Pentecost Four (Revised Common Lectionary) – June 28, 2020 | Matthew 10.34-42 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life to my sake will find it.”

“Whoever receives you, receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.  The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.  And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”                                                                                      [English Standard Version]

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”  [Romans 6.22]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

After the past four to five months nearly everyone in our community is tapped out.  First we had to deal with the emergence of Covid-19 with its bewildering guidelines and responses.  Second was the death of George Floyd (along with others) with the subsequent protests and destructive rioting.  Third was the Supreme Court’s decision about sex discrimination over a male employee who wanted to wear a dress to work.

One is tempted to turn off the media that is addicted to chattering constantly about these things.  Or one can wade into all these matters and attempt to bring out some clearer thinking and doing.  Or one can go back to the basic posture as the Lord’s baptized people who are struggling, as his sons and daughters, to reflect the Son’s crucified and resurrected Life, carrying it into a world that is confused, lost and helpless.

Because the Lord God is pulling us into his Scriptures and Sacraments this morning, it is clear we are first being led to the basics of his Life, basics that have been wrapped around our own.  And, as we are drawn into the realities of his Life, we discover that he can steady us in our weariness while giving us renewed perspectives.

Three weeks ago the Church observed the Festival of the Holy Trinity.  It was noted then how the emergence of Covid-19 was stirring us to learn more of ourselves along with the people around us.  Some of that learning has been stress-less; some of it has been stress-full.  In either case it has revealed the huge discrepancies existing between the gods that drive the world’s life and THE God who brought this world and its people into being while continuing to rescue and sustain them.

In the three weeks since the Holy Trinity Festival, the Lord’s people have been making their way through Matthew’s tenth chapter.  In the opening verses the Lord Jesus Christ calls the twelve disciples to him and gives them authority over the unclean spirits.  He then sends them out to the Jewish community, proclaiming that the Lord’s kingdom is at hand.  Jesus reminds them that they are being sent out as sheep in the middle of wolves and that they will be persecuted for the work they are doing for him.  Still he encourages them to have no fear of those who are reacting fiercely to their activity, noting that their lives and work are fully wrapped up in the Life running between him and the Father.

[A parenthesis: While the Revised Common Lectionary details the last three verses of today’s passage for the Gospel, I have included the verses in front of it to enlarge the context for a fuller understanding.]

The work given to the disciples then and his followers now is hard and difficult.  Baptized into the Life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are to proclaim, serve and teach of our rescue from the realities of sin, Satan and death to a people who are weary and confused, tapped out and lost.  Many of the people we encounter may not even respond to the Life given them through the Son’s dying and rising!

Today the Lord continues to immerse us in the Life streaming from the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection.  He reminds us that his Life is well aware of what is going on in this world with its lostness and confusion, its harassment and helplessness.  As he intensifies his instructions, he changes the ways in which we, his baptized people, look at realities and understand them.  These changes reveal that Jesus’ instructions are from eternity, they are unlike anything we initiate or receive from the world!

Today reveals again how hard it is to impress on others the vitality and necessity of the Lord’s crucified and resurrected Life.  There are people who barely hear the invocation of the Holy Trinity recalling the words of their Baptism.  They are too wrapped up in the life around them to pick up, listen to or study the Lord’s holy Writings.  It seldom occurs to them to confront their instinctive sins, confess them and be impacted by the Lord’s Forgiveness.  And, while many baptized people in these long months have been prevented from participating in the Lord’s Supper, there are many more who give it little or no attention.

At same time, though, we thankfully remember that there are people who cannot live apart from the Lord’s Scriptures and Sacraments.  Such people struggle to be in continual contact with the four holy places of the Lord’s activity.  Such people are also willing to be instructed by the Lord God so they can faithfully carry and reflect his Life as they make their way through this world’s life.  This passage from Matthew runs deeply and  concludes well the instructions Jesus has been giving us over the past two Sundays.  Let us then dig into five words and phrases from today’s Gospel.

The first word is translated “peace.”  The word is “shalom,” a Hebrew word describing

the Lord’s calm from eternity (notice that this is not a word defined by the world as smoothing things over).  In fact, our Lord makes it very clear that his peace breaks into the world’s life and disrupts the gods we have created (that’s why he likens his peace to a sword!).  He runs such breaking close into family relationships as well, noting that those relationships are not to tower over or replace the relationship we have with him.  He reminds us that if we persist in grasping for this world’s life, demonstrating we can move well through it, we will, in reality, lose it!  However, if we let go of that life for his sake (not our own!), he will overwhelm us with his Life!

The second word is the one translated “receives.”  This receiving is tied in with the salvation that comes only and ultimately through Jesus’ dying and rising.  Such receiving reminds us that when Jesus rescues the world’s people from the destructive and deadly grip of the unholy trio, he is drawing them into the Life of the Holy Trinity!

The third word in this passage grabbing our attention is the one translated “reward.”  We

Lutherans tend to have a hard time discussing this word because our teachings always remind us that people cannot save themselves.  That is true, but it is just as true that there are significant consequences to the salvation given us.  Living in it yields dividends, not the ones that we generate, but the ones made possible by the Lord’s grace, forgiveness and mercy!

Not living in his salvation also yields significant dividends, but these are frightening and painful because they show us being separated from Life given us at Baptism (such separation is driven by ourselves, guided by what we want!).  As we struggle to be obedient to the Lord God, Jesus reminds us that there is a reward for that struggle.  That’s why we are constantly encouraging one another to let our lives be crossed steadily by the holy places of his Scriptures and Sacraments.  These holy places continually drench us with the blessings that stream out from Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

The fourth notation is the phrase translated “give a cup of cold water.”  This appears to be an abrupt shift from what the passage has been saying, a shift that leaves us scratching our heads.  Are we supposed to get hold of bottled water and make it available to the people around us?  Are we to volunteer for races or walks, serving those who run and those who walk?  The phrase, however, literally means “giving someone water to drink” (the addition of “cold” is from unknown sources or for unknown reasons).  Thus, the phrase is really pointing to Jesus as the Water of Life!  Such water pours onto world’s people from Jesus’ Baptism, saving them from the destructive and deadly grip of the unholy trio.   Having been baptized into the Life of Holy Trinity ourselves, we now give that cup of water to others!

The fifth notation is translated “little ones,” immediately suggesting children.  But that phrase is not the usual Greek word for “children.”  Instead, it is a word referring to Jesus’ disciples, Jesus’ followers, the ones being instructed by him.  They are little (in the world’s eyes) because their lives have been lost and confused, wearied and tapped, harassed and helpless.  Such people are considered little by the world because they receive no recognition from the world’s life.  Because Jesus has stepped into their lives,

though, these “little people” are, in reality, carrying and reflecting the salvation he has brought to the world!  Thus, when the world’s people bump up against the lives of Jesus’ “little children,” they are actually bumping up against the Life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

While the virus, the deaths and the discriminations are wearying all of us, whether we’re baptized or not, we cannot avoid these realities.  We cannot hunker down and ride their storms out.  Neither can we stand around and wait for these realities to return to normal.

Instead we are to take seriously the Life wrapped around our own by the Holy Trinity, reminded that this is the most vital Life the world has ever seen.  We are also to note how harsh the world’s realities can be and that their intensity only increases when we take it upon ourselves to address them.

The Lord God is attempting to get everyone’s attention so they can be glimpsed with the realities of his Son’s crucified, resurrected and ascended Life.  It is this Life that can rescue the world’s people from themselves and from the messes thrust upon them.

Imbedded firmly in Lord’s Life, then, through these instructions from Matthew’s tenth chapter his people are freed from being tapped out by the powerful realities swirling through the world’s life today.  This glimpsing we are privileged to reflect and carry into the world’s agony will be resisted significantly by those who are still wrapped up in themselves, by those who think the world’s life is rather good, by those who don’t believe they need any salvation.

However, there will not be any resistance from those people whose lives are being crushed by the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death!  For such people, the carrying and reflecting of the Lord’s Life will be welcomed!  The people whose lives are pulling apart or who have no purpose will not draw back from his Life.  Such individuals will be looking for the Lord God who steps into agonized lives and rescues them!  May the Spirit of the Lord’s Son keep instructing us so we can faithfully and clearly glimpse the world’s people with his rescuing and sustaining Life!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com