Celtic Spirituality of Hospitality Monday, June 16, 2008
Earthed Spirituality, God at the Pub
Distinction between entertaining and hospitality,
- entertaining people is showing off your house, and your cooking abilities to them,
- Hospitality is opening your house to them. – welcoming people into your household
- - Entertaining really centres on self and begs compliments,
- hospitality centres on the other, and on God.
Celtic Hospitality
Last week, as we talked about the Trinity, I talked briefly about our need to live in community as a reflection of the God we worship. I would have liked to spend more time on that point – especially the idea of Soul Friend, but you can’t do everything! This week’s topic does flow out of the call to community.
On the retreat we looked at the spiritual practice of solitude, and we talked about what the Celts called “Green Martydom.” Where Irish monks sacrificed human relationships and comforts and headed of into the wilderness to live as hermits. While this may have come naturally to the desert fathers and mothers whom the Celts were emulating, It went against the communal nature and natural hospitality of the Celts.
“The Green Martyrdom had been a failure, both because of the apparently unquenchable Irish tendency to sociability and, perhaps even more important, because of the natural fertility of Ireland itself, which possessed nothing resembling an Egyptian desert and almost no place that did not, with a little foresight, abound in leeks from the garden, poultry, game, salmon and trout and bees.” – Cahill 171
Not only did the land abound with good food, but it also seemed to abound with people who were searching after a closer relationship with God, So a committed saint would wander off to live as a hermit, and sooner or later, people would gather around them as they saw the hermit as an Anam Cara, a Soul Friend who would help them along the journey to intimacy with God! So, instead of a hermitage, a monastery was founded.
Plan of Monastery – Cahill 156
While the Monastery might look a little fortress like, I was actually a very hospitable place – they always had a gate keeper, whose job was not to keep people out, but rather to invite them in, to make sure that they were well looked after and had a place to stay within the enclosure. No one was turned away – from commoner to noble person, and they became the education centers of Europe in the Dark Ages – the universal cities – the universities.
Hospitality was always one of the highest virtues of the monasteries – if the abbot was on a fast, and a visitor came, he would break the fast to eat with the visitor, because hospitality was far more important than any individual spiritual practice.
174 St. Brigid’s grace:
I should like a great lake of finest ale
For the King of kings
I should like a table of the choicest food
For the family of heaven.
Let the ale be made from the fruits of faith
And the food be forgiving love
I should welcome the poor to my feast
For they are God’s children.
I should welcome the sick to my feast,
For they are God’s joy.
Let the poor sit with Jesus at the highest place,
And the sick dance with the angels.
God bless the poor,
God bless the sick
And bless our human race
God bless our food
God bless our drink
All homes, O God embrace.
The Biblical call to hospitality
The Celts had the value of “heroic hospitality” even before hospitality, and that may be why they were able to embrace the call to hospitality found in the Bible.
There are many times that we are called to practice Hospitality in the NT.
1 Peter 4:7-10
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
Ro 12:9-13
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Luke 7:36-50
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.
Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”
“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.
“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
What Jesus accuses the Pharisees of is not bad Theology, or unbelief, but lack of hospitality. Hospitality is a mark of people who serve God down through the ages.
In the Old Testament, Hospitality was expected!
Travelers would arrive in the town square at the end of the day, and expect someone to invite them into their home. - would be pretty ticked if it didn’t happen - most likely still practiced in NT - Jesus told His disciples to rely on the hospitality of others when he sent them out the first time.
Hebrews 13:2
Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
God’s Hospitality to us
God invites us as strangers to join his household
Ephesians 2 – talking about how both Jews & Gentiles come to God in the same way…
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Galatians 3:26-28, 4:4-7
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
…. when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Prodigal Son – showing hospitality to the estranged son.
Our hospitality to God
Scene in the Nativity – no one offers hospitality
Will you offer hospitality to Christ?
Communion – central rite of the church is a symbolic act of hospitality!
Will you offer Hospitality to the Spirit?
Practicing Hospitality
Romans 15:7
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Because we have experienced hospitality from God, and we have shown him hospitality, we also need to show hospitality to people as a regular practice.
Hindrances to Hospitality
As far as cultures go, Canadians have become relatively inhospitable people. Many new immigrants quickly learn that when we say, "you’ll have to come and visit sometime," we really don’t mean it! Pam and I became acutely aware of the difference in hospitality customs when we were in Sri Lanka and people would invite us over when we had just met - and they meant it! But we are told here to practice hospitality with one another.
1. Hospitality takes work,
It does put you out, it draws you out of your self
Hospitality is a lot of work. It is often inconvenient. It can ruin your plans and invade your privacy. It may not even be enjoyable. It is something that we may tend to complain about having to do.
Romans 12:13 said that we should "be constant" or persistent in our practice of hospitality. Hebrews says the same thing in a negative way: don’t neglect it. Evidently it is something that can easily fall into neglect.
John Piper says:
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. 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 we will neglect it. So the Bible bluntly says. Stop that! Build a launching pad. Fill up your boosters. And blast out of your self-oriented routine. Stop neglecting hospitality. Practice hospitality.
2. "My House is too messy, and I have no time to keep it up".
Karen Burton Mains, author of Open Heart/Open Home,
- one morning decided to read a novel instead of doing the house work, of course a person from church stopped by - the place was a mess - dishes in the sink, toys every where, last night’s newspaper all over the floor.
As she went to the door she could hear her father’s voice, "Hospitality comes before pride" easy enough to say when your place is tidy. She swallowed her pride and let the person from church in. After they came in and got sat down her friend says "I used to think you were perfect, now I think we can be friends!"
At the end of that chapter she suggest that we should write down all the reasons that we do not practice hospitality, and then put a "P" right beside each one that is because of pride - good idea.
2. Busy-ness
My own experience speaks to this – my neighbours are always ready to lend a hand, but I find that if I see them working on something, I often have too much to do to go and lend a hand. It can be the same way with hospitality, it is hard to stop everything and have someone over.
You may have to schedule your hospitality – like Sunday lunch – hospitality should be a lifestyle, but it may need to start as a habit first.
3. "We barely have enough for ourselves, never mind others!"
1 Kings 17:8-16 - story of Elijah staying with widow during famine - they were just about to have their last meal together, and then die, God said feed this man! The flour never ran out, and neither did the oil as long as the famine lasted.
- If we follow God’s commands, he will provide enough.
4. Seeing our house as a sanctuary
“My house is the place where I get away from people, not where I have them in!” – Is there selfishness at the root of this attitude?
You may need to be hospitable outside the home.
Conclusion.
Practice Hospitality! We are commanded to practice it, it will lead to the community that God desires us to have, and it will lead others to Christ, and we may luck out and end up entertaining angels! We need to remember that hospitality comes before both pride and poverty. We need to show hospitality to each other
