Posts Tagged: "Hospitality"

kahal from iran

Lent Day 16… Meeting Kahal From Iran In MacArthur Park Was Perhaps What Churchy People Call A Divine Appointment

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! —Hebrews. 13.2

Yesterday our team went with the L.A. Dream Center to MacArthur Park to hand out bags of food. I’ve been to this park before…

In fact, I wrote a little something about my experience there back in 2011—in a post entitled “Get Over Yourself. And Cooties.” Haha. Funny title. Here’s what it said:

I’ve had a number of experiences that helped push me to get over myself…

Like serving hot meals to people living on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

Like holding AIDS babies in a government hospital in Swaziland.

Like praying for a couple of prostitutes in drug-infested MacArthur Park—immediately after saying “amen,” one of the prostitutes put her arms around me and gave me a big hug.

In circumstances like these, I had to decide what’s more important—my comfort or real compassion.

To be honest, my brain offers me some less-than-compassionate thoughts like… Read More

hospitality post

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

*photo above: Dan Bryan brought chicks to our 5pm service last night. He has too many and was sharing them.

*     *     *

One of the deep impressions Father Greg Boyle has made on me is the idea of delighting in whoever is in front of me – without agenda, not seeing them as a project or charity case or student… but to simply delight in them, as they are, right now.

*     *     *

I love this thought on hospitality from Zack Eswine…

We are capable of welcoming other human beings just as they are, even when they believe or say, look or smell, other than we want them to. Hospitality graciously transitions us from consuming people to… Read More

infrahumanization

Tribalism: Seeing Others As Not Fully Human

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, “I came as a guest, and you received me.” —Rule of St Benedict

I squirm whenever I hear someone talking about “The gays…” or “The Muslims…” or “The illegal immigrants…” or ”The Catholics…” or “The whatevers.” Sure, it probably has something to do with the sweeping generalizations, labeling, stereotyping. But I’m realizing it’s more than that.

When we speak about “The whatevers,” we are identifying “them” as separate from “us.” It’s tribalism, and tribalism is all about who’s in and and who’s out. According to Professor Richard Beck, “Ingroup members are considered to be fully human. Outgroup members are infrahumans” (less than fully human).

As the famous anthropologist Levi-Strauss said, “Humankind ceases at the border of the tribe.”

Belgium psychologist Jacques-Philippe Leyens first coined the term INFRAHUMANIZATION to describe the belief that one’s ingroup is more human than those outside it. A classic case of infrahumanization is found in the US Constitution (Article 1. Section 2. Paragraph 3) where… Read More

god as stranger

God as the Stranger

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

The theme of welcoming the stranger can be seen throughout Scripture. Abraham and Sarah welcomed three traveling strangers, offering them hospitality and friendship, a place to rest and to eat. When Jesus was born, those who celebrated and visited and brought gifts were strangers. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the wounded man is helped, not by his own people, but by a stranger—a despised Samaritan.

“With the stranger lies surprise, new possibility, contact with that part of God and reality that we have never experienced before.” —Ronald Rolheiser

Parker Palmer, in his book The Company of Strangers says…

The role of the stranger in our lives is… Read More