Welcome
Matthew 10:40-42
Being welcoming is quite a hot topic in United Methodism these days. I just got back from our Mountain Sky Annual Conference meeting where over 35 churches "disaffiliated" from the United Methodist Church over the dispute our denomination is having around how welcoming we are to the LGBTQ+ community, their families, and their calling from God into ordained ministry.
We want to claim that we are always welcoming as a church, or as Christians, though--don't we? That is an ethic that we probably don't have a hard time aspiring to. In 2001, our denomination began a marketing campaign that might have been one of its most effective: "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors."
The UMC has an advertising arm; and other campaigns have happened since 2001 like "#BeUMC" and others. But we have to admit that the one from 2001 was quite popular. We have the slogan "Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors." painted on our marquee sign outside of the church. I have heard people describe it as a part of our doctrine as a church!
But what is welcome, really? Jesus in Matthew 10 tells his disciples "Whoever welcome you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me." Matthew 10 begins with the first convening of the twelve disciples, and everything prior to what we hear about welcoming all sounds rather... unwelcoming. In verse 16 Jesus tells the disciples "I am sending you out like sheep amongst wolves."
Later on, in verse 34, Jesus warns them: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household." I have eaten at thanksgiving meals that have felt this way!
I want to be honest--the kind of welcome God calls us to have is generally not easy. It leads to tension and conflict. It can be disruptive. It certainly won't leave us unchanged. Being welcoming is typically having the courage to say "yes" to the things to which we have been inculturated throughout our entire life to say, "no!"
Being welcoming certainly is good marketing. But when we practice the kind of welcome where we open our doors, minds, and hearts to people who don't live like us, think like us, or even believe like us, it isn’t easy. Even Jesus in his ministry had to be challenged to welcome more than just his fellow Jew into the proclamation of the coming Kingdom of God!
What does this mean for us? I know for myself, I will always have to struggle to welcome people into my life that I have difficulty getting along with because I disagree with them. And that can be my loss--many people I disagree with might have wisdom for me to learn. And true relationship is far more than just having like minds on certain things.
If there is one thing that the worlds ways are teaching us it is that people who think or believe differently than us are dangerous. And friends, this kind of thinking might unravel all of us if we do not remember and find peace with the fact that we are called to a welcome that welcomes Jesus and the one who sent him.
The challenging person who is entering your life might be one who is sent by the Holy Spirit to challenge you in ways you need to be challenged. Or, even more complex, a challenging person might be entering your life to remind you the importance of boundaries. Welcoming one another does not mean welcoming abuse!
But in most cases, I want to encourage you today that the best relationships, the kinds of people who invite you to the transformation that can lead you deeper into your life of following Christ, might be difficult to welcome into your life. "Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous."
Prophets challenge us to change our ways. Righteous people help us see how we can be more righteous. And both of them can be difficult to welcome into our life and into relationship.
But the reward might just be worth it.
