Welcome and Inviting

Yesterday's gospel text was the very short Matthew 10:40-42 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 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; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."


So obviously I focused on the idea of being welcoming.  But something we don't quite get from this snippet of text is that Jesus is actually sending his disciples out and instead of them being the ones who should be welcoming, they will be welcomed or unwelcomed in different homes and communities as they tell others about Jesus.  


Enjoy!  And you're welcome!

If you were welcoming someone into your home, what would you do, to help them feel invited and accepted? 

Why do you do such things?  What does it feel like to be welcomed?

Many of us have a moment in our lives, or actually multiple of them, that we can look back on and feel in someway un-welcomed.  Sometimes we were truly unwanted.  We walked into a conversation that you obviously were not allowed in on.  Sometimes we were just excluded, unintentionally as the others gathered were old friends catching up, or a tight-knit group that knew their own inside jokes and you were left out of the loop.  Maybe you felt this way at your spouse’s high school reunion.  Sometimes we are neglected as people just assume you belong.  Have you ever been left to wander the halls of some building looking for the restroom? And other times you are so warmly welcomed, and the people too overly friendly that it turns you off because it comes off as fake.  I sometimes feel this way at restaurants when the waiter is just a little too perky and smiley.

We all have at times felt unwelcomed.  At schools, at gatherings, in people’s homes and even in churches.  Maybe I should say, especially at churches.  One problem that churches often have is that the regular worshippers often become too cliquey and forget to not just greet but help and invite new worshippers into the worship experience.  Or they don’t ask the people on the fringes to help out with things or specifically invite them to special events.  And sometimes we rely too much on that one person who is so great at hospitality, that we let them do all the work and forget that it is each of our jobs to welcome people in the name of the Lord.  Now I’m not saying that Bethlehem has these issues, just that they are often pitfalls of many churches, regardless of location, denomination or size. 

But there is one other problem, that I will say that we at Bethlehem, that we as Lutherans, that we as predominately middle-class people, that we as people who live in this weird mix of rural suburbia have – we sit back and wait for people to come to us.  We expect that if we put up a sign, people will come to us and then we will warmly greet them and welcome them.  We expect that if we keep the doors unlocked or even wide open on a day like today, that someone will just wander in and then we will welcome them. We rely too much on being welcoming and not enough on being inviting. 

Granted we do the same things in our personal lives.  We expect that people will invite us to their homes even if we never have invited them to our own.  We expect that people will hold the door for us at the coffee shop, even if we never hold the door for anyone else.  We expect that others will act first and then we can be welcoming. 

Well I hate to break this to you, but Jesus was not telling the disciples to sit back and wait for people to come to them so that then the disciples could welcome them in the name of the Lord.  Instead Jesus was sending the disciples out to various villages and towns to tell others about him.  Just like he tells us today to go and to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching. 

And Jesus’s words today are not a commandment for us to stay here and be welcoming in case anyone shows up, but they are more of a command with both a warning and a blessing.  They are a command because we need to go out and tell others about Christ in order to be welcomed by them. 

They are a warning that when we go out and tell others about Jesus, at times we will be unwelcomed.  That people will not welcome us because they do not welcome Jesus or God.  That at times we will not even be offered a cup of water. 

And Jesus’s words are also a blessing, a hope that we will be welcomed, when we go out and tell others about him.  That we will be greeted warmly, that people will come to learn about him through our actions.  And that regardless if we are warmly welcomed with open arms and great joy or if the person refused to give us even a cup of water for our efforts, we are still blessed beloved children of God. 

So now I have a mission for you: go out in the weeks ahead and invite a friend, a co-work, an acquaintance and welcome them in the name of the Lord.  Invite them into your home for dinner or take them out for coffee or ice cream.  And at some point in the conversation, mention your faith or the church.  It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be anything more than “I thank God that you are my friend.”  And if they welcome your faith, then invite them to worship with you.  And if they don’t then you are still a blessed, beloved child of God.  And if you choose not to welcome someone, well you are still a blessed, beloved child of God, and we will continue to work together on ways to not just be more welcoming but also more inviting.