Populus Zion - 2nd Sunday in Advent - 12.07.2025

 Welcome One Another

Romans 15:4-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

When was the last time you had a nice conversation in the backyard with your neighbor? How about the last time you sat on your porch and struck up a conversation with someone walking by? Or maybe you were at the grocery store and you spent a half hour talking with someone from church? Or was it at the post office? You said, “hello!” but what does that mean? Was it the word to the thought, “I see you here and acknowledge your presence?” Did you ever think about what you meant by saying it?

How about this greeting, “how are you?”

That three-word phrase is often spoken as a greeting. When you use it as a greeting are really asking the question expecting a response? That question is more like, “Hello, I acknowledge and note your presence.” These aren’t the droids you’re looking for, move along.

Can you imagine the person you greet, “How are you?” taking the next thirty minutes telling you how they are? Would you start looking at your watch after ten minutes, and at fifteen minutes be fidgeting? Would you ever greet anyone with the words, “how are you” ever again?

We do not have time for that stuff, do we? Most parents don’t have conversations with their kids. Most often it is text messages. How many of those are unintelligible to the average grandparent. JK! FYI! BRB! LOL! And most grandparents be like, IDK? How many texts use God’s name in vain without even saying it – OMG.

Have you ever thought about going on the internet – surfing the WWW? You know WWW is short for world wide web?

We live in a digital age, text messages, instant messages, e-mails, tweets, and other forms of electronic communication are the most common forms today. How many arguments have started because the written word – especially on a screen of some sort – does not convey much other than the words said. What was the tone of voice? Were they angry, disappointed, joking, or happy when they wrote it? Hard to tell without being able to see facial expressions or hear tone of voice. And it is so easy to impose our own mood onto the text and imagine in our own mind what they REALLY meant. Usually we are wrong.

What has that got to do with today’s epistle? We do not do face to face very well in our world today. Too often we avoid contact with others. We do not take the time to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with those we care about. And we certainly don’t have a face-to-face with someone over a subject about which we might just disagree. How many families eat a meal sitting down together at the kitchen or dining room table at least 5 times a week? 3 times?

Why? Who has time for that? Besides, why do face-to-face when we have a screen to look at; phone, tablet, computer, or even a TV for those who are simply tied to a specific show they cannot miss.

It is truly a sad state of affairs that we have lost such intimate contact with the ones we supposedly love.

As Christians we are family with one another, brothers and sisters in Christ. Are all the members of your congregation a dear friend? Do you treat all the members the same, as if they are all equally important to you? Or are there some whom you avoid? Are there some you not only avoid, but whom you despise enough that you speak evil things about them behind their back?

Maybe even worse, there are those to whom you act friendly face-to-face, even while you are wishing they would leave? Or maybe you are praying that you would rather not see at all? Are there those whom, for whatever reason – mostly your stubbornness of heart – you cannot forgive?

Dear friends in Christ, God speaks though Paul’s pen to directly address all these sinful problems. We are to “welcome one another.” We are to do more than just say “hello,” or, “how are you.” They are not just words. We are to mean them.

How do I know? Because our text explains it further, May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

A few years before He inspired Paul to write, Jesus declared that we are to love our enemies and pray for them. He promises rather ominously that if we cannot forgive, neither will we be forgiven by our heavenly Father. And when we come to the altar, if we remember we have a problem with our brother we are to stop, go to our brother and be reconciled with him, BEFORE we bring our gift. 

But we do not even spend the time to talk with our loved ones, much less those with whom we have issues.

We are to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. How is that? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

 In only 14 days we will celebrate the 1^st Advent of our King. You know it well. A virgin became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit as the angel Gabriel spoke God’s promise into her ear. Almighty God took up residence in human flesh in the womb of Mary. The Creator of heaven and earth humbled Himself to be born in our flesh and as a first crib, laid in a feeding trough for barnyard animals.

The Master of all that exists grew up as any other child. He who could with but a snap of His fingers, extinguish all life, allowed evil men to nail Him to a cross. And there, in extreme anguish, Christ welcomed those who lied about Him, those who hated Him in the most vile way, those who perverted everything God had revealed to them, and those who demanded His death. He did so by begging, “Father forgive them.”

This is how you are to welcome one another.

Jesus’ closest friends all fled when the Jewish authorities came to the Garden of Gethsemane and arrested Him after another of his disciple betrayed Him to His persecutors with a kiss. One of His best friends denied that He even knew Jesus, eh even called down curses from heaven in his denial.

That is why three days after He’d been crucified, Jesus came those who had been his dear friends and said, “Thanks for abandoning me in my hour of need guys, ‘preciate it!”

No! That is NOT what He said, is it. He did not reply in a manner as you or I might have. No! Raised from the dead, He appeared in their midst – even though the doors were locked – and in incredible mercy declared, “Peace be with you.”

To prove it was really Him, He showed them His hands and His side and then, to show His welcoming love, Jesus again proclaimed, to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Dearly beloved of God, this is how Jesus welcomes YOU.  This is how the God of endurance and encouragement grants YOU to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus. His forgiveness and love come to you as you gather together, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Christ welcomes you today with a Word pronouncing your unwelcoming attitude, your self-centered absorption, your aloofness, and your stubbornness to forgive – forgiven. ALL your sinfulness is forgiven. He has taken it into Himself, atoned for it on the cross, and now in His resurrection and ascension delivers it to you in the means He has prepared to do so – Word and Sacrament.

Christ welcomes you into Himself through water and the Word. In the miracle of baptism, in your daily contrition and repentance, you are welcomed by Christ to dwell in Him as He lives in you. The forgiveness He purchased for you is granted unto you that you might welcome one another.

Christ welcomes you to come to His table. In doing so,  you are all made one with one another – one body in Christ who is your head. You are more than brother and sisters in Christ, you are one body in Christ – the forgiven, redeemed, and holy body of Christ – His Church.

Dear friends, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. In the name of Jesus. Amen.