The Hospitable Jesus
We find in jesus the supreme example of what hospitality is. We find him giving as well as receving hospitality. Jesus was a master at it. From the woman at the well to the feeding of the 5,000. In the Gospels we have charted out for us the open handed hospitality that Jesus gave. It was not mission or evangelism that jesus was thinking about as these are relativly late words for the chhristian church. Friendship and hospitality and hospitality were the circles that Jesus moved in.
Henri Nouwen says “Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend and not an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space in which change can take place”.
Jesus lived in this kind of a way. One of the great things that I can see at the moment is that we are given afresh each day the chance to offer and receive this kind of open handed hospitality in our everyday surroundings. Our homes as well as our churches become places of hospitality because our hearts have become places of hospitality. With the nations gathering around us in contemporary Britain we are encouraged by God to experience hospitality without borders.
”A lack of hospitality is like a cold draft in a room on a grey day. It leaves you chilled and not warmed, empty rather than nurtured, hungry rather than nourished” Cindy Holtrop – Calvin institute of Christian Worship.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
