"Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it." (Hebrews 13:1-2)
Be kind to strangers... to "the other," says the Bible, because you just might have been brought face to face with the messengers of God.
Be welcoming to foreigners, says the writer of Hebrews in this passage many of us heard this past Sunday in worship (the word translated "strangers" here has more of the feel of someone who is explicitly foreign, not just someone whose name you do not know), because you might be in the presence of the divine.
Be open enough and humble enough, the Scriptures seem to be saying, to allow for the possibility that God or one of God's spokespersons might show up crossing your path--and you won't want to miss that when it happens.
All of a sudden the stakes of having a short temper with the single mom juggling three kids ahead of you in line at the grocery store just got a lot higher, eh? The dismissive scowl you were aiming at the customer service representative whose name is hard for you to pronounce now seems maybe a bad call. The casual ways we dismiss people we categorize as "the other" just got complicated and uncomfortable.
In response, the writer of Hebrews whispers, "Those people just mighta been angels, the whole lot of 'em. Was it worth getting yourself all bent out of shape when the people you are most frustrated about could be emissaries of the divine? Sure has a way of changing our perspective about the people we meet on a daily basis, doesn't it?
Jesus, too, never himself one to fold in a game of cards, doubles down on this train of thought in those familiar words, "As you did it to the least of these... you did it to me." And now all of a sudden, the hungry face I turned away because I thought he might be a freeloader... and the shadowed face behind bars that I ignored because I thought all prisoners were worthy of my condemnation... and the lonely face... and the sick face... and the... uh-oh, stranger's (again, the word Jesus uses in Matthew 25 is the word used for "foreigners") face... all of those faces now bear the eyes of Jesus himself. Jesus upped the ante even from where the book of Hebrews had set it--now the face of the stranger or the foreigner is not just a potential angel. The stranger--the foreigner, the migrant worker, the immigrant, the refugee--is Jesus himself... and, of course, as we insist in the ancient words of orthodoxy in the Creed week by week, wherever Jesus is, none other than God is there, too. So now, the way I treat a stranger is... <gulp> the way I have just treated the almighty Maker of all things. And the ways we bear with the needs of a stranger, even if their needs are different from our own, become the ways we show love to none other than God. All of a sudden, the notion of following Jesus to the margins takes on a whole new meaning: it also includes seeing Jesus' face in the faces of the people we meet on the margins, too.
Now, just so we don't make the mistake of thinking that this whole line of thought is only some new-fangled, modern-day theologizing, I would remind us all of the line of C. S. Lewis, the great 20th century British theologian and writer, who said, "Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses." That is, as much as we recognize the real presence of Christ in the bread and cup at Holy Communion, Christ himself has also promised his presence among the "least of these." And classically, the language the church has used for "things in which Christ's presence is communicated through ordinary means" is... a sacrament. If Christ can be truly present in bread that someone baked this morning, and if Christ's promise can be made real through water that just came out of our tap, then certainly Christ can choose to be present in the face of another human being, who is already made in the image of God. And that's true not just of the faces of people I know and already like--it is true of the people I have never met, and the faces I have not yet seen, even if they have come from a long ways away to cross my path.
Now, if those stakes weren't high enough, even the word the Bible uses for "hospitality" is loaded. Our English translations use the word "hospitality" in this verse--"do not neglect to show hospitality...". But to be truthful, most of us hear "hospitality," and we picture someone who offers a coaster and a glass of lemonade to the company they have invited... or the concierge desk at the hotel who offers bathrobes for use of paying customers. "Hospitality," in those circumstances, is not much of a gamble, and you only have to show it to people who have either given you money to do it, or people who you already like enough to invite to your house. But the Bible's word is more...adventuresome. The word beneath our English "hospitality" here in this verse is the Greek "philoxenia," which is made up of the two words "phile-" (which you probably already know is one of the words for "love," as in Philadelphia or "bibliophile" for book-lover) and the word "xenos," which means... well, "stranger," or "outsider," or "foreigner," or just... "the other." The one thing it does NOT mean is "people who are already like you in every way." Hebrews is not merely saying, "Be nice to other Christians whom you haven't met yet." Other Christians aren't called "stranger" in the New Testament--they are brothers and sisters. For the writer of Hebrews to talk about "strangers"/"xenos/xenia", it means we are, by definition, talking about people who are not already part of the "family" we call church. It is not just a welcome to "safe" people... it is a welcome to "the other." Those are the stakes when the Bible uses the word "xenos." And the writer of Hebrews is telling us that the ones we deem "foreigner"/"outsider"/"other" just might be the presence of the divine.
You know the word "xenos" already because you almost certainly already know the word "xenophobia," the fear of outsiders and foreigners. And even if you didn't know the word for it, you know what it is to live in a culture of xenophobia... because we are living in one. As polarized as we are, often from even the neighbor across the street or down the block, and as much as the loud voices from the screens around us encourage us to fear "the other" as a threat to us... to our way of life... to everything, we are increasingly baited to be afraid of whomever and whatever is different from what I already think, or look like, or believe, or hold dear. We live in a culture that is not predisposed to welcome "the other" these days, however you take the phrase.
And yet--rather than saying, "Beware of those strangers who don't share our culture and our faith! Beware of those foreigners who don't share our language or our way of life... they are dangerous!" (and in the supremely cosmopolitan Roman Empire, you couldn't help but cross paths with peoples from all sorts of places, cultures, and creeds), the writer of Hebrews says, those very strangers just might be angels you do not have the eyes to see yet. Like Jesus' own words about "the least of these," the writer of Hebrews dares us see in a new way--a daring, risky way. The "other," the "stranger," the faces who are different, they are the very people we are commanded to receive, to care for, and to love--not out of condescending pity for "those poor souls," but in fact because they may well be the ones God has sent as divine holy messengers across your path. That's what is in store for us if we go with Jesus to the margins and meet the people he chooses to show up among.
Curious, isn't it, how we can be so concerned in our Facebook posts about wanting to call our country "back to the Bible"... and yet to forget, stifle, or silence the clear command of Scripture when it comes to how we see the "stranger" and the "other" who cross our path in real life off of the screens. Go ahead, protest about how it sounds impractical or dangerous or foolish to welcome those the Bible would call "foreigners", if you want--but you cannot do so on the grounds that the Bible is backing your argument. The living voice of the Scripture is always pushing us to do things that strike the world as impractical, dangerous, and foolish--that's one of the ways you know it is really the living God and not just our own self-interest talking.
So today, let us dare to hear the words of the Bible in all their force. We are not given an "inspirational suggestion" to "be nice to the guests at your dinner party," but a firm command to love--to love!--those who would get labeled "foreigner," "stranger," "outsider," and "other." And in order to love them, rather than pitying them, we have to follow the other directive Hebrews gives us: we must learn to see the "stranger" and the "other" as quite possibly the very angels of God, come to fill the empty places around us. Let us dare to actually do what Jesus says, and to open our eyes to seeing that "the least of these" bring us face to face with none other than the living God.
Lord Jesus, help us to see you and to see your messengers everywhere you show up... let us recognize your real presence in the sacrament of the stranger.
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