Have you ever had the experience of suddenly seeing something that had been there all along? On vacation 2 weeks ago, we had stayed in the same apartment for 3 days before anyone noticed a water tower on the horizon. Often it is something in our own home or neighborhood that we have not seen. We get used to our daily surroundings and just stop paying attention. Then, one day, for no particular reason, it is as if a spotlight shone upon that one object. Sometimes the spotlight effect is merely a re-arrangement-one thing is out of place, or missing altogether, and THAT directs our attention to the object we have "never seen before". But other times, I believe it is the Spirit within us that opens our eyes.

A closely related phenomena, is our tendency not to see people. What I mean is that we make quick evaluations of the people we meet, based on age, gender, race, clothing and behavior, and after the evaluation is made, we stop looking. We receive no further information, because we've already come to a conclusion. After I had made several big mistakes in my evaluations of people when I was beginning in ministry at Stanford, I made a conscious effort not to draw conclusions based on appearance, and even more, to keep an open mind as I get to know people.

The story of Abraham's visit with the three strangers is one of the most moving mistaken-identity stories we have in scripture and in history. Today, I will give you two different ways of understanding this story; the first one is historical, the second one is spiritual, and both will deepen our faith. As usual, we must remind ourselves of the context of this story. We must go back to chapter 16 of Genesis, where Sarah is in despair over her inability to bear a child. To satisfy her longing for a child, she gives her slave-girl Hagar to Abraham as a second wife, and in due course a boy is born, named Ishmael. Then in Chapter 17, God comes to Abraham to make a covenant, promising that Abraham will be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. God explains that this will happen through his wife, Sarah, who will bear him a son. Abraham falls on his face in laughter, and asks God to accept Ishmael. In effect he says, "No thank you, I don't need another son." Abraham has assumed that the covenant promise was given to him alone; as long as he has a son, it doesn't matter who the mother is. I know that this sounds like a good feminist analysis, and it is, but I got it from a medieval Spanish Jewish scholar, Abravanel, who explained what God was saying to Abraham: "You thought that all the good I testified for you was for your sake only, and therefore, you thought that the birth of Isaac was unnecessary…know that this is not so, but rather Sarah is deserving to bear you a covenantal son…" So it is Abraham and Sarah together who have been called into covenant with God, and given the promise of descendents, just as they were called into Canaan together. It appears, however, that Abraham did not communicate any of this to Sarah.

Is this the reason, then, that the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, to repeat the promise in the presence of Sarah? Perhaps, but something more profound was also going on. Our text says "the Lord appeared", but what if Abraham saw was three men, whom he ran out to meet? It sounds like the author of Genesis is telling us, the readers, what is going on, while making it clear that all Abraham saw was three strangers. And indeed, the central message of this story is hospitality to strangers - it matters not who the strangers are. Abraham's welcome expresses the honor he feels at their visit, and he speaks very modestly of the feast he plans to prepare: a little bread. His actions speak louder that his words: he has bowed down to the ground before them, he hastens to the tent to give instructions to Sarah and to the servant, and when he brings out the feast, he stands by while they eat.

After they had eaten, they asked him where Sarah was. The text implies, but does not state, that this is the point at which Abraham realizes who his guests are. The promise that in a year Sarah will give birth to a son would certainly make it clear. But it is possible that Abraham understood from the beginning - is it possible that the invisible God, of whom no image can be made, allowed God-self to become visible in these three strangers? Because each human is made in God's image, could it be that God was totally seeable in that through the strangers? If that is what happened, then Abraham was honoring the Divine presence in his running and bowing and hastening to prepare a feast.

In either case the more profound event is that God comes to Abraham and Sarah, to their home and to their table. God comes to them and to us in the simple guise of strangers, hoping to share the fellowship of a meal. When God calls us into a relationship, or into a closer relationship, and we miss the message, as Abraham did in Chapter 17, God approaches us again in a different way. We get as many calls as it takes, for our eyes to open, and our hearts to recognize the presence of God.

All of that is the historical interpretation. The second, spiritual interpretation can be stated much more briefly. Perhaps I should call it the symbolic interpretation? Let us assume, for a moment, that this is a story about what happens inside the heart and the soul of one individual. Abraham would present the conscious mind, more or less content with life as it is (resting under the heat of the day). Sarah in the tent would represent the unconscious, alert, but hidden. When the spirit of God comes to us, very often we do not know that it is the Holy Spirit. We identify the thoughts coming from the spirit, as the influence of a movie we've seen, a book we've read, or a friend we've listened to. We busy ourselves mentally in dealing with the thoughts, or we dismiss them, without knowing that they come from God. It is only when God speaks directly to the unconscious, announcing the promise and calling us to service, that the conscious mind recognizes God's presence.

Notice the different reactions that Sarah and Abraham have to God's call. Abraham takes the question, "Why did Sarah laugh" as a judgment, and like Adam, insists that Sarah was at fault. Sarah's laugh, on the other hand, was a direct emotional response to the prophecy that she and her husband will have sexual relation. "Shall I have pleasure?" she says. And God's answer is "is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" Symbolically this refers to the union of the conscious and the unconscious; to maturity, to wholeness, to growing up in love into the fullness of the stature of Christ. But it is also God's affirmation of the goodness of sexual intimacy between a husband and a wife.

By now, I am sure you have realized that the image on the front of the bulletin is an icon of the three strangers, seated in front of one oak tree, depicted as angels. This icon was painted by Andre Rublev in Russia in 1425. It may be the most widely recognized of all Russian icons. It was painted, not to explain the Holy Trinity, but to help the monks remain centered in God, in a time of political turmoil. The angel in the middle is Christ, pointing to the chalice, in which a small lamb is nestled. The angel on the right is the Holy Spirit; and they are both looking at the Creator, the angel on the left. They are seated at a table, and there is clearly room for a fourth person to come and sit opposite to Christ. If any person looks prayerfully at this icon, she or he will become aware of a gentle invitation to take that fourth seat, and to participate in the conversation among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being there, in the fourth seat, we experience the divine hospitality, which welcomes us no matter how long we have stayed away or how much we have done wrong.

Remaining in that fourth seat, we experience the love that is the dynamic life of the Trinity, and find that it flows into our own hearts as well. And having sat in loving communion at the spiritual table of the icon, we are able to come to this altar in an entirely different way, with our eyes open to the presence of God in the strangers around us.

AMEN