Hebrews 13: 1-8
If you remember, last week we left off with the image “Our
God is a consuming fire.” In fact those are the final words of chapter 12. And then it’s like a 360. There is an abrupt tonal change as the
13th and final chapter of Hebrews begins. So let’s hear this morning’s scripture and unpack it in a
minute.
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality
to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing
it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them;
those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage
bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your
lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he
has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with
confidence,
“The Lord
is my helper;
I will not
be afraid.
What can
anyone do to me?”
Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to
you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of
praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect
to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
This passage contains a familiar verse
and when I hear it, it reminds me of a beautiful icon painted by the 14th
century Russian Iconographer, Andrei Rublev. The verse is “Let
mutual love continue. Do not
neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have
entertained angels without knowing it.” The icon shows three gold-winged figures seated around a
white table on which a golden bowl contains a roasted lamb. The figures are visitors who have
stopped by Abraham and Sarah’s camp by the Oaks of Mamre as recorded in Genesis
18. He serves them a meal and as
the conversion takes place Abraham seems to be talking to God. This icon has also been used as a way
to understand the Trinity in Christological terms.
It is mutual love and hospitality at its
very best, one serving the other without prejudice or judgment.
Whatever the interpretation of the icon
there is something compelling about visualizing three strangers who visit your
tent seeking food and refuge and by your generous hospitality they are satiated
and safe from the elements. In
return it is revealed that they are indeed angels in disguise, messengers from
God or rather, God’s presence. We
will get back to hospitality and mutual love in a minute after we look at the
passage in its entirety. So hold that image in the back of your head.
This chapter is the summation of the
Book of Hebrews and as I mentioned in previous weeks, the book addresses the
issues of a new Christian community that is in danger of falling away from
their faith. It was a tough
environment for them, Christianity had not taken deep roots yet and it was a
counter-cultural movement. So the
author leaves a set of instructions to help them in their faith journey and
life as Christ-followers.
These instructions are pretty
heady. They include a call to love
your brothers and your sisters in Christ, treat one another with mutuality,
sort of like family members, to foster supportive relationships. And they are to go out and love the
stranger; not stay behind closed doors and become an insular little group.
They have some responsibilities like
remembering those who are in prison and those who are mistreated; marriage
should be honored and undefiled meaning that there should be no deceit,
cheating or betrayal between marital partners.
The author goes on to say that a place
should exist in their lives for contentment acknowledging that what they have
really is sufficient for their living.
More and more and more does not make for a more happy person. It just means that person has a lot of
stuff. And they are to remember
their leaders, especially Jesus Christ because he is perfector of faith.
Then comes the glorious promise of God,
that God will never leave them, God will never forsake them but will always be
the one who protects and guards them through life.
And finally what seems like a departure,
because the lectionary skips a few verses, there is praise for God and one last
gentle reminder to do good and share what you have. All in all the Book of Hebrews has some very beautiful and
often quoted passages. So we will
look at today the notion of angels in disguise from the passage: Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to
show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it.
We currently
live in a political environment that is not particularly hospitable to
strangers or aliens, or at the very least the threat of the ‘other’. It is couched in political mumbo jumbo
and fostered with fear. “Stranger danger”, that concept we teach our young, is
alive and well in many adults creating suspicion, mistrust and apprehension of
some very good people looking for a chance to better their lives. This is not what Hebrews has in
mind. We are not to fear the
other, the stranger, the alien we are to open our ‘tent flaps’, our doors wide
open and welcome the stranger into our sacred space without fear or
trepidation.
This passage
offers us a different view or at the very least a reminder that there will
always be strangers among us, there will be people coming to our doors and it
is up to us to entertain them. But
it goes much deeper than simply handing a cup of coffee to them. It’s easy to forget what it’s like to
be a stranger in a new place. We
come here each week.
In fact some of
you have grown up in this church.
You know that there are three ways to trot off to coffee hour, you know
that we have five bathrooms, two male, two female and one gender-neutral and
you know where they are, you know where the Turkey Pen is, the PF room, and the
Katherine Knight Room, you know the little door to get into the organ pipe
chamber. But someone here for the
first couple of visits has no clue where anything is here much less how to
understand our particular culture.
And so as Hebrews notes we must entertain them. We must offer hospitality to them; but
there is a big difference between entertaining and offering hospitality.
Entertaining is
to bring out the china and crystal, put on the lace tablecloths, make a gourmet
three course meal and be sure that the dog isn’t under foot and the kids have
been fed and are upstairs watching TV.
Right? It is to put on our
best dress so that all looks picture perfect.
Hospitality is
much different. Hospitality is just not an admirable social skill that Martha
Stewart would be proud of; it is an essential sign of our faith. In offering hospitality we share our
place, our tent, making use of what is available to us knowing that there will
be plenty for all. It is inviting
people into your life to have a meal of leftovers on paper plates, sharing
whatever you have and being thankful. And liking it not simply doing it because their here.
Or, we can create
new places to accommodate these folks coming to our door. That’s what hospitality is, it’s
accommodating, acceptance and mutual love, the kind that God is calling us to,
and it’s humbling. When we open
ourselves to others it gets a bit messy because we show others who we are as a
faithful group of everyday folks struggling to get by in a crazy world. But that’s OK. This is where we find our common roots.
And when we do
that we have invited God’s presence into our lives. That’s what this verse is all about. Being open, loving and hospitable to
each person we encounter invites God right in. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing
that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
These messengers of God are among the
greatest of these and especially among the least of these, the imprisoned, the
oppressed, the poor and the poor in spirit. And they are around us. There is a movie entitled, Entertaining Angels, about
Dorothy Day, the woman who began the Catholic Workers Movement in the
1930. It details her life and how
she became the force along with Peter Maurin for that movement. She championed justice and
charity for the poor, hungry people of New York City. Her belief was that all men (sic) are brothers. And she saw the Christ within them.
Amen.
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