Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Guest
1
) Guests who come laden with gifts are always such a delight! When I consider how much preparation goes into making a trip; the packing, the travelling, the setting of the itinerary, I am always amazed at the guests who make the extra effort to consider a gift their hosts might like.
The children who came to stay at our house for health visits every summer always came with more gifts than clothes. It showed us just how much their parents appreciated our sponsorship. A special relationship is nurtured in the context of being a host or a guest. More than a lunch meeting in a special restaurant, or a rendez-vous at a favourite watering hole, hosting a guest makes a statement. It tells our guest that they are welcome into the intimacy of our home and our lives. It offers the possibility of friendship and mutual support. It sets the stage for getting to know another person more deeply and authentically. More than simply opening our front door, we endeavour to open our hearts. At this time of year many of us find ourselves too busy to receive guests or accept one more invitation to be a guest. We rely on social media to keep in touch. Yet nothing can replace the intimacy of hosting or being a guest. Perhaps in this super charged season of busyness it would be better to do less and reserve more time for authentic communication. Host a guest, be a guest. Spread goodwill towards others. Get to know your neighbours better.
2
) My father used to teach us, when we were hiking in the woods, to be good guests of the forest. I remember tramping behind him, as he pointed out the names of trees and plants and insects. Showing us traces of other non-human visitors. The animals in the woods are our hosts, he'd say, and their home should be respected.
An outdoor adventure course I took once similarly taught us to leave nothing behind that does not belong to the natural habitat, unless it be our wonder and appreciation. As teachers in training for environmental studies, nature was our curriculum. Our lesson plan was to engage with various ecologies and learn from them, how to instill awareness in our young students. Leave no trace of your passing through, treat everything - leaf and branch and stone along the path - as pure gift.
It would be good for us to remember that we are all guests here. Nature itself welcomes us. Beauty welcomes us at every turn. We humans are not the hosts. To quote Gunter Grass: "If we take into account the existence of our planet, we have to recognize that we are guests that spend a short and very determined period in this world, and all we leave behind is nuclear waste." The best guests leave behind a gift or thank you note, and may even strip the bedding to help make clean up easier for the next visitor.
We have a vision of ourselves as stewards of earth. In the best sense that makes us guardians who protect and preserve. Yet in mass, on a global scale, we've taken over as if we are the owners, assuming rights to appropriate everything within reach. The next visitors will be the children of our children.
Sometimes I wonder what the other visitors here think of us and our habit of taking over the place. Let us remember we are not owners but guests, no less or more honoured than others, and on all levels teach and practice good manners
3
) Rumi says, "For sixty years I have been forgetful, but not for a second has this flowing towards me stopped or slowed. Now I realize that I am the guest the mystics talk about." I older I get, the more this being the guest makes sense to me; I know I will not be here forever.
We keep our guest room at home ready for the unexpected traveler, coming through the townships on their way east or south. We try to anticipate what simple practical needs
The role of the host is to welcome and provide hospitality. To set the table and prepare the feast. The role of the guest is to show up, fit into the festivities, and enjoy the visit, maybe even bear gifts and news from near or far away. Sometimes they bring potluck or even help with the dishes, as just happened with guests last week at our church's annual Pageant and Turkey Supper. After the meal, the guests - mostly men - cleared the tables and took charge of the kitchen. Clearly, they felt at home.
Amidst the festivities of this season, we will change places and practice being both guest and host. The boundary between giving and receiving is obscured as we mingle to celebrate and enjoy being in each other's company.
More and more I am convinced that life is one great banquet laid out before us every day. Whatever role we play, let us be thankful.
4
) As minister in my first congregation after I was ordained, I was always a bit brash. I remember mentioning in one of my first services that the best way to get to know me was to invite me to a meal. Needless to say, I was invited often to be a guest for lunch or dinner. Maritimers are known for their hospitality. I also remember that they would take extra care to clean house and I was often seated in a fancy parlour. Guests were always well treated.
In the biblical accounts, Jesus was often a guest. He was a wedding guest when water was changed into wine. He was often a guest at the home of his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He even invited himself to be a guest sometimes, as in the story of Zaccheus. Once at a banquet Mary anointed Jesus' feet with perfume and wiped them with her hair to honour him as a special guest. He was so touched by the welcome that at the Last Supper he also anointed the feet of his disciples.
At Christmas time we welcome Jesus as a guest in a spiritual sense. We light candles and sing carols to mark his arrival. We clean our homes before decorating them in a festive manner. We bake cookies, and cook special meals. We put on our best face to welcome our friends.
One Christmas carol, “People Look East” has a line that goes “Love the guest is on the way.” This reminds us that God came to us not as royalty but as a child. How do we welcome this special guest? How do we welcome any guest for that matter? Perhaps this is something to think about this special season.
One word, four voices - now it's your turn to reflect: Hosting or being the guest, or both - which do you prefer?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco is Consulting Minister to UU Estrie-unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.