Star Trek – the original – was a favorite TV show for my older brother and me. It came on Saturdays, I believe, at 11 AM. Mom did not always wait until Star Trek was over when she began preparing lunch. All the children took turns helping cook and setting the table for lunch and Mom would allow us to go set the table or cut up french fries during the commercial breaks and then go back and keep watching Star Trek.
Xenobiology is the study of alien life forms, new life forms, even man-made life forms, if we can ever accomplish such. Xenophobia is the fear of aliens. Xenophilia is the love or affection for aliens. “Xenos” is the Greek word for alien or, perhaps more clearly understood, strangers.
We live in an age where it is easy not to know our neighbors or anyone else outside our family and closest colleagues at work. Most of my neighbors – and Rachel and I live in a community with 50 houses in it – are rarely seen. In the summer, sometimes I see them mowing their yards. We see some out walking in the summer. But from our back deck, I can look over into about 5 different yards and rarely see my neighbors outside.
The church exists as a counter-culture to the prevailing mood. In our society, we can be brutally individualistic but followers of Jesus should cut across the grain and be the community that Jesus wants us to be – not just in hard times but all the time. Not just when we have a death in the family. Not just when we have an illness, when we have a job loss.
In an ocean full of little islands of families, we should open our homes and our hearts to other families. There are so many people who need to connect.
Paul words it this way when he writes in Galatians 6:10: “while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
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The Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 13:2 that we should “not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Jesus also said in Luke 14:12-14 – “And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ‘But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’”
Laurel Sewell, former First Lady of Freed-Hardeman University, wrote a book some years back titled The Six Gifts of Hospitality. It would be a good book to study and to practice.
Let us restore Jesus’ practice of loving strangers. We will be blessed for it and we’ll bring His blessings into the lives of others.
Paul Holland
