Sidewalk Talk

Stories of everyday expressions of hospitality from sidewalks around the world.

I met Polly* at a local "department store" (I use the term loosely) in my new city in South Asia. I went in to buy towels but for some strange reason (we will call it jet lag) I only bought one. Polly assisted me  and was so kind. She was very patient with my poor language skills and just did everything she could to help. As I said, I only bought one towel and of course I needed more. I returned to the store a few days later to get another. As I walked to the store I asked the Father for a chance to just say hi to Polly again.  I went in the store and sure enough she was there. She and the other workers were having a break time and enjoying a snack together. I felt so bad to interrupt and was sure I was not going to be able to talk with Polly. But, as I was looking at the towels, Polly came up behind me with some of her snack to share with me! I was stunned and, being the polite American I am, I refused. Polly was persistent and offered again. I realized she was showing me a great kindness and to refuse would be extremely rude.  I could not believe it! Here is this precious girl offering a complete stranger, new to her country, and obviously not very culturally savvy, some of her snack at work. It was such a simple act of hospitality but the Father used it to lift my spirits. The whole way home I was in awe of the Father's sweet provision and of this girls generosity and hospitality to me. I hope that when given the chance I will extend the same simple hospitality to a stranger and open the doors for potential friendship.

~Please lift up further meetings with Polly(I still need more towels:) and boldness on my part to share the Truth with her.

HOSPITALITY: noun. the gracious, generous, friendly treatment of others

Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

5 Hospitable Spurs for Sunday Mornings (or Saturday Evenings):

1. Take a deep breath. That's right...in through your nose, out through your mouth. In the car. Before you step into the parking lot or set foot on the church sidewalk. Just take a deep breath. The moments leading up to arrival at church can be and often are stressful. It's rush, rush, rush to get everyone ready and out-the-door on time. I think the enemy would like nothing more than to use our Sunday-morning fluster to keep us from being able to display God's kindness to others. So, I'm trying to practice leaving it in the car. I'm not promoting hypocrisy here or encouraging you to put on a fake "church face", but I think all the mess and stress of the week should pale in comparison to the joy of our salvation and that should be what we strive to pour out on others and not our flustered exasperation with our wardrobe or with our spouse or with the super-slow Sunday driver in front of us. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:17 that any struggles, though very real and valid, we have on this earth are both "light and momentary" compared to the glory waiting for us in eternity. It's the anticipation of our hopeful future that should put a spring in our steps and bring a smile to our faces.

2. Make eye contact with and smile at the people you pass on the sidewalk and in the halls. Maybe this should go without saying, but in our current culture, it seems that this small hospitable gesture has been lost. We should find the courage, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to step outside of ourselves for a few brief moments to seek the better interests of others rather than ourselves. Okay, enough said.

3.Seek out someone who looks alone or "lost". They're in the lobby, in the restroom, at the coffee bar, in the line at the check-in desk in the kids' department, sitting in the back of the auditorium, in the parking lot, in the youth room, etc. They church is full of lonely people who either feel invisible or displaced. And besides, before Christ found us, that's what we were. What better way to display the gospel than to acknowledge the existence of and take an interest in those people? Invite him to sit with you and your family or friends. Ask her if she is involved in a small group. Invite her to yours if she doesn't. Exchange email addresses so you can send him a brief message mid-week. The only personal risk at stake here is a little rejection. I think we can all risk a little rejection from time to time to be a living display of the gospel. You never know what a difference a simple "How are you, today?" can make in a person's life.

4. Greet the people sitting near you in the auditorium. If you are seated in enough time before the worship service begins, then take a couple of minutes to greet the people seated near you. It doesn't have to lead to a long, drawn-out conversation, but should at least be a step toward taking an interest in those around you.

5. Stick around for a few minutes after the service to chat with people. I know this is a challenge for those of us who have kids in Sunday School or the nursery or after church plans, but it really is a vital thing for healthy-relationship building to take place within the Body of believers. So, if you've got kids, go get them and then chat with the other families that are picking up kids too. If you don't have kids, hang around the lobby or sidewalk to engage those you've just met or those you've known for awhile in conversation. Both groups should even consider inviting people to join them for dinner after church--either out or at your home--from time to time.

The thing is we have to be the ones to take the initiative sometimes. If we all just wait for the other person to speak first, move first, invite first, etc., then we may miss out on MANY opportunities to display the love of Christ to others and to develop new friendships. We have to fight against our current culture by being friendly and considerate to others in order to demonstrate that "We love because He loved us first" (1 John 4:19).

Looking Up From the Cracks in My Sidewalk: A Theology of Hospitality Part I

2 Corinthians 5:17-21Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: HOSPITALITY. I want to know what it really means and what God’s Word has to say about it. I want to know what it looks like in our culture and how to live it out in our context.

I really started chewing on this topic when I read Luke 7:37-50, the story of the Sinful Woman, for a study I’ve been doing with a friend, but it’s also something I’ve been fired up about lately. I’ve noticed a disheartening lack of hospitality among people in our culture (including myself)—not just our culture at large, but our church culture too—a lack of hospitality among brothers and sisters in Christ. I’m not even really referring (yet, although we will get there in this blog series) to the fact that it is a RARE thing for people to invite others into their homes or that it’s no longer a regular practice for church-attendees to greet one another in the service (this has become taboo in our more seeker-friendly church culture because someone might get scared-off if you say hello to them or act glad that they are there).

What I’m super-disturbed about and want to focus this discussion to is the fact that people rarely even bother to speak a generic “Good Morning! How are you?” to each other as they pass on the sidewalks or in the hallways at church. We hide behind sunglasses and smart phones or become suddenly interested in the cracks of the sidewalks or we’re so busy trying to get kids to their places or doing our Sunday-morning “ministry” tasks that we fail to remember to make eye-contact, smile, and greet one another. We seem to have forgotten that the people we’ve just ignored or blown past are just that—people, image-bearing creations of the Creator God who formed man out of the dust of the earth, gave him a helper named woman when God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, and commanded the man and the woman to fill the earth with their offspring (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18; 21-25). See, God Himself is all about relationship. He desires fellowship and relationship with us and because He imprinted us with Himself, we also desire fellowship and relationship with Him and with other people.

So why then, if God created us with a desire to be relational beings do we sabotage and suppress that desire by trying to be invisible or treat others as if they are invisible?

I think the answer is fairly simple. Like our need to be relational, the origin of our dysfunction in that arena goes back to the beginning of human history. When sin entered God’s perfect world and His perfect people through Adam and Eve, one of the first things it wreaked havoc with was relationships—both man and woman’s relationship with God and with each other (Genesis 3). And since then, our relationships on every level have been pretty messed up.

We’re separated by our sin from our righteous, holy God and from each other by the wicked, self-seeking nature that reigns in us. It’s just pure self-absorption that keeps us from being able to step outside of ourselves for one brief moment to make eye contact and smile at the person walking by us. That’s the bad news.

The good news is there’s a remedy for our relational mess and our serious sin-sickness that blinds us to the needs and desires of others. His name is Jesus and He’s God’s rescue-plan for humankind. Through Jesus, God reconciles people to Himself and restores them to relationship with Himself. In this restoration, we not only gain reconciliation to God but to each other (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)! When God reconciled us to Himself through His Son, Jesus, He erased our old, selfish, sinful nature and gave us a new one. In Christ, we are brand new creations—set free from the slavery of sin and self-absorption to live a life that is pleasing to God and hospitable toward others (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:1).

As a result of Christ’s redeeming work in our lives, our desire to be in relationship with God is fulfilled and our desire to grow deeper in that relationship should mount the more we get to know our Savior and God. In the same way, we should desire to be connected to those who’ve also been brought near to God in Christ—our fellow brothers and sisters (Ephesians 2:14-19). Our relationships with other believers should deepen and grow as we grow in Christ and the Bible is filled to overflowing with instructions on how we should be treating each other.

The other relational desire that should grow to exponential dimensions as a result of our reconciliation to God is our love for lost people and a desire for them to be reconciled to God, too. Our connectedness to the rest of the world what has yet to hear of God’s rescue-plan should increase as we learn to live out our reconciliation in Christ. We are God’s ambassadors to the rest of the world of what it means to live in restored relationship to Him through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). It’s out of this reconciliation to Christ that our ability to demonstrate hospitality flows.

So without further ado, I’d like to invite you to look up from the cracks in the sidewalks and join me in learning just what gospel-centered hospitality means and looks like for us as believers in the 21st century. My hope and earnest prayer for us as we embark on this study is that we will fall more in love with our Savior and His Word, overflow with thankfulness for the hospitality shown to us in Christ, and develop a rich theological framework for biblical, gospel-centered hospitality which will enable us to practice hospitality to both believers and non-believers in simple, practical ways.

A Great High Priest Whose Name Is Love

Matthew 27:50-52

I have been startled and moved throughout our study of Matthew by how crystal clear Jesus' identity as THE MESSIAH becomes as Matthew writes his account of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection. He demonstrates over and over again that Jesus is the fulfillment and the embodiment of the One the Jews and the rest of the world have been waiting, longing, hoping, and looking for all these many years. Matthew, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, authored this gospel to clearly reveal that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king, just as the scriptures promise the Jewish Messiah will be.

What was particularly poignant to me as I read Matthew's account of Jesus' betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion was the way Matthew illustrates Jesus' fulfillment of the office of High Priest. I have read this story many times, but had missed part of its significance before.

Matthew tells us what happens when Jesus allows death to overtake him on the cross in 27:50-52, "And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised..."

And in that very moment, Jesus closed the gap our sin had created between God and man. He entered the Holy of holies, bearing the full penalty of the wrath of God, and made atonement for our sin. Jesus experienced what every Jewish priest both longed and dreaded to be chosen to do. A priest longed to be the one chosen to enter the Holy of holies sometime during his lifetime, to be the one to go beyond the veil into the place where God's glorious presence dwelled. But in the same way he longed to have that role, he also dreaded it because one wrong move, motive, or misspeak while in that place, and God's wrath would be kindled and result in the priest's immediate death.

But Jesus, unlike any priest before him, lavished his love on us by humbling himself, becoming our very sin for us, and submitting to death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He was the perfect, spotless lamb who was slaughtered on behalf of the sins of the entire world--past, present, and future. When he was on the cross, Jesus experienced the agony of the full weight of all sin from Adam to me to my children's children's children, drank the entire cup of God's wrath on our behalf, and for the first and last time knew intimately what it was to experience unyielding separation from the Father.

Separated. Cut off. Alone. Dead in my sins. The King of kings died in my place so that I am no longer separated by my sin from my Maker, Creator, Abba Father. He tore the veil, closed the gap, bridged the gulf, reopened the way, giving me unfettered access to the Holy of holies, the ability to sit and revel in God's very presence without fear of the death penalty. Jesus' death on the cross and sin-bearing entrance into the Holy of holies set me free from the bondage of slavery to sin and eternal separation from God. No longer bound by the Law which required yearly atonement, cleansing of sin, I am free to be in God's presence, to share restored relationship with him (Ephesians 2:11-16).

Jesus, prophet, king, and great High Priest was also the Lamb of God slain for me and for you. And now, according to 1 Peter 2:9-11, those who believe are considered part of the royal priesthood of believers. Believers are also able to stand before the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and grace(Hebrews 4:14-16.) As a follower of Christ, I am an heir of righteousness rather than a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3-6). How incredible it is to know that we have a great High priest who lavished His love on us by taking our punishment on our behalf. The gospel really can be communicated in four powerful words...Jesus in my place! Do you know Jesus as your great High Priest? Do you know what it is to have restored fellowship with the Father because Jesus died in your place? My prayer is that you will accept and believe that Jesus' death on the cross for you is enough to bridge the gap between your sin and the Father, and join me in singing this song of praise to our great Hight Priest!

You tore the veil; you made a way

when you said that "It is done"!

You tore the veil; you made a way

when you said that "It is done"!

At the cross I bow my knee

Where Your blood was shed for me;

There's no greater love than this!

You have overcome the grave;

Your glory fills the highest place.

What can separate me now?! (Hillsong: At the Cross)