SERMON: WELCOME!
Welcome is such a nice and warm word and greeting. Welcome is such a welcoming word that opens the doors, and invites us in. Welcome is such a nice gesture.
Welcome to church! Welcome to our house! Welcome home!
Welcome to our celebration, our lunch, or our dinner! Welcome into our family, into our friendship, into our club or into our church.
Welcome!
In recent decades, hospitality has jumped to the very top of the favorite Christian Virtues list in many of our churches. We call ourselves a welcoming church. An inviting church. An open church. An inclusive church. We boast of our open doors. We train our ushers to be welcoming, inviting and attentive. Under our Danish Motto:” Menneske forst saa kristen – Human first, then Christian.” We invite you and welcome you. In our mission statement we claim that “our church is open, welcoming and accepting. We invite you to worship with us, enjoy our fellowship, partake in our many activities and events, and hope you might consider becoming part of our church family. The congregation was founded in 1906 by a handful of Danes living in LA. Our church is part of ELCA Pacifica Synod and recognized as an ethnic congregation.”
Welcome!
And so, the very brief gospel excerpt that you just heard from Matthew may at first seem merely to focus on this: “Be welcoming”, as Jesus said. And we might be tempted to nod and respond and pad ourselves on the shoulder: “OK, we have got that one covered, Lord. What’s next?”
When I visited the Danish Lutheran Church in Buenos Aires some years ago, - it was wonderful and surprising to hear the story of how a young energetic pastor literally had opened the door to the old Danish Immigrant church hidden in a narrow street in the busy beautiful town of Buenos Aires. The church probably had the same mission statement and call to be an open, welcoming church, so he simply suggested to open the doors. Literally to open the church doors wide open during service, to tell the world that the church is open, and you are welcome. That anybody who happens to walk on the streets and passes this old church, would find a wide-open door. For this particularly Danish church in Buenos Aires with a dwindling number of Danish members, it became a monumental change in who they were: now people from the street came in, hungry homeless, busy businessmen, prostitutes, poor and nosy neighbors.
We too have open doors to our beautiful Danish church today – but more out of safety and caution, as we need to secure airflow in these COVID19 times, when we cannot use AC.
But even if the open doors have a logical practical explanation, I do hope that our few and selected members in the pew today, and all of you worshipping with us from your homes, - that all of you may feel the breeze and the spirit that should remind us to be an open, welcoming and inviting church and community.
We all love to be welcomed. We love the feeling of acceptance and warmth when we are met with a hand extended for a handshake or an open embrace. Which is exactly what we miss so much in these social distant times: to meet and welcome each other with handshakes, hugs or smiles not covered by a mask. For a time our welcome is still warm even with a mask on as it signals compassion, care and respect for each other.
Remember too, that to be a welcoming church in the name of Jesus Christ, is so much more than to welcome the ones we know, the ones who look like us, worship like us, love like us or live like us.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcome me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these tittle ones, none of these will lose their reward.”
Do you recall the beautiful song by Joan Osborne: “What if God was one of us”?
“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
A stranger one the bus
Trying to make his way home……”
The point of this poignant song and the point of this poignant Gospel, is that God is one of us: that we meet God in our neighbors: when we welcome one of these little ones, - we welcome, worship, and love God.
“Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. “
This short sentence and statement are a stark reminder to us in this virus-stricken world of our time, that urges us to protect these little ones, the vulnerable ones and keep them safe.
Furthermore, in a time of serious racial debate and demonstration, we should focus on how we might not be equal treated and given equal opportunity. We all like to be welcomed, invited, included. But today we should consider how it feels for so many people in our society not to be welcomed, invited, included, accepted of even deemed worthy.
The refugees coming to our borders as they flee poverty, abuse, war, or discrimination.
The native Americans who were here long before any of us, and still feel excluded, fighting for their land, rights, and dignity.
The black Americans who have taken to the streets, - to voice that the racism and discrimination of slavery and segregation still exist.
The homeless people on Skid row or any other street of LA or Orange County, that are not welcome in every city or on any street corner.
The poor of our society who goes unnoticed, unseen, and unwelcomed.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members of our society and our churches, who still a met with a wall of silence, prejudice, and misunderstanding.
I vividly remember the day of my Ordination in the beautiful old Cathedral of Ribe. The bishop pulled me and my two fellow soon to be ordained pastors aside before the service began, and he said: unfortunately I have been made aware that one of the pastors in the greeting procession, will not extend his hands to the two female pastors – in order to express his non acceptance of female pastors. After the beautiful ceremony of ordination and the sacred vow of pastoral service, the 3 of us were sent to greet our fellow pastors in a long row. I was the first to go, and the first to reach out my hand for a handshake of welcome. Every time I stood in front of a male pastor, I thought: “Is it him? Will he not extend his hand to greet me?”
I remember the feeling. The fear of being rejected, humiliated, and not welcomed. As it turned out, everybody did extend their hands to us – but I still remember the feeling of dismay, rejection, and demonstration of power. The feeling of not being welcome.
Welcome!
As a pastor I have the power to welcome. I have the means to welcome and reach out a welcoming hand. As a pastor I am called to welcome.
As a church and a congregation, we have the power, the means, and the call to welcome.
The call to us this morning is a call of a Christian Spirituality of Justice.
To fully understand the relationship between Christian faith and engagement with the needs of the world, between spirituality and actions, one just begins by recognizing that for Jesus the two were part of the whole. The love of God and the love of neighbor can not be separated.
The journey inward, our faith journey, leads to a journey outward, our actions and deeds. Our relationship with God and our relationship with others, our neighbors, to one of these little ones, - are inextricably linked to one another. Jesus clearly stated it in todays gospel and even more on the Sermon of the Mount and through all his healings, relations, parables, and actions. Our relations with God and others are inextricably tied to one another. “Love God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”
In any democratic society and civilized nation, the effort to improve righteousness and justice will always remain an ongoing obligation for all of us.
As Christians, we strive to be a church where the fullness of righteousness and justice is both preached and practiced. To know God is to know what is required of us. It is to know the demands of righteousness and justice, forgiveness and mercy, love and grace, truth, and wisdom. That knowledge and faith cannot be summarized in systems or slogans, parties or platforms, methods, or metrics.
Pope Francis is a very outspoken pope. In his address to the 4th Vatican sponsored World Day of the Poor, under the theme of” Stretch forth your hand to the poor.” Pope Francis spoke about being a welcoming and serving church and about being the ones who gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…
” Serving the weakest and most vulnerable is not an option
but rather a sign of the authenticity of the faith we profess.”
The question is not if God was one of us – the question is that since God is one of us, meets us in the small, weak, vulnerable, broken, and lonely ones – how do we meet God? How do we welcome others into our church, our community, our lives, and our society? How do we welcome and share even a cup og cold water with one of these little ones or treat those with compromised health or those who are aged and weakened by time ?
As we feel welcome here, in church, among friends, as we were greeted by an open door or by a Virtual Welcome – how do we extend that welcome not as an option but rather as a sign of the authenticity of our faith, that we confess.
What does the Lord require of you?
To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.
What does God command of us?
To love God with all or heart, our soul, our mind and our strength
and to love our neigbor as ourselves.
Let us worship God, who will aks much of us,
but will be beside us every step of the way.
Amen.