Hospitality Part 1

One of the things that I love about living in Southern Italy is the hospitality. When invited out for lunch it is impossible to eat and drink everything that is presented to you. As a guest they honour you and give you their best. I have really enjoyed watching the way the Italians welcome guests.

There is a depth in this hospitality that is prevalent in the middle east as well that is perhaps missing from New Zealand and other western countries. Over the next few days I want to explore the idea of hospitality and the sense in which it should be central to daily faith.

In the contemporary West, hospitality usually associated with etiquette and entertainment. In the past, especially for the ancient Greeks and Romans, hospitality was a divine right. The host was expected to make sure the needs of his or her guests were seen to. Wikipedia mentions that the ancient Greek term xenia, expressed this ritualized guest-friendship relation and adds a further term theoxenia when a god was involved (1). I wonder whether theoxenia is an appropriate term for when we offer hospitality. In engaging in hospitality perhaps we bring God into the situation. Can the act of hospitality actually amount to perhaps a supernatural act that brings the presence of God into our everyday lives?

Jason Foster suggests that Christian hospitality, as given to us in the Bible, is a sacred process of 'receiving' outsiders and changing them from strangers to guests. (2) In this sacred process Christ is present.



1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality
2. Jason Foster, Christian Hospitality: A Way of Life. Online at http://faithepchurch.org/files/Documents/Discipleship%20Resources/Hospitality.pdf accessed August 2010, 1.