Gasvryheid en armoede

Jy kan ‘n aangrypende artikel genaamd “Creating Space: Hospitality as a metaphor for mission” hier gaan lees. Die artikel praat oor:

• Gasvryheid as verwelkoming van die gas en vreemdeling.
• Gasvryheid as raaksien van ander
• Gasvryheid vanuit die kantlyne.
• Gasvryheid as ruimte skep.

N.a.v. die gesprek elders op die blog oor die verband tussen gasvryheid en armoede, haal ek die derde deel van die artikel hier redelik volledig aan:

Hospitality from the Margins

Pohl contends that the “periods in church history when hospitality has been most vibrantly practised have been times when the hosts were themselves marginal to their larger society.” This may be because they were a persecuted minority, hidden away in convents, or poorer sectors of society such as the early Methodists. The Israelites knew what it meant to be marginal – they were strangers and sojourners utterly dependent on God. So should we be, as resident aliens. But for most of us, in the West at least, this is not the case as we are among the wealthy and powerful. Somehow wealth and status seem to be counter-intuitive to offering hospitality. In a slightly different vein + John V Taylor reflects on this in a sermon entitled “Strangers with Camels.” He notes how Jesus came to his own people who were mostly “poor and unlearned” and that it was amazingly good news that God had more in common with “the uncomplicated, the humble and the generous than with the proud and self-satisfied.” This is where the Son of God feels most truly at home. But the rich rulers of the earth, symbolised by the magi, may come to Him also – they just have further to travel than the shepherds. “…it is a long hard way to those who have grown used to doing anything they want in the world from their huge resources of tradition, knowledge, wealth and power. They have so much more to leave behind. Yet the journey can be made.” It is the same with hospitality. Somehow it is harder for the wealthy and powerful to offer hospitality – we can do it, of course, but perhaps we have further to travel.

Poverty may be a good place to start with hospitality. Poverty of heart and mind creates space for the other. Poverty makes a good host – poverty of mind, heart and even resources where one is not constrained by one’s possessions but is able to freely give. Hospitality from the margins reminds us of the paradoxical power of vulnerability and the importance of compassion. … To make oneself vulnerable reminds us that both hospitality and engagement in mission require authentic compassion and genuine love. Somehow these are more freely expressed and experienced from a context of poverty – poverty both within and without. Poverty of heart and mind reminds us that we are the needy ones, that our hands were empty before God filled them, that we are in need of grace, forgiveness, healing and newness of life. Then genuine hospitality as well as genuine engagement in mission can begin as we realise our own emptiness and our own need for God. As we experience the divine welcome born out of divine compassion, so then we can share this grace and hospitality with others.