Column by Mary Lee Talbot
The Rev. J. Peter Holmes was taking a rare evening off on Jan. 2, 2023, to watch the Junior World Hockey Tournament, in which Canada was playing, and the Buffalo Bills, which was playing on another channel. In switching back and forth between the games, he missed many of the commercials, but his attention was taken by one advertisement that he has seen every year since.
The commercial takes place in the Pacific Northwest. It is a dark night at a cottage on the coast. In the dark, there are some burly, bumbling figures who go into the cottage and close the door. In the morning, the ad shows that a family of Sasquatches have taken over the cottage. They cook, sleep and use the hot tub.
“I stopped for a minute to think what liturgical season we were in. Was that what it was like for Mary and Joseph, with strangers coming in, eating strange food and speaking a different language?” Holmes asked the congregation. “Herod was alarmed by the birth of another king. Mary and Joseph might have been alarmed by the angels, but they came to ponder all the messages.”
Holmes preached at the 9:15 a.m. Monday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title was “Beautiful Strangers,” and the scripture reading was Ephesian 3:1–12.
He continued, “Their son would open doors, not close them; he would welcome strangers, not reject them. There have been lots of alarms in Canada about immigrants. A few years ago, a rural community wrote rules for immigrants before there were any immigrants in their area. They wrote a code for people they had not met.”
In the advertisement, the Sasquatch family sort through some vinyl records and then play only the final lines of “Beautiful Strangers” by Kevin Morby. In the lyrics, Morby remembers the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore; the 2015 terrorist attack and massacre of 137 people in Paris; and the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando.
“Morby wanted people to see others as beautiful strangers. He wishes for them to sleep like baby Jesus, free of danger; Jesus who became a refugee,” Holmes said. “Jesus freely opened doors — to the Samaritan woman at the well, touching lepers, eating with sinners and publicans, welcoming the Lebanese woman and the Roman Centurion. Everyone was included.”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is an appeal to recognize that in his mission to the Gentiles, everyone is included in God’s grace.
“There is a richness and beauty when all are welcome,” said Holmes. “Paul helps us see the beauty in the stranger. We are all made in the image of God, and we are all sinners; therefore, we all share God’s glory by grace. But we often project onto the stranger what we don’t like in ourselves.”
The date, Jan. 2, 2023, should be a memorable one, Holmes told the congregation. It was the day Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the playing field and collapsed. “All the players were holding each other and praying. I have never seen anything like it; it did not matter which team you were on.” (The first responders revived Hamlin, and after two years, he was again a starter for the Buffalo Bills).
“We are all called to be on the same team,” Holmes said. “I saw a political ad the next day, and I wondered if one of them dropped dead, would they all form a huddle and pray? But someone did die for all of us so we can see the beauty in the stranger.”
The New York Times did a follow-up story on the rural community that made all the rules for immigrants. The town had changed — it was dying, and it put out an ad to attract immigrants. They realized that we need each other, and they let love take root.
And what about the Sasquatch family? They cleaned up the house, put flowers in the middle of the kitchen table and left a thank you note. “When they went through the glass front door, we see they were not Sasquatch but a real, human family,” Holmes said. “The ad says, ‘Strangers aren’t that strange. Try hosting. Airbnb.’ ”
He continued, “But I couldn’t help but think of Paul. Now we see through a mirror dimly. It’s time to see face to face. The grace. The grace that taught my heart to fear. The grace that my fears relieved. Beautiful stranger.”
Holmes shared the Celtic rule of hospitality with the congregation: I saw a stranger yesterday. I put food in the eating place, drink in the drinking place, music in the listening place. And in this sacred name of the Triune God, he blessed myself and my house, my cattle and my dear ones.
In Morby’s song, “Beautiful Strangers,” the final lyrics are: “If I die too young, let all that I’ve done be remembered / And I’ll sleep easy like baby Jesus in his manger / And I’ll sleep easy like little Jesus, safe from danger / Carry onward like some songbird, beautiful stranger / Carry onward like some songbird, beautiful stranger / Oh, beautiful stranger.”
Holmes said, “The lark says it often in her song. Often, often, like some songbird, beautiful stranger, oh, beautiful stranger. So be it. Amen.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution, presided. The Rev. Mary Lee Talbot, morning worship columnist, read the scripture. Laura Smith, organ scholar, performed “Berceuse” by Louis Vierne for the prelude on the Massey Memorial Organ. For the anthem, the Motet Choir, under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, accompanied by organ scholar Owen Reyda on the Massey organ, sang “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” arranged by Gilbert M. Martin. Stafford performed “Paean,” by Percy Whitlock, for the postlude. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by he Alison and Craig Marthinsen Endowment for the Department of Religion.
