Scripture: Matthew 10:40-42; John 1:1-46 Series: Welcome
A first-Sunday introductory sermon at Covenant UMC on Matthew 10:40-42. Jesus gives no good first impression yet offers life; he commands the hard work of welcoming others without conditions. Welcoming a prophet, a righteous (just) person, or a thirsty little one includes us in their reward. The whole ethic rests on the resurrection: because Christ is risen, we live expansive lives that go out to be welcomed and welcome the stranger as we would our own.
Illustrations: jesus-poor-first-impression, nathaniel-what-good-from-nazareth, college-station-longhorn, not-tempted-by-murder, come-well-bienvenue, no-solicitation-sign, exhausting-prophets, austin-summer-thirst
July 2, 2023
Welcome
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 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.” Matthew 10:40-42
Jesus does not give a good first impression. We see this throughout the gospels. He is not someone who’s wowing others with his charisma. I mean, he goes to Peter and Andrew by the seashore and says, “lay down your nets and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” That’s not a nice joke to break the ice. It’s not an easy thing to follow up. Jesus goes up to another person and tells them to completely change their life before they even know who he is. If someone came up to you while you’re fishing, fishing on a lake, a lake you like to go to, if you like fishing or another activity you do outside, maybe you’re at a ballgame or at a restaurant, this person walks up to you and says that you need to change everything about what you’re doing and you need to listen to him and go wherever he goes, I don’t think that’s gonna be a good first impression. Jesus also doesn’t dress for success. He doesn’t. You could say it’s a different time and place. I think that that’s a misunderstanding. I think people in the ancient world also had an understanding of the way that appearance marks a lot of our lived realities. That’s not how Jesus saw it. And not only does Jesus look weird, he doesn’t look the part. He’s not from the right place.
In the beginning of the gospel of John, after the beautiful prologue with this poetry, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things came into being through him. Without him not one thing came into being. After this beautiful prologue, after we hear about John the Baptist, Jesus is walking and Philip says to Nathaniel that he should go and see this Jesus guy. Nathaniel says, what good could ever come out of Nazareth? Jesus is not from the right kind of place. Like for me, I’m from College Station. I grew up in College Station. Many people say, what good has ever come out of College Station. As a Longhorn fan, and you should know, I went to the University of Texas. Hook ‘Em. Sometimes I still think today disparagingly about myself. What good ever comes from College Station? It’s not a good first impression.
Jesus doesn’t give a first good first impression, and yet he offers life.
In the reading from Matthew today, Jesus exhorts us to welcome others, which is one of the harder commandments to follow. It really goes deep. I mean, I think for a lot of people ‘thou shall not kill’ is an easier commandment to follow. Some people are really tempted by murder. I’m not. This is a confession. Covenant’s new pastor, not tempted by murder. And yet Jesus asks a lot of things of us and one of the harder ones is this commandment about welcoming because it gets real super fast. A lot of religious talk and Bible talk can stay in the realm of the impersonal, or it can stay in the a spiritual realm that’s about me and Jesus, or about me and God. It avoids the messiness of others. Welcoming others does not.
To welcome another person is to enter into a new relationship with another person. Can we read this again?
”Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 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.”
So Jesus begins the passage by saying, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. It begins by an action of how we go into the world and how we live in the world and how people receive us. He commends us to live lives where other people will welcome us.
To be welcomed, first of all, means you have to go somewhere. If you’re still at your house, you’re not going to be welcomed by anybody. The onus is on you to do something, to act. “Whoever welcomes me, welcomes you.” When you act for Jesus, you give another the amazing privilege of welcoming Jesus. So Jesus starts by pushing us away from a stagnant life into a dynamic life that is continually expanding to include more of Gods children. Jesus commends an expansive life. Then Jesus switches it a little bit. “Whoever welcomes a prophet receives a prophets reward.” We are not only to seek to be welcomed, we are to welcome prophets. Usually, prophets are not welcome to people’s homes because they’re telling people what they’re doing wrong. Prophets tell society what they’re doing wrong. Prophets are not fun house guests. And yet Jesus says, whoever welcomes a prophet receives a prophets reward. Whoever welcomes a righteous person receives the reward of the righteous. What attribute is more detrimental to your perception of a person than self-righteousness, right? And of course, self-righteousness is different from righteousness. But if you think someone is better than you, not just that they think they are, but if they actually are, it’s kind of hard to really welcome them.
The word for righteousness in the Bible is dikaisunai, it is the same word for Justice. Justice and righteousness are equivalent in scripture. So to welcome the just is to receive the reward of the just and that can be hard to do. It can be hard to welcome someone who is more just and lives a holier life.
You can perform for them, but it’s hard to welcome them, to include them. Propriety only goes so far. You can be courteous and still closed off. You can be courteous and not welcoming.
You can be courteous and not let them come well, which is the roots of the word. French and Spanish and German all have the same roots, the same words for welcome: bienvenue, bienvenido, Willkommen. This is a concept that crosses cultural barriers: come well. Come well. Come well prophets. Come well righteous.
and then we get down to the heart of the matter. Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones and the name of a disciple, truly, I tell you, none of use will lose their award. Jesus is meddling, as my parents would say. It’s all in good fun to stay impersonal, but the words of Jesus get personal. And they get personal for a serious reason. If the Christian faith is just about staying on the surface, if the Christian faith is just about continuing the status quo, or just feeling generally good about yourself. If the Christian faith is about, you know, offering a good impression to others, being well thought of, it’s got nothing that can save you, nothing at all. There’s nothing true about it. We’re at a loss and it’s just as good a religion or philosophy or way of life as anything else. However, if Jesus really is the son of God, if Jesus really died on the cross for our sins, to release us from sin, and then three days later rise again, then the world is different.
We should have lives that are welcoming to the prophets, to the righteous. We should welcome those who call us out, the prophets. And we should welcome those who live a life of Justice and can model Justice for us, the righteous. We should live lives that offer cold water to the little ones are thirsty. And my friends in Austin, in the summertime, our little ones are thirsty. They are thirsty for the water of life. They are thirsty for the literal water that is drying up from our lake. Even if they refuse to drink water, they are thirsty. We should also live a life where people welcome us. We should see that as a gift. By living a life of faith, we can bless others because when they welcome us, they welcome Jesus. Not because we’re so good, but because God is good. Because Jesus is good. So, we should not withhold that blessing from others, and we should welcome others. We should welcome the righteous. We should welcome prophets, we should welcome little ones. The way you welcome your child or your friend home, should be the way you welcome the stranger.
We should not have conditions on it. That’s where the meddling gets deep. We like to put conditions on people. We welcome. We also put signs up that says, no solicitation. It’s a condition. I mean, it makes life easier, but it’s a condition. We could just as easily put a sign up that says, no prophesying. I mean, if you ever been around a prophet, they are exhausting. All of them seem like they were exhausting to hang out with. Reading Jeremiah or Isaiah, it must have been exhausting to be around them. It must have been exhausting to be around Elijah. There might have been signs in the ancient world, “no prophets welcome here.” But what Jesus is pointing out here at Matthew 10 is that when we welcome another, we are included with them. When we welcome a prophet, we are included in the prophet’s reward. When we welcome a righteous person, when we welcome a child, and when we are welcomed, they’re included in us. We welcome, not because someone gave us a good first impression, or we thought they’d be a fun hang at a game, but because Jesus Christ is risen. This one fact changes all of human existence. This one fact changes the world and if we think it is true, it changes how we treat other people. It changes how we welcome.
It is good to be here. It is good to be welcomed here, but I am here and you are here because Jesus Christ is risen and he has a purpose for us in this world, and we can offer ourselves in that. When we see that Christ’s resurrection is true, we see that God is good, and that a life of love is opened up for us. This life of love is made full in the body of Christ, which is the church, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in this world. This is who we can be together. This is what we can do together. We can welcome are neighbors. We can go out in the world to be welcomed by our neighbors. We don’t need to keep our walls tight because Christ is risen and the Spirit has come.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.