Have you ever loved a stranger? It is an odd question, I know, but it was sort of a requirement in the ancient Near East. I guess they weren’t expected to like every guest that passed through, but they were required to care for them as family, to feed them, to nurture them and to love them. The Greek word for hospitality, (filoxeniva) fil-ox-en-ee'-ahliterally means, love to strangers. We see the word just a few times in the New Testament, but they didn’t have to say it, it just was. Hospitality in the ancient Near East and even today is quite a bit more than the provision of clean towels and a cup of tea. The Biblical Encyclopedia asserts that hospitality was “regarded as a right by the traveler, to whom it never occurs to thank his host as if for a favor. Hospitality is granted as a duty by the host, who himself may very soon be dependent on some one else's hospitality.” Further, “the traveler is made the literal master of the house during his stay…” Could you imagine seeing your guest as the master of the house during the stay? It is a reversal of expectations. It sort of turns things upside down because the guest is the one who leads. And why is that? The very fabric of our faith is grounded in care for the stranger. We might say that the very criteria for faithful living in our Judeo-Christian heritage was defined by the way in which the vulnerable ones were treated and the strangers were welcomed. “The Books of the Law and the message of the prophets, was always dependent on how the orphan, the widow and the stranger were treated.”
In Deuteronomy we read: ‘The Lord your God... is not partial. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the stranger, therefore, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt’ (10.17-19). And Leviticus says: ‘When a stranger sojourns with you in the land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt’ (19.33-34). Because the Israelites themselves were once wanderers and strangers in a strange land they knew how essential hospitality was, this over the top, loving the stranger just as you are kind of hospitality.
We might say, well that was a different time, an era in which tribal connections and communal living demanded such wild hospitality and indeed that is true. Yet this kind of hospitality is the very foundation from which our faith emerges. It is a reality from which our holy Bible simply cannot be separated. In our Old Testament text for this morning, we read that three men appear in front of Abraham and Sarah’s tent. He runs to greet them and bows down before them. He washes their feet, Sarah prepares some cake and Abraham goes so far as to kill a calf for them. We don’t read that Abraham and Sarah ate and drank with them. Instead the text says, “and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.” The three guests were invited to lead, to be cared for. And after the three guests are fed and nurtured, they share a surprising announcement. They turn out to be angels bearing a message of a future far different from the one Abraham and Sarah had ever imagined. The angels tell them that indeed Sarah will bear a son. It is so unbelievable that she laughs. And so it is the guests who offer the blessing- the guests, not the hosts are the ones who shape the encounter.
For most of us, such a proposition can make us a bit uneasy. Welcoming guests means that they are invited into our space, our time and invited to use our things. It is vulnerable for sure. And it is an act that requires a surrender of sorts. The guests guide the flow of time. The guests lead. It requires letting go and inviting the guests to sit at the head of the table.
We know that this kind of hospitality in the ancient Near East was essential for survival, for water in the desert, shelter in the windstorm, essential to maintain the practice of communal nurturing. But I wonder if this kind of hospitality, this over the top, loving the stranger just as you are kind of hospitality is essential for us now, vital for our spiritual survival, right now.
In our Hebrews text for this morning, the author harkens back to the Genesis story of Abraham and Sarah. He speaks of loving the stranger as a command and a chance to glimpse the Holy. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Care for the stranger because you must and also because the Holy Spirit just might show up.
The icon you see on the front of the bulletin is just one of many that depict the visit by the three angels to Abraham and Sarah. The guests are seated at the table, not the hosts and in some icons all of them are seated together, but it is unclear who is the guest and who is the host. All are gathered at the table together, we can’t tell that the guests are strangers, that Abraham and Sarah hadn’t met them before that day and we don’t read that the group planned to see one another again. The guests are fed and nurtured because that was essential but also because we never know who God will speak through and indeed God gave Sarah the news she had long awaited- that despite all of her tears and longing, God would provide them a son…. Perhaps real hospitality, the hospitality on which our faith was founded, invites the guests to shape the encounter because the guests just might be the very ones God uses….
Perhaps we might wince at such a whimsical, fairytale portrayal of hospitality. Entertaining angels might seem just a little too Disney for our taste. Yet the notion of entertaining angels, of extending love to strangers simply because we might be hosting someone special and maybe even someone holy, without knowing it reminds me of something else we read in the Bible. It reminds me of something Jesus said. Jesus is gathered with his friends and they ask him when they cared him and he says, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’.”
Friends, we are standing in an incarnational faith- our God came to us in human flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and still today, God guides us and speaks to us using people around us and sometimes even strangers. Hebrews tells us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” It seems that maybe hospitality for us right here is opening our arms to those whom we do not know because we must, but also because when we care for them we just might be caring for our God. Friends look around, there just might be angels among us. And maybe as we grow in faith together, we will know that we are truly hospitable, this over the top, loving the stranger just as you are kind of hospitality, when God watches over us and can’t tell the difference between the hosts and our guests, the angels among us. Amen.
he International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I, 228).
http://www.op.org/international/english/Documents/Articles/mcvey1.htm