Sermon Matthew 10:40-42

My sermon for tomorrow (or something like it)...good grief, I can put this process off. My only solace is that my pastor growing up didn't start his sermons until 11pm on Saturday. I am a whole two hours ahead of him. :)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Finally, we get to the good part. If you’ve been round the last few weeks you’ll remember that the Gospel texts have been working us through chapter 10 of Matthew. Jesus comes home one day and decides it is time to spread the work load out a bit. He looks at the twelve disciples and gives them a job description to end all job descriptions…cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Then he tells them that not only is there no funding for them, they must leave behind any worldly goods they might have. He also tells them that this isn’t a job for a family man, seeing as it will cause great division and change among ones brothers and sisters and parents. On top of all this, not everyone is going to be welcoming. The disciples know that they are bringing good news, healing and the power to change lives…but not everyone is ready for this power. Not everyone is prepared for a change. Not everyone wants to hear this story. Some of the towns they come to are going to ask them to keep walking. Some of the doors they knock on are going to remain closed. Many of the people’s hearts they meet are going to remain hard.

Knowing full well that as we hear this Gospel, we are the spiritual descendants of the disciples, with full knowledge that we too are called to live on the sustenance of God alone…by verse 40 we are ready to hear about reward. Finally, it seems we are about to get to the good part.

In Matthew 10, verse 40, Jesus’ attention shifts from his disciples to those who will receive the disciples in their homes and towns. Jesus says, “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” He goes on to say, “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.”

The disciples are promised ‘welcome,’ and their reward is a cup of water?

Water.

Now I grant you that cool water would have been a welcome relief on a dry desert day. But, if we are honest with ourselves, after all this work, doesn’t a part of us expect the welcome to look a bit more like; a friendly person with open arms bringing us in to the cool relief of their home, giving us some water to drink but also some wine and a hearty meal. Don’t we have visions of someone offering a bowl of water to clean our burning feet and some oil to heal the cracks and scrapes from a day of walking?

But a cup of water? I’ll say this, Jesus remains a realist when it comes to setting the bar of our expectations. It is almost as if the process of following Jesus is as important as the end results.

After all that work, all the demands of discipleship, all that is sacrificed and loss…all someone needs to do is scoop up some water from their well and offer it to us and they are welcomed by God? Both the prophet and the one who receives him will be viewed the same reward?

It seems to me at the end of this discipleship tutorial, Jesus’ real gift to the disciples and to us, is freedom. No matter where we read the text from: either as a disciple going out, or as someone offering to serve “a little one”…the reward is freedom. We are free to try. Try to offer love, try to serve, try to speak up, try to tackle sin, try to bring life. Our efforts might end in failure…a closed heart, deaf ears, a slammed door. Our efforts might result in new life. We are free to be human and that, my dear friends, is God’s grace.

When I first moved to Peoria, we lived in a temporary apartment and to escape all the boxes I would aimlessly wander around the Lakeview library branch. One day I saw a brochure for the Newcomers’ Club. I took a huge leap out of my comfort zone to attend a lunch. In that leap I discovered the one great things about this town. Most people aren't from here...or rather most of the people I know aren’t. And because of this, people are quite quick to welcome the new person. Many of the families are corporate transfers who are skilled at making community and setting up a home fast. That is rare for a town this size. In most Midwest (and perhaps all over) communities you hear stories of how entrenched the social circles are--based on which high school or college you attended. Your family is probably still around so there is that added comfort zone. It can be a hard place to break in to existing social circles.

When we lived in Fargo, even though I worked in the community before becoming a pastor and participated in activities outside of the church, over the three years we lived there, I developed no friendship outside of my pastoral colleagues. When we moved, I knew isolation would be an issue so I took some risks and actively sought out people.

In hindsight I find it telling that I thought this group would be a good means to meet people verses, say, a church. But let’s be honest, churches are rarely as welcoming as they think they are. If you’ve never had to do it, let me tell you--it is hard to break into this particular social system—this coming from a Christian, a Lutheran, someone who understands what membership is about, and a pastor.

Entering a club specifically for people new to area means you need to strengthen your small talk skills. The disciples in today’s Gospel were meant to move around and proclaim the gospel, opening each conversation with the words, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” I don’t imagine you and I open every conversation like this…and our lives don’t always reflect this proclamation either. Imagine if you opened each casual conversation with these words…how exactly would you be received?

I imagine very few of us would open right up with, “Hi, I’m Gayle or Steve…I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God has come near.” But when you are pastor…try as you might to fend off that topic, it always comes up. “And what do you do?” A part of me always hesitates not because I’m ashamed or denying my call but because I know it is going to change the course of the conversation and our relationship forever. Some people close down. Some get angry. Some open up…some open up too much. Blessed be the ones who continue to treat me as they did before they learned my calling.

Of course, I imagine all of us have moments where we know our identity as a Child of God has turned people away or brought them closer to us. Where it has changed the course of our relationship with a person. Not wanting change, not wanting to deal with the conflict our identity might bring on…we begin to go it alone. Fear and doubt join us on our journey. Or begin to close down ourselves, slamming doors…becoming entrenched in our faith community, forgetting that our job description was to go out there, to be among those people.

What my time within the Newcomers’ club as taught me is this…We are all visitors. This flawed and broken world--one that can be so lonely and isolating--is not our home. It helps me to remember as I move around that none of us feel completely comfortable where we are...that everyone I come across is a bit lost, a bit of a newcomer. We are all in need of hospitality and grace, no matter how long we've lived at one address or another...together we live in this foreign land searching and yearning for those moments of the Kingdom to break in, for God to hold us...to be truly welcomed.

Discipleship is about the process of following Christ. The end goal belongs to God and God has already shared that reward with us. God has welcomed us Eternal life is ours, God’s love and mercy is ours. . Instead of a life lived in pursuit of a reward, discipleship is the lifelong attempt to trust in God’s promise to provide and care for us. We do not follow Jesus in search of a reward--because at the end our earthly reward may only be a cup of water. We follow Jesus because he is the one who grants us the freedom to be human. Broken, questioning, tired…human. Hopeful, awestruck, energized…human. Sinfully human. Sainted, human. God grants us refreshing grace…space and room to attempt to fully be who God created us to be. Through Christ we have freedom from God to try—to follow where Christ leads us, to open ourselves up to the visitor, to knock on hearts, to serve and love the other, to live as though the kingdom of God has indeed come near and invite others to join us. Doors may open, doors may close…but truly I tell you not one who tries will lose their reward.

Amen.