Thresholds and tables

Hospitality is central in almost every culture. I’ve sat in near strangers’ homes, sharing food around their tables in India, Ukraine, Africa and many other parts of the world and I’m sure you have similar stories.

Something essential happens when we cross into each other’s homes and share food together. It’s like we were created to do this.

However, in this moment where there is a pandemic of loneliness, distrust and polarisation it can be tempting to keep others out. But what if instead of building higher walls, we opened our doors and extended our tables?

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I find it fascinating that when God wants His people to remember how He rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and He commanded them to share a meal together. When Jesus wanted us to remember how He rescued us from sin and death, He commanded us to share a meal together.

The ​‘coming’ of the Son of Man is referenced twice in Luke’s gospel account: first, as the one who came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and second, as the one who came eating and drinking (Luke 7:34). Jesus’ mission was salvation and redemption and His method was to eat and drink with people. The very Bread of Life promises that “‘whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst”’. The physical sharing of a meal can opening opens up the opportunity for the a spiritual encounter. Throughout scripture we see stories of people sharing food and hospitality and God being present.

The very definition of hospitality is to ​“welcome the stranger”. Just as God has welcomed us into His family, we can welcome others into ours by extending our tables. Professor Rosaria Butterfield author of books such as Openness Unhindered and The Gospel Comes with a House Key, encourages us to practice radically ordinary hospitality seeing ​“strangers as neighbours and neighbours as the family of God”.

Imagine if Christian households were known for sharing God’s hospitality with their neighbours over a meal. Very intentionally, very simply, very humbly.

Here are a few practical tips:

1. Pray about who to invite. Maybe you already have someone on your mind to invite or maybe you don’t quite know yet. May your first guest be the Holy Spirit, inviting Him to lead you.

2. Pray that you will see your neighbours as Christ does. Don’t see people as projects. Don’t Stop seeing your interactions as isolated evangelistic moments and instead, start loving people as God’s image-bearers. When dining with Pharisees and lawyers, Jesus instructs them to ​‘invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind’ to their feasts, for in doing so they ​‘will be blessed, because they cannot repay you’. Who could you ask who cannot repay you?

3. What will you make? It can be tempting to try to wow your guests by cooking an impressive and technically skilled dinner but don’t confuse the art of entertaining with the heart of hospitality. Whether you live in a palace or a bedsit, serve a roast dinner with all the trimmings or a cup of tea and a biscuit, share what you have – your food and your faith.

4. Approach your conversations with respect and understanding. Many of our neighbours will hold to different values and belief systems than we do. How amazing that we have these freedoms! So be prepared to listen genuinely, to be questioned and to give an answer for the hope that you have. There is a new openness to faith in many unexpected places right now.

5. Make hospitality a habit. Some of us are planners, so send an invite and get the date in the diary as you plan out your week. Some of us are more spontaneous, so create some margin, make extra food and keep your eyes open for opportunities to accommodate those last-minute guests. Hospitality isn’t a one-off event, it’s a way of life.

This Autumn and harvest we have so much to be thankful for, physically and spiritually, who will you share it with?