I.
Vows of
Affirmation
“We devote our daily life to God, and to
serving our neighbors as images of God”
- I will think, speak and act with courtesy, respect, and hospitality toward friend and enemy, neighbor and stranger.
There is a growing set of true stories
sharing surprising outcomes to encounters with a violent enemy. One goes like
this: A couple is asleep in their bed-and-breakfast home. As a man with a knife
crawled in the open window, the wife awakens to see him approaching through the
dark. As he nears she speaks out, “You can kill us, but first let me make you a
cup of coffee.” The startled intruder gradually accepts the offer and over a
hot cup decides against his original violent plans.
A young lady in a similar story*, Angie
O’Gorman, interrupts her armed intruder’s advance with a curious question,
“What time is it?” and sets off a disarming conversation continued until Angie
and the trespasser were no longer pure strangers. Finding out the man had no
home to return to that night, Angie offers the entrant a couch to sleep on for
the night and breakfast in the morning. Her firm hospitality and respect had
disarmed the man.
Of course these examples are quite out of the ordinary. Most of us (North American middle-class, Anglo readers) will never face an intruder pushing into your home gun in hand, a drunken assailant grabbing you on a dark corner, or guerrilla soldiers invading your neighborhood. While it’s helpful to prepare yourself to respond as a peacemaker in such adversities, encounters with enemies, strangers, neighbors and friends are far more commonplace than these extremes!
We get cut off on the way to work and
are prompt to gesture back at the guilty driver. We interact coldly with the costumer
who is notoriously delinquent in his payments. We lace our "polite" remarks about a fellow church member with barbed disdain. We stereotype or distrust the
darker-skinned shoppers in the next aisle over. We snap at our kids and cold
shoulder our spouses.
Today’s vow may be one of the more
difficult ones in its sheer commonness and frequency of applicability: “I will think, speak and act with courtesy, respect, and hospitality toward friend and
enemy, neighbor and stranger.” Though mundane, our patient words, genuinely
warm non-verbal communication and hospitable actions are a crucial daily
practice of Christian peacemaking.
For
Reflection and Action:
- Read Proverbs 15:1-4. What of your responses today were harsh? Which were gentle, respectful, honest, wise? Who else have you seen exemplify a hospitable response?
- Read aloud Elisha’s surprising response to an enemy army in 2 Kings 6:8-23. Who are the strangers or enemies in your life to whom you can offer words and actions of hospitality today? How will you do the same for your neighbors and friends?
Prayer
Focus
God of hospitable words,
we confess our lips do not
always respect the other.
Give us wise and gentle
words today.
May our actions be so also,
for friend and enemy,
neighbor and stranger alike. Amen.
[For
Further Reflection:]
When it comes to the extreme,
out-of-the-ordinary encounters, there are some incredible short testimonies of Christian hospitality in the face of fatal
violence. For further reflection, check out Section 3 of What Would You Do?, edited
by John Howard Yoder (see especially chapters, “Welcoming the Enemy,” “It Was
Like a Spring Thaw,” “Neither Violent nor Victim,” and “The Art of
Reconciliation”).