Editorial Introduction
Andy Singleterry
Servant Partners Press
Photo by Syd Wachs
The first feature most people notice when they walk into my house is the bookshelves, ordered and well-stocked. The first feature I hope they miss is the random little piles that haven’t been put away yet, messy and unattended. Both express who I am, the impressive and the embarrassing. Our homes are where we are most ourselves, because our homes are extensions of our selves. Our bodies don’t stop at our skins but at our walls.
Jesus knew this. He had no permanent dwelling, but when he wanted to finish his Sermon on the Mount with an exhortation to faithfulness he told a parable about houses. (Matthew 7:24-27) The state of one’s house reveals the state of one’s heart.
Hospitality, then, takes on new, heavy meaning: inviting someone into one’s home means inviting them into one’s self. According to the great theologian Jürgen Moltmann, and others, we follow God’s example in this. He borrowed the Jewish notion of tzimtzum to explain creation as God opening space in Godself to welcome others in. We live and breathe within God’s being. In a much more limited sense, guests step into their host’s being.
The pandemic, by locking us down in our homes, has squashed this self-sharing since last year. We all, when under duress, lose our flexibility and become more ourselves; this particular duress expanded that truth beyond our personalities to our homes. More of my random little piles are still out because I’ve had no guests to entertain—my shadow side has felt no shame.
Now, as the COVID-19 threat wanes (at least in the U.S.), our homes will soon host again. Just as we need to remember our social graces so that we can include other people in our lives, we need to tidy our private spaces so that we can include other people in our homes.
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For us doing incarnational neighborhood ministry, home and hospitality are a key theme. My home’s physical presence on my block expresses my commitment and connection to the people of this place, my rootedness here. The pandemic hasn’t changed that. But, my hospitality has usually expressed my love for my neighbors even more viscerally. I invite them into my home, into my self, because I want my identity to include them. That has been missing for the past year. My self has only included myself.
This issue of The Mural centers on this theme. Home and hospitality stretch from personal to national in these pieces. We hope you enjoy them.