Long Way Here

In the Ancient Near East the practice of hospitality moved beyond relational embrace to holistic care. It was a moral commitment that involved compassionate care and generosity for the “other,” especially someone far from home. Food, shelter, and physical well-being are signs (and outcomes) of hospitality. With this in mind I like to think of hospitality as solidarity with neighbors, including strangers, expressed by a mutual relationship of faithful presence, compassion, and generosity where we come together in the struggle for dignity and human flourishing.

Back to Jesus. With the inbreaking of God’s kingdom a new way of understanding what it means to be human has been announced. With God as Provider there is no limitation of resources. With God as divine Homemaker anyone can find a home. But this conviction must be enacted and practiced among those who confess it.

So Jesus mandates his followers to, “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.” Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭35‬-‭36‬ ‭NLT‬‬

About this text Dr. John Koenig observes, “the underlying faith expressed is that God takes an active part in generous relationships between humans, more than covering any “losses” incurred by the one who extends aid. But those who choose the life of greedy accumulation over the life of sharing cut themselves off from God’s abundance.” (New Testament Hospitality: Partnership with Strangers as Promise and Mission, 37.)

What followers of Jesus have to decide is do we believe God can cover any potential “loss”, and then some, when we take this kind of hospitality serious enough that we become reliant on God’s abundance?

Thinking of Jesus’ closest followers they would have been hard to describe as a community. The social descriptions available to first-century Palestine didn’t have a clear category for them. They were not only the destitute or only the rich, among them were both. They were not only male or only female, among them were both. They were not only the out-crowd or only the in-crowd, among them were both. We read of the inclusion of the working class and the upper class (Mk. 1:16-20; John 19:38); of a military leader and a synagogue ruler (Mt. 8:5-13, Lk. 7:1-10; Mk. 5:21-24, 35-43); of the religious and political elite to the religiously and politically left-out (Lk. 8:1-3; 19:7; Mk. 15:42-43; Jn. 19:39).

God’s hospitality and abundance at work among them created a common life between them that opened up new possibilities. You see this in the system of economics at work in the community of Jesus. It appears as nonsensical as it does paradoxical. Although the larger community of followers consisted of a variety of social descriptions and classes, it all began with the twelve disciples. They walked away from economic security in the form of jobs and ready-accessible possessions to discover the way of God’s abundance in the form of material hospitality.

What else can be observed when considering the images Jesus associates with God’s hospitality and abundance is that the Church cannot become a living parable or a “sign, instrument, and foretaste” of Christ’s reign if we are seduced to other “reigns,” that is to say, allegiances, particularly to a nation. Not only does the testimony of the Church throughout Acts bear witness—it was said they were “guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus” (17:7)—but it amounts to an absurd pursuit of smaller kingdoms where the Church becomes the main character in a comedy of errors. When contrasted with the testimony of Jesus and his followers it should be clear to us how dangerously misguided, exclusionary in practice, unjust in ethic, and shortsighted in vision this kind of pursuit becomes. When we lack faith in God’s abundance and waiver in commitment to God’s inclusionary hospitality we experience a subtle shift from allegiance to Christ’s reign alone to Christ’s reign plus another.

This is the current reality of American life. There is no longer a “christianity,” but “christainities” (I believe this has always been true). We must be mindful as to which expression looks most like the Jesus of Scripture.