Company's Coming

Scriptures:       Genesis 18:1-10a;         Psalm 15   

            Colossians 1:15-28       Luke 10:38-42         

    

You may have read in the newspaper or heard on TV:  millennials, those born after the year 2000, are suddenly finding their way to church!  They’re showing up in church buildings, church parking lots, even in church cemeteries.  Hallelujah!  Unfortunately, no, they’re not coming to worship or learn about Jesus, at least not at first.   The new game Pokemon Go has sent Pokemon devotees to all sorts of unlikely places in search of these fictional, Japanese anime characters, including churches.   I know virtually nothing about Pokemon – I’ve never played, and have no desire to do so – but apparently Pokemon Go uses the camera in a smartphone, and as the player looks through the camera at their surroundings, evidently pictures of Pokemon appear in the frame from time to time.  For those who play, it’s apparently so entrancing that some players have literally walked into traffic and even off cliffs, all while staring down at their phones.   So if you see random teenagers wandering out in the cemetery and around our building, you now know why.   And I’ll ask you to keep an eye on these random teenagers so they don’t tumble down the stairs or end up with their feet in a gopher hole.

Our Old Testament reading gives us an odd story about an encounter between Abraham and the Lord.  What’s odd is that the appearance starts off fairly low-key – no burning bush, no bright lights, no voice from heaven.  Instead, Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, looking down at the ground…maybe in the heat of the day he was starting to doze off.  But a shadow appeared on the ground in front of him, and he looked up…and when he looked up, he saw three men standing in front of him.  He ran out to greet them in the customary manner of the time, bowing low before them and inviting them to wash their feet in refreshing water and to eat with him.  We should understand that in that culture and in that desert region, giving and receiving hospitality was not just an option, but literally a matter of life and death – for travelers, there was no Motel 6 along the way promising to keep the lights on.   Travelers relied on the hospitality of those they met along the way.  So Abraham provides generous hospitality, killing and serving up a calf for his visitors, along with milk and cheese.

Up to this point, the story sounds like the encounter anyone in Abraham’s society might have had with travelers.  But then the conversation becomes a bit less routine.  We’re told that they said to Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?”  Now, Abraham actually hadn’t told the visitors the name of his wife, or even that he had a wife or that she was still living – after all, Abraham was quite old.  At the very least, a lucky guess on their part.  Abraham responds, “She’s there, in the tent.”  One of the visitors said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and  your wife Sarah shall have a son.”  Now, part of the backstory for today’s reading is that God has told Abraham a number of times over the years that Abraham would not only have a son, but that this son would have descendants too numerous to count – Abraham would be known as the “father of nations “ - but also that Abraham and his wife have been waiting for years and decades for God’s promise to come true.  We’re reminded that both Abraham and Sarah are very old, long past childbearing age, and we’re told that Sarah laughed to herself inside the tent, saying “After I have grown old and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?”  And the visitor who has been speaking – who’s now identified as “the LORD” – asks Abraham “Why did Sarah laugh?  Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?  At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Abraham and Sarah were blessed by what seemed at first like a random visit by a group of strangers….in our day, we might think of a bunch of Pokemon players wandering into church, or perhaps strangers from out of town landing on our doorstep for some other reason.  Welcoming strangers – and we hope having them leave and return as friends – is a core part of the mission of the church.  There’s a saying that you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family – and church is a family of faith that God has chosen for us.  And just as no family is perfect, and in any family there are some members that work everyone’s last nerve - no church is perfect either.  When visitors come to church and stay, they inevitably bring their baggage – life challenges, personality quirks – and the church has to welcome and work with that as well.  But welcoming strangers is a blessing, a gift from God.  As a later Biblical writer tells us, “Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels unawares.”

Our reading from Luke’s gospel also includes a moment of hospitality, this time for Jesus.   Luke’s gospel tells us that right after the encounter with the lawyer, in which Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus was visiting a certain village – from John’s gospel, we know it’s the village of Bethany – where he visited Martha and Mary.  The sisters welcomed Jesus.  But Martha was busy in the kitchen preparing dinner, while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet with the other disciples, listening to him speak.  Martha got stressed out, and asked Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me with all the work? Tell her to get in here and help.”  But Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”   So there is more than one way to show hospitality – yes, by providing food and shelter, but also by listening, by inviting others not only into our physical space, but also into our mental space, into our span of attention, into our minds and hearts.  I’ll also mention that by allowing Mary to listen to his teaching, Jesus was pushing against the gender roles of the day – in Jesus’ day, rabbis taught only men, not women – in some ultra-Orthodox Jewish circles it’s the same even today - and so by allowing Mary to listen with the others, he was putting her on the same level as his male disciples.  

We might want to connect last week’s reading from Luke, which had the parable of the Good Samaritan, with this week’s reading.  In last week’s reading, discipleship was helping the stranger by the side of the road.  In this week’s reading, the better part of discipleship is sitting and listening to Jesus.

Doing and listening.  Listening and doing.  Two parts of hospitality – and, ultimately, two parts of Christian discipleship.  Each of us is likely drawn more toward one than the other – some of us are doers while others are listeners.   I’m a doer, a “get it done” kind of person, hyperactive – my friends sometimes tell me I’m a perpetual motion machine - and my discipleship includes quite a bit of social activism – and so I constantly need to remind myself to slow down and listen – to listen to God, to listen to other people.   To be in action without taking time to listen is a recipe for exhaustion.  Others of us may be better at listening, and may need to be reminded that it’s important to put what they hear into action.   Listening and doing. Doing and listening – both are necessary.  And both are ways in which God can bless us.

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."  May we choose the better part of listening to God – which may involve listening to our fellow church members or our neighbors or even strangers.  And may we welcome those whom God sends our way, finding a blessing for ourselves by being a blessing to others. Amen.