The Hospitality Industry

The Hospitality of Abraham, Unknown Artist

Genesis 18:1-10

Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

I have worked in the Hospitality industry consistently for several years now. Yes I do Accounting, but I do it for a Hotel. Even when I did Accounting for companies that managed restaurants, I still kept a second or third job working at a hotel. Plus restaurants count as hospitality too, so I feel like my experience should count as quadruple. Be it high brow, low brow or no brow, I have experience of working every level of hospitality. Yes I have crazy stories. Yes I have graveyard shift stories. Yes I have celebrity stories. Yes I have medical emergency stories. Yes I have cute old people stories. Yes I have earthquake at the hotel stories. Yes I have robbery stories. Yes I have drunk people stories. Yes I have kick people out of the hotel stories. Yes I have big tip stories. Yes I have charming tourist stories. Yes I have post-wedding reception fight stories (thankfully not mine). I even have a crazy/celebrity/fight story (but I can't tell that one for a few years). Outside of a heap of stories I have learned a few things about giving good hospitality service. Hotels and restaurants that give good hospitality know that the little things that count. It is all about giving to people. Not just a clean bed or a steak and salad. Quality hospitality is about being attentive to needs and giving more than is expected. The best places (large or small, family run or corporate) focus extra attention on giving. That is why the most complete hotels are called "full service." They take every opportunity possible to give.

The bulk of these verses from Genesis are made of details about details. The author doesn't just state that Abraham and Sarah treated their three mysterious guests well. We are given the play by play of every detail of their hospitality to their visitors. Some read this narrative and assume that Abraham knew right out that they were angels. The artist of the icon has pictured them that way. However I am of the thinking that Abraham was just a kind Middle Eastern fellow (his hometown that he emigrated from was in present day Iraq) that took pride in his hospitality to strangers. As a travelling herdsman he knew the toils of life on the road and offered a rest stop for these three strangers. Kindness to strangers was standard to Abraham, You may read something into Abraham calling them "My Lord" and referring to himself as their "servant." Yes, it may be that he realized early on that he was encountering the Divine, but it may be that he was referring to them as "Lord" like we refer to someone as "Sir" or another title of honor. His referral to himself as their "servant" showed his humility. By this point Abraham was a rich herdsman who hobnobbed with Pharaohs, but humble acts of service toward those in need were not beneath him. Humility was standard for Abraham. So he set a comfortable meal before be fore his gusts, and that's when things got weird... 

Our snippet of the story ends with the strangers telling Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear a son. It is strange because these are total strangers and because they are speculating about future medical events. But more than that it is strange because Abraham and Sarah and 30 years into their senior citizenship. Abraham and Sarah had been getting in half price to matinee movies after a meal at the local Bob Evans for some time now. They were elderly and childless. They wanted children but it never seemed medically possible... especially now. That may be why God chose to do it in their senior years. A gift of a child at this point would no be seen as normal, it would be understood as a miracle. It would be seen as a gift of God. It would be seen as God's hospitality. Abraham (who is known to history as Father Abraham) was promised by God to be the father of nations... that through him the world would be blessed. He would go on to have a son named Isaac. His relationship with God would birth Monotheism. He is understood to have been the first Jew. It could be said that Abraham was blessed because he trusted and served God. This is true. But it is also true that God trusted and served Abraham. Before Abraham knew Him, God was planning out His hospitality to Abraham.

Trinity, Andrei Rublev

All of the big three Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) place Abraham in high esteem, however, in Christianity we see much more to God's promise of greatness to Abraham's descendants. We read into God's promise to bless the world through Abraham's offspring the glimmer of hope through his descendant Jesus. The promise of the Messiah is like a snowball that starts in the Garden of Eden and rolls throughout the Old Testament scriptures until it builds big enough to take out a BMW. Most contemporary Jews accept some notion of the Messiah... God's special servant who rules as a King and makes all right with the world. It is debated whether the Messiah is an one actual person, an age or the people Israel collectively. Christians (obviously) believe that Jesus is that long awaited Messiah (hence the name Christ, since Christ & Messiah mean the same thing in two different languages). But it is more complex than choosing whether the Messiah is a person, age or Israel collectively... Jesus is obviously a person, yet he is more than just a person. We believe that Jesus is God. We believe that God's special servant who rules as King is God Himself in flesh. So what about the times when Jesus prays to God as his "father"? Or the times that God speaks from Heaven about Jesus when Jesus is around? Well that's because they are different people... or "persons"...but all the same God... Okay, it's complicated. Oh yeah, and when Christ sent down the Holy Spirit to the Apostles to dwell in the hearts of believers... that was God too. like I said: it's complicated. So when Christians looked back on scripture in light of Christ they not only saw foreshadowing of Christ and the Church but they also saw pre-revelations of the Christian understanding of God's nature. Most throughout Christian history have seen the three strangers/angels that visited Abraham to be the Trinity Himself. Therefore Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev revisited the commonly reproduced icon of "The Hospitality of Abraham" and remixed as a painting of the Trinity. All he had to do was crop out Abraham and Sarah. It's an interesting testament to the evolution of theological belief. It shows how a familiar Biblical narrative can give us new gifts when we view it with fresh eyes. Even God's Word practices it's own form of hospitality.

So it appears that we have God in three persons but the same being. I would attempt to use an illustration to simplify it, but many of the illustrations used to simplify our understanding of the Trinity usually simplify it too much and lead to borderline heresy. I think that the best thing to keep in mind when contemplating the triune nature of God is that God is different. That's it. We accept that other things in life are greater/different than us. Why can't we accept this with God? God uses metaphors in Scripture to show us what He is "like" or what his relationship to us is comparable too, but these analogies have their own limits. God is greater than anything we can imagine. Holier than we can percieve. More perfect than we can fathom. In the end he is way more gooder than we could ever be: the mostest gooderest of all... and yes, I know that "gooder" and "gooderest" are not real words. But that's just it: my words and grammar fail to explain what and who God fully is. When words fail God has given us a better teacher to reveal his identity: experience. Scripture is filled to the brim with the ancients experiences with God. How Abraham experienced Him to be a friend. How his wife Sarah experienced Him to be a healer. How his descendant Moses would later experience Him to be a deliverer. In our own lives we experience Him to be a loving Father, a saving Son and a comforting Holy Spirit. And the attributes of God that Scripture testifies to but we have yet to experience we will know fully when He resurrects us to eternal life with Him. God is a wonderful caretaker who understands the detailed needs of all under His care. When we experience His giving nature it reveals to us more details about who He is. He gives because God's business is hospitality. If you are one of God's children (and the spiritual offspring of Abraham), how hospitable are you? Are you inheriting your Father's business?