How do you like your tea,
Your coffee?
Weak or strong,
Caffeinated or not,
Milky or black?
Or do you prefer fruit tea, hot water?
Hospitality is about offering what is needed
Freely and cheerfully;
But it is also about acceptance.
It is about sensitivity to other people-
Recognising a reluctance
To accept charity.
Hospitality involves the giving of time.
Jesus, your ministry was about looking at people
One at a time.
Fitting your deeds to their needs:
Forgiving, before healing,
When that was most important;
Asking before healing,
And not making assumptions;
Or simply being there to listen
And to talk.
Some you called to follow you,
Yet others you sent back
Home.
One size did not fit all!
Our hospitality is learning to reflect that special flavour:
Not, ‘ What shall we give?’
But, ‘ What is the need?’
But, and it is a big but, Lord
We need help to discern what is best.
We can’t do it alone.
Give us wisdom to look
Outside the box we have created for ourselves
And see where we can help you
In the boxes other people have made for themselves.
So Lord, may we ask? How do you like your cup of tea?
Or do you prefer coffee?
A flavoured drink?
Or probably water.
We offer what we have
In your Name.
Amen. Hazel Parsons
Reading:Matthew 22:29-34
SthF:689. Summoned by the God who made us
