Grassroots Identity, Hospitality, and Accountability
2012; Duquesne University Press; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2162-3937
Autores Tópico(s)Jewish Identity and Society
ResumoFor the images with which I begin I am indebted to Martin Bell in his book The Way of the Wolf. be human is to be hungry. All children are hungry. They are born hungry. Most children are always hungry. Some children are starving. It is terrifying to see a starving child. It is more terrifying to be a starving child. Starvation is horrible. To be without food is hell. (1) One's identity as a human being is tied up with hunger. One's identity as a Christian is likewise tied to hungers: physical and spiritual. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, and because our God loves to turn our conceptions upside-down, God moves back and forth between being guest and host to address or meet these hungers. God is host in that God created the universe and all that lies therein and called it good. God created humankind in God's own image and made every living thing and gave humanity dominion over it--every tree with seed in its fruit, every green plant, etc. (Gen. 1:26-31). God offers the world to us on a platter, so to speak, and says dig in; it is yours. What God asks in return is acknowledgement of God the creator, to take care of the good creation and to treat it all with respect and dignity. Human beings were to act as godlike hosts to the rest of the creation. Having turned creation over to human beings, God becomes guest, visiting that creation. Long before the days of Motel 6, the Holiday Inn, and bed & breakfasts, back when public inns were rarities, entertainment (hospitality) of a stranger/sojourner as a guest was considered a sacred duty. Hospitality in the ancient world was discharged more from fear and for protection than from generosity. One might entertain the deity or the deity's messengers, as Abraham and Sarah entertained the angels in Genesis. One never knew when one would need a host, being dependent on another. A traveler entering a city would come to the open place, and, unless a breach of etiquette occurred, someone would invite him/her home and grant the customary graces. Guests were treated with respect and honor and were provided with food for their animals, water for their feet, rest, and a sumptuous feast. One of the most intriguing aspects was that guests enjoyed the protection of the host, even if they were enemies, for three days and thirty-six hours after eating with the host, the length of time that the food they had just eaten sustained them. Hospitality was an expression of virtue, of right living. Hospitality was likewise a high virtue in the ancient Greek culture, and those who did not practice it were considered barbarians. Zenos was the Greek word for guest, literally meaning stranger, yet the same word means Likewise, the Latin word dealing with hospitality, hostis, is the root for two diverse yet related streams of meaning; it literally means enemy, stranger. From it have come such words as hospice, hospital, hospitality, but also hostility. Extending welcome to the stranger brings risk; its effect can yield healing and nurture or hatred and hurt, or, as we put it biblically: a choice of life or death. Likewise in the Christian tradition, Jesus and his life/identity exemplifies the choice between hospitality and hostility, life and death, as he moves back and forth between being guest and host. Jesus said that humans cannot live by bread alone. He said that to hungry human beings. He said that to starving children. Yet, Jesus was criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners, for going among the people eating and drinking, for being a winebibber, for eating when he was hungry and sleeping when he was tired. He was a great guest but an even better host. The least, the lost, the last, the littlest, the children, the leper, the sick, the mentally deranged, women, the disreputable, the poor, the criminal, the tax collector--Jesus welcomed them all. He touched them, talked with them, healed them, gave them the bread of life as they ate and drank together. …
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