On Welcome

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee: Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Harvest Thanksgiving

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given unto us the fruits of the earth in their season: Give us grateful hearts, that we may unfeignedly thank thee for all thy loving-kindness, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Harvest thanksgiving is an opportunity for Canadian Christians to give thanks to God for the way in which he shaped creation in order to provide for us. Bountiful harvests mean we in Canada rarely suffer for lack of food—something which in the history of the world and even in contemporary times is not necessarily the norm for the majority of the people on Earth.

Harvest Thanksgiving is also one of those holy days which in Canada has become a holiday in secular society. A time for families to gather and give thanks, not necessarily to God, but to each other and to the circumstances of their lives. With such family gatherings, it means there is also a tendency to see more strangers in Church on Sunday. Not to the degree of Easter and Christmas, but it is a time in which travelling family members may deem to grace the doors of Church. They could be Christians from another tradition, lapsed Christians who only enter parish church when forced to by virtue of visiting their parents or other relatives, or they could be lifelong unbelievers who only ever attend with Christian relatives when gathered with them.

Having a larger number of guests attending highlights an important question within the Church of how we are to respond to guests, particularly those who are not believers and whose views of the Church are shaped not by knowledge of Christ, but by secular representations and popular culture. For them, sin may well simply be a contrivance of organized religion created to keep the people controlled.

Someone recently spoke of how we are to be accepting of others as Christians, and it made me ask the question, is that truly what God asks us to do? Does God accept all of us as we are? To some Christians today, it seems the answer must be yes. God welcomes all to his table, and how can one be welcoming without acceptance? This, however, is not the Biblical norm God has revealed to us.

In the Old Testament, it seems quite clear that God welcomes his people to return, but he does not accept when they turn from him. The lectionary reading from Amos for today reminds us of who God does not accept, those whose way is evil:

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said, Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (Am 5. 14, 15)

There are many more examples of God calling out his chosen people, through the prophets, for falling away from him. Jeremiah, for instance, was given the task of warning Israel that God had turned from them after they had rejected him and would allow them to be taken into exile.

This reality that God does not accept us as we are sounds harsh, and indeed God calling the Jews to repentance by allowing them to be overrun and put into exile is well beyond the Christian experience, and thus harder to comprehend.

In the New Testament, we are shown a new paradigm. Jesus ate and drank with outcasts and sinners, something that greatly offended the Jews of his time for they followed the example they had been shown to shun those who are sinners, in order to themselves avoid falling into sin.

Jesus, however, draws a distinction between welcoming and accepting. He did not tell them they were not to change, not to seek forgiveness of their sins and to sin no more. Jesus did not stone the adulterous woman, and indeed his words caused her accusers to leave. The end of the Biblical account has the woman and Jesus alone, and Jesus then asks the woman who accuses her. She replies no one, and he then concludes the account saying, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more,” (St Jn 8. 11b). Jesus welcomed her, not condemning her, and called her to turn from sin in repentance.

In a contemporary context, we can see this welcoming and love shown, while still refraining from granting acceptance. Children often rebel against their parents in some ways, even to the point of leaving home. Sometimes, these children will return. Their parents will often welcome them back into their home in love, but this action shows no acceptance for their rebellious behaviour, but rather is a display of grace and mercy. In the case of behaviour such as drug or alcohol abuse, this welcome might be conditioned on reform which is supported by the parents. Their love means they will support the child through their change. It is no different with God. Just as parents love their child too much not to want them to change when they do wrong, God offers us sanctifying and transformative grace to change, to avoid the harm we would otherwise do ourselves and others were we to be accepted just the way we were.

Christ’s paradigm is one of grace and truth. The grace to welcome sinners, to show them, in love, the truth of God. St John Chrysostom’s commentaries on the New Testament often noted this duality of Christ’s mission. In his commentaries on Galatians and I Corinthians, he notes how whenever St Paul used harsh words to rebuke—to show truth to those to whom he was writing—he would then soothe them with mild words. It is only when truth and grace are held together that Christ’s teachings are found.

It is simple enough to say then, welcome the sinner and teach them the truth with grace. The danger, however, is in forgetting that we ourselves all fall short and sin as well. We are to welcome others because Christ continues to welcome us each week. He does not accept us, but every week continues to call us to repentance and offers us his grace to encourage, sustain and strengthen us as we seek to live the life he calls us to. The only different between a committed Christian and a guest who is seeking to know God is the length of time they have each been on the journey.

Welcome the guest, the sinner. Encourage them and extend God’s grace to them, and do that not from a position of judgement, but in recognition of the fact that Christ Jesus continues to do that for you as well.