VOICE OF THE TURTLE Online

The following sermon was given June 6, 2005 by JoAnne Jewet,
pastor of First Baptist Church of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

by JoAnne C. Juett

Matthew 10:40-42

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

At our last American Baptist Churches Biennial in 2003, I had the privilege of attending a luncheon with the Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. I have no problem telling you today that the identity statement of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists is:

Members of the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB) are churches, organizations, and individuals who are willing to go on record as welcoming and affirming all persons without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity, and who have joined together to advocate for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons within Baptist communities of faith.

I didn’t go with the intent of making any kind of theological or polity statement; I went to enjoy some time catching up with old friends. As I walked toward the church where we would gather, I noticed protestors all down the street, older folks and even young children, holding placards and spouting both scriptures and warnings—I suspect they think of them as one and the same. Then, all of a sudden I had to walk past those people, with their condemning looks and spiteful words, aimed at me and at my friends. I had seldom sensed such anger and such judgment, from people who didn’t even know our names, let alone anything about us.

But, I walked on and into that church. I walked past those protestors who weren’t protesting people, but an issue that they didn’t even understand—how people of the same sex might have meaningful personal relationships. I had a wonderful experience spending time with dear friends, worshiping with them, and celebrating good things that were happening in their lives and their churches. Jesus was true to his promise to be where two or three gather in his name (and he didn’t specify sexual orientation, gender, race, or anything else!); we experienced a spirit-filled afternoon, encouraging one another in our spiritual calling and journey.

In that afternoon I understood what it meant to welcome and to affirm. The people in that luncheon embraced one another as friend, colleague, and spiritual partner. We approached one another as people of worth, worth getting to know personally and better, worth spending our afternoon together, worth serving God together. The people outside stood there on that sidewalk and on that street waving their signs and yelling at us as though they could disturb our fellowship within—but, by God’s good grace, they didn’t. The people outside rejected all of us, without knowing anything about us—but they claimed the name Christian. The people who made it inside that sanctuary, opened their arms and hearts, and we knew we were one in the spirit of God in Christ Jesus—these people claim that their Christianity is welcoming and affirming, and they live up to this claim.

Jesus boldly and radically calls us to welcome and affirm all people. These aren’t just terms used to identify one’s stance in regard to sexual orientation—these are biblical terms, real, meaningful, Godly terms, used by our savior, who was willing to welcome even the people who would eventually call for his death. Jesus welcomed all people because we are all God’s creation, we are all sinners, and we are all recipients of God’s grace.

As Jesus was explaining this kind of inclusive hospitality to his disciples, they may have been more than a little confused. They'd been taught that true hospitality was only offered within the household of Israel and even there it was only those who lived clean, not unclean like the Gentiles, who were worthy of being welcomed. Jesus' "whoever"—whoever welcomes, whoever gives—opened a door that the twelve would have had much trouble walking through. Jesus begins by saying that those who welcome his disciples welcome him. Jesus is talking about a culture of kindness: a habit learned through living a selfless life, a life-giving life, a life lived in Jesus. Hospitality towards other Christians isn’t to be based on whether we like their opinions but on their status. Another Christian is another Christian.

Some biblical critics would find in Jesus’ words today a hierarchy—we welcome the prophet, then the righteous one, then the little ones. But, I don’t understand Jesus’ words that way at all. The one most likely to die was the prophet. The prophet always spoke words of challenge and change; the prophet was usually at odds with the comfortable and powerful; the prophet had visions that were radical and new, that pushed his or her people in different and new directions; the prophet did little to foretell anything—prophets pointed out immediate deficiencies and warned of impending consequences. These criticisms and warnings were not usually well received by leaders and their people, and so the prophet typically lost, usually his head—like John the Baptist.

Welcoming the prophet is not welcoming the greatest, but rather it is welcoming the least, the one condemned to die for telling the truth and seeing the results. Jesus tells us to welcome those whose vision is not the norm, whose voice isn’t the loudest or the most powerful or the richest, whose position isn’t the most popular or feels the most comfortable. We must radically welcome the radical, the outsider, the less than beautiful, the not quite popular, the rejected, the different, and all of the not like us people.

And, Jesus tells us to be kind to righteous people. That word “righteous” is rather frightening. It is easily confused with “self-righteous” folk who approve of their own behavior and judge others. But, that’s not what righteous means. A righteous person is someone who walks with God. We might prefer the word “holy,” or just plain “good.”

Unfortunately good people can be rather hard to take. Unlike self-righteous people, they don’t press their goodness, or flaunt their holiness. But they do seem odd. They make us feel small or even dirty, unless we have allowed ourselves to become weak in our need and strong in our trust of God. If that has happened, we have joined the ranks of the righteous.

Ironically—no, maybe purposefully for my edification—the Welcoming and Affirming American Baptists were the righteous ones I was privileged to share my lunch with two years ago. Not a single person pressed any issues or flaunted their person—they were simply warm and genuine, eager to share their love of Jesus Christ and encourage others in their ministry. The people outside our windows that day claimed they were the righteous ones, holy people doing God’s holy work, but one would be hard-pressed to see anything God-like in the anger and venom they spewed forth at all of us.

Finally Jesus says that if we act towards “little ones” as disciples, we will earn our reward. The text seems to suggest that disciples, prophets, holy people are all “little ones.” Toward all people, then, we are to be life-losers, cross bearers, lovers; people who welcome others unconditionally. It may be that people we think wrong, or different, or plain boring are even angels! The word for angel also means messenger. The message may be something new or something very old indeed, but something we need to hear.

Jesus’ welcoming words are surely a timely message when we see so much conflict in our churches, regions, in our denomination, and abroad, conflicts marked by the ways of the world rather than by the hospitality of discipleship. Jesus’ “welcoming” remarks hold great significance for those of us feeling the pain of division among our own churches. Our brothers and sisters who are pushing for creedal statements are clear that there are those they do not and will not welcome to work beside them giving cups of cold water to those in need. They are calling all of us to join them in a crusade to un-welcome and de-affirm those who are created differently than them; and if they succeed now, I can little imagine where it will stop. The argument today is banning those of different sexual orientation from any participation in ministry—lay or ordained—in our congregations. The argument tomorrow may be gender, may be race, may be age, may be education, may be economic—and the list could go on.

Friends, following Jesus is not about fighting for a Cause. God doesn’t need our help and what God wants will finally be done on earth as it is in heaven. Following Jesus means walking into a holy, gentle, self-forgetting lifestyle lived in community. It means a costly learning to be like Jesus. One of the signs that we are doing this is our willingness to open our arms to others, and to take the risk of being abused in the process. Yet risking being used, and indeed of losing everything, means following the path Jesus trod. In human terms, Jesus is the great loser. Yet, through his loss, Jesus becomes Christ the Victor, and in him his victory is also our own.

Jesus takes the least likely of circumstances and people, and makes them into the most significant and meaningful ministry we could imagine or experience. Welcoming and affirming means that we, like Jesus, are never offended by the gifts or the people who offer them. Jesus took five loaves and two fish and catered a banquet for thousands. Jesus basked in the love of the woman who spent all of her money to buy perfume and then knelt to anoint his feet herself. Jesus took barrels of water and created the best wine for the guests at a friend’s wedding party in Cana.

It is Jesus who makes all this possible, not us, not we with the small minds and sometimes even smaller hearts. It is Jesus who sees the greatness of gifts and people, not we with the imperfect vision and inadequate souls. Yet, it is also Jesus who calls us to welcome and affirm all people, who calls us together, just as ragtag a bunch today as those disciples two thousand years ago, to go out into those communities and spread his gospel of love and grace. Jesus didn’t send those disciples out to judge and condemn—he sent them with the love and mercy he had shown them. We can do no less today, because when we do less, we will surely fail to build God’s kingdom on the earth.

My story today doesn’t end at that luncheon I attended two years ago. The other part of my story about attending the Welcoming and Affirming luncheon is what happened to me a couple of months later. I receive the InSpiriter, the newsletter of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and when I received the next edition after our last Biennial, I eagerly opened the newsletter to read about the coverage of our gathering. There on the front page was a picture of me, sitting and enjoying lunch with my friends! Although I was pleased to see our picture, my thoughts quickly turned to concern about our congregation, concern about how this presented our region, and even personal concern about how others might view me and even question my own sexual orientation.

I don’t think I contemplated these questions for very long, though; actually, in few minutes I laughed. I really enjoyed thinking about all the stories people would or could concoct about me, our church, or about our region, and I realized that they would do so, even if they didn’t know any of the facts. People would react to my picture in one of two ways—they would either jeer and deride me, just like those protestors did, or they would embrace me and accept me unconditionally, asking no questions, other than to join with them on our spiritual kingdom quest.

Perhaps you are fortunate that this kind of choice lies behind you as a congregation. You have grappled with such difficult issues and emerged scathed, but strengthened for the journey ahead. You have made difficult decisions and chosen the less-trod path. And I am privileged that one of those choices you made was to call me to be your pastor; and I eagerly accepted and joined you, coming with similar experiences, ready to envision with you the true ministry God intends.

And so together, we read these scriptures today and know that true discipleship is all about welcoming and affirming, not just those like us, but the whole world—so that the whole world might know, might believe, and might be saved—now and forevermore. My prayer is that sometime there won’t have to be a group of Christians who bear the title of Welcoming and Affirming, some day we won’t have a separate organization for Women in Ministry, Black American Baptists, or Asian or Hispanic American Baptists—as the song goes, we will truly be known by our love, a love that welcomes the prophet, welcomes the righteous, and welcomes the little ones with the express intent of affirming all people as God’s good creations, worthy of God’s love and God’s grace. May we at First Baptist Church boldly accept Jesus’ commission to make it so. Amen and amen.

Thoughts On War, Hurricanes and Faith
Editorial Comment

By Chris Boisvert

During the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I sat there in front of the television wondering about our priorities as a nation. How can it be feasible to spend two hundred plus billion dollars to first destroy, then occupy and rebuild Iraq, but not to move our desperately poor out of poverty. All of us know that there is a great discrepancy of socioeconomic situations in the United States. We know there are the rural poor from Appalachia and other areas, neighborhoods such as Harlem and Watts but to see it on our television and other media so obviously was a wake up call to many. Why is it justifiable to spend money to wage war but not to build infrastructure and help end poverty? Why is it fiscally acceptable spend money endlessly on war in Iraq, but it is viewed as big spending to do the same to improve life for the poor in the United States?

I am not advocating dumping of money to just provide food stamps and build more sub standard tenements. We need to dedicated ourselves to provide education, job programs, and health care. It is education that is the key to overcoming poverty. Our nation is falling farther behind in all aspects of sciences and technology. This is why doctors, nurses, engineers and others come increasingly from China and India and other foreign countries. We do not produce enough people with the necessary education to provide enough workers in many careers. If we do not put a greater emphasis on education, we will find an increasingly larger number of people below the poverty level.

Now after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we are pledging hundreds of billions of dollars toward rebuilding. But who will get the money? Will there be a change or will the more well off get the bulk of the resources? Will we rebuild the tenements exactly as they were? Will the poor, those in need of jobs get the work that they so desperately need? Or will we end up lining the pockets of corporate and institutional America?

I think we as people of faith can make a big difference if we watch and speak up about what we see. We need to be the conscience of America. Now is the time for religious bodies in this nation to work together, to tear down boundaries and to help end the disparity that exists between rich and poor, have and have not. Isn't it a more important cause than who welcomes or doesn't welcome LGBT people into their church?