The Coronavirus quarantine has provided opportunity to clean-up, clean-out and and take on a few projects. I refurbished my office and in the process I “discovered” numerous notes from classes, readings, sermons, lessons and such. I found several I thought worthy of sharing. This post is the first in a new category “Quarantine Reflections”.
The following are notations on hospitality. My original notes have no date or source. I am certain they are not original to me. They are not intended as definitive, just opportunity to reflect and ponder.
A shared meal is the activity most closely tied to the reality of God’s Kingdom, just as it is the most basic expression of hospitality.
Seeing Jesus in every guest reduces the inclination to try to calculate the importance of one guest over another.
“The tasks aren’t what hospitality is about, hospitality is giving yourself.” If hospitality involves sharing your life and sharing in the life of others, guests/strangers are not first defined by their need.
(Meal time) is the time when hospitality looks like spiritual service.
Simple acts of respect, appreciation, presence are indispensable parts of the affirmation of human personhood.
…the pinnacle of lovelessness is not our unwillingness to be neighbor to someone, but our unwillingness to allow them to be a neighbor to us… (Alan Boesak)
The greatest lie of this broken universe is that God cannot be trusted and we have to take care of ourselves.
Nothing we as believers do together will ever make up for our own relationship with God.When we put the church in that place we make it an idol and others will always end up disappointing us.
Still on the journey…