Sixth Sunday after Pentecost 2005

Speaking Index

Delivered 25 June 2005, the Saturday service based on the readings for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost.

Good evening! We come here at the close of the day, to gather beside the waters of baptism, to gather at the foot of the cross. Today is the Sixth worship after Pentecost, the Green Season, or as it's called in the Anglican and Roman traditions, "Ordinary Time". It’s the time of the year in which we focus on what we're about here on earth.

Look them up

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from his son Jesus the Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Amen

I don't think Pastor Jim looked at the lessons for the date when he wrote me in for preaching tonight, but he might have. He might have been getting in a little dig at our differences in style, and he can be a sly one at times.

When I came here fifteen years ago there were a lot things I wanted to change. The font, for example. It was a small glass bowl in a white stand with a lid on it, and when there wasn't a baptism it stood in the corner with the lid closed. I wanted it out in the middle of the church, always open, always filled with water, so folks could take advantage of it on their way to communion. I wanted it moved, and I wanted it moved immediately. And, by the way, I wanted there to be communion a lot more often. And most of all I wanted Jim to agree with me and make these things happen.

Well, he agreed with me and didn't seem to do a thing. I was starting to get pretty frustrated when I noticed that, somehow, there were changes in the direction I wanted it to go. And when we finally moved into this building, we had this new font in the central place of honor. It's too big to shove in the corner, and there is no lid. When Larkin and I came to Trinity that made three of us who crossed ourselves, now it's common. We still don't have communion as often as I prefer, but my approach would have driven folks away, Jim's approach was the right track.

There are two characters in the Bible that I seem to resemble. One of them is Amos, the shepherd who came from the southern kingdom, Judah, to rail against the moral decay of the northern kingdom, Israel. This was a time of great success for Israel. King Jeraboam had restored the nation more or less to the area that had been ruled by King David. Amos raged. He called down plagues. And Jeraboam was overcome by the power of the prophet and put on sackcloth and ashes. There's my model for change in the church!

In today's old-testament reading we have Jeremiah, about a hundred years after Amos. He's confronted with a false prophet named Hananiah, who claims to speak for Yahweh to the effect that the occupation by Babylon would be over in two years, and all the goods that had been looted from Jerusalem would be returned. Certainly words that would have been welcome at the beginning of the Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah says he wishes it were true - "Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied." Jeremiah had foretold that it would take seventy years before Israel was out from under the thumb of Nebuchadnezzar's empire. He suggests that the way to settle the argument was to wait and see who was right. In the verses following our reading he prophesied that Hananiah would be dead within the year. A year later, Hananiah was dead, and it was seventy years that the Babylonian Empire held sway.

Jeremiah didn't rage and fume like my man Amos, but he did preach repentance and confront the people with news they didn't want to hear. The short-lived false prophet Hananiah, on the other hand, had been telling people what they wanted to hear, demanding no changes from them, and he was identified as a false prophet and his ministry was not long.

The Gospel lesson we read is the closing verses of the 10th chapter of Matthew. Most of the tenth chapter is Christ telling his disciples about discipleship, the training manual for ministry if you will. We have to assume that when Matthew organized his material that he chose to end on an important part. And it's all about hospitality!

As I have an old testament model, I also have a new testament one: Peter. Simon bar Jonah, the one who said something every time there was enough gap in conversation to say it in, the one that always had his foot in his mouth, the one that grabbed a sword and took the ear off the high priest's servant in the garden. Peter and I aren't much on this hospitality stuff! But that's what Matthew gave the most important place to in his summary of the things Jesus said about discipleship.

Jesus establishes a hierarchy of hospitality in these lines. There's God in heaven, and Jesus who was sent to earth, and the disciples who were sent out by Jesus, and then righteous persons, and finally "these little ones".

Part of this is based on a concept that's tricky for us. There was nothing like the ego-driven individualism of our time at work in first-century Israel, it was much more tribal. When one person was dealing with the world, he embodied his tribe, his family, his religion, his employer. When an envoy was mistreated, the one who sent the envoy treated it as if he had been mistreated himself. And everyone was an envoy, knowing that his words and behavior would be seen as representing not only himself but also the groups he was associated with.

Where our translation says welcome, "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me" other translations have used received. "and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" to finish the verse from the King James. I think all the translations agree on the word reward, which may give the wrong impression here. Matthew likes the word misthos, he used it 13 times in his Gospel, and it translates more closely to wages than to a lottery prize. He uses it for both good and bad, referring to things that have been earned. Of course, he was a tax collector by trade, so he may have been more focused on the bookkeeping than other writers.

I think he's using this here to indicate the normalcy of hospitality. This isn't like the verse in Hebrews 13, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares," which may suggest that there is an inordinate bonus or blessing for treating visitors well. This is just the way we are supposed to carry on from day to day.

I hope it's obvious that when Jesus speaks highly of giving "even a cup of cold water" that he isn't suggesting that as the pinnacle of hospitality or even that water itself is important. This was the first-century in the Middle East, nobody had SUVs with 12 cup holders and an ice chest in the back. They walked in dry places with only what they could carry, water would be a pressing need and cold water a delight. When we come into this place, we're not in need of cold water. When strangers come into this place, cold water is probably not their most pressing need. We need to continually learn what hospitality is in our time.

At the bottom of the hierarchy of hospitality are "these little ones". It's not easy to tell, and probably not important, whether this meant children or if it meant those newest to the faith, a step behind "a righteous person" in their Christian walk. In fact, we know from Christ's other teachings that we need to include everyone at this level, or else extend it one more level to "the least of these" who are in need.

At the same time, it means that we can expect this hospitality ourselves, and that it is the just reward of being hospitable to others. Early in the chapter, Matthew relates that if as disciples we are not welcomed we are to walk away, shaking the dust of that place from our feet.

When we welcome the newcomer and provide what that person needs, cold water, a cord of wood, or a helpful finger to show them where on the page we are during worship, we are doing the work of the righteous. We are, thereby, welcoming the Christ, which in turn is welcoming the Father.

Personally, I'm glad that those who chose the lessons included the Jeremiah reading along with the Matthew text. I'd hate to think that there was never a place for a little confrontation, some thunder and lightning, fire and brimstone. Jeremiah stood up and faced the false prophet, and God backed him up, even to taking the life of the imposter.

But that's not where we live all the time. We don't have any shortage of falsehoods to battle, but we don't have a lot of false prophets to face down. And when we do, even Jeremiah says his piece and lets God make the case. Like I said at the beginning, Jim may have carefully chosen this day for my edification, to make me think through these things with you.

When there are wrongs to be righted, failures of justice in the world, the people of Christ still need to stand up and speak the Gospel. As the Quakers say, "Speak truth to power." But our primary calling as disciples is not in confrontation.

There may be the occasional opportunity for bombast, but as disciples our lot is to care for the little ones, to welcome the righteous, and to receive the King of Kings.

And this is what we call Good News. This is the Gospel of the Lord. Amen.