Welcome

Football

Liverpool winning title

Made me think back over the years, all the ways that football has shaped my life

Before I was married, I lived in a flat in Paris Street in Dunedin.

The flat was freezing cold in the winter - frost on my desk

refugee family moved in across the street.

These little boys who would just stand around outside in the cold.

Took a ball out on the street to play with them, and they just came alive

Their parents couldn’t speak much english, but I remember the smiles and the tears

we made each other welcome.

I don’t even rememebr their names, but I do remember the feeling of sharing our lives on the simplest of levels.

Welcome

Hospitality - being made welcome - it’s the first step on the road to fulfilling our humanity in the image of God

All of us here, at some stage have been made welcome. Share that with your neighbour, what was it like?

Question one: When have you been made welcome?

Today’s reading emphasises the blessing of welcoming others

We have a tendency to make ourselves the centre of the stories

It’s comforting, but when we’re always the good guys, we are nto challenged to grow.

What if, instead of being the welcomers, we were the welcomed?

Matthew 10 - sending of the 12 disciples, condensed teaching - Redaer’s Digest edition - to take with them

Matthew 10:11–13 NIV

Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.

Question 2 : Are we the welcomers or the welcomed?

Luke 14:16-23

Question 3: Where are we in this story?

Jesus was both the welcomer and the welcomed

We are called to welcome and be welcomed too

Welcome home

Haere mai

We have been welcomed

how do we welcome others?

two risks with welcoming:

Nobody comes to us - Parable of the wedding feast

The wrong sort of people come -> not many of you...

What does it look like for us to be welcomed?

When have you been made welcome? What was it like?