I had volunteered to take a University Outreach trip to the Costa Rican rainforest, one that emphasized the spiritual dimension of service. In preparation I brought the group out to our land for a simple introduction to the contemplation of nature. We had one slight problem – four students from Yonkers were scared stiff in the woods. When I sent them out to contemplate, nervously giggling and holding hands, the best they could do for the hour was to talk with our neighbors’ cows. They were so afraid of the strangeness of the woods (from which you could see our house and the neighbors’ pasture) that they could not experience the riches nature was offering them.
Fear and Survival
Fear, of course, helps us survive by motivating us to avoid danger. Scientists believe that our ancestors, who lacked sharp teeth, claws or fast feet, banded together to face the cave bears, snows, and other people that threatened their existence. Their common fear led them to work together, enabling these feeble individuals to survive.
Fear by nature puts us on the defensive. It builds a wall that we peek above when we sense a threat. Should the threat continue we tend to fight, preferably as a part of a group, seldom considering whether or not there might be another more preferable response. When a tiger threatens, indecision might prove fatal. Shoot first and ask questions later.
Yet there’s a problem with this. In the famous story from the Bible’s book of Genesis the patriarch Abraham sees three strangers approaching his tent pitched alongside the road. Abraham easily could have killed these potential threats. Instead, following the custom of hospitality he welcomed them as guests, feeding them and tending to their needs. It was then that they told him that his wife Sarah, who was far beyond childbearing age, would bear him their long awaited son. Tradition sees these three strangers as either messengers of God, angels, or God Godself. What might have happened had he not welcomed them? Abraham might have missed out on life-changing news… and the course of history might have forever changed.
The Importance of Hospitality
In the desert where food, drink and shelter are scarce hospitality provides the means for travelers’ survival. Welcoming the stranger enables people to circulate and to share news. It opens up new possibilities. The same is true for us. Although most of us do not live in a desert, entertaining the stranger opens us to the possibility of encountering something new, of learning and growing, of hearing God speak to us in surprising ways.
Yes, it can be risky to welcome a stranger, someone from outside our little group that comforts and protects us. But it’s also risky not to welcome the stranger, to see beyond our preconceptions that lead us to fear him, her or it.
I have two deeply spiritual, religious friends who are die-hard fly fishermen and who experience God’s presence everywhere. They decided to go to Alaska to fish in known grizzly territory. Having been at the top of the food chain all their lives, they decided that they needed to know what it felt like to like to have others consider them prey. They did not take unnecessary risks, but did feel they were called to grow by encountering someone else more powerful than they. It gave them perspective and humility. It put them as humans and individuals in their place.
Fear, when combined with respect for, and appreciation of, difference can open us up to new dimensions of life. It can help us learn to live in a risky world, living wisely with others who are different and yet capable of helping us grow.
So, when we’re tempted to circle the wagons in the face of “them,” whether they be people who speak a different language, who dress and look strange, who live in the city or country, who tote guns or abhor them, or…who can eat us, perhaps we need to remember Abraham. “They” might be the very ones sent by God to help us grow, to survive in the desert in which we live. Perhaps we all might prosper if we welcomed the stranger. Hospitality just might be the key to our survival.