Hospitality (Meals)
hos·pi·tal·i·ty (häs-pə-ˈta-lə-tē)I have recently been challenged to think through what hospitality is, how it should look, how it breeds community, and the purpose behind it. One of the best things I have read on it is a post by Jeff Vanderstelt. This will probably be a various part blog series.
1 a: given to generous and cordial reception of guests b: promising or suggesting generous and cordial welcome c: offering a pleasant or sustaining environment
Meals are one of the main components of gospel hospitality, providing the opportunity to engage, edify, encourage, and enjoy those around you (alliteration is unintentional though appreciated). It is interesting that one aspect of Jesus' ministry was eating with people. Ministry can be as simple as a meal. Commentator Mark Horne says,
...Jesus was simply doing his ministry, by eating and drinking with sinners, what he had been doing as the Angel of the Lord since the beginning. Why did Yahweh ("the Lord") rescue Isrealites from Egypt? What did Moses tell Pharoah? "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness." (Ex. 5.1) God wanted table fellowshp with Isreal.(60)Jesus' meals communicate the gospel; it was where sinners, the tax collectors, the religious, the moral, and the immoral could all enjoy Jesus, and where he enjoyed them. Mark Horne observes that, "[Jesus] enjoyed his food and his wine (cf. Lk 7.34), but he enjoyed most of all the company of other people around the dinner table" (58).When I look at the importance of meals throughout Scripture, I realize the redemptive import of them. The first sin occurred over a meal, the Exodus is over a meal, the passover is remembered as a meal, the manna in the wilderness, Jesus' ministry of meals, Peter eating with Cornelius, Paul rebuking Peter for withdrawing table fellowship with Gentiles, etc.
Although it is easy to get sucked into a Martha attitude with regard to meal planning, preparation, and decor, we must never let the food of the meal obscure the gospel the meal is meant to communicate. The food is only to help communicate it. If there is strife in the meal or the hospitality, it also can communicate a false picture of the gospel. This is why Proverbs states;
Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. (Prov 17.1)Although it isn't always reasonable to feast as much as we would like with others, there is still the opportunity to provide gospel hospitality with meals. This means that real gospel hospitality can occur over Ritz crackers in a dorm room, over cedar-planked salmon in a dinning room, or over Puerco Pibil anytime and anywhere. These are just some of my initial thoughts, and will clean this up and post some more, especially on what the Lord's Supper means in light of this (d.v.), but here are some other links that can help you in coordinating gospel hospitality meals...