by Ken Francis
(Based on Matt 10:40-42; Ps 13)
Three puzzling verses.
You might have noticed that this is the third Sunday we’ve been working out of Matthew 10 – the account of Jesus sending out his disciples in pairs to spread the message that ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’. Today, the last three verses, which, frankly, are hard to explain! Because, at the end of Jesus’s instructions – throughout this chapter – to his disciples, he now seems to be giving instructions to those people the disciples are going to visit. To whom he’s not even speaking at this moment, and … how can we relate to that? When are we ever likely to have his disciples visit us? “Welcome them,” he says. “If you welcome a prophet as a prophet, you will receive a prophet’s reward”! What does that mean? Especially to me, here, now, in 2023? Maybe the bit about a righteous person could apply: “If you welcome a righteous person as a righteous person, you will receive a righteous person’s reward.” But, do we know any righteous persons? Let alone get a chance to welcome them?! And it’s not as if we get any evangelists or healers or drivers-out-of-demons passing through Tairua, so how can we look out for them and welcome them?
Are you a righteous person? If you are, I’m keen to welcome you, because if I welcome you as a righteous person, I’m promised a righteous person’s reward! Huh. I’m sure that’s not even the right motivation for welcoming a righteous person.
So, I’m a bit puzzled!
But …
I do have a couple of loosely related thoughts.
For one, have you ever felt unwelcome yourself? How did it feel? Have you ever been staying at someone’s place and felt unwelcome? It’s awkward, eh. What did you do? What can you do?
And, let’s be honest. Have you ever had someone staying with you, and you wish they weren’t?! What did you do? What can you do?
I know a man who, when I invite him in, say for a meal or a cup of tea, he never leaves. He stays on and on until I have to come up with some subterfuge to move him on. Like, well, I really must go, I have a dental appointment, or, look, it’s nearly time for breakfast – would you like to join us? Ha-ha! How unwelcoming is that though?
And family invasions! I like that one-liner written on the step at the Pepe Cafe – have you seen it? It says, “Happiness is a large, loving, caring, close-knit family – in another city”! (Credit George Burns, I think.)
Jesus had a sort of a perspective on this, and we can sense it in these three verses. “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Not really a family scenario here, in Matthew 10, I know, but could be a way to manage these awkward situations. Welcome the visitor, no matter how tricky, in the spirit of welcoming Jesus into our home.
Does Scripture say anything else about welcoming others? Absolutely. Have you come across Hebrews 13:2? It says, “Be not forgetful to entertain [or welcome] strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” How about that.
And there are plenty of others. For example, in the little letter to Philemon, Paul is urging Philemon to take back his runaway slave Onesimus: “So if you consider me a partner,” he writes, “welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me …”
Welcoming. Yes.
It seems to me it’s a two-way transaction. It melts down to the guest being a good guest; and the host being of the right disposition to being a good host. A selfless, perhaps even self-sacrificing, host. Personality comes into it. Into both sides of the transaction, that is. How personable, how likeable are you? Is there anything you can do to be more likeable, without, of course going too far, becoming ingratiating or fawning or obsequious. That’s a good word, eh. Obsequious means “obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree”.
Try to be accommodating – even likeable – but not obsequious! Try, but not too hard. That’s my best advice – from someone who’s not a naturally warm welcomer himself.
Love is the key, isn’t it. Love your guests. Genuinely care for them and take an interest in them. Or, love the people whose home you’re in. Respect them and their home and take an interest in them. Not superficially, like putting on an act. But inwardly love them, and expect that love to manifest outwardly, naturally.
And if none of this works, “shake the dust off your feet” as the transaction comes to an end, and don’t worry about it any further.
Secondly, what might seem a rather obtuse link to today’s reading: did you note that we’ve just had Refugee Week? A couple of weeks ago. And in the Anglican lectionary, Refugee Sunday is meant to be the first Sunday in July. Which is today. Why it doesn’t coincide with the United Nations’s World Refugee Day, on June 20th, I can’t say. But, anyway, in reflecting on the concept of welcoming, on Refugee Sunday, let’s spare a thought for refugees.
We don’t get much of a chance to welcome refugees in Tairua. But New Zealand, regrettably, doesn’t pull its weight, in my opinion, in the global refugee crises. We are supposed to accept – nay, welcome – 1500 refugees per year here. A paltry number in the scheme of things, and a number that we usually don’t even achieve. When places in Europe and the Middle East are overwhelmed with refugees. The United Nations Commission for Refugees says there are 110 million “forcibly displaced people worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order”. (A record number, incidentally, increased recently due to what’s happening in Sudan.) More than half of all refugees come from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. 90% of Ukrainian refugees, by the way, are women and children, unaccompanied. More than a third of all refugees are hosted in just five countries: Turkey, Iran, Columbia, Germany and Pakistan. Turkey hosts 3.6 million. Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world, with an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees – on top of their own 5 million indigenous population. Think of that – same population as New Zealand, in a much smaller land area, and they’ve got 1.5 million refugees. We host 1500!
There are nearly a million refugees in Bangladesh – Rohingya people – and Bangladesh, also half the size of NZ, has 160 million of its own citizens!
I note that the theme for this year’s World Refugee Day was “Hope Away from Home.”
Not that there’s anything you or I can do about it. But we should at least be aware. We can pray for the global situation. Psalm 13 might well be the prayer of the refugee:
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? … Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Let us pray this prayer with them, and for them. I’ve highlighted some statistics, but – these are individual human beings, with back stories and families, and have suffered great losses. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And these refugees are hugely loved by our Father. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.
Some of us might feel moved enough to take creative action of some sort. Let us at least be welcoming in our hearts, and suspend any judgements or prejudice we might have against any strangers … aliens … any visitors we’re lucky enough to come across, especially awkward ones.
So, this is my reflection. Me thinking out loud! Be a good host or a good guest. But don’t overdo it. Love the other half of the transaction, and don’t be too precious yourself. Get over yourself! And I’m addressing myself here. Jesus said, “welcome others as you would welcome me”. So, let’s get better at it. Be willing to sacrifice your own time, your own resources, your own rights – for the sake of your guest, or your host if you are the visitor. And you too might experience “the reward of a righteous person”, whatever that is.
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