Hospitality (Henri J.M. Nouwen)

“Hospitality is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships with our fellow human beings.  Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger in our home, but they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host.  When Abraham received three strangers at Mamre and offered them water, bread and a fine tender calf, the revealed themselves to him as messengers of God announcing that Sarah his wife would give birth to a son (Genesis 18:1-15).  When the wide of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God offering her an abundance of oil and meal and raising her son from the dead (I Kings 17:9-24).  When the two travelers to Emma's invited the stranger, who had joined them on the road to stay with them for the night, he made himself known through the breaking of the bread as their Lord (Luke 24:13-35).

When hostility is converted into hospitality then fearful strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them.  Then, in fact, the distinction between host and guest proves to be artificial and evaporated in the recognition of the new found unity.

Thus the biblical stories help us to realize not just that hospitality is an important virtue, but even more that in the context of hospitality guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other.”

[Reaching Out, Henri J.M. Nouwen]

Straight from the Bible

Have you ever met up with an old friend and shared stories from the past?  Whenever I have done so, I’ve been amazed by the fact that I can’t remember their stories the way they tell them, and they can’t remember mine.  What was for me an unforgettable moment that we shared together, is often a moment they cannot even recall and if they do, they tell it differently from the way I remember it!  We see, we read, and we experience things differently.  I’m baffled, for example, by what some people read in the Bible and what I read in the Bible.  

Why is it that I see/read and hold on to a biblical passage like  “When strangers from foreign lands come to reside with you, do them no wrong..they shall be treated as your citizens; you shall love them as yourselves,” while my brother or sister see/read and hold on to something like  “O Babylon,…Happy is he who shall seize your children and dash them against the rock?” The two passages are contradictory—but both occur in the Bible.  Why do I fasten on one passage and someone else fastens his/her attention on a contradictory one?

What do you see in this picture?  

My Way or The Highway

Elie Wiesel wrote after the Holocaust, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

We are in a pickle as a nation at the present moment.  Have we been too silent?  Have we been afraid to take sides?  Have we brought this calamity upon ourselves?  I think we have.  The penalty for this silence and neutrality will culminate in that old phrase, “My Way or the Highway.”  I still hear the echo of that slogan used in the Vietnam era, when we as America said to those who differed from the predominant view:  “Love it or leave it!”  Do you remember?  Any time any person or group decides that there is no longer any room for a difference of opinion, the phrase is re-coined in some way or another.  Love it or leave it.  My Way or The Highway!

Sunset on the Mississippi

History repeats itself.  Hitler had a charismatic style that mesmerized a disenchanted Germany just a few years ago.  He blamed outsiders for creating the problems the nation was encountering.      He humiliated them by falsehood and bullying.  He played upon the insecurity and fear of the people.  If all those who were pure Aryans (Germans) were to gain control of the government, Germany would return to greatness.  He incited the crowds who heard him to bash all those opposed to him and to do so with violence.  Anyone who opposed Hitler or disagreed with him “was an idiot, a moron or a loser.” 

Newspapers around the world reported the “new Nationalism” in Germany with a flair, overlooked Hitler’s rhetoric of “My Way or The Highway,” and by their acquiescence encouraged and fueled the “malignant narcissism” of Germany’s new leader.  Churches joined the crusade with enthusiasm.  (Only a few within the Church, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, could see what was happening and he was eventually imprisoned and hung for his dissent).  In the beginning, Hitler blamed the problems of Germany on the Jews.  But then, a bit later, he began to blame other groups of people who differed from his point of view.   Eventually all other political parties were outlawed.  No one was allowed to oppose his way.   My Way or The Highway!  By the way, Hitler’s Highway gave birth to the concentration camps.

You may be saying--if you read this--that Hal has lost his marbles!  He is taking our present dilemma far too seriously.  I do not think so and I pray that this nation "of the people, for the people, and by the people" (all of us) will be alert enough to see that My Way or the Highway just won't cut it for our beloved nation.  We either move forward or fall backward.  Do not be silent.  Do not claim neutrality.  There is far too much at stake for that! 

The Swirling, Churning Mind

This morning my mind swirls and churns.  I think of my firstborn son, born a half-century ago on this day.  He is now in middle life, a time I remember in my own journey with a chilly shiver or two.  My son is now midway between the cradle and the grave.  Naturally, I think of where that puts me on the scale of things.  Does he experience that pensive autumn feeling that I knew at fifty when he looks back upon his journey?  Does he now have to deal with that unwelcome truth that he is no longer going up the hill, but down?  Does he realize that there are more years behind him now than the years yet to be?  I want to shout out to him today on his birthday those famous words of Browning’s, “Paul, ‘the best is yet to be!’  I’ve found it so and I know you will too.”

My mind swirls and churns and then settles for a moment on the thought of my yet unseen (but I will see her soon) great-granddaughter, Addison Elizabeth.  What will her world be like?  Will she wear a breathing apparatus to avoid poisonous air?  Will she be able to drink water free from lead? Will she enjoy the grandeur of Big Bend National Park overlooking the Rio Grande (as I have done), or will her view be blocked by a giant wall?  Will she be free, free to speak her mind and protest against all forms of bigotry and prejudice, free to roam the world, free to get a sound education?  What does the future hold for her, I wonder?  I pray for my great-granddaughter and for all of her generation and with faith say:  “The best is yet to be!”

Still my mind won’t stop the swirling and the churning, bounding from one thing to another without rhyme or reason.  I’m thankful for this mental meandering at three-score ten plus three!  At least I know my mind is still functioning (in spite of what those of you who are reading this may think).  Euripides wrote, “Our own mind is something of God in every one of us.”  If so, ought we not to use it and let it instruct us? 

It is important, I think, for us to sit still and push all activity aside and let our minds swirl and churn and lead us to wherever or whatever it will.  If our mind “is something of God” in us, who knows what may happen when we begin to let that mind swirl and churn?

Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern you’ve been following—so busy that you have no time to think, feeling what you feel without thinking it through.  Let your minds swirl and churn.  Let your minds be remade in this process and your whole nature will thus be transformed.  Then you will be able to discern more clearly and to know what is good and acceptable. (A paraphrase of Romans 12:2).

People of the Lie

“We begin, I think, when we set out to lie and deceive, by having an increased sense of power.  When I am lying, if I am at all good at the art [and most of us are very good at the art] I am conscious of occupying a superior position.  I know the truth, but to get my own way I impose delusions on others, thus triumphing over them double—by having a monopoly of truth on the matter in question and by altering the world in accordance with my will….” (W. R. Matthews)

Many people are very conscious of their statements of falsehood.  They exhibit a “malignant narcissism,” described by M. Scott Peck in his book, “People of the Lie.”  Others, in order to support their particular way of seeing things, impose their own delusions (formed usually from the lies promulgated by their leaders) on others as truth.  This is commonly expressed these days in the various “conspiracy theories” and in “religious absolutism.”

Just because a statement is made by the networks or in the social media does not make it true.  Facts are facts.  Truth is truth.  However, when I research various political statements via “fact-check” agencies available through the Internet,  I have found that the facts are seen as truth by one group, and false by another.  How can this be if facts are facts and truth is truth?  Pinocchios seem to rule the day.  Delusions abound and the proboscis (nose) of those who express them continues to grow to monstrous lengths.  Sometimes I wonder if any of us have a normal proboscis!  We can alter the world, or so it seems, with our delusions.

"All that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure,
all that is lovable and gracious, whatever is excellent and
adorable--fill all your thoughts with these things."

Dr. Samuel Johnson paid strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars.  “Accustom your children, (said he) constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end.”

Do not be deceived.  Do not let it pass.  Check it out.  Deviations abound!

Over-the-Line

I am a Protestant, a Baptist in the line of Roger Williams, a Methodist in the line of John Wesley, a Christian attempting, however feebly, to follow my Master, and it is my duty to protest against that which my conscience and my faith cannot tolerate.  As a citizen in a democracy, “…of the people, by the people, for the people,” I have a right to protest and to speak my mind and my conscience.  As a human being I protest when the right to protest is denied anyone.    Do you want to punch me in the face? Do you want me to be “carried out” on a stretcher? Can you tolerate me?  Do you see me being “nasty as hell,” because I protest against your political stance?

"This land is my land,
this land is your land.."
meant to be shared.

And who are you, you, who would punch me in the face?  You are protestors too. 

You protest the present status of our government.  I have no objection.  You have the right to protest, just as I have that right.  You protest the present leadership in our country, which, by the way, was elected “by the people” just three years ago and for a second time.  You have every right to state your case and I promise you I will not “punch you in the face,” even if I do not and cannot stand with you.  I honor your right to protest—will you honor my right to protest? You have every right “to push back…” and I claim that same right for myself.  That is how a democracy works.

Our protests and varying opinions can be made and stated freely without violence, malice, or nastiness.  It can happen in a civil way, without degrading one another or punching one another in the face.  It can be done without scapegoating, without projecting hate and bigotry on one another.  It can be done without one group or the other being carried out on stretchers. If we cannot do our protesting in this way, we will undermine the very fabric of our democracy, the very nation, we hold dear.

I protest—and will not tolerate anyone punching you in the face or carrying you out on stretchers because of your stand.  I hope you will grant me the same courtesy.

What Is The Religious Spirit?

I am surrounded each morning by many friends.  Most of these friends I have never met, but I feel that I have met them through the books they have written.  Through the years, the writers of the Psalms in the Old Testament have shared my predicaments with me.   It is always good to know that one has company.  They seemed to know, and to feel, way back in their time, the very feelings  I, and all of us, have experienced on the trail of life.  Here are just a few examples:  “…I am weak; my very bones are shaken; my soul quivers in dismay.”  “…How long must I suffer anguish in my soul, grief in my heart, day and night?”  “…My strength drains away like water and all my bones are loose.  My heart has turned to wax and melts within me.”  “…I am lonely and oppressed.  Relieve the sorrows of my heart and bring me out of my distress.”  Have you ever been there with the Psalmists?  

These writers also use violent and unpleasant words, words of vengeance and anger, words of hatred and arrogance against their enemies.  Do we not do the same?  The Psalmists reach into the wellspring of the human heart and give expression to all that they discover there.  They also reach out to the Beyond and express in the language of their day what they experience—“Thou, Lord, dost make my lamp burn bright, and my God will lighten my darkness.”

"They cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he rescued them from their distress."

The writers of the Psalms describe, in their own unique way, the essential character of the religious spirit.  Alfred North Whitehead, another friend of the written word, expresses this religious spirit of the Psalmists far better than I can.

“Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind, and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.”

How grateful I am for these friends of mine!