Pastoral Theology – from Hospitality to Forgiveness

The Spirituality of Hospitality

“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Heb 13:2)

I have pondered this scriptural verse ever since I learned it five years ago and since then it has become a very important verse in my life. This verse carries great influence on the growth of my personal life and the Seminary.

In the morning of the 20th of January in 2009, I shared with the whole Seminary community my blueprint for the future development of the Seminary. The first and major emphasis in the blueprint was on “Hospitality.” Hospitality is of the utmost importance because Hospitality reveals the character of Love which is born out of spirituality. In other words, a seminary—as a spiritual community—displays the very essence of Hospitality.

Jesus’ Love and Hospitality for Strangers

What is Hospitality? The above verse from the book of Hebrews reminds us, “Do not forget to entertain strangers,” and it also says, “For by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” The word “entertain” in this verse is “philoxenia,” meaning hospitality—a kind of love for strangers.

Hospitality can be seen when Jesus entertained others. When Jesus Christ began his ministry, he eagerly went to serve those who were strangers, the marginal community and the needy. He transformed water into wine at the marriage at Cana; fed the hungry crowd with two loaves of bread and five fish; healed the demon possessed and the handicapped. He welcomed children and prostitutes, tax-collectors and sinners.

Reciprocity in the Host-Guest Relationship

Jesus not only entertained strangers, he also sat at others’tables as a guest to be entertained. In fact, Jesus himself was a stranger with needs of his own. While on Earth, Jesus was born without a home and was a refugee as a young child. Even in his adult life, Jesus had no place to lay his head. He was rejected by his home town, despised as a criminal, and relied on a handful of women for support.

The Hospitality practiced by Jesus Christ reflects the reciprocity inherent in host-guest relationships. While Jesus embraces the needy, he also desires to be embraced; when Jesus entertains his followers, he asks for their provision. Jesus points out that whenever we welcome strangers, feed the hungry, and visit the sick, we are extending loving kindness to the Son of Man.

Hospitality Requires Wisdom

However, the offer of Hospitality in a world of sinfulness and injustice requires the exercise of wisdom with grace.

The practice of Hospitality calls for the use of prudence because we need to confront the issue of limits and boundaries. This issue involves human being’s physical and emotional limitations and thus, our need for boundaries. Resources or lack there of can also impose constraints. When we—as individuals, families, states, or churches—attempt to provide for those in need, we will often find ourselves stretching too thin in order to meet their needs. Yet those who want to limit their hospitality may risk turning Jesus away. In addition to the limitation of resources, there exists the problem of guests who abuse the host’s generosity.

Concerning the first issue of the limitation of resources, I share Edith Schaeffer’s view that even when there are more people than we can care for, it is not sinful to be finite and limited. Meeting some, but not all needs can still demonstrate what is possible when people care in a society where hospitality is not widely practiced, or when resources are not distributed fairly or adequately to respond to every need.¹ We have seen and heard stories of wonderful provisions by various communities. These stories speak of Paul’s words, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Co 9:8)

In regard to the other issue of guests abusing hospitality, some respond by suggesting the necessity of using preventive measures. These measures include the hosts demanding a letter of recommendation, conducting a series of tests and verifications, or even developing sets of criteria or a system for hospitality. According to John Calvin, to help those who have genuine needs and to ward against those who covet everything, people who offer hospitality should exercise discernment as for the needs and the circumstances of the recipients of hospitality. However, Calvin also reminds us not to excuse our frugality by reason of wisdom: The considerations to offer hospitality should not be over precise. Such considerations must be undergirded by hearts of love, kindness, and mercifulness.²

Hospitality also Requires Grace

In other words, the offer of Hospitality in a world full of sinfulness and injustice requires not only the exercise of wisdom but also the endowment of grace. Hospitality and the grace of God are interconnected.

 

A good example is the story of a debtor in Matthew 18:23-35. The debtor owed the lender ten thousand talents—an insurmountable debt that could not be paid back in one lifetime. Miraculously, the lender, practicing grace, cancelled the debt. However, the debtor refused to forgive his own borrower who only owed him a hundred denarii, which is a small loan that could have been easily paid off within a short period of time. In this story, the forgiven person assumed the position of a creditor and forgot that he was once the forgiven debtor. He refused to give a second chance to others by cancelling his debtor’s small loan. Therefore, this character is referred to as “mean,” “harsh,” and a “wicked servant” in the Bible.

This story shows not only the “wickedness” of the “servant,” it also tells of the unconditional and unlimited forgiving grace of the king. The king expects his people to offer to others the hospitality of unconditional and unlimited forgiveness. Therefore, when one offers hospitality to others, one must “remember” the fact that one has already been given by God His unconditional and unlimited forgiveness. One’s heavy debt is repaid by the sacrifice of the creditor Jesus Christ. One’s hospitality for strangers is a response to God’s unconditional and unlimited forgiveness and to God’s precious grace of hospitality. One, as the forgiven, is to receive strangers whether these strangers are or will be indebted to one. When we see with clarity that we were once the enemies of God and were strangers forgiven, we will understand the reasons for extending hospitality to others.

A Hospitable Community with a Forgiving Soul

Hospitality with a soul of forgiveness is the Hospitality of genuineness. The Seminary community has been engaged in learning and practicing such hospitality and forgiveness for the past five years. Teachers and students work together to become part of a Seminary community that is forgiving and hospitable. Beginning this August, our staff joined in the learning of forgiveness and hospitality. We learn forgiveness of seventy-seven times. We believe that hospitality with a forgiving soul can create the formation of unity and solidarity in the Seminary—and subsequently in our churches.

When seminary students and teachers experience the hospitality of forgiveness, we shall be able to pray and sing with people who are different from us. We can share in the journey of life with convictions and with doubts—and with different views of understanding. We can even invite “others” to our midst or join with “others” in experiencing the mysterious grace of God. Only then can theological education have its own spirituality.

(Scripture quotations are taken from NIV Bible.)

¹ Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 132.
² Pohl, Making Room, 148.

Feb 2014