Sunday Class @ 9am; Worship @ 10am & 5pm
Articles
Hospitality vs. Entertaining
It’s easy to confuse hospitality with its nemesis, entertaining. The two can look very similar but are often fundamentally different. Hospitality is commanded of both Christians and their leaders (I Peter 4:9; Titus 1:8; I Timothy 3:2). It is a means by which other instructions become practical (consider Galatians 6:1, 2, 7, 10), a way to help those in physical, spiritual, emotional or relational need (Romans 12:13) or share in the work of those who carry the Truth abroad (III John 8). One dictionary defines the Greek word, “Fond of guests.” Hospitality isn’t about food or decorations, pomp or wow. It’s all about the guests. It is love in action.
Jan Wilkin, who several years ago tweeted entertainment advice, has more recently come out as an avid proponent of hospitality. In an article titled, “Hospitality Beats Entertainment,” she writes in part:
Entertaining involves setting the perfect tablescape after an exhaustive search on Pinterest. It chooses a menu that will impress, and then frets its way through each stage of preparation. It requires every throw pillow to be in place, every cobweb to be eradicated, every child to be neat and orderly. It plans extra time to don the perfect outfit before the first guest touches the doorbell on the seasonally decorated doorstep. And should any element of the plan fall short, entertaining perceives the entire evening to have been tainted. Entertaining focuses attention on self.
Hospitality involves setting a table that makes everyone feel comfortable. It picks up the house to make things pleasant, but doesn’t feel the need to conceal evidences of everyday life. It allows the gathering to be shaped by the quality of the conversation rather than the cuisine. Hospitality shows interest in the thoughts, feelings, pursuits, and preferences of its guests. It is good at asking questions and listening intently to answers. Hospitality focuses attention on others.
Entertaining is always thinking about the next course. Hospitality burns the rolls because it was listening to a story. Entertaining obsesses over what went wrong. Hospitality savors what was shared. Entertaining seeks to impress. Hospitality seeks to bless.
But the two practices can look so similar. Two people can set the same beautiful tablescape and serve the same [food], one with a motive to impress, the other with a motive to bless. How can we know the difference? Only the second would “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” to pull up a chair and sip from the stemware or solo cups (Luke 14:12-14). Our motives are revealed not just in how we set our tables, but in who we invite to join us at the feast.
Orderly house or not, hospitality throws wide the doors. It offers itself expecting nothing in return. It is nothing less than the joyous, habitual offering of those who recall a gracious table set before them in the presence of their enemies (Psalm 23:5), of those who look forward to a glorious table yet to come (Revelation 19:6-9). It is a means by which we imitate our infinitely hospitable God.
This holiday season and beyond, let us be “given to hospitality.”
