Pot Luck or Pot Blessings -- It's About Hospitality

I am an experienced "Pot Luck" covered-dish toter. I can't begin to tell you how many covered dishes, salads, main dishes and desserts I have made over the many years of my church-going or friends-celebrating-together life. And less I offend some of my sweet Bible-toting friends with the "luck" part of pot luck, I also refer to those amazing food-out-of-control events as "Pot Blessings". I can't think of any times when there were too much of one food item, because the cooks, I'm quite sure, are inspired from Heaven Central when they plan out their culinary treat.

Truly they are blessings because we are sharing a "family" meal together to celebrate our friendship with each other and our friendship with Jesus. I witness that every month when I attend a wonderful fellowship group in my community. This fellowship group's common language is kindness, generosity, love -- or better put, it's about Jesus. We literally break bread, chicken, and all kinds of other goodies together. You don't hear talk about politics, the economy, complaints about what's going on here or there or everywhere. You just hear positive people talking about positive things.

Christ started that fellowship when He broke bread with His disciples. Coming together to celebrate Him in us and us in Him. Some of my favorite memories involve yummy food and sharing God's love and caring like this. Scripture shows us how important it was to God for us to break bread together. Acts 2:42,46: "They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart."

When we share our gifts, talents and ordinary household meals and items to bless and serve others, we aren’t just being nice. We’re being obedient to God’s Word as this verse says: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:9-10).

Our aim should be the same for everyone. We shouldn't offer hospitality — or a home-cooked meal — to impress others. Instead, we want to refresh them. To give them a place where they can relax and unwind. To provide a setting where they can talk and question and contemplate. When we offer hospitality with gusto, without grumbling, or complaining, or fretting over our not-so-nice-anymore home or stuff, we are doing exactly what pleases God — using our gifts for His glory.

With a Little Help From My Friends

Woody and Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story" sang "You've got a friend in me!" There’s this thing about friendships. True friendships. Those friendships that pick us up just by showing up. And it doesn’t even have to be in person. It can be a phone call, text message, email, a Facebook comment, or a card. They seem to know when we need a pick-me-up -- an encouraging word or "You've been on my heart lately" or they’re just checking in to see what’s up in our world.

Those are the friends that we know we can call any time of the day – they’ll be there. As busy as they may be – they’ll come to a screeching halt when they see our name pop up on their phone. And when they show up for us – we can tell we have their undivided attention. They make us feel we matter. When we’re together, they do that thing — that thing where they look right into our eyes and whisper secret truths to us. They surprise us with a hot fudge sundae when we’re under the weather.

They’re the ones who hold our hand tight while we're trying to exhale. That thing they do? It’s life-giving. It’s oxygen and courage and conviction all rolled into one. It’s the kind of gift that can turn a day inside out. This is God-given, God-infused friendships. It's what true friendships can do for one another. The ones that see through our words and heal us with the power of a word or laughter. Of encouragement. Of acceptance. And hospitality that’s contagious.

Sometimes we’re so busy wondering if we’re getting it right, so busy worrying we’re not measuring up, so caught up in thinking we need to be just like her or him that we forget they love us just the way we are. They love the joy and Jesus and friendship. Forget awkward, forget feeling small or insecure or worried about what they’re thinking.

This version of friendship is a true story, an old story, the same story that we’ve all been living. This is purposeful commitment of friendship that connects, mends, restores and heals us. This kind of friendship is the gift. It is the testimony of the brave who chose friendship in spite of fear. It's the loud voice of comparison squashed down, drowned out, overcome by a choice to love, to love because Christ first loved us.

This brave choice is the laying down of jealousy, the raising up of encouragement. This is the cheering for someone else and feeling the powerful joy in return. This is where it’s okay to cry. This is where we nod our heads and open our arms and say, “Me, too. Yes, me too.” This is friendship on purpose. I see it in each of you who are my friends -- in how you encourage, pray and reach out a kind hand in the comments on my blog and in other's posts who reach out in distress. Day in and day out. I see you. I see how you believe the best, and hold up tired arms, and encourage the spirits here -- how you whisper in other's ears and in mind how brave you think we are. More importantly, God sees you and applauds you. On behalf of those of us who really, really need and want your friendship, just know how grateful we are -- how grateful I am to call you friends.

Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity."

Hospitality at its Finest

Have you ever been a guest at someone’s home and they made you feel like you were royalty? Right away, they offer you a drink and the most comfortable chair. They serve a meal fit for a king or queen and to top it off they bring you into the conversation – wanting to hear about you and your interests. You have their undivided attention. That is hospitality.

Jesus' hospitality was par excellence. He turned water into wine at a wedding. He fed the 5,000 and the 4,000. He cooked up a breakfast of fish for the disciples. A menial job for servants, He washed His disciple's feet. Once again, I pray: "Make me more like You, Jesus, even when it comes to being hospitable!"

What if we lived in a “hospitality” mindset? Not just having people over to our homes – but when we step out of our homes into a world where people are made to feel they are wanted and appreciated. What does that look like? Putting our phones away and giving them our undivided attention, being attentive when we’re speaking to someone (in that moment, that person, not a text message, an email, or a phone call is what is important), using words like “How are you today?” And, I get this one from my granddaughter who works at Chick-Fil-A, saying “It’s my pleasure / I am happy to”.

Christ is always in our midst, and we may be unaware that the stranger sitting next to us in church or the young woman needing assistance with her arms that are so full with her baby and diaper bag, is our opportunity to be Christ’s hands extended in hospitality.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world, and this world needs His hospitality. I remember a message I heard at church. Our pastor was speaking about hospitality in a Spanish church. He talked about Jesus being in their midst. He asked, "Will the real Jesus, please stand up!" To his shock, a man in the middle of the congregation stood up. What the pastor had forgotten, parents in the Spanish culture will oftentimes name their baby boys "Jesus". It was humorous but it's a question we hear Him asking us today: "Will the real Jesus please stand up?" The real Jesus is found in you and me as we reach out and touch others with His love, servitude, and hospitality.

1 Peter 4:8-9 "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."

Hospitality at its Finest

Hospitality: the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers

Years ago, Staci and I met a gal at church who was so very heart-broken. We stopped to pray with her and found that her children had been taken from her because she was deemed an unfit mother, particularly because she couldn't provide for them. She was living at the Salvation Army and all hope seemed lost to her. That next week, we went to the Salvation Army to see what we could do to help her and found her sitting in the flower bed at the front of the building. Staci sat down beside her and began to sing the song she had written for those who were hopeless and lived beneath their God-given abilities. The words she sang spoke about the special purposes and plans God has for her, the greatness that lies in her, and how much God wants to make her dreams come true." When Staci finished singing, a disheveled woman came up to us and said, God says to you "As you've done to the least of these, you've done it unto Me. Well done, good and faithful servants." Then she left us, and we could never find her to thank her. The good news for the young woman we were praying with, her life began to radically change, doors opened for her to get a good job, get back on her feet again and get her family back together. The good news for Staci and I, we believed we encountered God in human flesh in that woman who encouraged us for being hospitable.

The Gospel reading at church yesterday was from Luke 24:13-35 which was about the two disciples who were walking home to Emmaus on Easter Sunday and Jesus appeared to them and walked with them. He spoke to them, encouraged them and not until they asked Him to come home and have dinner with them, did He reveal Himself to them. Their hospitality opened the door for Jesus to be seen.

I loved Pastor Larry's explanation that Christ is always in our midst, and we, too, may be unaware that the stranger sitting next to us in church, the driver in the car that is trying to find a parking space and we let them take the one we were going after, or the young woman needing assistance with her arms that are so full with her baby and diaper bag. All of those are hospitality opportunities. Maybe, it's even opening the doors to our home to that one at church that seems so lonely. Maybe, it's the next door neighbor that is sick and needs a bowl of soup -- but even more so, a friend that exudes Christ likeness.

The fact is, we are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world, and this world needs His hospitality. Pastor Larry told us the story of preaching this sermon many years ago in a Spanish Church. After talking about Jesus being in their midst, He said, "Will the real Jesus, please stand up!" To his shock and the shock of the congregation, one man in the middle of the congregation stood up. What Pastor Larry had forgotten, is that in the Spanish culture, oftentimes, parents will name their baby boys "Jesus". It was humorous to say the least, but I ask you and me today, "Will the real Jesus please stand up?" That real Jesus is found in you and you and me, as we reach out and touch others with His love, servitude and hospitality.