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Theology Upstream Podcast 

12/30/2017 2 Comments

Making Room #5

In Chapter 6, we move toward the margins.  Pohl brings us up to speed on the historical migration of Christian practice from the margins, where it emerged, to the center - thank you Constantine!  While the normalization of Christian practice is more complex than one post, one podcast, or one chapter can cover, Pohl helps us understand why the practice of sacred hospitality becomes more difficult when the practitioners are connected with social, political, and economic power.  

In this chapter, we meet some model citizens who have used their social locations, their wealth, and their access to resources as a means of moving further into the margins and welcoming all kinds of strangers in the spirit of faithful hospitality.  Some of the most notable are Fabiola, Olympias, and a name more familiar to most of us... Dorothy Day.  

Each of these faithful women took their own economic securities and used them to offer "home" to strangers, refugees, and anyone who came seeking welcome.  Their incredible stories cause us to wonder how we might use our lives and our resources to expand our welcome as a congregation and as individuals.  What resources do we have that we might use to love and welcome strangers in need of refuge? 

One additional (and necessary) piece of the chapter is that Pohl reminds us of the necessity to become marginal.  A host cannot fully welcome another I the host is unfamiliar with marginality.  Do you have any experiences of marginality or exclusion that might help you better host others?  

To harken back to the previous chapter... How might we become "bridge people" who understand both the world of power and the world of disempowerment?  Connectivity and disconnection?  Centrality and marginality?  Participation and exclusion?
2 Comments
Ellen Caldwell
1/3/2018 01:51:43 pm

Thank you for answering my question! I really appreciate it. If you think of the title of the book, let me know.
In your discussion of the poor and Pohl's comments that the poor are often those who give most generously, I was reminded of my grandmother who, during the Depression, according to family lore, took in strangers and fed them. She also cared for the small town's drunks; they would come to her house for her to sober them up. The fact that she had nothing except a very large family of her own must not have mattered.
I wonder if circumstances - having little money - and a smaller town increase the chances of helping one's neighbors more readily.

I am also thinking of "possessions" and can say that the older I get the less important "things" have become. It is truly freeing to realize that I don't need as much or want as much.

I've also enjoyed reading about Dorothy Day, Fabiola, and Olympias. None were mentioned in Sunday school long ago, of course.

The following line struck me: "Humility is a crucial virtue for hospitality..."

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Ben Boswell
1/5/2018 08:30:59 pm

Ellen, Thank you for the comments! The author I was thinking you might want to check out is Dennis R. MacDonald. His book "Mythologizing Jesus: From Jewish Teacher to Epic Hero" is a book that will speak directly to your questions about the influence of Greek Myths on gospel writers. I read the book myself this summer and used it in a sermon I preached on August 13 entitled "Overcoming Fear."

Keep sending us your comments and questions!

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