Welcome, welcome, welcome!

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Matthew 10:40

A few years ago a woman named Siobhan Garrigan went to Northern Ireland to study the current state of Catholic-Protestant relations in this divisive part of the world. While she was there she visited a Presbyterian church. What she there saw was shocking.

At first, it was shocking because it defied all the negative expectations. At the door to the church there was a welcoming committee that greeted everyone who entered. When newcomers approached the ushers said,
“Hello” or “Good morning.” Then they asked, “Where are you from?” At this point the scholar, who was herself from Ireland, felt pleased to see such a warm welcome. Finally the welcoming crew asked the fresh faces a final question, "What's your name?"

One unfamiliar man said, "My name is Martin." The committee said, "Welcome Martin. Please come in and find a seat." A new woman said, "I am Margaret." They said, "Welcome, please come inside Margaret! The service is about to begin." Finally, a couple approached, the husband’s name was Peter and the wife’s name was Maria. The committee grimaced and said, "Maria and Peter are you sure you're not more comfortable at the Catholic Church down the street?" Just by the name alone the "welcoming committee" was making an assumption about those entering the church’s doors. The committee greeted those with Protestant sounding names with a warm welcome and entry into the church, while the committee greeted those with traditional Catholic names with suspicion and a subtle invitation to go elsewhere.

Now we do not participate in this brand of gatekeeping at St. John’s, right? Our ushers, our newcomer committee, and every one of us almost always does a good job of greeting new members with a smile and a firm handshake. I still remember the overwhelming welcome I received when I came to visit here during my interview process. At least 60 people introduced themselves to me. In the Episcopal Church, we love to say that, “All are welcome,” and so often we practice this. Yet, while we do not have the same struggle as those in Northern Ireland sometimes we face the same challenge of welcoming, which requires us to let go of being in control and having power, even power over very good ministries.

This past week I had the privilege of participating in one such good ministry, Sawyerville Day Camp down in Hale County (Alabama). During the first part of pre-camp when just the staff members were present we faced a bit of a hospitality crisis. Many of the staff come from Episcopal Churches all over the diocese of Alabama, and primarily these high school and college students are white, upper middle class people. Almost all of them feel connected to the work of Sawyerville, as it has been around for their entire lives, and they feel that it is the Episcopal Church’s ministry. At the same time the local staff members from Greensboro and elsewhere in Hale County, actually grew up in the community where Sawyerville happens, many of them attended camp, so they too feel like it is their ministry of hospitality.

While both sides felt a need to welcome the other, soon it became clear that there was some tension, it was unclear who was welcoming whom, and some polarization happened. The white staff all sat in one big clump, while the black staff all congregated in another. Leslie Manning, the director of Sawyerville, invited everyone to model a more hospitable approach.
“If we cannot sit together, laugh together, cry together, and share life together,” she said, “then how do we expect to model racial reconciliation to the children who are coming to camp?” That was all she had to say, it seemed to uncork the stiffness. The rest of the week at camp everyone sat with everyone else. Black, white, brown, young, old, male, female, gay, straight, all mixed together, worked together, laughed, cried, and lived together. In the midst of this coming together, the staff was able to welcome one another into their lives and into some difficult issues.

One young woman from Greensboro after a couple of days at camp spoke up in a camp meeting saying some very difficult words. She said, “The male staff members need to do a better job of modeling how to act in front of our boy campers. Our boys are (ages 8-12) threatening the girls, saying, ‘I will beat you,’ or fake hitting them. Violence against each other especially again women, cannot even be threatened.” As soon as she finished speaking, the entire room began clapping and nodding their heads. This young woman courageously invited everyone into a difficult issue that was addressed together with the campers the next morning. She could have been met with disapproval, a blow to her self-esteem, or she could have been rejected. Yet, she let her guard down and welcomed others into this challenging reality.

We face a similar challenge. We have to welcome others into our lives, into difficult issues, and into our church. Jesus lays it out in today’s gospel, whoever welcomes one coming in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes God. Yet sometimes this is hard to do in our family of faith. Not because we do not want to welcome others into our church, as I believe we seriously want to welcome others into this beautiful place. However, we struggle with hospitality because welcoming those who look or sound different from us, welcoming those who come from a different state or different country, welcoming those with different education or no diploma, and welcoming those who believe differently or live differently than we do makes us feel unsafe. We want our family of faith to be a safe space and welcoming in the outsider requires that we have courage. Yet, Jesus challenges us to think about extending our definition of who is in the family. We are invited to give the cool glass of water to the stranger coming in Jesus’ name.

The love that we have for those closest to us, that warm and fuzzy feeling that rests within us, we have to take that beyond just those we like, just those who look like us, just those who are highly educated and upwardly mobile. We have to discover ways that this place can be hospitable for everyone who comes to it.

If we are to be welcoming like Christ would have us be, we must let go of power and control, like that displayed by the Northern Irish Presbyterian welcoming committee. We must let go of our desire to be accepted and approved, like the young woman at Sawyerville Day Camp. We must even let go of our preconceived notions of security within our family of faith. This is when we really begin to extend the welcome of Christ. We must welcome the stranger like we welcome our family because when we do this, we truly welcome Jesus and when we welcome Jesus we welcome God.

I want to end with what is called the welcoming prayer. It is a prayer that begins our contemplative prayer time every Thursday morning and it was written by Father Thomas Keating. Let us pray.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it’s for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions. I let go of my desire for power and control. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure. I let go of my desire for security and survival. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and His healing action within. Amen."