SPEAKER_00: This spring has been full of sports celebrations.
SPEAKER_00: All of Rumley and well everybody except for Nevada celebrated the hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup.
SPEAKER_00: Hooray.
SPEAKER_00: I know our household stayed up too late for many nights watching them when, and half of my family went to the parade last Saturday to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big celebration.
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks won the NBA playoffs, and New York went crazy over it.
SPEAKER_00: And now, well, now we have teams and fans from all over the world in our backyard competing for the World Cup.
SPEAKER_00: These stories have been really fun to follow in the midst of all the rest of the chaos and noise in our world.
SPEAKER_00: You may have seen the Tartan army of the Scots taking over Boston, drinking all the beer and cheering football chants at Red Sox games.
SPEAKER_00: The French guy who was trying all the American food like Waffle House and Bucky's and being blown away by how amazing the food was.
SPEAKER_00: And well, the international love of ranch dressing is hilarious.
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen that?
SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the most heartwarming stories that has come across the news is how the one town in Kansas claimed a team for their own.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Argentina and the Netherlands and England all had their base training in Kansas City, stayed in a boutique hotels and had fans already arriving ahead of the World Cup.
SPEAKER_00: Then, 40 miles away in Lawrence, Kansas, home of University of Kansas, the Algerian team was staying at a budget hotel without many fans able to come from their country, whether because of visas or money.
SPEAKER_00: But Lawrence decided to change that.
SPEAKER_00: They put up signs before they arrived saying, one, two, three, viva la Algerie.
SPEAKER_00: A student from the university reached out to all the Algerians in the Kansas City area to get them excited about them coming.
SPEAKER_00: Thousands of people began to show up at their training sessions.
SPEAKER_00: The Kansas marching band learned their national anthem.
SPEAKER_00: They started seeing people wearing the Algerian team scarves all over the place in Lawrence.
SPEAKER_00: So, in a sense, Lawrence adopted Algeria as their team.
SPEAKER_00: Or as they actually said, we as Lawrence residents didn't adopt the team.
SPEAKER_00: I think the Algerians adopted us.
SPEAKER_00: They brought all the vibes, the culture, the acceptance to the residents of Lawrence.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what made us so close and made this what it is.
SPEAKER_00: So while their fan bases at the game haven't been as huge as their opponents, the first team they played was Argentina, and while they lost pretty badly to them, their fan base has grown substantially because of the people of Lawrence, and they feel welcome in a way that they never have before.
SPEAKER_00: Now, today's passage is all about welcome.
SPEAKER_00: It uses the word welcome six times.
SPEAKER_00: And as you may know, in scripture, if a word is repeated multiple times in a row, it is pretty important.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed in the Beatitudes means blessed is important to that.
SPEAKER_00: Love in 1 Corinthians 13.
SPEAKER_00: And this message couldn't come at a better time in Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus just finished telling the disciples about how their life as a disciple will split them from their families and cause all sorts of strife with society.
SPEAKER_00: But these verses right after show a new message.
SPEAKER_00: They will now be welcome in God's family.
SPEAKER_00: They are in a family of God and Jesus and the other disciples and the prophets and even the little ones are the least of these.
SPEAKER_00: This is a different family than they were born into, but one that they're welcome to be members of.
SPEAKER_00: And they're called to fill each other's cup.
SPEAKER_00: Now, being united as a family does not always mean that we need to agree on everything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure your Christmases and Thanksgiving dinner discussions can confirm that in your own families.
SPEAKER_00: People sitting on the same row here this morning probably have very different views about many different issues.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what we do have in common is our common belief in the lordship of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that takes priority over all of our differences.
SPEAKER_00: As in any family, we disagree about many issues, but in church, our disagreements are done in love.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we are not all going to agree on all matters of faith.
SPEAKER_00: One of the beautiful things I think about being Presbyterian is that we believe that God alone is the Lord of the conscience.
SPEAKER_00: And that means that our congregations represent the spectrum of theological stances on all sorts of contemporary issues.
SPEAKER_00: But the Apostle Paul charges us to bear one another in love and as members of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So we also affirm that the Spirit of God works best through communal discernment and that we are stronger when a diversity of voices are at the table.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Christ tells the disciples to welcome others into the fellowship, he's asking, as the CEB translation of the Bible says, for them to receive others.
SPEAKER_00: And the message translation takes it a step further, says to accept them.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say accept only those who agree with me, accept only those who vote the same way I do, or dress the same way I do, or look the same way I do, have all the same hobbies, listen to the same music, and think about the world the same way I do.
SPEAKER_00: That would be incredibly boring, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine this church if that was the case?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is a diversity of opinions and people.
SPEAKER_00: No two of us are alike, and that is what makes us special.
SPEAKER_00: But each of our calling is still to fill each other's cup.
SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about that this week this month, discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: And last week we focused a lot on how discipleship is hard.
SPEAKER_00: It involves sacrifices and losses and possibly persecution.
SPEAKER_00: At times it can be lonely.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knew this.
SPEAKER_00: And in knowing this, he set up a support system.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome one another, he says, serve one another, become the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The reward he speaks of is not one of monetary value or prizes in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is the reward of becoming part of the community.
SPEAKER_00: In order to bless one another, you must first be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: In order to love one another, you must first be loved, so that your love is not selfish.
SPEAKER_00: And that love comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: And it comes from the community that you are all placed in.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's from the hospital visits or the mission trips or the vacation Bible school, all of these experiences are places where you've felt or given the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asks us to welcome, to welcome the prophet, the righteous, and the least of these.
SPEAKER_00: He is not asking the disciples to pick and choose who we welcome.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying the reward is in welcoming all.
SPEAKER_00: So when push comes to shove, we all want to feel welcome.
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be heard, to matter to someone or to a group of people.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be accepted just like the Algerian team.
SPEAKER_00: And that is where we are called to be, not just for ourselves, but to others.
SPEAKER_00: We need each other.
SPEAKER_00: We need each other to be the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: These are the things that we offer as a Presbyterian church.
SPEAKER_00: We offer a place where we can wrestle with scripture together and grow in our faith as a community.
SPEAKER_00: We offer a place where all viewpoints are welcomed and respected, a place where nobody is turned away and all are to be welcomed.
SPEAKER_00: We are disciples of Christ sharing the gospel in word and deed.
SPEAKER_00: And we are a gathering of God's beautifully messy people seeking to be the body of Christ together.
SPEAKER_00: And we are especially united in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as we seek to live out and share the good news of his grace in our churches and in our communities and in our world.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ends this teaching with something surprisingly ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say whoever changes the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: He says whoever gives even a cup of cold water.
SPEAKER_00: A cup of cold water isn't something complicated.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't something expensive, though maybe hard to find in many parts of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't require a committee meeting or a strategic plan.
SPEAKER_00: It simply requires noticing someone and choosing to welcome them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's because the kingdom of God is often built through those small acts that tell another person you belong here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the people of Lawrence did for the Algerian team.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't change the outcome of the tournament by what they did.
SPEAKER_00: Algerias still lost their first game, but they changed the experience for them.
SPEAKER_00: They made strangers feel like family.
SPEAKER_00: And they reminded people far from home that they weren't alone.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that what the church is called to do?
SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday, someone walks through these doors wondering if they'll fit in.
SPEAKER_00: Every week, someone is in our neighborhood who's carrying a burden that no one else can see.
SPEAKER_00: Every day we have opportunities to offer a kind word or an invitation or a conversation or a meal or simply our attention.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, discipleship doesn't look dramatic, it looks like a cup of cold water.
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever we welcome another person, Jesus says we are welcoming him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we make room for someone else, we discover there was room for us all along.
SPEAKER_00: So may we be the kind of church where people find more than friendly faces.
SPEAKER_00: May they find Christ.
SPEAKER_00: May we be known not for having all the answers, but for opening our hearts and our tables and our lives.
SPEAKER_00: May we welcome others.
SPEAKER_00: May we find ourselves welcomed more deeply into the life and love of God.
SPEAKER_00: And thanks be to God for that wonderful gift.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.