In Luke 14:12-14 Jesus tells of inviting strangers to a dinner or a banquet. Jesus’ reasoning for this is “14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Being hospitable is fast becoming the most important aspect of our Christian walk – since COVID has made it the missing practice. As we come out of COVID we have a chance to restart hospitality the way Jesus intended it.
• Be cheerful when being hospitable. 1 Peter 4:9 (ESV) — 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
• Be sure to invite those who would normally be overlooked. Hebrews 13:2 (ESV) — 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
• Be sure to invite the sinners and the unpopular. Luke 5:27 (ESV) — 27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
If this pandemic has taught us anything it is that isolating individuals is more dangerous and has longer lasting results than COVID. Geriatrician Carla Perissinotto, studying 1,600 people over a period of six years, concluded that loneliness results in a “60 percent increased risk of functional decline and a 45 percent greater risk of death” (t.ly/uy6v).
Friend, are you ready to be friendly again? Then here are some holiday suggestions: invite someone over for a home cooked meal; invite someone to join you at the Zoo’s “Festival of Lights”; invite someone to join you at the Cincinnati Museum’s OMNIMAX; or, as Gideon suggests, invite someone to join us at our next Fellowship Meal.
