“The Church You’ve Always Longed For:
Welcomes all People”
TEXT: Leviticus 19: 32-34
Throughout September, October and most of November, we will be talking about the church that God longs for. Last week I asked you to think about this phrase, “I like church, but....” Have you been able to fill in the blank at all?
What does God desire for his church and for his people? Last week we said that God’s desire is for his church to capture the heart of the community. One way to do that is to share our faith with others, and the other way is to demonstrate his grace through acts of kindness. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we became known as the church that experienced grace in the year 2003.
What else does God desire? God loves everyone no matter what race, color or creed, and do we? I’ve been asked privately by people, “Why is White Clay so white?” I don’t know the answer. I’m not playing the blame game, and I have no conclusions. There is no easy answer because you find the same scenario across the entire United States in African-American churches, Hispanic churches, and Korean churches.
In Revelation 7:9, we see what God desires. This picture is us in the future. We are there. Can we live out that vision here and now? God’s desire is that we welcome all people. Jesus reduced the entire Bible to two short phrases: Love God and love other people.
The text that we are going to deal with this morning is the root of passages like Galatians 3:26-28, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are one in Christ Jesus.” It is the root of II Corinthians 5: 16-18 which describes Paul’s ability to begin to see people on the inside and not the outside. He refused to judge people by their looks. It is the root for James 2: 1-4 which challenges us not to show favoritism towards the rich or the poor.
What if a person came into church with a nice business suit and tie, and then a family wearing cut-off jeans and t-shirts came in. Who would we favor?
I’d like to read about one church that was challenged in the same way:
“The Community Church had worked to maintain beauty and dignity in its worship service. In this Midwest college town, the rich tones of the pipe organ were considered fitting rather than old-fashioned. Worshipers often came early to meditate and to secure their favorite pew. That’s because the sanctuary was frequently full. Sunday dress was just that. Parents and children polished their shoes and wore their best suits and skirts to church. They felt that God was worthy of the best they had to offer and these were long-held community standards. The college students came from various parts of the country, and their worship habits were more casual. Some students pushed casual to the edge.
“Church was packed on the second Sunday of September. Vacations were over and the students were back. When the sanctuary is filled with friendly worshipers, it generates wonderfully warm feelings unless you are someone who arrives a little late and can’t find a seat. Skilled ushers are often the heroes of these occasions. Was it a freshman who entered the sanctuary ten minutes after the service had begun? Who else would wear sandals and shorts and a t-shirt? He seemed to be dressed for the beach but he didn’t look ready for worship–not to most eyes. “Thanks, bro.” he said when he was handed a bulletin. He brushed by the usher and looked for somewhere to sit, but there were no empty spots. Tension mounted as regular worshipers forgot their worship to watch this unseemly show. What would he do now? The student creatively solved his problem. He sat down cross-legged in the aisle between the first two pews. People’s expressions could easily be read–“What a lack of decorum! Nothing like this had ever occurred before!”
“At the rear of the sanctuary gray-haired Deacon Oakley was serving as head usher. From the time he was young, he had been taught to dress for church in the clothes he would wear to see Jesus. He had on a blue three-piece suit and an elegant tie. A gold watch fob gleamed from his vest. Oakley–his name was appropriate. He was old and strong like a tree. In previous years, he chaired the church board and his reputation was solid. People said Oakley was quiet but he was wise. If anyone could handle this distraction gracefully, this man could. Eyes turned to the back of the church as Deacon Oakley began to slowly walk down the aisle......”
What did he do, and what would we have done? More important, what would Jesus have done at that moment? To answer the question, we are going to look at a text written 3,300 years ago. Leviticus 19: 32-24
Isn’t it interesting in this passage that talks about loving others, God mentions, almost like he knows us well, that there would one day be divisions among his people drawn along the lines of generation. In the 1970’s, we called it “the Generation Gap.” How does God address this? He tells the older folks to let go of their church, to quit grasping so hard, to not have a strangle-hold on it. Isn’t that what he says? No. It’s interesting that God puts the onus on the young people. He calls us to respect and honor the elderly. Do we honor the older members in our congregation and in our society? We are to honor what God honors. In Exodus 20:12, we are told that God will honor with age those who live a certain way. If God has allowed a person to become old, he has honored them for a reason. If God honors them, then we ought to honor them as well.
Our media and our society tell us that older people are not cool. We are told that they are selfish. We are told that they can’t relate, that their morals are out-dated, and that they are technologically challenged. There is nothing they have in common with younger folks. All of those myths are simply false. As Christian people, we can learn from older church members because they have already been through everything that we have been through. They have already traveled the road that we are traveling. Many of them have lost their spouses and their friends. They have lived through wars, the Depression and other things. If they are still Christian, they know something about how to survive in life and how to keep the faith. This is something we can learn from our older members.
John Rosemond, who I really respect, tells me that if you want to learn about parenting, go to someone born before 1946. Go to your grandparents because they know how to parent. They have employed the age-old wisdom that has been passed down through centuries of parenting. If you want to learn to garden, go to an old farmer because they know how to garden. Look at who has the best gardens in your community. They are all retired. They know how to garden and they know the secrets. If you want to learn to be a carpenter, go to an old-fashioned carpenter because he builds with quality. I learned how to roof from an old retired roofer.
If we listen to the older members of our church and our society, it will help us put life into perspective. It will help us pace ourselves and develop faith patiently. It will help us set better priorities, and it will help give us distilled wisdom–things you can’t get out of books. Wisdom that has been tested by life.
Are we as a church welcoming of our older members, or are we at war with them? Do we honor what God has honored and have we put ourselves in their shoes? Put yourself in their shoes. How would you want younger people to treat you one day? Would you want them to run roughshod over your worship preferences or traditions or sensitivities or dress codes? Would you want them to violate your conscience? Do we whisk by our older members and almost knock them over, or are we conscious of their ability to walk and their frailty?
One thing I appreciate about White Clay is that it has tried hard to include all people in worship. Our older members have sacrificed and worked hard to provide all that we see. This is something to honor.
This past week I was challenged in my pastor’s Bible study. I have a certain way I like to do things, and there is a retired segment in my group who didn’t want to do things the way I wanted to do it. I had to humble myself and listen to them and honor them. It was a challenge because sometimes they can be hard-headed.
The elevator in the church is one way of honoring our older members. Improving the sound system would be a way of honoring our older members. How is the best way to honor our older members in our programs and our fellowship?
Becoming a welcoming church involves not only honoring our older members but also honoring our oldest member. Who is White Clay’s oldest member? God. Why did God put himself in the context of honoring older people? He said, “Revere me.” Why? Because God is the oldest member of the church.
What’s God’s role. God sees himself among his people as a visitor, as a guest. Are we welcoming of him? So often we see ourselves as the guest in worship. We are the consumers, the paying customers. We come to church, we listen, we watch the actors on the platform, and we listen to God’s word and we think this is worship, but it’s not. That’s not how God envisions worship. God is our guest, and the prompters are the pastors and the worship leaders and the choir, prompting us to worship, to celebrate him. Are we caught up in worship as part of this drama? Is God pleased? Is he so enraptured in our worship that he doesn’t even think about what time it is? Like a good movie, is he so caught up in how we worship that time just flies? Is it so good for him that he doesn’t care to look at his watch, or is he yawning? Do you give God the pre-eminence? Are you welcoming him and entertaining him? Do we honor God in our fellowship and our stewardship? Are we honoring God with our facility? Are we honoring God with our outreach and with our preaching? Is our focus to revere and honor him, or are we pointing back to ourselves? Are we making decisions based on what we would like, or is our main focus God’s desire? How can we honor him in our lives and in our church?
The older we become and the longer we are members of a church, we are tempted to think that this is MY church. I’ve been here 30 or 40 years, and I have paid the bills. How can some young punk preacher or some young punk member come in here and begin to change things all around? This is my church, and I’m not going to let it happen. I appreciate the ownership of a church, but whose church is it? It’s not my church or your church. It belongs to the oldest member of the congregation–it’s God’s church. Our consideration should be what honors him.
Becoming a welcoming church means that we open ourselves up to strangers or to visitors, and this covers all categories. Think, who is a stranger, who is a visitor? Anyone who comes through the door, regardless of economic status, regardless of race, regardless of physical ability or disability, regardless of culture, regardless of language. It’s whoever God brings to us, and are we willing as a church to accept anyone? Are we willing and able to welcome anyone and to treat them as a native born, to treat them as if they have always been part of the family.
There’s a commercial on TV that I love. It keeps flashing up different people’s faces and different ethnic backgrounds, and it says, “I’m an American” for each different face. We need to hear that message more than ever after September 11, but you could replace that phrase “I’m an American” with “I’m a Christian.” The shape, size, color or ethnicity of that face doesn’t matter.
As a nation, we have bled enough over the issue of racism. The price of prejudice was paid for on the fields of Gettysburg. I’d say better yet, the price of prejudice was paid for at the Cross on the hill of Calvary, and it’s time to let it go as a people and as a country.
What would it mean to welcome a stranger among us as one of our native born? Have you ever visited a church? How do you want to be treated? What is helpful in finding a church? Perhaps you see an ad in the paper or a signboard listing worship times. It’s nice to have some parking at the church, isn’t it? While you are in the parking lot, it’s nice to have someone greet you. A good project for the facilities committee is to get a stranger to come to the church and tell them to find the sanctuary or the church office with the directional signs that we have. If you have kids, would you like to have child care and where it’s held? Would you like to know the location of the bathrooms or the sanctuary or Sunday School classes? Would you like to be greeted warmly, or do you like to be ignored? What do you prefer? How about a good seat? Do you like coming up front after the service has already started? Do you like to climb over everyone’s knees to get to the center of the pew, or would it be nice if everyone scooted in to let you have the aisle seat? Would it be nice to get information about the church? How about the bulletin? Have you ever visited a church and not know when to do things? As you leave, would you like to be warmly greeted and be made to feel that people wanted you to come back?
Let’s say you join that church. Would you like people to listen to your ideas, or would it turn you off to hear the phrase, “Well, that’s just not us. We don’t do that.” What wouldn’t you want? I don’t think we would want to be ignored or embarrassed or used. Sometimes people see new members as “fresh meat.” All of us want to feel as though we belong and not as outsiders.
We talked about the relationship of younger members to older members, but it goes in reverse. To treat a stranger as one of the native born is for the older members to remember that they were young at one time. How did they want their older church members to treat them? What did you not appreciate about their treatment?
What did Deacon Oakley do? What is the conclusion to the story? Is it a happy ending? What do you think?
“On Sundays he brought a gold and ebony cane to support himself. His trek to the front seemed to take forever. Entire wedding processions had finished in less time. When he finally stood next to where the student was sitting, the good deacon looked down and hesitated for a moment. Then he dropped his cane in the aisle and slowly lowered himself to the carpet. He offered a hand to the young man and in a stage whisper he said, “Glad to have you with us today.” Then the wise elderly man and this young guest worshiped together, right there in the center of the aisle. Deacon Oakley understood that sometimes you have to extend yourself a bit to make sure a person feels welcome.
May we have the same spirit as Deacon Oakley. May we finally as a church catch the vision of Leviticus 19: 32-34. God has waited 3,300 years for someone to fulfill his vision. Israel did not do it. They kept the truth to themselves. Jesus came and opened the church to everyone. The early church struggled because they couldn’t fathom that God wanted to reach the pagan, unchurched people. Historically, the church has always struggled. First it was the barbarians, then it was the English, then it was the American Indian, then it was the African-American, then it was the Hispanic. When will it stop? When will we live out this vision? God has waited 3,000 years. May we have the courage to finally fulfill his heart and his desire and his vision for his people.
Let’s pray.
