Extravagant Welcome

He had served his time. His parole had been approved. The ex-con was finally heading home. On the bus, he ignored the noisy college kids and stared out the window. After a rest stop, a young woman sat in the seat next to him and struck up a conversation. He told her the headlines. He’d been in prison for several years. After the first six months, his wife stopped writing back to him. When he learned of his parole, he wrote her again and said he still loved her. But he would also understand if she never wanted to see him again.

To make it easier on both of them, he suggested that she use a yellow handkerchief to communicate her feelings. If she wanted him back, she would tie the handkerchief on the old oak tree near their home. If there was no handkerchief, he would stay on the bus and keep going. Word of this plan spread throughout the bus. As they came to town, the college kids flocked to the windows. When they saw the tree, cheers broke out. On the tree was not one, not two, but hundreds of yellow handkerchiefs. That story inspired a hit song: “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree.” One preacher suggests that, “like this story, (our gospel passage today is) about the power of extravagant welcome” (Evan Howard, The Christian Century, 6/17/08).

Jesus sent out his disciples to preach and to heal. He warned them of the rejection they would sometimes face. Then Jesus encouraged his disciples, those messengers who carry his message: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me.”

This week, as I held up these three Gospel verses in prayer, listening for what they might have to say to us, here are some questions that came to me: Who are these messengers? Why does Jesus keep using the word “welcome”? And what does Jesus’ message of “welcome” have to do with us?

In the Bible, messengers – those who bring a message – are usually angels or prophets. The word “evangelism” has the word “angel” tucked inside it. This means that the angel Gabriel was an evangelist, carrying a message of Good News: “Do not be afraid…I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10). Let us welcome God’s Son, Jesus the Christ, said the angel back then. If Gabriel came to us, here, today, we might hear these words: Welcome! Welcome! And let us welcome all who come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s beloved son. Who knows. . .they may be angels themselves!

We don’t hear Jesus mention angels in our Gospel message today, but he does speak of prophets. Prophets are like angels, but they may not be quite so attractive. Prophets also proclaim God’s news, but it’s often news that does not feel or sound all that “good” to those who hear it. One Episcopal bishop used to say that he was a bishop who speaks, not just for the church, but also to the church. The world, even the church needs to hear God’s Good News, no matter how uncomfortable that Good News might make us sometimes.

Jesus, of course, is the prophet supreme, the ultimate messenger. As Christians, as little Christs, God calls us, through our faith, to hear the Gospel and then to share that Gospel, to be messengers of Good News. But how? How can we be God’s messengers? How can we share the Gospel in a way that others can hear it?

We cannot share something we don’t have. Do you have some Good News today? Are you an angel, a prophet, a righteous one, even a little one? Do you have just a little bit of Good News? I don’t know about you, but some days, in some of the seasons of my life – I don’t always feel like I have lots and lots of Good News to share. Sometimes, despite everything else – people praying for me; my own prayers; all the other ways I seek to open my heart to God and to other people – sometimes, it’s hard to hear Good News, let alone share it. There are so many other things – envy, stinginess, indifference, judgment, illness, fatigue – knocking on the door of my heart, ready to move right in.

Why does Jesus keep using the word “welcome?” Because the Good News of God in Christ is, like it or not, all about welcome, extravagant welcome. As we welcome home our pilgrims from Biloxi, those returning from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I remember. I remember how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced thousands from their homes, many of whom will never return. I remember two displaced ones coming to live at our Memphis house for several weeks back in the fall of ‘05. Although these two are beloved friends, their daily presence challenged me to think anew about welcome, not just of home but of heart.

Our good friends left, finally able to reclaim their home. Those who drop by – those who come to our church, to our community, to our homes – our guests are living reminders. They remind us just how much we and they need the company – even the love – of strangers. If we would just spend time to welcome them, we would find that they are God’s prophets, God’s righteous ones, God’s little ones, God’s little Christs. And they might find the little Christ in us.

I wonder: what would happen if we became not just tolerant, but radically extravagant when we welcome others? What little things might we do with great, extravagant love to welcome people here at All Saints’? For example, what if wearing our “Sunday best” always, always included wearing a name tag? What if, as Tommy Rogers suggested some weeks ago, we actually said “welcome” to at least one person we do not know, each and every time we’re here, including today?

The 13 th century poet Rumi speaks of extravagant welcome. My wife introduced me to Rumi some years back. Now he has become a regular guest in my house and in my life. He “arrived” with a poem a few days after our New Orleans friends had departed. This poem shows me how to be an evangelist, how to entertain angels and messengers, how to welcome others and to be welcomed with the Good News of God’s extravagant love:

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi

The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg
June 29, 2008
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Frederick, Maryland