Gordon E. Ellis
January 30, 2005
EVERYONE IS INVITED ! COME AND SEE!
A colleague of mine, Thomas Long, tells the story of a time when he was staying at a MOTEL in a large CITY. And AS he got on the elevator, he noticed a small, handwritten NOTE, posted on the elevator DOOR. It said: PARTY TONIGHT! Room 210. 8:00 pm. EVERYONE is invited! Well, that NOTE got Tom’s imagination working OVERTIME. He IMAGINED what Room 210 might LOOK like at 8:00 pm that night. It would be filled with the ODDEST assortment of people: traveling SALESMEN looking for RELIEF from their BOREDOM; a couple of TEENAGERS sneaking away from their PARENTS’ room & hoping for a good time; a few TOURISTS, sick of SIGHTSEEING and wanting some FUN with other PEOPLE; a wary MOTEL employee sent to check out WHAT was going on; and many MORE. Well, the party turned out to be a HOAX, of course. BUT, writes Long, for a brief moment, there existed the TANTALIZING possibility that there was a PARTY going on SOMEWHERE to which ALL people were invited, and where it didn’t make ANY difference at all WHO you were. EVEN if you CAME to the party out of BOREDOM or LONELINESS, you were STILL welcome. Yes, it would be a PARTY where it didn’t matter nearly as much what got you IN the door, as what would HAPPEN to you AFTER you arrived. And Thomas Long decided that: PERHAPS if there is to BE such a PARTY, the CHURCH will have to THROW it.
And friends, I believe that THAT’S the way the church OUGHT to be! ALL people OUGHT to be WELCOME here. And of course, THAT’S the MESSAGE of those United Church of Christ TELEVISION ads that have been causing such a STIR lately. Yes, ALL people OUGHT to be WELCOME in the church, REGARDLESS of what BROUGHT them in the door. When I PREACH on Sundays, I NEVER assume that everyone is HERE for all the RIGHT reasons. I REALIZE that there are HUSBANDS here, who have been DRAGGED here by their wives. I REALIZE that there are CHILDREN here who ONLY come because their parents FORCE them to. I UNDERSTAND that there are people here who have only COME to appease a NEIGHBOR, who keeps INVITING them and WON’T give up. I UNDERSTAND that there are TEENAGERS here who are more interested in their boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s WHISPERS than in LISTENING to the Prayers of the Church. I KNOW that there are SOME people here who have come PURELY for the MUSIC, and who READ the hymnal or the bulletin during the REST of the service. Yes, people come to church for all SORTS of reasons. And that’s OK! When I was a teenager, I OFTEN went to youth group meetings at the United Church of Bernardston, Massachusetts. And I went there for TWO reasons. First, it was often a good way to LIVEN up a DULL weekend. And second, I had a SERIOUS attraction to a young woman there, who ended up becoming my WIFE. But BELIEVE me, MY attendance had absolutely NOTHING to do with the CHURCH, OR its faith. But I ALWAYS felt WELCOME at that church! And THAT’S why, years LATER, I chose THAT church as the site of my ORDINATION into Christian ministry. Yes, ALL people ought to feel WELCOME in the church of Jesus Christ.
Notice how, in our Scripture Lesson today, Jesus ASKS the 2 disciples of John of Baptist who follow Him, WHAT are you LOOKING for? BUT, He does not JUDGE their response. And I think that WE need to do the SAME. It’s FAIR to ask people WHY they have COME here: WHAT are you looking for? And obviously, IF they’re looking for something that we DON’T offer here, it’s important to TELL them that. But it NOT fair to JUDGE their responses. EVEN if they are people who have chosen PATHS that WE would not CHOOSE, or LIFESTYLES that WE reject, it’s NOT up to US to be their JUDGE. The CHURCH, after all, is NOT a haven for SAINTS. It’s a HOSPITAL for SINNERS. And EACH and every ONE of us FITS that SINNER category. SO, OUR job is NOT to JUDGE people, but to LOVE people, ALL people, and to welcome EACH and every person who COMES here. EACH and every PERSON who walks through OUR doors NEEDS to be welcomed as we would welcome CHRIST Himself! AND, we need to leave the JUDGING to CHRIST.
Back around Christmastime, I received an IRRATE phone call from a woman who had attended here with her family for a time. And she was angry for SEVERAL reasons, but PRIMARILY because we accept HOMOSEXUAL people here, and DON’T label them as SINNERS who must CHANGE in order to be ACCEPTED and loved. Well, my RESPONSE to her was this: For a woman who CLAIMS to follow a Savior who said, Judge NOT, lest YE be judged, YOU are doing an AWFUL lot of JUDGING. She didn’t LIKE my response, so she told me that there would be a SPECIAL place in HELL just for ME, because I was leading SO many people ASTRAY. She said: you have SO much going for you in this church. You have a great BAND, a great Church School, and so MANY wonderful people, but YOU are leading them AWAY from the Word of GOD, and you WILL SUFFER for it. I said: WOW! God told YOU all THAT? She replied as I EXPECTED her to. She said, I will PRAY for you! SO, I did something that I learned a LONG time ago from one of my teachers and mentors, William Sloane Coffin. HE used an expletive, which I don’t want to use in my sermon, but I DID say it to HER. But basically, I said: You’re going to put me on your PRAYER list? She said, YES, I AM! I said: Then tell me something: HOW is your PRAYER list different from your HATE list? Well, as Bill Coffin always SAID it would, THAT shut her up, because she DIDN’T have an ANSWER! It ALWAYS works! And I haven’t HEARD from her since. No friends, OUR job is NOT to JUDGE. THAT’S the job of the CHRIST. OUR job is to welcome ONE and ALL as if EACH and every ONE were CHRIST Himself.
I also like the EXCHANGE in our Scripture Lesson today. Jesus asks the 2 disciples of John: What are you looking for? It’s a LEADING question, and they COUNTER with ANOTHER question: Rabbi, WHERE are you staying? Now at FIRST: this seems like a STRANGE response. BUT, biblical scholars TELL us that THAT question was NOT just an inquiry about His LODGING, but a BIGGER question, a SPIRITUAL question: Who are you? Where is the CENTER of your life? Where is “HOME” for you? And I LOVE the response of Jesus. He INVITES Andrew and his companion: Come and see. Well, ANDREW brings along his brother, Simon, and the three of them stumble to follow a PRESENCE they DON’T yet UNDERSTAND. And NOTE that SIMON comes to Jesus NOT out of any kind of conviction, or ANYTHING spiritual, but SIMPLY out of LOYALTY to his younger brother. And what THAT shows us is that the roads that LEAD to Christian FAITH are MANY and varied. You see: what’s IMPORTANT is NOT how we come to Christ INITIALLY, but HOW our journey of faith DEVELOPS, and WHERE it ultimately LEADS.
I once worked with a woman who BEGAN her journey of faith by joining our church CHIOR, simply because it provided her with an opportunity to perform solos. She had a very BEAUTIFUL voice and she LOVED to sing to an audience. Well, in BETWEEN performances, as SHE called them, this woman would sit in the choir loft, which was right up in the FRONT of the church, and read NOVELS. Well, let me tell you: THAT drove SOME people in the church absolutely CRAZY! But I KEPT saying: It’s OK! We’re NOT all here for the RIGHT reasons, and ONE day, what we SAY here MIGHT just take ROOT in this woman’s LIFE! And sure enough: over time, the words of the SOLOS and ANTHEMS that she was singing, such as, I KNOW That My Redeemer Liveth, began to REACH this woman. And gradually, she began acquiring the vocabulary of FAITH, and SOON, she had a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. And this newfound RELATIONSHIP crept into her singing, and she began singing more BEAUTIFULLY than EVER. And IN the process, SHE experienced what SIMON experiences in our Scripture Lesson today, when Jesus CHANGES his NAME to CEPHAS (or PETER, the Rock). HER name was ALSO changed: from performer to Christian witness. You see: THAT was her JOURNEY, and she had come a LONG way! No friends, WE are NOT to judge. OUR job is to TAKE people where they’re AT and invite them to COME and SEE a BETTER way, CHRIST’S way.
You know: I think EVERY church ought to PAINT, over its door: Come and see. And then, EVERYONE who enters, for WHATEVER reason, OUGHT to receive a JOYFUL word of WELCOME – AND – a BACKPACK for the JOURNEY that they are ABOUT to take, because this IS a JOURNEY that we’re ON, ALL of us. CHRIST is at WORK in EACH and every ONE of our lives, JUST as He was at work in the lives of His FIRST disciples, GUIDING our journey. SO, let’s INVITE people, and WELCOME them, to come and do what WE are doing, to come and see. Amen.