Skip to main content

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Fremde, etranger, stranger.
Gluklich zu sehen, je suis enchante,
Happy to see you, bleibe, reste, stay.
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome
Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret
Meine Damen und Herren,
Mesdames et Messieurs,
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Guden Abend, bon soir,
We geht's? Comment ca va?
Do you feel good? I bet you do!
Ich bin euer Confrecier; je suis votre compere...
I am your host!
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome
Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret

Leave your troubles outside!
So - life is disappointing? Forget it!
We have no troubles here!
Here life is beautiful...
The girls are beautiful...
Even the orchestra is beautiful!

With those words the Emcee famously invites the audience into the moral twilight world of Cabaret, where the people of 1930's Berlin could escape the horrors of the rising tide of Nazism.
I have been blogging about welcome this week in the light of the warm welcome that I and my family have received here at Faith United Methodist Church, Grand Rapids, MI (it is not every church you drive past on the evening of your arrival and find your name in lights outside), and in the wake of my sermon last Sunday on the subject of "Welcome.!" However, the welcome that we offer to people, or rather that Jesus offers through us, should not be on the same basis as that offered by the Emcee. We are not inviting people into a problem free environment (who was it who first offered the advice that if you ever find a perfect church, don't join it because you'd only spoil it!?); nor should we be suggesting that they leave their troubles outside.

Far from it... Jesus actually says
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28 (ANIV)

We are invited to bring our burdens to Jesus and we should be encouraging others to do so too, messy though that may be. At the gym I go to the restaurant area has a set of specially constructed shelves so that people won't bring their smelly, obstructive sportsbags into the restaurant. And often we do not respond well when people bring their bag of troubles into church. And people quickly pick up on that, and go where they feel more welcome.
The word welcome comes actually comes from the idea that someone's coming is in accordance with your will… And it is God's will in Christ that all should come to him through us… In Isaiah he says:
"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost."
Isaiah 55:1 (ANIV)

Places like the KitKat Club of Cabaret, and the clubs and bars of the world, like the legendary “Cheers” “Where they always know your name, and they’re always glad you came…” are often much better than the church at welcoming the broken and hurting and the confused of this world… They don’t offer any answers, but they create an environment were people feel welcome… For a price… But as God makes clear in Isaiah, what God offers through us is free…
So why can't we put the KitKat Club out of business? Offering not an escape from our troubles, but a way to really deal with them...
The question is whether the girls are as beautiful, never mind the orchestra!?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more