Holy Kissers

Romans 16:16 Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.

1Cor 16:20 All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.

2Cor 13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.

1Thess 5:26 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.

It is still the custom of many cultures to give a kiss on the cheek when you greet people. In some places, it is on both cheeks. Americans are normally alarmed by that. To the best of my memory, I have only been kissed by three men outside of my Dad and son. One was when I was facilitating a twelve-step program in Dallas. It took a long time for me to be able to hug someone and bam this lad hugs me and pecks me on the cheek. He got no hug the next week and my hand seemed to be on a longer arm after that.

Once we had folks from Wales visiting at church and he and his wife went about kissing everyone. I knew that was in their culture so I felt better about it though it did mess with the heads of some of the other folks.

The third time I was visiting an Old Order Mennonite church and while I was waiting for the girls who were on the other side of the room an older gentleman came up and looked at me for awhile and then dropped a holy kiss on me. I was stunned for a second then returned the kiss since I knew it was their custom and I did not want to offend a man who obviously meant it in a holy way. Later, our hostess said it was a high honor because he saw the Lord in me. I would have been happier if he had just said that, but it is all good.

When I was an associate pastor at one church I did have some of the younger ladies give me a cheek kiss like I was an uncle. Some ladies would do it like I was their brother and some like I was their son. I was more comfortable with that. In fact, I mentioned this in a sermon once and afterwards a visitor kissed me on the cheek and used the brother part to justify the kiss with a big smile. I guess she was checking to see if I would recoil or flip out. I didn’t. Had she kissed me on the mouth and tried to French kiss me that would be another thing.

Lest some of my current church brethren get weird I am not going to push to have the holy kiss practiced though if someone reads this and tries to test me I will not get excited. I do think we need to be more welcoming in the church besides the Greeters and the Ushers. The kiss was a cultural thing and since we are family a family kiss with holy motives were what they did. We normally are hand shakers though many of us enjoy giving and receiving a good heartfelt hug. One brother was in his 70s and could still give you a manly bear hug that made you wonder if you were going to have a broken rib or two. If you are a kisser make sure it is a holy kiss and not an excuse to have a fantasy.

I have been in many churches where people can come into the church and no one acknowledges them except for maybe a quick nod and then turn away like two deacons meeting in the liquor store. The word does say to greet all the brethren not just your crew or clique. Greet everyone as family and adopt everyone that comes through the door.

At this point, I will hear the introverts tell me that I am am an extrovert so of course I can do this. It does not appear to say only extroverts greet one another. Brethren are brethren. Now I know there are some folks in every family that we wonder what happened to the gene pool or how did they get into the family and we are less likely to hug or greet them. In the Lord’s Body this should not be so. Indeed, we should be as happy to see folks in church as we are to see our most loved family member at a family reunion. It is a wonderful thing that they are there to worship with us. Indeed, they may be the family member that needs a hug or welcome because they need affirmation or comfort in order to be ready to worship. You may be the person they needed. They may be the person you needed because they may give you a word of encouragement you would have missed had you not greeted them.