Proper 8, Yr A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 8, Yr A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Matthew 10:40-42 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
Practice
pure
presence.
Practice pure presence.
Stephanie Spellers, in her book, Radical Welcome,
quotes Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary’s-West Harlem as saying,
“the secret to lasting transformation is pure presence.”
(from Stephanie Spellers, Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, p. 143)
The secret to lasting transformation…
is pure presence.
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.”
In just three verses, the Gospel mentions the word “welcome” six times!
Jesus speaks of a welcoming -
ultimately of God -
as we welcome one another.
But truly welcoming another involves an absolute trust in God’s promises;
it is by no means an easy undertaking.
So, I wonder:
What is involved in truly welcoming another?
Have you ever experienced being with someone
with whom you felt you had their undivided attention?
They gave you no sense that they needed to be anywhere else.
They were listening to every word you said…
they were paying attention to every movement you made.
When you paused in silence,
they did not fill the void
but stood with you there in that quiet place.
I have been with such a person,
and it is a gift.
I felt no judgment…
no need to get somewhere…
just pure presence.
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me.”
It seems that to welcome someone we must create space within ourselves:
we are called to be open
and to live with a generosity of heart…
being fully present to the person in front of us.
Henri Nouwen speaks of welcome as hospitality….
“Hospitality,” he says,
“means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter
and become a friend instead of an enemy.
“Hospitality is not to change people,
but to offer them space where change can take place.”
(Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life)
And I’d suggest that change might take place in either person in the encounter.
We must be willing to be changed as we welcome another!
To welcome someone then means that we must cast off preconceived notions,
resentment, bitterness, judgment,
hardness of heart, fear, anger, jealousy…
any those things that might close us off.
In casting off those things that bind us,
we then are able to practice pure presence.
As we practice pure presence,
we trust that God will provide.
God will provide the courage to be honest,
God will provide the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental resources needed…
God will guide where the conversation needs to go and when.
In welcoming another,
we offer whatever we have to give at the moment
and are receptive to what the other has to offer to us.
What an amazing
and courageous
and vulnerable moment.
Easier said than done.
Self-protection of all forms so often takes over…
sometimes that is necessary,
but perhaps self-protection is better off the exception rather than the norm.
In today’s climate of fear and hatred and violence,
self-protection seems more the norm than the exception.
Jesus says that if we are able to welcome another,
then we welcome Jesus himself.
And if we welcome Jesus,
then we welcome God.
I wonder what would happen if,
each time we encountered someone else,
we expected to see God?
What if, each time we encountered someone else,
we knew we were welcoming God into our midst?
I believe our encounters are a “both/and” opportunity.
As we open ourselves to the other, we open ourselves to God…
and as we open ourselves to God, we open ourselves to the other.
Barbara Brown Taylor speaks of the intimacy of relationship…
not only between people
but in terms of the interconnectedness of the whole of the universe in God:
She says, “In Sunday school, I learned to think of God as a very old white-bearded man on a throne, who stood above creation and occasionally stirred it with a stick.
“When I am dreaming quantum dreams,
what I see is an infinite web of relationship,
flung across the vastness of space like a luminous net.
“It is made of energy,
not thread.
“As I look, I can see light moving through it as a pulse moves through veins.
“What I see ‘out there’ is no different from what I feel inside.
“There is a living hum that might be coming from my neurons
but might just as well be coming from the furnace of the stars.
“When I look up at them,
there is a small commotion in my bones,
as the ashes of dead stars that house my marrow
rise up like metal filings toward the magnet of their living kin.
“Where am I in this picture?
“I am all over the place.
“I am up there,
down here,
inside my skin and out.
“I am large compared to a virus
and small compared to the sun,
with a life that is permeable to them both.
“Am I alone?
“How could I ever be alone?
“I am part of a web that is pure relationship,
with energy available to me that has been around since the universe was born.”
[Barbara Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion (Cowley Publications: 2000), 73–74.]
Practice pure presence…
pure presence with God,
pure presence with the whole created universe,
pure presence with ourselves,
pure presence with one other.
Pure presence requires silence,
stillness,
listening,
openness,
courage,
vulnerability.
Brené Brown says: “Vulnerability sounds like truth
and feels like courage.
“Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable,
but they’re never weakness.”
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me….
and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…
none of these will lose their reward.”
Even a cup of water…
something seemingly insignificant…
but even to offer a cup of water means that we have to set aside our agenda enough
to recognize that the person in front of us is thirsty!
And then we have to make the effort to fetch that cup of water.
Chapter 10 in Matthew’s gospel is about discipleship.
A cup of water, Jesus says, is all that’s needed sometimes.
The difficult part is in the welcome…
The welcome means being quiet enough to see the person in front of us
and what it is that they need.
Perhaps they need someone to stand with them to protest injustice,
perhaps they need a ride to a doctor’s office or a meal delivered to them,
perhaps they need help with rent
or someone to sit with them while they mourn loss in their life.
Perhaps it’s just a cup of water.
To someone who is thirsty,
that cup of water is a big deal!
This season after Pentecost is what is sometimes referred to as “ordinary time.”
How do we live during this season of ordinary time
(even if it seems to be extraordinary time)?
How do we practice welcome as pure presence…
being present to God,
to ourselves,
and to one another?
This week I invite you to practice pure presence,
wherever you find yourselves.
Be present to the moment,
to the presence of God,
to the presence of creation,
to the presence of others you meet or live with,
to the life blood coursing through your veins and humming in your ears.
And then offer yourself fully to the moment.
There you will find yourself in the presence of the Holy.
Amen.
