Welcome vs Accommodation ...Santa, Sweden, and you!

Welcome in English. Vilkommen in German. Bienvenidos (Spanish), and Baruch Haba (Hebrew)... it all indicates open arms and open doors. I like that. We have made welcome a major part of our activity and purposes here in Sydney at our bookshop. Welcome matters to those who often feel outside, whether being outside is real or imagined. Can 'welcome' go too far?

What about this which happened in Sweden in 2018? The Bishop of Stockholm has proposed a church in her diocese remove all Christian symbols including crucifixes and instead put down markings showing the direction to Mecca for the benefit of Muslim worshippers.

Here's the article.

"The bishop indicated all airports and hospitals already had multi-faith prayer rooms, and converting the dockyard church would only bring it up to speed. Regardless, the announcement has aroused protest." (from the article)

The difference, of course, is that a church is not a multi-faith prayer room. It's designed to represent. When people think 'prayer rooms' at airports and hospitals, they think that it's ok for a (Muslim, Jew, Zoroastrian, Baptist) to pray there. Maybe you have gone into one of those open spaces. I certainly have. And I find it a safe and worthy place for prayer.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the bishop would recommend that the word "prayer" be removed since prayer implies talking to God, and atheists would feel unwelcome there. If it's inclusion she wants, then a 'meditation' room or even "quiet room' would be a better term so that no one feels excluded.

But this would be madness. 

The local priest at the Seamen's church declined to obey the bishop. When asked whether she would be removing the cross from her church, Kiki Wetterberg responded: “I have no problem with Muslim or Hindu sailors coming here and praying. But I believe that we are a Christian church, so we keep the symbols. If I visit a mosque I do not ask them to take down their symbols. It’s my choice to go in there”.

I remember being told I could not preach at a Christian school here in Sydney some years ago. Why? After all, I had a very good reception in my previous visit. What was the reason the chaplain gave? Some Jewish parents who send their child to SCEGGS (Sydney CHURCH OF ENGLAND Girls Grammar School) were offended and voiced their offense. The authorities accommodated the offended parents and refused to allow me to speak about Jesus in their school. That is madness. There are Jewish schools in town. There are secular schools in town. If a Jewish parent wants to prevent their child from hearing about Jesus in school, send your child elsewhere! But the school wimped out, and thus didn't represent their own name and values.

Accommodation is not the same as welcome.  Every bishop takes a vow at the consecration, no matter what denomination s/he serves, to uphold the denomination and the creeds of the church. In this case, she represents the church. The church pays her salary. The church is right to expect her to stand up for their tenets and values. But the Swedish church should be disappointed with her. She is failing. Maybe she should go work for the airport or hospital as a chaplain. 

Christmas brings out more protests from some evangelicals. It seems that some are protesting similar things about churches having Santa Claus and Christmas trees at this time of year. Protesters allege that Santa is an anagram for Satan and that he is a poor substitute for the God of the Bible. Churches say they are trying to bring in families, especially children, for whom Christmas is all about the jolly, red-bellied, bearer of gifts. And thus, they accommodate the commercial-driven St Nick who knows if you've been bad or good. 

Having a petting zoo or a visit from Santa doesn't worry me if the church makes clear that Jesus is the reason for the season. But I understand the disgruntlement of the opponents. 

What do you think? Should the use of Santa's secular stuff, or Muslim arrows be allowed in churches? Should Jewish parents require Christian schools to accommodate their wishes? Should Christian kids attending Jewish schools request communion be served or the reading of the New Testament be included in biblical studies?

No matter what you conclude in these matters... you are welcome to church this weekend and Christmas. You can watch Carols in the Myer Bowl or from St Paul's in London.  God opens His arms to all people. You want to see His welcome? 

Diego Velasquez painted this crucifixion scene. Yeshua's arms are open wide, to bear the sins of the people. To bear my sins. To bear your sins. You want welcome? God welcomes you. He longs to be in relationship with you. Won't you receive his love, even today?

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. "(John 3.16)

Forgiven? An exit poll.

If we asked you, "Do you feel forgiven?" what would you say? At the end of Yom Kippur, after ne'ilah prayers on Saturday evening, after fasting all day, after davening and seeking G-d's forgiveness...what will you say? On what would you base your forgiveness if you actually felt such?

Many will look to their own volition, their own goodness and intention as suitable and enough to get the Almighty's attention. And his forgiveness. It is very good to have the right attitude, for sure. I wonder if we are really as serious, as kind-hearted, as honest as we should be in this regard. I'm not criticising anyone particularly at all! I remember my own long prayers during the day, and remember how sometimes I was sincere, and often I wasn't. Again, I'm not saying anything about everyone else; just wondering.

Still others commend their Orthodoxy, as if their religion and their particular prayers, from Kol Nidre to ne'ilah are comprehensive, with nothing left out. They daven shacharit, musaf, participate or exit for Yizkor, minchah, ma'ariv...it's all there. They sing correctly along with the choir or the chazan, they are very dedicated. Good for them! So are our prayers enough to convince the Almighty that He owes us forgiveness? What does the Proverbs say? (Prov. 28.9) "He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination." Ouch, and look out!

I remember that time in my teenage years when I went to Smaks Drive-in (a fast-food precursor to McDonalds) approximately 300 metres from my Orthodox synagogue in Kansas City. I had been Bar Mitzvah, and thus was a full member of the congregation, responsible for legal compliance and observance. And on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, especially. So after the morning services were complete, I left the grounds, and walked over to Smaks and purchased a 19 cent hamburger. Pickles, ketchup, onion, all there on the small burger. And I downed it very quickly. Lest anyone see me. As if the Almighty were back in synagogue and didn't know I had left the grounds.

I returned to my parents' pew in the auditorium and sat next to them. Little did I know that some ketchup had stained the end of my white shirt's sleeve. And little did I understand that the smell of pickles and onion would also attract attention from the folks. The combination was deadly. I was caught out. On the day I was to be fasting and living holy and seriously repenting of my sins, I had gone out and sinned by eating. Terrible.

I tell that story to remind myself of the grace of G-d. He loves me. He loved me. He will ever love me. And His love is that on which I base my situation. And on which I base my forgiveness. I'm forgiven because of what Yeshua did for me 2,000 years ago. He was my kipporah, my atonement, who took my sins on himself and gave me eternal life. End of story. Not on the basis of what I earn, of the prayers I offer, or the kavanah (devotion) I demonstrate. Left to my own devices, I will turn from Him, and live for myself. I'm forgiven because Roman soldiers killed the Messiah on a cross. And that execution accomplished what none of my kavanah would ever produce.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3.5-6)

Thus the question of my being forgiven, in the exit poll or the early poll-- is answered in a cross. The cross of love. Thanks be to G-d.

Have an easy fast.