Nov
6
Making Room–a review
Filed Under Christian History, Christian Living, Resources, The Church
What comes first to your mind when you read HOSPITALITY? If Martha Stewart comes to mind, then you have a problem. Hospitality is a wonderful word and a blessed Christian practice. Dr. Christine D. Pohl, professor of Christian social ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, has written Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition to reacquaint us with the history and current value of making room in our lives to show kindness and welcome and to meet the needs of others in the name of Christ.
Oh great, you may be thinking, something else for me to feel guilty about…Now look here, ye guilt-prone and danglers of prepositions, note Pohl’s words: ‘Hospitality is not first a duty and responsibility; it is first a reponse of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us…Grudging hospitality exhausts hosts and wounds guests even as it serves them.’ Our welcome of strangers ought to mirror the welcome of the Lord our Shepherd, who sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies, anoints our heads with oil and pours our cups past the brim. Pohl works skillfully with biblical texts and concepts, church history (she is exceptionally good at quoting John Calvin and John Owen!) and contemporary life and traces how the ancient practice of welcoming the stranger and demonstrating the love of Christ has decayed into what we often call ‘hospitality’–showy, lavish displays of our wealth and/or skills, which actually become avenues of pride rather than of welcome. She also looks honestly at the difficulties of showing hospitality in our world and surveys some current Christian communities who seek to cultivate the heart of offering a generous welcome ‘to the least of these my brethren’–L’Abri (founded by Francis Schaeffer), L’Arche, the Catholic Worker, and Benedictine abbeys. Finally, she gives some insights into how we can develop our homes, churches and communities into places of greater openness and welcome in Christ’s name.
Two other things about Making Room are worth mentioning. One is a negative: Christine Pohl is a scholar, and, unfortunately, she writes like one. The book reads more like a research paper than a compelling piece of Christian literature. The other is positive: Pohl warns us not to view hospitality as a means to an end, even good ends such as evangelism, outreach, church growth, etc. Instead, she argues that we must take hospitality ‘as a way of life, as a tangible expression of love.’ This, certainly, is good advice for us all.
God’s guest list includes a disconcerting number of poor and broken people, those who appear to bring little to any gathering except their need. The distinctive quality of Christian hospitality is that it offers a generous welcome to the “least,” without concern for advantage of benefit to the host. Such hospitality reflects God’s greater hospitality that welcomes the undeserving, provides the lonely with a home, and sets a banquet table for the hungry.
As 5th-century Christians lives through the alarming collapse of the Roman Empire, Augustine urged them to ‘be meek, sympathize with the suffering, bear the weak; and on this occaion of the concourse of so many strangers, and needy, and suffering people, let your hospitality and your good works abound.’
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