A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Proper 7A and 8A
The text: none
No gap in the lectionary again this week. But this week’s gospel is easily stripped of its context.
If we recall, Jesus is sending his disciples out into the world as apostles. He shares with them his power and the challenge they are going to face. This latter piece offers a sequence of evocative concepts that we discussed this past week.
He describes going out “like sheep into the midst of wolves” and warning that they “will be dragged before governors and kings because of me”. But that they shouldn’t fear because the Spirit is with them.
Jesus also says that they are loved by God and that he has come to divide—because not all are fit for this journey. Just as we had previously heard that not all people will welcome them on their journey, not all will want to journey.
This is the backstory for Jesus’s discussion of welcome.
A general theory of welcome
This week, we get a very short passage: just three verses. And it is one that sounds like a solid, general discussion of welcome. Take these verses around and we’re like “this is how we should be!”
This is also the reason I am obsessed with context. Because Jesus isn’t offering welcome alone. He is speaking about welcome in the midst of division, separation, and unwelcoming experiences.
In this way, we really ought to consider the unwelcome as the starting place. As opposed to some neutral-sounding “how to improve the welcome we offer here”.
Digging into who feels least welcome in our community or congregation. Or are there open hostilities? This is an opportunity to draw in ongoing conversations of where our hospitality shortcomings might be or historical marginalizations. If we’ve already talked about Juneteenth, here is a great chance to speak to that context.
Don’t forget apostleship
This passage seems to be about welcome, but it is really about apostleship. Not just our following of Jesus, but our practicing the love of Jesus. Because this is a message to people going out into the world to experience welcome or rejection.
And I think it gives us one more significant orientation.
Our binary brains here welcome and rejection as the only options, so when Jesus spoke in Proper 5 about knocking the dust from our sandals, we might assume that we reject. Or more precisely, that we condemn. But this doesn’t seem to match Jesus’s focus.
Jesus seems to expect that his followers will receive some welcome and some rejection. But the condemnation is reserved for God. Which means none of the apostles should worry about it or revel in it. Just knock the dust and walk.
Similarly, if the family doesn’t get why the apostle is going on this journey with Jesus, don’t condemn them. Just don’t let them stop the apostleship from happening.
Welcome, then, becomes its own part of apostleship. It becomes a fruitful connection.
Stay in the moment – don’t skip to the end
What this short gospel reminds me of is how “in the moment” apostleship is.
So much Christian talk, however, is not about the moment but the results. Evangelism is often about “winning people”. We talk about gaining members or about changing hearts and minds.
But the picture Jesus is painting is about a world in which apostles are invited in homes and sitting at tables with people who have chosen to welcome them. Quantifiable results to come are neither the purpose or the energy. People don’t welcome people to become a statistic.
In this way, it seems fitting that apostles are called to welcome, not condemn; entertain, not quantify; share, not restrict.
And we are invited to explore, hope, invite, proclaim, and journey. All of the rest is for God to worry about. An idea that is almost alien to the typical Christian.