Our story begins on an ordinary day interrupted by three visitors who arrive at the home of Abraham and Sarah. Strangers show up at Abraham and Sarah’s home in the heat of the day and they are welcomed. Their hot, dusty feet are washed. They are offered a place in the shade to rest, food to eat and something refreshing to drink. Even Abraham’s posture and language as he greets them demonstrates respect and honour. Abraham and Sarah understand hospitality. Abraham, who leaves the shade of his tent in the heat of the day, because he sees travellers coming. He doesn't seem to know who they are at first.
As a nomad in the ancient Near East, Abraham knew the sacred rule of hospitality. It was more stringently kept than many written laws. There were many dangers, and travellers were at risk. The rule of hospitality was that a guest would be treated with respect and honour. Water would be provided for foot washing and a large feast prepared. The traveller enjoyed protection from all enemies for three days as the host was to provide sanctuary. This provision became part of Psalm 23 where the psalmist writes about God - 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemiesSo when Abraham spies these strangers, he doesn’t chase them from his land. Just the opposite. He begs them to stay, invites them to enjoy a good meal. He tells Sarah to get the kitchen even hotter by baking bread and he tells his servants to start the barbecue. He brings water for these men, some to wash their feet and some to quell their thirst. He insists that they stay and won’t take “no” for an answer.
When the feast is prepared, he serves it to the unknown travelers and then stands deferentially in the shade by a tree waiting on them as they finish the feast. But even without knowing who they are, Abraham makes haste to offer them hospitality. He runs from the tent to meet the visitors. He hastens back into the tent to talk to Sarah, and bids her make bread quickly. He runs to choose a calf and gives it to a servant, who hastens to prepare it. In addition to the speed, there's a protocol for hospitality: when you see visitors, hurry to meet them, greet them with courtesy, invite them in, offer refreshment, serve them, and pay close attention to them. A superficial reading of this ancient tale might lead to the idea that all of this was done because it was God (or at least God’s angels) who came knocking at their door. But there is actually strong evidence that recognition of divine presence only comes later, after the hospitality has been offered.
They were only doing what good hosts do -- welcoming the stranger into their midst.Three things to consider from this story. First: We know of course that it was God who was visiting Abraham, but in the actual story there is no indication that he knew it was God. When he used the words, 'My lord,' he uses a word with a small 'l' which is simply a term of respect. Second: While there is no indication that Abraham knew it was God, there was a common belief among the ancients that a wandering stranger could be a deity or the servant of a deity. Hebrews 13:2 reads, 'Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.' In other words Abraham was surprised when it turned out that God was his guest. The third consideration is that Abraham did not greet the men by asking them their business. Only after meeting their physical needs did he dare ask questions.
This too was part of hospitality.Abraham and Sarah offer their best, not knowing anything about these three unexpected visitors. They do so not cautiously, but enthusiastically, not in search of a favor from them, but with glad and generous hearts. Had they not risked this, they would have missed the promise for which this story is most famous. They would not have heard that Sarah would soon bear a son. We would not know the origin of this son’s name as Sarah laughed at this news, laughter being the English rendering of the Hebrew, “Issac.” Had Abraham and Sarah not done what they did, Issac would not have arrived as the promise of all the nations and his distant ancestor Jesus would have come from a different root. As a result, the patriarch becomes a model for faithfulness, not only in the pages of the Old Testament, but in all of Scripture.
Abraham is not hospitable to the strangers to arm twist a promise from God, like their descendant Jacob will later attempt with the angel of God by the river Jabbok. And yet, it is through their hospitality that they open themselves to a visit from God, to hearing a fresh word from the Lord that will forever change their lives and the life of the world. What would this mean for us today? What if you and I could risk exploring new language to worship God and new music to praise God not in fear that we will reject our rich heritage of liturgy and music, but open to fresh insights from the Spirit of God? What if you and I could welcome new people whose color or ethnicity or economic background or denominational tradition is different from our own?
What if we could do so not with the trepidation of those who fear change, but with inviting arms, glad to share with others what we have come to know of God’s grace and the love of Christ in this community of faith, knowing that the Greek word for hospitality is a combination of philia, brotherly love, the kind of bond that one feels for those who are kindred in some way, and xenos, the word for stranger. It is about showing the love of kinship to those who are strangers.Throughout Christian history, this has been the accepted meaning of hospitality. Kindness to one's family and friends was taken for granted. This is natural. Christians were expected to do more than this.
They were to see themselves as sojourners in this world, living by the grace of God's hospitality and offering hospitality to others especially the stranger in need - in grateful response. The early church was famous for its hospitality. As Christianity became more of an established religion after the fourth century, this came to include the setting up of more institutional, public locations for hospitality: the founding of hospitals, hospices and the like were all inspired by Christian understandings of hospitality. But somewhere along the way, certainly by the eighteenth century, hospitality lost much of its moral content. It had come to be seen, much more as it is today, as a way of self-advancement rather than a way of self-giving.
Today, our culture seems very far from that early Christian understanding of hospitality as welcoming the stranger, the person in need.The distortions of hospitality in our world today are manifold. Many people are too busy to do much by way of entertaining even their friends and family at home. Indeed, one of the basic elements of hospitality, eating food together, is apparently fast fading even from family life - TV dinners, eating from the micro wave. Where then is the energy to even think about the stranger? Life has become quite atomised, depersonalised. Today the word 'hospitality' conjures up the picture of having family and friends over for a pleasant meal, or of the 'hospitality industry' of hotels and restaurants which are open to strangers as long as they have money or credit cards.
Hospitality tends to be seen as a nice extra if we have the time or the resources, but we rarely view it as a spiritual obligation or as a dynamic expression of vibrant Christianity.In ancient times all strangers depended on someone else's hospitality. Today it is those without resources who depend most on the free provision of food, shelter and protection. For the people of ancient Israel, understanding themselves as strangers and sojourners with responsibility to care for vulnerable strangers was part of what it meant to be the people of God. Hospitality, in the Christian sense is a willingness to open up our life and your heart and our busy schedule to another human being.
Hospitality is opening up some space in your life - making time, making room, for another person's needs “When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? I tell you, whenever you did it to the lost and overlooked and ignored, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 37 & 40) True hospitality involves attentiveness to the guest, even when the guest is a stranger. True hospitality not only helps the guest feel welcome, but also sets the stage for the host to recognize the divine presence in our midst. When did we encounter God this way last?
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