“Welcome, it’s more than a handshake”

Introduction:  the word “welcome” is a beautiful word.  We all want it, we all smile when we get it.  But, it’s more than a handshake and a “glad to see you!”  It’s a life style.  Sometimes it means forgiveness, sometimes acceptance, sometimes loving, sometimes letting go.  It’s risky!  To be a lifestyle it must be!  Real welcoming is also costly, extravagant, intentional.  In August we are doing a 6 wks. Introduction on “hospitality”.  It is not meant to be a “six weeks series and then we’re done” but rather a launching pad when Fairview says, “We’ve heard.  Now, let’s begin!”

Aug. 2: “Welcome, it’s a two way street”

• Thoughts:  Hospitality is both to and from God.  God is the guest and He is the host.  He invites us to come follow.  And then we invite Him to join us on the journey.  Because of Him we are both the guest and we are the host.  Christian hospitality is not a “Southern thing!”  We extend hospitality because of the grace that has been given and extended to us.

Aug. 9: “Re-thinking Manure”

• Thoughts: In everyone’s life there is manure.  As the bumper sticker so rightly puts it (and this is a paraphrase) “Manure Happens!”  It’s not what happens that matters, it’s all in how you handle it.  You can let it pile up, douse it with chemicals, bury it or turn it into compost.  And, until you deal with the manure in your own life you can not extend welcome or hospitality to another. 

Aug. 16: “Sometimes you just want to throw mama from the train!”

• Thoughts: Some of us (maybe all of us) have a relative that we want to throw off the train!  We’re good at extending hospitality to “outsiders” but when it comes to our own families we struggle.  We’d like our family gatherings to be a Norman Rockwell painting.  But, sometimes, our Thanksgiving dinner is more like an episode of the Jerry Springer Show and the perfect scene at Rockwell’s table eludes us.  There’s no hospitality here!  The Bible is full of dysfunctional families.  Like them we can accept, agree to disagree, let go or fully embrace.

Aug. 23: “Life at the clothesline”

• Thoughts:  Long before there were electric washers and dryers there were wringer machines and clotheslines.  More than drying clothes happened in the fresh air of the back yard.  Neighbors talked to neighbors.  They knew each other’s families -  the struggles, the celebrations and the challenges.  They knew names, and birthdays, and anniversaries.  They shared stories, joys and heartaches.  They raised each others children.  They were community.  Now, most of the clotheslines have gone the way of all antiquated things and knowing and loving your neighbor has gone with it.  And hospitality has suffered.

Aug. 30: “Mama don’t know everything!”

• Thoughts: We all grew up with mother saying, “Don’t talk to strangers!”  On one level that’s good advise but, on another level mama was wrong.  We have come to view the stranger as “an enemy,” “one to be ignored, feared, disrespected.”  The stranger has becomes strange!  And, hospitality has ceased to be.

Sept. 6: “It’s the shape of the nose”

• Thoughts: Though we don’t want to admit it, each of us has a prejudice.  By definition prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race or their supposed characteristics.  Many times these prejudices form the “data base” for our “enemy file.”  The shape of the nose, the curve of the chin, the texture of the hair has pitted man against man.  How do we learn to love our enemies?  How do we extend hospitality to those who really do cause us harm or whom we simply hate based on the shape of their nose?