The Welcoming Congregation

Roots and Fruits of Christian Hospitality

Henry G. Brinton

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780664237004
• eBook ISBN: 9781611641714
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

"Every time people sit down to eat and drink together, there is the possibility that community will grow and people will be reconciled to one another. This is good news for a fractured and polarized world, and a strong sign of the importance of being a welcoming congregation that embraces all people with God's love and grace." from the introduction

This practical book by pastor and writer Henry G. Brinton studies the biblical basis for Christian hospitality and how it is practiced in congregations today. While recognizing the challenges for embracing all people in the life of the church, Brinton offers a helpful guide for creating a hospitable congregation and welcoming others through spiritual formation, reconciliation, and outreach. He includes discussion questions and an action plan in each chapter.

PART 1
The Roots of Hospitality

Congregations that make a positive first impression in everything from architecture to worship help invite the stranger into their midst, and congregations that further welcome and include those visitors through meals and small groups deepen the connections people have to God and to each other. Hospitable places and practices are necessary anchors for congregations that want to welcome and include new people in the life of the church.

Chapter 1


Biblical and Historical Roots of Christian Hospitality

Building that “house of prayer for all peoples” that we discussed in the introduction feels like an enormous task. Most of us have a natural fear of strangers, and we are reminded every day of the political, racial, cultural, sexual, and economic distinctions that so often divide us. We know that we are most comfortable with people who look and act like ourselves, and that it is easiest to build community among groups of like-minded individuals. But we also realize that the kingdom of God will not be homogeneous; instead it will include “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev. 7:9). So part of our challenge as Christians is to prepare ourselves for life in the kingdom by doing whatever we can to build inclusive communities, and we will do this best by following the style of hospitality practiced by Jesus Christ and his earliest followers.

Hospitality in the Bible

Christine Pohl, the author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, says that the most important biblical passage for the entire tradition on Christian hospitality is found in the final judgment of Matthew 25, in which Jesus says, “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’” (vv. 34–35). The message of this passage is that we welcome Jesus the king when we welcome a stranger, and that our place in God’s eternal kingdom is connected to the place we make in our own lives for those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, or a stranger to us. “God’s invitation into the Kingdom is tied to Christian hospitality in this life,” writes Pohl. “Acts of welcoming the stranger, or leaving someone outside cold and hungry, take on intensely heightened significance when it is Jesus himself who experiences the consequences of our ministry or the lack of it.”¹

But hospitality is not simply an action tied to final judgment in the Bible. No, throughout the whole of the Scriptures it is a practice that is valued and demonstrated by people of faith in various times and places. In a New Year message following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said that he used to think that the greatest command in the Bible was “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” but then he realized that this command appears in only one place in the Hebrew Bible. More significantly, he said, “in more than thirty places it commands us to love the stranger.” This is difficult, because for the most part it is not too hard for us to love our neighbors, people who are similar to us. “What’s tough is to love the stranger,” said Sacks—the person who is not like us, who has a different skin color, faith, or background. “That’s the real challenge. It was in ancient times. It still is today.”²

In Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah are camping by the oaks of Mamre, and Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looks up, sees three men standing near him, and immediately jumps up and runs from the tent to meet them. Bowing down, he offers them water for washing, bread to eat, and a place to rest. They accept Abraham’s offer of hospitality, and he works with Sarah and his servant to prepare a full meal for them. In the course of the meal, one of the men predicts that Sarah will have a son, which causes Sarah to laugh to herself, since both she and Abraham are advanced in age. But they quickly learn to take these words seriously, since it is none other than the Lord who is appearing to them in the form of these three strangers. The Lord says to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old? Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:13–14). Sure enough, Sarah conceives and bears a son named Isaac, just as God had promised, and years later the writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses this story as the basis for the recommendation, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2). This passage reminds us that hospitality not only welcomes strangers but recognizes their holiness. “The stranger at our door can be both gift and challenge,” concludes Catholic sister Ana María Pineda, “human and divine.”³

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people of Israel that their Lord is “God of gods and Lord of lords,” and that this mighty and awesome God is a deity who “executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing” (10:17, 18). Of all the qualities that could be lifted up in a description of a mighty God—winner of battles, destroyer of evil, builder of nations—how remarkable it is that Moses focuses on God’s desire to love and feed strangers and to execute justice for widows and orphans. Moses goes on to insist that this quality of God’s character is meant to shape the character of the Israelites themselves; he commands: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (v. 19). This call for hospitality toward strangers appears multiple times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it is usually linked to the experience of the Israelites themselves, as slaves and strangers in the land of Egypt. The Old Testament texts, writes Christine Pohl, “reminded the Israelites that they knew the heart of the stranger from their own experience (Exod. 23:9) and therefore had to treat strangers well.”⁴

Hospitality is clearly a quality of God and is meant to be a quality of God’s people as well. “The LORD watches over the strangers,” says Psalm 146:9; “he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.” And just exactly who are “the wicked” that God brings to ruin? “They kill the widow and the stranger,” says Psalm 94, “they murder the orphan, and they say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive’” (vv. 6–7). Again and again throughout the Bible, God’s people are taught to treat the aliens among them with justice: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exod. 22:21), and “when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien … you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33–34). Before the people of Israel cross into the promised land, Moses says, “‘Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.’ And all the people say, ‘Amen!’” (Deut.27:19).

On a very practical level, the Israelites are commanded to provide for the needy among them by not keeping all their produce for themselves: “You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien” (Lev.19:10; also Deut. 24:21), and “you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien” (Lev. 23:22, as well as Deut. 24:19). The Israelites are also instructed to pay ten percent of all their produce in the third year, the “year of the tithe,” and this is to be given to “the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns” (Deut.26:12). Through the prophet Zechariah, God says, “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” (7:8–10).

A beautiful illustration of hospitality is found in the book of Ruth, where a rich man of Bethlehem named Boaz meets a foreigner—a Moabite woman named Ruth. She has moved to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and has gone into the fields to glean among the ears of grain, behind the Israelite reapers. Boaz sees her, saying, “I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” Ruth bows down before him and asks, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” Boaz answers, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me…. May the LORD reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge” (Ruth 2:1–13). Boaz and Ruth become husband and wife and then have a son, who becomes the grandfather of King David.

In this brief and surprising story, an outsider named Ruth becomes the ancestor of Israel’s greatest king, and an insider named Boaz becomes a model of hospitality to the foreigner and the widow. This is a marvelous illustration of biblical teaching on hospitality, although, notes Letty Russell, it is “in direct contradiction of the earlier Israelite view that foreigners should be excluded from Israel.”⁵ It seems that God was working to break down the barriers between Israel and its neighbors long before Isaiah spoke of “a house of prayer for all peoples.”

This concern for strangers continues in the hospitality practices of the early church. When two disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, the risen Jesus comes near and walks with them, but their eyes are kept from recognizing him. When Jesus asks about the events they are discussing, one of them says, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” (v. 18). In this story, Jesus is depicted as a stranger, and his disciples are challenged to show hospitality toward him. Sure enough, as they come near the village that is their destination, Jesus walks ahead as if he is going on. But the two disciples urge him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over” (v. 29). So Jesus goes in to stay with him, and when he is at table with them, he takes bread, blesses it and breaks it, and gives it to them. Then their eyes are opened and they recognize him—and he vanishes from their sight. Like Abraham and Sarah, they discover that when they welcome a stranger, they welcome the Lord.

The apostle Paul says that one of the marks of the true Christian is to “contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers” (Rom. 12:13). Paul benefits from this practice himself, when he, Timothy, and Silas first arrive in Philippi on their missionary journey to Macedonia and meet a woman named Lydia at a place of prayer by a river (Acts 16:11–15). Lydia hears the gospel message and is baptized along with her household, and then she urges Paul, Timothy, and Silas to “come and stay at my home” (v. 15). This they do. In similar fashion, Peter encourages members of the early church to “be hospitable to one another without complaining” (1 Pet. 4:9), and Paul identifies a faithful widow as “one who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in every way” (1 Tim. 5:10). Paul also includes hospitality in his list of qualifications for bishops: “above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable” (1 Tim. 3:2); “hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled” (Titus 1:8). Paul encourages all his followers to “welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom. 15:7). Clearly, Christian hospitality is grounded in the practices of Christ, and some of the best examples of this virtue are found in the ministry of Jesus himself.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2).

The Hospitality of Jesus

In the Gospel of John, Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, turning more than one hundred gallons of water into wine, so that the wedding celebration can continue (John 2:1–11). Interpretations of this passage may vary, but at its most basic level it is a miracle of hospitality. Jesus goes on to feed a crowd of 5,000 (Matt. 14:13–21, Mark 6:30–44, Luke 9:10–17, John 6:1–14) and then feed another 4,000 (Matt. 15:32–39, Mark 8:1–10), revealing his desire to nourish people both physically and spiritually. He washes the feet of his disciples (John 13:1–20), institutes the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26–29, Mark 14:22–25, Luke 22:15–20), and after his resurrection cooks a fish breakfast for his disciples (John 21:1–24). Jesus teaches us what it means to care for each other in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37), welcomes little children in spite of his disciples’ objections (Matt.19:13–15, Mark 10:13–16, Luke 18:15–17), and instructs his followers in the nature of hospitality with the words, “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Luke 14:13).

“Many of Jesus’ miracles are worked for outsiders,” writes historian Garry Wills in his book What Jesus Meant. In the New Testament, Jesus heals the servant of a non-Jewish centurion and the daughter of a woman from Tyre. “But the greatest category has to do with people who are unclean, with whom observant Jews are to have no dealings—with lepers, with prostitutes, with the crippled, with the reviled, with the uncircumcised, or with those made unclean by their illness (therefore ‘possessed’).” The miracles of Jesus are targeted to teach lessons about the reign of God, and “one of the main lessons is that people should not be separated into classes of the clean and unclean, the worthy and the unworthy, the respectable and the unrespectable.”⁶ Jesus understands that hospitality is best directed to persons on the margins of society, and this causes him to be criticized repeatedly for eating and drinking with undesirable people. “Look,” say his opponents, “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34).

But Jesus never allows criticism to disrupt his table fellowship with those who need to hear his message. When the Pharisees ask why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners, he responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matt. 9:11–12). He allows a sinful woman to kiss his feet and anoint them while he is having dinner with a Pharisee, and because of her great faith he forgives her (Luke 7:36–50). He calls out to a notorious tax collector named Zacchaeus and invites himself to dinner, saying, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:1–10). And Jesus even allows himself to be changed by one of these encounters: When he meets a Canaanite woman from the district of Tyre and Sidon, he initially denies her request for help, saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…. It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Deeply impressed by her faith, Jesus grants her request and performs a healing for her daughter, a person outside the Israeli...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Will Willimon
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Roots of Hospitality
• Part 2: The Fruits of Hospitality
• Conclusion: Embracing All People
• Notes