AProp8-2008

Genesis 22:1-14; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18; Romans 6:12-33; Matthew 10:40-42

June 29, 2008

You are an ambassador!

On the first morning of our youth trip –

our Urban Adventure in Jacksonville-

we attended the Wednesday morning bible study at St. Mary’s Outreach.

About 50 people wandered in the little church, sang familiar songs,

and listened to a message to feed and fill their hearts.

Then, they went to the parish hall

where homemade shepherd’s pie and sweet tea fed their bodies.

“You are an ambassador!” said Sue Carmichael triumphantly.

“Say it! I am an ambassador for Christ!” And we all did!

And Sue talked to us about what it means to represent Christ.

Our little group looked around

and saw all who were in the large circle with us:

single moms shuffling in with children,

addicts trying to stay clean, edgy, unable to stay in their seats,

those who don’t quite live in our reality but suffer with schizophrenia,

and talk quietly to someone we can’t see,

older people with walkers,

stable, faithful ones with nothing so noticeable

except that they are poor.

All, according to their teacher, ambassadors for Christ.

And then another memory of visiting the Muslims!

When we attended the worship service at the mosque,

we found that there were no pews or aisles –

just a large expanse of carpeted floor with a rich patterned design.

When the people pray together during worship they stand very close together,

their feet are touching their neighbor’s, shoulders touching.

And when they bow all the way down with their faces to the ground,

their heads are right at the soles of the feet of the person in front of them.

I couldn’t help but contrast that to the western/Christian way of prayer.

When we enter this sacred space,

unless we come as a couple or have our child with us,

we find a place in a pew, hoping for no more than three people total.

With four you lose that comfortable margin

of about a foot between each person.

When you get four adults in a pew there is likely to be

shoulder bumping and hymnal sharing

and each person’s space is invaded.

And if you kneel to pray after communion

elbows typically propped up, hands clasped,

and the person in the pew in front of you sits rather than kneels,

you have to adjust your position to keep a comfortable distance

from the back of the person’s head.

There is quite a difference in Western comfort zones

and middle-eastern comfort zones.

When we asked the Muslims about this practice,

they told us it was to remind them of their unity.

And we, of course have our own ways of expressing our unity in Christ.

Perhaps the muslim/middle-eastern understanding is more representative

of the way middle-eastern people understood themselves in Jesus’ day.

In fact, for most of our human existence,

an individual human being was more like one cell within a body.

One small part of a whole – incomplete if separated,

embedded in and not existing without that whole.

That’s how families were viewed in earlier times.

The basic unit of personhood was the family or tribe or clan.

And each individual human being was part of what made up the whole

and without the family or tribe, you really had no identity.

No matter where you went or what you did,

you always represented your family.

When you entered a place, you were welcome IF your family was welcome.

When someone came to visit you, you welcomed them

IF you would welcome their family.

Today in our culture two people in the same family

can belong to different political parties or have different religious beliefs.

Back then you were born into a religion or political group

and there wasn’t much thought of leaving.

If one person in a family breaks the law today, it is an individual act.

The family members may care or be embarrassed,

but there is less collective impact on them,

and so, these days, a lesser tendency, say,

to shun someone who has shamed the family.

And so when Jesus was instructing his 12 disciples

(this 10^th chapter of Matthew we’ve been in the past few weeks)

before he sent them out as an extension of himself and his ministry

they would have easily understood his final words that we hear today.

As he prepared them for what lay ahead,

he warned them that based on who they represented,

some would welcome them, others would not.

I send you out and whoever welcomes you welcomes me.

And he takes it to the next level…

And, whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Another ancient text put it this way:

He who welcomes his fellow man is considered

as though he had welcomed the Shekinah – the Divine Presence.

And so the disciples were traveling as extensions of their teacher

and through him, extensions of the divine presence from whom he came.

Then Jesus told them how they might be received

based on who people understood him to be.

Some understood Jesus to be a prophet

And so would welcome his disciples as from a prophet,

treat them as a prophet would be treated.

And the reward would be that the welcomers would have, in proxy,

been in the presence of the prophet.

Some would understand Jesus to be the Righteous One, the Messiah.

If the disciples were received as disciples of the Righteous One,

Imagine the reward of having the presence of the Righteous One

brought into their home.

The disciples would be treated

according to who they were understood to represent.

And then he added a third possibility

that I’m sure none of the twelve might have considered.

Whoever gives so much as a cup of water to the least of all that belong to me

 - who don’t arrive and announce themselves as a disciple of a prophet or the messiah,

Whoever gives only a cup of water,

not even extending full hospitality of meal and lodging and protection,

simply a cup of water…

to one of these little ones…

In another chapter in Matthew,

when he was asked who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,

Jesus had taken a little child and placed it in the midst of the crowd.

And he said, I tell you, unless you change and become like children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven - you won’t get it.

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Whoever welcomes someone who, like a child, is humble, powerless,

the insignificant ones in the crowd,

not known as disciples of Prophet or Righteous One –

but those who are the least…

…whoever welcomes such as these welcomes me

and the Divine Presence who sent me.

When such a one is welcomed in, I am welcomed in.

Our esteem and honor of someone who comes representing a leader of a nation

or someone who comes in the stead of a great religious leader

or someone who comes as a student/disciple of a great teacher…

we know how that would feel, to welcome someone like this into our home.

But, someone who is insignificant,

bearing no power, showing no credentials,

someone who brings no lofty teaching, no holy touch…

how do we respond when they knock on the door?

Jesus says that these little ones, these lesser disciples,

are his greatest emissaries.

When we welcome such as these, we welcome Jesus

and the Divine Presence of God.

Whether we know it or understand it,

Jesus says they, above all, are his ambassadors.

And when they are welcomed, even given the smallest kindness,

the presence of Christ is ever so real.

The kingdom of heaven is ushered in.

And on the flip side,

when you or I go to enter into a place or situation

and we think we don’t bring the right credentials or knowledge,

when we go in a bit humbled, with not enough of our own steam,

we can know that the presence of Christ travels with us

and is welcomed or rejected with us.

We are never alone!

Sue came one evening and talked with the kids

and played some of her songs.

I started to share the words of one song with you.

But, I think it would not do it justice.

So I’ve brought a recording for us to listen to.

[play recording of Somebody’s Baby]

…and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones

truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward…

the reward of my presence and that of the Divine Presence who sent me.

[hymn 525 last verse, last line:

O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we

like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.]