God welcomes. Do we? - 4th after pentecost

The first reading is Jeremiah 28:5-9.

The holy gospel according to Matthew (10:40-42).

Jesus said:

⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,

      and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

      ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet

            will receive a prophet’s reward;

      and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person

            will receive the reward of the righteous;

      ⁴²and 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.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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As Jesus sends his disciples out, his message for those of us they might encounter along the way is clear: welcome them.  Don’t just tolerate, put up with, or quietly ignore them, but truly welcome them as we would welcome Jesus.  Welcome a prophet as a prophet—recognize their calling, what makes them unique, and even perhaps what they say that makes us uncomfortable.

Last week and this week, we’ve been encountering Jeremiah in our first reading and though I didn’t preach on him, he is a great example of a prophet in the sense that he embodies just about everything a prophet could possibly go through. 

Rev. Liddy Barlow, points out that as a prophet, Jeremiah preaches what people don’t want to hear, occasionally even the opposite of what might make sense at the time or in the short term, he has plenty of doubt and despair as we heard about last week, and his performance art—engaging in symbolic acts to convey the heart of God’s message—like breaking pottery and wearing literal yokes, can definitely make folks uncomfortable.

When Jesus says, “⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward,” he’s certainly familiar with Jeremiah and other prophets who, like his own disciples that he’s sending out, are likely to make their hosts a bit uncomfortable.  But Jesus’ concern is not with comfort.  It is with the vulnerable ones—the prophets willing to speak truth to power, even under threat of violence or death; the righteous—those committed to being in right relationship with God, their fellow humans, and all of creation; the little ones who need a refreshing drink of cool water; and all those who will know the Good News of God’s healing and love because of them.

With the events of the last week and July 4^th coming up, I can’t help but think of the Statue of Liberty and Jewish immigrant, Emma Lazarus’ poem at its base.  Though many of us are familiar with the second half of The New Colossus, the whole poem is striking              as it refers to the imposing Greek Colossus of Rhodes, pictured on the left.  The Colossus of Rhodes was the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios, a symbol of power and military victory, which Lazarus then compares with the Statue of Liberty.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Statue of Liberty

The poem reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Like Jesus in today’s gospel and the prophets and faithful throughout biblical and human history, the welcome of this poem, symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, isn’t a welcome for those who already fit in.  It isn’t a welcome to those willing to assimilate to the unassimilating culture that has become dominate in this country.  And it isn’t a welcome to those with the “right” belief, creed, politics, family, or connections.

The welcome of the Statue of Liberty, of Jesus, and of the prophets is a welcome to whoever is most in need of welcome, shelter, or refuge.  A cup of cold water sounds simple, but it can be the difference between life or death in the Sonoran Desert, provided at stations along the route of many immigrants to this country by organizations like Humane Borders and churches like la Iglesia Luterana San Lucas in Eagle Pass, Texas. 

Asylum-seekers, refugees, and immigrants come to this country for a million different reasons, and I wonder at the ways we do and do not welcome them.

This week, NPR’s The Takeaway reported about one of the three family detention centers in the united states where asylum-seekers are held until they are accepted as having a well-founded fear of future persecution or harm in their country of origin and then processed, which can take quite a while due to the current backlog.  The workers at the center refuse to drink the water provided to those being detained because it has been contaminated by nearby fracking and, although it is legally required in order to hold children, the detention center still hasn’t been certified as a childcare facility.  And yet, if you are a Thrivent member, your money supports the for-profit prison company,Corporate Corrections of America, which runs the facility.

This week the Supreme Court reinstated parts of the president’s travel ban, which, as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) states, “will mean individuals whom the U.S. has historically offered protection through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) will be denied that protection – at least for now – despite their having been appropriately vetted through top security and intelligence agencies.”

Closer to home, in our most recent legislative session, language was included in the budget bill that will make it even harder to reinstate the ability of undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses like they had been able to do in the past.

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me,” Jesus says. “⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous.”  It is in these, at times uncomfortable, encounters with prophets, little ones, the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse, the homeless, tempest-tost that we receive Jesus’ rewards.

We are not the rewards, nor are those we might welcome, but it is in the very act of welcoming, that everyone involved receives Jesus’ reward.  It is in the relationship that forms, the connections created, and the love both given and received.  It is in the work of LIRS, joining together new immigrants and refugees with communities eager to welcome them to this country.  It is along the side of the highway when cars stop to help someone change a tire or get the help that they need.

God gives us glimpses of the reign of God as it will be, God shares a truth deeper than any government or news agency could report, and God uses us, the people we encounter, and the interactions themselves as their own prophetic, performance art and symbolic acts, which embody the Good News.  Through these acts, God welcomes each of us into the dominion of heaven and brings us all closer to the world and the country as we hope it will be.

Thanks be to God.