Radical hospitality (plus a book giveaway)

J. and I spent our morning today at a Safe Families training. I and a friend had helped to organize this training with the hope that people in our church and community would agree to be a Safe Family. While we can't actually be a Safe Family (it's a matter of number children in the home... DCFS regulations and all... it's all part of being 'outside acceptable parameters'), having now taken the regular training, we can take the further training and become a coach for active Safe Families. Plus, we can also open our home to any teenage mothers who are over 18 and need a place to go. It will be a new adventure.

But there was something in the training which I wanted to share with you. In the section dealing with Biblical hospitality (one of my favorite areas to read and think about, by the way), there were some interesting quotes. Here they are:

• "The Christian writer Tertullian (AD 200) wrote, 'It is our care of the helpless, our practice of loving-kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents.'"
• "When the early church was fully alive in engaging culture and significantly impacting the 'least of these,' the practice of offering care to strangers (hospitality) became a distinguishing characteristic."
• "The practice of Christian hospitality was most vibrant during the first five centuries of the church. It provided credibility (word and deed) and distinguished the church from its surrounding environment."
• "Hospitality was one of the foundational ministries of the early church, vehicle for the spread of the Gospel. Christians were to regard hospitality to strangers as a fundamental expression of the Gospel."
• "Do not forget to entertain strangers [hospitality], for by doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2"

I find it interesting that is was the early church's extreme hospitality that set it apart from the surrounding culture. Extreme meaning that the early Christian's hospitality extended to those deemed as the least. Hospitality was highly regarded in the ancient world. I found this quote on an online parallel Bible site, "The Romans regarded any violation of the rites of hospitality as impiety. Cicero says: 'It seems to me eminently becoming that the homes of distinguished men should be open to distinguished guests, and that it is an honor to the Republic that foreigners should not lack this kind of liberality in our city" (De Off. ii.18).'" So it wasn't just the hospitality aspect which set the Christians apart, but their hospitality to the helpless to use Tertullian's term. That's what was different.

Extreme or radical hospitality. It doesn't have to be something we read about and vaguely wish could happen again. It should be something that never stopped. This is our chance to be like King Josiah in 2 Kings 23, where the law is rediscovered after having been lost and King Josiah restores the keeping of the law. We can restore the practice of radical hospitality that was common in the early church. If our homes are really God's homes, then we can be generous with them; we can open them to people in need and show them God's love. This is what people are hungry for. And then when people ask why you would do such a thing, it provides the perfect opportunity to explain that we are the recipients of Jesus' great love and are merely sharing that love with others. It's not that we are able to do such things ourselves, but that Jesus' love works through us.

A friend of mine posted on her facebook page not long ago, sharing how her church was ministering to her and her family during a particularly difficult period. There were acts of service and acts of love shown to them over and over. One of the comments written on her status was, "Boy, I wish I attended your church." How sad. How utterly sad that my friend's church seems like such an anomaly when for Christians this should not strike any believer as unusual, but business as usual. 

Do not accept this. But part of not accepting this is to do something about it yourself. Open your home. Open your home to a child who needs a safe place to stay. Open your home to an orphan who needs a family. Open your home to a single person who is lonely. Open your home to someone recovering from an illness. Open your home. It doesn't matter what kind of home you live in or how your home is decorated or how spotless it is. What really matters is the love and care and compassion to be found within its walls. Let's all work, each and everyone one us, to practice such extreme hospitality that it is the first thing that people think of when they hear the name Christian. 
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Now, having made it this far, I'll reward you with a book giveaway! In our bags at the training was the book, Castaway Kid: one man's search for hope and home by R. B. Mitchell, published by Focus on the Family. It tells the story of man who spent his life in an American orphanage. We have an extra copy and here's how you can win it. Leave a comment telling about an experience of hospitality. I'll leave it open through January 30th and I'll announce the winner on the 31st.