Radical Hospitality.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Sunday, July 12, 2015

4.2.7

Radical Hospitality.

“I was hungry and you gave me food;/ I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink./Come, you that are blessed by My Father,/inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” [1] These verses from Matthew 25 always hit me in the gut, whenever I read them. I can hear Jesus speaking them, to me. A personal message to me, every time.

It isn’t as if He is saying these verses to me in a mean way. No. Certainly not. But He does say them to me in all seriousness. With compassion and love for me, as well as for the dear ones I may assist as I distribute food, drink, or other forms of hospitality. Or, for those I pray for, as I go about my prayer time.

As I read this chapter of the book Praying the New Testament as Psalms, the modern verses of this psalm on hospitality give me different insights into what the biblical writers mean. Not only what Jesus had to say in Matthew, but also in other places in the Gospels, as well as the Epistles. Quite a multi-colored picture, so to speak.

I have been thinking about hospitality and charity for the past two weeks. Last Sunday, I preached about the first deacons from Acts 6. And today, I continued part two of the narrative, with Stephen the deacon. (Towards the end of my sermon I briefly spoke of the stoning of Stephen, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about here, today.)

This chapter from Acts is a wonderful example for all of us. Not only can we see the example of hospitality that the first deacons give us, but we can seriously take to heart the words of Matthew 25. “I was hungry and you gave me food;/ I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.”

May I follow the words of Matthew 25, God willing. Perhaps you can, too.

@chaplaineliza

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[1] Praying the New Testament as Psalms, Desmond O’Donnell, OMI, and Maureen Mohen, RSM, (United States of America: ACTA Publications, 2002.), 104.

How to Heal. In Prayer.

Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – January 29, 2015

How to Heal. In Prayer.

More about healing? God wants to heal broken relationships, bruised feelings, imperfect people. And, God can heal actual, physical illness and disease, too.

Sometimes, as C.S. Lewis notes in his book A Grief Observed, a person deals with much more than physical illness. It is somehow magnified by feelings of desperate loneliness, or quiet despair, or sharp pangs of regret. And what about resentment, screwed up so tight, or anger, simmering like a kettle over a high flame on the stovetop.

Yes, God is intimately familiar with all of these afflictions, too.

I was especially intrigued by something Cardinal Joseph Bernardin wrote, shortly before he died. Cardinal Bernardin was the head of all Catholics in the Chicago area for some years. He said, especially in respect to his ministry to cancer sufferers, “the worst suffering is isolation, feeling cut off.” [1] The most profound thing we can do, oftentimes, is just show up.

Rev. Howell gives another example, too. He states, “a friend of mine spent a week in Lourdes, the shrine in France where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. . . . When my friend returned, I asked her, ‘Did you see any miracles?’ She said, ‘Oh yes, every day.’ … ‘Every day at Lourdes, no matter who you are, or where you are from, or what’s wrong with you, you are welcomed, and loved.’” [2]

Yes, God can be seen, healing from something physical. True. And yes, it can be in some quiet way where the chaplain comes alongside without words—with the ministry of presence, or sitting beside a family in fresh grief and anguish and praying. Or, speaking softly with a senior, encouraging their heart at the sad prospect of a life with limited mobility. I repeat what Rev. Howell said through his friend, “No matter who you are, or where you are from, or what’s wrong with you, you are welcomed, and loved.”

Isn’t that what all this is about? Yes, it would be so nice if the crowds were suddenly healed from all physical infirmity, or healings continued in some stadium-sized venue. But that must not be what God wants. God’s priorities are not the same as our priorities. Not always, anyway.

Yes, Jesus healed, physically. Sometimes in a big way, usually in a public way, occasionally in a quiet way. Not only physical healing, but emotional, spiritual, and psychological healing. Jesus cured relationships, and restored individuals to fellowship with God and with each other. Do you want that for yourself today? Jesus will heal you in the most intimate way possible, so you can enjoy being forever-friends with Him.

And, how awesome is that?

Like what you read? Disagree? Share your thoughts with your loved ones and continue the conversation.

Why not visit my sister blog, “the best of” A Year of Being Kind.

[1] James C. Howell, The Beautiful Work of Learning to Pray, (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press: 2003), 89.

[2] Ibid, 90.