A Dixie cup of Cold Water

Proper 8A, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Moses Lake by Sr. Annette Fricke, OPA “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” (NRSV Leviticus 19:34) Today’s gospel “verses come at the end of Jesus’ missionary discourse to his disciples (10:5-42). Up to this point, Jesus has been talking about what the disciples are to do and the difficulties that they will face. In our verses, the focus is what others will (or won’t) do for the disciples. Will they welcome the disciples or not? What then will God do?” “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” What does it mean to be welcoming? For the day in which this was written, it was meant to be the same as if in the presence of the sender. Whoever welcomes you welcomes Jesus, and whoever welcomes Jesus, welcomes the Father; for all of these are one and the same. These words recall the Hebrew Scripture readings of sending messengers out between kings. They did not have phones equipped with text messages or email. They used people who delivered messages in the quickest form they knew. Everything sent by a messenger was the same as that person speaking directly to you. Even in the Middle Ages, the tradition continued. If the king sends a messenger, it is the same as if the king was speaking directly to you and held authority. With that in mind, if we see ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ, our ministry is Jesus himself. We are not just the messenger or gopher. We are not simply middle management. We are not the poor laborer or slave of our master. Just as we are in Jesus, just as Jesus is in the Father, we are God to the person to whom we minister. People know God through us as Christian believers. ---Yet even though we are in the community of Christ, we are amongst a sea of unbelievers and atheists which are numerous and growing. If we do not make attempts to reach them, how can we claim to be faithful to our Lord? Have we failed because we walked away from the compulsory state churches of the old country? One Lutheran pastor I knew from my seminary was chosen to be a church planter as his first call. From the very beginning of his career went door to door recruiting children for Vacation Bible School which had morphed into the church’s camping program with counselors sent from the base camp to congregations, a different congregation each week. At his age, he still scoured the neighborhood for children to attend each year. It also didn’t matter if some belonged to the Seventh Day Adventist Church or had no church. A Roman Catholic couple, in addition to taking in a camp counselor, took in children that parents left with them while taking a vacation of their own. They also had those children attend our Day Camp. In fact, they not only took children to our Day Camp, but to other congregations holding similar programs throughout the summer. They also modeled the example of saying grace before each meal. Those two examples are simple, yet profoundly effective ministry. We too, can make a difference. We can be that difference. Just one more thing; after inviting the children, listen to them and the camp counselors. Camp counselors know the kids well because they work with kids throughout the summer. Just for Life was the theme for that summer. One of the exercises we asked the children to do was to make a list of “Needs” and a list of “Wants”. Water is a basic need. A counselor gave an example of not washing his camp shorts for a whole year. Many of the campers snickered and said things like, “Gross!” The point is, there are ways we can reach out and make connections with our community. “And whoever gives (even a Dixie 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.” “You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” (NRSV Leviticus 19:34) *Brian Stoffregen, notes on the lessons of the day.