05-10-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 10, 2025
Anne Lamott’s book, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, is one of those books that can be read quickly and thoroughly enjoyed, or it can be read slowly and deliberately as if one is walking across holy ground. Early in the book, Lamott wrote, “It turns out that welcome is solidarity.” I often brag on Cypress Creek Christian Church’s hospitality and openness to the community. It’s sad to say, but it is rather unique among churches in our area. Too many of them have an overly protective attitude, closing themselves off from the community by arguing that the church people must safeguard the beauty of their buildings. Or they have chosen to allow so-called religious rules to safeguard some perceived mystical sense of purity. In the process, so many are left on the outside looking in. But even at Cypress Creek, I wonder if our hospitality needs to take another step—more like the welcome defined by Anne Lamott. We do a really good job of making space for our neighbors, and Ginni Whitten, the Executive Director of our Community Center, is doing a brilliant job of welcoming in more and more groups. We also have a vision and mission that speaks of God’s unconditional and limitless love in wonderful and welcoming ways, and I see many of you embodying those words every week. Yet there are others who need more than space and more than some welcoming words. They desperately need an advocate, a faithful voice to give strength to their voices, especially when it feels as if no one is listening. What would hospitality as solidarity look like at Cypress Creek Christian Church in this moment of time? Ponder that question…. 

You have shown humanity great hospitality, O God of the Love First Life. You also sent us an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to stand with us in all of life’s troubles. Open the eyes of our spirits so that we are aware of others, hear their stories, and can stand with them when they are feeling as if they have no one. Amen.