Oct. 2 The Journey Continues ...
Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton speaks at a prayer service Aug. 7, 2009, outside LA Fitness in Bridgeville, PA, where three women were killed and nine injured by a gunman who then committed suicide.
A few nights ago I sat at a restaurant on the river overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. The city was abuzz in anticipation of the G20 Summit. Boats, bikes, and helicopters gave evidence of significant preparations being made for visitors. The Hilton Hotel erected a huge welcome banner to hide their stalled renovation project and give visitors a good impression as they enter the downtown. Street crews were cleaning sidewalks and gutters to impress visitors. Businesses were actively preparing for the visitors by placing welcome signs in windows and offering specials. Atop Mount Washington a new sign replaced the Bayer advertisement. It read: “Pittsburgh Welcomes the World.” The red carpet was truly being rolled out for those who were coming.
I couldn’t help but think, “If only our churches would provide such a welcome mat every time the doors were opened!” Wouldn’t it be great if every one of our local churches constructed a banner that said, “This Church Welcomes the World.” Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had weekly crews that made sure the grounds were well kept, the bathrooms were well cleaned, and the nursery had fresh sheets? Wouldn’t it be tremendous if crews of volunteers were trained to greet people when they got out of their cars, welcome folks with a warm handshake, and show them around the building? Wouldn’t it be a slice of heaven if others would regularly give up their seats for visitors and invite them into the fellowship the church provides? Wouldn’t it be a blessing if our churches were postured to “welcome the world?”
But let’s go a little deeper. As I sat there on the riverbank, I couldn’t help but think, “If only we could always be so aware of the world and its problems and so willing to let those people and problems seep into our daily prayers and ongoing ministries of grace and outreach.” The world has grown so small; when something happens in a remote part of this globe it is known across continents in a matter of minutes. The world has grown so vulnerable; an emission from a plant in China affects a change in the climate in Africa. One action impacts another, even when they are a world apart.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone created an internal consciousness that said, “I welcome the world into my life.” That consciousness would elevate our need to pray and increase our donations for insecticide-treated mosquito nets. That consciousness would lessen our judgments and increase our awareness of the reality that when one hurts, we all hurt. That consciousness would reveal to us after awhile that we are all children of God called by God to love our neighbor even as we love ourselves.
Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to do that? Truth is, in some pockets of our world, we ARE doing that.
One Sunday last summer I didn’t have any preaching responsibilities. Sally and I decided that we would check out one of the churches in our Conference that we had not yet visited. We set the GPS with the right address and headed to our destination; unaware of what we might find when we arrived. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were spaces cleared closest to the entrance. When we got out of the car, someone was there within seconds to greet us, ask us if we were visitors, and point us in the right direction. When we made it inside, someone made sure to familiarize us with the building, show us to our seats, and make us feel as if we had been born and raised into this community. And here’s the best part – it wasn’t until later that someone came up to me and said, “Aren’t you our bishop?” Initially, they didn’t know who I was! Our welcome wasn’t contingent on my title. Our welcome was based on the climate, the DNA, the atmosphere of hospitality that had been created by the people of the church. It was a demonstration of who they truly are. It felt as if they had constructed a banner that said, “This Church Welcomes the World!”
Not long ago I visited another church where I was approached by a rather bold young person. Realizing the opportunity to “snag” another visitor, she came up to me and said, “I am selling baked goods to raise money for a program called Nothing but Nets so that young children can be saved from malaria. Would you like to buy a brownie?” How cool was that? She didn’t know who I was and didn’t realize that I was the spokesperson for her cause. What she did know, however, was that there are innocent children dying from malaria every day and there was something she could do to help stop it. It was a demonstration of who she was and how she was trying to live out her young faith in tangible ways. It felt as if she had a banner hanging from her neck that said, “I welcome the world into my life!”
One day Jesus took a little child into his arms and said to his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me. (Mark 9:36-37)
Last week Pittsburgh “welcomed the world.”
Maybe this week we all can do the same.
The Journey Continues ...
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