Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville (Trinity MCC)

A Message of Radical Welcome

Rev. Jim Merritt

Trinity MCC Gainesville

August 9, 2009

            Do you remember the movie Forest Gump?” On Forest’s first day of school his mother escorts him to the bus stop. When Forest enters the bus with braces on his legs, one by one the other children tell him, “Nope.” “You can’t sit here.” “This seat’s taken.” And some just shake their heads at him. Suddenly a beautiful little girl named Jenny speaks up and says, “You can sit here if you want to.” She and Forest begin a conversation and before long Forest comments through the narrator, “Nobody outside my Mama ever talked to me like that…Jenny and me became like peas and carrots.” That, my friends is our first example of a message of Radical Welcome.

            As I begin this morning’s message I want to give credit to some important people, mostly women in my life. First, to my own mother who taught me the value of Southern hospitality with that “ya’ll come” approach to our home, our meals and many of our activities. I first learned how to say “welcome” from her.   My friend Rev. Jaynie Nell Hickman was the first person I told I was gay. She was the associate pastor at the church where we both served at the time and she continued to welcome me under her umbrella in spite of the risks it presented to her own licensure and ongoing ministry in her denomination. Then to my friend The Reverend Elder Troy Perry who after several years of my own searching for a home for the ministry to which I had been called at the age of sixteen, wrote to me a simple email saying, “Dear Jim, I believe there is a place for you in our church. Love, Troy.” Then to my Pastor, mentor and friend, The Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson, who during my training with her taught me the value of extravagant hospitality. And finally to The Reverend Bishop Yvette Flunder of our sister denomination, The Fellowship, whose on website is addressed www.radicallyinclusive.net. I share those people with you not at all to drop names or to let you know who I know, and with a completely different purpose. You see, I know what it feels like to feel un-welcome. We do not need to spend time this morning rehearsing my experience in the Southern Baptist church from 1981 until the time I left as a gay clergy person. Just let me be clear with you, I know what un-welcome feels like. And sing because I’m happy this morning and I preach because I’m free thanks to people like Mom, and Jaynie Nell and Troy and Nancy and Yvette and because of a God who created me in God’s own image and looked at me and said, “Very Good.” And because of a God who did the same thing for you and for every person who has ever come on this property and to those who are on the way and to those who have yet to experience this message of welcome. Welcome. WELCOME.

            All of today's lectionary readings bring to mind people in extreme situations: David's grief, Elijah's despair, the faith community's bitterness, wrath and malice, Jesus' connection of boundless life with his looming death. And all of the lessons speak of the God who gets us through these situations. A God who has proven to us over and over again that we can trust God in every situation, including the most difficult ones of all.

Jesus continues his lengthy discourse about himself as the bread of life in John 6:35, 41-51. What he claims strikes his audience as implausible on the face of it (how can somebody we know be from heaven?), but he goes beyond the implausible to the revolting by saying "the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (verse 51). Can you imagine what that sounded like to those who heard it for the first time? Eat my flesh; drink my blood? I have to confess to you, I am acutely aware of how unusual that statement is every time I celebrate communion? This is my body…eat it? This is my blood…drink it? How odd! Jesus was a Jew and in Leviticus we learn that eating flesh and/or drinking blood is an abomination. We’ve heard that word used before, haven’t we? Is Jesus endorsing an abomination? What does that mean for Christians who claim to somehow eat the body of Jesus and drink his blood every week? And especially what does it mean for those who really believe it’s the honest and true body and blood of Jesus? An abomination? How do we turn that focal point of our worship into a message of welcome? Especially, what does it mean to us in the days of HIV/AIDS? “Welcome to our purposeful celebration of high risk behavior!?” or “Welcome to our abomination celebration?!” Certainly not.

            What Jesus is doing here, is making a direct connection between the boundless life he offers and the death he must face to offer it. So how does that connect with us? Let’s see if I can make it clear.

            Jesus is offering abundance and at the same time is foreshadowing his death. He’s saying come to me and I will give you abundant rest. Come to me and I will give you abundant Joy. Come to me and live life more abundantly. And Jesus is also saying it is not free. Abundance comes with a price. Jesus is somehow saying to us, “Come follow me and I will give you rest” AND “it will cost you your life.” It will cost us in the radical ways we deal with each other. It will cost is in the radical we say welcome to others. It will cost us in the radical ways we include us. People will accuse us of being strange. People will accuse us of being different. People will say, “s/he’s weird,” and I want to tell you something this morning sisters and brothers, if that’s the way people view me because I love others the way Jesus loves them, SO BE IT. If that’s the way people think about me because I cast a wide welcome under my umbrella, AMEN. And if that’s the way the rest of the religious community views us as church together, as RADICALS for being inclusive, then I have just one thing to say; GLORY TO GOD. I want to be different, I want to be loving, I want to be inclusive and if that makes me radical, Hallelujah, Glory to the Lamb!

You see, If we want to live abundantly there are times when we will be called to give something back. Remember the phrase, “from the one who has been given much, much will be expected? If we want to live abundantly sometimes we have to give back. We have to get over ourselves to some extent. Jesus get’s his hands dirty over and over again. Jesus, if we listen to the holiness codes of Leviticus, makes himself unclean. Jesus is a grassroots organizer, Jesus gets down and dirty with the people And if we hear Jesus correctly this morning, Jesus is calling us to a life that calls us into a little more direct contact with others than we might otherwise like. Jesus is calling us to practice radical welcome, radical inclusion, extravagant hospitality.

Jesus is not calling us today to eat flesh and drink blood. Jesus is calling us to live the way he lived. Jesus is calling us to share in this radical way of life.

Helene Tallon Russell says, “These Bible passages highlight spiritual nourishment which – whether Eucharist or Communion, truth, pot luck church meals, tenderheartedness, or simply bread eaten with the awareness of the divine presence – strengthen us by centering us in what is holy and truly significant.”

Radical Welcome, Radical Hospitality, Extravagant Hospitality. That’s the message of the gospel this morning, my friends. Have you heard the phrase, “Dare to be different?” Well I’m daring all of us here in the name of Jesus to be different; to share in the life of Jesus by being Radically inclusive, by being Radically welcoming, by practicing Extravagant hospitality with all who come, with ALL who come, with ALL who come. No exceptions, no exclusions, a Radical welcome for ALL people; like peas and carrots. In Jesus name, In JESUS Name, in Jesus name. God, make our welcome radical so that all may know the inclusive, liberating, life-changing message of your Gospel, of your love. In Jesus’ name. God bless you today. Amen.

Contact: gmail.com@trinitymcc
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