Thursday, February 13, 2014

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Romans 12:9-21

The concept of hospitality is arguably one of the most fundamental concepts of Christianity. Verse 13 of this letter from Paul calls us to extend our hospitality to the other. When three strangers appear outside Abraham’s tent in Genesis 18 he has two choices: to welcome them, or to close up his tent and take up his weapons to defend his home. Abraham chooses the former and calls for Sarah to make bread and for his servant to prepare a calf; through his hospitality he discovers that the strangers are God.  

Paul’s letter calls us to be generous to all who come asking. To ask for food when we are hungry, water when we are thirsty, shelter when we are cold is to be vulnerable to another. This is an act of humility and it requires that we respond with generosity. But this is a difficult thing to do, especially when our instinct can be to reject the unknown for fear of danger or betrayal.

In the course of my schooling, the question of hospitality often arose around the Second World War. My mother’s frequent question to us: “If a Jew came knocking at my door in Nazi-occupied Europe and asked for refuge, would I let them in?” This question haunts me; I come up with different answers every time. But it is clear what Paul is calling us to do. He is helping to show us God in the face of the stranger. Everything else must fall away next to that.

-Joshua Zentner-Barrett