Sharing our welcome

Good morning, Friends! It’s another beautiful Sunday at Springfield!

I had a couple of interesting visitors yesterday morning. I was out pulling vines off the bushes on the side of the building, when a car pulled up out of the cemetery and the window rolled down. They had driven all the way from Georgia, and they wanted to put flowers on the grave of their uncle, and couldn’t find the stone. They saw me working, and asked if I could help them call the pastor.

Well, the name wasn’t familiar, so I got my record book, and we couldn’t find it there. We looked it up on the internet, and it turned out their uncle is buried at Spring HILL cemetery, not Springfield.

I clicked on the map application, and Spring Hill is just outside Fayetteville, about an hour and a half from here. I thought they would be upset, but they were so grateful. We shook hands, and they blessed our church, and they drove off again.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking about how we welcome people. We always need to be working on our welcome!

We had a reading from Hebrews, where it says, “Don’t forget to welcome strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

We never know if the people who come here might not be angels in disguise! That’s why we have to welcome people – they may not look like it at first, but maybe the person who walks in the door has a word we need to hear, a message from God.

Last week, we read “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have in your heart. . .”

Wherever we go – not just in church – be ready to share your story. But then it says, “Do this with gentleness and respect. . .”

Sharing our story is something we do humbly, not bragging. And as we talked about last week, it means listening to the other person, not overwhelming them or shouting them down.

Talk about what you’ve discovered. Talk about what God has done for you. Talk about what the journey has been like.

And then, listen. It’s OK to have some quiet in the conversation. Sharing faith, and listening to their truth, takes time, and respect, and caring. But be ready when an opportunity comes, to turn a stranger into a friend!

Today I want to share another thought with you, about working on our welcome. This is something that Paul said, when he was writing to the new church at Rome.

See, all the churches that Paul worked with were new churches. Everything was new for them. Every day was a new adventure. Whenever they got together to worship, there would be a new insight, a fresh interpretation of a Bible reading.

There would be new voices, who were just finding the courage to speak up for the first time. All the songs were new songs. All the leaders were learning as they went along.

They depended on the Holy Spirit, to teach them every day.
Anyway, here’s today’s Scripture.

It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But how can people call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:11-15

Paul starts out by repeating some things that they knew already. It never hurts to be reminded of the basics.

Your heart is where everything first take place. Your heart is where the miracle happens first.

It’s like, you hear a voice you never heard before. Or, it’s like the whisper in your heart is a familiar one, that you heard a long time ago, and you’ve been longing to hear again.

When you hear that inner voice, listen to it. One of the earliest Quaker writings says, “Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings” – to the whispers – “of love and truth in your hearts” — because these “are the leadings of God.” (Epistle, London Yearly Meeting)

In your heart is where you first hear God speaking. Even if you read words in a book, even if you hear a speech from another person, when God speaks to you, you hear it in your heart.

Did you ever notice that the word hear and the word heart are just one letter apart? Your heart is where you hear God. You heart is where the miracle happens.

When God speaks in your heart, you know that God loves you. You know that it’s going to be OK, no matter what happens. And when you live with God in your heart, you learn to trust God. You learn to trust that heart voice. Even a whisper, as it says, is enough to get your attention.

And then, as Paul says, you learn to witness – to share what’s in your heart with other people.

If Jesus really has helped you, you want to share that with the person next to you. It’s not something you just keep to yourself. Sometimes you need to wait for the right moment. But sometimes the right moment is right now. We often wait too long, and the moment passes, because we’re afraid of what the other person may think.

Are they going to think we’re crazy? Are they going to think we’re some kind of religious nut case? What do you mean, you met Jesus? What do you mean, you trust Him?

Being a Christian means finding the right moment, the balance between “This is too big for me to keep secret!” and “I’m scared to speak up!”

It’s OK to be shy about yourself. Nobody likes to hear you brag. But it’s not OK to spend your whole life being shy about the Lord. Just remember, it’s not about us, it’s about Jesus.

Anyway, Paul says, it starts in your heart, and soon you have to speak. You have to share.

And then Paul says, “There’s no difference between you and me, or between us and anyone else. It totally doesn’t matter if we’re black or white, young or old, male or female, slave or free. “

It doesn’t matter if your faith goes all the way back to Abraham, or to Adam and Eve, or if you never heard any of this stuff before and you just found out yesterday.

“The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So, that’s the basics. That’s a review of what we all know. It starts in the heart. We learn to trust it. We learn to speak up. And it doesn’t matter, who we are or who anyone else is.

Now let’s push a little deeper, and listen to what Paul says. And this is the new part, where Paul really talks about working on our welcome.

“How can people call on one they haven’t believed in? And how can they believe in one of whom they’ve never heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

This is like A-B-C. Bada bing, bada boom! I know it sounds big, and it is. But it’s also really simple.

We want Christianity to grow. We want to grow ourselves. We want our faith to grow. We want our church to grow. We want our church to be a great place, with all kinds of people coming in.

We want open doors, and we want lots of people in our seats. We want to be a light in our community. We want lots of voices singing. We want kids, and grownups, and new people, and lifetime members. We want light, life and love just overflowing from here.

BUT. . .

If we want that to happen, we need to work on our welcome. And Paul really puts his finger on the problem.

• How are people going to pray, to a God they don’t believe in?
• How are people going to trust a God they’ve never heard?
• How are people going to hear, unless someone speaks to them?
• And how are people like us going to share the message, unless God sends us?

I want to step back a minute, and go back to something that Jesus said in the gospel.

Jesus says, “Go and make disciples in all nations, and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of all things.” (Matthew 18:19-20)

In another place Jesus says, “Go into all the world and shout the good news to the whole creation!” (Mark 16:15)

In John, he says, “I give you my peace. I give you my Holy Spirit. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. . .” (John 20:21-22)

We are called We are sent. We have jobs to do. The Holy Spirit, and inner peace, and trusting God, and all the miracles we experience – these aren’t just things we keep to ourselves. They’re meant to be shared.

This is one of the key things that I think we miss a lot of the time. It’s important that we keep our meeting looking nice. It’s important that we keep the heat and lights on and the doors open. It’s important that we watch our expenses and pay our bills.

But there’s more to a church than that! We always need to be reaching out, beyond ourselves. We need inreach – prayer and fellowship, care for our own people. But we also need outreach, or we’re not really being a church, the way Jesus wants us to be.

There are things that we do that I’m really proud of. We do a terrific job with our camping program. Quaker Lake Camp is a great camp! Hundreds of kids get to go there, every year. And the camp is always working to expand their outreach, and make it year round.

I’m proud of the food we collect, every month, for COAT. We’ll be collecting more next week. There’s some stories you’ll read, in the newsletter, of people who have been helped through the gifts that we bring.

We’ve done all kinds of cool things here, welcoming things. For years, we ran a weekly gathering for older people from the neighborhood. They came here for a meal, and fellowship, and the Neighborly Club was a wonderful program. Then the attendance went down, and we laid down that program. But it served a need for many years, and it brought light and life to our meeting.

For many years, we collected school supplies and toys and toothbrushes, and we packed shoeboxes for kids around the world. Some years, we packed 100 or even 200 shoeboxes. Then the cost of shipping got too high. We were spending more on shipping and administration for the program than we were spending on the boxes themselves. But it was another way we managed to share something good.

The art show this month was something new that we never tried before. One person came up with the idea, because she had a leading in her heart. But everyone jumped in and supported it. And we had a wonderful time! There were people who had never been here before, who came. There were students and artists who had never felt welcomed or supported, and a group of strangers – US! – we welcomed them. That’s a big wow for our welcome!

Every week, about a dozen people from many different Quaker meetings come and pack plastic bags filled with all the things a homeless person or a poor person or a farm worker needs, to keep clean and decent, and to take care of the cuts and hurts and bruises they get. That’s a great ministry, in anyone’s book! And there are so many other things we can try and do.

We welcomed a Spanish church here during COVID, and they used our chapel for a year. They prayed for us while they were here, and we prayed for them.

Every Monday, we’ve got 30 people coming here for line dancing class. They dance, they laugh a lot, and next month they’re going to pay us back by dancing at the BBQ.

Do you see what I’m saying? These are all ways we can open our doors, and open our hearts, and share our home with people from outside our own small group.

And I hope you notice, that all these examples I’ve been giving, don’t involve knocking on doors or standing on a street corner or giving a sermon. What we share, most of all, is love and compassion – the same things that have been shared with us.

Quakers have been involved with lots of missions. But if you take a close look at what we’ve done, none of it has involved TV evangelism.

Quakers build schools. Quakers run hospitals and clinics. Quakers volunteer, for unbelievable numbers of ministries. And we’re always starting new ones.

God calls us to reach out and to welcome people, which is actually what Jesus did. If you feel a call, if you feel a tug on your heart, if you hear a whisper, try it out, or share your concern with the rest of us, and see if someone wants to help.

Just remember, we always need to be working on our welcome. Whether it’s one by one, or in a small group, or a big event, look for opportunities. Look for doors that could be opened. Look for times you can share.

It says on your bulletin, in your newsletter, on our web site, and pretty much everything our meeting puts out, that everyone is a minister.

That’s what I’m talking about. Don’t leave it up to someone else. They may not hear God’s call, in the moment. Sometimes God’s welcome depends on you!