PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 21:1–9
After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
CONSIDER THIS
How is your hospitality? I’m not asking how many friends you have had over to your house lately. That’s good, of course, but that’s not hospitality; at least as the Bible envisages it. That’s entertaining. The biblical practice of hospitality is not about who you invited over for dinner but how you responded to people who showed up uninvited. The practice of hospitality permeates the Acts of the Apostles. We see it poignantly in today’s text.
What if a perfect stranger comes into our town this week looking for the disciples? We don’t exactly have a category for that, strangely enough. And what if they wanted to stay with the disciples for seven days? Would we translate that to mean something like, say, sleeping on the floor of the fellowship hall? Remember, this wasn’t just Paul, the apostolic celeb. He had a crew of at least seven others with him. I think I would have probably sent them down to the local Holiday Inn Express with my credit card.
In those days, the only equivalent of a fellowship hall would have been a hospitable home. The disciples in those days actually hosted fellow believers, even if they happened to be perfect strangers, in their homes. In this case, it was seven straight days. So much for Ben Franklin’s advice about house guests and fish starting to smell after three days. These early disciples teach us that hospitality is not about how we treat the people we invited, but how we roll out the red carpet for the people we didn’t invite (see this video).
There’s a two-word verse tucked in the middle of Romans 12 behind which is hidden one of my favorite Greek terms. The verse says, “Practice hospitality.” The Greek word is philonexia. Here’s my working definition: “to pursue the stranger with the love of a family and make them feel at home.” It’s not really about people you know, but people you don’t yet know. And it’s not about being an extroverted person who never meets a stranger.
Hospitality is a deeply personal posture of openness toward all people. Our natural tendency is to fear strangers and keep to our own. To follow Jesus is to become open and curious (and, of course, wise and discerning) when it comes to strangers. You may remember this charge in the letter to the Hebrews: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (13:2). This text is referring to the famous story of Abraham and the three angels he unknowingly invited into his home. If you have an extra few minutes you can see what biblical hospitality looks like here in Genesis 18.
As this story reveals, the one who shows hospitality is often in for the bigger blessing. Then there’s the famous Emmaus Road story where the two disciples invite the stranger into their home after the long walk and he turns out to be Jesus himself! Wow! He did say in his parable of the sheep and the goats, depicting the final judgment, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt. 25:35). It’s why St. Benedict put this instruction in his rule of life: “Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ.”
Philonexia! It’s one of the hallmark qualities of Holy Spirit–filled people. May it become a new watchword in our hearts, homes, and churches.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. And I know the only way to be like you is to be filled with your presence.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
What is your general posture toward strangers? Open or closed? Welcoming or stand-off-ish? How might you welcome the Holy Spirit to increase the welcome of Jesus in and through us? When was the last time you hosted disciples you didn’t know or invited into your home for seven days? Okay, for an overnight?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “Wonderful Words of Life” (hymn 429) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
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One Response
Heartfelt politeness is powerful. If you will without suspicion begin to be welcoming to strangers by showing them warmheartedness, courtesy, and a sincere smile, you will almost always receive a friendly response from them. You will touch the part of them that’s hungry for heart-to-heart human connection.
The next time you see a stranger make it your mission to express simple heart-felt kindness and observe the response you get. The stranger will feel better and will light up with warm facial expressions (and you will too). I experience that kind of response almost every time I express goodwill to a stranger. (There are exceptions where my kind approach is ignored or rebuffed but they are rare.)
I learned this by selling books door-to-door for three summers when I was in college. The first week of each summer I was given a week of training in positive thinking and sincere friendliness. Then I was sent to a strange city to knock on doors. I was amazed to see that my warm cheerfulness would usually (but not always) soften the heart of the person who answered the door, and we would have an uplifting encounter even if they didn’t by my books (or even take the time to look at them). I would leave them with an encouraging word and with gratitude for their time and then head to the next house.
Training your heart to be hospitable is lifechanging for you and for the people you encounter. Every person matters. If you will treat people like they do, they will usually respond positively to you. Don’t just take my word for it. Try it today and see for yourself.