Relearning Hospitality

Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan comes the presence of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary where hospitality is again an important feature of the scene.  In the ancient world hospitality consisted of three components.  The first is the invitation to a person into one's home.  The second feature is the providing of nourishment for the visitor.  Finally and most importantly, one must be present to the guest, talking with them and listening to them.

Martha did the first two pieces of hospitality very well.  She welcomed Jesus into her home, and she provided nourishment for him to an exceptional degree.  However, she was not present to Jesus as Mary was during his visit.  Martha was overly obsessed with the particulars of providing nourishment that she forgot to be present with Jesus, to talk with him and listen to him as the rules of hospitality demanded in those days.  

Today's Gospel portion is not about the contemplative versus the active life.  It is a story about simple hospitality and how it is to be practiced.  We moderns cannot understand it because we have outsourced hospitality to an industry of hotels and restaurants.  We have retreated into our enclaves of stockade fenced homes and cell phones.  Even at church hospitality is coffee and donuts once a month.  Today is a day to relearn hospitality: to welcome, provide nourishment, and to be present to others, for in them is Christ himself.