Chad Bryan on "Making Room" by Christine D. Pohl

Up until recently in my life, I would have defined Christian hospitality as “the trait one possesses to throw a good, Christian party.” I would have thrown some other things in there too, but the only times I really heard the word “hospitality” being used was in reference of praising my mom when she’d thrown a good tea party or bridal shower at our house. I would play host and take the adults’ coats and purses and we would have snacks and surface level conversation. Although inviting people into our homes is definitely a part of the picture Christine Pohl paints of hospitality, it gets much deeper and more difficult than the tea parties I grew up around.

Hospitality, as Pohl describes it, is deeply satisfying but challenging and requires resources and work that the congregations and individuals I grew up surrounded by seem to want to pass the buck on. We jealously guarded our time and resources so that only our immediate family and closest friends were included. But a truly hospitable lifestyle doesn’t allow for this kind of ignorance. Christ has called us to allow those in need to burst unexpectedly upon the scene and shatter the picture of our neat, tidy, controlled lives we tried to cling to.

Pohl explains that the word "hospitality" comes from the Greek words for "love" and "stranger.” These two words are paired together so perfectly to sum up one of the greatest commandments, and yet, the thought of it still causes me to hesitate when faced with the fullness of what true hospitality must look like in my life. Pohl cuts to the core and brings conviction upon my former (and, ashamedly, sometimes present) ways of living when she proclaims that, as challenging as it may be, "hospitality is not optional for Christians, nor is it limited to those who are specially gifted for it." Pohl makes it clear that the "gifts" one needs to become a practitioner of hospitality can be learned through prayer and participation in worship and community. Welcoming the stranger is welcoming Jesus. Breaking bread with persons in need, while at the same time offering them conversation and companionship, is affirming their God-given value and, ultimately, their humanity. The disciplines of hospitality are reminders of what Jesus did as he sat at table as guest with all walks of life and all types of need and even what He did for us on the cross.

Those who are in need, whether their needs are temporary or permanent, are to be taken care of and treated as we would treat members of our own family or closest friends. It is only when we embrace another person in that person’s poverty that we will be enriched and brought out of our own impoverished state. It’s at this place that I must face the reality of what Christ has called me to and take a look at the wretch looking back at me in the mirror. He offered me His life so that I could offer mine to those in need.