Radical Welcome

Dear friends, it is good to finally be with you at St Peter's. I'm honoured to be standing here before all of you as your new priest in charge. It took a while to get here but I am glad I am here with you.

I want to start my ministry here by asking you a question. Why do you go to church? Why take 2 hours out of your week every Sunday to be here? Why volunteer for and spend countless other hours at church related activities? Anyone?
I ask this same question to my bible study class at my previous church and I was met with the same silence. It seems that we love God. We want to follow Jesus. We love church and being the church. But we have no idea why. Or we have no idea how to articulate why. That is why it is important for us to begin by asking ourselves what is our why first. 

Being the church is not easy. We know this from today's gospel reading in Matthew when Jesus gathers his disciples and tells them what it means for them to follow him. He reminds them that there will be trials ahead. Jesus even has to speak words of comfort in order to remind his disciples that God is with them because he knows that the journey is hard. It is difficult to be the church he calls us to be especially in this day in age where religion across the US and North America is very much in decline. 
That is why I began my very first sermon in church by asking you what your why is. If you know your why, I believe that being the church becomes a little easier. We would then now know why we sacrifice for Jesus. 

Let me begin by telling you my why. When I first came to the US, I attend an Episcopal Church in Pomona called St Paul's. There was an older woman at St Paul's who greeted me loudly the first time saying, “Welcome to St Paul's! You complete us!” 

That was the late Carol Golden, a long-time member of the church who believed that every person on earth is part of God's great big family. The church is to remind them of that and welcoming new people to her meant that we become more complete as one church and human family. I remember Carol fondly because she never judged anyone. She just welcomed them at where they were at unconditionally, never expecting them to do anything more. Church to her was just that space where people could just be. People could simply be themselves in front of and with God. 

I took a liking to Carol immediately and sat near to her during services. At that time in seminary, I went through much deconstruction and reconstruction of my faith. There were times that I could not go to church at all but Carol never questioned me on that. Even if she hadn't seen me in a few weeks, we would still welcome me with that same big smile and hug as though I never left. She would even help me with my seminary projects, volunteering to be interviewed for my assignments from time to time. She was just there for me when I needed her to be and she never judge me. 

It was that loving and caring nature that eventually hit me. That was God's love I experienced. God, through Carol, loved me for who I was on my journey. It was this that indirectly encouraged me to deepen my faith and eventually discover that I did have a call to the priesthood. It just had to be at the right time and after time that I had to spend away from church.

Sadly, Carol died suddenly from a brain aneurysm back in 2021. I came back to LA during the pandemic preparing to move my stuff to Toronto. I met her once and was hoping to get a photo with her on my last Sunday in the US then. Sadly, the fire department found her passed out in the bathroom that very same day. She died a few days later. 

Carol taught me that welcome lasts more than a lifetime. The grace and love of God can be passed through people and it hops from one to another eventually reaching every last one around us. We complete each other in that way. Radical welcome hence has been central to my calling and reason why I come to church. Church to me is a place where I hope to develop into a sanctuary of safety and of unconditional love for others no matter who they are because we are all part of God's big family. 

And I think that is the essence of Jesus gospel. A radical inclusion and love of our neighbour. Jesus cautions that this message is a difficult one to embrace. In fact, he reminds his disciples in today's gospel reading that his message of radical love, unfortunately, will not bring peace to many. In fact, it will divide households and tear families apart. 

I often read this in the context of first century Judea. As a Jew himself, Jesus critiques the over emphasis on purity and the law that the religious authorities preach over welcoming the other. His actions of welcoming the tax collector and eating with prostitutes and other sinners seemed to have blasphemed God in the eyes of the authorities. His message hence, tore families apart with many flocking to him and his message of God's radical love. This was in stark contrast to that of the religious leaders who hide behind the letter of the law in order to condemn and judge others rather than loving others as the Torah had called for. That was something Jesus would label as hypocrisy. 

In this passage Jesus is not asking us to abandon our parents literally but he is trying to say in a metaphorical way that if we hold on the patriarchal and matriarchal ways of doing life and organizing society around rules and regulations at the expense of loving others that we have just become attached to the ways of the world. We need to live in the world and not of the world by not becoming too attached to our fathers and mothers but by adhering to his message of radical love. That love goes beyond ourselves and our family. Love is radical welcome. Family is everyone out in the world. When they come in these doors, they complete us. 
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This is my why and I will be preaching about radical welcome from time to time. This defines my ministry as a priest of the church of God and it will be more so here at my first incumbency at St Peter's. So, I ask you all to join me in doing church for the greater good of loving others no matter who they are. But first, as yourself the why. Why do you come to church? Why do you want to be known as followers of Christ? And as you do, I am sure you will realize that your why intersects with mine. Let us carry our crosses and follow Jesus out in the word as we do church together. Amen. 

the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim