Book Reflection: The Gopsel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield

Rosaria Butterfield nailed it! “The Gospel Comes with a House Key!”  Post-college (circa 2002-2005) I had at least 9 sets of house keys: The Cortez’, Santiago's, Mama/Papa's, Mom/Dad's, Brother's, Ventenilla’s, Tita Neta’s, Danny’s, and the Moller's.  I was a church intern, making $250/mo, living out of a garage, and working as a Starbucks Barista to pay for seminary. Many took me in during a difficult breakup and I was showered with hospitality.

The house in Yorba Linda, CA included a motley crew of men some of which had been brought out of halfway houses. The home owners, the Moller family, owned a plumbing business, which was, now that I think of it, just a venue for redemption, recovery in addition to plumbing service for profit. Our community included recovered addicts of all sorts. And there was me, the broken hearted insomniatic theologaholic seminary student. We were all united in our value as image bearers because that is exactly how Dan and Tammy Moller treated us. We had “Bible study” on monday nights and family style meals throughout the week. Large meals were incorporated into the budget. Four of us were former wrestlers free of weight cutting. There was also a 9-year old girl the Mollers adopted long before we got there.

All of us were recipients of what Rosaria calls, “radical ordinary hospitality:” ...using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God (p. 31). It is part of our spiritual armor allowing us access to people's broken hearts.  She breaks it down further: Radical means ‘change from the root’ and ...Ordinary means “everyday,” “commonplace,” “predictable,” “reliable,” and “regular” (p. 36). Practicing radically ordinary hospitality is your street credibility with your post-Christian neighbors. It allows you to listen, to keep secrets, to be a safe friend, and to speak a word of grace into the dark places. In post-Christian communities, your words can be only as strong as your relationships. Your best weapon is an open door, a set table, a fresh pot of coffee, and a box of Kleenex for the tears that spill (p. 40).

I have noticed a recent increase in prophetic hospitality moments in my life.  In September I flew to California and during that trip I had meaningful conversation with people I used to judge.  Gay people, straight people, big, small, tall, you name it. I went to my brother’s wedding in which I had one goal in mind; to be a living display of the love of God so that others would see that love and praise the Father in heaven. That weekend, I was using “the best offensive spiritual weapons” including sweeping a floor to sharing a bench at LAX with a man that nobody else wanted to join.  Radical. Ordinary. Hospitality.

Radically ordinary hospitality is exactly the model I would like to see flourish in every community group in our current local church.  The old school 90’s bible study model is no longer conducive for a life group. We are moving in the direction of missional communities unafraid to radically spread Aloha. God is revealing to me more and more that everything is His. “My house” is just a venue for God to meet people wherever they are and without judgment or awkwardness...just like the Yorba Linda house. The anatomy of trust is inextricably linked to radical ordinary hospitality. Hospitality is the ABCs of the christian faith.

Admittedly, my current struggle is not in being hospitable, per se, but rather in looking down on others who are not. This mindset is evil and offensive in God's sight, it erodes trust and I choose to keep that part of my thinking exposed and laid bare before others. I confess my pride. I’m grateful to God for his forgiveness and patience with me. I thank God for enabling me to keep this sun of pride in its proper place. I ask from this moment on that God continue to extend hospitality toward others through me.

Golden Nuggets

“Make no mistake. It is a million times safer to include unbelieving neighbors or people who have not claimed the blood of Christ or the citizenship of the church than to let potential Judas run loose in the Church. Atheist do far less harm than hypocrites."

Sin cannot harm Jesus; not even the sin of crucifixion.

Radically ordinary hospitality is part of our spiritual armor allowing us access to people's broken hearts...

The bible calls spiritual preparation warfare. Radically ordinary hospitality is indeed warfare.

When we die to ourselves, we find the liberty to obey.

Section 1  Mi casa es Dios casa

Section 3  Thursday = Neighbor night!

Section 3  Definition of Spiritual Warfare

Section 3  Having strong words and a weak relationship with your neighbor is violent.

Section 3 / 00:48:46 The secret to contagious grace is what Mary said in John 2; namely, "do whatever he says." Section 3 / 00:49:26 When we die to ourselves, we find the liberty to obey.

Section 3 / 01:00:30 daily hospitality - gathering church and neighbors, is a daily grace.

Section 3 Christians are not lone rangers

Section 3 / 01:02:05 Monthly grocery bill centers around radical ordinary hospitality.

Section 3 Too many of us are sidelined by fears...

Section 3 / 01:04:53 The bible calls spiritual preparation warfare. Radically ordinary hospitality is indeed warfare.

Section 3 / 01:14:03 radically ordinary hospitality is part of our spiritual armor allowing us access to people's broken hearts…

Section 3 / 01:14:08 radically ordinary hospitality is part of our spiritual armor allowing us access to people's broken hearts. Allowing the spirit of God to work through us despite our limitations.

Section 3 / 01:19:40 The home is not a castle. Tear down the walls

Section 3 / 01:22:08 God calls us to make sacrifices that hurt so that others can be served...

Section 3 / 01:22:15 We are called to die. Nothing less.

Section 3 / 01:22:33 Don't blink before power and don’t seek to intimidate it either.

Section 3 / 01:26:48 Thursday = neighbor night

Section 4 / 02:14:26 Practicing daily ordinary hospitality doubles our grocery budget; sometimes triples it.

Section 5  Sin cannot harm Jesus; not even the sin of crucifixion.

Section 5  Ontologically speaking, she was an image bearer.

Section 5  Jesus knew prostitution was not her ontology. It was HOW she was, but it wasn't WHO she was.

Section 5 / 02:53:58 God never gets the address wrong

Section 10  How NOT to treat Sailors who have been busted - treating them as SUBHUMAN.

Section 12  People who have too much, often take themselves too seriously to actually give themselves to others in the way that God's hospitality commands...Section 4 / 02:07:16 His bloody love empowers us to defeat sin patterns!