PREPARING OUR WELCOME

(Preached on Sunday, November 7, 2004)

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.                                                          -Romans 15:7

 

There was a little old cleaning woman that went to the local church.  When the invitation was given at the end of the service, she went forward to become a member.  The pastor listened as she told him how she had accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized and become a member of the church.

The pastor thought to himself, “Oh my, she is so unkempt, even smells a little, and her fingernails are not clean.  She picks up garbage, cleans toilets — what would the members think of her.”  He told her she that she needed to go home and pray about it and then decide.

The following week, here she came again.  She told the pastor that she had prayed about it and still wanted to be baptized.  “I have passed this church for so long. It is so beautiful, and I truly want to become a member.”

Again the pastor told her to go home and pray some more.

A few weeks later while out eating at the local restaurant, the pastor saw the little old lady.  He did not want her to think that he was ignoring her so he approached her and said, “I have not seen you for a while.  Is everything all right?”

“Oh, yes,” she said.  “I talked with Jesus, and he told me not to worry about becoming a member of your church.”

“He did?” said the pastor.

“Oh, yes” she replied.  “He said even He hasn’t been able to get into your church yet, and He’s been trying for years.”

 

Hospitality, how we welcome the stranger into our lives, is a core value of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus could relate to outsiders because he was an outsider himself.

He started life in an animal feeding trough because there was not room for him, lived his adult life as a homeless person, and wound up on a cross.

He was born a refugee and executed a criminal — hardly what you’d expect for the Son of God.

But that was the point, God came to earth as a vulnerable, poor child to let us know that God understands all our sorrows and pains, all our loneliness and insecurities.

Jesus showed us how profoundly God loves all the wounded, frightened people of the world.

In God’s home, everyone is welcome, everyone has a place at the table.

 

Opening our hearts to strangers is a challenge.

But it is a challenge we are about to be faced with.

For they are coming.

The United Church of Christ is embarking on its first-ever national television advertising campaign beginning December 1, 2004.

The 30-second spot will air for 26 days on network and cable stations and will reach 60 percent of the population who will see the commercial four to five times.

The intent of the commercial is to speak in dramatic fashion tot he feelings of alienation experienced by many non-churchgoers who say they have felt excluded or unwelcome by institutional churches for a variety of reasons.

The commercial will declare that “Jesus didn’t turn people away.  Neither do we.  The United Church of Christ — no matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”

 

The question to us then becomes, are we ready to welcome the people who see this commercial, hear this message, and then respond by showing up on Sunday morning?

If we are truly to become a welcoming church, then the virtue of hospitality must become second nature for us.

For that to happen, two things must take place.

 

First, we literally need to see things differently.

Hospitality and welcome are truly difficult virtues to cultivate in our world today.

Especially since 9/11 our world increasingly makes us suspicious of strangers.

Many of us live as strangers in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and perhaps even in our own families.

Many of us even participate in church as strangers.

 

Henri Nouwen understood hospitality to be a central core of the spiritual life.  He said: “Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us int he form of a tired traveler.  Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes close-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.”

 

Instead of viewing each other and the strangers we encounter with suspicion and distrust, we can cultivate our vision to see them through the eyes of Christ.

We can remind ourselves that each person we meet is one for whom Christ came to share God’s love and for whom Christ was willing to die.

As we do we can begin to see in each person the face of Jesus, the face of God.

Hospitality as action is the spontaneous consequence of hospitality as disposition — as second nature.

When I begin to see that the only real proof of God’s love for me is God’s love for that unkempt, slovenly, poorly dressed, slightly smelly stranger — when I begin to realize that I am the one profoundly unworthy of being loved and that God’s love for me and for that person are both based on God’s grace and God’s loving nature, not on anything lovely about us — then I can begin to extend that same love and welcome without even thinking about it.

Then, as Paul calls us to do, I can put up with the failings of the weak and not just seek my own comfort and well-bing, but their comfort and well-being first, because I understand that is exactly what Jesus did for us all.

 

As that becomes my inner disposition, then the second thing will begin to take place: I will begin to understand my role on Sunday morning to be that of host or hostess.

As followers of Christ we are God’s hosts whenever we are at church, and we have guests to look after and a marvelous feat of love to share.

Practically, this means that we come to church each Sunday with our minds set on noticing those whom we meet.

It begins with how we treat one another.

Do we approach each other, even though we have seen each other every Sunday for years, with all the respect and regard afforded an honored guest?

For example, as I see Mr. K. or Mr. S. walking slowly from the parking lot, I could easily let my eyes pass over him as if he were simple part of the weekly furnishings. 

Or, I could ask myself, “How does he look today?  What cues is he giving me about what his needs might be?  How might I be able to bring a warm welcome and an expression of love and interest in him and his life?”

If we practice hospitality with each other, then we are primed for welcoming and including the guest or stranger who may arrive at the door or sit down next to us.

 

“You only have 20 seconds to make a first impression.”

So goes the conventional wisdom about a church’s impact on someone who comes to visit our worship for the first time.

First impressions have a powerful impact on whether or not a first time guest is likely to return.

To optimize the likelihood of that happening it takes each and every one of us to work at reducing the barriers to guests and increase the climate of hospitality.