It is one of the oldest stories of our faith. Old Abraham answers a knock on his tent flap and finds three strangers staring back at him. With an eagerness that most of us simply cannot understand, he invites them to freshly baked cakes, fine cheese and a thick and juicy Jerusalem strip steak.

His hospitality is rewarded with the promise of a child.

New life in the midst of their old and wrinkled lives.

Such is the way of God.

Openness to others brings us into the presence of God. This was the means by which our elders sought to remind us of the importance of being open to new ideas, new thoughts, new relationships. This is the nature of our God.

"Behold, I am doing a new thing."

So what has happened to us?

Why have we so adamantly turned our backs on the strangers who come to us?

I find it absolutely stunning that Christianity has moved so dramatically far from our roots. In too many instances, we have discarded this ancient and holy tradition of hospitality and replaced it with stone walls of ideological certainty and armed guards waving Bibles, demanding acquiescence.