How We Welcome One Another

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
October 25, 2009

How We Welcome One Another
Luke 14:7-14

Every book, every journal article,
every seminar, every expert:
they all say the same thing.
Research has confirmed it again and again:
How we welcome one another matters;
The warmth of our smile matters;
Graciousness matters.

How we welcome not just the visitor, the stranger,
but how we welcome one another,
greet one another,
treat one another,
Sunday after Sunday,
month after month,
year after year:
that’s what speaks most clearly,
most loudly,
and most compellingly about who we are.

Theology, creeds, preaching, music:
they are all important,
but not as important as how we welcome one another,
whether we are warm to one another,
friendly,
genuinely friendly,
reaching out,
embracing with graciousness and kindness.

Visitors pick up on this almost immediately.
A vibrant, faithful worship service helps.
An engaging Sunday School class for children
or adults: they are important, too.
But what is more important:
The greeting at the door,
the smile as a bulletin is offered,
a handshake during the passing of the peace,
an invitation to stay for coffee following the service.

Hospitality is ministry,
and ministry is hospitality.
Christianity means community (Bonhoeffer)
and community is built on hospitality,
hospitality offered across age,
vocation, length of membership,
where you came from,
even the college football team you root for.

Our hospitality –
or our lack of it –
is a reflection of our faith,
a reflection of whether we are salt and light.
Doesn’t Jesus teach us
that it is by our love for one another
that we are known as his followers?
And we show love for one another
through our hospitality toward one another.

Our hospitality towards those we know and call friends,
and toward those who walked through our doors
for the very first time this morning.

A smile,
a handshake,
words of welcome.
Asking such a simple question,
“how are you”,
and then listening attentively,
with genuine interest,
letting the speaker know that you asked the question
because you really do want to know how they are.

We are all called to the ministry of hospitality,
every one of us.
Not just the folks on the Membership Ministry Team,
or the Worship Ministry Team;
not just the greeters or the ushers,
or those who have organized the Coffee Hour.

We look to our Elders to set the example as leaders.
At our last Session meeting, we were reminded
of the charge from the Book of Order
that Elders collectively and individually
are called to nurture the faith and life of the congregation
(G-6.0304a)
and we nurture the faith and life of this congregation
by building community,
building a community in Christ,
with Christ,
and through Christ.

We have to work at being a hospitality community,
it doesn’t just happen.
We live in a society that seems more intent on shouting,
ranting, criticizing, fighting and dividing.
It makes it that much more critical for us
to work at welcoming.

It isn’t the swine flu virus
that poses that greatest danger to this church,
or any other community gathered in the name of Jesus Christ.
It is the virus of indifference, aloofness,
separateness, selfishness,
a virus that can infect us
and spread so quickly.

Jesus teaches us the importance of hospitality in our lesson;
The text tells us about genuine humility,
genuine hospitality,
genuine concern for others.
The preacher and teacher Fred Craddock
says that what Jesus is teaching us in this lesson
is “kingdom behavior”:
that Jesus is teaching us here and now
what we can expect to find
when we take our seats at the table
in God’s heavenly kingdom.
Jesus doesn’t want us to wait to learn what to do
and how to behave when we get there;
he wants us to model kingdom behavior here and now.

Now you might think,
how hard can it be,
when we take our seats at banquet table
in God’s kingdom?
After all, we’ll be in the presence of God,
bathed in light and love,
and certainly seated with family and friends.

But in a book a I read a few years back,
the author suggested that God may have a surprise for us,
that God may take a different approach,
depending upon how well we modeled
kingdom behavior in this life.
The author suggested that when we prepare to take our seats
at the heavenly banquet table
an angel of the Lord might well guide us to our places
as we might expect.
But as soon as we get seated,
another angel will escort someone else to take the seat
next to us
and that person won’t be a loved one;
instead, it will be someone
to whom we did not show hospitality in life,
someone with whom we might have argued
and failed to reconcile,
someone we might have ignored or looked down upon.,
someone we might have even considered our enemy.

God will leave us there to work on reconciliation,
to show one another hospitality
giving us as much time as it takes --
all eternity if need be!

And don’t think that as soon as you and your Kingdom Table
partner have shown one another hospitality
you are all set for eternity.
No, God will change your table partner,
and yet another person with whom
you were not reconciled in this life
will sit next to you,
and the process will begin again
until you are reconciled to all.
Only when all God’s children
are seated in genuine hospitality around God’s table
can the great banquet truly begin.

I love the imagery,
and it makes great sense to me,
for God in Jesus Christ calls us to lives of peace,
of warmth, of welcome, of friendship, of love.

In the Year-of-the-Bible group’s readings this last week,
we worked through the two letters to Timothy,
letters attributed to Paul,
who wrote to his young protégé
to provide him guidance on how to walk through each day
both as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
and as a model of the life Christ calls us to.
Be “hospitable” is the advice Paul gave,
Be “gentle”,
“set others an example in speech and conduct,
love and faith”.
And this is teaching for us, too.
All of us: for me,
for our Elders, our Deacons,
and for all of us.

We are often afraid of reaching out,
especially to strangers, to those we don’t know,
to those who look different,
perhaps speak in strange accents.
But our calling is to reach out,
reach out to all, welcome all.
Our call is to remember the image that Peter Marshall has given us
of our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the entrances to the church
with “his big carpenter hands” open wide in welcome,
welcome to all.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there, does he?
No, he passes along to us each person he welcomes,
saying to you and me,
“See what I just did,
how I greeted this person,
how I welcomed him or her?
Now you do the same thing.”

If you have not yet met all of our new members,
make sure you do so,
today, before you leave.
Then next Sunday go up and re-introduce yourself.
Remember: they have 400 new names and faces to learn;
each of us has just 8.
Our job is to help them:
Help our new members to feel welcome
help them to find their place here in this church,
wherever God might be calling them to let their light shine.

It can be a stretch for some of us to reach out,
but remember this:
with God at your back, and Christ at your side,
you are never are alone
as your extend your hand in fellowship and welcome.

Friendliness,
graciousness,
concern for another’s comfort and wellbeing,
kindness,
generosity of heart and spirit:
Are these words a visitor would use
to describe Manassas Presbyterian Church?
They will be ONLY if every one of us,
every one of us,
all of us,
are friendly, gracious, kind, generous,
always showing a concern for another.
Only if we take seriously our call to hospitality to all.

Take a look at your hands.
They may look ordinary to you, but they are not.
They are “big carpenter hands” just like Jesus’
even if they are not big,
even if they’ve never done carpentry.
They are hands God designed for many purposes,
including embracing and welcoming,
hands created to extend in gracious hospitality to all.

So put them to work today
every Sunday,
every day,
as you welcome one another,
as you welcome one another
in the name of the one who welcomes you,
welcomes you in grace and love.

AMEN