On the first Wednesday of January 2022, HMC’s annual winter bible study started on zoom. We will spend 10 weeks together as we walk through the book Invited by Leslie Verner and explore the ways that her writing intersects with scripture. If you do not have a book or are unable to attend all of the meetings, you are still welcome to join in the conversation each week.
When I think of hospitality, I think of a story from Lesotho. One evening, my host family had finished eating supper, and my host brother and I had just finished cleaning up. My host mother was sitting near the heater with her blanket as we poured cups of tea for our time of visiting before going to bed. We had been sitting only a few moments when someone knocked on the front door. My host mother answered the door, invited the man in, and allowed him to sit in her seat. Even in my lack of language skills, I could tell from the slurring of his words and the strange look in his face that he was drunk.
Yet, my host mother and brother continued visiting with him as she prepared a small plate of food, left over from supper, for him with a cup of tea. The visitor sat and ate, visited a little while longer, and then left for his home. There was a small village store just down the hill from our house, in which a few groceries were sold. It also functioned as the village tavern because the store could get beer with their weekly shipments of groceries. Sometimes late into the evening, I would hear people hooting and hollering as they drank together at the store, but I would have never expected someone to stop by the house on their way home. After he left, I asked my host mother why she let him in, knowing that he was drunk, and she said that you never refuse a guest who comes to your door in Lesotho, including giving food and drink.
I hadn’t thought about it much then, but now when I think about that moment in Lesotho, I think of Jesus’s story in Matthew 25, one of the scripture passages that we looked at in this past week’s bible study. I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me; I was naked, and you gave me clothing; I was sick, and you took care of me; I was in prison, and you visited me. Who is knocking at your door these days?
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