Willing to be Welcomed?

Today's sermon was based on Luke 10:1-20, when Jesus sends out 70 disciples and tells them not to bother to pack--not anything: no money or an extra pair of shoes.  To eat what's put before them, and to stay where they are welcomed. (A big deal for kosher Jews.)   In turn, they are to be the expression of the Kingdom that is at hand.  You are the embodiment of the future you are living into, and others are enrolled by who you are being.  Who I am being.  Pastor Steve said it was the willingness to let others make room for you.  There is nothing quite so warming as to join a group and someone says, "Scoot over, make room for Michele," or "Pull up a chair and join us." 

And there is nothing quite so embarrassing as allowing others to contribute to you when you can't reciprocate, when they give to you out of charity.  Or if they welcome you extravagantly, and you are hard pressed to allow people with even less means than yourself to give to you.   When I volunteered in Migrant Ministry as a teen-ager and was strictly ordered by my supervisor not to eat anything in the migrant camp.  The Hispanic woman I was helping cooked a roast and was most put out when I told her no thank you--one of those acts of extravagant kindness that my declining caused hurt feelings.  I still wish I had do-overs for that one.

Pastor Steve asked, "What if this church had more than just a reputation for being warm and friendly?  What if we cared deeply, starting with each other?"   When I told him afterwards it was a powerful sermon, he said, "It didn't come from me."   I appreciate his willingness to let the Holy Spirit speak through him.

Go Pastor Steve!  Amen.