Practicing Radical Hospitality

Practicing Radical Hospitality

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Hebrews 13:2 cautions us. “Do not neglect to practice hospitality, because in so doing, some have entertained angels without realizing it.” The writer references Genesis 18, where Abraham receives three angelic messengers and hosts them at a meal. This thirteenth century icon by Andrei Rublev called “The Old Testament Trinity” recalls that event.

What would the practice of the art of radical hospitality in worship look like, in receiving newcomers, in engaging the community. Practicing hospitality goes beyond simply being polite to the stranger. Rather, radical hospitality, like that of Abraham and Jesus, engages the stranger, receives them as they are, seeks to understand the stranger, and asks nothing of them. Radical hospitality seeks to serve Christ in each person.

Consider these words from John McKnight and Peter Block.

. . . the key words for our community are invitation, participation, and connection. We each need to become great inviters,, like a host or hostess, opening the door to our community life. Our goal will be to have everyone participating, giving and receiving gifts. And our method will be connection--introducing the newly discovered gifts of the other neighbors and associations.

The great Irish poet William Butler Yeats is credited with an aphorism to guide the connectors: 'There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met.' So perhaps the best description of an abundant neighborhood, a powerful neighborhood, a great community is one that welcomes those on the margin, which is the heart of hospitality.

[The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods pp. 138-39.]

They are speaking of neighborhoods and communities in general, but these words apply with unique penetration to the church. We have been guilty of framing our mission of witness in terms of recruiting. We invite people to recruit them for membership.

Imagine reframing mission and witness as radical hospitality that invites the stranger, that receives them with open arms, that seeks to know them as they are and receive what they bring without “recruiting” them or asking anything from them at all. We would, in that way, avoid using them to meet the needs of our community and simply be inviting them to receive our hospitality and share their story and their gifts with us. If the Spirit joins them to our community, let that be an organic outgrowth of the connections formed.

The Connecticut-based rock band, “The Alternative Routes,” released a single in response to a request from a nonprofit for a song on this theme. The song is entitled “Nothing More.” It begins this way.

To be humble to be kind,

It is the giving of the peace in your mind.

To a stranger, To a friend

To give in such a way that has no end.

The refrain:

We are Love. We are One

We how we treat each other when the day is done.

We are Peace. We are War

We are how we treat each other and Nothing More.

Whether they have read Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, they have captured it. “In as much as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you have done it to me.” And, remember what we call the Golden Rule, “Whatever you would that others should do to you, do so to them.”

Our hospitality to friend and stranger does grow out of God’s peace in our minds, as The Alternate Routes put it in the song. God accepts us totally and welcomes us into God’s presence. Our welcome to newcomers grows out of that way of being welcomed. We do not recruit people for membership or see them as potential for meeting our need for bodies and givers. Rather, we simply offer radical welcome with no thought to what these people might give us. We give ourselves to them without reserve and without conditions and without expectations.

It is the work of the Spirit to add people to the community. That is an output that we cannot control. But, we can hinder the Spirit by our anxieties about what we “need” as a church. Relaxing into hospitality creates a much safer environment in which the stranger can more nearly sense God’s radical love and welcome. As the band put it, “We are how we treat each other.”