Thanksgiving and Hospitality

Dear Family,

Who’s coming to your Thanksgiving dinner next week? Jesus has some interesting things to say about dinners and hospitality. He spent a good amount of his ministry dining out. He not only spent time meeting in homes with his friends and followers, but he also took time to meet and eat with the Pharisees and who opposed his ministry.  The kind of people with whom he dined caused me to think about one significant lesson Jesus taught about hospitality.

In Luke 14 Jesus taught, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (14:12-14)

As I thought about this, I tried to recall the last time I had honored this exhortation.  Quite honestly most of the people whom we have invited to our home have been my friends, neighbors and family, and while on occasion when we lived in Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, we would invite those we knew had no place to go on special holidays, it was not always on a regular basis. Often they would come from local addiction ministries or were referred to us by the Salvation Army, but I would say these instances weren’t often enough.

As I reflected on how we welcome the outcast, the unlovely, the needy, I thought about something that I recently read that took place in a church service, and it was told by former televangelist Jim Bakker shortly after his release from prison.  I share it with you because it is a beautiful story of what the church is called to be.

“When I was transferred to my last prison, Franklin Graham said he wanted to help me out when I got out with a job, a house to live in, and a car.  It was my fifth Christmas in prison.  I thought it over and said, ‘Franklin, you can’t do this.  It will hurt you.  The Grahams don’t need my baggage’.  He looked at me and he said, ‘Jim, you were my friend in the past, and you are my friend now.  If anyone doesn’t like it, I’m looking for a fight.’”

“So when I got out of prison, the Grahams sponsored me and paid for a house for me to live in and gave me a car to drive.  The first Sunday out, Ruth Graham called the halfway house I was living in at the Salvation Army and asked permission for me to go to the Montreat Presbyterian Church with her that Sunday morning.  When I got there, the pastor welcomed me and sat me with the Graham family.  There were two whole rows of them.   The organ began playing, and the place was full except for a seat next to me.  Then the doors opened and in walked Ruth Graham. She walked down that aisle and sat next to Inmate 67407-059.  I had only been out of prison 48 hours, but she told the world that morning that Jim Bakker was her friend.”

“Afterward, she had me up to their cabin for dinner.  When she asked me for my address, I pulled this envelope out of my pocket.  In prison you’re not allowed to have a wallet, so you must carry an envelope.  She asked, ‘Don’t you have a wallet?’  And I said, ‘Well, yes, this is my wallet.’   She walked into the other room and came back and said, ‘Here’s one of Billy’s wallets.  He doesn’t need it.  You can have it.’”

What a beautiful lesson in hospitality.  As you think about entertaining thisThanksgiving, why not think about inviting someone you would not normally ask to your home, someone, who, like Jim Bakker may need, to know that you are a friend, a person who can be counted on to accept and love them “just as they are”.

I close with a quote of one of my favorite authors, Erwin Lutzer, who writes, “Hospitality is a test of godliness because those who are selfish do not like strangers (especially needy ones) to intrude upon their private lives.  They prefer their own friends who share their lifestyle.  Only the humble have the necessary resource to give of themselves to those who could never give of themselves in return.”

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Tom

P.S. Please let me know if you take my advice this Thanksgiving and let me know about your experience.