Sermon: Whoever

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

          After a chapter-long warning—bright florescent yellow, like caution tape
—warnings about exclusion and dangers to his disciples… welcome.

          Words of welcome.

          You’re a sent people, dear Church (perhaps that’s a good frame for us being dispersed for safety’s sake), ambassadors of Christ and through him messengers of God. And whoever receives you receives Jesus.

          But, look at the other side of that sending, the logical balance of this equation. He is with you, and also with them, with whoever receives you! What a grand gift to both give and receive. Welcome and the presence of God! Where two or three gather, there he is, and look, just like that, wherever, whoever, there he is!

 

          How can we make the God we know in Jesus Christ known to whoever, especially in times where there is so much that is unknown?

          For that matter, look back on this last little while, when have you noticed that Jesus is up to something?

 

 

Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward;

          We’re sent like prophets
—that sounds as intoxicating as a mason jar of moonshine, until you stop and think about it
—tripping forward a few verses, into the very next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we get to hear how the Prophet John fares
—he has to send someone to Jesus to ask his questions about the Kingdom, because he is confined behind prison walls
—that’s what happens to prophets… John captured and then killed, by that capricious ruler, Herod…

          Or consider Jeremiah today
(Jeremiah, who by the way, was rewarded for his prophecies by being chucked down a well, left to die, and eventually did die alone in a foreign land, forsaken and abandoned)

Eavesdrop with me on this conversation between two prophets, Jeremiah and Hananiah
—it really needs to be read with a sour spoonful of sarcasm,
“Oh yes, Hananiah! Please prophecy that everything is going to be alright! Prophecy that our present reality is filled with peace…
after all, isn’t that just what every other prophet before us preached…
peaceful wars,
peaceful famines,
peaceful pestilence & peaceful plague…
Truly you’d have to be quite a prophet to prophecy peace, and peace to actually come.”

          Uncomfortable truths, too tight and constricting for the societies they minister to, are the stock and trade of the prophet, and, consequently, stockades and tragedy are their reward…

 

          At the same time, such a sending is as challenging for the prophet as the listener…
hear me, quite often the message outstrips the messenger
—it’s like those stories of staid English vicars who drone on, and then one day hear their own message and are redeemed…
          So too, the prophetic calling of our baptism can pull us along to places where we would not go, but must. We too are opened to the ongoing transformative power of the message of Jesus!

 

          Are we ready for such a sending? How in this particular moment are we taking up prophetic mantles and doing what’s right, even if it costs us?

          And also, what don’t you want to hear about justice and mercy and the ongoing works of God in the world, but need to hear to be a disciple of Jesus?

 

Whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;

          Sent in righteousness… sent to point to the world as it ought to be, even as we live in the world as it is—such a tension held there, awful to behold, and dangerous to name…

          So dangerous Jesus has to speak a blessing in response, his beatitude: “blessed are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for there is the kingdom of heaven.”

          And yet, imagine those who welcome the world as it could be… they’ve been waiting for it! They’ve been waiting with a gnawing hunger and an unslaked thirst, for you to show up with that piece of Good News, to bless them with that other blessing: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

          Persecution and fullness, for whoever welcomes you… such a paradox…

too much for mere messengers like us…

          And that’s okay, we’ve been filled with a righteousness found in Christ. We are sent out freed from sin and submerged in his sanctity—dripping wet with it, so that we might recommend this free gift of God to all who hunger and thirst and hold up under persecution.

 

          How are you going to tell people about a world that does not yet exist? How are you going to describe to them the will and goal of God?

          For that matter, what in your life lags behind what Jesus is calling you to? Where in your life do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

 

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.

          Sent, finally, to the kindness of cool water offered to one of these little ones.

 

          A cup of water, it is the image of the End—not some Left Behind B actor apocalypse, but instead the simple question, “When did I put cool water to your lips, dear Lord?” “When you did so to the least of these,” Jesus will say on judgment day.

          A cup of water in the noon heat, mini-mirages loping across a blacktop parking lot, throat dry, sweat stained armpits and light-headed yearning—a cup of water given…

 

          Give to the little ones:
Little Ones-the children, never denied Jesus’ love

Little Ones-the vulnerable, tormented by all that might ail humanity, healed by his hand
Little Ones-the Disciples themselves, called in their strangeness and disunity, not the best and the brightest, but beloved!

          We are sent, yes, but we are sent to receive as well, even such small hospitality, is heavenly.

 

          Look around you, who in your immediate area are the little ones? What can we do to ensure they are afforded kindness and care, a cup of cold water?

          Look too at yourself, when have you received such compassion? When have you been a little one? May the words of scripture work upon you this week. Amen.