Sermon: The Transformative Call to Welcome Strangers – Genesis 18:1-15
May 12, 2021
We look at this story, and we think, “Boy, that Abraham, he sure is putting on the ritz for these strangers, what a guy!” But for the average Ancient Near East person reading this story, they’d just go, “So?” Abraham was not some maverick hospitality guru breaking social norms…on the contrary, he was doing exactly what was encouraged and expected by his culture… What is our culture of hospitality?
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.