Sacred Hospitality

Hospitality as Making Room

 “Hospitality is love. Hospitality is making someone feel at home.”- Tekle Mezgebe

Opening Prayer: Almighty God, who welcomed all creation to be in renewed relationship with you through Jesus Christ, we gather to offer your hospitality to the world. Grant us hearts to welcome, embrace, and make room for immigrants and refugees. Guide our discussions that we may deepen our understanding and grow in empathy. May our time together inspire us to advocate for justice and extend care to all, reflecting the example of Jesus Christ, who welcomed the marginalized and embraced the outsider. Amen.

Making Room:

To make room is to physically, spiritually, or communally create space for others. Making room allows for others to belong, have their needs met, and build genuine relationship. The focus of making room is not doing things for another. It is about offering up your space, your resources, or yourself for another in order to fully embrace all that they contain. Making room requires a openness of heart, active listening, and a generosity of self, spirit, and resources.

Take 5 minutes to discuss the following as a group:

• What is one word or phrase the Holy Spirit impresses on you?
• How do you see Abraham practicing hospitality?
• How did you see Abraham “making room” for the three strangers?

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Tekle Mezgebe

As Tekle shares his story, write down words or ideas that stick out to you.

Reflect: Take a couple minutes after this first video to reflect and write down answers to some of the following prompts:

• How do you feel while listening to the first part of Tekle’s story? 
• What are some of the heavy emotional, physical, or spiritual experiences Tekle carries? 
• What are some of the gifts and joys Tekle carries with him? 

Content warning: This story mentions the experience of torture and death.

Reflection and Discussion: After you listen to this second clips, gather as a group to further reflect and discuss the following questions incorporating responses from both parts of Tekle’s story.

• What do you recognize as some of the heavy emotional, physical, or spiritual experiences that Tekle carried throughout his story?
• What are some of the gifts and joys Tekle carries with him?
• Where did you see others make space for Tekle?
• When did Tekle feel belonging as a result of others making space? How did you know? 

Application: With some of your reflections on Tekle’s story and what it means to create space for one another, answer the following questions as a group:

• What might you recognize as the potential needs of immigrants?
• What could it look like for your church to practice making space for immigrants in your community?
• How would these practices hold both the baggage that immigrants might carry as well as the joys and gifts they have to offer?
• How would these practices allow immigrants to experience belonging?

Take-Aways and Closing Prayer

Before your closing prayer, each person share a one sentence take-away from today’s class. Select one person to offer the closing prayer. In the prayer, offer thanks to God for the take-aways. Ask that God reveal how you and your community might practice making space so others can find belonging.