Four Questions and a Theological Statement

In 2005 I was asked by the choral editor at Choristers Guild to provide two anthems based on particular scripture passages. Perusing a list of possible choices, I quickly found interest in setting the ideas from the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel: “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” and “just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”  Inspiration from these passages resulted in: Whoever Welcomes You Welcomes Me – a composition consisting of four questions and a theological statement.

Question #1: Where will we find you?

Where will we find you,
Christ, who is coming?
Where will we welcome you?
Where will you be?
Will you be feasting
with friends at a banquet,
or will you hunger
​alone in the street?
Where will we find you?
​Where will we welcome you?

While writing this piece, I was cognizant of scriptural and experiential paradoxes related to how Christ is encountered. On one hand, the Gospels depict Jesus attending celebratory meals with friends, from the wedding banquet at Cana to breakfast by the Sea of Galilee. On the other hand, the Christ figure is portrayed in scripture as a stranger who is hungry and thirsty. For many years the congregation I serve as minister of music has fed the hungry and those experiencing homelessness. Witnessing the lines of people who come weekly for food and fellowship gave further instruction for this stanza and the next.

Question #2: What will you look like?

What will you look like,
Christ, who is coming?
What will we recognize?
​What will we see?
Will you be wearing
the finest apparel,
or will we see you
​in rags and in need?
What will you look like?
​What will we recognize?

I sometimes compose texts or music in my head while driving. One day while driving and thinking on the words for this second stanza, I turned a corner into a McDonald’s drive-through. At that corner was a shabbily dressed woman inviting donations of money or food. Waiting in the car line for my own breakfast, I thought of the how her experience paralleled the teaching from Matthew 25, that she was the embodiment of Christ in need. Conversely, I also knew I had experienced the Christ-presence in persons of wealth and resources. These contrasting thoughts converged in this stanza.

Question #3: When will you get here?

When will you get here,
Christ, who is coming?
When will your advent be?
Will you arrive
​when we're least expecting,
or with fanfare and pageantry?
When will it be?

This crying out of “When (and how) will you get here?!” is expressed with a sudden change in the mood and music of the anthem. This portion of the piece takes on a frustrated tone as it continues to respond to scriptural discrepancies. The stories of Jesus riding into town with great pageantry, and the coming of Christ announced with celestial trumpets are found in the same Bible that reveals a Christ who arrives unexpectedly without preparation or fanfare.

Question #4: Who will you visit?
​
​Who will you visit,
Christ, who is coming?
Who will you visit here?
Who will you see?
Will you be laughing
and playing with children,
or stay with prisoners
​who long to be free?
Who will you visit?
​Who will you visit here?

The beloved story of Jesus welcoming children and the teaching of the Christ being known in prisoners are both alluded to in this stanza describing diverse people in whom the divine is known. Another influence was the knowledge that my congregation includes persons who fight against the death penalty. Through the years this has included picketing outside of the state prison, visiting with death row inmates and holding congregational vigils before an execution. A line from this stanza originally expressed: “Will you be laughing and playing with children, or be a prisoner who longs to be free? Though I think this original line more closely communicates the teaching from Matthew of Christ being the prisoner, the publisher’s editors conversed with me about altering this line to the one above that is perhaps more poetic to sing.

A Theological Statement

​And Jesus says:
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
so, wherever you will go, I will be;
and, whatever you look like, 
​I will look like, too;
I will speak in your words 
and in everything you do.
Whenever – my advent is whenever –
my advent is whenever
you discover I am in you;
when you discover I AM in you!"

The beauty and strength of the Gospels is that they present different and even contradictory descriptions of Jesus. This understanding supports the anthem’s paradoxical questions: Does Christ feast at banquets or starve in the streets? Is Christ wealthy or in need? Does Christ visit children on the playground or prisoners in jail? The concluding theological statement seeks to affirm the Christ-presence in all of these and more. Taking Jesus’ statement from Matthew 10:40 (“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me”) to its ultimate conclusion, the final section exclaims that every person of every description speaks and acts as Christ. This reveals that the coming (advent) of Christ happens whenever humankind discovers their divinity within. A theological play-on-words in the last few lines reinforces this concept. It occurs when Jesus’ proclamation: “I am in you” is repeated but transformed into “I AM in you.” In all caps, “I AM” is a name for the divine found in the Hebrew Scriptures and expresses the divine in all.

Whoever Welcomes You Welcomes Me is dedicated to my mother, Opal Lee Schultz, who was active in Woman’s Missionary Union, and involved me in missions education from an early age. That formative experience taught me that I was part of a global community and engaged my thinking on “who” was my neighbor, “what” they might look like, “when” I would encounter them, and “where” they might be.

​This anthem published by Choristers Guild (CGA1067) for unison or two-part voices with piano and optional flute accompaniment has been presented by choirs of all ages as well as vocal duets. The piece is meaningfully sung in the season of Advent or on any occasion when the divine is discovered.

Whoever Welcomes You Welcomes Me is expressed by alto and tenor duet, piano and flute in worship at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan.