What is new about being hospitable . . .
If Hospitality is a gift, then many believers will be able to claim that God did not bless them with this gift, thus they are not gifted to be hospitable. Since we do not have this gift of hospitality, then we can skip over this service. This reasoning can be easily applied to evangelism. God gives the church Evangelist, so these evangelist have the gift of evangelism. Therefore, we should let them exercise their gifts and we who do not have this gift can take a ‘rest’.
But Jesus says: “You shall be my witnesses . . .“
So is hospitality a spiritual gift or a human duty? John Wesley in one of his sermons: Sermon 98 – On Visiting the Sick, said: “visiting the sick: A Plain duty, which all that are in health may practice”[1], highlighting that hospitality is a duty for all who are in health. Hospitality in this case is more than a spiritual gift; it is a duty in which all human beings need to practice.
Spiritual Gift vs Human Duty
Believers having received
Jesus Christ as their Saviour will always want to know this very compelling
question: “So what is my gift?” And so we find book and exercises to dig into
our subconscious to locate the ‘hidden’ gift that this “NEW” God has promised
us. And many, especially housewives and mothers always ended up with this gift
called “Hospitality”.If Hospitality is a gift, then many believers will be able to claim that God did not bless them with this gift, thus they are not gifted to be hospitable. Since we do not have this gift of hospitality, then we can skip over this service. This reasoning can be easily applied to evangelism. God gives the church Evangelist, so these evangelist have the gift of evangelism. Therefore, we should let them exercise their gifts and we who do not have this gift can take a ‘rest’.
But Jesus says: “You shall be my witnesses . . .“
So is hospitality a spiritual gift or a human duty? John Wesley in one of his sermons: Sermon 98 – On Visiting the Sick, said: “visiting the sick: A Plain duty, which all that are in health may practice”[1], highlighting that hospitality is a duty for all who are in health. Hospitality in this case is more than a spiritual gift; it is a duty in which all human beings need to practice.
Who is this stranger?
One of
the strongest walled-city within many of us is called “Unknown”, and its gate
is lock with the chain of “fear”. Because we do not know, we feared, we
worried, we are frighten, and so for protection, we build walls and placed
ourselves inside this prison, and believe that we are in “heaven”.
So who
am I trying to keep out, and who am I trying to keep in? Who is this stranger?
Am I trying to keep the stranger out, or am I trying to keep this stranger in?
One of
the greatest difficulty is to know the stranger in me. Unless I know myself,
unless I am confidence of myself; I am a stranger to myself, and if I am a
stranger to myself, then how am I to know the stranger outside. It has to start
with me, knowing myself, then I can unlock the chain that lock my gate and
invite the stranger into my city. And to eventually remove the walls around
this city, into a city without walls.
Individual Hospitality
How
the believers lost its passion and tradition for hospitality?
The believers did not lost
this tradition . . . it was transfer to the “professionals”. Our forefathers did
not lost their passion . . . they are so passionate that they hired the best
people to do the job. They contributed to keep these professionals on the job,
so that they don’t have to do it themselves. The professionals are needed
because the society need their services. But how about the individual? How can the
individual believer rediscover this ancient traditional practice? Some
suggestions:
1.
Redefine Hospitality: it is
more than food and shelter.
It is to do the good deed God
has prepared for us to do in advance. (Eph. 2:10). Just doing good to anyone who
needs our assistance.
2.
Begin with me: even Jesus
begins his ministry alone.
Begin with me and make it a habit
of giving a helping hand, and soon, God will change the “me” into a “we”.
3.
Help is an action word:
avoid helping with our mouth.
Help is not help if nothing is
being done. Help is an action needed by the recipient. Just do it!
John Ortberg in his book Soul
Keeping, shared about a conversation he had with Dallas Willard, in which
Dallas said: “Being right is actually a very hard burden to be able to carry
gracefully and humbly. That’s why nobody likes to sit next to the kid in class
who’s right all the time. One of the hardest things in the world is to be right
and not hurt other people with it.”[2]
I find this so true and it is the biggest obstacle blocking the practice of
hospitality – “how to be right and yet not hurt other people with it”.
----- The End
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[1]http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-98-on-visiting-the-sick/
(access on 1st July 2016).
[2]John Ortberg, Soul Keeping:
Caring for The Most Important Part of You (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2014), 22.
