Freely Obedient, Pentecost 4, July 2, 2017

Fourth Sunday of Pentecost (Year A)

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Discipleship is always relational. Discipleship is connected to how we treat others. Jesus himself says, “for I was a stranger.” In the Christian Gospel we are called to a radical discipleship that loves neighbor, stranger, and even enemy. Love is never absent from sacrifice, mercy, or justice. As a pastor who works daily with immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, my hope is that we find a way forward that is consistent with “cups of cold water” rather than blistering walls of division. This is not easy, but the way of the cross never is.

– Gabriel Salguero, pastor,

Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, New York

Theme: Freely Obedient

Reflection: Today’s gospel is the third week in a row of consecutive readings from Matthew 9-10.

These instructions from Jesus to the disciples lay the groundwork for everything that follows, for the disciples, right down to us:

• Matthew 9:35-10:23. Jesus tells his followers to pray to the Lord of the harvest for more laborers and then volunteers the twelve. He instructs them: travel light, depend on hospitality, and be ready for trouble.
• Matthew 10:24-39. Being a disciple isn’t going to be a picnic, and I’m not going to promise you a peaceful time, Jesus continues. Trust in God above all else.
• And today, Matthew 10:40-42. Three short verses with guidance about showing hospitality.

In short, it’s a relationship guide.

And today’s gospel is paired with complementary lessons about freedom. Jeremiah welcomes this prophet who speaks words of peace the people are clamoring to hear, after prophet after prophet warns of war, famine and pestilence. Jeremiah tells him he is free to talk of peace. But eventually the people will judge if he was a true or false prophet by the outcome.

The Psalm speaks of a people set free by God’s promises and protection. And the New Testament continues its long trek into Romans, as Paul explains that grace sets people free, and they are free to choose a path that leads to abundant life or the division and death of sin.

Freedom – what an opportune topic for the weekend before Independence Day. And how simple it would be to talk about how God’s grace sets us free from the law, so we can enjoy our lives and go about business as usual.

And we’d miss the whole point.

God set us free in great love to be prosperous? To hang out with others who know they are set free? To wait around for our heavenly reward? Somehow, none of that sounds right.

We are set free to proclaim God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, with our mouth and our actions. Setting others free, as Jesus said, by welcoming them, perhaps even with the smallest action. Just a cup of cold water might do.

When did you set someone free this week? A friend set me free with a text. Shampoo, conditioner and body wash was the cup of cold water one of my clients needed to get through the next month. Another needed me to listen to her for 90 minutes, just to hear her pain and tell her that her life will be good again.

We love because God loved us first. We give cups of cold water because we know what it’s like to be parched and need it. We welcome others because we’ve known the pain of rejection. When we’ve been set free – really free! by the knowledge that God has adopted us as beloved children – we cannot help but be obedient, practicing the art of welcome, loving others and bearing cups of cold water, wherever we can.

Whoever gives even a cup of cold water

to one of these little ones

in the name of a disciple

—truly I tell you—will not lose their reward.”

—Matthew 10.42

The Holy One will come to you today

little and weak

and in need.

You will recognize them at first

by your fear and antipathy

and only then see their need

and remember that spring

gushing up in you

to eternal life.

– Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light blog, www.unfoldinglight.net

(You always are welcome to respond with your thoughts and reflections in the comments section at the bottom of this post.) 

Faith App:  What is the cup of cold water that God is asking you to offer today? In the summer heat, perhaps it is carrying water bottles and care kits for those who are struggling. But maybe it is a helping hand to a single parent, or a word of encouragement or reconciliation to someone on your heart.

HYMN/SONG SUGGESTIONS

Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life, ELW 719

All are Welcome, ELW 641

When the Poor Ones, ELW 725

God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending, ELW 678

Sent Forth by God’s Blessing, ELW 547

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy, ELW 587/588

My Life Flows On in Endless Song, ELW 763

I Come with Joy, ELW 482

Evidence, Citizen Way

Mercy and grace and compassion

They’re only words without action

I need hands that are open

Reaching out for broken hearts

‘Cause that’s the only way this world

Would ever know who you are

Love is the evidence

Love is the evidence

I Am Free, Newsboys

No Longer Slaves, Bethel Music

I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, SonicFlood

Your Love, O Lord, Third Day

VIDEO

Cold Cup of Water, https://vimeo.com/20938237, Pat Humphries of emma’s revolution sings a song at Rural and Migrant Ministries Farmworker Advocacy Day 2001, a tribute she wrote to honor migrant workers who won the right to have water in the fields in 1999.

LESSONS

Jeremiah 28:5-9 Jeremiah questions the prophecies of Hananiah.

Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 A song of thanks for God’s covenant with the house of David.

Romans 6:12-23 Paul asks what will you have as a master – sin or obedience to God

Matthew 10:40-42 Jesus holds hospitality as a non-negotiable action for the disciples.

Summary of the Lessons:  We have been set free to give all people at least the minimum they need to be well, to live, to be part of community. What does that look like? Clean water, clean air, enough food, health care, a safe community, words of welcome. Does grace set us free to have no responsibilities to anyone? If we think so, we are so NOT getting Jesus’ message.

OPENING LITANY based on Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18

L:  How happy are those who have learned to praise you;

C: Those who journey through life by the light of your face.

L:  God, I want your song to be heard for centuries

C:  The joyful melody of your steadfast love for us,

L:  David’s descendants will rule forever, you said,

C:  A covenant you are keeping through Jesus, our Lord.

L:  How happy are those who have learned to praise you;

C: Those who journey through life by the light of your face.

L:  Every moment becomes one of worship, Lord;

C:  We arise and rejoice at the sound of your name.

L:  Enjoying freedom because you hold and protect us;

C:  Free to serve because you surround us with love.

L:  How happy are those who have learned to praise you;

C: Those who journey through life by the light of your face.

CONFESSION

L:  Lord, freedom and slavery are all over the lessons today,

C:  Your grace set us free from our slavery to sin’s power;

L:  New life a door that you welcome us to enter joyfully.

C:  Forgive us, Lord, when we’ve closed the door behind us.

L:  Lord, so quickly you cover us with your steadfast love,

C:  Love that we can’t earn, yet you never, ever withhold it;

L:  Love so generous that you tell us to go and share it.

C:  Forgive us, Lord, when we decide who deserves it.

L:  Lord, you tell us to welcome the strangers and outcasts,

C: Invite everyone, give a warm welcome to all people,

L:  In love, offer a cup of cold water, or anything they need.

C:  Forgive us, Lord, for refusing to share what we have.

(Silent reflection)

L:  In our confession, we pray together,

C:  Most Merciful God … We love the idea of grace, for our families and friends, those who look and think like we do. But we’re as stingy with grace as we are our hospitality and resources for those who come from different places, have different beliefs and customs, and even oppose the things we think you want. Forgive us, Lord, for closing our ears and our doors, and suggesting that some people are beyond your grace.

Here is Good News: Our welcome should come naturally, and our grace as quickly as God pardons us. But learning to reach out to all, including people outside our small circle of community, is hard work. But it is the work of discipleship, the work of following Christ. And practiced, it becomes our joy as love and welcome return to us. Through God’s amazing grace, you are set free from your sin, set free to choose to move forward in love and hospitality to all.

In the name of…

Amen

PRAYER OF THE DAY

L:  We pray together, 

C:  Liberating God … we thank you for loving us, no matter what. You welcome us as your children, no strings attached, time after time. And you patiently wait until we understand that we are set free to follow you, learning how to set others free with something as simple as a cold cup of water. Teach us your welcoming ways, through your forever faithfulness and steadfast love.  Amen.

COMMUNION BLESSING

L:  We pray together,

C:  We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the welcome offered in this bread, the everlasting covenant in this cup. This is the cup of cold water you give us, as we come before you, parched and needy, week after week, hungering and thirsting after another taste of your grace. Fill us, so that we are ready to watch for those little ones in our world who need us to welcome and share with them. Amen. 

SENDING

L:  We’ve come to your house to sing your praises;

C:  To be welcomed and refreshed in this family,

L:  We leave this place, loaded with Love’s blessings,

C:  Set free to share everything you first gave us.

L:  Go now, cup-bearers, to love and to serve the Lord.

C: Thanks be to God!

First Reading Jeremiah 28:5-9 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: After the reign of King Josiah ended, Judah’s people ceased to follow God, and they ended up being dominated, then exiled by the Babylonians. Jeremiah faces another prophet, Hananiah, who instead insists peace is ahead.

⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; ⁶ and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ⁷ But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ⁸ The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ⁹ As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

Second Reading Romans 6:12-23 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: Last week, Paul wrote about baptism already freeing people from sin. But that isn’t the whole story. Paul says there’s a difference between set free and perfected.

¹² Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³ No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel Matthew 10:40-42 (NRSV)

Setting the Scene: This continuous reading started several weeks ago, with Jesus expressing a need for more workers to bring in the harvest. Having chosen the 12 disciples to go, he keeps up his guidance.

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.”

Bonus Gospel Reflection (from my Windhaven Worship group)

I don't think we're impressed by today's text.

Not only is it one of the shortest Gospel texts in the weekly lectionary, but in our world today, we just don't see its importance.

A cup of cold water:

·         Turn on the tap – cold or hot water at your fingertips.

·         Drinking fountain in the hallway, or a water cooler in an office.

·         Right there on the front of the refrigerator – crushed ice, ice cubes, and cold water.

·         Bottled water to take with you, or a water bottle with a built-in ice pack.

But in Jesus' day, cold water was a luxury. A traveler might be searching for any water for their group and their animals. A solo traveler's water might have been scooped from a watering hole days ago, and today it would be warm, slimy and gross.

A cup of cold, fresh water – pure joy. Cold water from a well or a spring – life itself. Probably water carried by a woman early that morning for all the day's drinking, cooking and washing. A cup of cold water offered to a passerby – quite the gift.

So, when our water is so easily obtainable, we tend to not value it.

It was this week, one year ago, that I learned to value a cup of cold water. A friend and I were on a six-day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters. No taps. No refrigerators. No wells. If our campsite had a latrine and a fire grate, we had hit the jackpot. No way to carry enough water for six days. We relied on a simple filtration device and the vast lakes all around us.

Handed a cold cup of water – pure joy. More than enough to drink – wow!

What is the cold cup of water in our world today? What is the simple gift that we can offer that is precious and unexpected, but is life-giving?