“Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh
yourselves—since you have come to your servant.” (Genesis 18:5)
In
our first weeks as new students at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia[i]
my classmates and I were instructed to expose ourselves to different styles of
worship. Our field ed supervisor encouraged us to consider the wild possibility
that there are other Christians out there besides Lutherans, and that, by
visiting churches of other denominations, we might actually learn a little
something about how to be the Church. Subsequently, a bunch of us found our way
down Germantown Avenue to the New Bethel African American Episcopal Church.
As
you can imagine, when a bunch of white folks wander into an AME church, no
matter how large the congregation might be (and New Bethel was a very big
congregation), the regulars know right away that you’re strangers. A very
polite usher escorted us to our seats and then informed the senior pastor of
our presence. The pastor greeted us from the pulpit. When he found out we were
seminarians, he was delighted. When he found out we were from the Lutheran
seminary, the seminary which had welcomed African American clergy of different
denominations to study part-time through evening classes, he invited us to stay
after service for a chicken dinner—an offer we couldn’t refuse. It’s pretty
nice to feel welcomed and included.
Hospitality
and welcome are the themes which run through the lessons in the Revised Common
Lectionary for Pentecost 6, Year C this year. In the Gospel (Luke 10:38-42)
Jesus is paying a little house call on the sisters Martha and Mary. Both ladies
welcome him and his disciples, but Martha heads to the kitchen to prepare
something for Jesus and his buddies to eat, while Mary keeps Jesus and the
other guys company. Both are good hostesses, even if Martha gets a bit bent out
of shape because she’s doing the work while Mary sits around. Jesus gently
scolds Martha for picking on her sis. After all, haven’t we all been to a
dinner party where the hostess was so busy preparing for her guests that she’s
had no time to enjoy their company? That kind of defeats the purpose of having
guests, don’t you think?
What
really sticks out to me when I read these lessons now is the First Lesson from Genesis
18: 1-10. This is one of those weird stories from the Hebrew scriptures which,
because we’re separated from the text by centuries, language, and culture,
tends to leave us asking, “What the freak does that mean?” Who are these
three mysterious dudes who greet Abraham at the oaks of Mamre? Why does Abe
make such a fuss over them? Are they angels? The Holy Trinity? God and some
personal assistants? How does he recognize them?
The
Bible doesn’t always give us the answers, but I think the questions are
secondary to the point. Whether these three guys were God or angels or
whatever, Abraham goes all-out to welcome them. He promised little, but he
provided much more. (Well, actually, he had Sarah and his servant provide. They
were the “Marthas” in this story while Abraham was the “Mary”—keeping his
guests company.) This was only the right and decent thing to do. In a wild and
inhospitable environment, it’s a good idea to welcome strangers because you
never know if someday you’re going to need help yourself.
This
story is contrasted with the less-than-gracious welcome the angels get when
they visit Sodom down the road in chapter 19. Abraham’s nephew Lot lives there.
He isn’t a bad host, but the rest of the gang in town aren’t particularly
friendly. This is one of the stories from the Bible we don’t teach in Sunday
school as it’s pretty PG-13. I don’t want to get too far into the weeds with
the nasty details but suffice it to say God isn’t happy with the shameful
attitude the Sodom folks have towards the newcomers or the way they dis Lot because
he is a foreigner himself.
This
story form Genesis speaks to me today because of the current anti-immigrant
“round ‘em up and ship ‘em out” attitude towards immigrants in the United
States. I read this week the statement by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Miami, Thomas Wenski concerning the detention facility Homeland Security has
constructed in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz. This is a
facility designed with the purpose of detaining up to 5,000 individuals whose
only crime may be that they entered this country illegally. The structures are
overcrowded tents which provide little protection from the intense heat and
mosquitoes and no protection at all from flooding rains or hurricanes. The
facility opened on the third of this month and there have already been
complaints about insufficient food, limited access to water, and restrictions
against visiting clergy.
Archbishop
Wenski noted on the archdiocese’s website:
"We
have a detention center in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by snakes,
alligators, mosquitoes, and more. It is an inhumane situation…It is insulting
that those who should know better are mocking the misery of their brothers and
sisters. We are all brothers and sisters, and no one should ridicule the
suffering of other people. Even the name 'Alligator Alcatraz' is a cruel
mockery of the pain those people endure."[ii]
I
can’t say I have the answer to America’s immigration problem, but I know indiscriminately
arresting and incarcerating any or all undocumented individuals—especially in
dangerous or unhealthy detention centers—is not the answer. I applaud
Archbishop Wenski for speaking out on behalf of the Christian faith. Americans
may not treat every undocumented person with the effusive hospitality with
which Abraham greeted the strangers at the oaks of Mamre, but neither should we
treat fellow human beings in the way the men of Sodom treated Lot’s visitors. We are called to be like Abraham and see the divinity in all people.
Jesus
said. “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” [iii] Martha shared what she
had when thirteen hungry guests showed up at her door. Mary gave them her
loving attention. Abraham recognized in the wanderers the very presence of the
Lord God. I won’t suggest that every American who reads these words of mine
should rush out and protest an ICE raid, but I do believe that, just like Sodom,
the United States will be punished in some way should these current policies continue.
To dehumanize others cannot possibly be to our benefit.
As
Christians wea re called to be aware. We are called to hold others to account.
And we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves when, like the Samaritan[iv], we show them mercy.
[i]
It’s now the Philadelphia Campus of the United Lutheran Seminary.
[ii] See
https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=Article_archdiocese-of-miami-the-broken-immigration-system-is-hurting-people
[iii]
Matthew 25:35.
[iv] Luke
10:25-37
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