WELCOMING JESUS

Bishop Bruce R. Ough

Matthew 10:40-42

Maynard Avenue United Methodist Church
December 3, 2005
Reconciling Ministries Celebration

An acquaintance of mine is the human resource director at a large Chicago bank.  Some time ago he told me a delightful story.  He had asked for a letter of recommendation on a young man from Boston whom his bank was considering for employment.  The Boston investment house where the young man was currently employed could not say enough about him.  His father, they wrote, was a Cabot; his mother was a Lowell.  Further back was a happy blend of Saltonstalls, Peabodys and others of Boston’s finest families.  His recommendation was given without hesitation or reservation.  Several days later my friend, the Chicago bank’s HR director, sent a letter to the Boston investment house saying the recommendation was altogether inadequate.  It read:  “We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes.  Just for work.”  Here is the good news of this evening.  (Or the bad news, depending on your perspective.)  If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, if you have been baptized into God’s Kingdom, if you have made a decision to accept Jesus as your Savior and to follow him, then you are here to work – you are here to serve.  You are here to love as Jesus loves.  God is not contemplating using you for breeding purposes.  Just for work.  And what is that work?  Staying focused on the work is!

Jesus’ entire purpose while on earth was to proclaim and embody the reality of the Kingdom of God.  Therefore, our work as disciples of Jesus is to also proclaim and embody the realm of God.  Our work is to provide glimpses, for our world, of what this realm of God is really all about.  The Kingdom, or realm of God, occurs anytime that love, wholeness, inclusiveness and shalom hold sway, either in our personal or business or communal dealings.  The Kingdom occurs whenever a disciple is living out of intimacy with the Holy Spirit and, therefore, conducting daily living out of these values of love, acceptance and inclusion.  To act in a way that will advance the reality of God’s Kingdom is to be a part of it.  It is our actions, our work, our service, our witness that are the true indicators of our discipleship.  Not what we say we believe, but what we do.

Sometimes when we talk about being disciples of Jesus it sounds so remote, so heroic, so grandiose, so impossible.  We ask ourselves, “What can I do to show the world that I am a part of Jesus’ Kingdom?”  In these few verses from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives us something to do.  Jesus urges us to practice hospitality.  The kind of radical hospitality that Jesus practiced.  First, Jesus speaks of welcoming.  He says to his followers, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me,” which, when you think about it, is a rather amazing statement.  It is also the theological mooring for our values of extravagant love and unlimited inclusion.  Just to welcome one of these ordinary, these “peculiar people of God” (as I Peter says) like the person sitting next to you, is to welcome Jesus.  Think of that.  Take a moment to look at the ordinary disciple sitting next to you and say, “Welcome; welcome, Jesus.” 

Jesus urges us to practice hospitality as a sign of our commitment to the Kingdom – the Kingdom that Jesus offers to people of all ages, nations, races, classes and sexual orientations.  Maynard Avenue United Methodist Church and other congregations represented at this evening’s celebration have made the journey (sometimes difficult and costly) from fear, to being fully open to all people.  The journey from maintaining that the church chooses whom to welcome, to embracing that God has chosen all to be welcomed.  The journey from welcoming with conditions, to welcoming with unconditional love.

Often the word “hospitality” evokes the image of soft, sweet kindness, tea parties or coffee and cookies, bland conversations and a general atmosphere of coziness and politeness.  Probably this has its good reasons, since in our culture and in our church the concept of hospitality has lost much of its power.  But for Jesus, hospitality meant welcoming everyone – friends and strangers – as if they were holy.  As if they were himself.

There is a story about a European monastery that fell into disrepair.  Many of you have previously heard or read this story.  I share the story this evening because I believe it is Maynard Avenue’s story.  People stopped coming to worship in the beautiful sanctuary and to seek spiritual guidance.  The great library began to deteriorate; the buildings were not maintained; the lovely gardens went unattended.  The monks were forsaking their vows and leaving the community.  Finally, there were only five monks left – the Abbot and four others.  They began to turn on each other, blaming each other for the monastery’s demise.  The Abbot was beside himself, frantically seeking direction for himself and his little remnant.

One day, out of desperation, he went to visit a wise, old Rabbi who lived in the woods nearby.  The Abbot poured out his heart to the Jewish teacher.  After listening intently, the Rabbi simply said, “The Holy One is in your midst.”  The Abbot went back to the monastery and reported his conversation with the Rabbi.  The monks discounted the Rabbi’s comments as the incoherent rambling of an old, out-of-touch hermit.  And they continued their bickering and blaming.  But they could not put the Rabbi’s comment, “The Holy One is in your midst,” out of their minds.  Each of the monks began to wonder if it was true.  Soon they began to wonder who it was.  Eventually, just to be safe, they began to treat each other as if they were the Holy One.  Rather than bickering, criticizing and blaming, they sought and affirmed the good in each other. 

Soon the monastery became a brighter place.  A spirit of good will and peace prevailed.  The word spread and the people throughout the region came to experience the monks who welcomed every person like the Holy One.  Worship was renewed, the building rebuilt, the gardens tended, the library refurbished.  The monastery flourished.  Is this not the story of Maynard Avenue United Methodist Church?

The truth in this story is self-evident.  When we look for the good in another person, when we fully respect another person, when we love another person, when we see another person as God’s chosen one, when we see the Christ in another person, it draws out their goodness, it draws out our goodness and the Kingdom of God is made real.  Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me” (Matthew 10:40).  Becoming reconciling congregations and communities of faith is not just about our values of inclusivity.  It is not just about being nice, hospitable people.  Becoming reconciling congregations is about God.  It is ultimately about welcoming Christ and the One who sent Jesus.

Such radical hospitality – welcoming and treating everyone like Jesus – does have its risks.  Those of you here tonight know that.  We do live in a world, and unfortunately in a church, in which many still believe sexual orientation is only a choice.  We do live in a society and a church in which many have made peace with the inherent contradiction between Jesus’ message of love and a handful of scriptural references, none of which Jesus used, that condemn homosexuality.  We do live in an environment in which we ignore Jesus’ fundamental teaching that when we welcome individuals we are welcoming him.  But the chance of a gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender person turning out to be an enemy is not the real risk we face.

Several years ago I led a Volunteer In Mission team from Iowa to that conference’s sister conference of The United Methodist Church in Nigeria.  Everywhere we visited and worked, families would welcome us as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Often our host families would feed us wonderful, plentiful meals while they sat back and watched us eat.  One day, I asked General Superintendent Dubale, now Bishop Dubale, about this custom.  He told me it was no particular custom.  But rather they had prepared all the food they had and would go hungry that day and, perhaps, many days so that we could eat. 

You see, the risk we face in welcoming all persons is not that they will take something away from us, but rather we will be called to give our lives away.  To give our prejudices away.  To give our fear away.  To give what we have always believed away.  To give our control away.  If we practice the radical hospitality that Jesus commands us to, we will be the ones changed and transformed.  That is the real risk.  But it is also the real reward.  Jesus says:  “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones will not lose their reward.”  Our only hope of abundant, freedom living is to open our lives to others, to love and to welcome all people with extravagant and exuberant abandon.

And so I remind us, but more specifically the church, we are not here for breeding purposes.  We are here to work.  We are here to serve others.  We are here to love others.  We are here to welcome others.  As we leave this celebration tonight, we go to welcome Jesus.  Go and welcome all who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice and acceptance.  Go and offer the cup of cold water.  Go and be reconciling arms.  Tell the person that your hospitality is because Jesus loves you and you want to share that love with others.  Go and continue to treat all you meet as the Holy One.  Amen.