5th Sunday of Pentecost

“Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.’”
Just so we get this straight: whoever welcomes you, welcomes Jesus, and
whoever welcomes your friend or neighbor or family member,
or work colleague, or elected official, or mother in law,
or next door neighbor, or chatty seat companion on an airplane,
or vendor at the state fair, or grocery checker, or barber, or the UPS driver,
or the kid who hit your new car with a soccer ball… and so on and so
forth…. Welcomes God?
We could have fun with this! But would there ever be an end to such a list
of those who are welcome?

If there is an end to such a list of who is welcome, what does this mean?
And if not, well- what does that mean?
Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.
And whoever welcomes any one of us welcomes Jesus, welcomes God.

The message we hear in today’s Gospel was important enough to Jesus,
And to the early church, that some variation of this theme shows up in each
gospel: and often more than once.

Also in Matthew’s gospel, from chapter 18:
“whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
And from chapter 25:
“The king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these… you did it to me.”
Mark includes similar verses.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus declares that
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me,
and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
In John’s gospel, in true poetic style, Jesus declares in chapter 13
“Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and
whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

There are numerous other examples and variations throughout the New
Testament.
The bottom line emphasis seems to be on inclusion, reciprocity, welcome
and doing for others—all those things it takes to build up community:
To include the stranger as neighbor.
Clearly, Jesus and the early disciples and apostles put a high value on
welcoming.

Pause for a moment, and think about all of our present day drama:

About division, exclusion, keeping people separated, and kicking people
out.
This kind of thinking goes against the teaching of Jesus who talked so very
much about welcome, inclusion, and hospitality.

Such an understanding of hospitality,
of the obligation of welcome, dates back to well before the time of Jesus.
It was a matter of survival and community health which translated into the
religious understanding of what God wants of us.
Where and how do we experience such welcome today?
“Jesus said, ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.’”

Is this what we hear?
Or do we hear, instead, words of separation, words of breaking
relationship, and words of opposition.
So many of the ugly attitudes playing out on the world stage and in the
evening news have spilled over into our popular culture.

Today’s gospel lesson reminds us that of our need to witness to welcoming
others,
And thereby welcoming Jesus and the one who sent him.

This Sunday falls between two other occasions marked on the Church
calendar:
the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul last week and our celebration of
American Independence on the Fourth of July on Tuesday.
It is important to note this for a number of reasons.

First, think about Peter and Paul.
They did not agree on many things, didn’t get along at all,
and finally went their separate ways in the proclamation of the Gospel.

Peter insisted that the early believers must follow Jewish ways,
must be circumcised, must hold to the Law.
Paul’s vision led him to distant lands proclaiming faith in a risen Christ and
urging believers to conform their lives to that faith.

What they had in common, though, was the conviction that God had visited
humanity in Jesus,
and that Jesus had brought something new and remarkable to humankind
demonstrated in a way to live,
a way to relate and a way to witness to God’s love.
And they both understood that the welcome of God was an invitation to a
place in God’s kingdom.

As we celebrate this Fourth of July, and as we sing God Bless America,
and as we roast hot dogs and hamburgers and marvel at fireworks and the
good ol’ red, white and blue,
let us also ask ourselves what Jesus meant in telling us over and over
again,
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me”

We may believe differently about the details of faith,
as Peter and Paul certainly did and as Christians are wont to do.
We may understand civic responsibility differently;
Americans have always held a variety of opinions on things.
But for us as Christian Americans or American Christians,
the question of the day growing out of this gospel text asks:
What does it mean to welcome, and how do we do that?
What does it look like in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in our national
policies, in our very attitudes?
For we are Christians first, as citizens of God’s kingdom,
living that faith in an American context of privilege and challenge.
Jesus didn’t say that we have to agree on everything,
but he pretty clearly told us to be welcoming.
Like Peter and Paul, we won’t all agree on everything.

And as Americans, we will stand proudly to celebrate on the Fourth.

When we put all that together,
one possible outcome is that we may have to agree to disagree on some
aspects of American policy as we live our Christian faith in daily practice.
Christian people are called to be welcoming,
for in welcoming others we welcome God. Can we at least agree on that?
As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us,
when we welcome strangers, we may be entertaining angels unaware.
AMEN.