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Title: I Was A Stranger; Untamed Hospitality  | views:109 |  Review John L Ng Nov 09
I Was A Stranger: a Christian Theology of Hospitality
By Arthur Sutherland, Abingdon, 2006
Untamed Hospitality: welcoming God and other strangers
By Elizabeth Newman, Brazos, 2007
Sutherland’s book is thin with numerous personal muses; Newman’s is thick with theological and philosophical discourses. Both call us back to this missing virtue of the church and its congregants. Hospitality is practiced among God’s people since the time of Abraham. In fact, in many cultures, old and present, hospitality is a social norm. And yet, according to the authors, and I agree, it is glaringly missing in today’s churches.
It is not there maybe because we have a distorted notion of hospitality. Some think it is nothing more than social entertainment. Some reduce it to sentimental nicety. Some assume it is a woman’s thing and should be left to them. Some see it narrowly as a professional tool in the market place. Some see it widely as inclusion in a diverse society. Whatever the reasons or excuses, it remains that most of us do not practice hospitality.
According to Newman, hospitality is an intentional, responsible and caring act of welcoming, in public and private, friends and strangers without regard for reciprocation. She spends 200 pages with footnoted research to propose a doctrine and practice of this definition. At times her arguments are pretentious and darkly negative. Sutherland, on the other hand, needs a little more than 80 pages to be lightly funny. As different as their approaches, both always return to the Biblical texts as the content and context for hospitality.
There is where we need to go to inspire our practice of hospitality. Three iconic images illuminate our way. The classic image is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 welcoming strangers to their tent. It says that Abraham ran to greet them and bowed to the ground in their presence. He provided water to wash their feet; Sarah baked fresh morsels of bread and a servant prepared a calf to feed them. At day’s end, they hosted this enjoyable evening with strangers under the shade of an oak tree and had an epiphany that changed their lives for good and ever.
On their way home from a horrific week in Jerusalem, two disciples (probably husband and wife) were terribly sad and emptied of courage (Luke 24.13f). Along the way they met a stranger and three of them rehearsed the events surrounding the crucifixion. Toward sundown, they arrived in Emmaus and the couple invited the stranger to stay with them. A hurried meal was prepared. Their guest took break, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. In that Eucharistic act, Jesus, the guest who became the host, brought joy to their hearts, emptied them of sadness and gave them courage.
Acts 16.11f tells the story of Paul and company’s encounter with Lydia in Philippi. At a prayer meeting, they met Lydia and shared with her the gospel. After she prayed to embrace Jesus as her savior, she invited these strangers to stay at her home. At first, Paul refused her hospitality. But Lydia insisted and prevailed upon them to stay with her. The scene is at once poignant and awkward. A bunch of strange men, at least five, staying with a single woman would break every social mos. Be that as it may, Lydia’s single act of hospitality was strategic in securing Paul’s missionary efforts in Macedonia.
No doctrine of hospitality is as effective in convincing our practice of hospitality as listening with our eyes to the above three narratives. Ultimately, hospitality is an act of the heart. It begins with and feeds on the compassion we feel for others, be they family, friends or strangers. Who knows – maybe we are welcoming God when we are welcoming others into our lives.
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| Review submitted: 2010/1/10
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