STEWARDSHIP & HOSPITALITY
by Josh Keaney
Fr. George asked if I would be willing to offer a Stewardship Witness this Fall, and as I reflected on this subject my thoughts kept returning to the connection between Stewardship and Hospitality…which might not be an immediately clear connection. As Youth Pastor at St. Edmund’s, I’m especially interested in how hospitality pertains to our younger members, and how our hospitality toward our youth is an essential part of our shared stewardship.
I like a passage from the book of James which says: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above.” The usual application of this message is to be grateful for our material possessions, but our greatest gifts really come in the form of other people. The greatest gifts we have at St. Edmund’s are our children and our youth. They aren’t our possessions, but gifts which God has entrusted for a time to our care and nurture. In some sense they are “guests” to whom we offer Christian hospitality as we strive to form them in the Christian Way.
The well known author and Roman Catholic priest Henry Nouwen once said “the concept of hospitality might bring a unifying dimension to all interpersonal relationships,” and he goes on to say that all personal relationships fall under Christ’s rubric: “you must love your neighbor as yourself”.
In our Faith, hospitality began with God, who came as an infant guest in the town of Bethlehem.. The human life of God began in one receiving hospitality, and then as Christ grew He revealed to us God’s limitless love and hospitality toward all of humankind.
All of us are also variously guest and host during the course of our lives. Sometimes we play those roles simultaneously.
Nouwen suggests that sometimes it is helpful to see those we are familiar with as strangers, so we can learn how to offer them Christ’s own welcome once more. We must, “recognize the stranger in our own familiar circle. When we are able to be good hosts for the strangers in our midst we may find ways to expand our hospitality to broader horizons.” pg. 80. Nouwen speaks especially about young people, saying: “Our children are our most important guests, who enter into our home, ask for careful attention, stay for a while and then leave to follow their own way.” pg. 81
True hospitality is concerned about the guest and creates a free and friendly space where the guest can reveal his or her gifts and become our friend. “Hospitality does not try to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.”
This is the kind of space we try to create for our youth at St. Edmund’s.
In the church in which I grew up there was a small community of families that helped me to stretch and grow and find my way. They welcomed me into their homes, and we had a sense of “family” not bound by blood, but by spirit. I cannot count the number of people and families my parents have housed for weeks, let borrow their cars, or offered assistance. These simple demonstrations of God’s grace through acts of Hospitality impacted me more than the hundreds of sermons I heard.
At Saint Edmund's we are doing a good job of opening our homes to our youth, and I hope in 2009 we can seek together for ways to deepen our hospitality. When we look in the familiar faces of our young people we can’t squint enough to see the strangers Christ summoned us to care for. I hope we can increasingly become a larger family defined not by blood, but by shared spiritual commitment, and that our youth would more and more sense their valued place in our family.
When I was in Jr. High the men in my church wanted to attend a conference for fathers and sons. At the time my dad was often absent because of work. It was the fathers in that community of close knit families who took me to the conference. Later in the turbulent years of High School I was mentored by another man in my church. He invested in me and attended my track meets and soccer matches. When I had questions or problems I was too terrified to go to my parents with, he was there to turn to.
During our youth Confirmation program that will take place the next few months I’m looking for adult Mentors to come along side a few of our high schoolers…people who can model the safe relationships which allow our youth to question and press forward knowing they have support in the larger Faith community. Christ brought us God with skin on, and we want to work to offer the same to our youth in a culture that is often fragmented and isolating for adolescents. I’ve spent enough time in the Middle East and in Latin America to be impressed by the support for young people found in these cultures. American life seems, in contrast, awfully lonely. The journey is perhaps too individualistic. Parents must work hard to find a community with similar priorities and values. As adults in this community of faith we face new and challenging questions. For example at what age do we allow youth to have mobile phones, date, or have uncontrolled access to the internet?
“The church is perhaps one of the few places left where we can meet people who are different than we are but with whom we can form a larger family” says Henry Nouwen. I believe him, and want to work with you to bring to our Church a deeper sense of spiritual family for our young people. Our youth are our most precious gift and our guests. That is why for me Hospitality is at the heart of Stewardship, and Stewardship is at the heart of youth ministry.
Thanks for giving your Youth Pastor an ear today! I want you all to know what a joy it is to labor with you for the cause of Christ in this place.
