Genesis 18: 1-15; 21:1-7 Open
There was once a poor man that saved up to fulfill a life long dream-to go on a weeklong boat cruise. He saved for very long and finally managed to buy a ticket. He assumed that he will not be able to afford food in the restaurants on board and therefore packed his own provisions which mainly consisted out of peanut butter sandwiches. Every day he enjoyed the views and sea air and when it was mealtime, he retreated to his cabin and ate his sandwiches. By the third day he marvelled at the fact that all the passengers seem to be able to buy and order expensive foods, brought to them by waiters on trays. He once shared his sense of bewilderment with a waiter on the second last day of the cruise. The waiter asked him if he has a ticket to be on board. He replied that he had. The waiter then informed him that all meals are included in his ticket. The man felt like kicking himself.
Wouldn’t it be sad, if this cruise story turns out to be our life story? What if we realize that we fed off peanut butter sandwiches while God gave us access to a feast? What if it turns out that we gnawed at breadcrumbs in solitude whilst there was enough to share and feast in community?
Abraham was a man that knew a life with God included access to feasting. And sharing. I think he can help us with a life posture that can help us live a better story. Even if we should have only a day left on this earthly journey.
Opening up; being interrupted
When you are used to Canadian weather, even the milder version we enjoy here in Vancouver, there is a detail in this story that can easily pass you bye. It says that the three men visited Abraham at the “heat of the day”. In Canada, the heat of the day is the most pleasant part of the day if you ask me. It is the time where one would like to sit outside with friends if you are not working. But in hot and arid climates, the heat of the day is the least productive and most uncomfortable part of the day. It is not the ideal time to visit, nor the time people expect visitors. In many parts, it is the official or unofficial siesta hour where most people seek out a shady hiding place and take a nap. Such was also the case with Abraham. Anyone who has visited the Holy Land and surrounding regions will know what I am talking about. The heat of the day is an inhospitable hour.
So, Abrahams’ behaviour at this specific time should strike us as rather unusual. Yes, it is true that to this day hospitality is integral to cultures in the ancient near East, but even taking that into account Abraham goes over the top and practices extravagant hospitality in an unhospitable hour. He does not sleep but is awake and alert. He does not call or wave at the men but runs to them. He does not only offer them something to eat, but bows down, speaks eloquently, and feeds them as one would royalty. He stood while they sat and ate. That is the posture not only of a host but a servant.
Let’s give a name that would summarize all this extravagance. Let us call this a posture of openness. Abraham had openness. Openness towards strangers. Openness to God able to show up at unexpected times and in unexpected places. Openness to God promising things that our imaginations couldn’t even come up with and God delivering those promises through people we didn’t expect. Show me a person with this openness and I will show you a person who walks with God and whose life is an adventure.
Sarah is in this story sketched as the polar opposite of this posture. She needs to be requested to participate. She doesn’t engage but stay outside, eavesdrop and stick to her own conclusion. She falls down that rabbit hole of cynicism. She laughs the joyless laugh of a cynic and when she is proven wrong, she lives in fear of being laughed at. The joke was on her.
In literature there are different names for the life stories Abraham and Sarah lives respectively. See, Sarah lives a comedy. The definition of a comedy, simply put, is a story where a character takes himself or herself too seriously. Where they cling to comforts and convention for all they are worth and where they are sceptical and closed to new possibilities. Abraham lives what is called an epic. This is where a character sacrifices for something that serves interests of others, not just himself. Comedies might be somewhat entertaining, but Epics are inspiring. We tend to forget comedies, but epics stick with us. That is why most people remember Abraham and forget Sarah. Maybe the difference between a comedy and a epic life story comes down to simply this: An openness and expectant life posture versus a cynical and closed life posture.
How does one adopt a posture of openness?
So, what does it mean for us? I think two things. Firstly, we need to guard our hearts. The only way to be a person with a posture of openness, is to not let bitterness and cynicism fester in your heart for too long. When you feel that old familiar resentment and negativity and catastrophic thinking take hold of you, get rid of it. You do that by praying, by communicating and by articulating it in words or in art. Write about it, draw it. Ask God to take it away. Talk it through with someone you can trust.
Secondly, I think it means to live with alertness. Have your eyes open for signs that God is doing something new. Search for it in unexpected places and be welcoming of it when it shows up at inconvenient times. God has a way to interrupt our plans. Those interruptions are the spice of life, not the inconvenience we tend to label it as.
Ok, I said there are two things, maybe there is a third. It is not stated explicitly in this passage and the actions of Abraham, but I think we can safely assume it is implied. We need to question convention to stay open. What might have worked well in the past, might not work well today. To question convention does not necessarily mean that you outright reject convention. Sometimes there is a very good reason why things are done a certain way and that reason might still be valid. But even then questioning leads you to rediscover that reason instead of just mindlessly following convention. It surly wasn’t conventional for a couple to be blessed at 100 with a child but in this case God wanted to go the unconventional route and Abraham was open to it whilst Sarah was closed to it because she allowed convention to dictate. One good thing that can come from Covid is that it could loosen the grip convention has, that grip that closes us up to new possibilities.
If you pay attention, you will hear how people ask new critical questions about how things are always done. “Is spending two hours a day in traffic really the best way to spend my time productively?” “Is Sunday worship perhaps to us too much of a be all and end all of being a Christian?” “Is racism really a thing of the past as we claim?”. We are called to be people of conviction, not convention whether we do things as they always have been done and whether we do them in a new way.
We have something even Abraham didn’t have in the measure we have it that can help us to stay open. It’s the Holy Spirit. His work in our hearts gives us this ability to let go of control and be open to God leading us in new directions. The book of Acts, that describe the early church movement and the work of the Holy Sprit is a book filled with twists, turns and surprises. When we retain the same openness of the early church our lives also become filled with these adventures. Openness basically means to acknowledge that we serve a God that likes surprises, that our ways are not always His ways but that His ways are always better than ours even when it surprises or indeed unsettle us.
Close
Eric Fromm said:
“Hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime”.
Eric said it. Abraham lived it. And indeed, late in life a son of the promise was born to him and to cynical Sarah. Abraham is called a “father of our faith”. He was a remarkably ordinary man, his openness really being the only attribute that distinguish him. Ordinary people become remarkable agents of God’s work in the world when they remain open to God.
And we live in an age where we can say an even greater Hope was not only born, but was crucified and defeated the power of death itself. We have even more reason to be open and hope filled.
To be faithful means to be open and expectant. This journey of life is not about certainty, but about fidelity. Stay open; stay faithful. Come to the feast. Invite others to join.
Is anything impossible for God?
Amen