Make Yourself At Home

What does it really mean when we invite someone in and say, "Make yourself at home"? Is it a sterile, performative greeting where we guard the decorative towels and point out the drink coasters, or is it a true welcome where guests know they can open the refrigerator without asking?On this Second Sunday of Lent, Rev. Dr. Charissa Clark Howe continues the "Tell Me Something Good" series by exploring the inseparable loop of loving God and loving our neighbor. Looking at the story of Simon the Pharisee and the woman with the alabaster jar (Luke 7), alongside Jesus's ultimate mandate to care for "the least of these" (Matthew 25), we are challenged to examine our own hospitality.We can't literally crash a first-century dinner party to wash Jesus's feet with costly perfume. But as we discover in this episode, when we abandon performative religion and offer true, messy, uncurated welcome to the hungry, the stranger, and the outcast, we are breaking open the alabaster jar right at the feet of Christ himself.