Welcome (2)

Sermon Title: "Welcome!"

Scriptures: James 2:1-8 & Gen 18-1-8

Pop Quiz ... then everybody repeat after me ... Mission Statement Welcome! "Our mission is to shine our light by welcoming all people."

The premier example of Welcome in the Bible is the story of Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre. Abraham sees three men approaching. He runs to greet them, bows, and practically begs them to stay with him. He promises them fresh bread, but goes over the top and serves them a steak dinner. He brings a bowl to wash their feet. He invites them to sit in the shade under the trees, and he makes himself available to serve them as needed. Abraham really rolls out the red carpet. Over 70 times in scripture we are encouraged to welcome, to practice hospitality, to take strangers in and treat them with kindness. And this story about Abraham is held up as the premier example of welcome.

As I was thinking about welcome this week, I remember that welcome was the theme of my very first sermon at Eastwood. So I went and looked it up -- wasn't as bad as I might have thought for a first sermon. I even still agree with most of it. The scriptures were the same: Abraham under the Oaks of Mamre and James's challenge to welcome ALL people. Sermon entitled Red Carpet Welcome ... and I talked about the wonderful welcome my family received at Eastwood. It was fun to go back and read, about Bob Forrester fixing up the parsonage, Rubye Barr down on her hands and knees scrubbing dirt the day we moved in, Bob Frech presenting me with a brand new softball jersey, Jackie Ivie and Steve Dickerson coordinating a big reception, the men's group showing up at our house with 14 pick-up trucks ready to move our boxes and furniture, Anne Michelle Davies inviting us every 10 or 15 minutes to sing in choir, Bill & Margaret Martin visiting with gifts for the children ... they boys still play with the teddy bear they brought: we named it "Martin Bear." Wonderful. We certainly experienced Eastwood's Red Carpet Welcome.

Since those days I've heard stories about the warm welcome many of you received when you first came to Eastwood. Helen Huey likes to tell about when she moved over here to 16^th and Ordway back in 1948. Before the moving truck even arrived Brother Garnett Day showed up on her doorstep, inviting her to Eastwood Christian Church. Helen came that Sunday and put 3-year-old Larry in Mildred Briggs' class and headed upstairs to the Service Bible Class, the class she's attended for the last 56 years. Helen says: "I've loved Eastwood since the very first day." George McDonald told me about his first day at Eastwood, back in the early 1980s. Bennett Major came up with a friendly smile and a warm welcome -- probably slipped him some candy too. George had visited other churches, but he sensed a special kind of sincerity coming from Bennett and decided Eastwood was the place for him. These days I often hear people say: "We just felt very welcome here. One lady especially, I can't remember her name, she's kind of short and has white hair ... she just came up and made us feel so welcome." Dawn and I always look at each other and say: "That would be Grace." Yes, many of you have experienced a Red Carpet Welcome here at Eastwood. And from what I observed last week, I think Pat Brock is likely to agree. (Amen?)

But there is always room to grow. Once - I hope only once - during the last couple of years, we had some visitors come for Sunday School. They were given instructions on where to go ... but nobody went with them to show them the way, to introduce them. They got to their classroom and found it empty, nobody there, the lights off. So they sat and waited in the darkness - about 10 minutes until someone showed up. Not exactly a Red Carpet Welcome. Sometimes we just miss people ... and we pray that they'll have the grace to understand, that they'll try again.

The reading from the book of James challenges us to grow in our hospitality. It's easy to welcome people who are just like us - who dress like us, who talk like us, who like the same kind of music. But it's harder to welcome people who are different. Sometimes it's tempting to keep the red carpet in the closet. James is concerned that we'll judge people by their appearance, that we'll show partiality instead of extending welcome to all. It's a valid concern. Churches sometimes send little signals that some people aren't welcome: divorced people, homeless people, gay people, noisy children, poor people, women ministers ... Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, a reminder that only two generations ago our schools and business and churches failed to extend welcome to all. It's now illegal to keep someone out on account of their race, but it still happens. Even if we don't mean to exclude, even if we mean well ... I wonder how many of us have never invited a person of another race into our home to eat in our dining room. Our mission is to welcome ALL people.

Again, I feel very positive about Eastwood Christian Church. I've seen us truly offer welcome to homeless people through our Room in the Inn program. I've seen us build a ramp next door and remove a pew to make the place a little more welcoming for anyone in a wheelchair - though were still dealing with a Fellowship Hall that is not accessible to many. I've seen us struggle to offer welcome to some mentally ill people. At our big vision retreat last September 20, it was clear that we truly want to be a church that welcomes all people. But saying that and doing that are not the same things, and we have to constantly challenge ourselves to hear James' challenge: "My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?" I know of several churches who spell out their attempt to meet James's challenge. One church mission statement reads: "We welcome all people - without regard to race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, family structure, medical condition, education, marital status, difference in ability, or cultural, religious, ethnic, or national background." Spelling out the belief that all people are created in the image of God and welcome at that church. You may have heard that Rebecca Hale to us from a church in Pittsburgh: Open Arms Christian Church. "Our mission is to shine our light by welcoming all people. Our vision is to be a gathering that welcomes and values all people."

We come now to a fundamental question about the church: WHOSE job is it to welcome people? Everyone deserves welcome ... but who is responsible for doing the welcoming? The Minister? The Elders? Designated greeters? The official members? My answer: Everyone needs to welcome, all the time. Sometimes people think: "I've only been coming here 4 months, and they've been coming 6 months, so it's their job to welcome me." Nonsense. The church cannot welcome people unless each one of us welcomes people. If you are here today worshiping with us for very first time, I'll let you off the hook. You don't have to welcome anyone today ... you can just be welcomed. But everybody else plays dual roles ... being welcomed, and welcoming others. We all want people to welcome us -- I do, the Elders do. Every time you see anyone on this property, welcome them. Smile, greet them. If you don't know them offer your name, ask theirs. Maybe they've been a member for 100 years ... so you welcome them anyway. Maybe they are panhandling. You welcome them anyway. That doesn't mean you have to give them money - but welcome them, greet them as a human being, offer them a good place to sit. Every one of us who is a part of the ECC family, who has been here more than once, is the church. Last week Pat got to just be welcomed. I hope you keep welcoming her. But this week it's her turn to welcome you also. We welcome each other.

So far, I've been mostly focusing on welcome inside the church. But I dream of extending welcome beyond our walls, to people in our community. I envision a Welcome Wagon Ministry ... a group of us who take turns offering welcome to people who move into our neighborhood. Maybe we take information about the neighborhood, a plate of cookies or loaf of bread or stack of sandwiches or something. After all the hassles of moving, nothing is nicer than someone saying: "Welcome."

Twenty-some years ago, on Easter Sunday, my parents dropped the horrible news ... we were moving to Kansas. Say goodbye to your friends, we're moving to Kansas. Some high school friends: they thought it was funny: "Have fun surfing on them wheat fields." The car broke down in Albuquerque. We were stranded half a day. Drove through the night to get to Kansas in time for the closing. Walked into the house and nearly gagged at the smell ... dogs had used the carpet for a litter box. We tore out all the stinking carpet and sat down on the floor and cried. And then the doorbell rang. It was the neighbors. They had a plate of sandwiches, a cooler full of drinks, a map of the neighborhood - it listed the names and ages of all the kids on the street. Welcome to the neighborhood. It was like the sun came out. Kansas is truly a wonderful place!

If you hear God calling you to provide welcome to neighbors, please let me know, and we'll start the ECC welcome wagon. Abraham welcomed three men, but the narrator tells us the men were really the Lord and two angels -- that in welcoming others Abraham welcomed God. Hebrews 13:2: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it." My friends, let us welcome each other, let us welcome all people. In doing so, we welcome God into our midst.

Amen.

COMMUNION MEDITATION:

A few years ago, the theme of our General Assembly was: "Come Gather at the Welcome Table." The Lord's Table truly is the welcome table, as the living Christ invites each of us into a circle of fellowship and love. It doesn't matter if you are red, yellow, black or white, it doesn't matter if you were raised Catholic or Jewish or Unitarian; it doesn't matter if you are a member of this church or not - you are welcome at the table, welcome to share in this feast of love and forgiveness, welcome to share this meal in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Come, gather at the Welcome Table.

Come, share in the supper of our Lord.