Whoever welcomes
you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes
me welcomes the one who sent me.
Welcoming. Hospitality. Providing for those who show up
unexpectedly, was a keyl dimension of life for nomadic peoples. Beginning with
the Abraham saga, the Bible reflects upon the lives of peoples throughout an
ancient world who were constantly on the move. Specifically, on the move
throughout the middle east, but including herders and traders from as far east
as Asia, and as far west and north as Europe, and as far south as Africa.
Paleoindian people crossed a land-bridge in the Bearing
Straits some 40,000 years ago to populate what has come to be called the
Americas - north, central and south America. Humans are migratory by nature –
seekers, people risking everything to find new grazing lands, new bodies of
water, new locations capable of sustaining life for animals, clans, tribes, and
families.
As settlements began to appear some 5,000 years ago in the
Americas, still many of the Paleoindian people continued nomadic and migratory lifestyles,
either as hunter-gatherers or as traders. Fast forward to the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries of the modern era, the Spanish began to explore and settle
the south and southwest of north America, the French in the Midwest and Canada,
and eventually the English arrived along the east coast. To understand the
relevance of the Bible’s stories of nomadic and settled cultures half-way
around the world, we need to remember that the earliest English settlements
failed, until the Powhatan Confederacy provided intervention and assistance at
Jamestown (1607), just as the Plymouth Colony was assisted by the Wampanoag
Confederacy (1620). That is, without hospitality and know-how shared with those
who showed up unexpectedly, the English immigrants might not have succeeded at
all.
Sadly, such hospitality was not returned in kind, despite
many of the euro-settlers representing a variety of Christian traditions. This
ought to strike us as odd. Jesus instructs his disciples to go throughout the
middle east and beyond to preach the good news of his Father’s kingdom of love,
forgiveness and a just society for all, and to follow his example of offering
hospitality to “the least of these, my sisters and brothers.” He identifies
himself and his mission with welcoming the stranger, the homeless, the sick,
the hungry, the thirsty, widows, orphans and resident aliens fleeing famines
and oppression in their homelands – those without resources, family, or tribe
to sustain them.
Although this conclusion of his instructions in chapter 10
of Matthew speaks of a reward for those who welcome the “little ones,” and
those who welcome his disciples, such reward is not quantified or described.
Likely, because Jesus knows that offering such welcome and hospitality to
strangers is rewarding in and of itself. And that creating a kingdom of those
who welcome the unexpected stranger is an essential building block toward a
world of women, men and children who love and respect one another – a peaceable
kingdom as described by the prophet Isaiah. [i]
This talk of welcoming and hospitality is the summation of
his instructions to those of us called to travel this world “in his name.” That
is, our lives, the lives of Christians, are to reflect his life of radical love,
acceptance, and inclusion for all others. Further, he says that those of us who
adopt such a culture of hospitality will be welcomed by others, and will
ultimately be welcomed by God, his Father. The disciple, Jesus and God, he
asserts, is the nucleus of a new kind of family. A universal family that
transcends all other families. A universal family of hospitality and welcome
for all.
This vision, this understanding of what God his Father
intends and wants for all people, is breath-taking. And yet, he is saying, it
all depends on those of us who are disciples of his to become a welcoming and
hospitable presence in a world that is divided against itself. Divisions that were
exacerbated by the Age of Exploration and Colonization, and continue down to
this day.
As we pause on July 4th to recall the lofty
notions in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,”
and that all persons are worthy of “life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness,” we find we need to take time to contemplate how the “American
Experiment” succeeds and/or fails to embrace the ideals that Thomas Jefferson
and others boldly asserted as essential of all persons. And whether or not
those ideals square with the radical kind of hospitality and welcome of all
others who come our way to experience just what it is America wants to be. We
might begin such contemplation with the poem of Emma Lazarus that is still fixed
at the base of the Statue of Liberty: The New Colossus (November 2,
1883):
Not like the brazen giant of Greek
fame,
With conquering limbs astride from
land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset
gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose
flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and
her name
Mother of Exiles. From her
beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild
eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin
cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your
storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me
your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden
door!"
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.”[ii]
It appears that Jesus believes that welcoming strangers in
need, “little ones,” with a cup of cold water is capable of making all the
difference in the world. May we, and all the people of this land, have grace to
welcome the stranger and one another, and maintain our liberties in
righteousness and peace for all people, from sea to shining sea.
Amen.
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