1. Hospitality
Week 2: Hostipitality

2. What happened?

3. What we’ve learned so far …
Biblical hospitality is WAY more radical than dinner parties …
Xenophilia
Parables of inclusion and missing out
Hospitality defined by anthropologists and theologians
An exchange
Making relationships
Making a space for God’s transformation

4. What is hostipitality? Unconditional hospitality … in tension with …

5. What is hostipitality?
The law of unlimited hospitality [is] to give the new arrival all of one’s home and oneself, to give him or her one’s own, our own, without asking a name, or compensation, or the fulfilment of even the smallest condition. [It contrasts with] the laws, … rights and duties that are always conditioned and conditional. Jacques Derrida's philosophy of hospitality.

6. What is hostipitality?

7. Examples of hostipitality
Explicit hospitality
Implicit hostility
Ladies first!
I can block your way
Do come in
I can keep you out
Have some cake
Now compliment my cake
I’d be delighted to host it
My house is biggest
Drinks are on me
I’m richer than you
Sorry the house is such a mess!
I hope you realise how much cleaning I have done for your visit
Make yourself at home
This is my house
Refugees are welcome
These other people are not refugees and I do not welcome them

8. What is hostipitality in Christian theology?
Unconditional hospitality implies that you don’t ask the other, the newcomer, the guest to give anything back, or even to identify himself or herself. Even if the other deprives you of your mastery or your home, you have to accept this. It is terrible to accept this, but that is the condition of unconditional hospitality: that you give up the mastery of your space, your home, your nation. It is unbearable. If, however, there is pure hospitality, it should be pushed to this extreme.
Jacques Derrida's philosophy of hospitality.

9. What is hostipitality in Christian theology?
Christ Jesus, 6 … though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Philippians (2:5-8)

10. What is hostipitality in Christian theology?
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away… (John 6:37)
Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:42)

11. What is hostipitality in Christian theology?
God’s hospitality
… in tension with …
Human sinfulness
An unwillingness to give
An unwillingness to receive
A desire to stay in control

12. Scripture

13. Jesus Visits Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42)
38 Now as they went on their way, [Jesus] entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ 41 But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

14. Hostipitality in the church
evaluation

15. Henri Nouwen
The church is perhaps one of the few places left where we can meet people who are different than we but with whom we can form a larger family.
Every good relationship between two or more people, whether it is friendship, marriage, or community, creates space where strangers can enter and become friends. Good relationships are hospitable. When we enter into a home and feel warmly welcomed, we will soon realise that the love among those who live in that home is what makes that welcome possible.

16. When there is conflict in the home, the guest is soon forced to choose sides. “Are you for him or for her?” “Do you agree with them or with us?” “Do you like him more than you do me?” These questions prevent true hospitality – that is, an opportunity for the stranger to feel safe and discover his or her own gifts. Hospitality is more than an expression of love for the guest. It is also and foremost an expression of love between the hosts.
In the eyes and feelings of many who suffer, church buildings are perceived more as houses of power than houses of hospitality.
Henri Nouwen

17. As a person or parish increases their capacity for solitude that provides a base for growth in hospitality. And as our hospitality increases that provides a base for deeper prayer and more connection with reality.
Henri Nouwen
loneliness
solitude
hostility
hospitality
illusion
prayer