Advent Lutheran Church

"The Reverse Welcome (Pentecost 2)"

            During the Children’s Time, I brought them up to show them the Joplin Cross – a large cross made from debris of Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin – including shredded wood from the beams, shattered stained glass, and a brick from the entrance.  The cross began its journey at the Central States Synod Assembly two weeks after the tornado, and will continue to travel from congregation to congregation in Missouri and Kansas, serving as a focal point for prayer and a reminder of the need for financial support to allow Peace to recover.  We ended with a time of prayer of thanksgiving for our own beautiful church building, and the “real” church, the people of God.

 

Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

            Today we begin the second half of the Church Year, the season of Pentecost.  The first half of the year is the “festival” half – celebrating Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection and his teaching and ministry.  The second half is known as “ordinary time” or the Time of the Church, and is used to lift up the work of God’s people through the Church, as they grow in discipleship and witness.

            So I’ve been thinking about the Church, both as the people of God, and as a building. “Sanctuary” we call the building, which has a rich history all its own.  Ancient people recognized a religious "right of asylum" to exist inside a church structure.  This concept was adopted by the early Christian church and was exercised all the way into the 7^th century, when the English king made the first laws regulating sanctuary around 600 A.D.  These stood until 1623, shortly after the time of Luther, and were abolished by King James, who gave us the King James edition of the Bible. For awhile the idea lay fallow, until it was revived in the United States in the 1980’s as the “sanctuary movement” and churches opened their doors to Central American refugees who were seeking asylum in the United States.  Therefore we do still see the Church as a Safe House; a place that takes you in, and provides rest, welcome, safety, peace…

            Our text from Matthew’s Gospel today is about hospitality: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me” says Jesus, and we begin to see how our idea of “welcome” has been impacted by the idea of “sanctuary.”  We see hospitality as receiving folks in the midst of their comings and goings.   We’re taught to “Go and Tell” them to “Come and See.”  But just as every host/hostess has a different way to welcome guests, churches are just as individual and unique in their ideas of hospitality.  Some have coffee bars and book stores, others excuse the children during worship, to keep the noise and activity level subdued.  Some incorporate music from the culture and some offer motivational or self-help preaching.

            So what is the real hospitality of welcome?  Well, Wikipedia defines is as, “the relationship between guest and host” which probably comes very close to the tradition of our Jewish forerunners in the faith, who were centered on their sense of a community caring for its own.  We would probably like that definition for ourselves:  a warm, friendly church that takes care of our own.  Reminds me of the airline direction to, “Put on your OWN oxygen mask first before assisting your child…”  We are pretty good at taking care of each other first, and then, if there is something left over, to take that out there beyond the doors of our sanctuary.

            I’ve mentioned the book, Crossing the Bar a few times now, specifically for the premise it presents that the way we see ourselves within the church community is NOT how most of the world sees us.  For where we see a caring, loving gathering of friends, the folks “out there” see the Church as hypocritical, closed groups of cliques who are bent on telling folks how to live their lives.

            So how can we welcome those who don’t “Come and See,” and who have no desire whatsoever to cross our threshold and see who we are?  There are lots of folks out there, more and more, who don’t think they “need” welcoming, hospitality, or even God.  So we need to take stock of our life as Church.  Maybe it’s not WHAT we do, but HOW we do it.  Maybe it’s not WHAT we say, but HOW we say it…

In 1998, Robert S. McGee wrote a book called, The Search for Significance in which he stated that human beings will never find our meaning apart from God (or to be more politically correct these days) apart from a “higher power” or a spiritual source “greater than ourselves.”  But, says McGee, as we become more connected to God, we find ourselves less concerned with our selves and more able to hear the needs of others.

            On the back of the bulletin for the past few weeks you may have read the notes that are printed there, and they might have had a familiar ring to them, as they were written by Pastor Roger.  This week he outlines a number of small ways that we might tune in to the needs of others around us, even if we think those folks are completely fine.  And when we touch one another’s need with a gentle word, a smile or an understanding ear, we are sharing, “the bread of life.”

            Perhaps we simply need a new perspective on hospitality.  Perhaps the Church should try what I’d like to call, “Reverse Hospitality” – or “taking the church with us.” Let those “out there” welcome you – in other words, you receive their hospitality and welcome, just like the disciples did on their first mission (the Sending of the 70.)  Jesus told them not to take anything along, but to depend on the kindness of strangers, to find the ones who will “receive” you.  Famed coach Hank Stram once said, “The receivers are an integral part of the passing game.” But oh, how we want to be the quarterback!  We have such difficulty in receiving.  Why?  Because we like control. We like the privilege of being the ones who have it to give!

            But that doesn’t always help.  On our first mission trip to Atongo, Mexico, we thought we were bringing the Gospel of Jesus to those who had not heard in Mexico.  What we quickly found was that WE were deeply blessed more by them than they ever were by us!  When I was in San Diego before seminary, I would go periodically with my church to cross the border at Tijuana and visit a small village of people who literally lived in the city dump.  They made shelter out of cardboard boxes and pieces of sheet metal, and scratched out an existence living on the refuse of that city.  One trip we decided what they really needed was clean, fresh water.  So on our next visit, we filled a pick up truck with gallon jugs of fresh water, and rolled into the dump.  People came running to receive the water, and we all felt great about the difference we had made.

            However, on our next trip, they wouldn’t talk to us.  They didn’t even come out of their shelters to greet us and see what we had.  We finally found out that on our last trip, we had disrupted their entire way of life by bringing in the water.  You see, Maria was the Water Lady.  It was her task to find small containers of water and bring them to the dump to barter for whatever folks had found in the trash.  She would then pawn whatever she had gotten for the water and feed her family.  Our well-intentioned gift had destroyed her “business” and completely disrupted the economy in the dump for weeks.

            Wikipedia’s last definition for receive is:  to take upon oneself, sustain, bear, endure, to walk with.  Maybe all we have to do is GO and BE…let the others do the talking so you know how to help.  Maybe our part in “the healing of the world” is simply accompanying the world for awhile – in our workplaces, our schools, at the soccer game or in the grocery store - listening/receiving until you know what the world needs.  Then, when you know what they really need, you can really love…

            The Church used to welcome people in.  Now, the Church is YOU, as you are received out there in the world.  So go.  Start small.  Walk with.  Listen.  Maybe today is the day when you pick up one extra blue stone from the font, and put it in your pocket. Then, let the Holy Spirit speak, and tell you when the person you are talking to needs a bit of encouragement, or a simple reminder that “Jesus is their rock.”  And then YOU will become the safe place, the sanctuary.  Just like that camp song you learned so long ago:

                                    “Lord prepare me, to be a Sanctuary –

                                                Pure and holy, tried and true.

                                     With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living

                                                Sanctuary for you.”