Matthew 10:40-42 - "Second Nature through Spirit Nurture"
From Connections:
THE WORD:
Today’s Gospel is the conclusion of Matthew’s collection of
Jesus’ missionary discourses, in which Jesus speaks of the sacrifice demanded
of his disciples and the suffering they will endure for their faith. In
today’s pericope, Jesus clearly is not attacking family life; he is warning his
disciples of the conflict and misunderstanding they will experience for their
proclaiming the word. To be an authentic disciple of Jesus means embracing
the suffering, humility, pain and selflessness of the cross; to be an authentic
disciple of Jesus means taking on the often unpopular role of prophet for the
sake of the kingdom; to be an authentic disciple of Jesus means welcoming and
supporting other disciples who do the work of the Gospel.
HOMILY POINTS:
God calls every one of us to the work of the prophet
-- to proclaim his presence among his people. Some are called to be
witnesses of God's justice in the midst of profound evil and hatred; others are
called to be witnesses of his hope and grace to those in pain and anguish; and
many share in the work of the prophet/witness by enabling others to be
effective witnesses and ministers of God’s love. The gift of faith opens
our spirits to realize and accept our call to be witnesses of God's love borne
on the cross and prophets of the hope of his Son's resurrection.
The most difficult part of imitating Jesus is the cross and
what it stands for: unconditional forgiveness, the totally emptying of ourselves
of our wants and needs for the sake of another, the spurning of safety and
popular convention to do what is right and just.
To “receive the prophet’s reward” is to seek out every
opportunity, to use every talent with which we have been blessed, to devote
every resource at our disposal to make the love of God a living reality in
every life we touch.
Authentically committed disciples of Jesus possess the
vision of faith and determination of hope to use anything — from a cup of cold
water to a sign to protect the most helpless of creatures — to make God’s reign
of compassion and peace a reality in our time and place.
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Now I would like to stop
the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the
first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus' death and what it must
been like for Jesus' disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had
brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what
they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seldom discussed. We
like the outcome of their discipleship but we don't want to hear the cost of
discipleship. So for the record here is the cost: History tells us...
1. John died of extreme old age exiled to the island of Patmos.
2. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, hanged himself.
3. Peter was crucified; head downward, during the persecution of Nero.
4. Andrew died on a cross at Patrae, a Grecian Colony.
5. James, the younger, son of Alphaeus, was thrown from a pinnacle of the
Temple, and then beaten to death with a club.
6. Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albanapolis, Armenia.
7. James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
8. Thomas, the doubter, was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, in the East Indies.
9. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Heropolis.
10. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows.
11. Simon died on a cross in Persia (what we now call Iran.)
12. Matthew was first stoned and then beheaded.
What sacrifices! And I ask you why? Why did they choose to die this way? Why desert your father and mother, your wife and child, and your home? Why put up with the constant humiliation, and hunger, and persecution, and defeat town after town after town?
I'll tell you why, because, in the words of Apostle Paul, they were held captive by the words and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is Paul's way of saying they were slaves to Christ...
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It is every parent's dream. It goes like this . . .
Your child is a guest at someone's home. Maybe a friend or a
relative. When the meal is over, your child is the one who, without being told,
spontaneously rises from the table, gathers their plate and even grabs another
place setting, and takes them into the kitchen and put them either in the sink
or in the dishwasher.
What parent doesn't live with the eternal hope that our ten
thousand nudges to our kids -- "pick that up" and "put that in
the trash" and "did you forget where the laundry basket lives?"
-- will finally "stick"?
These reminders are not about household cleanliness. They
are teaching a new generation of disciples about being thoughtful,
compassionate, helpful, and loving followers of Jesus.
Discipleship is, by definition, something that is
"learned." The Greek word for disciples or "mathetes"
means literally learner as well as follower. Jesus himself said, "Learn of
me." (Matthew 11:29). Part of what it means to be a "disciple"
is to teach a new generation of disciples.
The whole sporting world is all about "World Cup"
madness right now. In the USA we call it "soccer." In the rest of the
world it is called "football." For those who love the sport, which
seems to be all of the world with the singular exception the US, all eyes are
on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as teams like Ghana and Germany, Nigeria and
Argentina duke it out for a world championship.
But the biggest story out of Rio may not about a winner, but
about a loser...
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Shake It Off!One of the greatest deterrents to our spiritual progress is our inability to shake off the things done to us by others. We can't get on with our lives because we are still angry and hurt by another's sin against us. We must find ways of redirecting our antagonism into something higher. We must channel our hurt, our anger, our despair, and our disappointment into something positive. Let go. Unpack the baggage. Stop wallowing in the quagmires of the past. Get your passport stamped and move on to higher ground, to your next destination.
Jesus exhorts his disciples in Matthew 10. If the people do not receive you, don't get stuck. Don't waste your life away crying crocodile tears; "shake" the dust from your feet and keep on moving. Don't get put in spiritual, emotional, and psychological jail by the things other people do to you. After it's done, don't give them the keys to your jail cell by living in solitary confinements of unhappiness and pain. Get out of jail, pass go, and collect two hundred!
Carlyle Fielding Stewart, III, Joy Songs, Trumpet Blasts, and Hallelujah Shouts, CSS Publishing Company
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We Replace the Lamb
In that marvelous vision known as the "Peaceable Kingdom" (which we find in Isaiah 65), there is the image of the wolf and the lamb feeding together. Well, let me tell you a story about that. Back in the days of pre-perestroika Russia ... when hers was a name that made all of us tremble: the Russians brought an exhibit to the World's Fair that was entitled "World Peace." In it was a large cage. And in the cage were a little lamb and a Russian wolf ... feeding peaceably together. As an exhibit, it was most impressive. And as the fair unfolded, it was spectacularly attended. One day, however, somebody asked the curator the obvious question: "How in the world do you do it?" To which he replied: "Oh, it's really very simple. We replace the lamb every morning."
We Replace the Lamb
In that marvelous vision known as the "Peaceable Kingdom" (which we find in Isaiah 65), there is the image of the wolf and the lamb feeding together. Well, let me tell you a story about that. Back in the days of pre-perestroika Russia ... when hers was a name that made all of us tremble: the Russians brought an exhibit to the World's Fair that was entitled "World Peace." In it was a large cage. And in the cage were a little lamb and a Russian wolf ... feeding peaceably together. As an exhibit, it was most impressive. And as the fair unfolded, it was spectacularly attended. One day, however, somebody asked the curator the obvious question: "How in the world do you do it?" To which he replied: "Oh, it's really very simple. We replace the lamb every morning."
William A Ritter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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Simple Caring
For several weeks, Mrs. Sherman's first-grade class had
waited for the field trip to the observatory. Notices had been sent home with
instructions about the bus, lunch, and times of departure and return. To the
students, waiting for the field trip was like waiting for Christmas.
Finally, the day arrived. We grabbed our lunches and coats
and lined up for the bus. In the back of the room, one boy began to cry because
he had forgotten to bring a lunch and would have to stay behind with another
teacher. In a few minutes, the other children had contributed extra sandwiches,
fruit, desserts, and drinks until the boy had a feast for his lunch. With new
tears, this time tears of gratitude, he grabbed his coat, lined up, and climbed
onto the bus.
We had given him a "cup of cold water." Acts of
service are not always dramatic or earth-shattering. Simple caring is all that
is needed. Discipleship means being alert for opportunities to care, to
demonstrate God's loving-kindness, and to teach others to do the same.
Gene Blair
The Tool of Discouragement
There is an old legend about Satan one day having a yard
sale. He thought he'd get rid of some of his old tools that were cluttering up
the place. So there was gossip, slander, adultery, lying, greed, power-hunger,
and more laid out on the tables. Interested buyers were crowding the tables,
curious, handling the goods. One customer, however, strolled way back in the
garage and found on a shelf a well-oiled and cared-for tool. He brought it out
to Satan and inquired if it was for sale. "Oh, no!" Satan answered.
"That's my tool. Without it I couldn't wreck the church! It's my secret
weapon!" "But what is it?" the customer inquired.
"It's the tool of discouragement," the devil said.
In the text Jesus is talking to the church about their attitude and deportment toward the prophets God sends among us as shepherds. He speaks frankly about acceptance and rejection, about kindness and trust. In short, he promises that in the minister's success among us shall come our own reward
"It's the tool of discouragement," the devil said.
In the text Jesus is talking to the church about their attitude and deportment toward the prophets God sends among us as shepherds. He speaks frankly about acceptance and rejection, about kindness and trust. In short, he promises that in the minister's success among us shall come our own reward
Stephen M. Crotts and Stan Purdum, Sermons For Sundays:
After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, CSS Publishing Company,
Inc.
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God Still Thinks about You
Helmut Thielicke says that during World War II, his students
often wrote from the battlefield saying, "I am so exhausted from marching,
my stomach is so empty, I am so plagued with lice and scratching, I am so
tormented by the biting cold of Russia and so dead tired, that I am totally
occupied, without the least bit of inner space for any speculative
thinking." Sometimes they would write that they were too weak to leaf through
the Bible and were even lazy about the Lord's Prayer. Dr. Thielicke would
reply, "Be thankful that the Gospel is more than a philosophy. If it were
only a philosophy, you would just have it as long as you could keep it in mind
and it could afford you intellectual comfort. But even when you can no longer
think about God, he still thinks about you."
Herchel H. Sheets, When Jesus Exaggerated, CSS Publishing Company
Cast-off Items
John Bowes, chairman of the parent company of Wham-O, the
maker of Frisbees, once participated in a charity effort. He sent thousands of
the plastic flying discs to an orphanage in Angola, Africa. He thought the
children there would enjoy playing with them.
Several months later, a representative of Bowes' company
visited the orphanage. One of the nuns thanked him for the wonderful
"plates" that his company had sent them. She told him the children
were eating off the Frisbees, carrying water with them, and even catching fish
with them. When the representative explained how the Frisbees were intended to
be used, the nun was even more delighted that the children would also be able
to enjoy them as toys.
On one level, that story is rather amusing. On another, it
is very sad. There are people who would prize even our cast-off items, who
would be grateful to eat what we throw away.
King Duncan, adapted from Gary B. Swanson, Frisbees and
Guerillas
______________________Whoever Welcomes You, Welcomes Me
Recently I was sent this story. The author said, I saw him
in the church building for the first time on Wednesday. He was in his mid-70's
with thinning silver hair and a neat brown suit. Many times in the past I had
invited him to come. Several other Christian friends had talked to him about
the Lord and had tried to share the good news with him. He was well respected,
honest, a man of good character. He acted much like a Christian would act, but
he never came to church or professed Christ. After I got to know him well and
we had talked about a wide range of subjects I asked him if he had ever been to
a church service.
He hesitated. Then with a twisted grimace told me of an
experience he had as a boy. He was raised in a large family. His parents
survived the depression but they struggled to provide food and clothing for the
family. When he was around ten years old a friend invited him to go to church
with his family.
He went - the Sunday School class was great. The songs were
fun to sing and the stories, oh the great Bible stories, were exciting to hear.
He had never heard anyone read from the Bible before. As class ended the
teacher pulled him aside and said, "Son, please don't come again dressed
as you are now. We want to look our best when we come into God's house."
He looked down at his old hand me down overalls that were
certainly worn and tattered. He thought about that for a moment and said
softly, "No ma'am I won't ever." Then he looked at me, the author
wrote and said, "And you know what... I never did." It was clear that
he was done with that conversation.
The author reflected, I am sure that the Sunday School
teacher meant well and in fact was representing the feeling of the majority of
the folks in that church. But what if, what if she had put her arms around the
dirty little boy in the ragged overalls and said, "Son, I am thrilled that
you came this morning and I hope you will come every chance you get to hear
more about Jesus because he loves you so much." Moreover what if she would
have talked with her pastor or her friends in the church and mobilized a full
blown outreach effort to help this family make ends meet.
What if that church would have thought, Whoever welcomes you
welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Or whoever
gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a
disciple will receive a great reward (v. 40 & 42)
The story ended like this: Yes I saw him in the church house
for the first time on Wednesday and I cried as I looked at the immaculately
dressed old gentleman lying there in his casket. He was looking his best. But
all I could think of were those words of an impressionable little ten-year-old
boy echoing in my mind, "No ma'am I won't ever."
David Wiggs, Who Needs a Welcome?
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Self-doubt: Burning on the Bottom of the Pan
I remember an old story about a kindergarten teacher wrote a
song about popcorn and then had her class crouch down on the floor as they sang
it. At the appropriate point in the song, all the children would "pop
up." The teacher had them "popping" all over the classroom.
One day, during the popcorn song, the teacher noticed that
one little boy remained crouched down when all the other children popped up.
"What's wrong?" the teacher asked. "Why aren't you `popping'
like the other children?"
The little boy replied, "Cause I'm burning on the
bottom of the pan."
Some of us are like that little boy. We feel like we are
burning on the bottom of the pan. We feel like we have no worth as persons.
Billy D. Strayhorn, How God Gets His Kicks
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All You Have to Do Is Look Up
A substitute Sunday School teacher couldn't open the
combination lock on the supply cabinet. So she went to the pastor for help. The
pastor started turning the dial of the combination lock, stopped after the
first two numbers, looked up serenely toward heaven, began moving his lips
silently, turned to the final number, and opened the lock.
The teacher gasped, "I'm in awe of your faith,
pastor."
"Really," he said, "it's nothing...