The following is the text of the sermon preached Tuesday, July 2, by Fred Bernhard. The text was submitted to the Annual Conference Office in mid-June and may have been modified for the actual presentation. Fred Bernhard Focus: Biblical hospitality Title: "O, give me a home" Scripture: Romans 15: 7-14; Colossians 3: 12-17 1996 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio July 2, 1996 Allow me to begin with a personal testimony. On a cool spring day in Northwest Lancaster County, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ in a dammed up stream in Sam Ober's meadow. I well remember the experience. Upon receiving the rite of baptism, the laying on of hands, the prayer of blessing along with a Kiss of Salutation and the Right hand Of Fellowship from the baptizing elder I was led from the water to the bank's edge where deacon sisters threw warm wool blankets around me as others warmly greeted me into the church family. It was a very happy day for me. In fact, the congregation assembled along the bank even sang, "O happy day, O happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away." Tonight I can tell you, for me it's been mostly happy days ever since my baptismal day. I know that's not the case for some of you, but it is for me. Why? Because I have a home where I feel loved, affirmed and accepted, a home where I have a shelter from the storms of life, a place in the heart of other like minded believers. In the Kansas state song, "O Give me a Home" that place was perceived in the author's minds eye as a place on a large open range where buffalo roam, and deer and antelope play together. It would be a pleasant experience because there would hardly ever be a discouraging word uttered and the skies would be without a cloud all day long. Sounds like a pretty inviting place to be, doesn't it? It's a place where one might feel at home. It's inviting because it feels safe, unrushed, and isn't anxiety producing. It's the kind of atmosphere and experience most of us long for. Every person wants a home, a positive atmosphere where each can experience the loving gesture of a welcome, the warm feeling of acceptance and an affirmation of ones personhood. A place where we can take off our shoes, kick back, and be our true self. An atmosphere where I know I am loved enough to risk speaking my truth and where I can expect honest reactions and actions from others. All of this without fearing that I'll be alienated or ostracized. That atmosphere and experience is a true ideal for Christ's Church. It is the goal for any of our Brethren congregations. In our Romans 15:7 text, English translations of the word "welcome" also include the words "accept" and "affirm." The experience of these three words is a universal need within each one of us. A much deeper meaning is suggested than our first impressions would indicate. The Greek word used in Romans 15:7 and in 14:1 is to "grant one access to one's heart, to take into friendship, to take into my/our circle of life." To "welcome", "affirm" and "accept" another person means to grant another access to my heart. The book of Philemon, verses 12 and 17, plus Acts 28:2 add to that meaning by suggesting that the welcome is a place of shelter. Those two concepts of welcome are what make a house a home, the church a congregation. Tonight I'd like to pursue these two metaphors of heart and home as it relates to the biblical phrase, "welcome one another as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God." The world has always wanted me to believe that blood is thicker than water. But on that cool spring day in 1948, I was ushered into a congregational family's heart and home where the water of baptism was thicker than the blood of relational family ties. While blood ties are still important to me, I believe in Christ's eyes it really doesn't matter that in my blood veins there is Meeshy, Lehman, Gibble, Shelly, Graybill and Bernhard blood lines. What matters is that while I was an outsider Christ welcomed me into God's family and that water baptism sealed my name in the Lamb's family book -- God's family book of life. Like it or not, the bond that binds us -you and me - brother to brother, sister to sister, in God's family is the binding of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. It's not a genealogical, ethnic, cultural, gender or political binding. Christ welcomed you and me into God's family. All we had to do to be part of this family was to say "yes" to that invitational welcome. There were no prerequisites or requirements. According to Ephesians, chapter two, Christ took care of those prior regulations, and all the barriers that would have prohibited me from being in God's family were knocked down and buried. Christ was the wrecking ball that broke down all those barriers. He made it possible for each of us who were previously unwelcome to be welcomed by Heaven's angels into God's Glorious Family. I am so grateful for that welcoming act of love that I must pass on what I received by granting others access to my heart as Christ granted me access to God's heart. In fact, the New Testament is clear that this is the first work of the church. We are called by Christ to be a welcoming church where strangers are perceived and treated as potential friends, thereby opening the door for committed discipleship. That's what happened to each of us or we wouldn't be here tonight. So, tell me, how is it that outsiders experience some of our congregations as unwelcoming, in fact, as downright unfriendly? Did Christ shut the welcoming door? Or did our congregations? Allen Hansel, in a recent Atlantic Northeast District Newsletter article, rightly suggests that membership growth within our congregations is a congregational problem, not a district or denominational problem. Why are so many of our congregations experiencing a decline in worship attendance. Have we forgotten that the Church's central reason for being is to make disciples for Jesus Christ or to put it as in our scripture lesson, "to welcome others as Christ welcomed us." There was a golfer who was a real duffer. He'd swing eight or nine times before hitting the ball. One day as he was playing he found his ball in the rough. The ball landed atop an ant hill. He swung and missed the ball, but killed about a thousand ants. He swung again and again, still missing the ball but killing thousands more ants. Two ants came out of the hole just before his next swing. The first ant said to the other, "We'd better get on the ball or we're going to die." I'd rather get on the ball than get clobbered, too. Tonight I want us Brethren to hear that I believe this scripture on "welcoming others" is a central element to our renewed life as we move into the 21st century. I've discovered this year that some of our congregations have shelved the welcome mat. They have run out of the Holy Spirit's power to attract the outsider. They have lost their sweet smelling savor. They actually repel the "outsider." They have lost the Biblical Brethren art of practicing simple hospitality. It's more than just extending a cordial handshake, as important as that is. It’s being able to visualize yourself in another’s shoes, to "do unto others as you would have them do to you," to "welcome others as you would want to be welcomed." In Richard Lederer's book entitled, "Anguished English," he collects unintentional funny headlines and signs. "People Magazine" did a story on Lederer. The photographer asked Lederer to think about setting up a humorous, posed picture that would somehow summarize his work. A solution immediately presented itself. On the outskirts of Lederer's town stands a telephone pole with the street sign, Electric Avenue. Sure enough, right below that sign is another yellow diamond shaped traffic sign announcing, "No outlet." That's the greatest danger for the church -- that we will experience God's power, but find no outlet. That we will experience God’s wonderful redeeming grace, but refuse to share that same good news with others. That we will experience the unity of God's family among ourselves, but then shut out others from that same experience. That we will have the joy of God's Spirit, but not try to share that joy with those around us. I like the way Peterson's translation of this text uses the words "insider" and "outsider" in a word play. Paul insists that it is God's will for all "outsiders" to become "insiders." It's what the Brethren call universal restoration. It's based on Philippians, the second chapter. That the time will come when "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all to the glory of God." How can this promise be fulfilled? It happens only as the "insider" (we who are Brethren) invite the outsider (any sinner who does not know Christ and or have a church home) to become part of our family, God's family. What's more, as the welcome is practiced the scripture is fulfilled: "Outsiders and insiders will together rejoice in a hymn-sing." Now I ask you, is there a more fitting metaphor for Brethren? Tonight, could we be bold enough to declare our faith in the Risen Lord by inviting all "outsiders to come join us in a good old "Brethren" hymn-sing? Could we fulfill the text: "Then I'll join outsiders in a hymn sing; We'll sing to your name! ... People of all nations, celebrate God! All colors and races, give hearty praise!" The scriptures insist that our welcome must be genuine just as Christ's welcome was genuine for you and me. Genuine "welcome" is always first class. It could even be costly. It could cost me my position or my status in my congregation. As we grant "outsiders" access to our congregational hearts and homes there can be no second class status. All who are welcomed to the inside must be on equal footing and have the same status before us and God. The fact is, that's what Christ did for us -- he made it possible for each believer to have equal status before God. (Read Ephesians 2). All of us "insiders" are equal stockholders, joint heirs with the eldest Son, Christ. So, let me push some more; How long does it take us in our congregations to assimilate outsiders? If I joined your congregation how long would I have to wait before I would be called on to be a contributing member? A Sunday School teacher, a Church Board member, a Deacon, a Treasurer, etc... How long would it be before I would be treated as an equal, as a fellow member who would be listened to and cared for the same way other long timers are cared for? One of the significant marks of a "welcoming" church is that it readily gives equal status to newly converted insiders. There's nothing wrong with first testing a person’s spirit and readiness for discipleship. That's scriptural. But this year, it was disheartening to me to have numerous persons share that their children might make it as an equal in the congregation but they never would because they were not born into that congregation. One Brother shared with me, "I moved into this community and joined this congregation 40 years ago and they still treat me like an outsider. Brothers and sisters, just put yourself in his shoes and see how that would feel. This true welcome is always grounded in a style of conduct that feels and is welcoming to an outsider. In the Colossians 2 and Romans 12 Paul points to "rules for living in our congregational homes" so that persons will feel at home: Be good friend who love deeply. Practice playing second fiddle. Be content with second place. Keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times. Help needy people. Be inventive in hospitality (welcoming others). Get along with each other. Make friends with nobodies. Don't be the great somebody. Now when those rules are practiced that's the kind of home you and I can live in. It’s the "home" we call the church, the living bride of Christ. That's the kind of home which the world is crying for. That kind of home attracts "outsiders" like you would not believe. Our world is hungry to experience a genuine welcome, a place where they can access your and my heart and by Christ's grace experience in action and attitude a welcome, an acceptance and an affirmation that they too can be one of God's adopted children. Tell me, what new born Christian wouldn't flourish under that atmosphere? Tonight I ask the "Brethren," is our heart's door open to extending the "outsider" Christ's unconditional love? Is the door of your congregation's heart open or closed? If our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, judges the "Brethren" heart tonight, will he find room for those "outsiders" whom God is sending to us? Is there a "home" for those sinners who are crying, "O, give me a home." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fred Bernhard is the 1996 Annual Conference moderator and pastor of Oakland Church of the Brethren, Gettysburg, Ohio. 1996 Annual Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio July 2, 1996