In this last
week of my summer field education assignment at the Carlsbad-By-The Sea (CBTS) retirement
home I prayed and thought about the sermon for the coming Sunday based on the
Gospel reading of Matthew 10:40 to 42. The idea of welcoming strangers, how we
work each day and how the unsung heroes in our community are recognized and
rewarded started to form very early in the week.
At the Monday morning management meeting, Joan, the Exec Director, read out a
card from one of the residents who had noticed that due to staff schedules all
the Directors were volunteering to take on tasks outside of their management
roles such as clearing tables, serving meals, staffing the front desk, helping
put up and take down equipment for residents events. This card stated that this
had been noticed by many residents and they were so grateful and blessed to
have such a team helping them. The faces of the management team lit up and I
could see that this is the type of reward that reflects a calling rather than a
job. It meant so much to the management team it will make them even more
determined to make sure any staff shortages did not impact the residents.
As I reflected
on this week Gospel, I thought that the passage is
not talking about anybody in particular but about all the anonymous people who
work hard, carry out God’s will but get little recognition. In our three small
but powerful verses this week we see:
·
“Anyone who welcomes you
welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” has a focus on how we see Jesus in all the strangers that join
our community, how we welcoming Him and let God into our lives. There is an
emphasis on inclusion of all, and of building up a group of strangers into a
welcoming community of neighbors,
·
“Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will
receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a
righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward” is explaining that those welcoming,
providing hospitality and support to any of God’s workers will receive the same
reward as the person they are supporting. Here at CBTS we have many people
working and being seen by the residents but also we have an army of people
working in the background. Despite not being seen the residents know they
are there and value what they bring to the team effort. The thoughts and thanks
expressed in the card that Joan read out at the Directors meeting was also an
expression of thanks (a reward) for all the team, seen and unseen. Joan intends
to read this card out to all the staff at the next employees meeting. Apart
from being paid this is exactly the reward that all the employees are striving for,
·
“And if anyone
gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple,
truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” provides a strong conditional
statement of the actions we all take on a daily basis. There may be people
who seek to do something
great but overlook what they accomplish by their countless small deeds undertaken
with self-sacrifice and love. The size of a loving deed is not what counts the most
it is the motive behind it and the sacrifice that accompanies it. God notices
every good deed we do or don't do as if He were the one receiving it.
When I observed the welcoming, the small deeds, support, and
rewards it takes to build and maintain our community at CBTS I was reminded of St. Paul’s statement in
Romans 12 that the body is comprised of interdependent parts that cannot
function alone.
“For just as each of us has one body with many
members, and these members do not all have the same function, so
in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all
the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to
each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with
your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is
teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if
it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it
diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully”
Later
in the week we had a Chapel Committee meeting about the weekly worship service and
I was pleased to notice that the members were now comfortable with me and trust
me to the extent that they felt they could suggest changes. These included such
changes as having someone from the community witness something in their life
rather than my homily each week, multiple people reading the prayers of the
people, some new Lesson and Psalm readers, and including a violin solo at the
offering. Unfortunately, as the team now
trusted me they were also comfortable with disagreeing with change. It reminded
me that St. Peter and St. Paul
did not always agree on many things, and I suspect their supporters (their
unsung heroes) also disagreed with each other.
Peter
insisted that the early believers must follow the old ways, must be
circumcised, and must adhere to the Jewish Law as defined in the Torah. Paul’s
vision led him to proclaim faith in a risen Christ and urging
believers to conform their lives to Jesus’s New Covenant. What they had in
common, though, was that both understood that the welcome of God was an
invitation to a place in God’s kingdom.
At
this time in our maturing CBTS worship community we are also seeing the same sort of
division between people who do not want change and others who want to expand
what we are doing spiritually and in worship. As this is a multi-denominational
community we do have some people who are conservative in their religious
background gravitating to what they know and others with a more evangelical
background wanting a less formal and changing environment.
My
role in this situation is to bring them all together the best I can as a welcoming
and worshiping community irrespective of their backgrounds and the deeds they
do, especially those on the Chapel Committee who others look up to.
Jesus
didn’t say that we have to agree on everything, but He did tell us to be
welcoming.
Here
at CBTS we are so blessed to have a community made up of many Christian
denominations, living, worshiping and praying side-by-side as a common body.
As
with St. Peter and St. Paul, we won’t all agree on everything and we may agree
to disagree on some things on our faith journeys but we are called to be
welcoming.
In my sermon
at the end of the week I urged the community to:
·
Welcome
all you meet, including strangers,
·
Support
all community members, irrespective of their ability, in what they are trying
to do,
·
Carry
out even the smallest of tasks in love and look forward to God’s reward.
As
we do this each week I can see that we do love all our neighbors in thought,
word and deed!.
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