Smoky Mountain Reflections #168
It
is often difficult for us to be good hosts. When others are in our home, we
sometimes act differently or become a bit self-conscious about little things
that we normally overlook. The same thing can occur in church; in many
congregations, guests are only an occasional occurrence, so a number of awkward
behaviors sometimes surface. For example, the rude look shot at someone sitting
in “MY” pew, the expectation for a stranger to know that we “have always done
it that way” here, and of course, the overly friendly crowd pouncing on a new
face in a way that would drive even the most confident person to
hyperventilation and a mild panic attack. Here at St. Paul, we rarely have a
Sunday without a guest; 80% of the time they are vacationing Lutherans, but
regardless, this reality keeps us on our toes, always seeking to be good hosts.
So
what is a congregation to do? How should we treat our guests? I prefer the word
guest because that is what they are; would you call someone who came to your
home a visitor or a guest? This is of course a simple word preference issue,
but I do believe that the word “guest”, in a way, lifts the bar regarding our
behavior. One of the first things we often do in answering these questions is
to confuse our priorities. Oftentimes, we base our actions on a man-centered
approach, like a marketing strategy. There are two problems here: first, we as
Christians gather to receive God’s gifts to us and focus on our savior, not
ourselves. Second, we are faced with the reality that we are not able to please
everyone; what is appealing to one guest can be offensive to another and vice-versa.
Let’s
examine a few pitfalls of man-centered greeting practices. In my youth and
early adulthood I was a guest in many worship services because my family moved often.
In my early days it was a common practice to ask guests to stand and introduce
themselves. While this was a great way to greet people in the 60s through the
80s, to make such a suggestion today sends chills of fear down the spines of
some. I have heard people speak of not visiting churches due to their fear of
this practice. On the flip-side, a church may try not to call attention to the
new face for fear of scaring them off, but to the point that the guest feels
ignored and wonders why everyone at that church is so cold and unfriendly. There
are, however, some people who would like to quietly enter and exit church unseen
because they dislike interacting with crowds and strangers. In their cases,
greeting someone to make them feel welcome could be seen as too friendly, and I have even heard that
said about a congregation that I was once a member of! Besides all of these,
there is also that messy practice in most of our churches of sharing the peace
of the Lord… “Eeeewww that spreads germs! The next thing you know we will all
be in the hospital!” In my youth, seeking to be a chivalrous gentleman, I held
a door for a young woman only to be told in a not-so-kind tone, “I am capable
of opening the door for myself, young man!” Unfortunately, if we base our
actions on the changing desires of mankind’s sinfully schizophrenic appetite,
we will only succeed in, as the saying goes “pleasing some of the people some
of the time”.
However,
if we base our actions on a biblical strategy, of loving God and our neighbor
in accord with His word, we are always guaranteed to at least please God. That
is, of course, if we succeed in treating others as He would have us treat them;
with love and respect, with the motive of fellowship and the sharing of His
truth.
So, regardless of how the world
responds to your attempts at being kind and loving, you can always take comfort
in remaining faithful to loving God and neighbor in accord with His will.
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
