Hospitality

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. – Hebrews 13.2

I don’t think I have heard a whole lot of preaching or teaching in the subject of hospitality. For me the connection between spirituality and hospitality is not obvious, at least at first.

But there are a few things that come to mind when we think about it.

I think the readers of this book must have first thought about Abraham and the angels that came to his tent. He didn’t know who they were, but he opened his home to them and fed them and took care of them. He ended up – according to a lot of Bible scholars I agree with – feeding the pre-incarnate Christ.

Hospitality is not something that comes naturally to a lot of people. It means opening up your home and life and everything about yourself to other people. It means that you are the kind of person whose door is open, and not only that, it is open along with your heart.

Hospitality is listed as a spiritual gift – but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us escape our responsibility. Pastors and deacons must be hospitable – but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us can ignore it.

The verse tells us all to ‘entertain strangers’ and not just our brothers and sisters and Christ. The key to hospitality is to forget about ourselves. We can’t fake true hospitality because it is a matter of the heart. By the grace of God may we have open hearts and open homes.

After all, we never know who that ‘stranger’ may be.