The Gospel Comes with a House Key
Our Post-Christian World (1|4)
The Kindness of Hospitality
• July 1997, Syracuse, New York
Pages 47-52
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: ...with inherent ethical and moral responsibilities, constraints, and blessings.) and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
Genesis 1:27 (NIV) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6 (NIV) Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
Theo Hobson wrote:
1. What was universally condemned is now celebrated.
2. What was universally celebrated is now condemned.
3. Those who refuse to celebrate are condemned.
Why do Christians believe that religious liberty is a form of kindness, and how can we reflect this to our unbelieving neighbors? Have the moral changes in our society reflected God’s kindness or something else?
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
I believe that scholars must be risk takers. We must take the risk of being wrong, and we must take the risk of reading things that offend. It is necessary to be this kind of scholar of integrity in order to confront the opposition with respect.
What is your response to this statement?
Have you ever discussed or debated with someone who knows the subject matter way more than you?
We live in a world with a lot of “educated idiots” people who are brilliant, and unfortunately, they know it and have little to know humility. How do we engage with people who are smart, and educated but close-minded? How do you share the gospel with someone who is not a risk taker like Rosaria Butterfield?
Butterfield described the Smith’s Christian home threshold as this: Nothing prepared me for this openness and truth. Nothing prepared me for the unstoppable gospel and for the love of Jesus, made manifest by the daily practices of hospitality undertaken in this one simple Christian home. The threshold to their life brought me to the foot of the cross.
What would the world look like if every Christian home could be described this way?
What would it take for the home you live in to be described this way?
EXTRA READING:
“Father, I abandon myself into your hands, do with me what you will. For whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all, let only your will be done in me, as in all your creation.”
- Charles de Foucauld (1858 - 1916)
While working in the North African desert, Charles de Foucauld was impressed by the piety of Muslims and experienced a dramatic recovery of his Christian Faith. He spent a number of years in a Trappist monastery before hearing a call to a new monasticism among the working poor. He wrote: “I no longer want a monastery which is too secure, I want a small monastery, like the house of a poor workman who is not sure if tomorrow he will find work and bread, who with all his being shares the suffering of the world.” Though Foucauld died in solitude, the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, inspired by his life and witness, have started communities among the poor and outcast around the world.