Another part of 'in-forming surrender' by Maria Mount Shoop.
In God's plentitude we can also let go of our fear that there is not enough of God's grace to go around. Trusting that means living as if it is true. The church can model how to live in a world of fear with revolutionary embodied compassion and surrender. Hospitality to the stranger can become more than nice welcome packets to give to visitors when they walk in the door. This kind of trust in God means that we embrace the strangers who walk in and embody the "otherness" that we fear the most because they are there for us. The church cannot be church without them. Theological, racial, economic, and other expressions of differences are not just a nice idea. They are an embodied necessity for the Body of Christ to thrive. Our interdependence means that ruptured relationships with those we "otherize" diminish our lives in Christ. Like a good midwife, the saints of the church can support and attend to difference and the new life it can bring.
Trusting in God means we embrace the stranger. And yet, but much of the rhetoric we hear from 'religious' folks these days is that we must hold the other suspect. Most odd in this kind of thing is the notion that churches will only serve or hire Christians or people they think they can turn around. Are we so unsure of God's power to rescue and save and heal that we must hold people hostage. That is like saying we are more powerful than God. Open church means open - no hostages - no 'gotta do this to get that" - no we think we do this best. Rather, it is from the other that we become the beloved we are called by God. We are always being called to bring to life the love of Christ - without holding back or saving it for someone who deserves it or is like us. When we do that, I would think we are not really about the love of Christ but the love of our own live and that of our institutions.
Connection: The gift of hospitality is a wonderful gift that brings the world together when it would usually attempt to be divided.
You, O God, empower us to let go and listen to your word and then, when we are afraid of what might come, be the blessed assurance you always have been and promise to be. Amen.
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