This is a season of hospitality.
It seems as if only December can rival May as a season of family events, programs, and parties, and that means coming together as family, friends, and even strangers to spend time together on bleachers, in folding chairs and pews, in living rooms, kitchens, and back yards to observe and mark special events, to celebrate.
One of my favorite books about hospitality is Radical Hospitality, by Father Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt. I like this book because it doesn’t pretend that hospitality is just a matter of having the right napkins or appetizers. Instead, this book addresses the importance of opening your heart to others.
That’s not to say that napkins and appetizers, as well as all the other things we associate with gracious hospitality, aren’t important — they offer us an opportunity to exercise creativity as well as any skills we might have in cooking, decorating, or gardening. To exercise creativity in those ways is a gift, and to receive such a gift is a blessing. Such a gift, freely offered to others, gratefully received, can be refreshing.
But hospitality does not rely on those things. Hospitality relies on our heart.
To open the door of one’s heart to welcome another, to include another, to care for another — that is hospitality.
What good is it to be invited into a lovely setting, knowing that you aren’t really welcome?
How much fun is it to be included in an event, knowing that you aren’t really wanted?
Of what value is it if you end up at some big event, knowing that no one cares about what you need?
On the other hand, what do your surroundings matter, if you are welcome, wanted, and cared for?
We have the opportunity to extend hospitality to others wherever we are, by treating them as if they are honored guests in our day. Everyone — from the waitress at our table to the grocery store clerk to the difficult neighbor down the street to our own beloved family — everyone in our lives is someone we can welcome into our heart, offering hospitality, offering refreshment, offering love in the name of Jesus Christ.

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Speaking of hospitality, we’d like to invite you to join us this summer — for worship, for fellowship, or for Bible study. We’d like to welcome you in the name of Jesus Christ, to tell you the good news of His love for you, to share the stories of His presence in our lives.

Please join us on Sunday afternoons at the Marquis Chapel of Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington at 4:15 p.m., or for Bible study on Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings — you’ll find details in the bullet points to the left on this page.

We’re hoping to see you soon!