Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Matthew 10:40-42 – “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 disciples—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” (NRSV)

We are finally getting more of that weather that really helps you understand the value of a cup of cold water again.  It can make you feel like you’re going to live again, when a moment ago, it felt like you were dying.  What’s funny is how often we don’t even realize how thirsty we are, until we take a drink and feel that relief.  What could it mean to offer that kind of hospitality to one another?

I often talk about how the most important thing we do at Welcome Saturday is the ministry of re-humanization.  Our unsheltered neighbors spend a lot of their time feeling invisible as individuals.  If someone even speaks to them, it’s often just to assign them a number, instead of caring about their whole being.  But the truth is that we all need a place where we can be re-humanized.  So many of the systems in our lives don’t respect the totality of our beings, whether it’s the recorded menu mazes our insurance companies send us through or the innumerable forms we have to file after a loved one’s death.

Welcoming one another in ways that bring us back to life is a huge part of our calling as a church.  But what does it mean to welcome someone “in the name of” someone else?  I would say that the church is called to welcome people in the name of Jesus.  And Jesus describes that in ways that come at it from multiple directions.  We are to welcome people the way Jesus has welcomed us.  We are to welcome people the way Jesus would welcome them.  And we are to welcome people as if they are Jesus.

Living Water comes in different kinds of containers.  Sometimes it’s a cup.  Sometimes it’s a bucket.  It could be a baptistery or a swimming pool.  Sometimes it’s a hug.  Sometimes it’s a card or a text or phone call.  Sometimes it’s speaking up on someone’s behalf.  Sometimes it’s saying Yes, and sometimes it’s saying No.  But you can tell if it’s the Living Water of Jesus by whether it restores life or not.  And when it is shared, we are all rewarded.