Daily Worship

The Grace of Hospitality

February 16, 2015 0 0

James 2:14-20

Faith without Works Is Dead

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren?

 

The Grassmarket Community Project www.grassmarket.org has been developing for 11 years now. It began long before that when more than 30 years ago, two ladies from the Greyfriars congregation started to offer food and friendship from the Greyfriars Kirkhouse to people with experience of homelessness. Hospitality is a word that is much misunderstood in today’s society. When we talk of the hospitality industry we tend to think of hotels and holiday resorts, cafes and restaurants. But hospitality is an ancient theological term. Offering a welcome to a stranger is understood as a source of blessing. Read about Abraham offering a welcome to three strangers in Genesis 18. Here we learn that his wife, who had been barren, is blessed with a child, Isaac as a result of their kindness to strangers. When we offer help to one in need, it turns out that the person in need is not the only beneficiary. That’s been the experience of the many hundreds of people who have volunteered at the Grassmarket Centre over the years. Offering a welcome to a stranger is about anticipating gifts. And sometimes it is the empty handed stranger who turns out to be the bearer of the most priceless gifts.

Prayer:
As we offer hospitality, Living Christ, make us not only generous
but also open hearted to see that, though we think we know you,
there are always new things to learn about the height,
and depth and breadth of your infinite love
and that you bless us and teach us when we are hospitable.
Amen