Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 
Matthew 10:40-42
“Whoever Welcomes You . . .”
Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Mindy Douglas Adams
June 29, 2008

      “Welcome to Joe’s” the voice cried out from behind the serving line as my friends and I entered the restaurant.  We were stopping for lunch in Atlanta after a morning of studying scripture passages together.  I had never before been to Joe’s, a Tex-Mex fast-food establishment that has now made its way to North Carolina, but on that day I quickly discovered that this loud and excited welcome was a trademark of Joe’s.  Every time the door opened, the raucous call echoed through the room again.  Truthfully, I was a bit taken aback at first, but I soon discovered that this welcome was quite genuine.    As I went down the serving line, I found truly happy teenagers who were patient with me as I asked questions about the menu and slowed down their normally quick-serve process. They talked and laughed with us over the glass partition and seemed to be genuinely glad we were there!  We really did feel welcomed.

          If only I could say the same thing about all the churches I have ever attended.   It’s not easy to walk into a church for the first time, as I’m sure you know.  Not nearly as easy as walking into a restaurant for the first time!   At least not for me.  When I walk into a new church, I feel vulnerable and exposed.  Sometimes, I don’t know exactly where to park, or even what door I am supposed to enter.  Part of me is afraid someone will talk to me, but a bigger part is afraid someone will NOT talk to me.  Will I even be noticed?  Will I have to sit by myself?  Will I know what I am supposed to do during the service?  Will I feel welcomed and included?  Or will I be like a stranger in a foreign land?

          I’ve had experiences on both ends of the spectrum.  I have walked into worship areas by myself without knowing a soul and have left feeling at home and comfortable and welcomed.  I have also walked into a worship service and have left feeling cold and ignored, insignificant and unwelcomed.

          Some of you have heard me tell of an experience Scott and I had at a church we visited shortly after we had been married.

          As soon as we entered the church building we knew we had come to a friendly church.  Oh yes.  People were just as friendly as could be.  To each other.  They were all talking and laughing and reporting on what a wonderful retreat they had just had and how great their fellowship together was.  And not a person greeted us.  Not a person spoke to us.  No one even looked us in the eye, as far as I can remember, even as we passed communion to one another.  It was as if we were invisible.  Needless to say, we did not go back.  We did not feel welcomed there.

          Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me.”

          Fred Craddock tells of a time when he preached for four nights in a row at a big church in Atlanta.  This church was proud of their friendliness, he could tell right away.  At some point during the service, the pastor said, “We’ll now have our moments of fellowship.  Greet one another in Christian love.”  At that point the congregation made a big show of their Christian love by hugging and kissing, shaking hands and back-slapping.  They moved all around the room to embrace one another.  This went on and on until the pastor finally said, “All right, hold it, hold it.  We have to get on with worship.”  This happened every night for four nights.

          After the last worship service, the pastor and his wife took Craddock and his wife out for coffee.  The pastor reflected on the friendliness of the congregation with pride, “Did you ever see such a family church?  Did you ever see such love in your life in a church?” 

          Craddock’s wife looked up at him and quietly said, “Yeah, well, yeah, I have.”

          “What do you mean?”  the pastor asked?

Then she told him that she had attended all four services and no one had spoken to her.  Not one person. Not one time. 

          And the pastor said, “Well, that was because they didn’t know who you were.”^[1]

“Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

Jesus gave the disciples this instruction as they were about to go into a foreign land.  They were leaving the security of Jesus’ side and were heading out on their own to take the message of Jesus, the message of the gospel and of the kingdom of heaven, out into the world.  Jesus had many instructions for them, and many warnings – enough to make even the bravest disciple think twice about this commission – but he ends with the words you have just heard.  “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  In other words, you bear my image – if anyone rejects you, whether they know who you are or not, well, they might as well be rejecting my Father who sent me. 

          This is a popular theme for the gospel writer Matthew.  Later in chapter 18, Jesus instructs the disciples to understand that children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  He ends by saying, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

          In Matthew’s Chapter 25, Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats.  To the sheep he proclaims, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you . . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”  And then the righteous will give Jesus a confused look – “Lord, when did we do these things for you?”  Jesus explains, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who were members of my family, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:31-46).

          Jesus makes it clear – we are to treat one another with love and care and kindness and generosity and hospitality – not because of power or position or wealth or authority.  We are to treat all people with such love and care and kindness and generosity and hospitality because all people, especially the weak and poor, helpless and lonely, are children of God, a part of God’s family.  All people, especially those in need, bear the image of their maker.  When the people of God – the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, the stranger – are cared for, it is as if we are caring for Jesus himself.  That is how much he loves and is connected with those in need.  That is how much we should love and be connected with those in need – by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and in prison, and welcoming the stranger.

          At Chapel in the Pines we have a mission statement that includes three important words to us – welcome, worship, and witness.  The first of these words, welcome, we have chosen because we believe that through passages like the ones we are hearing today and many others, we are called to welcome the stranger into our midst.  Not because of who they are as a person of significance in the community, but solely because they are a child of God, made in the image of Christ Jesus, and loved by God, as we all are.

          What we do in the church is a strange kind of welcoming, different from any other I know really.  The normal way we understand welcoming involves the host standing at the threshold of his home or her business and welcoming others to come in as guests.  But as the church, we are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ does not belong to us, but we are a part of it.  The Body of Christ is also not complete with only those who are currently members.  The Body of Christ is made up of all God’s people who have gathered and who call upon God by name.  So when we as members of the Body welcome others, even strangers through our doors, they too are members of the Body already, simply because they desire to worship God and are God’s creation.  We as Chapel in the Pines have found our home in this particular gathering of the Body of Christ, certainly, but when we welcome people into our midst, we are not welcoming them to our home, we are welcoming them to God’s home, which is, because of their familial relationship to God, their home.  This takes the ownership, the pride-part completely out of the picture.  So instead of saying, “Welcome to our home.  I’m so glad you could join us,” we in a sense (though we won’t use these words) are saying, “Welcome to your home.  You are not a stranger here, but already a companion for the journey.”

          What we seek to do here is just that – to welcome those who enter the doors of this place in such a way that we acknowledge our familial relationship as sisters and brothers in Christ.  This is not an easy thing to do and it is not something we will be able to do without being intentional about it.  In order to be a truly welcoming congregation, we must seek out those among us we haven’t met yet.  We must be willing to leave the comfort zone of familiar faces and spend time getting to know someone new. We must open our hearts and minds to all who enter this place and we must be careful not to judge one another through the eyes of the world but instead, we must seek to see those around us through the eyes of God.

          As we continue in our efforts to be a welcoming church, we must ask ourselves some serious questions.  These questions deal with our welcoming of God’s children in this place as well as within the community beyond these walls.

To begin with, how do we welcome people from other lands, with other cultures, speaking other languages?  How do we as welcoming people of God understand the issues surrounding immigration?  These are not easy questions and they are fraught with political, economic, and social ramifications.  But we must reflect on them together as a community of faith and this passage and others from Matthew’s gospel speak strongly to us.

          Jesus says whoever welcomes you, welcomes me . . . .

          Jesus says, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me . . . .

          How do we welcome people who are different than we are – people from different socio-economic groups (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me), people of a different skin color (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me), people with a different sexual orientation (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me), people with mental illnesses (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me), people who are younger and more rambunctious than we are or people who are older and slower than we are (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me), people with different educational background, people we find challenging to understand (Jesus says, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me).  How do we welcome these people? 

          Jesus teaches us to care for them.  Deeply.  Which means more than just a smile and a handshake, though that is a good place to start.  Jesus wants us to care for them with compassion, the kind of compassion that would take time to notice that someone was thirsty and offer a cup of cold water.  To welcome someone in the way Jesus calls us to welcome them is really, ultimately to love them, to see their needs and respond to them.