Holy Hospitality: 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Hospitality toward strangers is at the heart of today's story in Genesis of Abraham, Sarah and the three visitors. The Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev imagined the three as the Trinity, sitting round a table, with heads bowed in respect and affection toward each other. That isn't how the Israelites would have seen these three. Their understanding of monotheism wouldn't permit that. But as this story was handed down to them, they surely puzzled over its meaning.

"The LORD appeared to Abraham," we read. The one and only God chose to come to Abraham and Sarah, to give them the news they had longed to hear for so many years; that Sarah in her old age would finally have a son by Abraham. And yet what should Abraham see but "three men" before him. Later, we are made to understand that one of the visitors is the LORD, who will stay to converse with Abraham after the other two "men" go on to Sodom and Gomorrah. There they will test the Sodomites, to see if they will show the same hospitality that Abraham shows.

So here are three visitors one being God himself, the other two being "men" or "angels" of some sort. And Abraham shows his hospitality by running to them and bowing before them and offering them a meal and a place to sleep for the night. Of course, he would have been obligated to do this even if his three visitors were really just human beings In a harsh land of mostly desert and occasional wet and green, where people frequently had to travel to find better land, the code of hospitality reigned. If a stranger showed up at your tent, you showed hospitality toward them. And when you had to travel, you could trust that the same hospitality would be shown toward you.

And so Abraham bows before the three and begs them not to pass on, "if my Lord should find favor with your servant." But who is Abraham speaking to here? There appear to be three men standing before him. But only one is the LORD, his God. And surely Abraham knows that God doesn't need any food or water. What our Jewish brothers and sisters have understood is that Abraham is speaking to his LORD and is asking him to wait while he and Sarah show hospitality to the other visitors. Before God can even get a word in edgewise, Abraham interrupts him to say, let me show hospitality to your two friends first, and then I will listen to what you have to tell me.

And Abraham's God, who is our God, silently agrees that hospitality must be shown to those who need it before Abraham turns his attention to God. That's how important hospitality is to our God, and how important it must be for us. But of course, this is a nice story from thousands of years ago in a very different world. What relevance does it have for us 21st century Americans? At least in the case of Sergeant Marcus Luttrell, I believe its relevance was a matter of life and death.

Sgt. Luttrell was one of four Navy SEALs in 2005 who were assigned to find a kill or capture a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, their position was discovered almost as soon as they deployed. Soon, they were being fired on from all sides by anywhere from 80-150 Taliban insurgents. The running firefight continued for hours, and eventually three of the four SEALs were dead. Sgt. Luttrell was the lone survivor, and he himself was seriously wounded, having been blown off a cliff by a rocket propelled grenade. But still he kept moving and shooting, killing six more of his enemies as he walked and crawled for another seven miles.

In the meantime, a Chinook helicopter took off to find the missing SEALs, but Taliban insurgents shot it down, killing all 16 Navy men on board. Sgt. Luttrell was close to his end as well. Bleeding and exhausted, he wandered into a Pashtun village called Sabri-Minah. All he could do was throw himself at the mercy of these villagers. But these backward Pashtuns, living in a world as harsh as Abraham's, understood the ancient code of Hospitality, which they called Lokhay Warkawa. If any of those villagers had seen Luttrell outside of their village when he was healthy and on the hunt, they probably would have killed him. But now they took him in; gave him a place to sleep, food to eat; and they cared for him as best they could, just as they would have cared for one of their own.

Of course, it wasn't long before word got around that an American soldier was in this village. The local Taliban soon heard of this. And they sent some insurgents to this village to claim their prize. When they arrived they were met by the men of the village. The Taliban said, we want the American. The Pashtun villagers said, you can't have him. He came to us, not as an enemy, but as a stranger seeking hospitality, and we are obligated to extend it to him. Unhappy, but unable to challenge the Village, the Taliban left. Some days later, one of those villagers walked 20 miles to the nearest Allied base, and arranged for Sgt. Luttrell to be picked up and carried to safety.

Abraham understood the importance of showing hospitality. The people of Sabri-Minah understood the importance of showing hospitality. What might Abraham, and some Afghan tribesmen, be able to teach 21st century Americans about Hospitality?