JESUS CHRIST WHO REALIZES THE HOSPITALITY OF GOD (original) (raw)

Make yourself at home": the tensions and paradoxes of hospitality in dialogue with the Bible

The Bible and Critical Theory, 2018

Hospitality is a well-identified biblical theme; the consensus among most modern Christian authors is that it is both demonstrated by the deity and expected of humanity, throughout both Old and New Testaments. Often, however, such discussions rely on an assumed transparency of the nature and definition of hospitality, and on the assumption that the biblical attitude to the subject is univocal. However, the biblical witness is not unambiguous, but demonstrates tensions reflecting both the complex nature of hospitality, and the development of the theme through the Bible. In recent years the ambiguous nature of hospitality has been argued in theoretical terms by the deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, and its complexities of praxis by post-colonial critics. This paper sets out to bring these modern critical voices into dialogue with the biblical texts, and it will be shown that when read with a sensitivity to the paradoxes enunciated by these contemporary theorists, the biblical underst...

The Image of Jesus Christ, the Divine Poor, and its Correlation to the Mission of Serving the Poor

This work studies the Image of Jesus Christ, the Divine Poor and its Correlation to the Mission of Serving the Poor. The context of the study is a response to the continuous call of renewal. Pope Francis has asserted: " God constantly renews his faithful ones, whatever their age " (EG 11). The entire Catholic Church has been continuously re-proposing Christ and his Gospel in response to the profound questions and needs of contemporary people especially the poor. All need to understand that the poor must not only be the privileged recipient of the Good News but they are the very " heart of the Gospel " (Francis, 2015). This study expounded the fundamental insight that the Divine Poor, Jesus Christ, identifies himself with the poor and commands his follower to serve them. This charismatic face of Christ is meant to renew and build up the Church; it is " not an inheritance, safely secured and entrusted to a small group for safekeeping " (EG 130) but it must be felt and integrated into the body of the Church. As Pope Francis notes: " A sure sign of the authenticity of a charism is its ecclesial character " (EG 130). This exposition focuses on one particular Christological image: Christ the Divine Poor. The elucidation of the said image followed a systematic sequence: (a) general overview of their Scriptural basis, (b) selected reflection in the Tradition of the Church teachings, and, (c) how these are defined and lived in the Writings of Blessed Savina Petrilli, the Mother Foundress of the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena and its impact on the life of mission in serving the poor. It explores how a charismatic image of Christ can be rediscovered and become point of reference in value formation.

Who are "the Poor" for Those Following Christ

2021

For the last 20 years, the clarion call is to "help the poor" and appeals to social equity. Presentations appeal, guilt, or push the need to help the less fortunate. Even those theologically less prone to a social message are swept up into the charged language and attitudes whipping round about. Those who actually mean to serve God need to see the false dichotomy present in the highest degree of the verbiage thrown around today on this topic. This piece seeks to present the Kingdom of God amongst the kingdoms of men: a contrast to the left and right idealisms. Upon reading the entirety of what the Bible says and understanding specific contexts about what we read of "the poor," the bible mentions; we will have to conclude that God has a different idea about "the poor" than the highest number of teachers and leaders waxing eloquent or guilting others today about this subject.

Kingdom for the Poor The Mission of God

According to Anne Frank, “No one has ever become poor by giving.” However, it will be difficult to convince the rich man who came to Jesus seeking eternal life that giving does not make one poor. And sadly, that is even the case in the church today, particularly the Western Church. Like the rich man, the church finds itself attracted and attached to prosperity and the security it provides. Unlike the early church that was made up predominately of the poor who understood the call of Christ to involve the sharing of its possessions with the needy, the postmodern church is wealthy and for the most part rejects the poor as a significant concern of the missio Dei. Biblical poverty has been redressed, spiritualized and personalized to the point that salvation is one-dimensional—concerned only with the hereafter. However, one will be hard pressed to find such a one-dimensional view of God’s mission in the biblical literature. In addressing Jesus’ ministry to the poor, Arthur F. Glasser describes the church’s loss of mission to the poor in these terms: “It is tragic that this element of Kingdom obligation and expectation has been so neglected by the church.” Biblical salvation concerns not just the spiritually impoverished, but the physically as well. The signs of God’s salvation in the biblical record are slaves being released from Egypt, lepers being healed, a paralyzed man walking with his bed, and so on. In every case, whether it was slavery or disease, salvation is intricately connected to both the spiritual and physical well being of people. Therefore, the physical dimension of salvation has everything to do with peoples’ economical situation and the systemic structures that hold them captive. Thus the heartbeat of Jesus’ sermon: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” In order for the church to be fully engaged in God’s mission, it cannot neglect the poor as an essential element of God’s mission. The task of this endeavor is to follow the path of the poor through the biblical literature of both the Old and New Testaments, stopping off at the pivotal events to discover the nature and characteristics that are essential to the missio Dei. In the process, we will also visit some of the stories that keep the path of God’s mission clearly before us. As we follow the path of God’s mission through the biblical record, we will discover again and again that one of the prominent themes of God’s mission is the poor; therefore, as participants in the Kingdom, the church cannot neglect being involved in God’s care for the poor. The kingdom of God is home for the poor—for both those who are poor as a result of systemic injustice and those who become so for the sake of the kingdom.

Hospitality Language in the Gospel of John and its Implications for Christian Community

2006

V. Chapter 4 "Reception and Rejection of Divine Hospitality: New Community as the Image of Trinitarian Hospitality" i. Faith as hospitable reception of Jesus ii. Growing hostility of unbelief iii. The judgment of the hostile world and the creation of the new community of hospitality VI. Chapter 5 "New community as the image of Trinitarian hospitality" i. The nature of the new community ii. The mission of the new community VII. Conclusions VIII. Bibliography 7 Malina, "The received view," 181. 8 References to 'John' or 'John's Gospel' point solely to the content of the Fourth Gospel and not to its author. The issue of authorship is completely irrelevant to this work.

Old Testament foundations for Christian hospitality

In an effort to revive the ancient Christian practice of hospitality, scholars often appeal to the Old Testament as a model to be emulated. This article examined and described the practice of hospitality in the Old Testament and evaluated its relevancy for the recent discussions surrounding hospitality. Throughout the history of discussions on hospitality, Abraham has served as the exemplar of biblical hospitality. Therefore, the Old Testament practice of hospitality was evaluated through Abraham's story found in Genesis 18. It was concluded that the Old Testament practice of hospitality is not sufficient as a contemporary model for hospitality, but that the following elements of Old Testament thought might serve as theological underpinnings for a renewed and revisioned Christian practice of hospitality in today's multi-faith environment, in that, (1) all humans bear the image of God, (2) all humans are relational creatures, (3) all humans are dependent upon each other and (4) all humans are travellers hosted by God.

Generosity to the poor and the people of God

Deut. 15:7-11 records instructions from Moses’ to the Israelites about the treatment of the poor in the promised land. The thesis of this paper is that although these instructions are found in the midst of civil and ceremonial laws, they are yet profoundly moral in character, eschatological in orientation and binding in their principle for the New Testament church.