“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24
“We must not make too much of a distinction between giving and receiving, for too sharp a distinction would lead us to misconstrue worship and thus distort hospitality. Our giving is never just “ours,” nor for that matter can we claim our “receiving” as solely what we do. Christian hospitality is not primarily about what we do. Rather hospitality and worship are better thought of as our participation in God’s own communion, God’s own giving and receiving, made possible in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Hospitality is participation in what God is doing…
Even our giving is not “ours” but a sharing in what God is doing. Our worship is possible only because God gathers us and gifts us with the capacity to worship. Even more, God does not give to us only as individuals (for our own sakes) but God gives to the church as a whole. Truly to receive from God is to be made part of a people, called to worship, to give and to receive for and on behalf of the world…
In worship, we learn to “hang onto nothing.” Worship enables us to embody the fact that our lives, the church, and the created world are gifts from God; we ourselves are totally dependent on giving and receiving the love of God. This dependence is not bad news, our culture’s emphasis on independence to the contrary. Rather, such communion is the way we become more fully the body of Christ.”
Elizabeth Newman in Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2007) 59-60.
I am thankful the Lord led me to read Newman in my online reading this morning, as she helped me better understand they work of God in our lives. For example, when we take international trips, we feel like we empty ourselves in service and worship to God and find He fills us with strength and envelopes us with hospitality through members of His Body.
Over the last two months we got to extend hospitality to others who visited us. Hopefully they felt the same divine care through us. In learning to “hang onto nothing” (as Newman puts it), our worship and hospitality reflect both our communion with God and our participation in His work. God’s working down here in Guatemala on this trip through others, and I believe through us too. What a gift to play a part in it!
Hang onto nothing today (and everyday) in your worship. Celebrate everything as a gift from God. Serve as a conduit that gives and receives freely the love of God. Maintain a posture of dependence on God at all times. Do this regardless of what anyone else is doing. In all this, I think you too will find that worship and hospitality is merely participating with God in His work.