Hospitality does not mean stepping out of your comfort zone and saying hi to the seemingly distraught or distant. Hospitality is not the “Art” of being polite to “Everyone no matter what.” No, hospitality is not even taking the time to eat with the socially neglected. Hospitality means living outside of your comfort zone and doing life with the weary. It means sacrificing all “Values,” that society holds as normal for the sake of relating to the outcast. This is the life path that we must rediscover. If we are to once again cultivate the lost art of hospitality, then we must commit to a life of swimming upstream in a world that goes with the flow. We will have to permanently venture outside of our american club-level box seats to life, and head out to make our home in the streets.
From the beginning of the book Christine D. Pohl pads each passage with plenty of biblical and historical evidence backing each of her conclusions. The amount of information seemed overwhelming at first, but as I continued to read I realized how vast and serious the matter of Hospitality is. Reading over all the historical accounts and reports of christian hospitality makes it unavoidably clear how vital this lost art is. It also made it abundantly obvious how much my journey needs hospitality as an everyday practice; how now is the time for us as a Christocentric people to love the broken, to serve the least, to embrace the social outcast and to not only feed, but to dine with the hungry. As I read through the book I loved how the author takes the reader elegantly through each component of hospitality, and paints a complete picture of what it will take to reclaim this ancient practice.
Pohl makes the point that before we can be host to anyone we must recognize our own brokenness. In order to hospitably fill a need we must first identify with our own neediness. If we fail to see how indigent we truly are then any attempt at being hospitable runs the risk of paying homage to our own ego at the expense of those being served. Without this vital self evaluation prior to service, our points are mute. We cannot connect to the christ within the stranger without realizing that we are also strangers in this land of grace. If we, in our own minds, are any more deserving than those served then no longer are we gifting anything real, we are simply throwing out hand-me-downs. The question then becomes: Can you, and can I remain broken enough that we can be used by He That Is Most High?
As we seek out our own brokenness let us find ourselves with those in need. Moving forward let us commit to being the least and loving our brothers and sisters. For only in doing so will we rediscover and reclaim this ancient practice and make it our own. Hospitality is too vital to this most excellent Way to be ignored. Through hospitality let us find and connect to the strangers among us, and in doing so have yet another encounter with the head of our body and the groom of our church, Jesus The Christ.
Your take on the historically and Biblical evidence of hospitality struck me as interesting, yet so important. I seemed to look at it as simply showing that this "hospitality" isn't a new concept, but it has been around a while. But I think you're right in saying that Pohl really showed how important and vital hospitality is in our lives, as well as in the lives of the people we extend hospitality too. Thanks bro.
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