Welcome, " Come Well"

We say "Welcome" in greeting whenever someone comes to our home or place of worship. But have you ever thought about how the world " welcome" is really two words? When we  welcome someone { be it to our home or our church} we invite them to "come and be well"




Being authentically  welcoming, as Christ commands of we His followers, is risky business.  To be truly welcoming, we are { or should be{} at our most vulnerable. We invite others to com be with us, and the radical hospitality that Jesus commands we modern-day apostles to practice includes accepting other for who they ARE, not whom we wish them to be.  radical hospitality to we Christ-followers demands that we put aside our prejudices, expectations and other preconceived notions of what we wish people to be when we meet them.




Manners are important, especially for meeting and/or entertaining someone for the first time. Social conventions dictate that we strive to follow a set of " norms" in order to be hospitable. But Jesus commands us to follow an entirely different hospitality. We are to love each other as He loves us. Radical hospitality is more than putting the correct number of forks on the supper table settings.


Love is costly, and the love described by an emulated by Jesus includes putting another's needs first, regardless of one's own idea of what is " normal & " acceptable".




In other words: Do not judge, and try to understand someone else's point of view when it comes to confronting differences of opinion. We humans need not always agree on eveyrthing in order to be kind to one another. We Christians, especially, need to accept each other as we are . After all, Christ accepts us without questions or reservations, so should we not follow His Example?


Amen.