The Polarity of Want and Welcome

Those conflicts and disputes among you where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you…….WANT

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.     ….WANT

What were you arguing about on the way?  …they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. …WANT

Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them…WELCOME

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.      ….WELCOME

On Thursday 13 Lutheran pastors from the Atlantic Ministry area gathered for worship, study, and conversation.  Together we reflected on the readings for today and surmised various ways to preach the Word based on the same.  Our conversation rallied around two ideas:  WANT and WELCOME: these are the law and Gospel found in the Word this morning.

The scripture connects, in fact states, WANT is the cause of conflicts and disputes, exhibited in behaviours of  murder, theft, and coveting — it can be extrapolated from conflict and dispute that WANT is the cause of armaments, war, torture, exiles, and the current refugee crisis facing the planet.

The scripture connects unanswered prayer with the idea that prayer is often self-serving, for our own pleasure and comforts.

Although I had never thought about it this way, until Thursday’s conversation, the balance to WANT is WELCOME.

Take prayer – when praying for others, creation, outside of ourselves   - when praying not so that we make ourselves feel better; honest lamentation, supplication, devotion – we are welcoming God to fill the prayer and the void into which we pray.  We welcome our own hearts to be moved, willed to change to address the void for which we have prayed.

To welcome means that I set my wants to the side:  I open my home to a stranger – even though there may not be enough food or jobs or security. To welcome means I will place on the back burner my want for stability, the status quo, to have things the way they have always been. I release the want of comfort, perfection, and to have a controlled solution.  Welcome means that I shed my wants.

Hear the Word speak to Law and Gospel- Want and Welcome in the poem by Canadian poet Doug Fetherling:

Explores as Seen by the Natives

The need to explore

is the reason they give

for coming

with lanterns to push back the dark

clothes and helmets to keep away the sun

weapons to kill with delight

what presumes to kill only for safety

or food—

all things explorers use to experience without learning

as they trample through our land

And we are eager to assist them.

They move too quickly

to notice life best viewed

standing still, but push on

without resistance

conquering what they have just discovered

and we have known all along

We who are not asked,

who curiously follow

Soon they will return to

wherever it is they are from

talking as though they invented

what we show them now

and encouraging others to come

In truth they invent only new names

never content with the old ones we use

We who are only too willing to help

Much of the literature I have read and stories I have heard, from the voice of First Nation’s peoples- is the welcome given to those who came to these shores. A welcome to walk the land, to take what was needed, to be a part of all that the Great Spirit had given.

How crazy it must have been to welcome a people who instantly came prepared to satisfy every WANT:

Lanterns to provide the want of light in the darkness,  clothes and helmets to answer the want to be kept out of the sun, weapons to satiate the want of security and food?

Fethering’s reflection is that these things – WANT – was in the way of people experiencing and learning. WANT inhibited experiencing God in the sunshine, the vastness of the universe in the brilliance of the nighttime sky, the idea of being present in a place and co-existing rather than subduing and trampling.

Want clouded the explorers’ hearts and eyes such that they did not feel the welcome being offered to them; the opportunity to experience a thankfulness for of the creation around them. 

Rather WANT had them move quickly, to push on- because around the corner there was a bigger conquest, a better resource over the next hill --- and they missed the  Creator’s welcome as they went on past, God found in the wigwam with the grandmother rocking her relation, the campfire surrounded by God’s story and the dances of lamentation and praise.  The welcome of kinship and open pots of food--- where there was life in the knowledge and practice that there was an abundance for all. 

WANT never had a chance to subside because movement was quick and has only become quicker – WELCOME awaited, awaits, “is best viewed,” standing still.

….stand still (orants) and quiet for at least 15 secs…

On Friday I led a quiet day retreat for Anglican priests.  As part of Morning Prayer there was a prayer that had spaces of silence, each varying in length from 2-4 minutes. The prayer lasted for 20 mins., most of it in silence. Some did not want to sit in silence, but, tolerated this prayer imposed on them. There was some shuffling of papers, uncrossing and re-crossing of legs, and big sighs.  As the time went on people became more and more relaxed as they became more open, and welcomed sitting in silence.   It was hard to move from our want – of getting something out of the day but on our own terms, getting refreshed and feeling good about praying without any hard work or discomfort.  Standing still was the welcome to have us physically and emotionally slow down.

….standstill (orants) and quiet for at least 15 secs…

I want. You want. The world wants.

Today this can change if you so will, not for your own sake, but, for the sake of the world.

The phrase can change to: I welcome. You welcome. The world welcomes.

And I believe this must start with me. It starts with you.  We must be the first ones to do so.

So, consider the number of WANTS that cross your mind and affect your actions every week:

·         You want to wake up in the morning wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.

·         You want a day without pain in your joints.

·         You want a cup of coffee.

·         You want to go to the store for some item or other.

·         You want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to….

·         You want the Syrian refugee crisis to come to an end.

·         You want it not to rain on Friday because you have things to do.

·         You want to fall asleep.

You get the picture.  We have lots of wants and wishes that pass through us and affect us every day.

When you experience a want this week balance it by physically standing still for a minute.  Welcome the moment, the option of change, of something different, of experiencing God.  And after the pause, say “Thanks be to God, Amen.” And then carry on until the next want surfaces.

The exercise will be challenging and I suspect the first few days, there will be lots of pausing… in the end, I pray that each of you experiences a change of heart: one where there becomes fewer wants for oneself and a compassion for the care and concern of others.

I welcome stories, by email or on the FB page, of the opening of your heart.  The welcome of God in the moments of your day; a welcome that transforms attitude to thankfulness and an abundance that knows no bounds.