Red Wednesday's Wisdom - Welcoming

Having entered into this season of Lent, I often reflect on how the physical spring cleaning of my home, mirrors the never ending spiritual cleansing of my mind and heart. When I made the all important decision to welcome God’s Son Jesus into my life, I became a first hand witness to how God wanted to clean me out in regards to my cluttered relationships. Through God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness, I learned how to welcome people into my life with a new and fresh approach that was in alignment with God’s boundaries and not man’s. God’s boundaries always provide me with the protection I need to be safe and healthy.

I clearly remember one defining moment when I came to understand what welcoming meant from a much broader Biblical perspective that was based on chapter 10 in the Book of Matthew. That experience, was the result of being in a church that I had attended for many years. And even though there were beliefs and lifestyles that were totally uncomfortable for me, I came to believe that I was to accept and tolerate those situations, because after all, I was in church. I was surrounded by people who I called my friends, and some were even my family. But, after being repeatedly manipulated and accused of not being accepting and tolerant of other’s beliefs and lifestyles, I learned a very valuable lesson about what it means to be welcomed.

In Matthew 10:12-14, Jesus gave His disciples very clear instructions on who they were to reach out to and how they were to be welcomed as His followers. “When you are invited into someone’s home, give it your blessing. If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. If a village doesn’t welcome you or listen to you, shake off the dust of that place from your feet as you leave.”

Through these Scriptures, Jesus was telling me that there was a lack of worthiness to receive me and the blessing that I wanted to give in my church. I came to understand that my confusion about love, acceptance, and tolerance was a differentiation that I needed to make between the sinner and the sin. I was being expected to accept and tolerate the blatant sin that was taking place in our church, and equate that with loving, accepting, and tolerating the sinner. But that is not God’s thinking. God calls me always to love and accept the person, but I am never called to love, accept, or tolerate sin, mine or yours! I needed to break away from a church that wanted me to welcome that kind of thinking.

Our churches are like our families, they can take on a personality that is characteristic of the people who comprise them. Church, per se, is not a building. Hopefully, it is a place that is grounded in the Word of God and it is made up of people who welcome God’s Word, take His Word to heart, and walk His Word out. Church is not based on what man says, but what God says. I had to let go of the thinking that told me that church was equated to God. Church is where we go to worship God, and hopefully we find God there, but church can most certainly be void of His presence and His Word.

Matthew 10:16 actually gives us this warning: “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Be as wary as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware!” The warning is there for me and for you, just as it was for the disciples. I am that sheep that needs to be cautious of the wolves that can be in my family, my church, work place, or wherever, and still love. As Matthew 10:36 declares, “Your enemies will be right in your own household.” In other words, I am to be aware of the enemies that lurk in my own family, BUT, I am still commanded to love them!

Who would ever think that we would need to be instructed on how to welcome people into our lives? But that is what Matthew 10 is all about. In fact, Matthew 10:40-41 ends with this rich and powerful summary, “Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me. If you welcome a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will receive the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly people because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs.” These closing verses have taught me that my relationship with Jesus is crucial to me knowing who I am to be in relationship with, and who I am to keep at a distance. Some of my toughest love lessons have taught me how to love people from a distance without being intimately involved in their lives. Love does not tell me to be in relationship with every person I meet.

As I go through this Lenten season, I pray that all of us will become more discerning of who the Holy Spirit is telling us to welcome into our lives and who we are to be wary of. May our hearts and homes be a welcoming invitation to all who are meant to enter. And may we be a reflection of the One who wants to be welcomed into all of our lives!