June 28 - “Untitled Sermon”
Untitled Sermon
Matthew 10:40-42
28 June 2026
Rev. Mary W. Nelson – First Congregational Church UCC, Williamstown, MA
For the last two Sundays, we’ve been hearing a long discourse of Jesus—he’s speaking to his disciples, as told by Matthew. In the first section, we heard Jesus sending out his disciples to teach and heal on his behalf (this is when the disciples become apostles, as the word “apostle” means “one who is sent out”). In the second section, we heard Jesus telling his apostles how hard this work was going to be. Traveling from town to town in the first century was not easy anyway, and it definitely was not easy for street preachers who were low-key teaching about subverting the Roman Empire. And for Matthew’s congregation hearing these stories, the Roman Empire was actively hostile to both Jews and Christians, so there was an extra layer of very real persecution that the original audience of this gospel would have been experiencing first-hand.
And then we come to today’s scripture, which is the culmination of Jesus’s teaching to his disciples before they go out to preach and teach. We’ve got the instructions for going out to the neighboring towns to teach and heal. We’ve got the real-talk about how this work is not going to be easy and there will be conflict and cruelty and possibly even martyrdom. And then we’ve got today’s passage—which, on its own, sounds really nice, doesn’t it? If you just ignore the fact that the preceding 30 verses outline a series of horrible things that will likely happen as a result of the apostles’ activities, these three verses seem really lovely and feel-good and full of hope, don’t they?
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” Awwww, that sounds so sweet, doesn’t it?
This formula that Jesus uses here – whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me – shows up in all four gospels, multiple times. There are different nuances each time, slightly different variations, but when a phrase or an idea appears in Matthew, Mark, Luke, AND John (and this one also shows up in some of the non-canonical writings, too, like the Gospel of Thomas), then you know it was likely quite close to something Jesus actually said, not just something the gospel-writer included for other editorial purposes. This idea that welcoming Jesus’s representative is like welcoming God was a significant recurring theme for Jesus. Hospitality was central to Jesus’s ministry.
Hospitality was central to life in first-century Palestine, of course. They didn’t have paved roads and motorized vehicles, so moving from place to place involved a lot of walking and a lot of dust; without restaurants and hotels at every interstate exit, travelers would stop at houses along their journey and ask for something to eat or somewhere to sleep or some way to wash themselves. Do you know how hard it was to come by a cup of cold water in the deserts of the first-century Mediterranean world? You can’t just pop in to the kitchen and grab a glass and run the tap for a minute, maybe throw in a few cubes of ice. The peasant classes, especially, had neither indoor plumbing nor anything resembling a refrigerator.
Hospitality, too, was extremely risky: who is this random stranger showing up at my house asking for help, and is it safe to let them in? Who will answer the door of this house if I knock, and will they help me? As a traveler, is it safer to try sleeping outside with God-knows-what wild animals about, or is it safer to seek shelter with a stranger? You genuinely don’t know!
So hospitality, welcoming the stranger, as a central feature of Jesus’s ministry, as a spiritual and ethical cornerstone of his teaching and his community—that was a radical, counterintuitive, countercultural way of life. Make yourselves vulnerable, as a spiritual practice and an ethical example to others, and encourage them to do the same. That was not the logical program for survival as a Jew in first-century Judah under Roman occupation!
So much of what Jesus taught was about how to get along with others, how to live in community – in short, how to treat people. Until Jesus came along, the standard cultural practice basically amounted to “an eye for an eye.” But “eye for an eye” doesn’t really work because you’re living a vengeful existence, always trying to get back what somebody took from you. Jesus turned “eye for an eye” on its head, and said “treat people the way you would want them to treat you.” Love your neighbor; love your enemy; if you give love, you will receive love in return, and the world will be a better place – not a place of revenge or retribution, but a place of hospitality. If you approach all people as guests rather than as threats, life gets better for everyone. If you treat everyone as a guest, over time, that posture re-orients enough people that it becomes a common way to behave. The community becomes more peaceful, more secure, more pleasant. And it all grows from the idea that we should care for one another. Every time you welcome someone who represents Jesus, you welcome Jesus himself; and every time you welcome Jesus, you welcome God. Every time you care for someone else, you care for God.
Hospitality is a sacred act. When you welcome others, when you care for others, God is working in you and through you to build the kingdom come on earth. Everyone is welcome in God’s kingdom. “Whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me:” when you serve others, you are serving God – you recognize the face of Christ in them and serve them as you would serve Christ – you may even be helping that person to see their own beloved-ness, and that is a huge gift! At the same time that you recognize the face of Christ in those you serve, through your hospitality you allow them to see God working in you through your service. Hospitality creates space to recognize the sacredness, the beloved-ness of every individual creature. Serving others is serving God, and that is sacred.
Before we fall into the trap of always giving-giving-giving until we have nothing left of ourselves, though, I want you to notice something: Jesus sent out his disciples to teach others, and part of their mission involves relying on the hospitality of strangers. He’s telling his disciples to let others serve them – to accept the hospitality and care of others. Not because they deserve hospitality, as representatives of Jesus, but because it creates an opportunity to serve, to start the chain of events that interrupts “an eye for an eye,” leading to that posture of treating all people as guests. The disciples travel from place to place, in need of shelter and food. The disciples are the “little ones” who come in Christ’s name and need a drink of water, and whoever gives them that water will be blessed. So often, when we think of service, we think of all the things that we should be doing for others, and we beat up on ourselves for not doing enough, and we don’t allow ourselves to accept help from anyone else… But hospitality is a two-way street. You have to care for others, but you also have to allow others to care for you. If you are going to recognize the Christ in others, you also have to let them recognize the Christ in you.
Today’s scripture passage mentions the reward that one receives for showing hospitality. If you recognize that the person you are serving is a prophet, and you welcome them in the name of a prophet, then you yourself become a prophet and will receive a prophet’s reward…and near as anyone can tell, a prophet’s reward is recognition before God.
There are a lot of people out there who interpret that “recognition” as some kind of pie-in-the-sky reward in the afterlife, and that recognition, that reward becomes their motivation for doing mission. And I’m telling you, we’re not so much pie-in-the-sky people in the UCC. I’m not motivated by what happens in the next life because I’m far more concerned with what’s happening in this life first. The idea that serving others is important, that breaking that cycle of “eye for an eye” and engaging instead in a posture of care, kicking off a cycle of hospitality that makes this world a better place… that’s motivation enough! Don’t serve others because you think your service will be rewarded some day. Serve others because there are no other options: hospitality is the normal order of the day, and you don’t know any other way to be. Christianity is about how you treat people, not about racking up points on that eternal scoreboard in the sky. Serving others is serving God.
There’s a little bit of God inside every one of you, because you have been created by God and called by God to do the work of God’s church. There is also a little bit of God inside everyone you meet, because we are all part of God’s beloved creation. Whoever welcomes the stranger – or the neighbor – or the enemy – or the friend – welcomes the God who created them. Whoever welcomes you welcomes the God who sent you. Whoever you welcome, you are welcoming God. That is how hospitality works, the posture and pattern of extravagant welcome to which we are all called.
Thanks be to God. Amen.