Why Bother?

"Share with the Lord's people in need. Practice Hospitality"

Romans 12v13

The dreaded H-Word. Hospitality. There's rarely a bible study more uncomfortable than one that contains this word. It conjours up visions of 1950's housewives with frilly aprons, delighting in their efforts at a well ordered pantry, and desperate to share their new home pickling recipe.

Well, my apron is plastic (and a bit melted in places), and I don't think you'll get better than Branston for pickle (other brands are, obviously, available). So how come I'm banging the pan lid for hospitality when I've failed at the first picture postcard?

My house is always full of people. Kids from down the road, people from our church family, people from our actual family, people who we just met and people we've known for a long time. My husband thrives on it, my kids are better at it than any of us, but the truth is...I hate it.

Or I did.

Now I've been bent into a rather unwilling submission that it's actually an amazing thing, but I still find it hard work.

My natural choice would be to lock my door (sometimes with my husband and kids on the inside) and not see anyone from one Sunday to the next. I'd shut the curtains, put on my snow leopard onesie and light the log burner with a nice cuppa and a bar of Dairy Milk (to myself).

However, the Bible says nothing about this. It does say a fair bit about having people over. In all my years of trying to hang out with people and then reading what the Bible says about trying to hang out with people, one thing is very clear - hospitality is not an option.

For a long time, I just couldn't see why when I clearly wasn't built for it, but here's what I've learned...

Hospitality, at its most basic, is not about you (or me). It's about Jesus.

Welcoming people into your home is the gospel in action.

Where else do we find ourselves invited in where we least expected it?
Where else do we find ourselves brought into a family that is not our own?
Where else do we have to do NOTHING to earn our place at the table?

Only in the gospel of Jesus.

Through Jesus death on the cross for our sins we are welcomed into God's home.
The place we least expected to find ourselves after all the sinful and wretched ways we've lived without him.
                          More than that, we're treated like family,
                                                                       and we contribute nothing, NOTHING, for this privilege.

Having people over, eating with them, laughing with them, crying with them, even, not losing your head when they annoy you to death, shows love. This is the driving force of the gospel. Jesus rescue was all about love, had it not been for God loving us first we would never have loved Him. In having people into our homes, in sacrificing our time, money and comfort we are showing love, the same love Jesus has for lost souls in need of a saviour.

In Jesus we sit down at the kitchen table of God. We are accepted simply by our trust in the Son. Hospitality is in the Bible because it is a beautiful picture of the saving grace of Jesus. And so if you're a Christian, while verses like the one above may fill you with dread, send you into a sweaty panic and make you order an extra chain lock for the front door, let me encourage you with this...

When you realise it's about the gospel, you realise you have all you need.

The Bible says we all need to be hospitable because we already have all we need to do it. It's cooking at it's best, its a little slice of Jesus, it's the cherry on the cake. (Or any other foodie metaphor you like).

Practising hospitality is practising the gospel (from the comfort of your own onesie).

So don't freak out.

It's in there for our good and His glory and I promise you, from my own experience, it's absolutely worth it.

I'm the introvert who now can't live without other people invading her life.

I'm converted to hospitality.

Why Bother...? well, 'cos the Bible says so...but also, because the Bible is right (shocker). It will be one of the best gospel witnesses you can give and it will do your soul good too (and you don't even have to get dressed to do it).