Sometimes radical Christian discipleship requires us to push routine courtesy beyond the limits opf what is socially acceptable. Jesus shared a table, food and conversation with "the wrong people", those who didn't deserve to have their place at a table reserved for good people. Jesus didn't sit at tables reserved only for those good enough, socially powerful enough, respectable enough. If you wanted to be in Jesus' company, that was enough.
So Paul urged those early Christian house groups to "welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, in order to bring praise to God." Paul was echoing some of Jesus words, and recalling many of Jesus actions. To welcome someone is to rejoice in another’s presence. Welcome carries with it the presumption of friendship. Remember the insult and nickname, "the friend of sinners."
William Barclay called Christian love indefatigable goodwill; as a West of Scotland voice he could just as easily have said love is not easily scunnered! Welcome is not self-assertion but respectful consideration of others, attentiveness to their presence, care for their welfare, alertness to who they are. And we do this in order to bring praise to God. Welcoming brings praise to God. Who'd have thought it? Not our barriers; not our sound theology that defines who's in or out; not our cherished viewpoints we dare to call biblical, Christian, orthodox, sound, or any other exclusionary mindset; but welcoming others as Christ welcomes us. That brings praise to God.
So. Welcome is Christ-like acceptance. A welcoming community is a gathering of those who seek to embody, faithfully practice and consistently demonstrate the welcome of Christ. Welcome is a habit of the heart, a lifestyle of acceptance of others, respect for persons, indefatigable goodwill. In our personal, out-there, ordinary everyday lives, in our shared life together in the local body of Christ we call the church, there’s us and there’s others – and every person we encounter we welcome as Christ welcomed us. To welcome is to refuse to 'other' the other person.
In Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead the elderly 3rd generation pastor is trying to make sense of the Gospel, of what God demands in a world changed and strange:
"This is an important thing, which I have told many people, and which my father told me and which his father told him. When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation."
Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you - in the same way as, to the extent that, on the conditions that, with the grace that, Christ welcomed, and welcomes you. Welcome for Christians is rooted in who Christ is, and how Christ welcomed, accepted, received, forgave, made room for.
Some years ago in St Johann on the Austrian Tirol, we discovered a small tea room that served English tea, home baking, and did so from rose garden china cups and saucers. As we entered the shop the lady proprietor with gentle firmness met us. smiling, and asked us to take off our walking boots, as they scratched the furniture and marked the floor. It was done with such grace. Then when we were seated, she asked, "Now. How may I serve you?"
We were entirely disarmed by the hospitable warmth and obvious pleasure she took in the making and serving of that afternoon cup of tea, turning an encounter into an occasion. Welcome is when someone else feels that meeting us, talking with us, and being in our presence, is an occasion. "So you must think. What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation."
Welcome is a presumption of friendship, enjoyment of another's presence, and is confirmed by words like, "Now. How may I serve you."
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