All Are Welcome

January 5, 2025, First Congregational Church of Brimfield MA UCC

Jeremiah 31: 7-14 — For thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.”

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor together; a great company, they shall return here.

With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back; I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path where they shall not stumble, for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd does a flock.”

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.

John 1: 10-18 — He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.   Amen.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote to his fellow Jews in the years around 570BCE, just about 2600 years ago, in a time when his land was constantly being overrun by enemies.  He wrote in a time when there was constant dissention and a continual stream of less-than-competent, honest or courageous leaders for the kingdom of Judah.  And, of course, this got him in trouble = he was arrested, people tried to kill him, and he likely ended his life in exile in Egypt.

Jeremiah wasn’t just a political columnist, though.  He saw his people in a religious crisis, being in a place where it was maybe better to step away from active faith, who were maybe going to conform to the religion of the winners just to get ahead… like the people I read about in Saturday’s NY Times, who were converting to Catholicism from Islam, to better express their Albanian identity.  It’s not about faith, it’s about political fighting.  Jeremiah wanted something better, something more faithful, more God-focused for the people of Judah.

And so do we want something better for people here and now as well.

That’s why his description of God’s intention for us is so important.  He doesn’t say, this political party or that party will win.  He doesn’t say get rich because that’s what God wants.  He says God welcomes the people who cannot see, the ones who have difficulty in walking.  God welcomes those who are expecting children == in his world, the least productive people are the most welcome.  God welcomes those who are most left behind.  God reaches out to those who are scattered, and brings them back together into community.  That’s the goal of faith – to have us all living in community, welcoming one another, recognizing the importance of every individual.

But it’s one thing to say we welcome everyone, in spite of whatever makes them different than what we think is usual or normal or every day.  That’s because really welcoming people means really recognizing them as good, as people whose differences are something our community needs to be fulfilled.

Now, I’m not talking about being excited about the local member of the Governor’s Council joining the church because now we will have governmental influence.  I’m talking about becoming, growing into a true reflection of God’s intention for us.  

Here’s what I mean:  I am not completely naïve; I expect that even before the UCC became Open and Affirming at the national level around 1985, there were LGBT+ members.  In fact, I know there were, and I know they were rare enough that we remember the names of the few who found it possible to be open….  Bill Johnson, and Anne Holmes, and up in New Hampshire, Bob Wood. They were there, but they were quiet, not silent, but not entirely welcome… Then in 1985, the Synod voted to be ONA.  The next Synod was different… LGBT+ people were there, and clearly felt as though now they belonged, that this was _their_ place, that they were no longer guests, there on sufferance.  And the Synod itself was different, more vibrant, more colorful, more relaxed, more just what God is calling us to be.  

Every time the Synod has acted to explicitly welcome another group, the whole Synod has changed in exciting new ways.  I remember when they started formally arranging for 12 step meetings every day, instead of expecting our AA people to create something after they arrived.   It didn’t change the outward appearance of the group, but it removed the tint of shame from a condition so many of us try to manage.  And when one color of shame is taken away, it frees us to re-examine other ways of making people feel unwelcome and then welcome.

God is calling us to be a community where people can bring their whole selves, where they don’t have to hide who they are, where those of us who are already here let go of that “but this is my church” kind of feeling, because it’s not, you know.  It’s God’s church.

It’s not that we don’t already do that; the chair lift is one sign of our welcome, our ONA stand is another, for sure…. Here, tho, I want us to be clear that we are doing this because it’s what God has called us to do and to be.  Where is God calling us today?  Is our welcome true?  What is our work today?

From time to time we get to spend some time talking together about who we are right now, and about who might not feel welcome here.  That’s one of the conversations we always have during the interim period, and we’re going to be starting that process next Sunday after church, eating together and exploring who we are and how we’re following God.  Put it on your calendar, make it an important date, and help us begin discerning where God is calling us.

Amen.

© 2025, Virginia H. Child