The Sunday Sermon: September 26, 2021 – 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture: Luke 24:28-31
Taking Welcome a Step Farther
Last Sunday we began something new for us – an intergenerational conversation that actually spans thirty-six units and three years, designed to help people of all ages, young and old, to more fully follow Jesus. This new PCUSA curriculum is called “Follow Me” and seeks to help us all, all at once, follow Jesus more fully. The units are broken into (mostly) four sessions each and we began last Sunday morning with the first unit called “Welcome All.” Do you remember any of it?
- If Christians should be known for anything, other than Love itself, if should be for how we welcome others – all others.
- We began “in the beginning,” reading and hearing of the last day of creation and realizing that how humans, like all other living things, are created and welcomed by that which creates. We have had a place prepared for us by God and we have been welcomed into it. As creatures invited, we can do nothing less than welcome others – all others, One and All.
This morning we consider a second aspect of “welcoming others” that is related to the first, but takes it a step farther. Last week we were reminded to treat all others as creatures of God, especially looking out for the vulnerable. God cares for all. So should we. This morning we will consider what happens when we actually, truly do that.
Let us pray …
So, as I and most preachers are wont to do, let me “code” the message ahead with what I trust is a very relatable story:
Over twenty-three years ago (I know that because Katie and I didn’t have any children at the time of this story, a fact that will figure prominently by its end), over twenty-three years ago, when we were members of Highland Presbyterian in Louisville, Katie and I went on a mission trip to Mexico with our church’s youth group and another youth group from Washington state. The group from Washington was led by a former Seminary intern, a student minister, at Highland, who had made strong bonds with our Youth Group leader and many of the youth themselves.
Anyway, we traveled to San Diego, drove into Tecate, Mexico and set up camp with other groups from around the country in a field. We had no running water and no electricity for the four nights and five days we were there. Our “mission” was to build houses, two of them. Not the house that just came into your mind. The houses we were building were 20 feet x 40 feet wood framed, stucco-walled, structures built on a concrete slab with one interior wall that divided the house into two rooms. The main thing that made these structures invaluable to the families that would make them a home was the concrete floor, poured and anchored so that water couldn’t topple the walls and wash the whole structure away.
All week, as we mixed the concrete by hand, set the wall anchors, built the walls, wired them from the cement stucco, and put a roof over it all, all of us marveled at the simplicity of the design and how little this family must have. Conversely, we gave thanks for everything we did have and took for granted, how blessed we were.
Well, at the end of the week there was a “Home Blessing” ceremony for both of the houses we had completed that included the families that would inhabit them. I don’t remember much about that ceremony, pretty standard I’m sure, that concluded with our holding hands around the tiny house and a prayer. What I do remember most vividly is the woman/wife/mother – who had been around all week and was by now good friends with us – coming up to Katie and me when we were packing up. She took Katie’s hands as her children clung to her legs and thanked her again. She then asked if Katie, if we, had any children at home. To which Katie, as I’ve alluded to already, said, “No.” What Katie and I both vividly remember is the initial look of sadness in this mother’s eyes, replaced quickly, but that first look that communicated how rich this woman felt with her family and how poor she saw us without one.
Katie and I were blessed, as you know, in the years that followed. But, if not for the first time, in the most memorable way, we were reminded again of what true wealth was, and is.
That story, and any memories you have of the life that is yours begin put into a much deeper and broader perspective, speaks to the “step farther” we’re taking in our welcome this morning. How often do groups returning from mission trips such as the one I just shared, report that they were given much more than they provided? They, we, thought we were going to give o four plenty to those without, yet the reverse happened. In welcoming this woman and her family to their new house so they could make it a home, she welcomed us to a different understanding of what is most important in the time we share – family, in whatever form that family takes, children, parents, aunts and uncles, or friends that are closer than all.
Our scripture reading shares a moment like the one in my story in a different way …
May it be even more so. Amen.
Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church / September 26, 2021