29 June 2014 “Welcome All” Matthew 10:40-42

  Today I celebrate the anniversary of my ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. It was nine years ago this month at the First Presbyterian Church in Uvalde where I was ordained and installed as pastor.  While it was a first for me, this church has witnessed many installation services as new pastors were called to Trinity or Wilshire. I can only imagine the number of ordination and installation services there have been for the elders. Many of you can remember yours.

 In our remembrance of those times it is fitting to recall our faithful laboring through study, and training, and the years we  have labored faithfully worshiping, and doing God’s ministry to one another and to the world.  We can be mighty proud of our work thus far.

 Ordination is the act by which the church sets apart persons who have been called, through election by the church, to service. In our Presbyterian tradition and according to scripture, we call them presbyters. These presbyters may be ministers of Word and Sacrament or teaching elders, and active members of session, or ruling elders.

 Most importantly, the service itself is rooted in our baptism, which “is the basic Christian ‘ordination’.  In baptism, we are individually claimed as God’s own beloved sons and daughters and grafted into the body of Christ – the community of faith – the church.

 It was in our own baptism we were made disciples of Jesus Christ and called to serve others as if we were serving Christ himself.  This is a good day to remember and celebrate our baptism into the faith, for we are all called to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

  I was drawn to reminisce about these times by this morning’s scripture which reminds us of our personal call to service.  We hear it in Matthew’s gospel at the end of chapter 10 in the form of a call to welcome those doing God’s work, and to hear about their reward.

  “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 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; 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.”

 Our call to welcome and give to “one of these little ones” God brings to us is clear. The promise of a reward, whether it is the reward of the righteous, or never losing our reward can be a bit tricky though.

 It sounds like welcoming the word of God connects us to God and being connected to God connects us to the reward of God’s salvation. That is what the reward of the righteous is. Our reward is found in being in a right relationship with God. God grants salvation through Christ’s cross, this is God’s atoning act of righteousness.

   This is a beautiful truth for this day of worship in our church. This is the sort of good news we want to hear. This is our day to celebrate who we have been as a church and as the faithful, who we are now, and who we will become.

 So it is right and good that we celebrate this day being ordained, all of us, being set apart, made holy. It is God’s truth and it is for each of us. It is God’s truth and it may be understood as our reward. A reward we may expect to receive this day, and every day. It is our reward for our faithfulness.

  Reward, I wonder if we should feel a little uncomfortable about this notion of being rewarded, being so lifted, and exalted, and the center of attention.

 Ernie Hinojosa began a new congregation in San Antonio. The place was doing well, far better than Pastor Ernie had dreamed. One day he found sanctuary in his office and prayed a lament to God: “I’m too young, I’m not strong enough to do this!” to which God very clearly replied, “Ernie, what made you think it was about you? It’s not about you; it’s about me. This is my work.”

 I am always struck by that line, “What made you think it was about you?” I have written that phrase in my journal, and wish I could burn it in my psyche because I need to be reminded of that truth every day.

 In the midst of an American culture that seems at every turn to tell us what we deserve, it is truly difficult to believe we are not the center of the universe where we deserve the best our world has to offer. That point of our deserving the best is reinforced time and time again. This world clearly proves to us, it is about us!

 Is it possible we are surrounded by false prophets who tell us what we want to hear? Jeremiah thought so. We read this morning his response to the prophet Hananiah.

 Hananiah was clearly preaching and prophesying what the people of Israel wanted to hear. They were in exile in Babylon. They wanted to go home, to their land, their temple, and their old way of life.

 So Hananiah took up the cry. He assured them all the temple vessels would be returned to Jerusalem and they were about to be set free from their exile. Jeremiah hoped so. He truly did. He wanted to go home too.

 But, that was not happening. The words Hananiah was saying had not come true. He preached exactly what the people wanted to hear, rather than taking the route of God’s truth, which was what Jeremiah had done.

 We are most familiar with another prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, who also decided to not preach what the people wanted to hear. Instead he preaches the way of God’s truth. Jesus says exactly what God wants him to say, even when it is not what we want to hear.

 In Matthew’s tenth chapter, Jesus has called us as his disciples and he sends us out to do God’s work, God’s work, where we will be on God’s side.

  Dear ones, this is the real meaning of our day of honor. This is our real reward, being about God, and not ourselves. The cost and reward of being a disciple is that we must surrender to the fact that it is not about us.

 Barbara Brown Taylor is a respected preacher and author. About this passage she says, “What the Bible tells us over and over again – what our lives tell us – is that the only reward for doing God’s work is doing God’s work. Period.”

 Susan Langhauser, another great preacher, says, “Let’s face it ‘What’s in it for me?’ is not a biblical question!”

 Brother Lawrence, a humble 17^th-century monk, having nothing found himself quite well off, which he attributed to the fact that he sought only God, and not Gods gifts. He was not interested in any ones, “What’s in it for me?” question. He believed that God is much greater than any of the simple gifts God gives us. Rather, he chose to look beyond the gift, hoping to learn more about God as God. It actually became his desire to avoid receiving any reward, so that he would have the pleasure of doing something solely for God. He would agree with Taylor. The reward for doing God’s work is doing God’s work, period.

  God has placed within our hearts a desire to be in relationships and when in a genuine relationship we do not ask, what is in it for me. A true relationship should not be about us.

 We see the fruits of a true relationship when the line between our self and the other become blurred. Two in a relationship become one as they become friends, as they fall in love, as they become parents, or as they become the right thing they have done. It is not about us as an individual. We die to self, remember, and are born anew.

  This point was made in the story of a women’s Bible study group. They had chosen to study Malachi 3:3, where God “will sit as a refiner, a purifier of silver.”

 Not really understanding that concept, one of the women volunteered to find out about the process of refining silver. She made an appointment and on arriving at the silversmith’s shop, was escorted to the place of refining. The smith held the piece of silver right in the center of the flame. The woman thought about what that might say about how God deals with us, and she asked the smith, “Do you have to hold the silver in the hottest part of the fire?” “Oh yes, “he replied. “If I look away for a moment it could get too hot and be destroyed. If I don’t let it get hot enough, it will not become pure and therefore workable for my purposes.” “But how do you know when it is refined?” asked the woman. The silversmith replied, “When I can see my own image in the silver, I know it is pure.”

 This is Gods’ truth.  God sits as a refiner, a purifier of each of us. Our baptism, our individual refinement as God’s own beloved sets us apart to serve God. It is so not about us. The reward of doing God’s work is simply doing God’s work.

 Our celebration this morning, our reward, is not about you or me. It is about God, and our union with God, and all that God has created.

Our celebration and reward in this new light naturally draws us together for we do desire God’s truth. In this desire we live with the conviction God has given us authority for our journey and in that journey we are living to do Gods’ work.

 So let us do that work until the moment when the Creator’s image can be seen in us. For at that moment we will know for certain, it is most definitely not about us.

 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen                                                                   062914.gpc