Faith.In.Life

Care for the Stranger

Gen 23:1-4

When Sarah was 127 years old, she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her. 

Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders, “Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can give my wife a proper burial.” 

In the book of Hebrews 13:1-2 we read:

Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!

So we hear a long standing Jewish parable of sorts that goes all the way back to Genesis 18 when Abraham hosted the Lord through the three.  That he was not just hosting strangers, but rather the Lord himself.  Thus you never know what type of strange might come to your door as it could be an angel, or even the Lord Himself.  However, this was not a paradigm other religions necessarily have, and just like in the parable of the Good Samaritan it is the Samaritan who stops to help the man beaten on the side of the road, even though there was no law or expectation for the Samaritan to do so.

Here, now with the death of Sarah, Abraham has nowhere to burry his beloved wife and therefore no place to have a gravestone where he could return to visit.  So he approaches the Hittite’s who equally have no law or regulation to honor Abraham’s request.  They would be right in casting him out as the stranger and foreigner he is - for their is only risk in welcoming illegal immigrants (I am sure we never hear that in our culture).  But, this is not a political statement, it is simply to say that sometimes people who are not Christians, who hold different believes, and values that actually act more like Christians then those who have the law do.  It is strange that sometimes people who have no law what-so-ever, are sometimes the people that are far more loving and gracious.

Which brings me the cemetery that Faith Church owns.  We have a unique opportunity with a long standing cemetery by our building to which sometimes people in the community that have no connection to our church in any other way, will come to us and ask if they can be buried in the cemetery.  Overall, the cemetery trustees have decided to be a light to the community and allow our grounds to be used for public use.  Occasionally, the people will take the next step, and equally ask for either me to speak at the graveside once their loved one is buried - or even host the funeral itself.  

Just recently, though, there were three that walked into Faith’s doors who were looking for something very similar that Abraham was looking for - a place to mourn the deceased and while they didn’t use our cemetery to bury their dead - they were looking for a church that might be willing to host the funeral.  Honestly, the easy answer would be no for a variety of reasons - two reasons stand out:  One, it gives us quite a bit of extra work to do especially here as we are heading into the Christmas season.  Two we here at Faith Church are going to offer a Christ centered service - and in today’s culture, people may or may not want that - but typically they are pretty passionate on which one they want.  So, we as a church could avoid the extra work and even awkward and emotional conversation that might come next.  However, it is not lost on me that sometimes non Christians act more like Christians, and then the hospitality we show may end up blessing us just as much as we might bless the stranger or the foreigner who comes our direction in need of help.  

Now, I will be the first to admit, that sometimes, to entertain the stranger or the foreigner will take me on a wild goose chase where I sometimes wonder how much help I was able to give - or how much good the help I offered did.  However, with this family that entered our building looking for a place to be buried, I offered what I always offered - they asked if we hosted non-members service, to which I said yes we are open to doing so, but much like was the case with the Hittites and Abraham - conditions needed to be met.  In our case, we are going to offer a Christ centered service - what we like to refer to as a “Service of the Resurrection.”  What I will often say is we offer a Christ centered service and if you don’t want that, then you don’t want us to host your service.   Sometimes, people say your right we don’t want that, and then its just a matter of how awkward to conversation might get.  However, with this family, they said yes, that’s exactly what we are looking for.  And we then proceeded to sit down and plan the service.  As we did so, the family mentioned to me that we were not the first church they asked to host their loved one’s service.  They had first approached a church they had previously attended, but had not attended in some time - and that church told them no, they could not hold the service.  And I thought to myself - how tragic, that they wouldn’t even be willing to approach a conversation and to have the imagination of how they could bless the family, and then one might ask did they even consider the possibility that they might have the opportunity to “entertain angels unaware?”

Now, as the family gathered just yesterday here at Faith, and we saw around 145 people come through our doors for that service - I didn’t expect that we would necessarily entertain angels unaware - for these are people in their grief, and I fully expected to serve them.  However, it became clear to me pretty quickly that we were seeing the majority of faces in that crowd that were completely unfamiliar to us - and I started wondering what types of backgrounds each of these people might have, and I simply started praying that God would use my words to give these people comfort, hope, and even a sense of the Resurrection that is available through Christ Jesus - and that God would prepare their hearts to receive His message and the very Gospel.  

I am convinced that this is what happened, and while I may not know what tomorrow would bring for this family, I do know that once we finished with the service I had multiple people come from the family saying it was a blessed service, and that it couldn’t have gone any better.  I will note, though, that one person took a V line towards me to shake my hand.  He mentioned that he was simply a short time co-worker of the deceased, which surprised me that he had come at all, but here is the thing - I did not know anything about the deceased having never met him before - and so one of the challenges I have is to speak well on behalf of the family and Christ about this person’s legacy - and I sometimes wonder if I am doing my due diligence in trying.  This complete stranger to me came up and said everything that was shared today seems to me to have described the deceased perfectly.  I then watched the man move on to briefly give his condolences to the family, but he did not stick around very long at all.  And as sometimes one will hear about strangers; when we might hear of random faces showing up in the midst of crowds; of Good Samaritans offering assistance in times of distress; or simply a random encouragement that you may not expect - I wonder, if I will ever see that man again.  And as I ponder this, I equally wonder - did we somehow entertain angels unaware?  If nothing else, I know we as a congregation were a blessing to that family - and truly inspired hope and changed lives through this particular service.