Pastor's Notes--May 2007

Practice Hospitality

A few years ago, I discovered a delightful addition to my New Testament vocabulary. The word is philoxenia (pronounced as if you are saying feel-o-zeen-ee-ah), and we translate the word into English as “hospitality”. Literally, philoxenia means “love of strangers”.

In its everyday use, the word hospitality gets tamed down as sort of a nice thing you do for others, and mostly, we tend toward doing so for folks you know best. To practice hospitality in its most profound way as “love of strangers”, Ana Maria Pineda writes, “The stranger at our door can be both gift and challenge, human and divine. All Christians are called to the practice of hospitality.” (Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People, 42)

In times when xenophobia (“fear of strangers”) drives our culture in subtle and overt ways, the Church has some experience with modeling hospitality to those in need or those who have been marginalized or forgotten. And, yes, the Church has been party to xenophobic habits as well! We should not forget that Christianity has been (and continues to be in parts of the Church) party to some very lamentable and exclusionary times in its history. Nonetheless, by the grace of God, the history of Christianity is enriched by a number of figures, quiet and charismatic alike, offering their hands, hearts, and minds over to efforts to include and tend persons who are often treated as “other”.

In the New Testament, Paul offers advice to the earliest Christian churches emerging across the Roman Empire. One of his most memorable words of instruction is quite easy to remember: “Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13, NIV) From the pages of church history, we learn of how Saint Francis embraced a leper, one of the ostracized people of medieval times. Soon after, Francis realizes that in doing so, he had embraced Christ Himself! In contemporary times, Jean Vanier started an international movement of caregivers who live in community with the disabled. (Learn about Vanier’s “L’arche” movement via: http://larcheusa.org/) More recent is the story of a gathering of Christians who live in Durham, NC. The Rutba House model their community around a semi-monastic way of life, and they deliberately live in poor and underprivileged neighborhoods so they can be a presence of hospitality in “abandoned places”. (Learn about “Rutba House” and its work via http://www.newmonasticism.org/)

To practice hospitality, Christians are asked to look very carefully at the various “scripts” spoken and unspoken that we harbor within ourselves. It can be a battle at times learning how to embrace someone that represents something that you do not know how to handle. Learning how to reorient one’s heart is a difficult task, however, the authenticity of being hospitable toward “the other” is crucial. The ambient anxiety of our day keeps us on edge, wondering about terrors seen and unseen. By practicing hospitality, we find ourselves rewriting a lot of things about our perspective on the world. I believe that the truly hospitable person becomes a much wiser and gracious person along the way. Hospitality stretches us, but it also loosens us so that we have the capacity to love and tend more abundantly.

This month, First Baptist is in the midst of practicing hospitality. A few dozen kits are being sent via Church World Service to help those in need around our country. On Mother’s Day, we present money for blankets to provide for those in need of warmth and shelter. Three persons travel down to Baton Rouge, LA, to build homes for Hurricane Katrina-affected families. Our trustees installed a handicapped accessible bathroom, making our facility more sensitive to the needs of all persons. Along with other religious groups, the mission board is planning an effort later in the year to help local school students in need. This summer, the deacons launch a “Fridays with First Baptist” effort, somewhat in part to help “us” get together, somewhat in hope that “us” will invite others to join in our times of fellowship and fun. Other efforts will take root and flourish with our individual investment of time, creativity, and yes, vulnerability to meet the needs of others, including the stranger.

Ana Maria Pineda observes, “What is important [about hospitality as a practice or way of life] is that each community discover how to practice hospitality in ways that are relevant to its own situation.” I would gather from the past few months of work and what is in development, we are learning well. May we continue to be a gathered people of God, always open to the pain of the world and moving in the midst of those in need of love and care.

Grace and peace,

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot