Kissing Vikings
by Debbonnaire Kovacs
Chapter 17 of The Monastery of the Heart is on this rule of hospitality. Perhaps we can gain some ideas from it, in the context of visitors to our own homes and churches. Perhaps, we could even gain some insights about growing our church membership.
Chittister says:
to make community
out of “our kind of people,”
out of people who look like us
and think like us
and have the same backgrounds as we do.
But that is not
the kind of community
the ancient Rule
has in mind. . .
In Adventism, it’s not that we expect people to have the same backgrounds (though we like it); it’s that we think that, given time and prayer and instruction, they’ll become just like us in looks, word, and deed.
his new way of living
in wild, licentious, sixth-century Rome,
he turned that world upside down.
He took into his monastic community
the rich and the poor,
the slave and the free,
the young and the old,
artists and craftsmen,
peasants and noblemen.
It was a motley crew.
I wonder if he’d read Galatians 3:28?
he opened the doors
of the monastery
to anyone who came,
at any time,
to anyone who knocked,
no matter who they were
or where they had been in life
along the way.
Hmm. I wonder if he’d also read Hebrews 13:2?
Benedictine monasteries are perhaps best known for their hospitality. They take seriously the injunction to “welcome strangers, for in so doing, you may entertain angels unaware.” Wherever you are in the world, if you are in need of shelter, you can go to a Benedictine monastery and they will take you in. (Speaking for myself, I’ve found that to be true of Adventists, too, in general, even though we don’t have a specific rule about it.) In the 9th century, when Vikings were raiding the British Isles, the story is that at Martyrs Bay, Iona, the reason so many monks, along with their abbot, were slaughtered is that they were still trying to keep Benedict’s Rule that the entire community must welcome any and all guests “as Christ,” with prayer and a kiss of peace. They well knew the Vikings had not come in peace, or with any idea of being Christ-like. But they wanted to be Christ-like.
So do I. I’m not sure I’d be that brave about it. . .
When was the last time you greeted a Viking raider with a kiss of welcome and peace? Metaphorically speaking. Or not. . .
I recall an SDA pastor in Wichita Falls, TX, who offered room & board to an apparent 'down & out' family in '69 or '70. In due course, they stripped the guest house bare, and drove off into the night…probably to another unsuspecting church. In these days, one-on-one charity is fraught with danger. Donating to charitable agencies is safer & wiser. Giving them the address of the nearest homeless shelter should suffice.
Meeting Vikings with a friendly kiss and a large Rottweiler would be the best. We are to be as harmless as doves but as wise as serpents.
I, too, once took in a homeless family at Christmas time, and then was robbed. My mother has taken all kinds of people into her never-locked home, and usually changed their lives. I believe each case should be decided on a case-by-case basis, with heavy prayer, understanding that opening our hearts in love is always risky. One-on-one charity has always been fraught with danger. And yes, we are to be both wise and harmless. And we'll make mistakes. For my part, I'd rather my mistakes be on the too-loving side than on the too-safe side, but that's my head speaking. My heart wants to stay safe–always. I'm not sure it's always what God wants us to choose, though. After all, He made the dangerous choice.
I lived with a faculty member during my 1st year at LLU. The home was well known to hobos who climbed out of boxcars on nearby RR tracks. I was aghast to see her open the door whenever one of them knocked, but she persisted even if home alone. I've spent a lifetime serving humanity around the secular world without taking that kind of risk.
I recall an SDA missionary family that arrived in my city (Ubon, Thailand) with an infant in arms that died three weeks later from a mosquito borne hemorrhagic fever. No amount of prayer altered the outcome, and no good came about from the child's demise. Why assume such risk? If the Lord is in no hurry, why are we?
I agree with many of the comments Vernon has said. Jesus did say we are to be not just innocent as doves by cunning as snakes. I know people who have done prison ministries, and they say you soon learn that one can remain a Christian and try to help people, but one has to protect yourself and wise up. There is many a naive Christian who ultimately helps no one – as the monks who let themselve be slaughtered for no real good reason (in my book) show.
Stephen has touched upon another scam perpetrated upon gullible church members. A pastor on Guam discovered a young Afican male during his weekly prison ministry. The inmate was apprehended with an assortment of forged documents, and unwilling to tell how he'd washed up on the shores of Guam. His tale of woe included being 'orphaned during a civil war' in his unnamed country. The local church soon raised enough $$ for an attorney who managed to have him released on 'Refugee Status'…the equivalent of holding a winning lottery ticket.
In due course, the church gave him airline tickets to various parts of the US, at his request, where he was unable to find employment. Eventually, an LLU Alumnus in CA provided free room & board while presenting his case to the faculty of La Sierra University where he was granted a fully funded four year scholarship.
This story was related at a Sabbath morning SDA Church where I sat with a former room mate from our undergrad years at La Sierra. It was told, of course, with the trappings of a miracle. As poor, white Americans, we were forced to perform years of hard labor to achieve our degrees; he business, and I premed. I've never forgotten the challenge of carrying a full study load while working 20+ hours per week. No such assistance was offered us.
I don't know the end of this illegal alien 'success story,' because neither of us attended that church again.