Love the Stranger- Civic Shabbat

In today’s Torah reading we read about Avraham who was in the midst of a religious experience with God who noticed three travellers walking in the direction of his Tent and community.  It was the hottest part of the day . Avraham interrupts the sublime spiritual moment and runs towards the guests and invites them to join him in his tent for some desert hospitality. The guests were in fact angels.

The story raises a number of fundamental questions. For people of faith a direct experience of the divine would be the pinnacle of a life devoted to God. Yet Avraham interrupted his own experience to invite strangers into his tent.  God doesn’t rebuke Avraham for interrupting their conversation. Avraham was a devout monotheist in a pagan polytheist world. He didn’t seek to know what his guests believed before inviting them in. They were worthy because they were hungry and weary. As Brits the Torah text is very relatable. We even get a description of the weather, it was boiling hot!  Is God British?  Despite being  99 years old, Avraham runs towards the visitors, the drama unfolds very quickly in this chapter. Avraham is also a very respected personality with presumably many assistants. Why is he running and not one of his people?  What lessons are there in these details?

The Rabbis teach us “ Greater is Hospitality than Receiving the Divine Presence". Or in our own words:  "Greater is the Act of Reaching Out than the Comfort of Remaining Within."

Our own  religious experience is less significant than reaching out to others, especially those who are different from you.

We all know the Torah quote from the book of Vayikra  19:18 to Love your neighbour as yourself.  Each one of our faith traditions has a variation on it.  Yet in the Torah the commandment to love the stranger seems to be a greater principle, being repeated 36 times.

Former CR Rabbi Sacks said:  “It is not difficult to love your neighbour as yourself because in many respects your neighbour is like yourself. He or she belongs to the same nation, the same culture, the same economy, the same political dispensation, the same fate of peace or war. We are part of the same community of fate, and we participate in the same common good. What is difficult is loving the stranger.”

We often to choose to live within our faith community. There are benefits to doing so. But when societies fracture along these lines, when one group is fearful of walking the streets of another community, we fail the greater challenge of loving the stranger.  It is easy to make a list of the all the differences, whilst overlooking the one common factor that unites all people, our humanity.

After internalising  this ideas,  because superficially paying lip service to the idea is not acceptable, we then must run like Avraham to civic service.  True civic leadership, like Avraham's, means running out to meet the needs of the community, be it for food, shelter, or a listening ear. When we are slow to act and bind ourselves in bureaucracy and policies we undermine the claims we make.

The dignity of every citizen must matter to us, regardless of status. The person sleeping rough, the isolated pensioner, the stressed parent, or the lonely refugee is a potential "angel." Our duty is to treat every person who comes to us for help with the respect Abraham showed, even if we are unaware of their "divine" potential.

God’s silence when Avraham runs off  speaks volumes as to the importance of placing human need before personal devotion. Our prayers are not a replacement for action; they are the motivation for it. Our prayers indicate what matters to us. If healing and well being matter then go out and heal society.  When a local issue arises (like the need for a night shelter or a mental health service), that is the time to interrupt the comfort of our own routine and dedicate resources to the immediate, tangible needs of our neighbours.

Our kindness must be universal and unconditional towards the stranger in the street as well as to our neighbour.  

The civic challenge cannot be solved by one faith community alone. When faith communities collaborate, our combined resource of buildings, volunteers, and shared ethical motivation becomes an overwhelming force for good. Society needs our collective good.

The Jewish community have not always been welcomed in this country. Many years passed from being expelled in 1290 till we were readmitted in 1655.  Since then Jews have played significant roles in all areas of life. Many Jews fought for Britain in the  World Wars. Many lost their lives fighting for the freedoms we enjoy today.  Both of my grandfathers  were  in the armed forces.  Many people here have family who served.

Society today is very different from the one many of us grew up in. Today people speak of rights and benefits instead of responsibility and service. All these values are important, but a generation of young people is growing up with misguided values. They dream about  what life can give them as opposed to what they can give. The famous Lord Kitchener poster Your country needs you would not be understood by many of today’s youth. The adults in the room must lead by example. By seeing the divine within each other. By extending a hand to all those who need. By condemning intimidation, violence and aggression, by creating communities that our traditions aspire to, making space for the stranger who is not like us. Until strangers, become friends. Not because I have made the stranger into me by forcing my way on them, but because I have made space for the stranger next to me and they have  become my friend.

Our duty, our responsibility our service must be to reiterate today’s  lesson. Avraham teaches us that the Greatest Command is to move from pious intention to practical action, to literally run to help others.

We can intend to be good neighbours. We can intend to pray for the lonely. We can intend to serve the public, but nothing comes from good intentions.

On this Civic Shabbat, let our civic vow be, to look beyond the boundaries of our own faith and our own comfort, and to actively seek out ways to partner with all people of good conscience. In serving the other, we are not only fulfilling our civic duty but also encountering the profound holiness that Avraham found in the heat of the day, the three guests were indeed angels.

As RS taught: “Society is where we come together to achieve collectively what none of us can do alone. It is our common property. We inhabit it, make it, breathe it. It is the realm in which all of us is more important than any of us. It is our shared project, and it exists to the extent that we work for it and contribute to it.”

Our Yeshurun community knows that is has many friends and supporters within the broader community.  The messages of support we received after Yom Kippur  condemning the murderous attacks and those that expressed love and compassion felt like a giant hug. We have our incredible security team who are totally devoted to looking after us.  The too often silent majority needs to stop being silent.

Borrowing from the prophet Jeremiah- Let us commit to seeking  the welfare of the city and pray to God on its behalf; for in its prosperity we shall prosper. As Brits it’s easy to moan about the weather, it’s cold or it’s too hot, but just maybe in the heat of the day, in chaos of a world that seems to be on fire we can be like Avraham and run to strangers  bringing  them into our lives and discovering that the  strangers are really angels, just like us.

As King David prayed

For the sake of my brothers {and Sisters} and friends I now say: Peace be with you. For the sake of the House of the Lord our God,  I seek your good. Amen!