Radical Hospitality...The Gift of Generations

By now, if you are following the blog, you know we had a lunch for the congregation. It is our annual fundraiser, and the youth cook the meal and do some zany entertainment. The congregation gives money to support their mission trips and retreats.

This is radical hospitality.

Young to not-as-young came to worship on a nasty winter day, then stayed for lunch and entertainment. I expected half of what we would have had if the weather had cooperated. But every table was full and people were gracious and generous.

Life-changing, world-changing hospitality. Yes. How? No idea.

I asked one of the youth to talk about how these trips had changed her life. She did a great job of telling about the trips she remembered. Then I pushed her to articulate how her faith would be different if she hadn't participated in those trips. Her quick answer was "I'm not sure I would have a a faith."

Perhaps on these trips, we shared God's grace with another person. We know grace was shared with us. We come home more connected to the intractable problems of poverty and hunger, of tragedy and hope. We come home understanding that all people are children of God, even the ones we would never have seen without our trip experience.

That, too, is radical hospitality. It seeps through our bloodstream and changes how we interact in the world.

Adults of all ages who take time from their busy lives to sit, eat, listen, and give change the world. Youth and children feel they are known and loved and cared about and able to know and love and care about others. Little kids watch big kids and want to do what they do. That is radical hospitality enacted.


Most had a meal of chicken and rice yesterday. I had a meal of grace.