Sermon preached at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital at the weekly Ecumenical/Interfaith Worship Service
Readings from Genesis 18:1-15, Matthew 25:31-46 and from an interpretation of the
Qur’an Surah 51:26-28 and Surah 76:8
Good afternoon. I suspect you might have guessed
what I want to talk about today: Hospitality! The introduction and the readings
and the songs were all a bit of a give away weren’t they? And where better to
talk about hospitality, than in a hospital? After all, the word hospital comes
from the Latin hospes, which meant stranger,
guest, or even foreigner, so a hospital was a place where the stranger could
stay and be looked after.
Although we only heard Jewish, Christian and Muslim
texts today, hospitality is an important element in many more faiths. In
Buddhism for example hospitality (called sakkāra) is the act of being welcoming
and helpful to guests, strangers, and travelers - whatever their caste,
religious affiliation or status. Offering hospitality is also fundamental to
Hindu culture and providing food and shelter to a needy stranger was a
traditional duty of the householder. In fact what is, I am told, a popular
Hindu proverb sounds almost as if it had been written as a summary of the
Scriptures we heard today: "The uninvited guest should be treated as good
as God."
For in the texts we heard a moment ago the guests are
God, or at least of supernatural status. If we look first at the story of
Abraham and the strangers we will notice some differences between the Biblical
and Qur’anic versions. In Genesis Abraham runs, and hastens, and tells Sarah to
be quick in making the cakes – frantic would be a good word to describe him. In
Surah 15 on the other hand Abraham goes quietly, almost reverently, into his
household to prepare the meal. But the stories still have much in common.
Abraham and Sarah are generous in their hospitality for they offer not
just survival rations of food and water, but a feast with a fatted calf. And their
hospitality is shown not only in the food they prepare, but also in the time
and care they give to addressing their guests’ weariness and thirst.
In Matthew’s story, as in Surah 76, the righteous are
not hospitable out of fear or because they wanted to ingratiate themselves with
God. In Matthew they are surprised to find themselves at God’s right hand. They
do not know why or what they had done to deserve this honor. The Qur’an tells
us specifically that the pious act only for the sake of Allah, and not for
reward or gratitude. In both cases care of the needy is not an optional extra;
instead it is defined as the very essence of faith.
Let us not forget that when these sacred texts were
written, hospitality often meant the difference between life and death: there
were no motels or Seven Elevens in the Judean or Arabian deserts, no hospitals,
no prison visitors or chaplains, and no food stamps. And even today the
hospitality of a hospital is quite literally often a matter of life and death,
as is shelter for the homeless in the depths of winter or the heights of
summer. But the theologian Henri Nouwen goes beyond these very practical definitions.
For him hospitality is a virtue, a virtue that allows us to “break through the narrowness of our own
fears and to open our houses to the stranger” – and to the
stranger’s ideas and insights. For him hospitality becomes a means of healing.
We practice this healing by paying attention to the other without intention
and by offering community and companionship.
Our faiths agree that we are not called to be hospitable
out of fear of retribution or the desire for a reward. Not because we should be
afraid that the unexpected, and perhaps even inconvenient, stranger might be
God. Where our faiths differ is on the proper reason for this common command or
core duty. For some simply because it is God’s will, for others out of respect
for the One who created all people and for that creation, some might see it as
an act reflecting God’s love, or because there is an element of the divine in
us all.
But the result is the same: We do not fear that
every guest is God, but we still treat them as if they were.
Amen
