In a world that has grown frighteningly guarded and harsh, Christian congregations are called to imitate the “table manners” of Jesus by being sacraments of God’s hospitality in the world. How do we become these kinds of congregations in the Church and for the world today? Some Thoughts.
Reflection
How do we forge bonds of friendship with the very people we are trained to view suspiciously? Moreover, we build barriers because of ethnic and racial differences, We build barriers on the basis of economic, social, or political differences, Barriers pop up when differences of gender, physical or mental ability, educational background, or religion render us closed and inhospitable. Or we settle behind barriers on account of prejudice, grudges, unhealed hurts, or painful memories. Instead of nurturing friendship and intimacy, we foster disconnection and estrangement.
The people of God are not immune to these forms of barrier building. Christians tend to break bread within socioeconomic monocultures, homogenized enclaves where nearly everyone is of the same color or tax bracket. Some churches rally around political agendas of the left or right, and pitch their programs to an ideologically chosen few. Their evangelism looks suspiciously like brand advertising. From the gospel’s perspective, this is a dangerous predicament because it directly contradicts the behavior of Jesus who gladly sat down at table with anyone.
I believe I can hear a radical call from the heart of God, to create congregations that do not mimic and mirror the discords, divisions, and discriminations of our societies, but work to overcome them by witnessing something more hopeful and promising, something truly of God. God’s heart urges us to embrace our Christian vocation of hospitality. In a world of terrorism and war, school shootings, road rage, and pervasive anger and discontent, it is no wonder that concern for safety and security frequently triumphs over hospitality to the stranger. Yet this environment is toxic for the hospitality and generosity that enables us to see the poor, the homeless, the hungry and the needy, immigrants and refugees and prisoners, not as dangerous threats, but as Christ’s presence among us.
It diminishes our humanity, for we are created for the communion and intimacy that are the fruit of an ever-expanding love. Precisely in this culture of fear we must see hospitality as our Christian vocation, because it is through hospitality that we offer the most compelling witness of who God is, who we are called to be, and what the world through God’s grace can become.
I believe the heart of God is calling us all to focus our worship to celebrate God’s hospitality. Authentic worship, which praises and glorifies God rather than consoles and affirms ourselves, schools us in the upside-down ways of God. At worship we hear the story of a God who is passionate about justice to the poor, vigilant in concern for widows, orphans, and refugees, and jealously protective of the vulnerable of the world. God’s banquet—Eucharist, or Communion—connects us to all the biblical scenes of feeding, welcoming, sheltering, and caring— scenes that vividly reveal who God is and who we are called to be. It reminds us that everything we possess is a gift, and this should make us both grateful to God and generous to one another. In the household of God we are not owners but stewards, people entrusted to do good with whatever we have, especially to those strangers who are most in need.
I also believe that God is calling for us to become persons and communities formed in love and charity. Love and Charity is a life of friendship and fellowship with God through which the ‘friends of God’ model their lives on the incomparably expansive love of God. It is the opposite of “safe neighbor love,” which is “calculating, selective, and restricted to all those we prefer to love because they are easy to love. This love and charity is risky and full of grace.
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