Welcome, but...

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Matthew 10:40-42

    As you may know, our family enjoys daily walks around the neighborhood. Recently, on our daily walk, I didn’t want to be weird, so I didn’t, but I wanted to take a photo of the front of our neighbor’s house, because I thought…there’s a sermon in here somewhere.  This house had a big welcome sign hanging on the door, like many people do.  But right next to it, was a smaller, but legible, sign that said, “No Solicitors.” Sooo…you’re welcome at this person’s house, unless you’re selling something!  I wonder, as Christ calls us to think about welcoming today, how we sometimes send mixed messages –“ Welcome, but…no solicitors.”
    We are getting ready to celebrate 75 years of Faith Lutheran Church in Syosset being in this neighborhood next year!  You may know the early history – Pastor Philip Anderson started this church, sponsored by Christ Lutheran Church in New Hyde Park, by walking door-to-door in the same neighborhoods I walk today, asking if people would like to be a part of this new Lutheran congregation.  In 1952, many people were not just already Christians moving in from Queens and the Bronx, they were Lutheran, predominantly German and Scandinavian Lutheran Christians.  Now, if I walked up in my clergy collar to that house that says “Welcome” and “No Solicitors” today, would I be welcome, or considered a solicitor? This is not the Long Island of 1952 anymore.  In our neighborhoods today we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, people who are religiously unaffiliated or atheists and yes, some Christians, but probably not Lutherans, and if they are Lutherans, they may be Chinese, Guyanese or Italian, not necessarily Scandinavian or German.  The way we witness to our faith in Christ today may be different – it may be through a social media post, or building a relationship with a neighbor that leads to an invitation to a church event, but cold-call knocking on doors is perhaps not the most effective.  Nonetheless, in our gospel for this morning, Jesus invites us to think about both how we give and receive welcome as his disciples.
    Typically, these two verses in Matthew 10 are used to encourage us as Christians to be welcoming in our hospitality of people.  We think about the cup of cold water we can extend, and who the little ones are that Jesus is encouraging us to welcome.  A few years ago, when members of Faith gathered in our fellowship hall for a day-long re-working of our mission statement, we all agreed that welcome is a core part of our identity:  “Faith Lutheran Church is a welcoming and accepting diverse community whose mission is to openly share the saving grace of Jesus’ love,” we said.  We have learned, and I think we can all think of examples, of when combining “welcoming and accepting” with “diverse” has been a challenge.  To welcome the family that comes with rambunctious and noisy little ones.  The person whose immigration status we are unsure of.  The person whose first language is not English.  The person who struggles with a mental illness or disability.  Even our building, with its multiple levels can be a challenge for families with strollers or people with walkers or wheelchairs.  Jesus challenges us to think about what it means to put a welcome sign out on our door and to call ourselves a welcoming church with intentionality – we can always do better.
    Here’s the other way that Jesus talks about welcome today, though – how WE are received or welcomed by others as his disciples.  You may want to go back and read all of Matthew 10 as a refresher, because Jesus tells the disciples, “whoever welcomes you welcomes me” in the context of warning them that there will be persecution and hardship for followers of Jesus.  We will encounter “no soliciting” signs in our witness to Christ, in identifying ourselves as Christians.  When Jesus says “whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” is not actually necessarily a good reward, to be honest!  
    For a few weeks now, for example, we have heard snippets of the prophet Jeremiah’s story.  In Jeremiah 27, God tells Jeremiah to wear a wooden oxen yoke and walk around as an object lesson to the people that all nations should submit or be under the yoke of the rule of Babylon – God will not give Israel victory over Babylon.  The people of Israel are in exile in Babylon, and they are longing to return home, of course!  The false prophet Hananiah contradicts Jeremiah by lying to the people with wishful thinking and saying God will allow them to return home and bring peace.  He ends up being sentenced to death, because his prophecy does not come true.  Jeremiah tells the hard truth that few people want to hear.  He is not a popular guy, he is branded a traitor, put into prison on numerous occasions, and persecuted throughout his prophetic career.  
Jesus encourages us to speak the truth in love, and that the people who listen, especially when the truth is difficult, will welcome us.  Just as Jesus blesses the first disciples as people who represent Christ himself, Jesus blesses us with this good news that when we call ourselves Christian, we represent Christ himself.  When people welcome us, it is as if they are welcoming Jesus himself.  The caution is to humility, not pride or an inflated ego, because our witness matters.  Telling the truth about Christ and the wideness of his love matters.  Speaking up when we encounter racism or homophobia, or persecution of people because of their politics or their citizenship status, matters because we represent Christ and Christianity to people today who are not necessarily welcoming of Christians, much less organized religion.  When we encounter a home or a person with a mixed message like “welcome but no soliciting,” we can pray that we represent Christ faithfully, regardless of the outcome of the conversation.  We can think about what people may assume of us because of the baggage they may have around church and Christianity; the false prophets they may have listened to.  
Jesus calls us to welcome and be welcomed in his name.  He does not call us to perfection.  We, all of us, can confess the ways we have failed to welcome others as Christ or be Christ to others.  Yet Jesus’ promise to we who are striving to follow him gives us strength and courage:  whoever welcomes you welcomes me.  Christ DOES live in and through us – sometimes Christ works through us in spite of ourselves!  Christ living in us is more powerful than sin and the devil’s empty promises – we are living under grace.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.