Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

There are so many that it would be tough to remember. When you get that cold drink of water offered, the gift of welcome granted, it is a marvelous moment. I know in our day, and especially with a pandemic running through our nation flaring up again in some states, most people carry or buy their own water bottle. The gift of a cold drink of water is not something we experience in the same way. Of course what I just said would apply to those who have means, with the ability to buy a fancy water bottle or purchase bottles of water from whichever store they frequent. At Trinity there is a good supply of water bottles sitting in our entryway. We hand those out as needed to those who are needing a drink. The cup of water we hand out may not be all that cold, but it is wet and it is refreshing. 

In chapter 10 of Matthew's gospel Jesus is talking a lot about the sending of the disciples and the welcome they willreceive when they go, or not receive. These past weeks we have read all of this chapter from Matthew's gospel. The mission, the commissioning, the harassment that will come, the repeated injunction to not fear, the truth that what Jesus has come to do is not all that peaceful and will even cause difficulties within families, are parts we have heard in the last few weeks. There is even cross talk, talk of taking up your cross to follow Jesus. There is talk of losing your life for Jesus' sake and how that means you will find your life.

All of that is the lead up until today's reading where all of a sudden it feels like there is this major shift in what is happening. As I was thinking about this week I started wondering on which side of that cup of cold water am I? And of course when the preacher comes up with one of those questions which disturbs there is need to ask it of those who are listening. As you hear this gospel lesson, as you read it again now, which side of the cup of cold water are you on? Are you the one giving or are you the one receiving? 

I'm pretty sure that I have always heard this as I am the one who give the cold water. It is good to welcome, to give a drink to those who need. Besides, filling the shoes of the prophet, playing the role of the prophet, that does not sound like a whole lot of fun. It mostly ends pretty badly for the prophets we find in the pages of scripture, and if the ending isn't bad then there are some bad parts which they travel through before they get to the end. Being a prophet is no joyful occupation when the world is not too keen on the message of the prophet, the word of the Lord. It really makes me wonder why when Paul is talking about spiritual gifts he wants every body to be able to prophesy, to be a prophet. Moses expresses the same thought when some are jealous on his behalf because others are prophesying. “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!” Numbers 11:29. 

The prophet is never a comfortable guest. The prophet is the one who disturbs, stirs, unsettles, disarranges the accepted narrative. The prophet is the one we often want to ignore. The prophet is the one we do not want to be. Nathan having to tell David you are the man. Elijah running for his life. Samuel knowing what the desire to have a king will really do to the people and hearing them still want one. Jonah in the belly of whale, Jeremiah dealing with false prophets and lamenting and lamenting and lamenting. 

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet. That is such an easy verse to read right past. Who wants to welcome a prophet? The way Jesus is talking here he is expecting us to be prophets. A prophet, best definition I have ever heard is a prophet is the one who brings a word of hope and a word of warning. Often these words are closely related, spoken together.

So how goes your career as a prophet? I know, it is hard to think about ourselves in these terms. It is not comfortable. It is not an uplifting word in dark days such as these. My sermons have been pointed here of late I confess. Maybe I have gotten to be a little too much in touch with my inner prophet, for there is much about which one can prophesy. States that have reopened full bore are experiencing dramatic numbers of COVID-19 cases. Harris County, Texas has issued a red alert warning of the danger of COVID-19 so serious is the threat, so rapidly are the number rising. It is not yet the season to be careless. It is still the season to be cautious. So we move forward slowly as we seek to gather again for public worship. 

The problem of racism in America is a huge problem. The news of people of color who have suffered at the hands of law enforcement and other institutions is all too real. There are those who have suffered because they are not a part of the white majority all around us. There is injustice in too much of what has been done, in what we do as a society, of how we live, of how our neighbor is not always cared for, loved as Jesus has loved us. That is the new commandment after all. Yeah that inner prophet has a lot to say when you learn more about some of the unpleasant truths which happen around us. How do you balance it? How do you love this nation which has been so long a symbol of so many good things and hold in tension the truth that our history has not always been as noble and honorable as we would want it to be. Maybe that is the best way. To learn, to admit, to recognize the truth about who we are, where we have come from, how exactly it is that we have gotten here and others have not gotten nearly so far, and to work to fulfill the ideal.

Again, that inner prophet can be all sorts of uncomfortable. Have you ever faced off with someone's prophet? Have you ever struggled with your own inner prophet? Did anyone welcome you? A family meal, a group of friends, have there been things said which maybe should not have been said, which should have been challenged? Has someone done that? I know, believe me well I know, we don't want to rock the boat, ruffle the feathers, pick your image. We don't want to cause any trouble. We don't want to make a scene. We don't want to cause any unpleasantness. Would you give that one who is prophet among you, the one who points out that truth which is so uncomfortable a cup of cold water? Would you welcome them? 

It is a lovely image, this extending of welcome, until you start thinking, start digging into what it would mean. The other real question in this reading is Jesus talking to just his disciples or is this a word for the body of Christ down through the ages. Whoever welcomes you welcomes me. That next line, it has to be tied to the first doesn't it? Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet. I really think we are the ones to be welcomed, to be prophetic. 

Hard calling, very hard calling, scary calling. I watched a video this last week about Pastor Bill Youngdahl. He was serving in Omaha in the mid 1960s, a Lutheran Church in America pastor serving Augustana Lutheran. “A Time for Burning” is available on Youtube and I would encourage you to watch it. If you want to talk about it after watching it let me know. In any case Pastor Youngdahl proposed a visit by 10 volunteer couples of his congregation visit 10 negro families from nearby Hope Lutheran, a negro congregation. It was an idea too radical for some of his members and within weeks Pastor Youngdahl resigned. 

Being a prophet is very hard work. That is why we need each other brothers and sisters. That is why we should have that cup of cold water ready to give when most needed, whatever form that cold water might take. It might be uncomfortable to welcome the prophet but it is certainly holy work. It is certainly darn uncomfortable to be the prophet, but again it is holy work. May we be able to hear past the hard and the uncomfortable and the difficult to hear the words of Jesus spoken by those who challenge us. May we have the discernment to speak the words of Jesus, the word of the Lord, a word of hope to those who are hurting or hopeless, a word of hope to the dimly burning wick or the bruised reed. May we have the discernment to speak that word of warning, of critique to those who care not for the poor and oppressed. May we know well how loved we are by God, how sustained we are by God as we follow, as we serve. May we know well we go with God.