The Holy Greeting

One of those proud grandparents today, uh.

The uh and then the prayer that Abigail and I had written out, uh

We made a change to it in the back room and I left it on the table back there.

And so uh I don't know who was more nervous, she was or I was

Uh but it's fun to have my grandchildren here.

Abigail and Joshua and Michael, you might as well come up front.

You uh I know you helped take up the offering, but you might as well come up here and help a little bit.

Uh

Uh where did Sheriff Dan go?

I saw him there he is.

Uh he's uh been so e exciting all ye all week.

It's been fun to to have him as the the sheriff and he's

get o gets all of us uh involved and this morning when he saw the title to the sermon he says, Oh yeah, this is the one we've been waiting for.

Oh, that's not what you said.

I I keep putting words in your mouth, don't I?

Um

Yeah, the some of you have been asking about the the holy greeting.

You thought I was going to preach about it several weeks ago when I talked about uh a kiss that occurred in the foyer.

But I called Michael up here to show you what a

Mongolian greeting would look like.

If we were were greeting one another in the lobby in the country of Mongolia, it might look like something like this.

Now you'll have to notice here, because he is younger than me, his hands are underneath mine.

He is there as a young person supporting the older person.

This is why one of the first things that Asians will ask you is, what is your name?

It's because they have to know, I mean not what is your name, what is your age.

They have to know what your age is so that they know how to communicate with you

Because they have words for you for people that are older than them.

They have words for you for people that are younger than them.

They have words for you for people that are the same age.

And so don't think it's rude when they ask you, how old are you?

They need to know this information.

Because if you're the same age

One of you goes under on one side and the other goes under on the other side.

You see that with the hands there?

That's the same age.

Or that can also be for husband and wife

If they are similar in age.

Now, if one is significantly younger than the other, it still goes underneath.

But if they are similar in age, there goes one on top, one on bottom, and still it is the holy kiss of sniffing.

So you have to make sure that you have bathed.

You may go sit down now.

And there are some other greetings that take place in the culture of Mongolia.

If you are male, you step aside with a male, and they will s slide snuff bottles to each other.

in their hand.

And you have to say the appropriate words that go along with the exchange of snuff bottles.

Now people ask me, well Pastor, what did you do with snuff bottles?

I skipped that part.

I kind of stepped back, and some of them were a little offended by it until I began to explain to them why I withheld from that part of the greeting

When it comes to to greeting one another, when we read these Bible words, I mean when I read these words in Scripture when I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

I was asking the question, why don't we greet people like this?

I thought it would be fun to greet people with a holy kiss.

In early teen class.

You guys are thinking of some of the other greetings.

The greetings of Alaskans to

Rubbed noses together?

The reading greetings in Hawaii of giving the lay to individuals.

My clicker disappeared.

Uh there's no clicker up piano, that's what I hear.

Sorry about that.

You think of greetings when you uh go to the the Middle East and how they greet one another?

You think of of uh greetings when uh

individuals from government go to other individuals of government and the we normally call it

Protocol.

And when you are get into those offices and you are taught how to greet individuals from other countries.

other cultures so that you have the right protocol.

Do you know where protocol comes from?

Traditions the way things used to be, the things that the we we we grew up with

Those things became rule.

Those things became law.

Part of the problem we have in the United States is we don't have any protocol.

How old are we?

Yeah, two hundred and fifty years old, and what protocol do we use?

We think we use a biblical protocol.

We like to think we have a biblical protocol.

The biblical protocol, 1 Peter 5.

14, our scripture reading, says, greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

I'll ask you, did you follow that protocol, biblical protocol this morning?

Now, lest you think I'm I'm I'm I'm just taking something out of out of context here, it doesn't just say it once and I'm preaching on it.

Because it says it in one text, but we have this five times.

All the brethren greet you, greet one another with a holy kiss.

First Corinthians 16, 20.

2 Corinthians 13 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss Yeah you're starting to get worried now aren't you

Where is he going with this?

Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

First Thessalonians 5 26

Romans sixteen sixteen, greet one another with a holy kiss.

The churches of Christ

Greet you.

That one in in in Romans 16.

That's an interesting because of the context where it is.

You you realize that that Romans is a

Oh, do you know where we would be as Christians without the book of Romans?

I mean, we would be hard-pressed as Christians without the Book of Romans.

The book of Romans.

Explain so many things to us.

The crux of the matter of Romans chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Without those, that that explanation there

Of Romans 6, 7, and 8, we would be powerless over sin.

We would not understand how to overcome sin.

We would not understand the victory that we can have.

In Jesus Christ.

Romans six, seven, and eight is is is so powerful.

So in in in that the the book of Romans is is crucial to us as Christians.

And then he gets down to the end of it there in Romans sixteen.

And he says there in verse 16, he says, Greet one another with a holy kiss.

In fact, at the end of the book of Romans, chapter 16, he he he

Romans 16 · chapter mention

He just spends a lot of time.

Wasted time.

Wasted writing, you and I might say

It says virtually nothing to improve the theology that we have today.

It is as if Paul forgot what his duty was.

He spends his time there in Romans sixteen, and he says, I commend to you Phoebe, the sister and servant, I ask that you treat her well.

And then he says, Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their lives.

Greets and the my beloved Epaphria.

He goes through twenty-six names there in Romans 16.

26 names.

He spends time and he tells the people of the church at Rome, he says, greet these individuals.

Now remember, Paul had not yet been to Rome.

He had not yet met the people in Rome.

But he had met some people that were had migrated to Rome.

And so he was telling the church there to greet those individuals that he knew from other places.

He says, greet those individuals.

And then he adds some people, like in verse 5, he says, likewise, greet the church that is in their house.

So not just those the the the individuals there, Priscilla and Aquila, but he says, greet the church that's meeting in their house.

So 26 specific individuals by name, but some individuals that are not named, but referred to, referenced

He says to greet them.

You and I read these, not one, not two, not three, not four, but five.

Instances in the New Testament where we are told to greet one another.

What's the word you like with the holy kiss?

with a kiss of love.

And some of you are thinking, what does that mean?

What does that look like?

I've tried to show you what it looks like in Mongolia.

And you're thinking, what should we do here?

Well, what is our culture?

How would you define our culture?

Because I think that there are some things in the Bible, there's a specific structure that is here, but some of it I think is also cultural.

Some of the scripture we have to look at and say, what does the culture mean?

Because even in that culture, everyone did not kiss everyone.

So how do we we we take what is what is written here?

How do we, if I ask you, how do we greet today?

Some of you say, well, we we fist bump.

Do any of you do that?

Yeah, a few of you.

Why do you do it?

I know why some of you older do it because you want to look cool like the young people.

I know why many of us do it be after COVID because we don't want germs anymore, so we just fist bump.

Some of us uh uh shake hands in greeting, some of us fist bump because we don't want to shake hands, because we know that if we we shake hands, our hand will hurt afterwards

And so we go back to the the fist bump.

And I asked the question, then why don't we move the other direction to the hug?

You know why we don't move the other direction to the hug, right?

Because we are scared of hugging one another.

We've gotten to the place where where hugs are are we're not sure about hugging each other.

Do we hug or do we not hug?

I mean last week uh we were at someone's home and I noticed that when we were saying goodbye, that the lady got up and uh she gave Cheryl a big hug

And then she came to me and we didn't know what to do.

And so finally the the you know, didn't know what to do.

I say, you know, there's about the uh two minutes of awkward looking at each other, what do we do now?

and uh all of a sudden I stuck my hand out.

And she stuck her hand out.

We we weren't sure how the relationship, where we are in that relationship, whether hugging was

appropriate for us.

And so we we are not sure what to do with well males and males or females and females for sure can hug.

Males and males if you're if you're manly enough you can get away with it

Or maybe if you're manly enough you don't get away.

I don't know how to say that.

Get myself in trouble here, don't I?

But if it's male and female, we're really not sure how to do it.

Because it's it it provides an an awkward situation there.

So what do we do?

Well, for those of you that are huggers, I'm going to give you some information here that you may like.

Scientific research says that you need four hugs a day just to survive

Are you hearing me?

Those of you that are a little bit older, those of you that know people that are in a home health care facility, those of you that know people that are living alone,

They are not getting their four hugs a day.

You know what that means?

They need somebody to hug them.

I I like what I mean Deputy Dan uh I mean Sheriff Dan over here, he had a coin in his pocket that he carries from his wife, and on the back of it it says

This is a pocket hug.

And so he carries a hug with him.

Sometimes you think that hug has to be actually physical arms, but sometimes just sending someone a card.

Giving them a phone call.

That's that's almost as good as a hug.

But notice the second one there says eight hugs for what?

Eight hugs a day.

Are you getting eight hugs eight hugs a day?

But then it says 12 hugs a day if a person is going to what?

Grow.

It went on to say that the person is to thrive, to to have a deeper emotional connection.

Twelve hugs a day are recommended.

This level of interaction can enhance feelings of love and support, contributing to overall happiness and mental health.

Last week I talked a little bit about hospitality.

This one kind of piggybacks on that one.

And I was reminded this week that that I should have taken the opportunity last week.

that hospitality is very close to hospital.

By having acts of hospitality, we act as a hospital

I like that analogy for a church.

The church is a hospital, not just a museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners that are all sick.

How many are sick?

All.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

How many of us need healing?

All of us need healing.

That act of hospitality heals not only the person you are being hospitable to, but is an act of healing on yourself as well.

So, as a hospital, we need to be more hospitable to one another

Greet one another.

I'm not going to focus so much on the holy kiss part as I am on the greeting part

Greeting each other is important.

There is something that happens inside of us when we are greeted by other individuals.

I mean sometimes somebody just just comes in the door and I'm back here in my office.

I may be

The my office door is usually open, but somebody comes in and but they don't stick their head in the door, they don't do anything, but they just holler in, Good morning, Pastor Dale!

You know what that does when they say that?

Somebody knows I'm here.

Somebody knows I exist.

Somebody has has recognized me.

And if they know that my door is open and that I'm in there, if they have called out that way, I probably know them by their voice.

And I usually respond.

Not necessarily, but usually.

I want you to think about something for just a moment.

This week you get a telephone call.

And the telephone call is from one of your relatives or one of your friends

The friend that you have been praying for, the friend that you have been in agony for, the friend that you know does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And you have been praying that they would that that they would find Jesus.

That the shepherd of the sheep would would find them and and and pull them out of the thicket that they're stuck in.

They call you Thursday.

You have someone in mind right now.

It can be a son or daughter, grandchild, aunt, uncle, parents.

friend that you went to school with, you have someone in your mind.

They call you Thursday and they share with you the good news.

I'm going to church this Sabbath.

I heard your amen.

And you are excited about the fact that they are going to church this Sabbath.

But I'm going to ask the question: what would you pray for now?

I want you to think about it for just a second because my guess is, my guess is

You would pray that the place where they live, the the small area where they live, and they have a small church, my guess is you would be praying that that church has had a a church redecorating.

Process and they have redone the lobby, and everything is going to be beautiful when your friend comes into the church.

Is that what you're praying for?

My guess, my second guess is, is that you are praying that when they stand up to sing, that the praise leaders that are up front singing, that they will all hit the right notes at the right time.

And that they would have music that was appropriate for the person that was coming in.

Is that what you would be praying for?

Okay, I got a third one.

You would begin praying that the pastor would not preach on the topic of the mark of the beast.

Or not preach on the topic of stewardship.

Is that what you would be praying for?

Okay, that was three guesses.

So guess number four.

My guess is that you would be praying that somebody

Would talk to them when they come in the church.

That's what you would pray for

You know, that seems to be the burden of people's hearts.

When they come to church, they pray that somebody would just

Greet them kindly, would would would respond to them with hope, with encouragement, with with words of kindness and and and respect, would give them

What's that that text there say?

Give them would greet them with a holy kiss

So that they would feel like they are in a place where they belong.

What would happen if they felt like they were in a place where they would belong?

The question is, whose responsibility is that?

If that is what we're praying for when when

Our relatives, our friends, our acquaintances, the people that we know and love.

If that's what we're praying for when those people visit that church, what are they praying for when those people visit this church?

You know what happens every week, right?

It seems like every week we have guests walk through that back door

Yeah, that is an amen.

God is working on people's hearts.

God is working on people's lives.

God is bringing people into this church.

Do you know why?

Because the church is where God saves people.

I mean, God talked to Paul on the road to Damascus

He revealed himself there to Saul or to Paul or whatever you want to call him as he was going to Damascus.

But when Paul got to Damascus, he sent someone from the church

Because God saves people.

Do we want to say it this way?

God saves people through the church.

The purpose for the church is they are the saving agency of Jesus Christ.

They are the bride of Christ.

They are the ones that introduce and disciple people to grow up into the relationship of Jesus Christ.

Boy, I sure I'm glad we got greeters at the back of the church, aren't you?

Somebody's responsible

Now I'm not picking on our greeters, but I do want to talk about greeters for just a moment

But not our greeters in general.

I want to talk about all greeters in all churches.

We have this idea that greeters, it's their responsibility.

to greet.

And I'm not uh arguing or fighting for a terminology difference, a change in terminology.

I'm not I'm not going down that road either

But I want you to think about what is the purpose for the greeters.

Now, in your mind, the purpose for the greeters is to smile

And welcome someone to church.

And thirdly, to give them a bulletin

That's what their job description is, correct?

I mean that's what you see them doing

Now, you think about a person that greets someone.

Someone comes to your house.

They knock at your door.

You go and you you open the door and there stands two young ladies dressed in a in a uniform, and as the moment you see them, you think, I know what they're doing.

They're selling Girl Scout cookies.

You listen to their speech.

You have a tender heart

You say, just a minute, I'll take a box of thin mints.

You go and get your money.

You bring the money back.

You you give the money to them.

And then they are gone.

And if people watched your interaction with those young ladies, they would think that you were a good greeter.

Because you interacted with them with a smile, you heard what they had to share.

You participated with them in their activity.

But if someone was grading you on your ability of being a host

Your grade might not go so well.

While you greet it appropriately, what does a host look like?

If you were a host, or I can even use the terminology, if you were a greeter with a host mentality

If you were a greeter with a host mentality, what would it look like?

The knock it comes at your door?

And you are prepared for it because you know someone is coming, because you have invited them to be there.

And so you come and you open the door and you invite them to come in because you are prepared for them to be there.

As they enter the room, there are certain sounds that you have made evident because you wanted to set the mood a little bit

There are certain smells that are there.

Maybe you have a a candle that is burning.

Maybe you have just baked bread and you like that smell.

You invite them to come in.

There are certain smells that are there in your house.

You invite them to come in and you introduce them to the other individuals that are already present.

To make sure that they know who people are.

You explain to them if they need to wash their hands or use the restroom where that facility is.

You go through the process of a host, letting people to be informed so that they are comfortable and have the right feeling to be in your space.

You offer them a place to sit at the appropriate time.

You bring them to the table.

You bring everyone there to the table.

And you set them at the table and you tell them where to sit at the table.

It's a completely different mindset, this mindset of being a greeter host than simply being a greeter.

As a greeter, we smile, we say, what are the words, happy Sabbath.

Welcome.

We hand the bulletin.

They may or may not know where the bathroom is.

They may or may not know where the Sabbath school classes are.

They may or may not know where the children's departments are.

They may or may not know.

You get the idea?

Now, I've already let you know.

We as a church already know that guests come through that door how often?

How often?

Every week.

We didn't advertise for that, did we?

Are we paying advertising for guests to come every week?

What brings them to the door?

God does.

Sometimes we advertise through you.

You and br you bring a friend.

You bring a guest.

Guests come through that door every week, and we should be saying hallelujah every time a guest comes through the door.

But are we always prepared?

Sometimes we're we' we're we're seems like we're caught off guard by it.

I didn't know we'd have any guests today

I I I don't have my my my welcome packet planned.

Uh where's where's where's where's

Why are we caught off guard?

I'm asking the question as whose responsibility is this?

Who's responsible to utilize the plan?

To let people know where the restrooms are?

Who's responsible?

I mean, wouldn't it be nice if the greeters, if there were enough greeters?

I mean sometimes there's not enough.

But if there were enough greeters that when somebody came in, they were able to take them and to show them where the children's Sabbath school classes were, to introduce the children to the teacher.

If they could come down to the adult classes or even explain where the adult classes are and tell them this one has a really lively discussion, this one well they're kinda

Uh it's uh the pastor's teaching, so you may not want to hear two sermons, uh so skip that one today.

Uh it helps if you visited the Sabbath school classes, so you kinda know what's going on in Sabbath school classes.

So you can tell people where to go or or what to do.

You you can advise them or what they might like.

And they still might like to sit in the sanctuary class because the pastor's preaching, just because it's a large open space and they won't feel

Confined in any way.

You see, you can you give people the options and tell them what's going on.

What is that?

If we introduce people

Bring them to the Sabbath school class, introduce them to someone.

Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the person they introduce them to

kind of connected with them and when they came into church, kind of shadowed them and sat either right behind them or right in front of them during church time.

And then during the meet and greet time, well don't you love meet and greet time?

I know some of you are saying, no, I don't like meet and greet time.

Some of you are saying, yes, we need more meet and greet time.

It's okay, difference of personality.

But during the meet and greet time, if you had already been introduced to somebody, if you welcomed them again and then introduced them to somebody else.

You know, I one of my big fears is that somebody sneaks in the church and nobody greets them.

Now, people that come to church, not everybody that comes to church is like me.

People always complain to me and say, I've been to church and nobody talked to me.

I have a confession to make.

I've been to lots of churches, and in every church somebody has talked to me.

Now, it may be not at their initiative

Sometimes I have to initiate it when I'm the guest.

I'm going to tell you there are some guests that are not like me.

There are some that just like to sneak in and sneak out.

One of my previous churches is I hated it.

They would come into church after we had taken up the offering

Well, we take up the offerings so early here.

You know, we miss a few people.

People are always coming in.

It's a good thing we have those boxes back there now.

They

can just put their offering back there.

Maybe we need a sign on those offering boxes because people don't know what those boxes are.

I'm just looking at that now, just thinking about that.

That's that would be a good idea.

Some people don't know they can put their offering unless they're Oh man, I just forgot something that I thought of earlier today.

Did you guys see that part of the decorations in the sanctuary is missing?

I know at least one person noticed today.

Did any of the rest of you notice that some of the decorations in the church are missing?

Didn't notice.

You were involved with the Wild West, huh?

The scissor lift is gone.

Go ahead, turn around and look.

The scissor lift is gone.

The owner of the scissor lift came and took it this last week.

Did any of you miss that today?

No, it had been decoration in our church for three months now, four months.

It was out.

That's where it belonged now.

Just barely missed it.

Sometimes in in church we get used to things being the way they are and we for forget about what what what our purpose is.

Why why we're here.

And I that threw me off.

I don't even know where I am anymore

People coming in late.

People would come in after the offering, and then they would sneak out as soon as I quit preaching.

You know what that did to me as the pastor?

Oh something in my side of me just said

I didn't like it.

Somebody sneaking in after.

You know, usually they'd come in just during the special music and go out just as I finished preaching.

I told the elder of the day.

I said, look, elders, I want whoever the elder of the day is, I want them in the lobby before I finish preaching.

I don't want anybody to be able to sneak out.

I want you to camp out there.

I want you to listen to the sermon while you're out there, but I want you to greet people on their way out.

And if possible, get their name.

Find out something about them.

Introduce yourself to them

Why did I do that?

We don't have a lot of opportunities to meet people.

I mean we took and we I say we that's an awfully big word, isn't it?

I I don't see him here today

Two weeks ago we had uh some flyers for our vacation Bible school and our ice cream social.

We took 200 flyers to the communities around us.

We did that.

And by we I mean Dan Watson.

Okay, it was nice of him to take those flyers and to and to go around there.

It didn't cost us a whole lot, just a little bit on printing and whatever the paper was and things.

But uh

We didn't got a lot of we didn't get a lot of people to come and eat ice cream.

Does that surprise you

Not enough notice, not enough advertisement, you know, not various places, usually advertisement.

It's not just one place.

It has to be five or six or places.

How do we get people to come in?

When people come here, when God sends them here, we need to be taking advantage of it.

Who's responsible for that?

I know what you're thinking.

The greeters, the deacons, the elders

The pastor's wife.

You wouldn't say that, would you?

No, we shouldn't say that

I said that because she's the one that remembers people's names when introduced to them.

But sometimes we think somebody else is supposed to do it

They tell us that when people come into a church or come to a new place to visit, that in the first two minutes, the first two minutes, they make the decision whether or not they're going to return.

They do it based upon how welcoming the lobby is, how welcoming the greeters are.

Two minutes

That's not very long, is it?

The research tells tells us

But in church, it doesn't matter what kind of music you have.

You can have contemporary music, you can have southern gospel music, you can have gospel music, you can sing hymns, you can sing psalms, you can sing any kind of music.

The music is not going to make much difference unless there's a lot of different churches around that they can shop at

How beautiful the lobby is.

It's not going to make a lot difference.

Now it makes a little bit.

They said, even if the pastor preaches fantastic biblical sermons.

It's not gonna raise the bar much at all.

Do you know what raises the bar?

Somebody talks with them.

Somebody befriends them.

They have that place of belonging

So what do you do when somebody gets past the greeters?

What do you do when the greeters have to to escape and and are taking people down and introducing them to other places?

We we need reinforcements to make sure the greeters are are are well stocked, to make sure we don't have the the the greeters going places.

We have additional greeters to to take people to the Sabbath school classes.

What do we do when somebody gets in at special music time?

Because you know we have some that came in after the offering.

We have one last chance.

Yeah, I said I passed that up, didn't I?

Gospel Workers, that book, Gospel Workers, it says Jesus left heaven and came to our world to save souls.

You must come close to those for whom we labor, that they may not only hear your voice, but shake your hand.

Learn your principles and feel your sympathy.

There you go.

You can

They greet one another with a holy handshake.

You have one last chance to make a last impression

I'll share with you I have a little dream.

It would be wonderful in my mind's eye if at the end of the benediction, every week, if we would stand

I mean, I know we're standing at that benediction, but if we would stand and shake hands to the three families that are closest to us, that may be f you know

Alan, I'm gonna pick on you here.

It looks like you're there by yourself.

You've scared everybody away, so you're gonna have to go to three families far away from you.

But uh find three people that are are around you and greet them.

And it's okay if it's people that you know.

It's okay if it's it's people that you have worshipped with that you don't know their names.

But friends, if it's somebody that you don't know their names, get their names

Because there may be others in the church that don't know their names.

Pull that card out of the pew there and say, can I write this down?

Introduce yourself and make sure that they we don't want people to leave the Mesa Palms Church without receiving a holy greeting

We want them to know that they are welcome in this place.

We have one last opportunity to make a first.

I don't want to say a first impression.

We have one last opportunity to make a last impression.

Let's make sure that last impression is to know that even though the sermon was so-so, even though Sabbath school class was good,

This is a place where we greet one another with a holy greeting.

It's not just hospitality, but it is greeting one another, as Scripture tells us to greet

After the benediction today, I encourage you to try it.

Turn to two or three people around you, two or three families around you, and greet each other and say happy.

Happy Sabbath and get to know each other by name if possible.

By name if possible

Our closing hymn today is Wonderful Peace.

We invite you to stand as we sing together.