Sermon - 4th Sunday After Pentecost (6/28/2020)
Jer. 28:5-9; Ps. 89:1-4, 15-18; Rom. 6:12-23; Mt. 10:40-42
“Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple will not lose their reward.”
Today’s gospel reading is the conclusion of the instructions of Jesus to his disciples, that began in the gospel passage we read a couple Sundays ago, as he sends them out to announce that the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God for which we pray every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come” – for those with the eyes to see, it is already beginning to become present.
In wrapping up these instructions, Jesus gives three sayings about rewards. To understand the sayings, we need to understand their context in the instructions of Jesus about the announcement of the kingdom of God. I saw something online this week from the Canadian Anglican priest Father Daniel Brereton that helped me to see that context. And since we’re here online together, I can share it with you.
He says that it should scare us a little when we pray “Thy kingdom come.” Because if we want God’s kingdom to come, our kingdoms are going to have to go. And, he says, there are only two kinds of people who are not made uncomfortable by that idea. One, those who are already denied peace, prosperity, and purpose by the kingdoms of this world – for them that the kingdoms of this world must go is pure good news. And two, those who have confused the kingdom of God with the kingdom they already comfortably inhabit.
Those who have confused the kingdom of God with the kingdom they already comfortably inhabit. The first reading today is a good illustration of this. It’s a continuation of last week’s reading from Jeremiah.
As you may recall, Jeremiah was unpopular because he said, correctly, that the kingdom of Judah was practicing injustice towards the poor, that it had turned its back on God and was serving false gods who demanded human sacrifices, and that this was a road leading to destruction. And destruction was what occurred. The Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, replaced the king with their own puppet, deported the old king and much of the ruling elite (including the prophet Ezekiel) into exile in Babylon, and stole much of the wealth of the temple. Ten years later the puppet king rebelled, the Babylonian army came back and this time they burned the whole city down and sent everyone who remained into exile too.
The story in today’s reading comes after the first invasion, but before the second and cataclysmic one. The prophet Jeremiah says, you see, I told you, and if you don’t change your ways it will get even worse. But then another person called Hananiah claimed to be a prophet, and Hananiah said: Don’t worry, don’t listen to Jeremiah. God is going to bring everybody home, and all the stolen things from the temple as well. Like a miracle, suddenly it will just go away. Soon everything will be just fine. So don’t worry, nothing about this kingdom has to change.”
The portion we read today begins with Jeremiah’s response to the claimed prophecy of Hananiah. Oh, I hope you are right, Jeremiah says. Amen! May the Lord do exactly what you have said. May all this suffering just go away, and may everything be restored as it was. I truly hope you are right and I am wrong. But consider this: The prophets of old never told people what they wanted to hear, but what God knew they needed to hear. So when someone tells you something that sounds too good to be true – well, if it actually happens, then you’ll know they were truly a prophet.” The implication is that until then, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And once again, Jeremiah speaks a word that earns him unpopularity and rejection.
When I first graduated from law school and came to DC, my first job was in the Washington office of what claimed to be a fancy New York law firm – in my opinion, not nearly as fancy as they thought they were, but that’s another story – all the new people had to go up to New York for a day of indoctrin—uh, training. (Sorry, I’m not bitter.) And I remember one of the New York partners was talking about his mentor, decades before. Who supposedly said that 90 percent of a lawyer’s job is to tell the client he’s a damned fool and should stop. I don’t know who his clients were. Apparently they would rather pay their fancy New York lawyers a lot of money to get them out of trouble than stop getting in trouble in the first place.
Well, in a fallen world, at least 90 percent of a prophet’s job is to tell everyone that we’re all damned fools and should stop. Because for the kingdom of God to come, the kingdoms of this world have to go. Hananiah is living a delusion, he has confused the kingdom of God with the kingdom he lives in, which gives him a good life while imposing poverty and disrespect and death on others. The real prophet, like Jeremiah, is the one who truly knows the kingdom of God and so who can see the kingdoms of this world for what they are, and won’t miss them when they’re gone.
One of the closing pieces of advice Jesus gives, in sending his disciples out to proclaim that the kingdom of God is close at hand, is: Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet – that’s a Hebrew idiom for whoever receives a prophet precisely because they are a prophet – will receive a prophet’s reward. Not that a prophet’s reward is necessarily fun; Jeremiah, as we saw last week, hated being a prophet.
But even for most of us who are not prophets, who have no special insight from God, whoever hears one who is a prophet and is willing to set aside the desire we all have to hear that the kingdoms of this world are fine and we have nothing to worry about – whoever is willing to welcome a prophet because they are a prophet, because they seem to be speaking a hard truth that seems to come from the God of the Bible, the God who loves justice and mercy and hates oppression and indifference to the suffering of others – whoever will do this will receive a prophet’s reward. The prophet’s reward: to begin to see the world as God sees it, to be free to speak and live the truth God gives one to see, and maybe some of the opposition and rejection too.
But those who receive a prophet’s reward are properly a bit nervous praying, Thy kingdom come, because by welcoming the prophet they have already begun to give up the illusion that the kingdom we comfortably inhabit is already the kingdom of God.
The other category of people that, as Father Brereton says, are not made nervous by the idea that the kingdom of God will come and the kingdoms of this world must go, are those who have been poorly treated by the kingdoms of this world. The least of these, the ones this world overlooks and mistreats – for them, the kingdoms of this world can’t pass away fast enough. May God’s kingdom come, and come soon.
And so, in sending out his disciples, Jesus says: Whoever gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, precisely because they are a disciple, precisely because they are a follower of the way of Jesus – I assure you, they will not go without their reward. This saying reminds me of the climactic scene at the end of Matthew’s gospel story about the ministry of Jesus. When King Jesus on his throne says: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink. When, Lord, did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? I tell you, when you did it to one of the littlest ones of these my disciples, you did it to me.
But it’s not like God is a bookkeeper keeping track of how many cups of cold water we gave and counting up the reward we are due. As Paul says in the second reading today from Romans, eternal life is a gift from God, not a reward reserved for those who have earned it. It’s that the least of these are the ones who, as Fr. Brereton says, those who have been denied peace, prosperity, and purpose by the kingdoms of this world are the ones who can say gladly and without reservation or illusion, Thy kingdom come. And even the smallest gesture towards them is a step towards our really being able to pray, Thy kingdom come. To really experience that it’s good news that in Jesus the kingdom of God has begun to arrive.
Which brings us to the saying of Jesus in today’s gospel reading that joins these two sayings: Whoever welcomes a righteous person, a person of justice, a person who truly loves God and their neighbor as themselves – whoever welcomes a righteous person precisely because they are righteous, will receive the reward of a righteous person. This is the best news of all. Even if we, ourselves, are not fully righteous – and who of us is? Even then, Jesus says, if we simply acknowledge the one who is righteous, the one who is just, the one who truly loves and does God’s will, if we welcome the one who is righteous precisely because they are righteous, we too will receive the reward of the righteous. We don’t need to actually be righteous to receive the reward of the righteous, which is good because none of us is perfect. We just have to want it. To welcome the kingdom of God when it comes near, even if it means letting go of the kingdoms of this world that make us comfortable, even if it means sharing what we have with the least of these.
And so, with trepidation, but also with faith, we continue to pray: Thy kingdom come. We receive the call to share with others the good news that the kingdom of God has come near, knowing that it really is good news. Knowing that the prophet’s judgment on the kingdoms of this world are true, welcoming the justice and righteousness of God even when we ourselves have fallen short, opening our hearts and our lives to lift up and give comfort to the least of these, we begin to see what good news it is that the kingdom of God is beginning to appear.