Welcoming Bread

Today we read the story of Abraham and the hospitality he showed to 3 strangers in Genesis 18:1-8. We look at the New Testament vision of hospitality, and realize that the Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia (love for the stranger) which is the opposite of xenophobia (fear of the stranger). We see that love for the stranger can only happen when we know God's love for us when we were still enemies. And we ask ourselves if the message the West (and the western church) is sending to the world in regards to immigration/refugees is xenophobia or philoxenia.