PROPER 11, YEAR C

July 17, 2022

Christ Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

Genesis 18:1-4

Luke 10:38-42

 

Prominent in today’s readings is the theme of hospitality. In the Old Testament reading from Genesis, Abraham and Sarah prepare a meal for three mysterious visitors who appear outside their tent by the oaks of Mamre—near the town of Hebron in what is today the West Bank. And in the Gospel reading from Saint Luke, Martha and her sister Mary receive Jesus and his disciples into their house after they enter their village on their travels.

 

By the way, the exquisite icon on the cover of the service sheet depicts the three visitors in the Genesis reading. The great fifteenth-century Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev renders them as three angels, representing in visible form the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Hence in Eastern Orthodox iconography this image is known both as “the Hospitality of Abraham” and the “Old Testament Trinity.”

 

A preliminary point, not to be overlooked, is that as the incarnate Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, the same Jesus of Nazareth who visits Mary and Martha in the Gospel is identical with the second of the three mysterious visitors who appear to Abraham and Sarah so many centuries before. The deepest connection between the two stories is the self-same identity of the divine protagonist in both!  

 

Beyond that, the two stories exhibit some fascinating structural parallels. First is the initial welcome itself. The hosts in both stories go to considerable trouble to entertain their guests. Abraham and Sarah prepare for their three visitors a meal of cakes, curds, milk, and a calf. (One easy-to-overlook detail in the icon is the calf’s head in the bowl on the table.) Similarly, Saint Luke tells us that Martha is busy “with much serving” as she prepares dinner for not just three guests but at least thirteen—our Lord and his twelve disciples.

 

In both stories, moreover, the visitors are not just passive recipients of the hospitality. They actively deliver a word or message to their hosts. In the case of Abraham and Sarah, this word takes the form of a promise of the miraculous birth of a son to a previously childless couple well past childbearing years. In the case of Martha and Mary, Luke doesn’t tell us what Jesus is saying, only that Mary sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to his teaching. In doing so, incidentally, she’s fulfilling the second duty of Middle Eastern hospitality, which is not only to attend to the guests’ physical needs for food and drink, but also to pay personal attention to the guests themselves.

 

In both stories, there follows an objection from one of the two hosts. At the tent’s door, Sarah laughs to herself and scoffs at the ludicrous idea that in her old age she will yet conceive and bear a son. And Martha complains to the Lord that he doesn’t seem to care that her sister Mary has left her to serve dinner alone: “Tell her then to help me!” 

 

But in both cases the objection is overruled. The Lord asks Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh? … Is anything too hard for the Lord? … I will return to you in the Spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” Similarly, Jesus gently rebukes Martha with the words: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”

 

In both cases, finally, the substance of the promise is an assurance of eternal life. Abraham and Sarah live at a time and in a culture that has no developed sense of a personal afterlife, so that their only hope for living on after death is in and through their progeny. The Lord’s promise of a son is thus, in effect, the promise of salvation and immortality.

 

Similarly, the Church has traditionally interpreted the Lord’s words, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her,” as pointing to the life of the world to come. In this understanding, Martha represents the active life of service and good works in the world, while Mary represents the contemplative life of prayer and adoration. However worthy our ministries of service in this life may be, in heaven it will no longer be necessary to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, or clothe the naked. So these activities will cease, and all that will remain will be the beatific vision of seeing God face-to-face. Sitting at the Lord’s feet and imbibing his teaching, Mary already experiences a foretaste of this heavenly bliss. And that is “the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” 

 

So, what do these two biblical stories have to teach us today? Well, one implication is that receiving guests and offering them hospitality is an entirely good and worthwhile endeavor. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”—clearly a direct reference to today’s Old Testament reading and a source of inspiration for Andrei Rublev’s icon.

 

But today’s readings also warn us not to get so caught up in our active ministries that we neglect to listen to the Lord’s voice, believe in his promises, and receive his blessings. In the life of a parish church like this one, we have multiple opportunities for service. Since my arrival here a month and a half ago, I’ve been amazed at the sheer energy of so many dedicated workers combining their efforts to advance the parish’s mission in so many different ways: from teaching Sunday School, to flipping hamburgers on the grill, to daubing black paint on the wrought iron fences outside. And that’s all good.

 

But the one activity that needs to stay at the center of it all is what we’re doing together here and now—gathering to worship the Lord, listen to his Word, and partake of his gifts. When we kneel to pray in worship and adoration, we are, like Mary, choosing the good portion, which shall not be taken away from us. For nothing is too hard for the Lord.