Open
House! Businesses advertise them, inviting customers in. Realtors host
them to show a residence for sale. Schools announce them welcoming
parents into classrooms. Our church is having something like an ‘open
house’ this weekend promoting “Back to Church” Sunday. We are inviting
people who have left church or who are alienated from church to come on
home!
Do
you live in an open house? Is your home welcoming, often hosting others
in a way that says to them, “you’re just family around here”? Do you
practice ‘philoxenos,’ welcoming strangers in the name of Christ?
The
best life is the shared life! When I was a child, we lived on a farm
right across the road from my grandparents’ home. Grandma Scott’s home
would never have won any awards for house-keeping. The cuisine that
graced the table was in no sense fine dining. The house itself was
unadorned, the furniture worn, the décor was ‘early thrift shop!’ Yet,
there were always people around the huge table that sat in the middle of
the room. Farmers in dirty boots pulled up for a cup of coffee on
weekday mornings. People from the church dropped by for a chat on
Saturday. Business deals were closed in that room. Preachers and
missionaries sat at the simple table for the simple fare served on it
and even more for the soul nourishment found there. And Grandma was
always ready to welcome me, even though I was probably a nuisance. The
home captured the very essence of hospitality - a place of true welcome.
People were not ‘intruding,’ they were part of the heartbeat of the
home.
The Bible says, "Offer hospitality (NT word - philoxenos)
to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he
has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in
its various forms." (1 Peter 4:9-10, NIV) The Bible is not calling
us to our current kind of hospitality, which confuses ‘entertaining
guests’ with having an open home. We generally think of hospitality as
something we do after getting our house all in order, preparing a lavish
meal, and putting on our best face. We can only muster that kind of
effort occasionally so ‘hospitality’ becomes an event instead of way of
living! “Dropping in” on others is something that is less and less
common with the rise in our love of privacy. This creates a tragic loss
for us.
God
never intended for us to live private lives, isolated from one another,
engaged only with the blue flicker of a television screen. We are
designed to love and be loved. Sin robs this joy from us, turning us
into competitors, making us prideful so that we feel pressured to be
‘somebody’ instead of being ourselves. We struggle mightily to deal with
life, because we are largely alone.
Christians
must recover the gift of hospitality, living with open homes and open
hearts. People who are secure in the love of Christ, who offer
themselves authentically to others, have little need to impress with a
home straight out of the pages of a decorater’s catalog or with a
gourmet meal. They give the best gift - a warm welcome - and discover
that a shared life is the best life!
The
word from the Word come from Jesus’ own words. It is about hospitality;
philoxenos, which literally means ‘love of strangers.’ “Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you? Even the sinners do that!" (Luke 6:32, NLT) “Then
these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry
and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger
and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we
ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ And the King will tell
them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my
brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" (Matthew 25:37-40, NLT)
Lord, help us to love, and
In loving, to find love. Amen
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