Podcast of "You and Whoever Else" (MP3)
Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 13
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
When I was in elementary school, one of the little intricacies of grammar we were taught was pronouns. There’s person; first, second, and third. There’s singular and plural. There are the possessive forms too. When the teachers thought we could handle it, we were even given objective forms to go with the subjective ones they had already been teaching us.
I say this because verse 40 waltzes us through this pronoun lesson. “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.” Since Jesus is the one who is speaking, he is the subject of the first person pronouns. In our reading, Jesus is “me.” That one’s pretty easy, but who are “you” and who are “he,” or as it says in the New Revised Standard Version, “whoever”?
“The one who sent me” is an overblown pronoun representing the Father.
To find out who the “you” are in our reading this morning, we need to go back to the beginning of chapter 10. In this passage Jesus was addressing the twelve. This is where Jesus gives the twelve their marching instructions, their mission and authority.
Jesus begins with the ethnic limits of their authority; they are to go to the lost sheep of Israel . Their mission is not to the gentiles; their mission is to the original recipients of God’s covenant with humanity. They are to teach the kingdom of heaven is near. They aren’t to teach that it’s “over there” or “on the other side of life,” it’s near.
They are to heal and cleanse and give freely, as they have freely received they are to freely give. They aren’t to depend on their own wealth or skill or cunning, they are to depend on something else, something far greater than their own wealth or skill or cunning.
They are to find their way in the world; they are to search and find a household worthy of God’s peace and stay there. If the place they find to stay isn’t worthy of this peace, they are to let it return. They aren’t to take it back, the peace will return on its own. Now if they aren’t welcomed they are to shake the dust of that town from their feet and declare a judgment harsher than befell Sodom and Gomorrah
Jesus tells them that the world will not welcome them, except to devour them. They come as sheep among wolves so are called to be shrewd and innocent at the same time. They will be arrested and brought to testify before the rich and powerful, but they aren’t to practice their testimony like it’s truTV.
They are told to have confidence and be courageous because the Spirit will fill their mouths with the necessary words. There is ultimately no secret that won’t be disclosed. The testimony of Christ will divide families. Because of this, when they are accused in one town, they are to move on to the next. Jesus promises there will be more than enough towns to visit.
Jesus promises they will be hated because of him, but those who stand firm will be saved. After all, while the leaders of this age can destroy their bodies, they should be more concerned with those who can destroy them body and soul. There is no reason to fear mortal men when God is so much greater. With this, Jesus promises to remember them before his Father; and he promises to disown those who disown him. He promises their discipleship will be costly, but he also promises their reward will be great.
Their reward will be their life, life eternal shared with the presence of the Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know this because we know that life eternal is not the next life. Let me rephrase this, life eternal is not just the next life. In God’s presence we share eternal life right now.
So whoever receives the twelve receives Jesus and whoever receives Jesus receives the Father who sent him.
When hearing the words of God and the words of God in Christ, we often ask ourselves “who am I?” or “where do I fit?” in this reading. This is what truly caught my attention as I was contemplating these verses. In the literal context of the story, except for those who can trace their family history to ancient Israel and Judea , we aren’t in this reading. Jesus is talking to the twelve about the lost sheep. He makes a special point to exclude the people with whom we share a heritage, the gentiles.
So what does this mean for us as the people who were grafted into the tree of life? I believe it is this. These words were not meant for you and me on that side of the resurrection. Jesus’ first mission was to the lost sheep of Israel . This would seem to be true based on the words found in Matthew 10, but after the crucifixion and resurrection, everything changed. As we read last week, the Great Commission opened the kingdom beyond the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The life that Jesus describes in this passage is now for all creation.
But again, it doesn’t answer the basic question of “who are we?” in this passage.
There are days when we find ourselves in the “whoever” category. Often we are the people who receive the twelve; we receive those who follow Christ. We receive them as they bring the Word of God.
We are the ones who hear, who receive, who respond to the Word of God. When Jesus speaks of “these little ones” he isn’t speaking of children, he is speaking of regular good old-fashioned followers of the Lord God. In the time of the sending of the twelve, the little ones are the lost sheep of Israel ; today it speaks to followers of Christ.
The prophet is one who declares the name and works of God to the nation. In this case the prophet serves as a mediator. The prophet is the one who speaks for God to the world. The prophet is also the one who represents humanity to God. In this special case, the prophet stands as the pivot point for the word of God and the obedience of humanity. In the “Law of the Messenger,” the prophet carries information in both directions, to God and to the assembly.
Similarly, the obligations of the righteous are related to spiritual obligations, ones of goodness and perseverance, charity and peace. The definition of who is righteous is firmly connected to the judgment of God; it is not up to you or me to determine who is righteous. It is not up to the newspaper, radio, or TV news to tell us who is righteous. The decision is God’s alone. The righteous one satisfies the demands of God, has right on their side, and a righteous cause before God.
As for me, I don’t think I have ever met a prophet; and by definition, since I don’t have the authority to deem who is righteous, I don’t think I have ever met a righteous person either. Who I have met are the wonderful people who have received Jesus. I have met the spirit-filled people who have received the Lord and the one who sent him.
One fine example was just a couple of weeks ago when we welcomed the Spirit Youth Choir from First United Methodist in San Angelo , Texas
Who I believe they are is a (not the, but a) modern equivalent of the twelve. They are the “you” of our scripture reading, more of that in a moment.
If you have ever wondered where I find the prayers that I use during worship, they come from several sources. The short prayer after Psalm of the Day and the Prayers of the People come from the Presbyterian “Book of Common Worship.”[1] The prayers we use for Confession of Sin and Offering Dedication come from a book called “When We Gather.”[2] The prayers in these books were created for each specific week of the year to correspond to the biblical texts we use in worship. This is why they seem to fit so well.
Another reason these prayers connect to our worship so well is that they were written by Presbyterians. The “Book of Common Worship” was written by a group of people from the PC(USA) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. “When We Gather” was written by a single Presbyterian Minister.[3]
The Prayers for Illumination come from a different book called “Revised Lectionary Prayers.”[4] If there’s one distinction to the prayers from this book compared to the others it is that these prayers are written by people from many different faiths backgrounds.
The faiths represented in these prayers include Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, and Mennonite just to name a few. Ordained lay people and ministers took a place at the table to create these prayers. So the variety of faith traditions that created these prayers is much broader than the other prayers we use.
There’s a sentence in our prayer for illumination that I thought would strike a nerve this morning. It did on Thursday when we discussed this passage. It went like this:
Ruler of the Universe,
you call us to radical loyalty
beyond all earthly claim.
We have been together for nearly nine months now, over a year if you count the time it takes to call a pastor. So as soon as I saw this sentence I knew that it would stir an eye or two in the congregation. I don’t blame you either.
The Random House Dictionary[5] defines radical as an adjective meaning “thoroughgoing[6] or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.” The next definition says “favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.” This sort of “radical” tends toward throwing out the baby with the bathwater; so I can easily see how these meanings of the word radical can make anybody feel uncomfortable. But I want us to consider another definition.
The first definition, the definition that in the opinion of the dictionary editor takes precedence over the other definitions says, “of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.” This first, this primary definition of radical is what I want us to consider when reading this passage. I want us to go back to the fundamentals.
Perhaps the greatest truth in this passage is that there are days when we are “whoever,” we are the people who receive the word of God. On those days, at those times, we are called to receive the word graciously and gratefully. We are called to welcome the prophet because he is a prophet of God. We are called to welcome the righteous because it is God who declared them righteous. We are the whoever who receive Jesus by receiving his disciples, but there is another side of this truth.
The other part of this truth is that there are some days, some times, when we are called to take the word of Christ into the world. We are called to share the presence of Christ to those who so sorely need to hear it. You may be called as a prophet, or you may be called as one who is righteous, and if that happens, fear not because you will be equipped as Jesus equipped the twelve. But there is another way we are called to share God’s love with the world and sharing that love can be easier than we think.
We are called to share the simplest necessities of life in Christ. On a hot day we are called to share a drink of cold water. We may not be able to fill every need in this life, but we are called to do what we can do. We don’t have to do everything, only what God calls us to do. By this we will not lose our reward.
What is glorious is that we who are the Body of Christ receive that reward everyday. We are God’s people who receive God’s blessings in life with Christ. We share with those God sends to us so that we will be richer in the kingdom of God
There are days when we are called to be “you” taking God’s word into the world; and there are days when we are called to be “whoever else” receiving God’s word sent into the world. This is a part of the master plan of the Lord who is always God, the great I AM. It is when we share in the work of the disciples continuing the radical life-changing blessing of the eternal triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that God changes us, our city, and our world.
[1] The Theology and Worship Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A. ) and the Cumberland Louisville , KY : Westminster
[2] Kirk, James G., When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship, Revised Edition For Years A, B, and C.” Louisville , KY : Geneva
[3] Christianbook.com author reference, http://www.christianbook.com/meditations-for-lent-james-kirk/9780664250386/pd/250386, retrieved June 25, 2011.
[4] The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), “Revised Lectionary Prayers.” Augsburg Fortress Press, Minneapolis
[5] “Radical” from the Random House Dictionary, 2011, found at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/radical, retrieved June 22, 2011.
[6] Which Random House (Ibid.) describes as 1. doing things thoroughly. 2. carried out to the full extent; thorough. 3. complete; unqualified. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoroughgoing, retrieved June 25, 2011.
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