Lectionary Reflections June 26 "Welcoming"

Lectionary Reflections    June 26, 2011

Genesis 22:1-14 or Jeremiah 28:5-9

Psalm 13 or Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18

Romans 6:12-23

Matthew 10:40-42
Jesus said, "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; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 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."

Some years ago we had a conversation in our church about how we could be more welcoming to all sisters and brothers in Christ.  We made a commitment that our church would be “welcoming”, which was understood as including those with same-sex orientation.  This was not a hypothetical situation for us, because two of our most active members at the time were a female couple.  Through them I learned a bit about being at the margins of society and the church, including the pain and economic injustice for them of not being able to be married (as of yesterday, this has changed in New York!).  But just when we were patting ourselves on the back for being so very progressive and inclusive, one of them said “you know, I actually think that was fairly easy to do.  It’s also been fairly easy for us to hear from those of other religious traditions.  We’ve welcomed Muslims from Iraq and Bhuddists from Tibet to share with us.  It would be a lot harder to include a fundamentalist or right-wing Christian.”  She spoke the truth.  And that really made me wince. 

When Jesus speaks of “these little ones” in the gospels, it is about the church or the disciples.   With the raging of the “culture wars” dividing our society, this gospel calls to offer even small kindnesses to all of “these little ones” of whom we are a part, even “fundamentalists”, “evangelicals” and “right-wing Christians”.  I don’t quite know how to do this.  I don’t have much wisdom or cool stories of unity to share, but I would love to hear yours!

John+