I begged God that someone else would talk about it, and as I prayed I began to realize that this is the most important discipline we need to explore today. Each time I thought about the verses I was reading, hospitality came to mind. Every time I turned on the news it was as if God was whispering in my ear, hospitality. I could not get away from the word. It became clear to me that I needed to explore hospitality deeper.

I moved away from google, and looked at my theological dictionaries. The Lexham Theological dictionary says this, “Hospitality consists of the welcome and care of guests, especially those who are travelers or strangers to the family or community. In biblical use, hospitality serves multiple functions, including relief for the poor or dispossessed, the strengthening of bonds of affection, inclusion of the outsider, and especially in the nt, the propagation of the Christian message.”¹

They go on to say, “It is important to note that biblical notions of hospitality overlap only partly with the idea of hospitality in modern Western cultures, where it is frequently viewed as the recreational sharing of fellowship, lodging, and provisions among friends or relatives. In the Bible (as in the ancient world in general), hospitality involves receiving strangers—especially travelers, who then become guests or are treated as friends—rather than merely reinforcing pre-existing friendships or bonds of affection.”²

The concept of hospitality is deep. Once we begin to look into the biblical concepts of hospitality, you begin to see it everywhere. It is within the teachings of Jesus. It is throughout the epistles in the New Testament. And it runs deep within the teachings of the Law and Prophets. But the teachings are not merely something that is found within the pages of scripture. Hospitality was and is important to all the cultures within the ancient near east. The ideas surrounding hospitality form the foundation of interpersonal relationships, tribal relationships, and even today are the basis of international trade and world peace. You might think I am exaggerating, how can a Holiday Inn possibly be that important? Let us look again at the theological dictionary, “The practice of hospitality was not uniquely Jewish or Christian; it was a pervasive feature and high value in both the ancient Near East and Graeco-Roman worlds. The ot and nt both reflect this cultural obligation to the traveler and stranger and treat practicing hospitality as expected and commendable, while failing to practice hospitality was seen as exceptional and condemnable.” ³ Wars have been started or prevented over hospitality throughout the ages, and even today business deals and peace treaties hinge on this seemingly insignificant discipline.

Romans 12 (ESV)

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. ⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I want us to go out today reflecting on this passage. I want you to look at it. To pray with it. What does this say to us about what it means to be hospitable?

And as we go I want us to watch this short clip from the movie Les Miserable. Victor Hugo wrote this story following the lives of two men; the police inspector and Jean Valjean. Valjean was sent to prison for nineteen years for stealing bread and upon release he found himself living in a world unwilling to give him a second chance. He was beaten, thrown out, turned away. The belief in 19^th century France was that people do not change, a criminal is always a criminal and the police inspector wanted to prove this and he relentlessly pursued Vlajean because he had broken his parole. Valjean lived into this stereotype at first, but something happened. Something changed.

If you have not seen this musical, watched the movie, or read the book I encourage you to do so. But spoilers are necessary. No one gave Valjean a chance at first. He was a hardened criminal in their minds, he was a thief. And he was, but one person showed this man hospitality. Valjean lived on in fear, because he had broken the law, he was in violation of his parole. But he used the silver given to him by the priest, he became a factory owner, and a mayor. He remembered the kindness once shown him, and when he saw one of his former employees in a similar place he stands up.

This attracted the attention of the police inspector, and he began to investigate. Valjean had lived eight years as a different man, and in a single act of mercy it nearly cost him everything. He ran with his adopted daughter, he escapes and evades capture. The inspector pursues with the thought that people do not change, and justice must be served. This continues for years. And all along the way Valjean challenges the inspector’s worldview. The inspector was consumed by his sense of justice and that people cannot change. He watched as Valjean lived, and he could not accept it. The inspector took his own life, and Valjean continued to live and continued to extend the hospitality and mercy he was once shown.

Hospitality changed that man in the story. And that is why it is important today. The kindness we show to the stranger, the traveler, the sick, the one in need today are seeds planted in life’s field. The enemy can become a friend, and the thief can become our rescuer.

“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

1 Anderson, Garwood P. “Hospitality.” Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Press, 2014.

2 Anderson, Garwood P. “Hospitality.” Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Press, 2014.

3 Anderson, Garwood P. “Hospitality.” Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Press, 2014.