Woven Welcome

Look at Jesus. Hospitality is woven into the incarnation of God in this world. Jesus of Nazareth both needed hospitality and gave it freely. He both needed welcome and provision and space and gave welcome and provision and space. In his lifetime he was a homeless infant, he was a refugee child, he did not have any place to lay his head as an adult. He relied on others for his food, for a place to sleep.   And then he died as a reviled criminal did. But he also gave welcome—he provided for the hungry masses, he welcomed the children, he welcomed the women to the meals, he touched and was deeply touched by compassion for the sick and lonely.   In his very self, in God’s very self is a deep resonant call to remember ourselves as deeply vulnerable and needy creations – all of us – and then a deep and resonant call to treat others accordingly. The fact that the deep hospitality is woven into the very person of Christ should be enough that we wrestle with this concept and its real world implications for the rest of our life. This is the deep hospitality, the deep welcome, of creation and it is the deep hospitality, the deep welcome, of The Church – The Witness to the work of reconciliation. The witness to God’s welcome. The witness to how God chooses life, over and over and over. We are the church, the body that witnesses how God chooses life that welcomes over and over and over, even right there within us.