The Gospel and...Hospitality at Christmas

As we approach Christmas, many of us will be hosting gatherings or family meals. We have asked one of our members gifted in hospitality, Trae Bohlen, to provide an encouragement to our church regarding how the gospel changes the way we think about hospitality. We pray this serves as a nugget of encouragement as you prepare for Christmas.

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Hospitality.

Does that word make you cringe? Are you overcome with the details as you think about hosting a family for a meal? Setting a perfect table. Picking the best menu that will serve all pallets, including small children. Does your mind fill with all the questions and tasks you must accomplish in order to host such a monumentous event?  

Or maybe you are like me, and you will be run around your house throwing things in your closets, into your pantry, and under your bed so that your house can appear to be Joanna Gaines perfect. Throwing your husband and your kids into a swirl of emotions because you want everything just so? All while thinking, "please, please, don't open my cabinet under the sink."

And what is all this frantic hustle for? Your neighbor is coming for coffee.

But what if that isn't what hospitality really is? What if it can be just simple and easy? Did you just reread that sentence? Are you baffled by the thought of simple hospitality? Can it really be simple?

Lets take the word hospitality and look at its definition:  

Hospitality: "The act or practice of one who is hospitable". Okay, so that doesn't really help us because the root word is used to define itself. So let's look a little deeper:

Hospitable: "the reception and entertainment of strangers or guests without reward, or with liberality and kindness." Now, this is what I am getting at. Perhaps, this word "hospitality" has been given weight, that is so much heavier than its true meaning. 

What if we infuse the gospel into our thoughts on hospitality? As the definition said: "to receive and entertain with kindness."

Let's think of Jesus and how he practiced hospitality. He fed people. One of my favorites was recorded in all 4 gospels (so I think that is pretty significant).  Jesus feeds the 5000 (or maybe more) with a boy's lunch: 2 fishes and the 5 loaves. Let's look at the details: A simple meal, a simple setting. Everyone was fed well.  Not only from the miraculous meal, but from the fellowship and time spent with Jesus. Hospitality doesn't have to be elaborate. (And you don't always need to be the one to provide the food either -Jesus used someone else’s food!)

Ultimately hospitality calls us to receive others, as Christ received us, to feed them with food, to bring them near to be able to share with them of the real food, the real bread of heaven.

Treasuring Christ Church family, as we open our homes and hearts to those around us this Christmas, may our aim to be to model the love of Christ. May we lay aside the burdens and expectations that we add to hospitality, and seek to serve others with the humility and kindness that Christ has first shown us.