Hospitality

Welcome to the Knox Talks blog. Here you can find recent and past sermons relating scripture to a wide variety of topics. I would like to thank Shelley Rose for transcribing my notes into text for the blog.

Hospitality

Scriptures: Genesis 18:1-15Romans 5:1-8

I have to admit that I titled this sermon with a bit of a wink towards our visioning process. We had a lot of conversation about “Hospitality”: an idea we appreciated for its principles, but we felt that the word “Hospitality” had been taken over by the Hospitality Industry, so we chose other words to carry the same values in our new statement of purpose.

I’m happy with that outcome but today’s reading from Genesis gives us an example of hospitality so profound that I couldn’t resist trotting out the word again.

It’s a remarkable story: Abraham sees these three strangers approaching and he offers them hospitality by his tent. He suggests they stop and rest, washing their dusty and sore feet in some cool water and then rest in the shade of the oak trees while he made arrangements to give them some bread to eat.

Bread and water were minimum levels of hospitality to be expected in that culture. It wasn’t exactly a place overflowing with streams, so water was very valuable and foot-washing was a social custom that was a basic part of hospitality that continued into Jesus’ time centuries later. Bread was a universal part of the local diet; it was probably like our modern pita bread.

Abraham went on to deliver much more than the minimum. He told Sarah to use a generous supply of the best flour. He said: let them eat cake! Not just bread! and then he personally selected a fatted calf and got his servants to butcher it and cook it.

This was a huge amount of effort. Think how much planning went into today’s picnic – all the setup of the BBQs, tables, chairs and other elements of the meal. Abraham could never have pulled off such a meal without help, but he got the whole community moving to produce a feast for these three strangers.

What was his motivation? We are given clues to indicate that this might be some kind of divine visitation. In the Bible, the number three is often a sign that something divine is happening.

Did Abraham suspect this? Was he being so generous because he guessed that he might be entertaining angels unawares? That’s a big gamble to take for three random strangers, especially people who were going to walk on by. He had to run out to them, bow down in great respect and invite them to stop and stay.

We don’t have any indication that Abraham suspected this. We don’t know if he treated every rare stranger this way and that this encounter is retold because it is the one where God rewards his hospitality.

Abraham and his family were nomads, always visitors in whatever land they were in. There was always some local king around who could choose to tolerate this wandering family or drive them away from the water and grazing land.

Perhaps his hospitality was a respectful land acknowledgement, showing thanks for being allowed to stay on someone else’s unceded territory, or maybe just demonstrating what good neighbours he and his family could be.

There were commonly held rules and expectations of hospitality throughout the middle east in those days but Abraham made a point of exceeding them and we have no indication that this was motivated by any self-interest or cynical calculation. We are simply shown that he was a hospitable man and a generous host.

What did it take to be so hospitable? Abraham needed to know what the expectations were and he needed to be determined to go beyond them without bragging about what he would serve. He only promised the basics.

He needed to be able to put himself in the sandals of his guests. He needed to be aware that they might be shy, or cautious. They wouldn’t put themselves forward – they had to be invited to pause in their journey, to take a break. He needed to imagine the impact of offering that invitation with the greatest respect, how they would feel about being treated like visiting royalty, no matter how much the road had stained them. Abraham needed to know about foot-sore travel weariness, and just how refreshing some cool water would be for hot, dusty feet.

He needed to know that after the dangers of the roads a safe, secure, quiet time in the shade would be calming and restful. He needed to be sympathetic to the empty stomachs – there were certainly no drive-through restaurants on those roads – and while a skin of water might replace a cup-holder, in those climates you have to be careful with water. Any chance to re-fill your supply would be welcome and possibly a life-saver. Beyond that Abraham needed to be able to imagine the delightful surprise of wonderful food when even the simple joys of fresh bread would have been welcome.

Abraham’s generosity was an example of deep empathy respectfully offered to complete strangers.

Anyone with an eye on the finances will point out that we can’t go overboard for every stranger who passes by. This level of hospitality looks deeply impractical. Abraham didn’t have strangers walking by every day, and we do.

That’s true enough and I have no doubt that Abraham was aware of his resources and his limitations when he went out to choose that calf. In part, the story shows that he was prosperous. But the attitude he brought went beyond relative prosperity. He offered a welcome that was respectful and met the needs of the people walking by and was within his means. He shared what he had generously with an eye to making them comfortable, to making them feel at home. He did not over-promise but he did deliver more than he promised.

It is nice that he and Sarah were rewarded for their hospitality. They were given their dream-come-true: a child when they thought that was no longer possible. That’s a lovely, happy ending but it is not the point of the story.

The hospitality is the point of the story. Abraham’s attitude is the point: he reached out beyond his comfortable camp and touched the lives of complete strangers by offering them what they really needed and then providing much more.

In our life as a congregation we have focused inwardly: we worry about finances; we worry about attendance. This is normal for many churches today of many denominations.

But it means that we are missing the point. Being a church isn’t about keeping the doors open; it isn’t even about meeting our own spiritual needs; it is about being God’s people in this place.

And to be God’s people here, or anywhere, we have to look outside of ourselves. We have to see those strangers walking by and consider what would welcome them, what would ease their journeys.

We have start thinking about what it would look like today in the 21^st century to run out to the road and with the greatest respect invite those strangers to share our hospitality without over-promising, but at the same time showing generosity, doing more than the minimum, more than what is commonly expected.

Will we benefit from this? That is entirely the wrong question. Will we be demonstrating the presence of God in this place? Yes we will, and that is what will make a difference.

Amen.