Are we strangers?

I was listening to someone describe an aspect of their life in the past, of the struggles that had faced. They said that they had often passed by the church without actually noticing it. How can you miss a great big pointy building, often with large signs advocating prayer etc or even a thermometer showing how much money is still needed for the repair of the church roof?

I wonder how those messages are actually perceived by strangers to church?

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Of course the number of strangers to church have increased markedly over our lifetimes – apologies if you are under 20 years, when markedly could be wrong.

We may want people to come to church but that can be difficult. It started me thinking about strangers.

These are guests entering an area which could be foreign or alien: they certainly are not the hosts who understand the ‘rules’. In the past the ‘Church’ was the host, the one that set the rules: recently we may have heard of proposals for the Anglican Bishops to be removed from the House of Lords. Now, with membership of churches declining the ‘church’ may not be considered so influential, it may even today ‘be the guest in our society‘.

Jesus sends out 70 (or 72) followers asking that they share the good news. They are not equipped with the latest SatNav, the latest iPhone, lots of money nor the latest fashionable clothing: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals”. If they had no money, they wouldn’t be carrying any signs of power.

There is some concern that they could be mistaken for false philosophers who would ‘dress down’ to make themselves look destitute. But here, these followers were to be strangers not in a land which they might know well, where they might expect comfort, but in Samaria, a land where the response might not be overly friendly. They were being asked to go to peoples’ homes, offer what they could, but importantly share what was important to them.

They were strangers in a foreign land.

So is the Church expected to be ‘strangers’ also in our land? or were we expecting to be the host?

Those sent out were NOT called to welcome the stranger; rather they were called to BE the stranger seeking welcome. It is not the church who acts as a host but as a guest offering the good news. 

I wonder whether if we were to adopt this attitude maybe we will discover the Christ in each other.