One Minister's Musings- Hospitality

A number of years I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in South Korea studying the Korean Methodist Church with emphasis upon multiple faith perspectives and small groups. Everywhere our class of 20 went, we were met with a warm welcome (with the notable exception of being cleared to enter the DMZ.) Strangers smiled at us, kids came up to us practice their English. It was amazing.

We were welcomed into the homes of church members, fed wonderful food and were embraced by a sense of hospitality that I had never experienced before. I was so taken back by this sense of radical welcome that I was moved to ask one of our guides about this sense of hospitality. She looked at me like I was out of my mind and said “Hospitality is an expression of faith” My breath was taken away at these words as I considered and experienced hospitality as a moral imperative.

Her words and the moral imperative to act still haunts me as I see the continued in justices in our world, Climate Change, Poverty, Racism, and Oppression abound in our world. The words “hospitality is an expression of faith” confronts me with the question of how do I express my faith? How do I, in the words of Dr. Mike Franch, “Make love a verb“?

I invite you into this question – how do you live out your faith? How do we as a faith community live out our shared faith? As individuals we have power and energy, but together as a community and with our faith we find a synergy to make a difference in this world.

Margaret Mead reminds us – never think that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.