HELLO!

Here is the Halifax Herald column I spoke of in yesterday’s blog: https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-chronicle-herald-metro/20260516/281857240173448 Title: Yearning to belong runs deep

What If God Is Just A Stranger on A Bus? I appreciate the many metaphors for God in the Bible- a rock, a shepherd, the light, the wind and a king. I also love the feminine metaphors in Scripture comparing God to a human mother, a mother hen, a mother bear, a mother eagle and a woman searching for a lost silver coin. But have you ever considered the metaphor of stranger in relation to God? Irish philosopher Richard Kearney points out how God came to Abraham and Sarah in the guise of three strangers to tell them the news they were to become parents. Abraham and Sarah welcomed the strangers and gave them food. Russian Orthodox painter Andrei Rublev created his famous icon of the Trinity portraying them as the three strangers who visited Abraham and Sarah.

We know Jesus referred to himself as a stranger, when he said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” After Jesus’ resurrection, he appears as a stranger to fellow travellers on the road to Emmaus. They chat with Jesus and even have a meal with him but don’t recognize him. Philoxenia Love of the Stranger by Rev. Charlie Baber, a comic artist and Methodist minister living in North Carolina created this poster of the three strangers, his take on the original Rublev icon.

What does the metaphor of God as a stranger teach us? We are so often wary of strangers, yet if strangers’ faces reflect the face of God then at the very least, we owe them a smile, a greeting, and perhaps an invitation to share conversation. I find the strangers I pass as I walk in our urban landscapes seem hungry for positive recognition and interaction, isolated as we are from other people so much of the time.

A number of years ago there was a news story about a Winnipeg transit driver who stopped his bus on a chilly morning to get out and give his shoes to a barefoot stranger. The story garnered international attention. The bus driver seemed surprised at all the media exposure he was receiving. He figured most people would do the same thing he did if they saw a stranger in need. It reminds me of the 1995 hit song called “What If God Was One of Us?” by singer Joan Osborne. The chorus goes, “What if God was one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?” I believe people need to be safe, I do not recommend, ever, putting yourself at risk, we all need to practice self-care and caution. But there is certainly more all of us can do to offer welcome to a stranger. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2 Peace, Kevin