Stranger things!

GOD IS STRANGER:
The Surprising Power of Hospitality
By Krish Kandiah
Hodder & Stoughton. 352 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 399 837 644

This book is a revised and updated version of his 2017 book of the same title. What has changed in the meantime and why should we be interested in this book?

1. The issues that it wrestles with have not gone away, in fact, they have become even more complex and demanding as the past decade’s global ferment has led to the movement of millions of people from their homelands.

2. The author wrestles with the text of the Bible, tracing the theme of the stranger throughout Scripture. It is a stimulating combination of careful reading of Scripture with penetrating contemporary application.

3. The book is peppered with moving stories of those who found their life situations have turned them into strangers in a strange land, and of those who have discovered the welcome of God and His people.

4. The author has put his money where his mouth is. He writes about hospitality, not because it is a nice idea, but because he lives it.

In twelve substantial chapters the author traces the themes of God the stranger and human beings as strangers from Adam through to the two disciples who take a 7-mile walk on the Emmaus Road, with the stranger who turns out to be Jesus.

The book helpfully unpacks some less-travelled roads in Scripture; roads that introduce us to God coming to His people as a stranger. For example, he deals with the incident of Jacob’s wrestling match in Scripture, in which Jacob encounters God but also begins to walk with a limp. This is a picture of a God who is not always safe, domesticated and predictable. The book also describes how Scripture consistently shows God’s concern for those who our world hardly notices. Kandiah presents us with an echo of the beating heart of God for the stranger.

There is the odd quibble: in the story on Sodom, any mention of homosexuality is reduced to an endnote. This complex issue might have warranted more space.