Proper 8 / Pentecost 6 / OT 13
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
-- Matthew 10:40
What a frightening and awesome statement. Jesus not only identified completely with God but also completely with the community of his disciples. Perhaps even more frightening, how people receive and perceive Christ's disciples, is how they are going to perceive Jesus and choose to respond to God. God had identified with Jesus' disciples. Jesus was entrusting the message to his disciples. It is incredible that God, through Jesus, would make the divine self so vulnerable to our response. But, if we choose to respond to what God sees in us, there are possibilities for others as well. If we are faithful to God's call to be a prophet, then those who receive our word receive a prophet's reward. A prophet's reward is none other than an identification with God's word. Such identification at times brings suffering but ultimately means life. Recall the story of Elisha and the Shumanite woman (2 Kings 4:8-37). Those who receive a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. Recall Joseph's story in Matthew 1:18-25. If we are responsive to God's word and to right relationships with others, we share in Christ's complete identification with God and people. Because God has so thoroughly identified with Jesus' disciples, those who receive such disciples with even the minimum of hospitality will discover they are receiving God (Genesis 18:1-16). The task of a congregation, in response to Jesus' identification with God and us, is to respond to God's word and be in right relationship with others because in us others see Christ and, through Christ, God.
-- Matthew 10:40
What a frightening and awesome statement. Jesus not only identified completely with God but also completely with the community of his disciples. Perhaps even more frightening, how people receive and perceive Christ's disciples, is how they are going to perceive Jesus and choose to respond to God. God had identified with Jesus' disciples. Jesus was entrusting the message to his disciples. It is incredible that God, through Jesus, would make the divine self so vulnerable to our response. But, if we choose to respond to what God sees in us, there are possibilities for others as well. If we are faithful to God's call to be a prophet, then those who receive our word receive a prophet's reward. A prophet's reward is none other than an identification with God's word. Such identification at times brings suffering but ultimately means life. Recall the story of Elisha and the Shumanite woman (2 Kings 4:8-37). Those who receive a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. Recall Joseph's story in Matthew 1:18-25. If we are responsive to God's word and to right relationships with others, we share in Christ's complete identification with God and people. Because God has so thoroughly identified with Jesus' disciples, those who receive such disciples with even the minimum of hospitality will discover they are receiving God (Genesis 18:1-16). The task of a congregation, in response to Jesus' identification with God and us, is to respond to God's word and be in right relationship with others because in us others see Christ and, through Christ, God.
