Getting Ready For Guests

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,

for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

(Hebrews 13:2 NRSV) 

When we have guests over to our home, we do what most people do. We get ready. We vacuum and clean, prepare food, and set up the house. When guests are coming, we also fix things that have needed fixing or replace things that need replacing. When it is just my family, we clean and pick up. But often we do not fix or replace things because we get used to them and we are willing to live with them. It does not have to be the best for my family. But when guests are coming over, we do those extra things to make it as nice as possible. We want to offer our best. We want our guests to feel special and enjoy being with us. 

That is what we are doing as we prepare our new location on 33rd Avenue. We are not just preparing a place for “us.” We are getting ready for guests! We are going to reach out to all the neighborhoods surrounding our new location and invite our neighbors to be our guests. Our hope, our mission is to reach new people and bring them more fully into the kingdom of God. The church building is simply a tool to help us fulfill our mission: making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Therefore, like at home, we are getting ready for guests. We are making things as nice as possible. We are fixing up the place. We want our guests to feel special and enjoy being with us. 

All of this is rooted in the biblical understanding of hospitality. According to Bishop Robert Schnase, radical hospitality is the first practice of a fruitful congregation. Christian hospitality means inviting, welcoming, receiving, and caring for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ. Hospitality has an outward focus, receiving and welcoming others who are not yet a part of the faith community (Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Robert Schnase, Abingdon Press, 2007). 

The most important thing we can do to welcome our guests is to create an atmosphere of hospitality. The biblical virtue of hospitality is caring for strangers in such a way that they are transformed into guests. In Genesis 18 Abraham provides generous hospitality to three visitors. Abraham runs to meet them, invites them to stay and rest, and washes their feet. He rushes to prepare them a meal and serves only the best food. It’s interesting to note the strangers also offer their best gift to Abraham and Sarah – the message that Sarah will become pregnant and they will have a son. 

How can Salem offer hospitality to strangers (visitors) and turn them into our guests? Like Abraham we too must take the initiative to go (run!) and meet our visitors, to make them feel warmly welcomed, and to provide for their needs. I have already had several conversations with our new neighbors and I have been inviting them to come and visit us. Everyone in the congregation is to be a part of that – running to meet our visitors and welcoming them. When we bring new people into our midst, we must give them our best – the best parking, the best environment (including sensory experiences of beauty, space, form, texture, color, and sound), the best seats, the best attention, the best food, the best care, the best of everything. We show Abraham and Sarah’s kind of hospitality to people because God loves them and wants us to share God’s grace with them and treat them as very special guests. Our environment should be better than fine restaurants and Disneyland at welcoming and caring for guests. God’s grace is second to nothing in this world.