The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Disciplines – Hospitality 2

    Our last article looked at the tradition of hospitality as an ancient custom shared by human beings all over the world. The essence of hospitality is sharing what one has (food, clothing, shelter and protection) with a stranger. This sharing was not dictated by law but was considered to be part of the essence of being a good human being because it was believed that God or the gods desired that we take care of one another. While hospitality was primarily a product of nomadic cultures we will see that it became part of the Jewish and Roman cultures in which Christianity was birthed.

    We witness the pervasive nature of hospitality within the New Testament in the travels of the disciples, the teachings of Jesus and the travels and letters of Paul. In terms of the ministry of Jesus and the travels with his disciples we need to remember that they did not work to support themselves. They were completely beholding to the kindness of others. Scripture tells us that Jesus and the disciples were supported by the gifts of his female followers. In addition there are numerous stories of Jesus eating with Pharisees as well as with sinners and tax-collectors. In other words Jesus was willing to accept the hospitality of anyone who offered. One of the most retold stories of this hospitality concerns Jesus' meal with the tax-collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19), where Jesus actually invites himself to dinner. In the Gospel of Mark (6:8 ff.) we read of Jesus teaching his disciples that they must be completely dependent on the hospitality of those who would receive them. This admonition also included a warning that they not move up to better quarters even if they were offered. Jesus' offering of hospitality is seen in the crowd feeding stories in which the disciples were told to share their meager rations with the thousands who were listening to Jesus preach. The fact that the little food possessed by the disciples fed everyone was a reminder of God's hospitality.

    Jesus' teachings also include stories about hospitality. One of the most significant of these stories was the Good Samaritan story. If you recall the story it concerns a Jewish man who has been beaten and robbed on a road going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Hospitality would dictate that anyone coming across this poor man would stop and help him. However, in Jesus' story, a Jewish priest and Levite pass him by and ignore the hospitality directive. Ultimately the one who shows Godly hospitality is a Samaritan (an enemy of the Jews) who binds the man's wounds and provides for his lodging. The Samaritan understands that God requires hospitality for everyone including strangers and enemies. A second significant teaching on hospitality occurs in Matthew 25 where we hear Jesus telling his followers that they are responsible for taking care of "the least of these." The story is focused on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving water to the thirsty, opening our homes to the homeless and visiting those in prison. All of these are acts of hospitality.

    Finally we catch glimpses of hospitality in the life of the early church through the stories in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and in Paul's letters. In Acts 6 we watch the struggle over hospitality as the church tries to figure out how to care for Greek speaking widows in Jerusalem. They were strangers and thus had been left out of the food distribution. The Apostles take care of this and assure that the widows' needs are taken care of. In Romans 12 Paul specifically encourages the church to practice hospitality. In I Corinthians 11 he chastises the church because at their love feast (sort of an early communion service) some people were eating and drinking at the same time others were going hungry (a violation of hospitality in which all is shared). The Apostle Peter (I Peter 4:9) reminds his readers to practice hospitality "ungrudgingly".

    In the final analysis hospitality was one of the hallmarks of the early church. It is what set it apart from much of the urban Roman culture in which it was being formed. People were drawn to a community that cared for and about the stranger.

    

The Road to Redemption – Spiritual Disciplines Hospitality 1

I want us to begin thinking about hospitality by musing on the "hospitality industry." Wikipedia defines it as "a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise lines and additional fields with the tourism industry." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality_industry) What makes this reference germane to our discussion is that the hospitality industry understands that it has an obligation to serve the needs of its guests. The Ritz-Carlton chain puts it this way; their staff members are "Ladies and Gentlemen, serving Ladies and Gentlemen." In other words the people who stay in their hotels are to be treated as honored guests and not merely paying customers. While not all portions of the industry act in this manner, it is becoming more and more common. Virtually every time I buy a fast-food meal or stay in a motel, I am offered a way go on line and tell the company about the service I have received. All of this is a realization that there is an obligation to serve the customer in a way that they feel like they matter.

This sense of hospitality, that one has an obligation to treat strangers as honored guests, is in fact an ancient concept. Most nomadic cultures (both ancient and modern) practiced and practice hospitality. There seemed to be something about the shared experience of wandering and having no idea where your next meal might be coming from that engendered a culture of welcoming the stranger into one's home. There is extensive literature concerning hospitality within Bedouin, Mongolian, Tibetan and Kazakh nomadic societies. Each of these groups developed a particular set of customs and rituals centered on the welcoming of the stranger. The welcome that was offered was not for gaining money or prestige, but was a culturally condition obligation. Hospitality within these cultures included offering food, shelter and safety to the stranger. This hospitality also included a welcome to an enemy, in so far as the enemy was willing to follow the rules of being a guest (no violence or betrayal).

Hospitality was also part of the ancient Greek culture. The concept was called "Xenia" which can be translated as "guest friendship." Its roots were based in religion where the Greek god Zeus was also known as Zeus Xenios because he was the protector of travelers; thus protecting travelers mattered. Religion also played a role in that one was supposed to offer hospitality to strangers because they could be gods in disguise. There were two parts to Xenia. The first had to do with the host respecting the guest. This could include offers of food, drink, lodging and safety. The second had to do with the guest respecting the host. The guest was to be courteous and was never to take advantage of the host. In The Iliad we witness the breakdown of this relationship when Paris, as a guest of King Menelaus, abducts the king's wife, Helen. This infraction of guest friendship demanded vengeance and thus became the basis for the Trojan War. The entire book, The Odyssey, functions around this concept as well with some characters showing Xenia and others not.

The most significant story of hospitality in the Old Testament is that of Abraham and the three strangers in Genesis 18:1-8. In this story Abraham sees three strangers at the door of his tent. Abraham immediately rises and begs the men to stay with him. He follows the custom of offering them a place to rest, water to wash their feet and a "morsel of bread." The morsel of bread however turns out to be freshly baked cakes and a calf cooked up for dinner. Guests received the best the host had to offer. The most prominent story of a lack of hospitality is that of the city of Sodom. (Genesis 19) When Lot, who had been a nomad and understood hospitality, received his guests into his house, the men of the town want to rape them, which is a violation of hospitality. Lot was even willing to allow his virgin daughters to be ravaged rather than violate hospitality. Notice in both of these stories the strangers are not human strangers but in the Abraham story it is the Lord who visits and in the Lot story it is angels who come to his home.

The Road to Redemption: Spiritual Disciplines - Fasting 3

    Our last two articles have examined the spiritual discipline of fasting in both the Old and New Testaments. We discovered that it has been a common spiritual practice for God's people across the ages. At this point many of you may be wondering how you could experiment with the practice as a means of focusing your life upon God. What follows is a brief overview of how one might go about fasting.

    Be clear about your basic purpose for fasting: as has been said, fasting is a spiritual practice by which we can focus our mind and heart upon God rather than upon the body. Fasting is not to be used as a means of earning "brownie points" with God, as a way of punishing yourself for misdeeds, or as a means of losing weight. It is to be used as a time of self-examination and focus in which our hearts can be opened in new ways to God's leading.

    Check with your doctor: you should not begin a fast until you have cleared it with your doctor. For many of us there may be requirements to take medications with food, issues with blood sugar levels, or existing eating disorders (among other issues) which might make fasting difficult and even dangerous. By checking with your physician you may be able to work out a modified fast regime that keeps you safe while you practice.

    Begin slowly: some of us have a tendency to set extreme immediate goals in all that we do. This might express itself in trying to fast for a long period of time at the outset of experimenting with fasting. It is better to begin slowly, fasting for part of day, then a day and if desired perhaps for a longer period after that. Remember that fasting is a spiritual discipline intended to focus our minds and hearts. It is not a competition to see who can fast the longest or the best.

    Let someone know you are fasting: this may seem a bit odd that you should let someone know about this practice considering Jesus did not like public displays of fasting. I offer this advice for two reasons. First it allows someone to pray for you while you fast in order to encourage you in your fasting. Second there is someone who is watching over your physical well-being, helping to assure that your fast does not harm you.

    Decide on the type of fast in which you will be engaged: this means deciding if you are fasting as the beginning of an ongoing practice (weekly, monthly, annually), for a specific purpose (seeking God's will on a particular issue in your life), or merely experimenting to see if this might be a practice in which you might want to further engage. By so doing fasting does not become haphazard but has a focus which will make it more meaningful.     

Set a definite time and length for your fast: good parameters are helpful in any task including spiritual disciplines such as fasting. Setting parameters entails making clear when you will begin your fast and when you will end it. You may want to choose a particular day of the week as well as a specified time during that day. This will help to insure that you actually fast rather than letting it slide by.

Be consistent: if you choose to make fasting a practice, it is good to be consistent in the timing and length of your fasting. By so doing you begin to develop a rhythm to your practice which will deepen your experience of encountering God. This is similar to prayer, where having a set time and place to pray helps to ensure that prayer (and fasting) become long term practices.

Spend time in prayer: as I have noted in earlier articles, fasting is a practice intended to connect us more fully with God. If it is to do so it needs to be accompanied by prayer. The connection between the two can be seen in the scriptures where fasting and prayer are almost always linked.

Reflect on your experience: Ultimately any spiritual discipline must deepen your relationship with God or it is not worth doing. If fasting does not prove to be meaningful to you, then perhaps other disciplines might prove more beneficial.