Sitting Hospitality

I reflect on the challenges of hospitality, drawing from the stories of Abraham, Martha, and Mary. I share my own experiences of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, empathising with Martha’s frustration. Abraham’s generous, if anxious, welcome of guests is contrasted with Mary’s peaceful attentiveness at Jesus’ feet. I invite us all to consider when to serve actively and when to seek spiritual nourishment, encouraging the courage to choose what truly sustains us. My hope is that, by being transformed in God’s presence, we can better serve others with authenticity and love.

00:00:00 I think we get Martha’s frustration and all of that. You know, when we have that experience of hosting people for lunch, I don’t do it very often. Some of you are probably way better, way better practiced at it. But for me, it’s still this really stressful but joyful and wonderful kind of experience. You know, you want the best experience for the people who are coming over for a meal. And so you make sure that the house is clean. You make sure the table is is nicely set. You have all of the food kind of bought and prepared and you have everything ready. But you know, there’s always that that experience of just when people are about to arrive, you think, oh my gosh, I haven’t done this. I haven’t put out the glassware. I haven’t made sure the drinks are there. I haven’t put the ice on the table or whatever it is. You know, all those last minute things. Do you think, well, I can’t do that too soon because, you know, it’ll just melt or it’ll get spoiled in the heat.

00:00:57 And so you need to try and time things and and as I said, I’m not that good at doing all of those things. And yet when it comes together, there is this wonderful sense, you know, people are really grateful, and there’s this wonder and joy of people gathering and that we’ve been able to facilitate that is is a wonderful and beautiful experience. And so we get that, that sense of, of Martha’s frustration and annoyance and, and stress and, and all those kinds of things. You know, I’ve been feeling a fair bit of that, I must say, in the last few days, you know, being here alone in the parish at the moment, you know, there is this, this extra kind of stress of, of everything suddenly kind of coming on, piling on top of each other. And, you know, I’m not very pleasant company in the midst of, of all of that. And poor Darren has had to put up with a few of my tantrums, I must confess, over the last couple of days.

00:01:52 And so, you know, we get all of this. And yet one of the the examples that we’re given of, of Abraham is quite extraordinary. He’s not a young man at this point. He’s very frustrated and annoyed. Perhaps he’s already been in the Promised Land. The land that the Lord had told him that he was just to leave everything. Leave your family, your people and your nation and go to a place that I will show you. And he was mostly faithful to that because he brought lots along and brought some of his possessions along. So he didn’t quite do what he was meant to do. And there’s this kind of intriguing sense of of Abraham being a pretty complex sort of of character. You know, the first thing that he does when he arrives in the land, oh, there’s not enough food here. So let’s go down somewhere else. Let’s go down to Egypt, where there’s the the food bowl, and we’ll go down there. And oh, and this is my wife. So she’s not my wife.

00:02:49 She’s my sister. Yes. My sister. So, you know, don’t kill me to marry her. And you’re just like, oh my God, Abraham, really? You’re supposed to be the heir of the promise, and you’re doing all these sneaky, sleazy, sort of things. And yet we see some of his character today. He’s just sitting there. It seems like he’s probably dozing a bit because it’s the heat of the day, we’re told. And he said suddenly he sees these three men standing kind of quite close, and he jumps up and then runs to to greet them. That’s the first running that we get. And as he greets them, then he realizes that, hey, I need to to offer hospitality. So he runs back to the tent and he talks to his wife Sarah and says, quickly, quickly. Some knead the three loaves of bread. Three lots of bread. I’m not sure how you were able to to get all this happening so quickly. You know, bread takes a while to bake, but he tells her, just quickly make need these these three loaves into loaves so we can got some bread to offer them and then go.

00:03:52 We wash their feet and make them all hospitable. And then he runs out into the field to find one of the calves to to choose it, to slaughter it, to prepare it. So all this movement and haste. So we get a lot of this. And Abraham isn’t critiqued for any of that, you know, this frantic energy, this anxious energy that Abraham is kind of embodying. He’s not critiqued in any of this. So Martha has this pretty good basis. She can, you know, point to this precedence and say, but Lord, remember Abraham, how he ran around and did all these things and he wasn’t criticized for any of that. And yet, in this moment, we’re given this contrast between Martha’s frantic, distracted energy. And I certainly tap into that pretty regularly. You know, I’ve got so many different tasks to kind of do, the different committees that I’m on, the different roles that I have, and just trying to think, okay, so the next hour I can probably do some of this tribunal work or for the next hour I can do some of my spiritual direction study or for whatever.

00:05:01 And then suddenly there’s a call to the hospital and all that just got to be, you know, laid aside and, and this experience of this frantic, distracted energy and, you know, that that’s just not helpful. It doesn’t ground us. It doesn’t allow us to experience the peace of the Lord. And yet, Mary. Mary becomes this model for us. Mary just simply goes into a male space. Remember, it was only the men who were allowed to be there in the lounge room. There were female spaces. There were male spaces. It was very demarcated, very divided, very separate, very clear. And yet Mary, with the boldness, knows that’s where I need to be. That’s the place where I need to be in this moment, just sitting at his feet, being one of his disciples. No one invited her. No one said, oh, Mary, quick, come down and sit and be a man for the sake of today. No, she has this courage and this boldness.

00:06:07 She knows that that’s what she needs. She knows that that’s the place where she will find life, where she will be nourished, where she will encounter the the grace to be loved. So often we need that space just to recognize. What do I need to do in this moment? What is the better part for me? What is the place where I will find life, and that I can be nourished, and that I can then be changed in order that in future I’ll be able to serve in order that I will also be able to take my place in offering hospitality. There are times and there are seasons for all of these different roles, but where we are able to choose the better part. Let’s pray that we have the courage to do that. Let’s pray that we’re able to have the boldness to simply sit at the feet of the Lord and be nourished by his words, and allow those words to challenge us and change us, and call us into ourselves, into our life, into our goodness.

00:07:13 Let’s pray that the Lord might indeed open to us this gift of being able to sit in his presence, be nourished and nurtured so that we can be changed and become the people that he’s invited us to be.