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Sermon June 28, 2020
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8, Year A, Track 2
http://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/Aprop8_RCL.html
‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Matthew 10:40
The reading from Matthew we just heard is at the end of the teaching Jesus gave to his disciples. At the beginning of Chapter 10, Jesus calls and teaches twelve disciples or harvest hands as The Message Bible labels them, to spread his teachings far and wide. If one teaches 12 and then 12 teach 12 and then 144 teach twelve and then 1,728 teach twelve…WOW, see how it spreads?
Being a disciple can feel overwhelming, can’t it? There is so much to remember. What if I don’t get it quite right? What if I teach it wrong? What if I demonstrate it incorrectly?
Jesus says we can start simple and small, like offering someone a cup of water, for instance. Something like that opens the conversation and relationship with someone else.
Jesus also says that if someone welcomes us, it is as if they have welcomed Jesus and in welcoming Jesus, they also welcome God. We are the conduits through which Jesus and God can speak. We can help people see the world envisioned by Jesus and God clearly by the way we behave.
The banner hanging up at Nativity many Sundays and every Sunday now says that we are a welcoming and affirming church. As part of The Episcopal Church, we pride ourselves on inclusion with diversity. And often others will tell me how friendly we are as a community and how much they felt welcomed.
John Shea says that, “to receive persons is to embrace them in terms of what they most truly are.”(p. 215) I would say what we most truly are is the deepest embodiment of what God created us to be.
One of the best and most challenging books I’ve read on welcome was written by The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers. Canon Spellers is currently the Canon to the Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Stewardship of Creation. The book is titled Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other and the Spirit of Transformation. It was written in 2006.
Canon Spellers definition of radical welcome “means the community seeks to welcome the voices, presence and power of many groups –especially those who have been defined as The Other, pushed to the margins, cast out, silenced, and closeted – in order to help shape the congregation’s common life and mission.” P. 15
She suggests that while we may never be perfect in our welcome, we can be committed to continued growth and transformation towards this radical welcome. This requires us to be:
Hospitable, seeking “to offer a gracious, warm space to all people,” especially to those not traditionally welcomed into our space.
Connected to our neighbors and our neighborhood and even beyond in ways that embrace the teachings of Jesus and how we are changed by Jesus.
Centered, possessing a clear, compelling sense of Christian identity. This is an “unapologetic and clear call to live out the dream of God” as discerned through Scripture, tradition, reason and our context.
Open to conversion by carefully listening “to make room for, share power with, and learn from groups who’ve been silenced, closeted and disempowered,” and open to genuine conversion and transformation based upon encounters with people previously considered “The Other.”
Intentional by engaging in “training, research, active listening, strategic planning” This is a ”conscious, contextually appropriate effort that addresses individual, congregational, institutional, and systemic change.”
Comprehensive throughout the whole congregation, not just relegated to a particular committee or group.
In the process of continually Becoming, because the process is never finished. We must continually examine ourselves as a congregation to “see who has been left out or pushed out, always aware that the stranger’s face is the very face of Christ.”
Beyond diversity to embodying faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus Christ “who welcomed and still welcomes all.”
Faithful to God’s invitation to welcome as Christ welcomes.
Compassionate, understanding that growth and change can be challenging and that we need opportunities to “develop, express, and hold” our dreams, as well as our fear of change.
When I was growing up, I remember those scratchy “welcome” mats at the entrance to our house. I think we had one made out of jute. They were a great way to wipe your feet before entering the house and a nice invitation. Yet, what was more important, was what happened inside…the love and welcome that pervaded the inside of the home. We can feel the welcome, can’t we, when we enter someone else’s space?
May our community continue to grow in our ability to welcome all so that Christ may be welcomed joyfully into our midst.
Amen
On Earth As It Is In Heaven: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: Matthew Year A by John Shea
Radical Welcome, Stephanie Spellers, pgs. 15-17.
