March 17 "Welcome the Stranger"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

CONSIDER. . . “I was a stranger and you welcomed me." (Matthew 25:35)  "Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40 The Message) 

SO WHAT. . . Jesus calls us to do good to those who are different from you and to welcome and love the stranger. Easy to say, harder to do. How we react to the stranger--someone alien to us--fundamentally tests our humanity. It's natural for the stranger and strange customs and ideas to evoke suspicion in us. Because the unknown may contain hidden danger.  We rightly tell our children not to go off with strangers. But, fear of the unknown may intensify beyond reason into blind revulsion and out and out rejection. 

Feared strangers easily become, in our thinking, less human than we are.  The stranger remains the same, less intelligent but more devious, morally inferior, more impulsive and less attractive. Jesus calls us to a different standard, to see everyone as fellow citizens  of the planet, children of God to be treated with inquiring respect and the love of Christ. 

• Have you ever experienced being the "stranger" in a situation? How were your treated? 
• Were you treated the way you would like to be treated?
•  Did that experience change the way you interact with strangers?  
• Who are the "strangers" in your daily life?
•  In what way can we "welcome the stranger" be specific.

PRAYER. . . Dear God, help me to greet the stranger as a child of God. Help me to not be suspicious or to be constantly looking for a reason to reject them.  Guide me to see everyone the way you see them and to treat them with respect and to share the love of God with all. Show me how to treat everyone as if it is you. Amen.