Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C  July 18, 2010

Genesis 18:1-10a  Psalm: 15   Col  1:24-28 Luke 10:38-42

Theme: Welcome and Worry.

1. A friend of mine came to pick me up in his car. As soon as I put on the seat belt, he asked, “would you prefer the windows down or the air conditioning. Even as he asked, he lowered the windows. The next moment, he shut the windows and turned on the air conditioning at full blast. He turned on the seat warmer. He turned on the radio and flicked through the channels: classical, easy listening, sports, news. He just wanted me to feel welcome.

 Very gently, I turned off the seat warmer, turned down the air conditioning, turned off the radio and began to talk about his children. He relaxed and began to be himself. To please and make people feel comfortable, to make them feel welcome, we often do almost contrary things. In reality we worry too much like Abraham and Martha. They were anxious to please their guests.

2. As Canadians, we are a very friendly people. We go the extra mile to make others feel welcome. We have yet to be infected by the competitive spirit and try to do one better. So visitors to Canada constantly remark how comfortable and welcome they feel However, there is usually a price to be paid on the part of the hosts. This is not so much financially, as emotionally.

Like Martha we want to say, “Tell her to come and help.”

Like Sarah we want to say, “Go and knead the flour yourself and make the cakes.”

3. Abraham welcomes the three strangers that appear at the door of his Tent. It is typical Middle-eastern hospitality.  Today with the experience of violence, rape, burglary, we tend to be suspicious of strangers. We lock our doors. We are advised not to pick up hitchhikers. We have heard too many horror stories of elderly couples, beaten and murdered.

 But Abraham welcomes them. This is very much in keeping with Wisdom from India, which says, “Every visitor is God entering your home.” In the case of Abraham, it was not God, but angels of God. They had come with good news. However there was a price to be paid.

Sarah had to get her best flour,

she had to hurry and prepare a meal.

She did not have a barbeque.

4. Martha finds herself in the same predicament Today often both husband and wife go out to work. Many a wife finds herself resentful when the husband calls her around 5:00 in the evening and say, “Honey , I am bringing some friends over for dinner.” It is not so much the food. Now we can “order in” food. However it is tidying up the house. The house is not dirty but lived-in. The newspapers and books and magazines have to be stacked up. The remote has to be kept on the TV and perhaps the whisk has to be brought out to dust up. The cushions have to be straightened out. She has to make sure there is enough ice in the trays, find the coasters. As she does these hundred and one details, she quite naturally feels resentful like Martha.

However, as Jesus said, all we really need to do is to be ourselves and not worry about what others think of us: “Oh she is not neat and tidy.” You keep a lived in home, and not a house that is ready for potential buyers.  However, there is a deeper message to this hospitality. Paul tells us that in the letter to the Colossians. In all we do and say, Paul tells us the “Word of God must be made fully known.”

5. Like Mary, we choose to know Jesus more closely and proclaim him more clearly. This is the better part and it will not be taken from us. Paul says he does this by completing in his own body the sufferings of Christ .  This is a rather bold thing for Paul to say. But it does not mean that the sufferings of Christ lack anything in terms of atonement. In the Letter to the Hebrews we read: “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” However, Paul says that his own sufferings is a manifestation of the sufferings of Christ. What is lacking is not the atoning power, but a reminder in our time and age and culture that Christ died and rose for us all.

In our lives we continue to let Jesus be seen through the way we bear our crosses and share our joys in life. Then Jesus takes over as the “host”. He is the Master of ceremonies and he will totally captivate one and all in the same way as he had Mary’s full time and attention. The great communicator, Carl Buechner said, “People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”  Paul tells us that it is Christ whom we proclaim. It is through our welcoming them, that we bring them to full maturity in Christ.

In this word and action, we are blessed by God.