I went to a party last weekend, on the edge of Dartmoor. It was brilliant. Lots of old friends, more fun than I thought possible and even better than I’d hoped or expected. There was a cricket match for goodness sake.
The party celebrated a combined 100th birthday for the hosts, an 18th for their son and their 25th wedding anniversary. It needed to be big, because their friends are many – but their home is not. So two of those friends, who are farmers, stepped in. They have a barn. They have a field. They let us camp. They gave us a place to eat and drink and dance.
Most importantly of all, though, they made us welcome. It was the best kind of hospitality; from people I’d never even met before Saturday.
Now, I don’t have a farm or a field, just a paved yard. And I certainly don’t have a barn. I don’t even have a shed (I used to, and I loved my shed, but that’s another story) just a lean-to bike shelter by the front door.
That’s the case for many of us and it would be easy to say that we don’t have the chance to be hospitable in the way I experienced at the weekend.
But hospitality isn’t a complicated thing. It’s in a smile or a cup of tea and a biscuit. It’s in little acts of sharing as well as large.
And sharing what you have is central to what the Bible teaches us about how to live – never based on how much you own or how big your house is. Just sharing. St Paul tells us to ‘Share with people who are in need; practice hospitality’. I love that ‘practice’; we need to learn how to do it. St Peter knew we weren’t very good at it either: ‘Offer hospitality to one another,’ he said, ‘without grumbling’.
Which takes me back to the weekend. What was amazing, in the end, was not the barn, or the field, or the roast pork (although it was amazing); it was the spirit of it. So thank you Sam and Felicity, and thanks Jon and Jo and Bart. I’ll remember your party not because it was grand but because it was kind and generous and loving. Which is proper hospitality.
In the cricket (pictured above), I bowled my friend Silas (who is a very good bat) early in my spell and then took two more wickets in the the death over to win the game. Just saying.