Matthew 10:40-42
To be welcoming is to exude a spirit of excitement and expectation.
- Welcomes are a smile…not a frown.
- Welcomes are open arms…not crossed ones.
- A welcoming spirit is positive and upbeat.
We experience this every day.
- When we were kids…and took the Chevy or Ford on a cross-country vacation…
- We stopped to take a photo at the state line where there was a huge sign that said:
- “Welcome to Wyoming”?
- The entire family was excited.
- Wyoming likes us!
- So how could we not like Wyoming in return?
Airports welcome us.
- Walmart welcomes us and even has greeters at the front door.
- A welcome is good news.
- We are accepted. We are wanted.
- More than that…here in Wyoming or at Walmart…everything will be done to make our vacation or shopping a save money…live better experience.
Hospitality is among the most ancient of human traditions.
- It’s about providing the essentials of life for another person.
- Especially another person who is on a journey.
- Food…water…a roof over one’s head.
- The offering of hospitality brings two people…guest and host…closer.
Most of us contribute to charitable causes.
- Especially those that aid the poor.
- We sign a check or click “enter” to send a contribution.
- But that’s not what Jesus recommends in our Gospel.
- Jesus says: “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.”
Jesus is saying:
- Get right in there and help God’s suffering children with your hands.
- That is our church’s slogan: “God’s Work…Our Hands.”
- Just a cup of water…how ordinary!
- But a cup of cold water handed over personally to a person who’s thirsty…that’s extraordinary!
Remember how Peter Falk’s character…Columbo’s MO…was to fumble around in his rumpled raincoat and smudged tie…
- Looking like the most incompetent detective ever.
- The perpetrator would relax:
- “I’ve got nothing to fear from this fool!”
- But then…as Colombo was leaving the room…
- He would always turn around and say:
- “Just one more thing.”
It was then that he would drop the critical question.
- The insignificant-sounding afterthought that sprung the trap.
- The steely logic behind the question would catch the perp unawares.
- And they would stumble into a contradiction that would incriminate them.
At the end of Jesus’ long list of parting instructions…
- It’s as though he turns to go away…then stops.
- But the “one more thing” he says is no trap.
- It is a vital word of instruction.
- Don’t shrink from offering a cup of cold water to “these little ones.”
He’s been telling the disciples what a tough world it is out there.
- They are going to be scorned and rejected in some villages.
- In other villages they will receive wonderful…spirit-filled hospitality.
- They will not know…as they enter the next village…what to expect.
- They need to trust God every step of the way.
And then Jesus says:
- “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.”
A cup of cold water seems like such a little thing.
- But it’s not.
- Cold water was a rarity in Jesus’ culture.
- He could have just said “a cup of water.”
- But he said: “a cup of cold ”
Well…most of us can get cold water whenever we want it.
- It’s as easy as taking ice cubes from the refrigerator.
- We have refrigerated water…water fountains and water coolers.
- Sit down in a restaurant and a glass of cold water just appears.
Yet…getting a cup of cold water in Jesus’ day was not so easy.
- There was no running water.
- No refrigeration.
- A household’s water came from the village well.
Early in the morning one of the women or girls walked to the well with a clay jar.
- Filled it and came back with it balanced on her head.
- She would place the water jar in a shady space inside the house.
- But as the hours passed it lost that cool…crisp…fresh-from-the-well taste.
By late afternoon.
- The time most thirsty dinner guests were likely to arrive.
- You were lucky if room-temperature water was what you had left.
- At that time of day…a room in a first-century Palestinian house…was hot.
If someone brings a cup of cold water to one of “these little ones” …
- One of Jesus’ disciples…whom he’s sending out to do God’s extraordinary work in ordinary ways.
- It means she got up…ran to the well…and came back with fresh…cool water.
- A special trip…a special effort…for a special person.
That’s what hospitality is.
- Last week we attended a memorial grave-side service for our beloved niece Kate in Wisconsin.
- Susan and I were house guests in my sister and brothers-in-law’s home.
- They made that extra effort.
- They went that extra mile to make it exactly right.
- Great food and a perfect bed and wonderful conversation.
- Oh…and cold water…what a joy!
- It was the acts of kindness Beth and John did not have to do.
- We did not expect it…but they did it anyway.
- That is what GRACE is!
So many gifts in this world are given according to the ordinary calculus of human values:
- An eye for an eye.
- You take care of me…I take care of you.
- You scratch my back…I scratch yours.
- You’ve done the work…you are entitled to be paid.
- A cup of ordinary water from the household jar.
- It is all anyone is entitled to.
- Oh…but cups of cold water are not so common.
- They are as rare now as they were in Jesus’ time.
A cup of cold water.
- Not just any water.
- Cold water.
- A gift nobody deserves.
- Because it is nothing but grace.
- It is free.
- It is priceless.
- It always has been.
- It always will be.
- We receive without price.
- Now…we give without pay.
We are alike in our thirst.
- We are alike in our need.
- And the only person who can quench that thirst is the one who offers not just ordinary water.
- But living water forevermore.