This week: God as welcome. If you have any comments - adebelak@redeemerluth.com [mailto:adebelak@redeemerluth.com]At a preaching conference last week, Walter Brueggemann said, "Welcome vetoes speech."
God as welcome is that parent who does not need to say anything to his child who
has been away from home - pretty much considering his father dead. The child is
a loser - trying to make the world his own - so turned-in-on-self that all things
are lost in that far away place. So the child goes home expecting to make a planned
speech that may do him some good. But the speech cannot be completed - no planned
rise out of the dumps is able to occur as the child had envisioned. Instead there
is welcome - a overwhelming welcome - and "I'll do anything for you dear, anything"
welcome. God as welcome acts boldly and without any pulling or persuasion. God as
welcome is able to restore worth and heal all that has been broken. This welcome
is meant to be the face of the church for all and any who gather up the courage
to come and worship or come and take part in any aspect of the life of a congregation.
God as welcome is a people who make fools of themselves to welcome home the stranger.
Not to 'get them' to join. Rather, to give them the homecoming - the welcome - that
all God's children need after we have been beaten up by the world and when we have
take part in beating up others. God as welcome vetoes speech. Therefore we become
the welcome that is too often left to words and never becomes life.
O God of love and new life, we are reborn when we are brought close into the embrace
of your love. Blessed are you for acting and grabbing hold of us when we are longing
for a place to call home. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment