Making God Welcome

Hospitality of the Heart

June 13, 1999

Genesis 18; Romans 5:1-11

One bright, warm spring morning Abraham was sitting outside his tent set up on a small hilltop, overlooking miles and miles of his flocks and herds and the tents of his servants and their families when something unexpected took place. God dropped by for a visit.

God's appearance was not like anything Abraham could invent or imagine, and yet Abraham did not seem surprised that God chose to reveal Himself as He did. Then, as wonderful or amazing that God should come for a visit, even more amazing– even unbelievable was what God told Abraham that afternoon.

"You're going to have a son! A year from right now you'll be parents of your own child!"

Sarah was listening just a few short feet away behind the tent flap. The flap shook just a little bit, and the Visitor said, "Why is Sarah laughing?"

Sarah stuck her head out the tent flap and said, "I'm not laughing!"

"Oh, yes you are," smiled the Visitor. "But it is true all the same! You're going to have a baby!"

The Promise seemed both remote and impossible. But Abraham took pains to make God at home with him. Not simply in this incident which reveals the mind-set formed across years of faith and obedience, but as a way of life Abraham cultivated a walk with God. And the result was great and far-reaching blessing.

Abraham entertained God. It couldn't have been "the expected." Three men, addressed as "My LORD." Abraham knew it was a visitation from God, and he did his best to make God welcome. The result was God's agenda for Abraham and Sarah. THAT was unexpected as well. But certainly welcome. The result was also a role in God's agenda for Lot. Abraham became an intercessor. It began when Abraham made room for God. HOSPITALITY: Making room. Making space. An act of the will. Deliberate. For God, room. Then for God's thoughts, room. Which means – for people, room.

HOW IMPORTANT IS HOSPITALITY??

Hospitality is not necessarily a certain way of welcoming people; it is rather an opening of the heart to them. I have been entertained in luxurious circumstances, and made to feel absolutely welcome and at home. But it was not the luxury that made me comfortable. I have been entertained in very humble surroundings, and once again, have been made to feel welcome. Hospitality, as Henri Nouwen might define it, is making space where it counts in the heart.

This passage of scripture sent me back to an old favorite book that may be your favorite, too: Reaching Out, by Nouwen. In that book hospitality is an important word, and he speaks of three movements toward making space: in ourselves, toward others, and toward God. They seem to fit this message today:

We need space within our hearts for ourselves. We need time alone, with ourselves. We need quiet. Tomorrow. Next week. After I get this project done. But if, like Abraham, we were visited today by a theophany, and manifestation of God, would we , could we possibly recognize and welcome God to our homes and our tables?

We need to make space in our hearts for each other, for people. Nouwen calls it "moving from hostility to hospitality." We might call it being aware of our basic attitude toward others: defensive, fearing, suspicious after all this is the real world and then asking God to help us make space for genuine compassion: com passion feeling what others are feeling!

How we really feel about others becomes an aura that welcomes or shuts out. Do you think churches can have auras?

Finally, or maybe first of all, we need to make space in our lives for listening to God. Moving from faith to faith. Moving from sporadic experience to trusting relationship. Moving from 'what has God done for me lately' to 'What is God saying to me NOW!'

CLOSING STORY

A story of hospitality...

Holy Spirit, Thou art Welcome 306