This week’s gospel reading finds Jesus and his disciples on the road again. He is heading for Jerusalem for the last time. The roads on which he travels are not particularly friendly:
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
We need to know a little history of religion and politics to make sense of this encounter. Samaritans were also people of Israel – they were descendants of Israel’s northern kingdom in the days when North (Samaria) and South (Judea) had separated and were ruled by different kings. One reason for the split was that when David established Jerusalem as a capital, the place where the Spirit of God was said to dwell, the leadership there designated Jerusalem, and the temple David’s son Solomon built, as the ONLY holy place where sacrifices could be offered. They denigrated the holy places and shrines in the north, which did not sit well with the residents and priestly class of Samaria. Gradually the feud became a schism between two branches of one family.
When Jesus’ advance team came into this Samaritan village to see if Jesus could stay there, they were rebuffed. What-ever natural hospitality the people might have had, they were not going to play host to any religious leader heading to Jerusalem. Wounds were still fresh this many centuries later.
This so often happens when we disapprove of what someone else stands for. Rather than bother getting to know the person, we may simply reject her for her opinions or positions on issues. We can see this at play in the increasing protests of speakers on college campuses – some people resist even hearing views that they find abhorrent, labeling them toxic.
What is hospitality, though? Is it only the willingness to host people we like and agree with? Or is it being willing to let God “set a table for me in the presence of my enemies,” as the Psalm 23 puts it? I’ve been dreaming up an initiative called “Eating With Strangers,” which would invite the public to a fine meal at church among people they may not know or agree with, with the express intent of reclaiming civility and conversation across boundaries of difference. Stay tuned...
Hospitality is a good framework for how we engage the “Other,” whatever that person's ethnic, racial, sexual, financial or political identity. What if we saw such encounters as the equivalent of offering water and a place to sit to a weary and parched traveler? We have different expectations of guests than we do of friends, and different expectations of ourselves as hosts.
Hospitality is a spiritual practice we are invited to cultivate in all kinds of ways. It could transform our lives – and our culture – if we found ourselves practicing it with people of whom we disapprove, even if we don't like where they've been or where they're going.
No comments:
Post a Comment