My family joined millions of Americans out for Halloween in their neighborhoods last night. As we strolled on the warmest Halloween I can recall since moving to Northfield, I enjoyed watching the encounters at each door. The knock, the waiting, the door opens, and the smiles. The kids are out for the candy, but more profound encounter is happening. The loving gaze between strangers.
Strangers are not people we think of very often. We engage strangers all the time, but unlike Halloween, we tend not to prepare for these chance encounters. We treat them as happenstance, unimportant, and sometimes even as a nuisance.
Jesus seemed to be perpetually ready to relate with strangers. It is profound how many gospel stories are strangers interrupting our Lord and his life changing response to them. Strangers found communion with Jesus.
This is a core teaching for the spiritual life. His example shows that spiritual “magic” happens when we are willing to be open and present to others no matter what ‘kind’ of person they are. As our spiritual teacher Jesus recommends, we ought not just happen upon strangers but actually seek communion with strangers.
It takes courage to open the door to a new encounter. It takes planning and preparation to create the doorway. And it takes spiritual preparation of our minds and hearts. And yet, we are called to be just this “kind” of person in the world. To reach out lovingly before we even know the other trusting God is in the midst of us.
What new door is God inviting you knock upon? Who is knocking on your door looking for a smile?
This Friday I will be attending a Shabbat service at B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim Congregation in Deerfield. My friend The Rev. Anne Jolly of St Gregory’s in Deerfield, has been asked to preach. She will be standing up as a spiritual teacher among this large congregation after the funerals of those shot at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg. I will attend to support her and more important to support Jewish people. The people of that congregation are strangers to me and I to them. And I am planning to be a doorway that offers a smile and is open to more.
Like all of our Sunday services, Shabbat is open to anyone to come. I would love for you to join me.
And more important, to join me in a corporate way as a parish that welcomes strangers with a smile. May we be God's "kind" of people who recognize strangers as family members in the human race we simply do not yet know.
With You on the Journey,
