The practice of hospitality

He came to his own people, but his own people did not welcome him. But to those who welcomed him, he gave the power to be the children of God. They were not blood relatives but were brothers and sisters enlivened by the same Spirit. This is a beautiful and encouraging passage from the John Gospel.

When Jesus sent out his followers on a witnessing forage, he told them to take no extra clothes or supplies. They were to rely on the hospitality of ordinary people who live along the way. If the traveling evangelists were welcomed, they would know the residents of the house were Israelites of faith, who would eagerly welcome them and offer hospitality. If there were those who refused hospitality, Jesus’ group of witnesses were to shake the dust from their feet and move on down the road.

The point is very plain. Those who offer hospitality are identified as the people of God. Those who refuse hospitality are in big trouble with God. They have left the family of God.

The tradition of hospitality is very ancient in Israelite practice. The second half of Psalm 23 is a beautiful picture of a refugee being welcomed and treated as royalty at the very time that an enemy was lurking outside to do the refugee harm.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is a version of the Israelite law of hospitality. Of course modern Christians have distorted the commandment and use it to reject rather than accept the peculiar people who are always around in abundance. A more accurate version of the commandment would be “love your neighbor as you would a member of your own family.”

It is not difficult to trace the practice of hospitality through the Bible. Sometimes the children of Israel, led by sensitive prophets tried to practice the essence of the Law of Moses. Other times they went on disastrous forays of war, rather than cultivating neighbors with hospitality. Jesus entered our worldly environment to lead a return to love of neighbors and offering hospitality to all those that would hear and pursue the blessings of hospitality.

Christian church history is a story of fervent pursuit of neighborly hospitality and of times of bitter dispute, rejection and the absurdity of war. We Christians ignore the lessons of Israelite history and the pointed teachings of Jesus.

The United States is not a Christian nation and was never intended to be a Christian nation. However we have been informed by Christian standards and have attempted at times to live by the standards of Judaism and Christianity.

Our welcoming of refuges and sojourners is a proud example. Those of us who are of European Caucasian heritage have been enormous benefactors of that welcome. Certainly we struggled with the Italians, the Irish, and the Polish, but we have done pretty well in the final accounting. We have struggled mightily with Chinese immigrants and other folks from the Pacific rim. I believe we will win this struggle.

African immigrants are a different subject. They were brought across the Atlantic against their will. They were not welcomed; they were enslaved. Our treatment of them was atrocious and continues in many parts of the country. I suspect we owe them a debt that can never be repaid. We can only beg their forgiveness.

Now we face the challenge of welcoming immigrants from the Middle East.. Are we going to continue the pursuit of a long practiced ideal of welcoming the stranger and the sojourner? Will we make neighbors of those we perceive as radically different?

And we are building walls and fences between America and Mexico! How can we justify such foolishness and still be true to our stated ideals.

Application of our standard of welcoming the stranger and practicing hospitality is going through a new challenge. It is akin to our struggle to fully welcome our gay population. This latest challenge is similar to the gay challenge in that it is internal in America.

The 1980s and 1990s were bad years for people who committed non-violent crimes. Righteous indignation, especially in certain religious groups was overwhelming. It was a time “to get tough on crime,” “for three strikes and you’re out,” and “for mandatory sentencing.” Building bigger prisons was a growth industry. Many of the prisons were built by private enterprise. Departments of Correction hired lots of people. The profile of the new population was heavily racial. Crime rates did not go down, and people did not feel safer. Some people of conscience protested loud and long. They were not heard. The cost of this ugly adventure has caught up with the failed systems.

Prisoners, particularly those who have no violence in their record, are being released. Prison populations are going down. In his presidency, Barack Obama has commuted the sentences of 774 prisoners. That compares to 83 clemency actions by Reagan, Bush and Clinton combined. The release of prisoners will be massive, probably in the hundreds of thousands. Where will they live? Who will welcome these American sojourners? Who will employ them? Who will see them as neighbors to be loved as members of their families?

This is a great opportunity for churches to demonstrate what their leader taught.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retire American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.com.