Hospitality in the Midst of a Crisis with Rosaria Butterfield
On today’s episode, we’re continuing our series, Theology in Practice: Knowing God Changes Who We Are and How We Engage with the World. On today’s episode, we are talking with Rosaria Butterfield about hospitality, particularly in times of crisis. There is no one you’d rather hear from on this topic as we’re all seeking to love our neighbors while navigating the challenging realities that come with a global pandemic like COVID 19. This conversation will challenge you, offer really creative ideas for how to love your neighbor in the midst of a crisis, and exhort you to really know and love God and to know and love the people he’s placed around you too.
Can you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
Can you flesh out the idea of "radically ordinary hospitality" that you lay out in your book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key?
What motivates us to practice this kind of hospitality? Where do we see it in Scripture?
How has your life been impacted by radically ordinary hospitality, both as a recipient and an extender?
How does sin tempt us not to welcome others into our homes? What would it look like for us to walk forward in repentance and faith, prayerfully asking the Lord to help us welcome others as Christ has welcomed us?
How does the gospel move us towards people who are different than us?
What's the difference between acceptance and approval? How can we courageously accept and respect people who think differently than we do?
There are so many needs around us. Sometimes it's difficult to build in the margin that's required to open our homes to truly welcome others as Christ has welcomed us. How can we structure our lives in a way that enables us to practice radical hospitality
How can we creatively practice hospitality in the way we engage with others, even if/when we don't have a home? What might this look like for people who are displaced? In college? Living in the home of another? In a transient season?
Right now, we're in the middle of a global pandemic that's requiring us to practice social distancing. Is there a way to practice hospitality even when we aren't able to do it to the degree that we desire?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“Radically ordinary hospitality is doing what you normally would do as a Christian, as a person saved by God’s amazing grace, and opening up your arms a little bit wider. It means looking at our homes not as castles, but as God’s embassy. It means knowing that God never gets the address wrong. He has given you neighbors and you are the bridge to the Lord for those neighbors.”
“Radically ordinary hospitality seeks to work behind the scenes to meet strangers and welcome them as neighbors. Then if the Lord wills, watch those neighbors become a part of the family of God.”
“We live in a world filled with existential dread for which Jesus is the answer and people need to be helped to frame the questions.”
“I knew I was accepted because I was at the table. I knew they accepted me because they welcomed me in and didn’t treat me as a blank slate. They listened to how I had processed my life. They listened well enough and found the gospel bridge to my heart. There is no question that repentance is the threshold to a holy God. You can’t bypass repentance to get to grace. But it’s also true that people do need to understand what a fear of God means. And that means that they need to be close enough to people that do fear God.”
“They modeled, they demonstrated, and they welcomed me. They didn’t treat me like I was polluting them. But they also made it clear that they did not approve of me.”
Rosaria on the Obergefell Decision
“We don’t approve of each other, and we love each other.”
“There is no way to truly love your neighbors in Christ if you have what Martin Luther calls a ‘milk faith.’ If you’re coasting on a verse a day; if you read your Bible as heathens read their horoscopes, forget it - it’s not going to work. Strive for a meat faith, not a milk faith. To be so fluent in our practices of a meat faith that we don’t push against them. We value family devotions at the dinner table. We value lingering long over the Word in the morning. We value long seasons of prayer. We repent of our sin. We love our enemies genuinely. And we don’t make excuses… Take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and give ourselves a good shake and say, ‘Jesus is onto you girl, you’re not faking it.’”
“Have a greater fear of God than a fear of man. That is something you cultivate. It doesn’t just drop from the sky.”
“Don’t be so impressed with the idols of this land.”
“Work hard to get your Christian worldview but also your Christian practice on.”
“Pray that your neighbors would trust you with their big problems. The only reason people look happy and cleaned up is because you just don’t know them well.”
“You need to do what God has called you to do. Wives we are called to submit to our husbands and to encourage their leadership. We will not encourage their leadership by usurping it. God will use your family for all of your limitations.”
“Wives let your husband lead. Pray for him. Pray with him. Thank him for his leadership.”
“As a church, you pray that the Lord would raise up those households. And then as a church you figure out what you can do to resource those households.”
“How can we as a church body be a bridge to Christ? How can our homes be a bridge to Christ?”
“Tragedy affects the world like light affects cockroaches.”
“Let’s be ready to bring the Word of God and the hands of Christ.”
“The church has been ministering through plagues for 2000 years. Viruses don’t come with user manuals. It will require great discernment and great wisdom.”
“It is a very different kind of practical wisdom which God expects at our hands; namely, that we ought to meditate on his judgments in the time of adversity, and on his goodness in delivering us from it. For surely it is not mere chance that a person falls into the hands of enemies or robbers; neither is it by chance that he is rescued from them. But this is what we must constantly keep in view, that all afflictions are God’s rod, and that therefore there is no remedy for them elsewhere than in his grace.” - John Calvin
“We are praying and fasting and organizing coverage in our neighborhood.”
“There are two things a Christian has to think about these days: the duties that are inherent in the 6th commandment, ‘thou shall not kill;’ and the obedience to the civil government if it’s asking you to do things to preserve the 6th commandment.”
“If you’re eating my hot dogs, you’re hearing the gospel.”
“Help your neighbors to feast more on Scripture than CNN.”
“Find one household that is compromised and frightened right now and see if you can be some earthly good. This is what it means to be foot on the floor in an emergency.”
“It’s not hospitality if you’re not losing money.”
“There are brothers and sisters in Christ in prisons who can’t get out right now. Do you know how much ministry incarcerated Christians have?”
“COVID-19 is not going to overcome the world, Christ is.”
RESOURCES
The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield
The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible
Family Worship Bible Guide by Joel R Beeke
“Practice Hospitality. Especially During a Pandemic.” by Rosaria Butterfield
Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague by Martin Luther
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What motivates us to practice the radical hospitality that Rosaria talked about in this episode?
How does the gospel help us move towards people who are different from us?
What does the difference between acceptance and approval look like relationally?
How will you practice radical hospitality even with the limitations placed on our lives in the middle of a global pandemic?
How does knowing God change who you are and how you interact with the world around you?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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