Monthly newsletter November 2011

I think I'm going to look forward to the coming series on hospitality.Now there's a concept that has changed its emphasis since New Testament times. In today's society, hospitality largely consists ofinviting people like yourself round for a meal, often in the expectation that they'll invite you back for a similar offering from the pages of Deliaor Jamie. You may even be saying to yourself, "I suppose we'd better invite them back." Today, there is even a hospitality industry.

As I understand it, the view was rather different in the early church. Not that there is anything wrong in inviting friends for a meal. Far from it, but it would have been seen not as hospitality, but as part of normal social interaction and fellowship. Hospitality was directed towards people who were not in a position to repay you, for whatever reason. It might be that they are visitors, passing through your town, whom you will never see again or it might be that their circumstances would mean they were unable to offer a return meal. It's well expressed in Romans12:13 "Share with God's people who are in need. Practise hospitality" or as the CEV puts it "Take care of God's needy people and welcome strangers into your home." After all, if it's God's hospitality that's our example, there's no way we can get anywhere near repaying that.

This reminds me of the odd times in the past when we've done this, and some of them really were very odd. I'm reminded of the sheer variety of people and situations we came up against. Few if any were in any position to repay in any way. One did try once by giving us a bunch of roses – a delightful gesture spoilt only by the fact that they had almost certainly been nicked from a neighbour's garden. Overall it was a very positive experience, though not without its moments. I look forward to us, as a church, developing hospitality as it was in the early church.You never know what you might end up doing. Come to think of it, it must have been like that in the early church and at least it shouldn't be boring.

John

November 2011