Dinner Guests

Today let me say how grateful we are to those who make gifts to the Dial Hope Foundation that enable this ministry to touch so many. Your generous support is a real God-send.

On that first Easter, some of the earliest disciples were walking along a road at dusk and a stranger came along and started walking beside them. They invited the stranger in for dinner. The scriptures then tell us that it was in the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened and they recognized that this stranger was really Jesus.

There is something quite intimate about sharing a meal with others.

Last year my daughters asked if they could on occasion, invite people to dinner from their high school who they found interesting. Over the course of time, we’ve hosted some really intriguing characters. The girls always have thought-provoking questions to ask, and the conversations have been fun, ranging from zany, to a little weird, to intellectually challenging. It seems we make space less and less for those who are different, especially those who don’t share our same worldviews. So this exercise has been refreshing.

I’ve heard that in Jesus’ day, the table was seen as a kind of altar. Time spent around the table with friends, family, and even strangers, was time spent in the presence of God. And hospitality to the “other” was imperative.

The first Christians took this a step further. There was a deep-seated belief that showing hospitality to the immigrant, the traveler, the foreigner or the stranger was a way of meeting and receiving the Holy presence of God. They believed that Christ very well could meet you in the visit of a stranger, even someone very different from you.

I don’t know whether Christ has visited us yet around the table at our house, but I’m certainly keeping my eyes and heart open.

Let us pray: May we notice your presence around our tables, O God, even when we are alone. When we sit with others, may we look for you in them. We thank you for your generosity to us. Help us to be generous to others, in our listening, in compassion, and in our giving. In Jesus’ name. Amen.