Our topic in church this week was hospitality. Peter’s main idea behind his encouragement to practice hospitality is the emphasis on welcoming strangers into your life – especially the disadvantaged or suffering – not on the basis of what they can provide to you, but on the basis of how you can serve them (Matthew 25:35, 43).
Historically, hospitality within the Christian community was absolutely essential in fostering family ties among new believers and reshaping their identities as Christians. Hospitality also serves as a visual representation of the gospel, drawing non-believers toward faith as they see it practiced.
If the sermon about hospitality stirs in you a desire to want to study more about this ancient biblical practice, I encourage you to read Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl.
In this rich and profound book, Pohl traces the history of Christian hospitality from the Old Testament through contemporary expressions of this discipline. She also provides a strong biblical theology of the biblical command from I Peter 4:9 to “offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
In her book, Pohl reminds us that:
As a way of life, an act of love, an expression of faith, our hospitality reflects and anticipates God’s welcome. Simultaneously costly and wonderfully rewarding, hospitality often involves small deaths and little resurrections. By God’s grace we can grow more willing, more eager, to open the door to a needy neighbor, a weary sister or brother, a stranger in distress. Perhaps as we open that door more regularly, we will grow increasingly sensitive to the quiet knock of angels. In the midst of a life-giving practice, we too might catch glimpses of Jesus who asks for our welcome and welcomes us home.
Blessings,
Jim