Recently Gary and I spent a couple of nights at a hotel in Montreal. We had a lovely time which was made more lovely by the hospitality on the part of the hotel staff. After checking into our room we found that we were on the same floor as a group of teenagers ~ probably part of a sport's team in town for a game. I have been on enough Youth Group trips to know that it is impossible to quiet a group of excited teens spending the night in a hotel! The yelling and slamming of doors was completely understandable, but didn't quite fit with our idea of how the weekend would unfold.

Not wanting to 'complain' I called down to the front desk to simply 'inquire' if our room could be changed. Within 15 minutes we were moved into our new (quiet) room on the Corporate floor with an even better view. After getting a good night's sleep we gave thanks for the generous act of hospitality on the part of The Holiday Inn Downtown Montreal!

Often we think of hospitality in terms of making people feel comfortable. People who are preparing for careers in the restaurant or hotel business can get their degree in hospitality. And when we invite people into our homes we hope we are being good hosts. But hospitality is more than just being nice. Hospitality is a Biblical principle.

Thomas Hawkins writes, "Hospitality is an outward and visible manifestation of God's unconditional love. When we show hospitality, we mediate God's grace. Hospitality fosters a climate where the marks of Christian community become visible as signs and instruments of God's reign."

Hospitality is more than making people feel comfortable. It is helping people to feel accepted, loved, welcomed, and nurtured just as they are. Through our acts of hospitality we can be part of being God's love and doing God's work in the world.

Again, as Thomas Hawkins explains, "Hospitality was a primary form of evangelism in the early church. In a world where people outside one's own family, tribe, or village were viewed with suspicion, Christians engaged in radical acts of welcoming."

When have you experienced true hospitality? How are we, as a church, hospitable to those outside? How could we be more hospitable? Are we called to do God's work by radical acts of welcoming? How would that look in our church? In our community?