wfn.org | Conference explores 'hospitality' in an often-inhospitable world

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6937 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06-November-2001
01418

Conference explores 'hospitality' in an often-inhospitable world 

"Only the church can lead," speaker tells mission advocates 

by Jerry L. Van Marter   
              
ANAHEIM, CA - In an event that blended missionary zeal with unease about the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, about 300 Presbyterians gathered here on Nov. 1
to explore what it means to show Christian hospitality in a disordered
world.

The conference, Hospitality in the Household of God: Congregations and the
Global Church, was planned long before the horrific events of Sept. 11. But
the violence of the attacks, and the church's responses to it, were always
on the participants minds.

A similar conference, also sponsored by the Worldwide Ministries Division
(WMD) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) was held two weeks earlier in Cherry
Hill, NJ, near Philadelphia.

"Hospitality, whether given or received, is never simple," said the Rev.
Maake Masongo, a South African church leader who lived through the terror of
apartheid in his country. "Especially when it has to be experienced with 'my
friend the enemy.'"

Although we love the Lord, Masongo said in his closing sermon on Nov. 4, "we
are people who love revenge."

Masongo described his encounter with a former prison guard who had tortured
him in the days of apartheid in South Africa.

He said the guard told him, "I only did that because I believed in my heart
that you were terrorists! I had to save the country from being ruled by
people who didnt love the Lord."

Masongo responded with a question: "So then you used terrorist methods in
order to get the terrorism out of me?"

At that point, he said, "something happened to both of us, we were both
crying, tears coming out slowly.  ... My tears of pain were watering the new
birth of reconciliation."

Hospitality, Masongo said, is "one of the occupational hazards" of being a
Christian. "Even when the road is rough," he said,"I am reminded that I must
forgive people seventy times seven."

Preaching on the parable of the Good Samaritan, Masongo said: "To be a Good
Samaritan means encountering strangers whom you don't like. One thing common
about them is that they are created in the image and likeness of God. Be
they Afghanis, Chileans, Americans or Africans, the image of God remains."

Referring to the events of Sept. 11, he said, "We were indeed disturbed by
the events that took place here, when 5,000 people died - may their souls
rest in peace." However, he continued, "We in South Africa cannot understand
what you are doing in reacting to the situation in Afghanistan. Only women
and children are being hurt. We cannot destroy their homes and offer them
hospitality at the same time."

For the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, a new-church development pastor in San
Francisco, the key to hospitality and overcoming violence is acknowledging
our "connectedness" to others. Preaching on Ephesians 4 - "making every
effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" -
Reyes-Chow said, "When we affirm that by God's grace we are all connected to
each other, we won't answer violence with more violence"

The price of hospitality may be high, said Anna May Say Pa, a Burmese
theologian from the ethnic-minority "Karen" people of Burma. She said many
Muslims who hid Karens during government sweeps were imprisoned for
sheltering "enemies" of the state. One pastor who had merely given free
meals to Karen refugees "was beaten and jailed for eight years for his
hospitality," he said.

Say Pa, leading a Bible study on Exodus, said the Israelites, "because they
had wandered in the desert for 40 years, sustained only by God, knew they
must take care of the orphaned, the widowed, the homeless."

She exhorted her audience to "remember that we were all once strangers, so
now it is our responsibility to open up our churches, our homes, in
hospitality to all people - not just some Martha Stewart dinner party for
our friends."

The Rev. Marian McClure, the WMD director, praised Presbyterians who have
learned to give and receive hospitality by serving the church overseas,
whether in paid mission service, on study or work trips, or through
encounters with international church partners.

"Chronologically, we don't find out the good and bad at home until we are
exposed to the different ways out there elsewhere," she said, adding that
our narrow views can be harmful. "Whoever discovered water, I'm sure it
wasn't a fish," she said. "Exposure to other ways helps us to understand our
own."

She said showing hospitality is even more critical in times of war. 

"We all know now how the world is changed when any person lets loose hatred
and resentment," she said. "How much more important it is then to
demonstrate how the world is changed when we let loose love and
forgiveness."

Masongo said it is more important now than ever that the church of Jesus
Christ demonstrate this kind of hospitality.

"Only the church can lead," he said, "because we have words like love of
neighbor, justice of God, mercy, kindness, and love for one another."
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