CHAPLAIN
WELCOME AND EMBRACE
CENTRING A COMMUNITY OF WELCOME AND EMBRACE ON JESUS CHRIST AND THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL
REV DOUG CAMPBELL SCHOOL CHAPLAIN
Moving from the glare of the midday sun , the sudden darkness and smokiness of the rondavel made me squint . My genial host smilingly invited me to sit on the solitary wooden bench as she returned to the kettle bubbling on the paraffin stove that sat on the smooth dung floor .
Relaxing , we passed through the expected questions about health and life . I had soon learned that this process of the conversation was never to be rushed . While in Scotland ‘ I ’ m fine , thanks ’ ended the discussion , in South Africa the exact same opening phrase was always immediately followed by a list of the responder ’ s aches , pains and ailments . ‘ I ’ m well , except …’. Over time , my Xhosa vocabulary had grown extensively with all kinds of medical terms and diagnoses .
The conversation moved on to my host ’ s family and all the tragedies she was enduring . She had already buried her two sons , and now her only daughter was about to return from Johannesburg with her tiny baby daughter and live in the neighbouring small roundhouse . As she handed me the chipped , enamel mug of black tea , she caught my eye . No need for words . She desperately feared that her daughter was coming home with HIV to die , and that she and her husband would raise her only grandchild .
Biscuits suddenly arrived from the neighbouring homestead brought by a small boy glad to have the opportunity to escape his chores with the sheep and help out a neighbour in need . Moreover , he could meet the white Reverend who played for the village rugby club and might share one of the precious biscuits . Laughter , praise and prayer reverberated around the room before I was hugged and waved off along the dusty dirt tracks of the Eastern Cape .
I returned home having been embraced and welcomed . I had been received with deep love and true acceptance . The time had been precious and good ; I had been blessed by the Lord through his people .
I was reminded of this encounter as I mulled over the theme of ‘ Welcome ’. So often our sense of welcome is perfunctory and formal like the meeting of the captains with the referee before the big match . The welcome is something that needs to be done , but is undertaken with no sense of joy and pleasure . The box has been ticked and the opportunity to go further and engage more deeply and meaningfully with others has been squandered . On occasions , the welcome is a
saccharine sentimentality and false bonhomie . Once again , the welcome is neither genuine nor lasting .
We live in an increasingly divided world where people dismiss and cancel each other based on political , theological , ideological and cultural differences . We face a growing challenge in learning how to deal more positively and constructively with those different from ourselves .
Mirolslav Volf , a Christian theologian who teaches at Yale , grew up as a Pentecostal religious minority among an ethnic Croat minority set alongside other groups ( Serb and Bosnian ) of differing values and beliefs ( Orthodox , Roman Catholic and Muslim ). He reflected on his own experience of isolation and difference and sought to go deeper and address the issues of true welcome and engagement .
In his book ( Exclusion and Embrace : A Theological Exploration of Identity , Otherness , and Reconciliation , 1996 ) he directly engages the ongoing dramas inherent in our individual human lives and in civilisation , those of identity , recognition and otherness . He urges that we must engage the ‘ other ’ from the position of the crucified Christ , that self-giving love is our way into the divide that will bring hope . Volf encourages us to maintain a posture of generosity with those who have wronged us . To move from exclusion to embrace , requires us to forgive and welcome .
In Jesus ’ parable of the Prodigal Son , the Father scans the horizon longing for the son who publicly shamed him and demanded his share of the estate . One day the Prodigal Son returned . ‘ But while he was still a long way off , his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him ; he ran to his son , threw his arms around him and kissed him ’ ( Luke 15:20 NIV ). In this story , Jesus reveals the heart of God , Father Son and Holy Spirit . Here is real embrace and lasting welcome .
In a world of increasing polarity , cancellation and exclusion , our desire at Scotch is to create a community of welcome and embrace that is centred on Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel . Having experienced that forgiveness and embrace , we want our boys to develop a confident and strong sense of openness that warmly welcomes the stranger , the sceptical and the excluded to gladly sit down together and to get to truly know one another . Perhaps when we leave from our meeting places , we might also reflect , ‘ This time has been precious and good , I have been blessed by the Lord through his people ’
10 Great Scot Issue 168 – May 2023