The Hospitality of Faith

                Yesterday morning I walked into two different Sunday School classes that were trying to interpret for one another the language of “hashtags” (#) and “at signs” (@) and abbreviations (lol) that get used in social media and texting.  Needless to say, the folk in one room did not naturally gravitate to Facebook, Twitter or letting the fingers do the talking.  Many prefer phone calls, letters, and personal interactions.  It’s helpful to interact with people who no longer feel the need to stay up with trends just because they are trending.  A lot of time can be wasted trying to learn how to manage some new media only to discover you don’t have much use for it.  The general consensus I heard emerge seemed to be:  don’t worry about a new form of communication unless it’s the way someone you want to communicate with communicates (i.e., if it’s how talk to grandkids, get on board).

                That got me thinking about what the word hospitality really means.  Hospitality conjures up images of a host making people at home and comfortable within the space controlled by the host—at a home, hotel, or restaurant.  But what if hospitality is more broadly understood as creating space where meaningful connection can be made?   Sometimes that means finding ways to connect with people on their terms and on their turf.  It means deciding that another person or people matter enough to overcome the barriers that separate us. 

                This is the sort of hospitality we receive from God.  God uses ways we can understand to communicate with us.  I doubt that God regards sunrise to be more beautiful than any other time of day. But as the song says, “when morning gilds the sky my heart awakening cries, ‘May Jesus Christ be praised.’”  Sunrise speaks a language I understand. We speak of the Bible as the Word of God but, it’s not written in the language of God.  It’s written in human language.  Jesus Christ, God’s ultimate revelation, accommodated himself to live in human flesh.  He lived a life we could access and spoke a language we could understand.  Christ came to us on our terms and on our turf.  That’s the example of hospitality we have to follow.  Thanks be to God.