Hospitality and Relationships

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13: 2

I have not had much experience in the area of hospitality.  Even though I do enjoy the idea of opening my home to be the house of gatherings, for some reason the opportunities just don't seem to present themselves more than on rare occasions...or so I've thought...the thing is...I need to pause and think about this a minute: what is the proper approach? Am I supposed to passively wait for opportunities to show up...knocking at my door, pun intended...or...am I to actively seek out opportunities to open my door without waiting for people to come knocking?

While reading the first couple of chapters of the book Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson at our church's summer book chat, my mind has been filled with endless thoughts and questions about how my own insecurities and self-consciousness might have kept me from carrying out the command to hospitality which we have been given since God first welcomed Adam and Eve to that very first home He so lovingly made for us.

Chief among all these ponderings, is the question: "what is my definition of a stranger?"  Is a stranger just the random person off the street with whom we have no connection or have ever met? Or could it also be the high school classmate whom we haven't seen in thirty or forty years? Could it be our children's childhood acquaintance whom we have never had a chance to meet as an adult? Maybe it is our next-door neighbor, with whom we have hardly exchanged a few distant hellos. 

I’m thinking more and more that the definition of “stranger” should probably extend all the way to passing acquaintances, people with whom we are loosely connected, but are not part of our inner circle.  The author of the book reminds us how Jesus had concentric circles of connections (p. 64-65).  Jesus was and is intimately connected forever in that example of perfect fellowship that is the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In the human realm, though, while Jesus walked on this earth, He had a tight band of brothers: Peter, James and John.  Immediately next to that close circle, was the next loop: the rest of His disciples, partners in ministry.  Then, there was the outer loop, the multitudes…the strangers.  Were they really strangers, though?  Can Our Emmanuel, Our God With Us really have strangers among Him? Can we?

Jamie Erickson suggests that, based on the life of Jesus and on how He related to people around Him, “our social connections should fall into one of three categories: encouragement, discipleship and evangelism.” (p. 65)  In this scenario, nobody is truly a stranger since each person God puts along and around our path belongs to at least one of these three rings of social connectedness. 

In the circle of encouragement, I need to have those close friends, my Peters, Johns, and James.  In the ring of discipleship will be what the author refers to as my “mother-sister-daughter relationships.” (p. 67) These connections are not literally demarcated by blood lines, not at all.  I would be really losing on this one if that were the case.  I never had daughters and my mother has been gone for 23 years.  But I do have spiritual mother-figures and I know I can find daughters in every corner, if I keep my eyes open.  Then, there’s the evangelism ring, and that’s the multitudes.  That’s where all the “strangers” among me fit.

It's hard, though…opening my “home,” whereas it is my literal house or the home of my heart, soul, mind, time and wallet to “strangers,” especially those with whom I do not agree or find difficult to love.  That is very hard.  I’m goo guarded.  I don’t want to reveal my vulnerabilities and insecurities to anyone, let along “strangers.”  But, if I want to get better at loving Jesus, I have to love those He has placed around me as I make my feeble attempts at encouraging, discipling and evangelizing. (Erickson, p. 74)  After all…I don’t want to miss the chance of entertaining angels, right?

 

What could be some practical ways in which we can fulfill the command of hospitality to all our circles of social connections in order to encourage, disciple and evangelize?