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Pastor's Corner: Authentic hospitality

Last week, I talked about the famous biblical duo of Mary and Martha, but today I am going to focus on an even more well-known Mary and her cousin Elizabeth.

Right after Mary finds out from the angel Gabriel that she is going to conceive and give birth to the Son of God, Mary departs with haste. This story is so familiar to us that I think we sometimes lose sight of or forget just how strange, unfamiliar, and unexpected that experience was for Mary. So she wastes no time; she hits the road and heads for the hills as they say. Maybe she’s excited and wants to share this good news. Maybe she wants to celebrate what is happening to her. Or maybe she’s afraid and needs a friendly face. Maybe she’s overwhelmed and needs someone to talk with. Maybe she doesn’t know what to do next and is looking for some guidance. Maybe she wants help in figuring out how to tell and deal with Joseph and her mom and dad. Maybe she just wants to get away for a little while and try to make sense of what has happened. Maybe she wants to talk to someone who will understand. Maybe it’s any one of those things, all of them, or a thousand other things that causes Mary to leave with haste.

Whatever Mary’s reasons were, you and I have probably been there, too. Haven’t there been times in your life when you set out in haste looking for something or someone familiar to stand with you in the midst of the unexpected and unfamiliar? Who has been your Elizabeth? When have you been Elizabeth for another?

Mary doesn’t go to Anna her mother, or to Joseph her fiancé, or to the local clergy, or to a girlfriend around the corner. Elizabeth is Mary’s “person;” Elizabeth, her older cousin, who is getting on in years, who was said to be barren, and who is now six months pregnant. But the trip to Elizabeth’s house isn’t a simple walk across the street or around the block. It’s about an 80 mile walk to Elizbeth’s home outside of Jerusalem from Mary’s home in Nazareth.

Mary was surely looking for something in particular from Elizabeth. I don’t know what she wanted or needed, but I know when I’ve been estranged from myself, I want a place of acceptance and understanding; I want someone who will love me and not judge; someone who will be with me in the beauty, pain and mystery of what is happening; someone who will encourage and offer hope without telling me what to do; someone who can be present to my reality and speak truth, even if it hurts; someone who assures me that I don’t have to do this alone; someone who offers his/her faith, hope and love when mine is in short supply; someone who will remind me that I am ok and I can do this.

This is hospitality, a kind of hospitality we receive from another that allows us to be hospitable to and accepting of ourselves. This hospitality Elizabeth offered Mary was more than an open door, a warm welcome, and a place to stay. It was an affirmation of Mary’s life; it was a blessing that gave Mary back to herself. Her words of affirmation, approval, and blessing will remain with Mary the rest of her life. They will echo in the silence as Mary ponders and treasures the words of the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. They will call her back to herself when her twelve year old son runs away to be in his Father’s house. They will hold her broken heart at the cross. And they will sing with joy at the empty tomb

That’s how deep and authentic hospitality works. It’s not just a word spoken or an action done at a particular point in time but it’s an event that stays with us and continues to affirm, commend and bless. It’s an event in which we recognize God’s presence, an event that is pregnant with possibilities and new life. I wonder in what ways you’ve experienced this Elizabethan hospitality. When has another, an Elizabeth, affirmed, commended, and blessed your life? How is that event of hospitality alive in you today? What is gestating in you and waiting to be born?

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The Rev. Maggie Lewis

First Presbyterian Church Havre

Presbyterian Church of Chinook

 

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