Grace Killian, MDiv candidate and a seminarian at Memorial Church, delivered the following remarks at Morning Prayers in Harvard's Memorial Church on September 27, 2019.
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Abraham looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”
(Genesis 18:2-10)
One Saturday a month, the sanctuary of the United Methodist Church in Halle, Germany is transformed into a Repair Café. Together the congregation deconstruct their rows of chairs and set up worktables full of sewing machines, work lights, and, of course, there is a table full of coffee, tea, and cakes. At 2 pm, people, Germans and refugees, alike bring broken items to be repaired with help from others who are skilled in different kinds of repairs. A mother and daughter from Syria sew ripped curtains for their new home in the city with the help of a women of the congregation. A German man brings a lamp to be fixed and sits together with men near and far to repair it. Young Germans sit together over coffee and cake with young refugees, patiently practicing German. The room is filled with a cacophony of different languages as people greet one another and assist each other in repair projects. By 5 pm, most items have been repaired and Germans and refugees join together again to return the sanctuary to its necessary layout for worship the following morning.
This scene describes just one of the many different ways I witnessed churches in Germany reaching out to welcome the flood of refugees in their communities in 2016. Again, and again, I was struck by the radical nature of the hospitality I witnessed. Hospitality is not simply kind or polite, it is transformative and subversive. In times when our world feels shrouded in fear and divisiveness, welcoming the Other, the one that is different from us, affirms our shared humanity and assures us that differences are not inherently scary.
Indeed, it is not only refugees that we must be welcoming but all those that may be different from us. Providing hospitality at our borders, in our communities, and in our sanctuaries is a powerful statement of reconciliation and vital work for the transformation of the world. Just as the sanctuary of the United Methodist Church in Halle is transformed once a month to welcome refugees, the people who came together in that space participated in transformative acts. We, too, are called to transform our spaces to welcome those that may be different from us in a number of ways. In doing so, we open ourselves and our community to the possibility of greater transformation. Engaging and working with the Other forces us to constantly re-imagine what our communities could look like, the ways they could be safer, more peaceful, and more just for all.
After Abraham welcomed the strangers, his life did not continue unchanged but rather new life was brought in his world in the form of a son. In the same way, practicing radical, transformative hospitality in our lives and our sacred spaces can breathe new life into our communities.