For Sunday, June 29, 2014 – Matthew 10:40-42
I have it on good authority that I might have a few too many Welcome signs around the house. In nearly every room, not to mention the garden and porch — oh joyful multiplicity! — on metal and wood, in calligraphy, made by hand or machine, they sing out: Welcome! Welcome! Yes, this is our community’s guest house so they are reasonably appropriate, but even I wonder why so many “signs of welcome.” What do they mean from an introvert who prefers solitude? Who is it exactly that I am trying to convince? Do I hang signs of welcome because it is easier than to be a sign of welcome?
Jesus says: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” How much easier can a religion be? Welcome, and be welcomed. This is how we welcome God. This is not the kind of religion to which they were (we are) accustomed. Holy Welcome is not a religion of morality or rules; it asks no fees for the forgiveness of sins. Holy Welcome is the religion of seeing each other, the religion of come on in, there’s room. This religion listens long and deep. When it speaks it says, You belong. Stay awhile. You are wanted here.
To be a sign of welcome is to care for others seriously, but not to take ourselves too seriously. It is to refuse to be the perfect host, getting preemptively exhausted by all that could be required of us. Jesus knows us well, that we want to be a people of holy welcome, but we are afraid to open the door and say hello to the unknown. So he says, why not let children teach you? They already understand all you need to know. Even the smallest of offerings exchanged with the smallest of persons are much bigger than you imagine. You can do it—Welcome, welcome, welcome!
