Week 20 - May 12-18, 2024: The Spirit of Hospitality

This week’s daily readings:

Week 20 - May 5-11, 2024

This week’s devotional:

The Spirit of Hospitality 

by The Rt. Rev. Brian Bethke

Scripture:

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. 

— 3 John 1:5-8 (NIV)  

Reflection:

Summer in New England is one of my favorite times of the year. The bi-polar weather of spring is now continually warm. Days seem endless. People are visible. Backyard events around town are continual. Those memories of summer get-togethers can warm us even in the cold months of winter!

Summer seems to elicit a spirit of generous hospitality, especially among God’s people. It is not uncommon on a weekend to unexpectedly end up hanging out with strangers around a picnic table or fire pit. Hospitality has a way of bringing people together: it breaks down barriers, forges new relationships, and rekindles long-standing ones. In a world that’s often fractured, hospitality seems to be a universal language.

God showed the ultimate generous hospitality by inviting us to a seat at his table through Jesus Christ. His generous hospitality is meant to be shared with others. If you’ve received God’s good blessings, you are expected to share the blessing, perhaps with the people on your frontline – maybe even with strangers! Being hospitable is doing the work of the Lord. Who is he prompting you to be hospitable to? 

Prayer:

Lord, I long to honor you by sharing your love with others. Give me a heart for serving and giving – a heart like Jesus Christ! Help me to be generous and hospitable all year round, to believers and non-believers alike. Be faithfully present in our gatherings so that your love and your truth shine though. And do all these things, if you will, for your names’ sake. Amen