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About 50 or so of us enjoyed Feasts For Five last Sunday - either brunch, lunch or (for the fancy schmancy) High Tea! It was a good way to get to know some other 5pm people who we may not have known before.
On a few occasions (Titus 1:8; 1 Tim 3:2) the New Testament urges Christians to 'be hospitable'. Which in our world mostly means 'have them around for a meal'. But the New Testament word has a broader meaning. Literally, it means 'to love the stranger/outsider'.
In the Old Testament, God loves strangers and aliens (see Deut 10:17-18). In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus speaks of himself as being 'the stranger'. To 'be hospitable', to 'love strangers' is to be like God.
I guess the reason that we find it easier to love people we already know is that it is easier, requires less effort and more often than not we get a lot out of it too. The reason that it is harder to love strangers is that it makes us vulnerable (because we don't know how they will respond to us), and it makes us tired (because we have to make the effort), and it is risky (because we don't know if it will be worth the effort).
But I guess if God has gone out of his way to welcome me in the Lord Jesus, then I can think of the needs of strangers ahead of my own. It might even be God's way to make me a bit more like Him.
I wonder who God will bring across my path today?
3 comments:
Big thanks to those who organised this it was a lovely way to meet friends and strangers in our midst. Sometimes when one has been at a church for many years it is easy to forget what it is like to be new to a group.
It is good to remember that
" Every encounter is an opportunity, each stranger a potential friend."
Looking forward to the next 5 at 5 in early 2007 (Feb I think?)
Yeh Nige, it sucks living in closed households. I think we're meant to bring people in especially if we don't know them or they're going to rip us off. We rip God off all the time, and He keeps loving us.
Out of all my Christian buddies, I only know of one house in Perth that does it the proper way - that 'community' communey churchy thing in Lockeridge. They take people in sometimes, and it costs them and they don't get lots of thanks or whatever. That's a good inspiration.
The McKinnon family in Lockridge have been working hard on a specific urban mission for a long time. We can all draw inspiration, encouragement and heart from their work.
Anon is right about when we rip God off by closing our hearts, lives and homes to opportunities to minister to one another.
As a congregation we need to "Bloom where you are planted".
Our mission field is in our home, across the street and also the stranger at 'our' bus stop or pathway. :-)
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