The Practice of Welcome
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7 (The Message)
God appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent. It was the hottest part of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing. He ran from his tent to greet them and bowed before them. He said, “Master, if it pleases you, stop for a while with your servant. I’ll get some water so you can wash your feet. Rest under this tree. I’ll get some food to refresh you on your way, since your travels have brought you across my path.” They said, “Certainly. Go ahead.” Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. He said, “Hurry. Get three cups of our best flour; knead it and make bread.” Then Abraham ran to the cattle pen and picked out a nice plump calf and gave it to the servant who lost no time getting it ready. Then he got curds and milk, brought them with the calf that had been roasted, set the meal before the men, and stood there under the tree while they ate. The men said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He said, “In the tent.” One of them said, “I’m coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man. Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, “An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?” God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Me? Have a baby? An old woman like me?’ Is anything too hard for God? I’ll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby.” Sarah lied. She said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was afraid. But he said, “Yes you did; you laughed.” God visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; God did to Sarah what he promised: Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set. Abraham named him Isaac… Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. Sarah said, “God has blessed me with laughter and all who get the news will laugh with me!” She also said, “Whoever would have suggested to Abraham that Sarah would one day nurse a baby! Yet here I am! I’ve given the old man a son!”
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Introduction
This Trinity Sunday, we hear a story of three unidentified men (strangers) visiting Abraham and Sarah. Yet, before we look at this story of welcome, there's another story I want us to hear today.
In 1946, Marcia Brown published a retelling of a well-known European folk tale. Three French soldiers on their way home from war make their way to a village. Seeing the soldiers making their way toward them, the peasants who live there make themselves busy to avoid contact with them. They tuck their food under mattresses or in their barns so that when the soldiers ask for food, the villagers continue with their "busy" routines. Finally, one of the soldiers says they can make an excellent soup from stones if only someone lent them a pot. Curiosity eventually overcomes the villager's reservations, and when they ask what can be done to make the soup even better, they slowly offer up food they had been hiding. What began as a story of inhospitable people ended up with a soup made possible by each of the people sharing something that they had tucked away.
A Cold Shoulder
In our reading, we see Abraham doing what was culturally expected of him (even if, by our modern standards, it seems over the top). And in Marcia Brown's story, the opposite, the three strangers who come to the village looking for food are met with a cold shoulder. Yes, the strangers eventually win over the villagers, but should they have had to work so hard in the first place to earn their welcome? In contrast to the cold shoulder in Brown's story, Abraham upholds the law of hospitality, welcoming the strangers into his home and offering them food, water, and shelter. Looking at the state of our country, let alone our world, we might look at how we can practice the spiritual discipline of welcome in our lives. Regardless of our age or ability, we can continue to cultivate a practice of welcoming people and welcoming God.
Practicing Welcome
There's something about the act of welcome that's transforming. We open ourselves to something new when we welcome a person or an experience. So perhaps you decide to start small and work your way up. A British YouTuber named Tom Scott (educational videos) documented his overcoming the fear of roller coasters. He begins with the most petite and tamest ride and eventually works his way up to an extreme roller coaster. In the end, he welcomed the experience and overcame the fear so that he could participate in more shared moments with friends. Now we can adapt the practice of welcome to begin wherever we want to start, as long as we actually do something. The practice of welcoming lets us see what makes each person and experience unique and special. It allows us to be curious, and even doubting like Sarah, only to find that God will turn our expectations upside down.
Now, at the risk of contradicting myself, we can be "too welcoming." And when I say "too welcoming," I think I'm getting at how we practice welcome as a spiritual discipline in not-so-constructive ways. For example, one time, while visiting a church on a family vacation, folks turned around to greet us, hugging us and saying in an enthusiastic voice, "We prayed you in!" Our practice of welcome lies somewhere between giving people cold shoulders, as in Brown's story, and the over-enthusiastic church that didn't know the definition of personal boundaries. Our welcoming of others and the new thing(s) God is doing lies in the authentic welcome of preparing our hearts and minds to receive them. Abraham and Sarah's welcome of the three strangers is a reminder that nothing is too great for God. For our hearts that are hurting, for our communities that are hurting, we could use the healing power of welcome.
Conclusion
I would like to share a couple of lines from a poem penned by Howard Thurman titled "Our Little Lives."
We do not know how to do what we know to do.
We do not know how to be what we know to be.
We may not always get the spiritual practice of welcome "right." Our lives might get a little hectic, we might laugh at something we think is impossible, and we might ache at the thought of a broken promise. Yet if we receive God in the unprepared and unexpected moments of our lives and authentically welcome whatever awaits, the impossible might become possible. Our challenge will be to prepare a space where we can welcome God and others into our midst at any moment. That visit may take the form of something we weren't expecting, but with God, all things are possible. When that happens, it is my prayer that it enriches and empowers us to become more compassionate and hospitable people who are willing to listen, trust, and have faith as we grow as people and as communities.