Lessons from the Redneck Riviera

Matthew 10:40-42

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

I grew up in Northwest Florida.  They called it the Redneck Riviera because that’s where all the redneck Alabama families would go to vacation.  You know, now that I think about it, Kelly’s from Alabama… and her family vacationed there.  Hold on!  Wait a minute!  Could my Kelly be from a Redneck Alabama family?  What?  

Anyway, that area of Florida has every species of poisonous snake that lives in the United States, all in one place.  I’m also Gen X which means I was often out in the woods for 10 to 12 hours every day in the summer completely unsupervised, mostly barefoot, and totally feral.  That combination developed in me a VERY fined-tuned sense of situational awareness.  I NOTICE what’s going on around me at all times!  I can FEEL if there is something or someone close to me.  Knowing every step you take can be potentially deadly turns out to be a very effective way to learn to notice what’s going on around you.

Moving North, I noticed people’s situational awareness was less developed.  In Maine, where there are no poisonous snakes at all, there seemed to be no situational awareness at all.  I know correlation does not mean causality, but when you push your cart up to someone blocking the whole aisle at the supermarket and they remained completely oblivious to your presence?  I mean, if I was a snake, I would have bit ‘em!  

Anyway, I tell you all that, because I think the very first step in Welcoming the “Little Ones” or anyone else, for that matter, is NOTICING THAT THEY ARE THERE!  WE NEED TO SEE THEM.  WE NEED TO SEE THE OTHER IN ORDER TO WELCOME THE OTHER.  

And we need to notice them.  We need to see them.  Not for what they can do for us.  Not as potential movers of the needle, drivers of efficiency, or optimizers of work flow.  NO!  We need to notice them as fellow human beings… in communion with us, in communion with creation, and in communion with the Divine.  We need to notice them for their ability to care, love, mess up, repent and tell the truth.  We need to notice them, not for what in them can be mined, manipulated, and monetized, but as beloved children of God.  We need to notice the other, as a living WONDER… A MIRACLE, made in, and reflecting nothing less than the image of the Divine.

In his recent encyclical, Pope Leo writes that the quality of a civilization is measured not by its power, but by the care it offers: reading stories to a child; keeping company with an elderly person; making a home welcoming.  

Philosopher Jim Stump reflecting on what the Pope wrote says “These are not inefficient tasks waiting to be automated. They are practices through which we become human.”  He says, “Maybe one day AI will read stories (to children) with flawless pacing and perfect voices.  Maybe it will keep an elderly person company with inexhaustible patience.  Maybe it will recommend the ideal arrangement of furniture, lighting, and music to make a home feel welcoming.  Fine.  But WE still need to read to children.  WE still need to sit with the elderly.  WE still need to make places hospitable for others with our own hands and attention.  If we outsource care itself, WE lose something — maybe not for the person on the receiving end (though I’m not convinced of this yet), but certainly for the person who would have given care.”

I think the "something" we loose, when we fail to NOTICE the other, is connection… not just with a fellow human being… but with the God… with the Holy… with the Divine.  I believe that developing, growing, nurturing, and practicing the skill of NOTICING… the skill of genuinely SEEING the other is honing the tools needed to welcome the prophet, welcome the righteous, welcome the little one, welcome Jesus, AND welcome the One who sent him.   

Now, if you wanted to practice NOTICING, you could move to North Florida and walk around barefoot all summer.  A less potentially deadly way to practice noticing would be to look directly into the eyes of the person you are talking to long enough to register their eye color.  Determining their eye color isn’t the point.  The point is that the 4 or 5 seconds it takes to register someone’s eye color turns out to be the same 4 or 5 seconds it takes for us to profoundly SEE the other and for the other to FEEL profoundly and deeply seen.

The world is super busy, always rushed and driven for what it calls efficiency.  Let’s slow it down.  Let’s take time to sit together with our shoes off, touch grass.  Let’s pause to consider what was just said rather than racing to respond.  Let’s sit and look into the eyes of the other, tell stories, laugh, be at ease with one another.  I believe that in doing that we will come to notice, sitting right there in front of us is a creation which contains and reflects the image of the Divine… THE IMAGE OF THE DIVINE… for crying out loud!  And once we see that... welcoming them, caring for them, giving them what they need to fully live… not just what they need to get by, but what they need to live abundantly… will become as simple as handing someone a cold cup of water.  Amen.