On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9

⁵The prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; ⁶and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ⁷But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ⁸The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ⁹As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

Psalm: Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18

Your love, O Lord, forever will I sing. (Ps. 89:1)

 ¹Your love, O Lord, forever will I sing;
  from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.
 ²For I am persuaded that your steadfast love is established forever;
  you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.
 ³“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
  I have sworn an oath to David my servant:
 ⁴‘I will establish your line forever,
  and preserve your throne for all generations.’ ” 
 ¹⁵Happy are the people who know the festal shout!
  They walk, O Lord, in the light of your presence.
 ¹⁶They rejoice daily in your name;
  they are jubilant in your righteousness.
 ¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength,
  and by your favor our might is exalted.
 ¹⁸Truly, our shield belongs to the Lord;
  our king to the Holy One of Israel. 

Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23

¹²Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

 ¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
 ²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

 [Jesus said to the twelve:] ⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever 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; ⁴²and 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.”

Children’s Sermon:  Let’s sing the Zacchaeus Song we learned as young children:

 Zacchaeus was a wee little man

 and a wee little man was he. 

He climbed up in a sycamore tree

 for the Lord he wanted to see.

  And as the savior passed him by,

 he looked up in the tree.

  And he said,

 Zacchaeus you come down for I’m going to your house today.

Let us pray.  Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

         Discipleship Part 3, the “welcoming moment.” Two weeks ago on Pentecost 3 we read about Jesus sending out his disciples and read the texts as applying to us.  We are God’s plan, the messengers of the news that the kingdom of heaven is near. God feels compassion for his sheep that are helpless and harassed without shepherds.  God is not sitting up in heaven, waiting for us to earn our way to him.  We do not go to Him, He came to us in Jesus Christ and has opened the door to relationship. Now we, his messengers, you and I, extend that invitation of relationship to all people.  People are invited to a God who is just but that justice is tempered with love.  He is a God who wants to be known, to be loved and to be worshipped!

         Last week, we reflected on the implications of being sent.  The kingdom of heaven will clash with the kingdom of this world and we will face challenges when we give the message but we do not need to be afraid.  God has not kept secrets from us and has sent the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who walks with us and will give us the words to say.  We do not need to fear people who destroy the body but we need only fear the Evil one who can harm our souls.  We are more valuable to God than the common, ordinary sparrow.

         People were created with free will and have choice.  As messengers, our responsibility is not to save people.  Salvation comes from what was done by Christ on the cross.  We are to faithfully proclaim the truth.  Some  however will choose not to believe.  Also, following Christ may feel like we are loosing our lives as we obey but the truth is that as we refuse our inborn self-centeredness, we gain life.  In loosing our life for Christ, we save our life.

         WHEW.  What more is there to say?  The last three verses of Matthew 10 is our text for today.  They talk about that “welcoming moment” when we realize we could share and the rewards of being a disciple of Jesus when we do share.

We have the honor of being messengers.

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,

 and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

Rejection is not personal.

         We are God’s plan and we are God’s messengers.  I think we use the phrase, “Don’t kill the messenger.”  This week the mailperson delivered a letter from the IRS saying I owe money for 2022 because a reliable, well-known tax organization filled out my return with me and a mistake occurred.  For some reason an income blank was not filled in and I am responsible.  Shooting the mailperson of that letter will not eliminate the debt.  The organization that I think made the mistake does not own responsibility because I signed on the line.  I am held guilty and I have given all my explanations but the truth is still in the letter.  Money is owed.

         In the same way we can deny our status as a “sinner.”  I was too young to understand.  My spouse is a jerk and made me do it.  I didn’t know the gun was loaded.  I needed the money more than the IRS.  My neighbor is far worse than myself.  In Kenya people would say that they made a “mistake” and did not “sin.”  Adultry is sin.  Lust is human and forgiveable.

         We are messengers when we share with another our experiences of a God who wants to be involved with his sheep and who walked through death for them.  Jesus invited Zacchaeus down from the tree and said he wanted to go to Zacchaeus’ house. Had Zacchaeus refused it would have missed an opportunity to get to know Jesus.

          It is easy to feel like people are rejecting us and judging us because of the truth we carry but their rejection is really a rejection of God.  Welcoming the messenger, welcoming us, is welcoming God.  We have the privilege of informing people that the God of the universe loves them.  It is a great honor to tell someone the person is loved, forgiven, valued and need not be helpless and harrassed.  It is an honor to be an Ambassador for the United States and a greater honor to be an Ambassador for the God of the universe.  Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree and wanted to eat with him. The slave girl who told Naaman’s wife there was a prophet in Israel who could cure her husband’s leprosy, was written up in history.  In Acts 23 Paul’s nephew hears about a plot to kill Paul and goes to Paul and to the authorities reporting.  Paul’s life is saved and we are blessed.  Being a messenger for God is an honor.

         So perhaps the first question facing us today is to ask how our “approach” to sharing is working?  Are we embarrassed to share the message we have been entrusted with?  Are we more concerned about acceptance and popularity than the other’s plight? Are we focused on ourselves or sharing with another the joy we have experienced?  Perhaps if our walk with Christ is lukewarm, our sharing will be lukewarm also.  It’s a thought.        

         So now let’s dig a bit deeper.  The Zacchaeus song we sang is built on his story found in Luke 19:1-10.  What do we know about Zacchaeus?  He was short, the chief tax collector and wealthy.  He had little reason to need Jesus and good reason to believe that Jesus would never visit him.  Too much past, too much baggage.  But he was curious so he climbed a tree just to get a glimpse from afar, from a safe social distance.  Zacchaeus is confronted by a moment of welcome.  “Zacchaeus, you come down for I’m going to your house today.”  Jesus wants to visit him.  Zacchaeus has to make a decision about whether he is going to welcome Jesus.  The Bible says Zacchaeus “welcomed him (Jesus) gladly.”

         Likewise a “welcoming moment” is a time when we decide we are going to share the our truth with another. My imperfections and the imperfections of the other are not important.  My excuses of being too short, too wealthy, or an outcast don’t matter.  The question is the openness of my heart to share and of the heart of the other to receive the message of Jesus.  It is an honor to be the bearer of good news.

Often the messenger “is tipped!”

¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet

will receive a prophet’s reward.”

         You might think of the Dominos Pizza guy at the door but how it applies to disciples is not so obvious.  The words, ”prophet’s reward”, is not used elsewhere in Scripture.  The prophets often seem to get a questionable welcome, especially when speaking truth to power.  We might think of Elijah being thrown in the cistern.  The prophet by definition is “prophesizing,” speaking God’s words about a situation or about the future and if what they say does not come true, they are killed.  The disciples were thought to be modern day prophets. When we share, we are speaking about truth the world does not acknowledge and about a future the world cannot see but must accept by faith.

         I think of the story of the widow of Zarephath.  There was drought and she went out to collect wood for her last meal with her son before they would starve to death.  She was expecting death.  Instead she met Elijah, a prophet from “the other tribe” (for she was Sidonian, living in the Phonecian coast and Elijah was from Israel.) who requested a drink of water and a piece of bread.  1 Kings 17:7-16.  This was a “welcoming moment” for the poor widow.  How would she welcome the visitor?  She had nothing the world would feel is necessary for a proper welcome and she had no future.  She had no husband to entertain him.  She lived in poverty and probably had social rules about welcoming strangers.  But she did.  She shared her little and was rewarded with food to the end of the famine.  Elijah also benefited because he had food to the end of the famine.

         The prophets often found themselves in difficult situations but people who helped the prophets were rewarded.  Perhaps we can read into this that as hard as it is to be the messenger of God’s words, the outcome for the person who receives the message is blessing and the person who sees another being blessed is also blessed personally.  Zacchaeus received Jesus and was so changed he promised to pay back those he had overcharged and many were blessed.  I suspect Jesus was blessed at seeing Zacchaeus’ joy.  To be able to give life is rewarding.    

Messengers “pay forward”

“and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous”.

         This verse makes me think of Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10.  Let me start by saying that we are only righteous because of Christ.  None of us are righteous in and of ourselves, Rom 3:16, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  As we become part of the body of Christ, his righteousness is credited to us.  There is a bit of a theological debate about baptism but the base line is that we are not righteous ourselves.  We are the recipients of righteousness.

     Cornelius is a Roman centurion, a god-fearing man living in Caesarea, praying and an angel comes and tells him to invite Peter who is visiting in Joppa.  Meanwhile Peter is in Joppa, resting on a housetop, dreaming of a sheet being lowered from heaven full of animals and being commanded to eat. As he ponders the implications of the dream, Cornelius’ messengers arrive and invite Peter to meet with Cornelius.  What a beautiful picture of the “moment of welcome” that becomes a guideline for “welcoming moments.”  Despite racial differences, despite social differences, despite the religious difference, Cornelius opens his house to Peter.  He even invites all his own relatives, believing Peter is the true representative of God.  Peter, on the other hand, must open his heart and break the social norms of his faith to meet with “a gentile.”  This welcoming moment is pivotal in the story of Christianity.  Cornelius and his household open their hearts to faith, experience the Holy Spirit, believe and are baptized.  Peter returns to Jerusalem and is confronted for his actions.  The young church struggles to understand but opens its door to the Gentiles.  We are the inheritors, perhaps the reward of this welcome.

         The end of James 2 tells how Abraham, the “Father of the Faith,” and Rahab, “the harlot,” both believed God and it was credited to them, regardless of their social status, as righteousness.  Abraham was given the title, “Friend of God,” and Rahab married a prince in Israel, became the grandmother of Boaz who took Ruth and they all became part of the line of David.  When we accept the role of messenger of God, we do not know where the ripples will end but God knows and rewards.  Sharing our faith is investing in our future and others we may not know.

         Zacchaeus was not a righteous man but he heard Jesus wanted to eat with him.  He welcomed Jesus and believed.  Not only did he believe, he too is included as one of the great stories of the Bible.  We may think we are too short or too stained with sin but righteousness is not because we are good people but because God is a good God and offers to share his righteousness with us. 

^“42and 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.”

         So let’s step back and try to get the big picture.  We are sent forth as disciples, representative of God, given a message to deliver to people who may or may not receive it.  When we come to that “welcoming moment” of sharing our truth, we are standing on a threshold.  I must choose if I will be transparent and represent all God has helped me to be or will I put on my mask to protect me from the potential rejection I anticipate might happen?  Likewise the other person must decide if that person will meet me with an open heart? 

         The world would have us think that “welcoming moments” depend on my ability to impress you with who I am.  Jesus says these encounters depend on my willingness to share the truth I know about God with another and the other’s willingness to receive.  It is a moment when the Holy Spirit is moving.  I may be too short, have a shoddy past, be poor on the verge of starvation with no resources or I may be endowed with the status and wealth of this world but regardless of my “baggage”, “welcoming moments” challenge me to open my heart to another and share.  Good news is like a glass of cold water on a hot summer day. 

         The reward:  the other is blessed and their lives are turned around.  Zacchaeus shared his wealth.  The widow of Zaraphath and son were saved in the drought.  Cornelius and his household believed, were baptized and the Christian church opened its doors to the Gentiles.  It is possible we will be rejected, even killed, but they do not reject us but He who sent us. They can kill the body but they cannot kill the soul. It is an honor to be Christ’s ambassador.  It is an investment in another and in our future.  God is watching and God rewards.

Let the people of God say, “AMEN!”