Room for the Stranger

Think back to the last time you were the new person in a room.

Maybe it was a job. Maybe it was a town. Maybe it was your first Sunday in a congregation where everybody had a history and you had a name tag. You stood there trying to look like you belonged, and you could tell within five minutes who was being kind and who was making room.

Those are two different things. Kind is a handshake. Room is "come eat with us," and then doing it again the next week.

You remember the ones who made room. You probably remember their names.

God is going to build a command on that memory.

Strangers have a way of showing up. He moves in three doors down, takes the job at the shop, walks into the building on a Sunday and sits by himself. He didn't come with a need you can fix. He came with nothing but himself, and the question is whether there's room.

We'll start in Leviticus, where God tells Israel how to treat the foreigner living among them, and then tells them why. You are to love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt, Leviticus 19:34. Notice He doesn't argue that the stranger deserves it. He reminds Israel that they know what it feels like. That's the whole argument, and it still works.

Then we'll come to Hebrews 13, where the writer sets two commands side by side. Let brotherly love continue. Don't neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it, Hebrews 13:1-2. The two words underneath those sentences are built on the same root. Love of the brother. Love of the stranger. The writer never suggests you have to pick.

Before we finish, we'll look at the Lord, who came into this world with no place to lay His head and spent three years being taken in by whoever would take Him in.

Read Leviticus 19:33-34 and Hebrews 13:1-3 this week. Then read Ephesians 2:11-19 and notice who Paul says you used to be.And answer this before you get to the building: who is the stranger you already know about? The one on your street, at your job, in your pew. You probably don't have to think long.
Bring the name with you.