Welcoming the Stranger as Christ: A Benedictine Call

The welcome of Christ begins with a familiar sign, “The Episcopal Church welcomes you,” and presses the question of what that welcome really means. The old pattern was simple. The church built buildings in residential neighborhoods, opened the doors, and people came in. That was then, and this is now. The call to welcome others in the name of Christ cannot be only a passive welcome at the front door, a handshake, or a gift basket. The welcome Christ asks for is active, intentional, and willing to move toward the other.

Saint Benedict gives the church a clear picture of this kind of welcome. Benedict left city life, entered solitude, lived in a cave, and eventually became the father of western monasticism. His rule tells the monks, “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.” That line is not something Benedict invented. Christ himself says in the gospel, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

The face of the stranger becomes the place where Christ is received. Benedict’s Easter story makes that plain. After three years in silence and solitude, Benedict did not even know it was Easter until a priest came to visit him. Benedict answered, “Easter it is indeed since I have the joy of seeing you.” The joy of the resurrection appeared to him in the face of the first person who came.

The stranger is not only the person never met before. The stranger is the one who is not like another person in some way. The stranger may differ by vote, race, age, socioeconomic status, or theology. The stranger may even be sitting three rows ahead in the same congregation. The call of God asks the parish to welcome that person as if he or she were Jesus Christ himself.

This welcome carries risk. The stranger may reject the overture. The difference may become a hard conversation that goes south. Yet the welcome of the stranger also gives the chance to listen humbly, to learn, and to receive a living, breathing human being made in the image of God. The invitation is simple and hard: seek out one stranger, be intentional, recognize the resurrection of Jesus in that face, welcome that person as Christ himself, and see what happens.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Welcome is active, not passive The welcome Christ calls for is more than opening a door and being polite when someone walks through it. The church can shake hands, offer coffee, and still miss the deeper invitation to move toward the other with intention. True welcome begins when comfort gives way to holy attention. [28:07]
• 2. The stranger may be nearby The stranger is not only someone unknown on the street. The stranger may be the person three rows ahead whose politics, race, age, income, or theology has kept real conversation from happening. The call to welcome asks for love to cross those quiet distances inside the same room. [32:14]
• 3. Christ comes in another’s face Benedict’s joy on Easter came through the face of the priest who visited him in the cave. The resurrection was not only a doctrine to remember, but a presence to recognize in the one who came. The face of the other can become the place where Christ is received with surprise and joy. [30:13]
• 4. Vulnerability belongs to holy welcome The act of welcome is risky because the stranger may refuse the invitation or the conversation may become difficult. Yet that risk is part of the gift, because real relationship cannot be formed without humility and exposure. Welcome becomes holy when it listens before it judges and receives the other as a living image of God. [32:58]
• 5. One intentional invitation can matter The challenge is not vague kindness toward everyone in general, but one concrete act toward one real person. The call asks for a dinner, a coffee, or a conversation with someone genuinely different. Such a simple invitation may become the place where the resurrection of Jesus is recognized again.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [25:27] - Christ Welcomes Through His Disciples
• [27:07] - The Episcopal Church Welcomes You
• [27:35] - From Open Doors to Intentional Welcome
• [28:07] - Saint Benedict and Holy Hospitality
• [29:16] - Welcoming Guests as Christ
• [29:44] - Whoever Welcomes You Welcomes Me
• [30:13] - Easter Joy in the Stranger’s Face
• [30:45] - The Stranger Is the One Unlike You
• [31:20] - A Deeper Welcome at Atonement
• [32:14] - The Stranger Three Rows Ahead
• [32:58] - The Risk and Reward of Welcome
• [33:59] - Seek Out One Stranger

1. In Matthew 10:40, what chain of welcome is described between the disciple, Christ, and the Father? [29:49]
2. What contrast is drawn between a passive welcome and an active, intentional welcome? [28:07]
3. In Benedict’s Easter story, what did he recognize in the face of the priest who came to visit him? [30:13]
4. What kinds of differences can make someone feel like a stranger, even within the same congregation? [32:14]

1. If welcoming another person is a way of welcoming Christ himself, how might that change the way a Christian sees ordinary conversations and invitations? [29:49]
2. Benedict’s joy at Easter came through seeing another person. What does that suggest about how the risen Christ may be encountered in human relationships, not only in private prayer? [30:28]
3. The stranger may be someone nearby whose politics, race, age, income, or theology feels distant. Why do those differences often keep people from real conversation, and what does Christian welcome ask us to do with that distance? [32:04]
4. Welcoming the stranger involves vulnerability and the possibility of rejection. Why might that risk be part of faithful Christian love rather than a sign that something has gone wrong? [32:58]

1. Who is one real person in this season of life who feels like a stranger because of some difference between you and them? What is that difference, and why has it made closeness difficult? [33:59]
2. Where is welcome mostly passive in your life right now—waiting for others to come to you, speak first, or make things easy? What might active, intentional welcome look like this week? [28:07]
3. Is there someone in church, at work, in the neighborhood, or in the family whom you have kept at a safe distance? What would a simple next step look like—coffee, dinner, a phone call, or a longer conversation? [32:23]
4. When meeting someone very different from you, what usually rises first: caution, annoyance, fear, curiosity, or love? How might seeing that person as bearing the image of God begin to reshape that reaction? [33:18]
5. Political, racial, generational, economic, and theological differences can quietly harden the heart. Which of those differences is hardest for you to cross with grace, and why? [31:20]
6. Welcoming another person can lead to awkwardness or rejection. What risk are you most tempted to avoid, and what would it look like to accept that risk for the sake of love? [33:05]
7. Christ is to be welcomed in the face of the other. Can you remember a time when joy, insight, or even the nearness of God came to you through a person you did not expect? How might that memory encourage one concrete act of welcome now? [34:06]