A Christian Welcome
I think we all know how important welcoming is. We have experienced when a place feels welcoming and when it doesn’t. Today, as we just begin to tap into the structure of the service I want to talk about 3 aspects of welcoming that are important to someone experiencing the Kingdom of God.
1st) God has called us to practice a kind of welcome that leads to belonging
2nd) When we truly welcome, it isn’t always easy, because we are challenged to make room and change
3rd) And most important, when we welcome someone we need to know what we are welcoming them into - and God calls us to welcome people into a relationship with God, to become his sheep and ultimately, his children
So first, God has called us to practice a kind of welcome that leads to belonging. It is not enough to simply have our doors open, though that is an essential start. We need to help people know that they belong. The first thing to recognize is that no one, and I mean no one walks into these doors on their own. Remember, we live in a culture and a world that looks down upon Christianity. Sure, there are Christian defenders and intellectual thinkers, but if you look at the way of the world, it is more in contrast, oftentimes in opposition to a Christian way of life. This means that if someone walks into these doors, they do not do it alone. If someone walks through these doors they have been called by our Lord and Saviour. If you are one of them, you may not realize it, but God has been working on your heart, he gave you courage this morning, where you may never have had it before, he gave you humility and purpose. Any day someone walks through these doors, they have made a choice, but God has equipped them to see and make that choice a reality. This also goes for all those that were invited or previously Christian too.
God has called them. Like we hear in our Psalm how God calls the whole earth and even the heavens before him. Or how we hear that Jesus is gathering sheep that are not yet part of this fold.
If God has called someone new, if God has called you and you find yourself here, it means that you have been called for a purpose, you have been called because there is a place here for you. There is no one without a place or purpose. There are no unimportant people in the Kingdom of God. God has called you because you are important to him.
We need to make sure that people experience this and understand this calling. God works on hearts and minds, but he also purposefully wants to work through us to be his hands, feet and voice. So part of our important purpose is to do this welcoming - to recognize God’s call on someone’s life and invite them in.
Welcoming to this end does not come naturally to most people. To help someone know that they are called, that they are important to God, it means going out of our way. It means literally turning to them, walking to someone, when we sense an opportunity, asking them questions about themselves, about their faith and inviting them to sit beside you, introducing them to people they may connect well with, and walking with them to coffee hour and anything else that they may need. This isn’t always comfortable, because when we meet someone, we never know what it is going to look like, but remember, if someone is walking into these doors, everyone is new, they may have little or no idea what they will experience. Just imagine what it could mean for someone with little to no connections, to suddenly have a friendly face willing to walk with them, when it is helpful.
You may have noticed on occasion that I have run out of a conversation to go speak to someone new. I know this is rude and I don’t like doing it. My hope is that you who have been here for a while know that I care for you, that you are important, but I know that the people just walking through these doors don’t know that. I know that every person that goes out of their way to connect and show them love and care makes a difference to how they experience the true welcoming of Jesus.
But again, in all of this we have to recognize that we don’t welcome just because we want to grow our community, we welcome because we want people to know that God has chosen them and that they are important. Ultimately, we welcome because we want you to know how loved and cherished they are by God.
This brings us to our second point, we need to know what we are welcoming people into: we are welcoming them into an intimate relationship with God. Us purposefully stepping out to welcome someone and connecting with them is really just mirroring what God has already been doing, but now they get to physically experience what God’s calling means: they are seen, known and loved.
Have you ever wondered why I start every service with a moment of silence to connect with God who is present? There are many reasons, but one of the central ones is that we all need to be told about, or reminded of God’s presence and the joy and love that outpours from it. Sadly, for us that have been Christian for a long time, we can forget the person of God that is standing right beside us the whole time with his arms wide open, waiting for us. For those that are new to the faith, this is even more important, because you might never have been able to name this loving presence. You might never have purposefully reached out to make room and connect with God. Like any relationship it needs to work two ways, God may be reaching out to us, but opening our heart to God is very important to how we know and experience this loving relationship.
Our liturgy begins in a similar way: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. Do you hear this now? It is the same invitation, the invitation to experience and know the grace, that free and bountiful gift of Jesus Christ that he is offering you. An invitation to live in the love of God, that he is perpetually surrounding you with and inviting you into. An invitation to meet and have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Our service begins with offering and reminding us of our relationship with God, that is ultimately his loving offer to us.
So now that we have recognized this great offer of relationship and all that God has been offering to us in love, we need to respond. We need to learn how to see God and love him too. As we have already mentioned our culture doesn’t help us do that, so we need help. We need God’s help, like a loving friend, showing us how to be a friend. So our service progresses in this way: “Almighty God to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. AMEN.” The BCP actually starts here, because it assumes the first point, coming from a Christian culture and heart. But do you see what is happening in this kind of welcome greeting? We acknowledge that God already knows us, he knows our strengths and our faults - he knows what we need. So we ask him to cleanse our hearts, because we know that hardness of heart, that greed, anger and so much more, literally gets in the way of us seeing God and loving. We come humbly before God, because we know we need his help to love as he loves, to see as he sees. The amazing thing is that when God fully cleanses our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the result is that we are filled with a perfect love and a joyfilled passionate praise. We start with cleansing, because this is how we all need to come to God, whether this is our first time, or our 300th time. It is also something we all need to be reminded of and grow in. We should all seek to have our heart cleansed so that we might be filled with God’s perfect love and passionate worthy praise.
The collects, the opening sentences and the weekly prayers, all become different ways to draw people into the day's themes and readings. They don’t assume your prior knowledge, instead they introduce and reintroduce things, so that everyone can be collected together.
Lastly, my third point, welcoming isn’t always easy, sometimes it takes work and sacrifice. We only need to look at our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to see this. His whole life mirrored this reality, but nothing more than his death. Jesus died with his arms nailed open like an endless offer of an embrace. Jesus died because he was willing to give his life to introduce people to God, even if they didn’t want him, or would run away. Jesus died for the sins of all, so that finally they might be reconciled with God. Jesus died so that people could forever look to him and see the shape and depth of God’s love for us. We are all called to pick up our own crosses and follow him. We may not need to die, but we need to be willing to struggle and even suffer to draw people into the Kingdom like Jesus did.
This struggle is, sadly, a natural part of truly welcoming someone in this broken world. We have to make room for someone to find a place. What does making room mean? It means moving something else, sometimes putting something else to the side, or getting rid of something. Some of us have literally been experiencing that as we welcome our new school downstairs. Almost never does someone just walk in and perfectly fit the gaps that a church has with all the skills and knowledge that they need - and if we really think about it any expectations that this would be the case are a little ridiculous. No, instead, making room means making new friends, opening up our conversations, inviting people in, leaving a conversation we enjoy to talk with someone. Making room means giving them opportunities to speak and effect change in us individually and corporately. It means taking time to help them find where they fit, in terms of friends, a role, a need and more. We all need to be doing this work whether we have been here for our whole lives or just for a few months. The beautiful thing is that even though this is a struggle, it actually means life. Not just more people in the pews, but it means our growth in faith, it means their growth in faith, it means new relationships and love, it means more experience of the Holy Spirit in our midst, it means the Kingdom of God is expanding and being experienced.
This is all true as long as our corporate and individual relationship with God remains at its centre.
So to close it all off. We know how important welcoming can be. We are called to welcome in a special way, because we recognize that anyone walking through these doors has also been called by God and is important and loved and we are meant to mirror that. We have to make sure we know what we are inviting people into: ultimately there is nothing more special than to invite people into a personal and communal relationship with God. Lastly, welcoming can be hard, but let's all do the hard work so that together we will see the Kingdom of God flourish.
Children’s Talk:
Two examples of people who come in the doors. Gather the kids at the entrance doors into the sanctuary
How do we respond and welcome both?
Kermit: Friendly and outgoing
Walk with them introduce them to a lot of people and large conversations
Mousechief: Shy and reserved
Walk with them (gently), see if you can sit beside them, talk and listen to them, introduce them to a few people
I think we all know how important welcoming is. We have experienced when a place feels welcoming and when it doesn’t. This Sunday, as we just begin to tap into the structure of the service I want to talk about 3 aspects of welcoming that are important to someone experiencing the Kingdom of God.
1st) God has called us to practice a kind of welcome that leads to people finding their belonging in the Kingdom of God
2nd) When we truly welcome, it isn’t always easy, because we are challenged to make room and follow what God is doing in this person
3rd) And most important, when we welcome someone we need to know what we are welcoming them into - and ultimately we are inviting people into the truly fulfilling and lifegiving relationship with God
