Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Opening Question
If you could invite anyone from the present, past, or future to dinner in your home, who would you invite?
Hospitality Defined
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
– 1 Peter 4:8-10
“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.”
– Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of Spiritual Life
In the sermon, we learned that hospitality could be translated as love of the stranger or outsider, or to love a stranger into a friend. What are some hospitable actions we could take in our daily life that could make friends of people we don’t know well?
1 Peter 4:8 promises us that if we will offer hospitable love to one another, that love will cover our sins. What does it look like in a relationship or community, for our love to cover one another’s sins?
Hospitality Received
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”– Luke 19:1-10
When Jesus invited Zaccheus to spend time with him, he chose Zacchaeus’s house as the location. What do you imagine that meant to Zaccaeus?
Jesus’s invitation exposed Zacchaeus’s lack of belonging in the community, causing onlookers to judge Jesus for going to Zacchaeus’s house. How does Jesus’s hospitality toward Zacchaeus show us the teaching of 1 Peter 4:8 in action?
How is the eventual impact of Zacchaeus’s transformation on the community around him an example of 1 Peter 4:10 in action?
Hospitality Extended
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
– Romans 12:13
We often don’t practice hospitality because of particular barriers in our lives, like fear of what others will think, our own busyness, our lives being centered around our own schedule/needs, or feeling like everything must be perfect before we share our space or life with others. What thoughts or perspectives help you overcome these kinds of barriers?
Who do you know that is not in church, not doing well, or not prepared for their current season of life? Is there a barrier keeping you from extending hospitality to them? How could you make more space for them and maybe even invite them to church during Advent this year?
Closing Thought
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in….
– Matthew 25:35
Spend some time praying for God to open doors so you can love others generously and hospitably. Ask for opportunities to invite people to church, and for God to fill your heart and life with his belonging so that you can offer it to others.