If a close friend you worked with suddenly changed companies, would that change your friendship? What about the person who replaced your friend in the organization, would they be welcomed? Would they become your friend?
The first question was basically what a friend of mine recently asked me. He is discerning change in his company, and he wanted to know if I would still be his friend, or would our friend group turn their backs on him. He was worried because when he made a change before, he had friends that would no longer speak to him.
My heart hurt for him for that experience.
He was worried about losing community, again. It’s no wonder. Loneliness and no sense of community have been on the rise for over a decade. Two years ago, it was named a public health crisis of epidemic proportions. In today’s divided world, many of us have had similar experiences. It often seems that the world is socially inhospitable. What can we do about it?
In 1 John 3:18, we read, “Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth.” (CEB)
John is encouraging us to live out the love of God that has been given to us. This is God’s commandment to us. John emphasizes this is how Jesus taught us to live and it is how we demonstrate that God is alive in us.
Another way to think about it is like this. Our words matter, and our actions prove our words. People see our actions more than they hear our words.
One of the most powerful ways to express this is hospitality. Hospitality is the welcoming of people to be with you. It is an instrumental part of who we are as a church, as Methodists, and really as Christians. Ultimately, hospitality is an art. It’s a way of doing, living, being. It’s something learned, practiced, and honed. While some people have a natural God given gift for it. Most of us, like me, have to work at it. Yet, God gives us the grace to grow in the beautiful Christian way of being.
I reassured my friend that our friendship is deeper than our occupations. I also believe that our friends will continue to welcome him after the change. Now, it’s up to each of us to maintain that relationship. Like we read in 1 John 3:18, it requires action.
Our Christian response is the answer to my second question. Will we make room for others?
We practice hospitality with those new to us. With guests. With strangers. It’s more than words, it’s actions. Our actions back up those words. When we say we’re glad you’re here – we back it up by making room for them, by greeting them, by getting to know them, by inviting them into the conversation and to the table.
It was Christ who first invited us into his presence, his table, his family. Now it’s our turn to do the same for others. This invitation is the first action of sharing God’s love. You and I live into it when we welcome others into our presence, your presence, and God’s presence. When cultivated well, strangers become friends.
I invite you to explore more about the Christian Art of Hospitality each Sunday morning this September as we take time to consider how God leads us to be hospitable people in an inhospitable world.
