The Zone Gathering

This is Part 4 of our Spring Leadership Lesson Series: Radical Hospitality. As we lead our groups and ministries, we must strive to forcefully advance the Kingdom of God through strategic evangelism, exponential discipleship, and sacrificial service. Hospitality is on the front lines of such an advance.

Today, we will survey the Old Testament and New Testament to gain a greater understanding of the role that God plays and what he provides in hospitality.

As I read the stories of radical hospitality in the Scriptures, I see God playing an active role. We are required to muster the courage to engage in risky situations, graciously welcome the stranger, and generously invest our resources, but God always shows up to bring what only he can provide. As we extend hospitality to others, God steps in and brings his presence, his power, his provision, and his protection. Sometimes, those things are brought to the person receiving the hospitality. Other times, he brings those things to the person providing hospitality. In many cases, these blessings come to both.

Presence

When we offer a hand of hospitality, it ushers in the presence of God. Abraham experienced this in the most literal sense when he welcomed the three strangers to his home for dinner. Rahab experienced it in a unique way as she played a role in the incarnation; she is listed in the lineage of Christ. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the sorting process for heaven, and it’s all tied to hospitality. He said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Sometimes, when we practice hospitality, the presence of God comes to us. Sometimes, when we practice hospitality, the presence of God comes through us.

Power

God’s power is seen in abundance in the Biblical narratives. To Abraham and Sarah, God’s power miraculously brought a son. To the widow of Zarephath and the Shunemite woman, God brought a dead child back to life. Saul’s blindness was healed because of the hospitality of Ananias.

Again, we see the dual blessing of power in hospitality. Sometimes, the power of God blesses the receiver of hospitality, but many times, it blesses the giver of hospitality.

When we practice hospitality, we should pray that it be accompanied by the power of God. Our homes can become places of healing. Our meals can become opportunities for spiritual nourishment. Let’s pray that the resources we invest would be multiplied by the hand of God. When we give him 2 fish and 5 loaves, he can feed thousands.

Provision

While we may invest our resources, God brings a measure of provision that goes beyond human ability. Because the widow of Zarephath gave to Elijah first, and because Elijah trusted God as the ultimate provider, the widow’s oil and flour never dried up.

Some of the best stories of hospitality-driven miraculous provision come to us from the mission field. In the book God’s Smuggler, Brother Andrew tells of a Bible school training project that required his team to conduct a one-month evangelism tour in Scotland on a one-pound banknote. Miraculously, without asking for resources or funds, the team would receive random packages and produce to supply them for the events they had arranged.

Protection

Finally, hospitality brings the protection of God. Consider the story of Rahab. Because she offered her home to the Israelite spies, she and her family were spared during the fall of Jericho. Check out Joshua 6:25, “But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.” How cool is that? When Ananias brought Saul/Paul under his wing, he wasn’t just helping him through his spiritual salvation, he was also providing sanctuary. Saul was a murderer of Christians, and in this strange twist of events, he actually needed someone to protect him.

How often do we think of hospitality in terms of bringing people the protection of God? When you look at the tradition of hospitality throughout church history, you see the protective nature of it over and over again. Think about the early monasteries which practiced hospitality to provide shelter and safety to travelers and pilgrims. Think about the Underground Railroad that shuttled people to freedom or the hidden rooms in the attic that protected Jews during the Holocaust. The book Radical Hospitality reminds us that hospitality “was not about comfort and entertainment—it was about saving lives.”

Putting It Into Practice

It’s hard to put this article into practice because it is focused on what God does and not on what we do. However, there are ideas presented in the Scriptures that radically reframe our approaches to hospitality. Consider the following:

• Which of the four actions discussed- presence, power, provision, and protection- surprises you the most?
• Can you think of other ways that God plays an active role in hospitality?
• Can you think of a time in your own life when you provided hospitality to another and experienced the presence, power, provision, or protection of God?
• Can you think of a time in your own life when you received hospitality from another and experienced the presence, power, provision, or protection of God?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Leadership Lessons, Radical Hospitality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.