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PENTECOST 7A
June 29, 2008
SCRIPTURES
SCRIPTURE SETTING : Matthew is writing for Christian community of Antioch. The Jerusalem mother-church of the apostle James (in which the dominant attitude was sympathetic towards Hebrew tradition) had disappeared by the year 85 when Matthew wrote his gospel account. By that time Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. Bill Fletcher
-In the first century, there was not a sense of "the individual," but the individual was always part of a group. So, even if an individual welcomed another individual, they symbolized one group welcoming another group.
REVIEW of Matthew 10:37-42
Do the same works that Jesus did
Community will take care of you so carry little with you
Some who will not listen; shake dust from feet.
Finally, who ever welcomes you welcomes me (Jesus) and the one who sent me. We are all linked
-The word reward is used
three times. We are not told the nature of the reward; maybe the
new fellowship that emerges is the reward. Maybe hospitality to
God's messengers carries its own reward In any case the notion or
reward suggests that the act of welcoming does not go unnoticed by
God. Brueggemann
-This passage also ties in hospitality with the Christian mission — and
this is a lesson most needed today. Our world has
become dehumanized, and we have become isolated and alienated
from one another. It is up to the Christian to break down these
barriers and to make room for one another in our hearts and homes. Thomas Welbers
-"Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Heb. 13:1-2, NRSV)
-He thus establishes a four-way partnership between God, Jesus, disciple, and host. God initiated the partnership by sending Jesus. Jesus then sends the disciples. The disciples take the third step by going. Those who welcome the disciples take the final step by providing support Sermon Writer
- Theme of openness and inclusion.
-God's grace is large enough for all of us.
-If I were to invite a Latino, or Asian, or Black or homosexual person to church, there is a sense that the entire congregation is then welcoming that minority into its fellowship. We don't just represent ourselves, but the group(s) that give us (part of) our identities. Stoffregen
- If only God's grace weren't so scary, if only it didn't come with so much risk! Extending the circle to another involves the risk of rejection, the risk of laughter...of tears...of love. Wilimon
-This scripture's focus is on those who will (or won't) welcome the disciples and what God will do to them.
-Marty Haugen has a wonderful hymn, "All are welcome,"
-Webster notes that "welcome" is rooted in German that means "a desirable guest."
-God doesn't "reward" us. What God gives us (existence!, love, forgiveness, God's very self...) is a gift, pure and simple. What fools we must look like, running around trying to earn what has already been given to us for free!
-"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life," has taken its place among the best loved hymns of the church. Frank Mason North's call to provide a welcome for the most needy issues co
mes forth each time the old hymn is sung, especially in the line based on our text, "The cup of water given for Thee, Still holds the freshness of Thy grace, Yet long these multitudes to see The sweet compassion of Thy face."
-This is the kind of unity we seek in the church. “Unity” does not demand strict conformity, agreement, or cohesiveness. What it does call for is empathy: thinking and feeling from another person’s perspective; it requires tolerant altruism. Stroop
SERMON: Emerson said we all stand for something; we all have representative capacity. Jesus represented God and now he sends
the disciples out to represent Jesus/God. Those who welcome the disciples also want to represent Jesus/God. Using the following quotes and some of
your own try a sermon on REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY: (Lindy)
-Everything has RC: buildings, church, people, institutions. Stand for something greater than self. Emerson
-We are being used ! Fosdick
-Certain truths never die. Keep returning. Through RC We represent great ideas
-What we do represents God. Love, inclusiveness, caring, welcoming
-Standing for God not easy/ cannot do it with physical strength alone/ hostile world/ need spiritual. Lindy
-A tree glorifies God by being a tree. T.Merton Be the God-made person you are.
-Do unto others as you would have GOD DO UNTO YOU
-God not identified by help of a dictionary but only by relationship. Kathleen Norris
-Because we love, God is present. Thomas Merton
-If you're hankering for God, He's already found you for it is God who creates the hankering Gerald Mann
-Joan Osborn's Rock tune "What if God were one of us?" That, indeed, is what the search for Jesus is about.
-God's tug, a kind of homing instinct. Barbara Brown Taylor
-We are conduits of God's power
-"Kindom" of God is about all those who are kin to God and kin to each other.
-All relationships are ultimately a relationship with God. Chopra
-Do you not know that you are God's temple? Paul
-God is the inward light. Quake
-Godly power depends on INSIDE things, (love, faith, truth, etc)
-God's active force. the holy spirit
-Human beings are God's language. God speaks to all of us through all of us
QUOTES
- The problems with others is that they are just that...others.
-You are the only Jesus some people will ever see."
-Unity does not mean uniformity
-Other might not like us, might hurt us, might exclude us, and worst of all, others might change us.
-"In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity." -Rubertus Meldinius
-Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules…all come in communities. The singular cannot exist.
- part or apart?
-“ He drew a circle to shut me out/ heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win\ we drew a circle that took him in.” Edwin Markham
-I am a part of all I have met. Tennyson
-If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. Milton Berle
-It's Jesus who redefines who the "other" is. There is no other, as far as Jesus is concerned. Gomes
-No man is an island. John Donne
-Story of little wave afraid to crash on shore and be destroyed. Older wave reminds little wave, "You are not just a wave....you are the ocean." Tuesdays at Morries
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. cannot help but think of an old story told about Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She was asked how it was that she could continue to tend the sickest and most wretched of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. Mother Teresa said that as she looked at each person for whom she was caring she tried to imagine that she was tending the Lord Jesus’ wounded body – His nail-scarred hands, feet, and side. And so it was that in each act of caring, the Kingdom of God embraced and even reached out through Mother Teresa as she welcomed Christ in her neighbor and as she embraced the neighbor as if that person were the Lord Himself! God remembers each act of hospitality. Samuel D. Zumwalt
2. Ambassadors: We understand this when we think of ambassadors for a nation. Whoever welcomes the ambassador is welcoming the president of the nation whom the ambassador represents. The disciples were ambassadors for Christ and whoever welcomed them into their homes were welcoming Jesus Christ himself and also the Lord God who sent Jesus to this earth.
3. In Danish, Velkommen;In Swedish, Välkommen.;In Germany, Willkommen.;In Iceland, Velkomen.;In Scotland, WalkomIn ;Holland, Welcom.
In France, Bienvenue.;In Spain, Benvidos ;In Arabic, Marhaben.;In Cantonese China, Foon ying. ;Hawaiian, Aloha mai;Hebrew, Baruch haba;Japanese, Yo koso ;Zulu, Emukela.
4. Late in his life, Albert Einstein removed two framed portraits of the great scientists Newton and Maxwell from the wall of his study. In their place he hung photos of Gandhi and Schweitzer. When asked why, Einstein explained that he had reached the place in his life where he was no longer driven by a quest for knowledge or success. Instead, he longed for role models for servant hood.
HUMOR
-Disciples (Our fair weather friends) Willimon
-When St. Paul got converted, he lost his religion.
-Never join a perfect church, If you do, it won’t be perfect anymore
-Believe in God in spite of what the clergy say.
CHILDREN
-We are all flag staffs. Different sizes, shapes, colors, etc. Like flags, we all stand for something. The important part is not the flag staff but what we
stand for! Lindy
-Talk about; Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules…all come in communities. The singular cannot exist.
-Talk about how we are all God's ambassadors.
PRAYER PHRASES
We see you in the compassionate ways of those who accept us no matter how inadequate or different we may be.
We see you in the loving ways of those who love us unconditionally.
We see you in the sacrificing ways of those who give of themselves.
We see you in the forgiving ways of those who forgive our unforgivable ways.
etc., etc., etc.
We give thanks that you have revealed yourself to us and that the You we see in Jesus we can also see in those around us in our daily lives. Lindy
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