God of all parts of our lives, God is not really God of any part of our lives. God does not need to be privatized by us; He must be public God who is available for all people. Therefore, hospitality can be that important hammer which could break down this division of public and private.I want to turn to Jesus who is portrayed in the Bible as a stranger as well. He [Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:11). Jesus experienced the vulnerability of the homeless infant, the child refugee, the adult with no place to lay his head, the despised convict. Nevertheless, hospitality was an essential feature of Jesus ministry on the earth., There is a question, Who is a stranger? The definition can be that it is a person without a place. In the same time, Rodney Clapp suggests that stranger is that person who crosses borders. Jesus was that Person who crossed and ignored borders. He was hospitable and welcomed people who were unacceptable and unclean in the eyes of society. Therefore, Jesus was a stranger for many people. Then He said later, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Matt. 8:20). Stranger is a person who is like from another world and he or she speaks another language.the same time, from my point of view, even our brothers and sisters can be strangers within the community. They can become those persons who cross the borders of different church rules and regulations which make community closed from the world. There is a logical connection. If the heart of community will be open to its own members, then this heart will be open to the people who are around the community. It requires willingness to be hospitable and open to others. Hospitality is a will to embrace. Therefore, hospitality is resistance. It resists borders and boundaries which people make around themselves and around others. Society creates some standards by which some people become invisible for the society. Their needs and wounds become invisible for the society. The same things sometimes happen in the faith communities as well. Christians decides just do not see some people. Then, hospitality can resist such standards of invisibility and make a way for the visibility and recognition.recognition of strangers in our midst implies seeing the dignity of other person. It is a distinctive feature of the virtue of hospitality. The great theologian John Calvin said :, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him. Say, He is a stranger; but the Lord has given him a mark that ought to be familiar to you, by virtue of the fact that he forbids you to despise your own flesh (Isa. 58: 7). Say, He is contemptible and worthless; but the Lord shows him to be one to whom he has deigned to give the beauty of his image. Say that you owe nothing for any service of his; but God, as it were, has put him in his own place in order that you may recognize toward him the many and great benefits with which God has bound you to himself. Say that he does not deserve even your least effort for his sake; but the image of God, which recommends him to you, is worthy of your giving yourself and all your possessions. s thoughts can be a good reminder that we all bear the image of God. We are equal in need of hospitality and welcome.is also an inner attitude. Hospitality starts not from the opening the doors of our house. Hospitality begins from the opening the doors of our heart. Hospitality is creating the open space in our hearts, where other person can become a friend. It should the first step of Christian communities. Finally, hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left, but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment ... It is not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria of happiness, but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God and their way. The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free ... Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the life style of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.
2. RECONCILIATION
2.1 Sharing makes us vulnerable
As it was said above, hospitality as the foundation for the mutual sharing requires our openness toward other people. However, it is a venture. The main danger of this adventure is that it requires our willingness to become vulnerable before others. It means to make our own nerve naked. Then every touch to this nerv...
