Be the Sheep-Stranger
What would the world be like if the rules of hospitality came back?
This is sort of a postscript as a foreword to this week. It is short, shorter than usual. The service felt short, and I had to leave early for work as well. I’m not sure what that means or why, but it struck me enough to put this paragraph at the head of the writeup.
Be the Sheep-Stranger
It is an uncommon sermon or lesson when we get to use either the first book of the Bible or the last. Genesis and Revelation are, in my opinion, less preached from. I started to say that Revelation was less than Genesis, but several topics came to mind, and I’ll wager they are equally less used. The caveat to that is when you want to go back to the basics, which is something of what we have this week. Let’s look at the scripture for this week’s message.
1Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
2When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,
3and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.
4“Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;
5and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.”
6So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.”
7Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.
8He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate.
9Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”
10He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.
Genesis 18:1–10 (NASB95)
I wondered where and what Mamre was. Biblehub.com has a good explanation but so does Halley’s Bible Handbook. You can read Biblehub’s link HERE, but essentially, it was a location held in high regard relating to the burial of the patriarchs of scripture. I also found a map location, but it doesn’t explain much visually. You can see that map location HERE.
Before we leave verse 1, note how this chapter opens, “And the Lord appeared unto him…” This is the Old Testament. That opening statement means one of the three men in verse 2 is God manifest, so who are the other two? The immediate response is that it is the Son and the Holy Ghost/Spirit. There is a lot of commentary on who these three are. The majority seems to be that it was God and the two angels He would send to visit destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, which is predicted to Abraham later, beginning in verse 20. We don’t go that far for today’s message, just to the promise to Abraham and Sarah of many children.
At the end of verse 2, Abraham bows to the ground to these three. It is clear Abraham recognizes who these men are. He brings water to drink and wash their feet. He orders up a feast essentially of bread and meat. I took a note around verse 6, asking myself why he would do this if it wasn’t ready, but realizing as I began writing this that it was God who appeared to him, it all makes sense now.
A “measure of fine meal,” as we see in verse 6, is between 3 and 6 liters. 3 seah, which is another term for the measure, is also called a baths. So, Sarah is preparing between 9 and 18 liters of flour for bread. On average, it takes about 300 grams of flour to make a loaf of bread. That means we have enough flour to make 60 loaves of bread for these three men. It isn’t mentioned, but typically, one does not travel alone if you are a person of standing. You have your servants with you. We are not told if there is an entourage here. If there isn’t the only reason I can think to have this much bread is that Abraham plans to feed all of his people along with the three men.
Be the Sheep-Stranger
There weren’t as many notes on the scripture this week. It appears I will be ushering each week, so I have to hastily scribble my notes between those duties. The sermon was delivered by Pastor Kristen Lee this week. Her title hints at us being God’s hands and feet to make people we don’t know feel welcome. We would call them guests, and it is being hospitable when we make them feel welcome.
Back in Abraham’s day they had rules about hospitality. It was designed to make sure people could travel safely and without fear, as much as they could then. Pastor Lee opened with a story from a podcast she listened to by Malcolm Gladwell called Revisionist History. It is a story about how his family welcomed three refugees from Vietnam during that war. If you’re interested in a transcript of that podcast, you can find it HERE or the podcast HERE. Her point was that ordinary people were going about a big task in ordinary ways. She followed that with this question:
“What does it mean to us as followers of Christ to welcome the stranger?”
My answer is that it means we treat others as we would want to be treated.
12“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12 (NASB95)
If you are interested in reading more about traditional Jewish rules about hospitality, you can find more from one site HERE.
Pastor Lee read the scripture at this point in the sermon.
In the course of the sermon Pastor Lee brought out how Abraham just does the things he does for his guests. He brings them to a shady tree. He has water brought for them. He washes their feet. He feeds them. He provides a place of rest for them. All this Abraham does without complaint about his age, or lack of resources, nothing is complained about. Abraham cheerfully hosts these three men. It is the example we are set as to how to entertain and host visitors in our homes.
Pastor Lee closed with a quote from Malcolm Gladwell, “Kindness is just the temporary suppression of indifference.”
We stepped into our mission activity for the week before ending the service.