In one of those old-west stores with a little bit of everything, the proprietor made a game of coming up with a Bible verse to fit each customer.

An eastern dude came in and asked for an authentic wool blanket.

The store carried only two varieties, one was $70 and the other $100.

The customer was shown each in turn, “No, not good enough” he said about each. “Show me your best one, please.”

So the storekeeper carefully pulled out one of the same blankets in a different color, and announced the price $250.

“Now you're talking. Sold” said the customer.

After he left with his over-priced blanket, the locals sitting around the store asked the storekeeper what Bible verse he could possibly have for that dude customer.

He replied, “He was a stranger, and I took him in.”

 

Is that hospitality?

 

An acquaintance of mine, Pastor Richard Johnson, tells a different story.

A man asked to speak with him one day.

His was in one of the current crop of difficult economic situations, but the man was not asking for $ assistance.

He had come to say Thank you.

When he was a boy, his father was an alcoholic, so that he lived with his grandfather, who had a heart attack one evening at dinner, and died on the spot.

 

The local Lutheran pastor was walking by and saw the commotion at the house, and although the family were not  church members, he came in, sized up the situation, and invited the now twice-bereft boy to stay that night with the parsonage family.

He listened to the boy's grief, and in months that followed, invited him to serve as an acolyte, join in various activities, and to just talk.

The lessons he learned at that most painful time stayed with him, and served as an anchor in the storms and currents across the years.

Even though that old pastor was long since gone, this man had to come in to a Lutheran pastor to say Thank you for that gift of hospitality given so many years before.

Somehow, he would make it through the present troubles.

Somehow, he knew that Jesus loved him as much as that old pastor had looked out for a grieving boy.

Thank you, he said, and then he was gone.

 

Pastor Johnson was left speechless, having received the Thank you on behalf of a predecessor pastor long-since departed.

And he began thinking of some of those times and places where he, too, should have taken the time to give Thanks for hospitality that he had received himself.

 

Which is a story of true hospitality?

           --taking advantage of a stupid customer, or

           --caring for a boy in grief.

 

The icon today is called the Hospitality of Abraham.

The icon last week featured the three visitors who came one day to Abraham.

This one is a bit different, in that it shows not only the visitors but also the interaction with Abraham and the meal.

It was not a simple matter to offer hospitality there in that harsh and hot region.

Flour has to be ground, stones heated, cakes baked, water drawn, an animal slaughtered and cooked.

It is lots of work for three strangers.

It involves genuine effort, considerable time, and risk.

 

And there is risk on either side: since they are strangers to each other, Abraham does not know if they will attempt to misuse or mal-treat him, or vice versa.

But unless the risk is taken, there is no chance of a different relationship; if strangers can become friends, or even companions.

 

And there is one more aspect of this scene:

the stranger may be of vital importance to the host; he may have an important message from beyond the host's experience.

But the host will not receive that message unless he takes the risk of offering hospitality to the stranger.

In this case, those who were guests turn out to have important things to share, so that the roles are reversed, or perhaps the differences in the roles become meaningless.

So Abraham greets the strangers, offers them what they need, helps them personally, and listens attentively.

He takes that risk, that personal risk, and receives blessings more abundant than he could ever have imagined.

 

We don't know this in advance; and we only find out in the doing.

Various of our folks have been interacting with the guests that we have been having this week in Family Promise.

It may just be small talk, but maybe, just maybe that conversation over coffee turns out to be very important for the St. Mark's person or the guest, or both!

We won't know unless we take the time for the conversation, and it doesn't matter who is host and who is guest; it matters that we are brought together and that the message is shared.

 

Unity is a gift of God; hear it in today's Gospel:

           Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and the one who sent me.

Jesus himself is the bridge among us strangers.

Hospitality is Christ building bridges where there were none.

Hospitality is the opportunity of the Gospel for giver and receiver.

 

Some of those opportunities may be modest, others may be grand, but all of them may be significant.