4th Week of Epiphany

The Daily Office

A common theme throughout this week's readings is that of Hospitality. Chapter 18 came up this weekend. There we saw Abraham's hospitality to the "men," who are explicitly called "angels" when they come to Lot's home in Sodom. In a harsh world, where any stranger on the road was assumed to be an enemy, the code of hospitality toward those strangers received as guests was perhaps the one thing which kept that world from total anarchy. It was also a world where women were the property of their fathers until they became their husband's property. But the need for hospitality was absolute.

In Chapter 21, Abraham fails to show basic hospitality to his son, leaving God to extend his divine hospitality to the ancestor of the Arabic people. In chapter 23, the local Canaanites claim to be hospitable to Abraham by giving him land for his wife's grave. In fact, they are trying to deny him a place that he can call his own by not letting him buy the land. In chapter 24, We see Rebekah going above and beyond the basic standard of hospitality by not just giving a stranger a cup of water, but drawing well after well for his camels.

What does any of this have to do with the 21st century? Read this story of a Navy SEAL saved by the code of hospitality in Afghanistan. How hospitable are we to those in our community of faith? How hospitable are we to the strangers in our midst? Maybe those old tribal stories from a time and culture that seem so strange still have something to say to the 21st century.