Year A
Proper 8 – Matthew 10:40-42
The Rev. Denise Vaughn
Genuine Welcome
The book ‘The Day America Told the Truth’ is a book of surveys collected to discover what Americans believe about everything that matters. When asked what dreams they had to change themselves and how they hoped to fulfill their potential, people gave rather simple answers. The editors of the book, however, were amazed at the findings because most people did not aspire to be better persons or to make this a better world. The top-ranking answers were “I want to be rich” and “I want to be thin.”
Mike Yaconelli, senior editor of the book ‘The Door’, asserted that such findings reveal the bankruptcy of the American soul, the lack of responsibility, the absence of values, and the epidemic of violence. God, he pointed out, does not care if we are rich or poor, fat or thin. If our best dreams are only to be rich and thin, we not only will lose our lives, but we have lost them already. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to a life of discipleship that demands more. A life that asks us to be extensions of God’s welcome in the world and all that that means. Today we hear in the lessons what it means to be extensions of God’s welcome.
The disciples are about to go on a mission. They’re going to share the gospel message by casting out unclean spirits and curing every disease and sickness. They’re going to need serious provisions for something like this. But Jesus has instructed them to go out with only the clothes on their back; no extra tunic, no money, no food. The only thing they have to rely on is the kindness of strangers. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” In the gospel’s few short sentences today we are challenged to think more deeply about what is meant by welcoming. Not only welcoming each other but welcoming our neighbor and welcoming God.
It seems we demonstrate a genuine welcome of God and one another with just the basic, simple acts of kindness to each other, by seeing the need around us and then doing something about it, like offering a cup of cold water. It’s that simple, Jesus? It’s that small? You’re talking about the advancement of a kingdom! How is being nicer going to usher in God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven? How is a cup of cold water going to adequately express that or change anything? Yet, a cup of cold water changes everything, in that small act of welcoming it says that it’s not all about me and what I want, it’s about each other, our neighbors, and it’s about God.
We live in a world that works diligently to focus our attention on visible success and tangible rewards. Yet, our faith encourages us to trust, to be open, to share, and to live a way of life that goes beyond personal gain. This way of life leads to the kind of welcoming that Jesus refers to today; a compassionate welcoming of the stranger and this is not easy for us to do. There are those things that get in the way and prevent us from the compassion described in this reading today from Matthew. The paradox is that when there is compassionate welcome, when we live our lives with human relationships based on closeness, warmth, and generosity, our lives are also filled with alienation from each other. We want that compassionate welcome, but all too often, we fall short of creating and nurturing those genuine relationships because of pride, ego, or self-doubt.
We cannot do it on our own we need God in our lives so that we can extend genuine hospitality. We need the Holy Spirit to help us fulfill our faith of compassionate welcoming of one another and our neighbor, to be able to live into this paradox. When we put the grace-filled hospitality of God’s love at the center of our lives and at the center of all our relationships genuine relationships happen. In other words, when we take ourselves out and put God and neighbor first, we find the reward that Jesus refers to today. His message directs us to provide for the needy as a sign of righteous living, and divine reward is guaranteed. We find genuine welcome.
As Paul reminds us today, in his letter to the Romans our old self enslaved to sin, has been put to death. Through our baptism we have been given new life in Christ. A new life that challenges us to live out the reality expressed in our baptismal vows; to carry our cross daily; to die to all that prevents us from giving ourselves over to God in our lives; to let go of all the other priorities and be serious about following the way of Jesus. Matthew would say to us today that those who dare to follow Jesus and proclaim the message of the cross need to assume the same humble posture as Jesus did. He offered radical hospitality and because those that followed took up this message, this way of life, the church has carried on her work through today.
Yet, do we feel the same since of need? Jesus invites us to be a part of his work; he invites us to share in the kingdom of God. He said it’s up to all of his disciples to grow this kingdom and show this hospitality, this compassionate welcoming. Hospitality should be the central practice of the Christian church. To offer it, we simply bring who we are, what we have, where we are. At times this may be grand; at times it may be very little like a cup of cold water. In every case, it is the gesture itself-the practice-that shapes the character of the encounter that shapes the character of the participants, of the story of grace that is the essence of the moment.
Whether one is a “prophet,” a “righteous one” or one of the “little ones” of Matthew’s church, the foundation of this call is the same. We are invited to offer them hospitality, we are invited to compassionate welcoming; we are invited to make a better world. Welcoming another requires attention to the other. It means often setting aside our discomfort for how one may be different or strange to us and meeting her or him as they are. Being an agent of God’s hospitality makes Christ’s presence known, for as Matthew reminds us, when two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name, Jesus is present there as well.
May God continue to open our eyes, our ears, our hands, our hearts-and, indeed, our very lives-to those among us, so that we might welcome all in the name of Jesus Christ. For such lives, thanks be to God. Amen.