Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies; for like a hair in the throat, so are they. “Eat and drink!” they say to you; but they do not mean it. You will vomit up the little you have eaten, and you will waste your pleasant words. Proverbs 23:6-8, NRSV

A host’s generosity is a gift of time and effort as much as it is the cost of the groceries. Soup and bread on a cold November evening; Mac and cheese with a simple salad brought over by a neighbor during convalescence; coffee and warm muffins put out for an early morning meeting. It’s not the price at the register, but the thoughtfulness that makes such things nourishing for body and soul. It’s a pleasure to eat these meals.

A host’s lack of generosity makes even favorite foods hard to choke down. The feeling that the cost of every mouthful has been calculated and weighed against the value of the guest (and that the guest just isn’t worth the meal) does the opposite of nourish.

We know hospitality when we receive it, whatever is on the plate. It is life-giving. We also know stinginess when it’s offered – it turns whatever is on the plate rancid.