Luke 14:7-11
“When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: “If you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t always head for the best seat. What if someone more respected than you has also been invited? The host will say, `Let this person sit here instead.’ Then you will be embarrassed and will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table! “Do this instead–sit at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, `Friend, we have a better place than this for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.”

In the culture of the Middle East at that time, when a family hosted a great banquet or a wedding feast, they would have the servants set up round tables for the meal. Cushions were set up in a U-shape around three sides of the table so that three people could recline at each table. The place of honor was in the center of each U-shape, the next highest to the left, and the last to the right. So in any given feast the host might have as many places of honor as tables set up. Everyone knew what seat was the place of honor among the three seats. Normally all the guests would stand around until the host came in and pointed out who was to sit in the places of honor. Jesus uses a feast to demonstrate a spiritual principle that “everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

We don’t know how many people were in the Pharisee’s home that Sabbath afternoon, but we do know that they did not wait for the word from the host, but almost rushed to the tables to take the places of honor. Jesus may have been thinking of Proverbs 25:6-7: “Do not claim honor in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here, than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.” The host and the other people could not see that this man Jesus really was the King of the universe, for He was clothed in the robes of a servant, waiting for the host to tell Him where to sit. Jesus wanted to use this parable to demonstrate that these spiritual leaders of Israel were not interested in humbling themselves. They were interested only in their own power, position, and pride. So they rushed to the places of honor; they didn’t ask the host where to sit, but just took what they each thought was their rightful place, and ended up fighting over the places of honor.

What can we learn from all this? When it comes to hospitality, it’s just as important to learn how to be a good guest as it is to learn how to be a gracious host! Phillipians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” When we’re invited to someone’s home, go with an attitude of humility. Don’t make yourself the center of attention or try to be the “life of the party.” God wants us to live our lives in humility before Him rather than spending time seeking to exalt ourselves or think of ourselves as more important than we are! Go out of your way to build up and encourage your brother or sister in Christ. Be “other-minded!” Regard them as more important than yourself. Give them honor. When we enter others’ homes with this kind of attitude, one of humility, men and women can approach us without being turned off by our selfish pride or desire to be the center of attention. They can find out who we are so that there’s life and conversation. And in that conversation there may be great opportunity to build community, to encourage each other, and to build each other up, just by our attitude and the way we carry ourselves.

Hebrews 13:1-2

“Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

John Piper, author and theologian, said, “The physical force of gravity pulls everything to the center of the earth. In order to break free from earth-centered life, thousands and thousands of pounds of energy have to push the space shuttle away from the center. In like manner, there is also a psychological force of gravity that constantly pulls our thoughts and affections and physical actions inward toward the center of our own selves and our own homes. Therefore the most natural thing in the world is to neglect hospitality. It is the path of least resistance. All we have to do is yield to the natural gravity of our self-centered life, and the result will be a life so full of self that there is no room for hospitality. We will forget about it and end up neglecting it. So the Bible bluntly says. Stop that! Build a launching pad. Fill up your boosters. And blast out of your self-oriented lifestyle! Stop neglecting hospitality. Practice hospitality.”

In order to move away from our self-centeredness and begin sharing or lives through gracious hospitality, we need a working definition to guide us. Hospitality could be defined as “the divine enablement to share with others our home, our lives, our personal space and resources without communicating a need for performance or an expectation of return.” Let’s look at that a little closer. That hospitality includes sharing our home, lives, personal space and resources such as a bed, or food or time, that should be obvious. But one of the first characteristics of good hospitality is that it does not communicate a need for performance. By that, is meant that, the person we welcome into our home does not have to be a great guest, a great conversationalist, the “life of the party.” Some times we invite people over because they can perform socially very well. They have class. They have good character. They’re intelligent. They’re attractive. But if we invite people over with the subtle motivations of socializing in an upwardly mobile way, or for the purposes of personal entertainment and gain, we are expecting from them some performance. This feeds into our own self-centeredness by looking for what we can get out of it! Good hospitality accepts people into our home no matter what their social skills are, no matter what their conversational skills are. Regardless of their performance, they are still very welcome. Hospitality motives are “other-directed” instead of “self” motivated. It is focused on meeting the needs of others.

Secondly, the good practice of hospitality does not include an expectation of return. To be hospitable does not include expecting to get invited back to their place, their party, supper at their house. Again, this plays into our need to satisfy our selfish desires by looking for what we can “get” from the experience. Rather hospitality, like all acts of true love, is a gift that is given without an expectation of return. It’s saying, “You’re welcome in our home, period! No strings attached!” It’s a demonstration of the unconditional love that God has for us.

As we purpose to give of ourselves sacrificially in this way, hospitality will increasingly become a joy as we become channels of God’s love and blessing.

2 Kings 4:8-10

“One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she invited him to eat some food. From then on, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat. She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”

Elisha worked in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in a time when people were far away from God. He traveled from town to town doing the Lords work. He would have to rely on the Lord to feed him and the Lord would cause somebody to show him hospitality. What was it about the woman in today’s passage that warranted her story to be recorded in the fourth chapter of second Kings? What “great act” did she do? Did she save her people like Esther did? Did she lead her people to God like the Samaritan woman at the well? Was she some great leader or judge like Deborah? Did one of her children become great like Hannah or Jochebed? Was she strikingly beautiful like Sarah, or Bathsheba, or Esther? Was she endowed with great knowledge or skill? Apparently the answer is NO! She wasn’t anything special! In fact, her name isn’t even recorded, and yet her “great act” is recorded here. And what was her great act? She opened her home, welcomed a stranger in and fed him!

I think we often struggle today with service because we think it has to be some great act. If it’s not some great, newsworthy deed (saving a life or something) it’s not worth the effort. What kind of service is God looking for out of us? Simple acts of kindness! In this case, opening our homes in gracious hospitality!

What impact can opening our homes truly have? In her book “Open Heart, Open Home,” Karen Burton Mains says, “I am firmly convinced that if Christians would open their homes and practice hospitality as defined in Scripture, we could significantly alter the fabric of society. We could play a major role in its spiritual, moral, and emotional redemption.” Author Ellen G. White says it this way: “Our time here is short. We can pass through this world but once; as we pass along, let us make the most of life. The work to which we are called does not require wealth or social position or great ability. It requires a kindly, self-sacrificing spirit and a steadfast purpose. A lamp, however small, if kept steadily burning, may be the means of lighting many other lamps. Our sphere of influence may seem narrow, our ability small, our opportunities few, our acquirements limited; yet wonderful possibilities are ours through a faithful use of the opportunities of our own homes. If we will open our hearts and homes to the divine principles of life, we shall become channels for currents of life-giving power. From our homes will flow streams of healing, bringing life, and beauty, and fruitfulness where now are barrenness and dearth.” (The Adventist Home, p. 33.)

Take time today to ask the Lord how you can use your home or apartment to practice gracious hospitality. Let it be an avenue for reaching into the community around you. Host a cookout and invite your co-workers. Have your neighbor over for dinner. Invite a new person from church in to your home to get to know them. Let God inspire you with fresh ideas to be a conduit of His love, His mercy, and His acceptance.

Romans 12:13

“Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.”

Ours is a world that desperately needs hospitality. It is a world where people everywhere experience broken relationships, mistrust, hostility, anxiety and hopelessness. Technological advances bring their benefits, but often at the expense of family togetherness and stability, trusting relationships, and enduring friendships. People today are more mobile, often reducing family groups to nuclear families, and in many cases to singles living alone or as single parents. The extended family is no longer available as a source of personal support or as a ready-made team to share in the work entailed in hospitality. At the same time that people are searching for true affection and caring, hungering for relationships that will last, Christians find themselves so spent they can scarcely respond. Christians are no different from those around them in these respects. Yet we desperately need each other. And the world needs our love. In truth, many will never hear what we say about God’s love until they have experienced it in our midst.

So what can we do to bring real hospitality back into our lives as a church family and into the lives of our neighbors as we seek to meet their needs? First, commit ourselves to be used of God. Commit to be intentional about meeting the needs of others through whatever aspect of hospitality God calls us to perform, recognizing our dependence upon Him for strength and the realization of our purpose. Second, bathe the gift of hospitality in prayer. Ask God to make us discerning of the needs of others and ask Him to bless our efforts to meet those needs. Ask Him to purify our motives and to give us strength to do what He wants us to do.

Finally, set clear priorities. Ellen White, in her book “The Adventist Home” broke our priorities in to three areas. Our families and their needs take first priority. Families need attention, and should not be pushed aside for the larger task of hospitality. There are times in all families when family members are in a position to minister to others. The entire family can be included in gestures of hospitality. But there are also seasons in the life of every family when they themselves need to be ministered to, times when they simply must retreat to rekindle their own flames. Our next priority goes to friends, neighbors and co-workers whom we encounter on a daily basis. As part of the support network of persons to which we belong, we are privileged to be used by God to bear the burdens of those close to us. Our final priority includes the strangers God sends our way and to whom we respond according to our ability to help. The pressing question of hospitality for all three groups is always: What are the needs of each person and how can I help to meet those needs?

Leviticus 19:33-34

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

In the dictionary, the word “hospitality” is wedged between “hospital”, a place of healing, and “hospice”, a place of shelter. The root of all 3 words is the Latin word translated “guests”. Our homes are meant to be places of shelter and healing, havens of rest. The Greek word for hospitality (philoxenia) in the New Testament means “a love of strangers”.

In order to grasp the importance of hospitality in Biblical times, especially to those not like us, we have to realize how different life was in the ancient world. Your place in a society was based on kinship; by a whole web of blood ties and marriage relationships. Back then, you would identify yourself, not by your country, but by your family, and your clan, and your tribe. So whenever you traveled away from your homeland you were in a very uncertain position. You couldn’t necessarily expect that the laws of some other place would protect you. Why should they? Their laws are for their people. You’re a stranger. What right do you have to demand anything from them? So, foreigners and aliens were often mistreated, with little or no legal recourse.

But in Israel, strangers and aliens were a protected class. God specifically commanded His people not to oppress them, not to exploit the foreigners in their midst. Such persons were not to be denied justice, or treated unequally before the law. Not only that, they were to be loved, and provided for, and their needs taken care of. Why? What was the motivation for hospitality? What was the motivation for loving strangers and providing for them?

God gives the motivation to love strangers, “for YOU were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Why should a person love strangers just because he has been a stranger? Perhaps he shouldn’t. But that’s not the point. The point is that they were strangers in Egypt, but they aren’t any more! Why? Because: “I am the Lord your God.” The words “I am the Lord your God,” are packed with meaning because they are the very first words of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2. Any good Israelite could finish the sentence: “I am the Lord your God WHO BROUGHT YOU UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE.” In other words, “I am God who came to you when you were oppressed aliens in Egypt and saved you.” For the people of God in the Old Testament, the duty of hospitality came right from the center of who God was. I am the Lord your God who made a home for you and brought you there with all my might and all my soul. Therefore, you shall love the stranger as yourself. Your values shall mirror my values.

You see, what’s at issue here is the character of God – what kind of God the Israelites served, and what kind of God WE serve. Our God is one who reaches out to the alien and the stranger; who invites the one who doesn’t belong into His own family. We serve a God who not only tolerates the stranger, but loves him, welcomes him, and accepts him as one of His own children. In like manner, as followers of Christ, we are to reach out, and show hospitality to those who aren’t a part of “our group” – our church, our small group, our friends, or even our own family – because that’s what God does! We’re not to exclude them, or shun them, or ignore them. And it’s not sufficient merely to politely tolerate them. We are to intentionally seek them out; to make provision for them, and care for them, and consider their needs, just as if they were already a part of the group. We are to take the initiative to welcome newcomers and outsiders; we are to actively encourage them to join in. We do it because that’s what God does! He makes the outsider a part of His family. That’s what God did for Israel in Egypt, and that’s what God did for us when we were separated from Him.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. . . . Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” – Ephesians 2:13, 19