Genesis 26:1-5
I am not a terribly outgoing person. When I am in a crow or at a party I am very shy and reserved especially if I am left to my own. In some ways I think I need to feel my presence acknowledged and my presence appreciated. That may be an insecurity on my part but I know when I feel like an alien in a crowd. Perhaps too it's an internal mechanism I have had.... since forever, that was a self acknowledgment of how different I was being gay even if I couldn't acknowledge it to myself. Anyone who is a geek or a wallflower knows the feeling of being an alien.
In yesterdays blog I mentioned hospitality to strangers (aka, aliens). I was speaking about how we may forget that the United States was settled by nothing but immigrants. Save for the native Americans, we all came from someplace else on the globe, our roots are most often in a land whose tongue is not English, certainly not the kings English.
In today's passage Isaac resided in a foreign land as an alien. I guess the human condition does not change that much. In any event, all our histories, familial and personal, all have roots in being aliens of one kind or another. At parties I actually think I may seem to have 2 heads when I talk and that is yet another type of alien.
What can we do to help us remember that we are all aliens at heart? Or are we all really brothers at heart? Not only should we welcome and be hospitable to foreign (aliens) but also to those who simply feel uncomfortable in our midst. I know when I have a family gathering I try to make every family member feel welcome. I pull out all the stops to make them feel welcome, prepare foods to their liking and try to be a gracious and loving host. If we could only realize in our hearts that we are all brothers and sisters, children of God one and all, wouldn't it be easier to treat everybody better? Hospitality to strangers would be second nature. There are countries and communities where this is in fact second nature. Do we feel as we have earned our presence here or there and that gives us some right to exclude or make others feel unwelcome? I don't think so.
We have repeated admonitions about hospitality to strangers, the actions of the good Samaritan, doing to least of your brothers and sisters and too many other examples to note here. Perhaps some of us don't have the best memories of family and so treating someone like family would not necessarily be a good thing. Certainly we know how we would like to be treated. Certainly we know we would like to be welcomed with open arms.
That is the challenge of today's passage in my mind.
In yesterdays blog I mentioned hospitality to strangers (aka, aliens). I was speaking about how we may forget that the United States was settled by nothing but immigrants. Save for the native Americans, we all came from someplace else on the globe, our roots are most often in a land whose tongue is not English, certainly not the kings English.
In today's passage Isaac resided in a foreign land as an alien. I guess the human condition does not change that much. In any event, all our histories, familial and personal, all have roots in being aliens of one kind or another. At parties I actually think I may seem to have 2 heads when I talk and that is yet another type of alien.
What can we do to help us remember that we are all aliens at heart? Or are we all really brothers at heart? Not only should we welcome and be hospitable to foreign (aliens) but also to those who simply feel uncomfortable in our midst. I know when I have a family gathering I try to make every family member feel welcome. I pull out all the stops to make them feel welcome, prepare foods to their liking and try to be a gracious and loving host. If we could only realize in our hearts that we are all brothers and sisters, children of God one and all, wouldn't it be easier to treat everybody better? Hospitality to strangers would be second nature. There are countries and communities where this is in fact second nature. Do we feel as we have earned our presence here or there and that gives us some right to exclude or make others feel unwelcome? I don't think so.
We have repeated admonitions about hospitality to strangers, the actions of the good Samaritan, doing to least of your brothers and sisters and too many other examples to note here. Perhaps some of us don't have the best memories of family and so treating someone like family would not necessarily be a good thing. Certainly we know how we would like to be treated. Certainly we know we would like to be welcomed with open arms.
That is the challenge of today's passage in my mind.
Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you. Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’
No comments:
Post a Comment