It’s Sunday noon. The house has been scrubbed clean and the Sunday dinner fixings are gloriously displayed on the crisp linen tablecloth. Familiar guests will arrive soon, eat with us, and leave us to the dishes as our lives generally “get back to normal.”
I admit. This is what generally pops into my mind when I think about what hospitality is. And I also admit that I am clearly stunted by this point of view. But aren’t we all? Don’t we usually think of hospitality in a “Sunday best,” comfortable way? Sadly most of us do, but what if hospitality was so much more than that? What if it called us to get uncomfortable and vulnerable? What if it challenged us to think about peace as a way of extending our tables and hearts to our enemies, strangers, or socially marginalize people? As messy as that sounds, hospitality means truly seeing people as Jesus sees them. Hospitality means welcoming the least of our society and not being silent when they are mistreated. In order to get a better picture of this, let’s look at the particular issue of immigration and the work of the Christian Peacemaker Teams on the U.S –Mexican border and hopefully together we will begin to see peace through the redefined lens of hospitality.
When I say the word “stranger” I bet most of you picture some scary weirdo creep who offers kids candy from an unmarked van, the person who elementary schools and hopefully your parents told you to stay away from. Although these lessons are not in vain, many of us have come to think about strangers in a rather negative way. They are the others, the outsiders, and the newcomers and although we are called to love these people we often retreat in fear. After the events of September 11th especially, Americans struggle with a constant sense of fear of the “stranger” and the idea of what type of hospitability should be shown to immigrants is particularly debated. In this climate of fear that we have created and with the constant reminder of the “immigrant problem” has caused actions such as the building a 700-mile fence between us and our southern neighbor and has cause human rights violations all for the sake of some type of security. It appears as if our hospitality to strangers has turned into something more hostile.
Yet, considering these attitudes, it is no wonder that many look to the southern border with great concern as hundreds of undocumented migrants pour into the country. In response to these developments the Bush administration passed the Secure Fence Act in October of 2006, as part of Bush’s plan protect the American people as well as make the border more secure. The Secure Fence Act has given the “go ahead” to add more intense border patrol equipment and as given authorization for the building of hundreds of miles of fencing along the border. Not only that, but the number of Border Patrol Agents has increased significantly with the addition of National Guard to the Patrol.
Needless to say, it is becoming harder and harder for the undocumented to enter into the country, yet their determination has only become stronger. Today, more Mexicans and Central Americans are more willing to risk harsher conditions and their lives for the chance to make it to U.S. soil. On an average, thousands have died over the past decade trying to cross the border, and it is estimated that about one or more migrants die a day in their attempts.
Yet, despite these tragedies, one of the real catastrophes is how these developments have affected American’s view of their Latino neighbors. Building a wall only visually expresses the “us verse them” mentality, and brings to the surface tensions of discrimination and violence as we learn how to focus on differences instead of similarities.
Thus it is no wonder that many border residents, especially those of Latino decent, find themselves living in constant fear of harassments. Such is the case for the border town of Douglas, Arizona. Douglas residents have often referred to their area as a “militarized zone” because of the large presence of the Border Patrol, National Guard and several vigilante groups all of who have been accused of civil rights violations towards Latinos. Furthermore, the fear in this area is heightened as Border Patrol and U.S. Attorney officials threaten to prosecute anyone who offers any type of aid to undocumented migrants.
Christian Peacemaker Teams are currently immersed in this border conflict trying to bring peace by turning our hostility back into hospitality. Since 2004, CPT has been working with organizations near Douglas Arizona such as the Deaths No More Coalition to establish emergency assistance camps for immigrants as well as to promote a non-militarized border instead of one that divides communities and causes numerous deaths. More importantly CPT has been demonstrating that it is never illegal to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or offer aid to the sick.
Or is it? In December of 2005, the U.S House of Representatives approved the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act. Although this bill never went farther then the House, it caused quite an outrage especially among the Christian community since an aspect of the bill included the criminalization of churches and organizations who offer any type of aid to undocumented immigrants.
Even thought the bill never passed, it has made me wonder how much of my own security am I will to risk in order to provide hospitality to others? Thinking about this question and reflecting on the work of the CPT in Douglas has challenged me to think actively about peace through hospitality. Although I am not here to offer solutions to immigration reform, I am here to offer the challenge of seeing a blessing in the undocumented immigrants who are here in our midst. This may seem odd concept for some, but the presence of the undocumented also reminds us that we as Christians are also “undocumented.” That is to say as children of God the places we currently call home are just shadows of our real home. We don’t really belong here. As Michele Hershberger said in her book A Christian View of Hospitality: Expecting Surprises, “When we forget that we don’t belong to any certain nationality or race as much as we belong to God and God’s people, then we fight to defend turf that isn’t ours to defend.” We get so caught up in “our turf” that even if we clam nonviolence and peace, we often shun those around us because they are different. They are strangers.
Yet, in the Greek, hospitality literally means love and stranger. Being hospitable means bringing peace by loving strangers and seeing their value. Author Christine Pohl said
“When you value the least ones in our society, you shake up the system. When you receive them as worthy individuals… you participate in a counter-cultural act. By your hospitality you make them visible. Before they were invisible, so the injustice being done to them was invisible.”
Consequently the blessing of the stranger provides us with opportunities for an outpouring of love that becomes an outlet for stopping injustice and racism. Although injustice and racism are not easily beaten, hospitality can be once step towards overcoming these obstacles. Hershberger wrote, “If the convictions aren’t quite there yet, our acts of hospitality foster the very heart changes we need to make. Forgiveness, reconciliation, and the breakdown of social barriers imply hospitality.”
I am not going to lie to you and say this is something easy to do. Real hospitality is hard. It means making ourselves vulnerable to get hurt, used, and frustrated. It means diving deep into a ministry that is often times ambiguous. Yet, Jesus still calls us to hospitality because outreach to strangers is a way of entertaining Jesus himself. By inviting others in, we invite Jesus in as well. Real hospitality means loving people so much that we begin to see Jesus in them. If we begin to see Jesus in them, how can we even think about excluding them?
Thinking about peace through hospitality challenges us as a Church to get out of our comfortable dinning rooms and seek the face of Jesus in others. By extending our tables to the strangers in our midst brings us one step closer to peace, healing and reconciliation. This is real hospitality, a kind that challenges us to get off our butts and practice a real and active faith. More importantly, as Hershberger points out, “Our table ministry with others produces a longing for table time alone with [Jesus] the Host. We must not neglect that longing.”
So, finally, let's take our cue from CPT's work in the borderland and let us see the blessing in the presence of the stranger. Let us come to the table of hospitality, expecting to be challenged, expecting to be loved, and expecting to peacefully counter-act injustice. But most importantly expect to see Jesus there. For it was Jesus himself who said in Matthew 25, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." May we go and do likewise.
