Proper 17C
August 31, 2025
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
It is one of the most basic tenets of scripture in both the Old and New Testaments — hospitality to the stranger.
Abraham and Sarah are the first in scripture to model it. Abraham is sitting at the entrance to his tent when he sees three strangers approaching. He rushes to greet them, and invites them to rest a while, to wash their weary feet, and have something to eat and drink.
He orders his servants to prepare a feast for the strangers, offering lavish hospitality to these men he does not know.
As they enjoy the meal, one of the men tells Abraham that his wife, Sarah, will soon have a son. Sarah, who is 90 years old, laughs out loud at hearing such ridiculous news.
It is only after the men have left that Abraham realizes that the strangers he has entertained are angels, messengers from God. Sarah does, indeed, soon have a son, just as they foretold.
It’s safe to say that the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews was thinking about that story when he wrote the words we hear today:
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Other Biblical translations state this verse more poetically, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.”
“Angels Unaware” is the name of one of my favorite pieces of art — a sculpture in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
Some of you may have seen the full-size replica that was at our neighboring Catholic church, Holy Spirit, in January 2021. The pictures on the front and back covers of today’s bulletin were taken there.
Angels Unaware is a life-sized sculpture of 140 figures huddled together shoulder–to– shoulder on a raft, representing migrants and refugees from all periods of history, and from different cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds.
There is a rabbi fleeing from the Holocaust. A burka-clad Muslim woman fleeing civil war in Syria, a Cherokee crying on the Trail of Tears.
There are Africans in chains on a slave ship, Vietnamese boat people fleeing their homeland, an Irish boy escaping the potato famine.
There are pregnant women and infants; people with bare feet, sandals, and boots; some carrying boxes and satchels, and some carrying nothing at all. One boy holds a small dog, and another child clings to a doll.
If you look closely you will see Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus, fleeing from Herod’s murderous rule, huddled together with all the others.
And in the midst of it all a pair of angel wings emerge, telling us that on this raft full of desperate people, this raft of strangers seeking a new home, is the sacred, God’s angels, every one of them.
Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmaltz used pictures from Ellis Island and actual refugees as models for his work. “You can see throughout the piece despair and sadness, but also joy and hope,” he said.
All of the people on this raft represent those who have fled or been forced from their homelands, looking for the hospitality of strangers to help them survive and start life over again.
Of course, this country has taken in millions of refugees and migrants over the years, from every corner of the globe. When we are at our best we welcome them with open arms, knowing that the gifts they bring, and the diversity they provide will enrich us all.
Unfortunately, we are not always at our best. In 1939, a ship the St. Louis, filled with 900 Jews fleeing the Nazis, was turned away by Cuba, Canada, and the United States. Ultimately the ship was forced to return to Europe. More than half of its passengers were killed in the Holocaust.
During World War II Americans of Japanese heritage were rounded up and put in concentration camps, often losing everything they own. To a lesser degree, German and Italian Americans were also pulled from their homes and put in camps.
Offering hospitality to strangers is not just about welcoming immigrants and refugees to our country. It’s about offering hospitality to any stranger, including the ones who walk through our doors for the first time on any given Sunday.
But today the focus needs to be on those who come to our country fleeing war, violence, famine, looking for a new and better life.
And that’s because the climate to migrants and refugees is anything but hospitable. There are exceptions, of course, like our sponsorship of a family from Cameroon.
But we live in a time when those who have come here seeking refuge and a new life are instead living in fear that they may be abducted by ICE agents using Gestapo tactics, and thrown into concentration camps with miserable, inhumane conditions that no human being should be subjected to.
It is hard to know what to do in the face of such evil. We hear about it every day. Sometimes all we can do is bear witness. Here are some of the stories of people doing that.
A member of this parish, Elizabeth Wong Mark, bore witness early Friday morning at the Atlanta airport, protesting Avelo Airlines, the only commercial airline thatcarries out deportation flights. The hope is that these protests will grow, putting Avelo under pressure to stop cooperating with ICE.
A few weeks ago ICE agents showed up at a Little League baseball practice in New York City’s upper east side. When they began interrogating the young players, all of whom were black or brown, their coach, Youman Wilder told the kids to go to the dugout.
Then he stood up to ICE, invoking the children’s fourth and fifth amendment rights. He stood firm until the agents finally went away.
The Episcopal bishop of Maryland, Carrie Schofield-Broadbent was in the news this week for attending a rally supporting Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who earlier was deported to a notoriously harsh and evil interment camp in El Salvador. The outcry in his support was enough that he was released. But he now faces deportation to Uganda.
The bishop and dozens of other clergy surrounded Garcia, praying for him as he reported to a scheduled visit at an ICE office, where he was detained, and then sent to an ICE prison in Virginia.
The bishop said she participated in the rally because she wanted people to see “that there are other ways of being Christian and following Jesus that don’t look like following blindly behind Christian nationalism.
“I want whoever is looking to see Christians standing up for mercy and justice and liberation.”
That is what the Catholic bishop of San Diego wants, too. Bishop Michael Phan is himself a refugee. He was eight years old when his family fled Viet Nam by boat, floating for days without water or food. He was 14 when his family finally was allowed into this country.
Now he is the first US bishop appointed by Pope Leo, leading an ethnically diverse 1.5 million Catholics who have come from around the world to San Diego.
The bishop, dressed in clerical garb, makes a habit of going to the federal courthouse in San Diego, and sitting in on immigration hearings. He hopes he is serving “as a silent reminder of human dignity” that he hopes is comforting to migrants and challenging to masked agents, government lawyers, and judges.
Now San Diego clergy have formed a rotation of daily vigils at the courthouse, a visible witness of God’s care and concern.
We show hospitality to strangers because we recognize in them the image of God. And as a result we, too, are enriched.
In his last speech as president in 1989, Ronald Reagan acknowledged that.
“It is the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees America’s triumph shall continue into the next century and beyond,” he said. “This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness.
“We lead the world because unique among nations, we draw our people, our strength, from every corner of the world. And by doing so we are continually renewing and enriching our nation.
“If we every close the door to new Americans,” he continued, “our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
I pray that we do not see his words come to pass.
Amen.