40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
***********************************************
Y’know, if I didn’t ’t know this was from Matthew’s Gospel, I would think it came from John. "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward…”. It sounds like John’s writing style, doesn’t it?
Welcoming - I don’t believe I have ever heard of a church who didn’t say they were welcoming and friendly. And yet, we know very well that some people are more welcome than others. We find evidence, in Paul’s letters for example, that this is not a new thing at all. “Don’t seat the rich man up front and tell the poor man to sit over there out of the way.” In the first century church, the divisions that caused some individuals to be treated differently than others tended to be between rich and poor, slave and free, Gentile Christian and Jewish Christian, male and female. Again, Paul points this out and says “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Even back then, at the very beginning of the church, people had a hard time being fully welcoming of everyone who came. And by fully welcoming, I mean every person without exception can aspire to and attain any position in the Church. And we know that’s just not reality most places. “Nope, you can’t be (pastor or an elder or a Board member or team leader) because you’re a woman, you’re gay, your English isn’t good enough, you can’t get in the building because of the stairs.” The other thing that happens is, “Oh good, we would love to have you as (pastor, elder, board member, team chair) because you are Black, lesbian, young, a Dreamer, transgender, and we don’t have one of your kind yet.”
Even in congregations that are Open and Affirming and multi-racial and appear to be very welcoming, there are still signs that some people are more welcome than others, although those signs are somewhat less obvious. If a congregation is bi-lingual but the service and the music is in only one language, some people are more welcome than others. If a congregation is multi-racial or multi-ethnic, but worship doesn’t even give lip service to non-Western European forms of worship or music, some people are more welcome than others. And no, we don’t all worship the same way. I’ve been to many different kinds of worship services in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - in Spanish congregations and African-American congregations, and even a couple of Korean congregations and, while they all contain the same elements as a typical White congregation’s service, they are different from each other in style and flavor. If a congregation is made up of people from a variety of cultures, those cultures need to be recognized and celebrated in the worship service - if everyone is truly welcome.
Every group of immigrants to this country has faced prejudice and rejection. When my mother’s grandparents arrived, there were signs every where saying “No Irish.” Whether for a job or for a rental, the sign made it very clear that no Irish need apply. The solution was simple, of course. Drop the O from O’Grady and lose the accent. Ta Da! No longer obviously Irish. By the time my father’s mother arrived from Ireland, the Irish were pretty much accepted - at least as far as jobs and such. It was the same with the Germans, Polish, Scandinavians, Russians, Northern Italians . . . (Sicilians and some Spaniards were a little dark, so they may have taken a bit longer to fit in) . . but for the most part whenever any European immigrated to the US, it wasn’t hard to for them to become assimilated.
The same cannot be said for Asian, African, and Latin American immigrants and their descendants - whether they originally came here willingly or unwillingly. They cannot simply change their name or lose an accent, and fit in. And, seriously, why should anyone have to change their name to “fit in.”? Uy Vu is my friend, college classmate, and former choir director at my first church. He came to the US from Vietnam with his parents when he was about 12. While he was a student at Chapman University he became a citizen, and when he got back to campus later that day, he told all his friends in the choir what it was like. Then he asked them to guess what his American name was. After many wrong guesses, he told them, “It’s Uy Vu. Because - I am an American now.” 2nd and 3rd and 4th generation Asian and Latinx Americans very often meet with disbelief when they try to explain that they were born here. They don’t come from some other country. They often do not even speak the language of their ancestors. Which makes total sense to me. It’s not like I can speak Gaelic. But then, nobody expects me to. Cause I’m white. White people speak American English. - Yes, I know that’s not always true, but it is the assumption people make.
Although our current situation - worshipping online, not being able to use our building, not being able to see each other - is not really our favorite thing, the fact is this will be our reality for a while. And we don’t have any idea how long “a while” might be. But you know, it’s not all bad.
We have no building - which means no stairs - which means people with limited mobility can attend worship.
We can’t see each other - which means we don’t have any idea about the race or ethnicity or gender of the persons attending our worship services. Or even whether they’ve showered lately.
We can’t hear each other - which means we don’t have any idea whether someone speaks English with or without an accent. Or whether they can carry a tune.
Online worship means we can carry the Good News far outside our building - literally to the ends of the earth.
People are welcome to join us for worship even if they don’t have transportation.
They can feel welcome to worship even if they don’t know what things to stand up and sit down for (you can sit down for the whole thing at home.)
They can feel comfortable worshipping with us even if they would not come to worship services inside our building - for whatever reason.
Of course, online services only welcome persons who have access to the internet via computer or tablet or smart phone. So some persons are still more welcome than others. And this is sad.
At First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Selma, California, we say All are welcome, and all means ALL. And we are sincere in saying that, even though we know that there are some limitations to that welcome, whether we are in our building or online. But we continue to work toward truly welcoming every person who desires to worship God with us.
Jesus said, Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.
And I say to you, whenever we extend welcome to any person, any person,
we welcome Christ.
In our current reality, when we do not worship inside a building,
when we cannot use our physical sanctuary,
Let each of us be God’s sanctuary.
Let each of us welcome any and all who would join us,
and in doing so, welcome Christ.
***********************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment