You know,
Jack is fond of telling fishing stories, so I thought I’d tell you one
of my own. Once a few years ago, I was out on a boat fishing with a
buddy of mine. We were sitting there with our poles in the water and
nothing was biting all day long and we were starting to get a little
frustrated. Finally, we decided to give it up and we were reeling our
lines in for the last time, when to our amazement a fish jumped up out
of the water and landed smack in our boat. It flopped around for a
few seconds while we stared at it and weren’t sure what to do. We
were so shocked that we just kind of watched it flop around for awhile
and then it flopped right out the other side, back into the deep
water. We thought to ourselves, “Well that was a little weird,” when
all of the sudden another fish jumped into our boat. We thought,
“We’re not letting this one get away,” so we both lunged at it and
tried to grab it. I grabbed it, my buddy grabbed it, and the harder
we squeezed it, the more slippery it got and before we knew it, it
slipped right out of our hands and fell back into the water. We were
now, not only amazed, but a little tired from all of our effort
expended on this one fish. In all of the ruckus, we had splashed a
few inches of water into the bottom of the boat and so there was quite
a bit of water inside the boat. We were just about ready to start
bailing out the water, when one more fish jumped into the boat. But
an even more amazing thing happened. It jumped into the boat and
landed square in the water. Rather than floppin’ around, it settled
down and just started swimming in the bottom of the boat. We decided
to not press our luck and so we rowed away, happy that we had caught
our first fish of the day.
Now, as with
most fishin’ stories, I have to be honest and say that this story
isn’t completely true. Its pretty absurd to think of fish just
jumping into the boat, waiting to be caught, but how nice would it be
to be a fisherman if that really happened! I might even take up
fishin’ if that were the case. When you think about it however,
that’s exactly what happens here at church. Jesus calls us to go out
and fish for people, and while we try to do this, really a majority of
our fishing is dependant upon those fish jumping into our boat. And
thank God they do this. We have first time visitors come through our
doors all the time, usually at least 1 or 2 every Sunday, which is way
more than a lot of Lutheran churches. And despite all of the hard
work that our Evangelism Team does, when it gets right down to it, a
majority of our fishing takes place within our own little boat,
waiting for those fish to jump on in. Discipleship is not only about
reaching out, but from our gospel lesson today, we learn that an
important part of discipleship is also about welcoming those who come
in. Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”
In St.
Charles County, one of the fastest growing counties in Missouri, we
are in a place where the fish really do just jump into the boat for
us. So we, as a congregation, need to make sure that they feel
comfortable enough to stay. As with my fishing story, if we just
stand there and stare at a visitor, not doing anything, they will
eventually flop right out of the boat. On the other hand, if we
squeeze them too hard, and pressure them, and force them to stick
around, they will eventually feel uncomfortable and slip through our
hands. What we need to do as a congregation, is to learn good
hospitality. We need to make this a comfortable environment so that
anyone who comes through those doors for the first time will want to
just relax and stay awhile. We do this by talking to strangers,
people we don’t know, but not necessarily pressuring them to sign up
for a ministry team right away. We do this by being welcoming and by
being friendly.
“But,
pastor, I think we have a very friendly congregation.” I can hear
some of you thinking this now. And while I have no doubt that we are
very friendly to each other on Sunday mornings, I’m not certain that
we are always friendly to people who come here for the first time. We
got to talking about this in our Tuesday Bible study and 3 of the 8
people there had similar stories to tell. Each of them said recently
that they had spoken with visitors AFTER the service and the visitors
had responded, “Thank-you for saying something to me – you are the
first people to say anything to me since I got here.” Last year, when
Lynde & I visited for the first time for our interview with just the
call committee, we sat in the back pew and no one outside the call
committee said anything to us. Unfortunately for us, I learned at a
conference that most visitors make up their mind whether or not they
will return to a church within the first 8 minutes of their arrival.
Before our prelude or gathering songs are finished, most people have
made up their mind if they are coming back or not. It seems those
fish flop out of the boat awful fast and this shows us how important
first impressions really are.
Today we are
installing all of our greeters for the coming year and all of these
people are an important part of Hope’s hospitality, but our official
greeters can only do so much. I heard a great story this week. At
the baptism we had a couple weeks ago, one of Michelle’s family
members who came just for the service, came up to a couple of our
older gentlemen who were standing around talking. She introduced
herself and then said, “What’s your job around here?” One of the guys
listed off the ministry teams that he was involved with and some of
the activities that he led. The other guy simply said, “My job is to
come to worship.” More significant than their answers, which were
both very good, is her question. What is your job around here? I
never really thought of it that way before I heard this story, but
what a great question, and so let me ask you, “What is your job around
here?” To help you answer this question, I’ve brought this sign in
from the narthex. It usually stands out there in our lobby and, I’m
guessing, that this big green sign was made to help our visitors feel
more welcome. And while it may serve that purpose, I think it has a
different purpose. I think this sign is intended to remind all of you
what your job around here is to do. Very simply, your job is to
“Welcome visitors.” So from now on, any time that you see this sign,
let it remind you of your job around here. Let it remind you to
introduce yourself to that person sitting next to you who you don’t
recognize. Let it remind you of 5 really easy words to begin a
conversation, “Have we ever met before?” Let it remind you to wear
your nametag every Sunday. When you see this sign by the door, don’t
dismiss it and think that it applies to our visitors. This is a sign
for all of you. Welcome Visitors.
Well, I have
to say that my preaching professor would be very critical of my sermon
so far. I’ve talked a lot about hospitality and how important it is
for us to be hospitable to everyone who comes through the doors, how
important it is for us to talk to people and for us to help them feel
comfortable, and while I think I’m being true to the gospel lesson for
today, my preaching professor would still bust my chops. “Where’s the
good news, preacher?” He would shout from the back in his southern
drawl, “All I hear is law!”
Well, here’s
the missing piece. Here’s the good news and why it’s so important for
us to be welcoming to the stranger. It is our job to be welcoming
because we ourselves have been welcomed first. It is Christ who says
to each one of us, “Come as you are. All are welcome. You are my child
and I love you.” It is Christ who meets us at the doors, grabs our
hand, leads us to worship, offers us healing, forgiveness, and love,
and then sends us out into the world to bring others in. It is Christ
who says, “I don’t care about your past. I love you anyway. Come be
a part of this community.” Christ welcomes each and every one of you
despite your backgrounds, despite your faults, despite your
differences. Christ welcomes you to this community, to his
life-giving word, to his healing water, to his nourishing supper.
Christ is our host and he begs us to come and find a place. In fact,
Christ loved you so much that he died on that cross so that you could
be a part of his family. He broke down those barriers so that one day
each of you will be with him in paradise for eternity. Christ has
prepared a place for each of you, not just in heaven, but also here in
this congregation. You are welcome here and so you can also welcome
others here.
I’m going to
close with a song that I think sums this up beautifully. Its one of
my favorite songs and it is written by a Christian hip-hop artist
known as Agape, who some of our youth had a chance to meet at the
Youth Quake in Chicago. It may surprise you. I hope it challenges
you. Feel free to sing along with the chorus. It’s pretty easy.
