Welcome

Matthew 10:40-42

Welcome, there are so many things in our denomination these days about welcome. Invite, Welcome, Connect, Evangelism, Becoming Beloved Community these are a few I know of. They invite us to learn and talk about the ways in which we can offer welcome to the communities we are planted in. Welcome matters in a world which is divisive about everything, even a virus is politically divisive. Welcome is important.

So our example is right here in the scripture this morning. Welcoming people matters the you in this scripture is a universal you, this is given to the disciples as Jesus sends them out two by two into the surrounding towns just after the sermon on the mount. Welcoming these disciples matters because if they are welcome, you welcome Jesus. 

Imagine this, welcoming Jesus. We may talk about it as meeting once we are dead, or we may make reference to it, but have you ever really thought about what this means. Welcome means whether or not we accept Jesus and ultimately God. Because the Greek you is a plural this means everyone. Everyone is the one being sent, everyone is the one to be welcomed. If you look back over all your encounters this week with others, can you say you gave welcome to everyone.

See the gospel is about so much more than just simply accepting Jesus into our hearts. We are asked to provide welcome to strangers, welcome to our enemies, welcome to our brother or sister we have offended before we offer up our gifts to God at the altar. So how well do we welcome others is an important thing we should be working on our whole lives, because sometimes we don't always do this well.

There are thousands of stories about welcome The Little Match Girl, The Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe these may all seem unlikely, but in ways they are about how we welcome wisdom, strangers, people who are different and especially people who are disadvantaged. Welcome is how we learn new things, welcome is how we fail to see the harm we may do to others, welcome is how we encounter one another. 

Welcome. I was cleaning out my desk the other day and I found this welcome from so long ago, a song Evelyn Whitworth had composed about us traveling here to you in December of 2010. It was to the tune of Deck the Halls and it talked of our travel and our coming here to this place. Festive, bright and welcoming, it is just one of the examples of welcome we need to let pervade our lives. Welcome isn't just reserved for those we agree with, welcome is reserved for everyone. Jesus didn't tell the disciples he was sending out to be likable, or agreeable, or anything but welcoming back. Think of the whole sermon on the mount, it tells these ones being sent to bless others.

I was reading an article about talking these days with someone you might disagree with. Don't picture being mad or angry, this is usually our first reaction when we disagree. Instead think of things which are gratitude giving - why do you like this person, what have they contributed, maybe you don't know them well so how can you know what you might truly resonate with. Give gratitude, once you start with gratitude it changes your brain wiring. It makes you connect with the other and eventually they connect with you and then a chemical is released in your brain which connects you to one another even deeper.

Our brains are amazing and complicated workings. Who thought that gratitude would allow you to connect deeply with another? Yet again this is welcome. This is how we can get over any obstacle to offering welcome. Gratitude, gratitude for what we have, gratitude for the blessings of this life, gratitude for the gifts we never even see in our hands. A friend wanted to give me a gift the other day. I told them to come on by. They gave a book to me, but here is the real gift in the words said after. I want to thank you for starting me on this journey. I have hiked all my life and never felt connected to the world around me, you have reawakened this connection to the earth in me. 

This is welcome, this is gift, this is gratitude. Welcoming is our opportunity to connect deeply with one another, so our welcome matters. If you are being fake about it, if you don't shake your neighbors hand, if you don't give it with genuine warmth people know and they won't be back. The connection has not been made at the deepest level. So remember to think of gratitude first. It is an Ignatian practice, what are you thankful for, what might you be thankful for in the other, what has blessed us this day. It is dazzling once you lock in on the true gifts which surround you. Then you can welcome all into this place.