I just recently returned from a trip to Austin. It was a simple over night trip in which I flew there on one day and back on another. I flew with one of the many airlines that do not assign seats anymore. I had a brief stop in Dallas, and was attempting to board my next plain. My letter was B and I was number 60. If you have flown one of these airlines, then you know that they board by A 1-30, then A 31-60, then B 1-30, B 1-60 and then C. Well as you can tell I was the last of the B's. In addition there must not have been very many C's because I was the fourth to the last person to board the plane. It was a pretty full flight and everybody had set on the window seats and the asle seats leaving the middle seat open. I aproached entered the plane and began walking down the aisle to see if any seats were open. Immediately, I began getting dirty looks from most of the people already in thier seats. The ones that were not giving me dirty looks simply were not looking at me. I began to realize that nobody really wanted me to sit between them, because I would make them uncomfortable.Being the Babybuster (or Generation X, I prefer the term Baby Buster) that I am when I did not feel welcome, I really wanted to just leave and get another plane. Of course this was not possible, so I found a seat and sat down with the two freindliest people I could see.
However, this event did make me reflect on the church and how we make people feel welcome or don't. Whenever there is a new person that shows up to church, do we stare at them or simply refuse to see them? If we do it is probably because a new person makes us uncomfortable. They are different than us. Perhaps their skin color is different, of the clothes they wear, or thier socio-economic class, deep down in our hearts we don't want to welcome them, because they might make us feel uncomfortable. Even if they look similar to us, they might have different ideas, or want different music or maybe even make the biggest mistake of all and sit in my pew. It is way easier to simply ignore them or give them dirty looks or make them not feel welcome, then we do not have to be uncomfortable.
It seems to me that Jesus was not afraid to let the stranger into his fold. He hung out with tax collectors and Zealots. He actually seemed more comfortable with some of the people that we would not welcome into our church! Perhaps we need to remember the "Freindly skies" when we have new people show up for church. We should welcome them with open arms, even if they make us feel uncomfortable.
