St Helena UMC -- 29 June 2008
DON’T GO TO CHURCH, BE THE CHURCH
We are the Church when we . . . WELCOME


A few weeks ago when Amy Beth asked me to come up-valley to preach here today she said that you’ve been having a sermon series on BEING the Church.  Sermons like “We are the Church when we . . . “heal the sick” . . . and when we “show compassion” . . . and when we “have hope.”  I thought that today’s lectionary Gospel reading from the tenth chapter of Matthew about extending welcome could fit into that theme too -- We are the Church when we proclaim WELCOME. 

This whole tenth chapter of Matthew is about Jesus sending his disciples out into the world in mission.  There are some pretty discouraging images in this chapter about the potential for danger and conflict.  Jesus says he’s sending them out like “sheep into the midst of wolves,” traveling light without protection against the dangers they must face.  There is the possibility that following Jesus might pull families apart and strain loyalties.   This is not going to be a walk in the park.  But, if those being sent out are faithful to their calling, God will be faithful to them.  And then, in the passage we read today at the end of the chapter, there are rewards for those who welcome the apostles.  Now that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind about welcoming --  but I have found that Scripture can be quite elastic, so I want to stretch it just a little and talk about the broader nature of welcoming the stranger this morning -- if that’s OK with you.

A few weeks ago in the lectionary passages we heard the reading from Genesis about Abraham welcoming the three strangers who appear at his tent one day.  In that case one of the strangers turned out to Yahweh, so rolling out the red carpet was really a good idea.  But, showing hospitality to all was a very basic tenet of the beliefs of the ancient Hebrew people -- and still is today.  In Abraham’s time, showing hospitality could well be a life or death issue.  The environment was harsh -- villages where food and water could be purchased were few and far between.  Providing hospitality -- food and shelter -- for the traveler could mean survival.  Hospitality was a common sense issue -- take care of the stranger because the next time it could be you who was the stranger in a strange land in need of hospitality yourself.  Many of the rules for living in the Hebrew Scriptures were just that -- practical advice based on common sense matters of survival. 

Now, my survival is hardly in jeopardy, but I feel welcome when I come up here to participate in worship -- and that’s a good thing.  As fellow United Methodists, the Cross and Flame symbol is welcoming to Mary and me.  We drove across about two-thirds of the country last summer and saw a lot of Cross and Flame signs on churches.  If there were churches on the four corners of a cross roads in Wisconsin or Iowa, the odds were very good that one of them would be a United Methodist church.  

Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.  That’s our mantra -- and it is a good one.  It is true to Christian teaching, I think.  It speaks of being truly welcoming -- physically and philosophically.

It was out of that understanding of BEING the church that Napa 1st UMC began to move toward being truly welcoming in it’s contact with the community -- and with the world.  So, why should you in St Helena care what the Napa church has done?  Well, for one thing we are related parts of the body of Christ -- and it might at least be interesting to you.  Moreover, I want to try out these ideas on you -- a more neutral and less invested audience before I try preaching about this down in Napa.   Jesus talked about the prophet not being honored in his own home town.  I once earned a living -- briefly -- as a consultant, traveling around the world telling people things they could probably have looked up for themselves.   Here I’m an expert.  Back in Napa I’ll just be annoying -- so, indulge me as I preach.

But, Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors -- welcoming.  In the past year or so the Napa church first studied and then became affiliated with The Center for Progressive Christianity.  TCPC to its friends.  There are eight basic welcoming points that we adopted -- among them:

*  Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe.

*  Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm and acknowledge that their ways are as true for them as our ways are for us.

*  Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without requiring that they become like us in order to be acceptable.

The other points are similar in being generally open and welcoming toward others who might well not see things exactly as we do. 

And then just a month or so ago we took another step in declaring ourselves to be more specifically welcoming as a Reconciling Congregation by approving a statement that specifically proclaims a welcome toward people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

That was a big deal.  Becoming a Reconciling Congregation was something we started talking about over fifteen years ago that finally came to pass because now was just the right time for it to happen.  Our timing was excellent with the recent ruling on same-gender marriage by the California Supreme Court.  Some of us from Napa attended the Reconciling Ministries luncheon at Annual Conference Session last week and suffered from the sin of pride in being applauded as one of three new Reconciling Congregations in the conference this past year.  

It is valuable just to go public with these declarations -- to take a stand on the side of inclusiveness and justice.  But in the end, do these affiliations pass the “so what” test?  Do they bear fruit?  Without fruit, being affiliated with The Center for Progressive Christianity and the Reconciling Ministries Network are just so many merit badges that we’re collecting to sew on our Boy Scout sash to make ourselves feel good.  Specific ministries should flow out of these affiliations.

Now I have every reason to be hopeful about bearing fruit.  Even before our affiliation with TCPC the Napa church was involved in ministry to the homeless through the HOPE Center which occupies one of our buildings.  Our UMW Mini Thrift Shop provides a valuable service to old town neighborhood families and more recently, as a direct result of the TCPC connection, we have begun a ministry called Faith Partners to provide support and resources to persons trapped in addictions.  All of these ministries truly fall into the “welcoming” category, I think.   There are many other ministries at the Napa church, but they are more focused on persons who are already a part of our community.  Not so much welcoming as sustaining.  Good stuff too, but different.  

Following the Eight Points of The Center for Progressive Christianity comes at a cost though.  One that may ultimately prove difficult for us.  To truly welcome people who may have a different world view from ours means that we have to give up one of the most satisfying experiences known to humankind -- we’ll have to stop feeling superior.  No more eye-rolling and saying under our breath, “Well, what do you expect from . . . them?”  Whoever “Them” is in this particular case.  I was a third-level alternate delegate to General Conference this year.  I didn’t go to Ft Worth, but I heard lots of stories of our delegation’s experiences.  It was enlightening to hear them. To much of the rest of United Methodism, we in the West are . . . “Them.”  We don’t pay our apportionments and we have cock-eyed ideas about justice and the authority of the Book of Discipline.  How hard for “Them” and for us to remember -- and to behave as though we remember -- that we are all children of God and precious in God’s sight.

The German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book in 1937 called The Cost of Discipleship.  It is a classic of Christian thought centered on an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Bonhoeffer spells out what he believes it means to follow Christ.

I’m not qualified to discuss Bohhoeffer and the idea of cheap grace.  I’m a retired chemical engineer, not a theologian -- but I can understand the concept of there being a cost to discipleship.   

To truly welcome others into our community we must sacrifice some of the self (our self) to the welfare of the whole body.  That’s really difficult.  Human nature is self-centered.  At some DNA level we are wired for survival.  To sacrifice self to benefit others -- others not of our tribe -- strangers -- is downright unnatural, but it is what the teachings of Jesus call us to do and be as the church.

And in all honesty, we in Napa have not been tested yet as a Reconciling Congregation.  We don’t know yet what the cost might be.  Like Jesus’ early followers it could mean family relationships strained or broken -- or even physical danger.  I pray that we will be able to remain faithful to our commitment to reconciliation and bear whatever costs there may be.

I’m a great fan of bumper sticker wisdom -- you know, the universal meaning of life in three short words with an exclamation point at the end.  There were bookmarks being handed out at Annual Conference Session in Sacramento last week with THREE SIMPLE RULES from John Wesley on them.  It’s pretty good stuff:

1.  Do No Harm

2.  Do Good

3.  Stay in Love with God

It seems to me that extending a true and non-judgmental welcome to all to join in our fellowship is certainly true to those general rules of John Wesley.   Jesus cautioned his followers that discipleship would be difficult -- that there was a cost to be borne.  Being the church is more than pot luck suppers and rummage sales.  Sometimes to be truly welcoming difficult and uncomfortable positions need to be taken in the name of justice and inclusion.  Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors -- for all.  And if we stay in love with God -- how can we do any less?

AMEN