Hospitality recognized the 'stranger' as a child of God lwho is oved and valued in God's eyes as much as we ourselves are loved and valued. Hosptiality is an act of the our heart opening to the heart of another. In this way, hospitality is a personal practice, an act we an offer at any time and at any place.
Hospitaltiy has another dimension as a public act. The sign of this public act is our greeting of someone we do not know. A hand shake, sharing our name, listening for the guest's name in return. However these signs of public greeting are not the same as the public practice of hospitality. The public act of hospitality is to gather with others as a community and place ourselves in relationship to God. One person described it this way to me, "I need time to get on my knees each week with people who are seeking to believe, with people I know and I don't know. Getting on my knees places me in the posture of humanity in relationship to God's divinity."
As a community, we kneel knowing we a loved by God and yet we are not God. Kneeling togehter in our collective humanity is a public act of hospitality, welcoming one another in relationship with God and one another in Jesus Christ.
Reflecting on the every day, practical dimensions of faith. Practices to shape our lives each day as followers of Christ. Stories to share our practical experiences of wisdom, faith, hope, and love.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Practicing Hospitality
While I sit inside my house snowed in, I am practicing hospitality. None of us knows when we will be subject to the mercy and goodness of strangers. Today, I am at the mercy and goodness of 'strangers' who will be plowing the roads, patroling the streets, staffing the ER if I experience a medical emergency, managing the use of public resources to get businesses open and people back to work. Most of these people are unknown to me but the professionalism and goodness with which they do their jobs influence my life significantly. I am practicing hospitality by recognizing the contribution, and sacrifice, these people are making on my behalf.
While we tend to think of strangers as those who we do not know in our congregations, as those who orginiate from a culture different from our own, as people so unfamiliar we need to be wary of them, strangers are actually part of our lives every day. Perhaps a story will illustrate. One Easter dawn several years ago, I was walking from the rectory to the church. No one was awake and moving about except a police officer in his patrol car. I smiled, waved, and kept walking. Later that morning at the packed Easter service was a man, attending alone, who I did not recognize. Then I noticed his uniform.
An unfamiliar face at worship may be someone who has worked extra shifts at the hospital because other medical staff did not make it through the snow. Or, a teacher connecting to this new parish community. Others have received their goodness and mercy. Practicing hospitality welcomes these 'strangers' into the life of the worshipping community that morning.
Much of our current scriptures are translated from Greek. The Greek word for stranger also means guest and host. We can treat one another as strangers, or, we can recognize that interplay between guest host. Sometimes we are the guest, subject to the mercy and goodness of another. And sometimes we are the host, offering that mercy and goodness to the guest. Practicing Hospitality is recognizing the mutality of our relationships with one another.
While we tend to think of strangers as those who we do not know in our congregations, as those who orginiate from a culture different from our own, as people so unfamiliar we need to be wary of them, strangers are actually part of our lives every day. Perhaps a story will illustrate. One Easter dawn several years ago, I was walking from the rectory to the church. No one was awake and moving about except a police officer in his patrol car. I smiled, waved, and kept walking. Later that morning at the packed Easter service was a man, attending alone, who I did not recognize. Then I noticed his uniform.
An unfamiliar face at worship may be someone who has worked extra shifts at the hospital because other medical staff did not make it through the snow. Or, a teacher connecting to this new parish community. Others have received their goodness and mercy. Practicing hospitality welcomes these 'strangers' into the life of the worshipping community that morning.
Much of our current scriptures are translated from Greek. The Greek word for stranger also means guest and host. We can treat one another as strangers, or, we can recognize that interplay between guest host. Sometimes we are the guest, subject to the mercy and goodness of another. And sometimes we are the host, offering that mercy and goodness to the guest. Practicing Hospitality is recognizing the mutality of our relationships with one another.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Christian Practices
Since the early centuries, Christians have been known as followers of The Way. Jesus names himself, The Way, The Truth, and The Life. How each generation faithfully finds The Way requires reflecting, debating, theologizing, and even as today, sometimes arguing.
Practicing Our Faith, A Way of Life for a Searching People offers guidance to contemporary Christians. The editor, Dorothy Bass, engages authors from across the spectrum of current scholarship and practice. As she describes in the opening pages, instead of examing the whole of Christian life, the contributors name the most important activies that comprise the Christian life.
Christian Practices are described as: "addressing fundatmental needs and conditions through concrete human acts," "done together over time," "posses standards of excellence," and, show us "how our daily lives as all tangled up in the things God is doing in the world." (pages 6-8). All the practices are necessary for a balanced and healthy Christian life but focusing on one will open up ways to practice the others.
Christian practices will be the focus of the next several posts. Yesterday highlighted the practice of Sabbath Keeping. Today, I invite you to reflect on the elements, or dimensions, of your spiritual life that show you "how your daily life is all tangled up in the things God is doing." What engages you in the world and brings you into closer relationship with God?
Practicing Our Faith, A Way of Life for a Searching People offers guidance to contemporary Christians. The editor, Dorothy Bass, engages authors from across the spectrum of current scholarship and practice. As she describes in the opening pages, instead of examing the whole of Christian life, the contributors name the most important activies that comprise the Christian life.
Christian Practices are described as: "addressing fundatmental needs and conditions through concrete human acts," "done together over time," "posses standards of excellence," and, show us "how our daily lives as all tangled up in the things God is doing in the world." (pages 6-8). All the practices are necessary for a balanced and healthy Christian life but focusing on one will open up ways to practice the others.
Christian practices will be the focus of the next several posts. Yesterday highlighted the practice of Sabbath Keeping. Today, I invite you to reflect on the elements, or dimensions, of your spiritual life that show you "how your daily life is all tangled up in the things God is doing." What engages you in the world and brings you into closer relationship with God?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
After the Snow
Welcome to Practically Christian, a blog reflecting on the presence of Christ in daily life. Some of us are 'practical Christian' looking for the ways we can make a different. Some of us are 'praciting' to be Christian looking for ways we can invest our daily lives with gratitude, awareness of love, faithful decisions, and community. Some of us consider ourselves to be not yet Christian and wondering how we walk that path. Practically Christian opens ways to learn, to deepen, and to engage the presence of the living Christ among us where ever we are on our journey. The conversation centers on the community of St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Day School in Maryland.
Today is Sunday and the day after the snow. The shape of our day will be different from what we had planned. Many will find ourselves digging out of our driveways and unable to attend worship, see friends, or attend gatherings. The distance of our travel is likely to be limited to the distance we can walk. The busyness of our usual itineary is replaced by a few essential activities close to home.
Today is a day to practice Sabbath. The Biblical concept of a week is six days of work and one day to contemplate God. In 2010 the day after the snow, contemplate God. Contemplating God is worship at home. Try using the guidance offered on http://www.stjohnsec.org/. Contemplating God is gratitude flowing when we embrace the beauty of creation. Contemplating God is feeling our bodies as we shovel snow, breathing deep, stretching to the warmth of muscles and awaking to the crispness of the air. Contemplating God is looking at the stillness of the earth and the engery of the sun glistening around us. Contemplating God is taking a walk holding the hand of someone you love. Today is a day to practice Sabbath.
Today is Sunday and the day after the snow. The shape of our day will be different from what we had planned. Many will find ourselves digging out of our driveways and unable to attend worship, see friends, or attend gatherings. The distance of our travel is likely to be limited to the distance we can walk. The busyness of our usual itineary is replaced by a few essential activities close to home.
Today is a day to practice Sabbath. The Biblical concept of a week is six days of work and one day to contemplate God. In 2010 the day after the snow, contemplate God. Contemplating God is worship at home. Try using the guidance offered on http://www.stjohnsec.org/. Contemplating God is gratitude flowing when we embrace the beauty of creation. Contemplating God is feeling our bodies as we shovel snow, breathing deep, stretching to the warmth of muscles and awaking to the crispness of the air. Contemplating God is looking at the stillness of the earth and the engery of the sun glistening around us. Contemplating God is taking a walk holding the hand of someone you love. Today is a day to practice Sabbath.
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