6/23/2014

Pay Attention



This week’s Bible reading from Matthew 10:40-42, just two verses long, includes one word written six times.

Welcome.

I think the repetition says, “Pay attention to this.”

The reading comes at the end of how to treat missionaries and prophets when they visit and preach.  I think the long instructions about visiting preachers has to do with the poor treatment many had received in the past. I also think that the overabundance of the word “welcome”  expresses the message beyond how folks treat visiting preachers.

Welcome is essential in Jesus’ teachings. Welcome the stranger. Welcome the poor. Welcome the outcast. Welcome the immigrant. Welcome the powerless. Welcome the tired. Welcome the lost. Welcome the children.

Welcome everyone.

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