COVID-19 and quarantine have shown us that other people matter to us. When I was able to meet people whenever I wanted to I took the fact that I could for granted. I can’t describe how excited I was the first time I had dinner with friends when quarantine began to wind down. I’m an introvert. This didn’t used to be exciting!
Over the past few months many of our lives have shrunk down to the size of our houses. Our homes reflect our life choices back to us. Many of us spend our time working for money to pay for the homes we’re trapped in. They’re glad they have them but they want to leave. They love their children but they need a break from being with them. Home and family don’t feel like a refuge anymore. They’ve realised that they need to escape this world’s problems.
Some people are worse off. Many Australians have already sold homes that they were comfortable with paying off before the pandemic started. Other people have realised that the economy has changed in ways which mean that they will never own a home. Some people have even become homeless because of the pandemic.
We know that as Christians we will not find our home in this world. 1 Peter 1:1–2 says that we are strangers and aliens here. As strangers, we will find this is a hostile and often friendless place. We will experience injustice and unfairness. We will have to look to Jesus and trust him to protect us.
But we are not homeless. We are merely away from home. 1 Peter 1:3–4 reminds us that God has been merciful to us. We were strangers to God—but he chose to set his affections on us. He has generously given us a new and more glorious heavenly home through Jesus. Now we look forward to the day when we’ll come home and be welcomed by our father.
Jesus commands us to love our neighbour. In Luke 10:29–37 Jesus makes it clear that this includes our enemies and strangers.
We can use our homes to show God’s kindness to others. Our hospitality glorifies God, especially when we do it without complaining (1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13). He’s asked us to welcome strangers into our lives and homes (Hebrews 13:2). It is a tangible way to show people they matter to us. It proves that we want to get to know them, care for them, and include them.
Every Christian is to be hospitable. Jesus doesn’t just ask extroverts and people who are good at being part of a group to hospitable. He wants all of us to show the same acts of kindness and mercy to others that we have experienced through the gospel.
When we invite people into our homes we give others a taste of how God has so mercifully invited us into his heavenly home. It’s not primarily about finding friends for ourselves or satisfying our emotional desires or loneliness. It's about helping others, although we may benefit in the process.
Our society is individualistic. This means we need to make a conscious effort to take this command seriously. Take the initiative to get to know some people outside of Sunday church meetings. Invite them to share food and time with you. As you do this, consider these five suggestions.
1. You Don’t Need to Invite Them to Come Over Physically
You can do a zoom dinner or coffee date. This can be as easy as setting up a computer on one end of your dining room table. You can send your guests a zoom link, or use another video chat service. You can all eat dinner in your own homes whilst chatting to each other over the internet.
When my wife and I first did this it felt awkward and weird. We had all had issues with learning to manage technology and getting our heads around how zoom works. We’ve had to learn how to make ourselves audible, how to talk to people as they move on and off the screen, and how to talk without talking over each other. We’ve pushed through it, although we didn’t always like it. By doing it often we’ve become better at doing it. We need to remember that the people beyond the screen matter more than how we feel about using the screen. Video calls are far from perfect, but they are much better than nothing.
2. Be Realistic About What You Can and Can’t Do
We are all busy and life is complex. Don’t expect too much and do what works for you.
I remember inviting some families over for lunch when our kids were younger. We only had time to vacuum the floor and grab some cold meat and salad. We served the food up on the plates our kids used. They were chipped, but they were the only plates we had. After we had eaten I sat down to chat with one of the couples who’d come along. Partway through our conversation they stopped talking and stared over my shoulder. I looked behind me to see my youngest had stripped off his clothes and was jumping naked on the trampoline in front of their daughter. It was a memorable lunch.
I know of a family that did Uber-Zoom: each household ordered Uber-eats for another household. The food arrived at each destination at roughly the same time. Everyone enjoyed the excitement of discovering what the other household had ordered for them.
Do what you can to be hospitable to others. Maybe that means buying a hot chook from the shops or sharing takeaway in a park.
3. Be Thoughtful When You Invite People to Join You
Think about your guests. Think about their interests and their stage of life. Then invite some other people to join you who are about the same age, or whose kids are a similar age, or who have related interests. I prefer not to have to talk too much. So I invite people who’ll be comfortable speaking to each other.
4. Be Interested in Them
You don’t need to be interesting in your own right if you are interested in your guests. Don’t just talk about yourself; encourage them to talk about themselves so you can get to know them. You can ask them what brought them to your town or city, if they’ve settled in, how their kids are finding school, what they enjoy doing in their spare time, or (if they’re a couple) how they met.
5. Be Interested in What They Believe about Jesus
Jesus is the most important thing part of our lives. People who visit you give you a wonderful opportunity to encourage them to know and live for Jesus. You can have longer and deeper conversations than we can have at work or after church. It’s a caring, relational context and that helps people discuss genuine differences. Seize the opportunity. You can ask them:
if they have a faith,
how they became a Christian,
what brought them to church,
what their old church was like and what they enjoyed about it,
what God has been doing in their life,
if they can think of something God has taught them recently, or
how you can pray for them.
Let’s use the earthly homes God has blessed us with to enable people to taste the gospel of grace and share our heavenly home.