Good Hospitality--Genesis 18:1-15

What would you offer an unexpected guest?

We really see the story of Abraham start to take shape in the 12^th chapter where God tells Abraham to leave his father’s household and go to the land that I will show you. We also find God’s original promise. 

In chapter 15 God tells Abraham not to be afraid, that he is his shield and his very great reward, but Abraham is troubled because he has no heir and his estate will go to one of his servants.

But God tells him that his heir will not be a servant, but a son coming from his own body and that his offspring will number as many as the stars in the sky. 

It is in the 6^th verse of this chapter that we are told that Abraham believed God and that was credited to him as righteousness.

That evening, Abraham fell into a deep sleep after making the offering prescribed by the Lord. Abraham is given a message that his descendents will be enslaved and mistreated in a country not their own, but that God will punish the nation that they serve and they will come out with great possessions. 

It is also in this 15^th chapter—the 17^th verse—where God tells Abraham, this is the land that I give you. He tells him that you will be buried here, but that your people will not take possession of it yet. The land promised—the Promised Land—goes from the river of Egypt to the great river—the Euphrates.

What wonderful promises! Descendents, land, legacy: who could want more? And because Abraham believed God, God counted that faith as righteousness. Now here is a man who absolutely has faith in God!

In the next chapter we read that upon the advice and consent of his wife, Abraham had a son by his the maidservant Hagar. His name was Ishmael. Perhaps God needed some help with his promise? After all, he had promised a lot and Abraham was already 86 years old. As far a tradition was concerned, Abraham had produced an heir.

When Abraham was 99, God told him that he would confirm his covenant with him. This is where Abram’s name becomes Abraham, because God said he had made him father of many nations—past tense, done deal, God said it was already done in his time.

There was one more thing. God told Abraham that as a sign of the covenant, he and all of his descendents must be circumcised. The children would be circumcised on the 8^th day.   Abraham had to perform this operation upon himself at the age of 99.

And today’s scripture begins by telling us that the Lord appeared to Abraham, but what we see are three men. Abraham is sitting by the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. I think we can all empathize with that last part, especially in August in Oklahoma. Abraham gets up and hurries to the men.

He does not investigate as to who they are. He doesn’t ask, what are you doing on my land? He doesn’t run them off. He somehow recognizes that God has come to him as a visitor. There are no bright shining lights, no burning bushes, no thundering voices—just 3 men.

And Abraham does what he knows to do. He takes care of the traveler, the stranger, the alien. He offers water for washing their feet, the best shade that he had, and then hurries to prepare a meal for them.

He tells his wife to use the best flour and make bread.

He hand selects a calf from the herd and tells his servant to prepare it.

He serves the meal and stands nearby. It appears that Abraham does not even join them for the meal. He simply serves it.

The story continues with the promise that in one year, Abraham will have a son. Sarah laughs in disbelief, but the promise is confirmed.

Today, however, I would like to look at the hospitality of Abraham. If you hadn’t figured it out, Abraham has his up and downs. He believes God, and then decides that God can’t do this offspring thing on his own so he gives him a little help planting his seeds elsewhere. In Egypt, Abraham passes his wife off as his sister to save his own hide. OK, she might have been a half sister, but he did it to save his own skin.

But Abraham gets one thing right. He takes care of the traveler. We read from the beginning of the chapter that the Lord appeared to Abraham, but he saw men. He saw three men, and he offered food, and comfort, water and shelter. 

Today, we seem to be afraid of visitors. Who knows if they might not be an axe murderer, or an escaped convict, or these days, maybe even a terrorist. But really, in Abraham’s time, the world was not a much nicer place than it is today.

But Abraham knew how to treat the traveler. He didn’t just turn them over to his servants. He went himself to tell his wife to make bread from the best flour. He picked out the calf himself. Abraham was very much a good host.

Sometimes you go to church and you get beaten up by all of the things that you should be doing but have not quite mastered yet. You know, hate, bitterness, coveting, self-righteousness, selfishness, and the list goes on, and sometimes on and on and on.

And we do need to reflect on our short comings, on where we have transgressed, on where we have missed the mark. But this morning, I want you to visualize what it is like to hit the target.

Not too many months ago, this church was blessed with a group of young people from Bethel University, Renaissance. While their singing was fantastic, the logistics were challenging. To get them here to sing, we had to house them. For our church to take care of almost 50 people seemed an ominous challenge.

But we did it. Not only did we put people up in homes or rent houses, we fed them and made them welcome. And do we know how to feed people!

If you belong to this church and you die, you will probably have your service here and we will probably provide a meal for the family. That’s just the way we do things. That’s the way we roll.

But if you don’t belong to this church and we hold your funeral here, chances are some folks are going to prepare a meal for you. We have done this a few times over the past couple years and I have looked at the food that was here half an hour before the funeral and wondered, if it would be enough. It always has been. Just when you think, we are not going to have enough this time, in come five or six people carrying dishes.

It is tough to be a host to the stranger that is passing through these days. But as the Body of Christ, when we work together, when we live as the family of faith that we are supposed to be today, it is hard to beat the hospitality that you find here.

Some people struggle much of their lives wondering what gifts God gave them. They are afraid to experiment and see what their gifts are. But I will confirm to you this morning, that this church—as a body—is full of people with the gift of hospitality. 

We don’t feed a lot of people under trees in front of our tent these days, but we do know how to take care of folks in their time of need.

If I were a traveler in a strange land and stopped here, I would feel welcomed.

Do I say this so that we can all go home feeling good about ourselves and kick back and say, God you are lucky to have me and all that I do? No!

When a pitcher realizes that he has a 99 mile per hour fastball, he throws it and tries to get it to 100 mph.

When a quarterback knows he can throw a sixty yard pass on the money, the receivers go long—a bunch.

When a young man or woman finds they have a talent for the flute or violin, they play it, more and more and with increasing passion.

Abraham introduced us to hospitality in his time. We have a taste for it in our own. We don’t become content when we discover something that we do well, we become passionate.

Greeters become welcomers.

We make people with special needs feel at home.

Perhaps we have a few rocking chairs in the corners of the sanctuary for mothers with babies not quite ready for the nursery.

Perhaps a few special touches here and there.

Perhaps we treat all who come into our house with good hospitality, regardless of whether they come from across the street or across the country.

There are times for gut-wrenching self-examination that urge us to confession, and there are times to say, I’m pretty good at this. Let’s see what happens when I pour myself into it. What would happen if we went from good hospitality to radical, extreme, off-the-charts hospitality?

Some are reminded of Hebrews 13 that admonishes us not to forsake the taking in of the traveler, and that some may have entertained angels unaware. Are we up for the challenge of welcoming all who come are way?