[Vision2020] what is hospitality?

[pkraut at moscow.com]

Ok, this would work for you but others see it differently and I have had 
it work in other ways in my life. So we should work only from your 
experiences or can we look at other options??
> 
> I left yesterday's NSA candidates' forum before the audience questions
came>  in.  Someone asked Wayne Krauss about the recent boarding house
ordinance;>  Krauss answered, according to the Daily News, that it was a 
question of
wh> en "a guest becomes a boarder."
> 
> Huh.
> 
> My mama always taught me that guests are the people you invite to enjoy
you> r family's company, your home, your food and drink and some Jello-
based
des> sert.  For free.  The women on both sides of my family, going 
generations
b> ack, would smack me silly if I ever collected a fee from those I 
invited. 
> I'm just now getting comfortable with the idea of a potluck; it runs
agains> t my grain.  Still, guests are people invited who are required to 
bring
NOT> HING and pay NOTHING.  And I accommodate guests based on what my home 
and
f> amily can reasonably handle.  I don't go out and buy a five- or
six-bedroom>  home knowing that my "guest fees" will cover part of the 
mortgage. 
Hospit> ality is a gift, not a for-profit venture.
> 
> Jeff and I have also had people live with us, again for free, when 
they're
> in desperate straits.  We wouldn't accept  payment from them -- we were
eng> aging in hospitality to "the least of these" who probably couldn't 
have
pai> d us back anyway.  Certainly no one reading this would fail to offer
whatev> er they could provide to someone in need, and we're no different. 
Hospital> ity is a ministry, not a fee-based social service.  
> 
> If one of our elderly parents were sick, we would without question have
the> m in our home as long as we could provide the kind of care they 
needed. 
Ho> spitality is an obligation of family, not a burden.
> 
> On the other hand, if we had someone who lived with us because of
convenien> ce, someone who wanted to hang with our family while she or he 
studied or
w> orked or prepared for marriage, we might agree to let them, and we would
as> k them to help offset expenses, with the idea that we were substitutes 
for
> dorm or apartment living and costs.  I would accept a couple of hundred 
or
> so, or a bag or two of groceries a week, or help with the heating bill --
a> nd then I'd go down to City Hall to get my CUP.  Boarding is a neutral
thin> g, morally, not an opportunity to break the law.  
> 
> And while I may be -- would hope to be -- a hospitable host, I would be
cle> ar that my making hundreds of dollars from three or four or five 
boarders
i> s NOT hospitality.  It's probably not even a smart idea, but the City
Counc> il is in charge of holding the City responsible for enforcing the 
law, not
> probing the ministerial or filial motive of living arrangements.  Real
hosp> itality knows nothing of casual law-breaking, profit, investing in 
too-big
> houses, or cries of persecution.  I would expect classically-educated
Chris> tians to be aware of what my beloved grandmother knew with only an
eighth-g> rade education and a Catholic Missalette.
> 
> keely
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "God works patiently and deeply, but often in hidden ways, in the mess of
o> ur humanity and history."
> --Eugene Peterson
> 
> 
> 
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