Göttinger Predigten
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2nd Sunday after Pentecost , 06/26/2011
Sermon on Matthew 10:40-42, by Erma Wolf
40)"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41) 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; 42) 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."
"Looking for a Welcome"
"All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place!" Thus goes the refrain of a popular hymn, one that was sung at the recent assembly of my own synod. Being welcoming is stressed repeatedly in the mainline church these days. Welcome to the stranger, welcome to the sinner; welcome to those whose lifestyle - whose life -- is "different," for any number of reasons not of the Christian norm. Jesus welcomed all people: tax collectors and prostitutes, Pharisees and even the occasional Gentile. So we who are followers of Jesus are called to be welcoming, also. It's almost as if we read the Great Commission at the end of Matthew as saying, "Go, therefore, and be welcoming to all nations!"
Certainly there is a necessary message in all of this emphasis on being welcoming. The Gospel is for all people, and especially for those who need the good news of forgiveness and amendment of life. We in the Church are not called to act as if the salvation offered by God in Christ Jesus is only for people like us, or as if being part of the gathered people of God required passing tests in ethnic traditions, language, or educational levels. Just last week we heard the words of Jesus at the end of this Gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." The good news is for everyone, without a doubt.
However, these verses from the 10th chapter of Matthew bring a needed reminder of what comes first, welcoming or being welcomed. Just as last week Jesus was commissioning the disciples to "Go" and make disciples, so here also (earlier in the chapter) Jesus is sending out the twelve. His instructions and warnings throughout this are not so much directed to his followers being welcoming as they are to go and be welcomed.
In other words, we aren't in control of this.
As important as it may be to welcome those who come to us, hoping to see Jesus and be a part of his community, that is not what our primary commission is all about. Instead, we are to be going and taking that witness to Christ and his Gospel into a world of Gentiles: those people and places that are foreign to us and to the Church, aliens to the good news. Far from being the ones in charge of welcoming others, we are to be the ones in need of welcoming. We are to be vulnerable to being rejected, or received, never knowing in advance which response we will get. Some will receive us, and in doing so will receive the one who promises to be with us to the end of time. Others will say, "Thanks, but no thanks," perhaps politely, perhaps slamming the door in our faces - or worse.
Either way, we are not in control of the response. We are out there, trusting that the one who sent us will indeed provide those cups of cold water and those places of rest and welcome, for us and for all others who are going in the name of the Lord. Whether we are received or not is not in our hands; going to others with the message entrusted to us is all we can lay claim to.
Likewise, the reward spoken of here is not ours to claim. It is for those outside the faith, who receive those who come bearing the news that the Kingdom of God is at hand. If we are welcomed, if we are received, if our words are heard and our witness is believed, it is not for our own sake but because we come bearing the one who speaks with authority that sins are forgiven and strangers are welcomed into the household of God.
And what reward is that? Could it be the same as what Jesus speaks of at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount: that those who receive us and our testimony, who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness and mercy, will receive mercy from the Lord? That they will be called children of God, and know the presence of the Father who asks all his children to call upon him for their daily bread?
We who follow those first twelve disciples in our response to Jesus' sending out, who at some point welcomed in those who came bringing us the news of a Savior who promises to be "God with us," we now take our place on the road, going. We go proclaiming the message that Jesus is Lord, bringing those dead in despair and sin to life in the kingdom of his Father. We cannot say what reception, what sort of welcome, we may get. But the one who sends us promises his presence with us, in every encounter, in every turn of the road, to save us in the time of trial and bless us, and those we meet, with his daily provision for our needs here and a place for us in the kingdom of heaven.
And that is a welcome we can count on.