New Beginnings

July 2, 2017 Matthew 10:40-42 New Beginnings Ordinary Time Children’s Time Exegetical Aim: Teach the children courtesy and hospitality. Props: A Pitcher of ice cold water and enough cups for all the children and participants. You will need to adult participants sitting close to the front. Write out what the participants are to say or give them a copy of the children's sermon. We shall call them John and Susan. Lesson: [As you greet the children pour yourself a drink of water and begin drinking.] Good Morning. (response) Take a drink. Boy this water sure is good. Look at all the people here at church this morning. Take another drink. Ahhh! Look over there. John is here. Hey, John how are you doing? "Not so good Brother Brett I have been working all morning and I am really hot and thirsty." Yes, it is a beautiful day. Well, it's good to see you in church this morning John. Pour yourself a little more water and drink. Smack your lips a few times. That sure is a thirst quencher! Now, look who else is here. There's Susan. Hi Susan! She waves at you. How are you? "Well, Brother Brett, I have some medicine here that I need to take and ....I need some water to wash it down." Yes, that medicine sure can help a body when one is sick. Hope you feel better. Glad you're here. Pour a little more water and drink. That sure goes down easy! (response) What's wrong? (response)Give them some water? Why? (response) Ok, here's some extra cups. Give two children a cup and pour the water. Here you go. You can take the water to them. As the children are doing this: I guess that wasn't very polite of me was it? Not very courteous. You know...sometimes it's the simple things that mean the most: Like giving a friends a place to stay if they are tired and need a place to sleep, or offering cookies to some one who is visiting our home. Jesus said, "Whoever gives a cup of cold water to any of my disciples be they big or small---truly they will get a reward." Sometimes we make Christianity out to be harder than it really is. Being a Christian is very easy. Just do what Jesus asked us to do. Be nice to people. Help them out if they are hungry or thirsty. God will reward you for that. Let's pray: Remind us Lord that sometimes offering someone a cup of cold water is the best way to serve in your kingdom. Amen. Humor: He Was a Stranger and I Took Him In The story is told of a Kansan who owned a general store. He was a well-intending man who made a habit of offering a verse of Scripture whenever anyone purchased something from him. The group of people who sat around the store in this rural area enjoyed the exchanges, because some of the purchases challenged the imagination. One winter day a Texan stopped in, wanting to buy a blanket for his horse. The locals knew that the store stocked two types of blankets. One sold for $60, and the expensive one cost $89.95. He showed him the first. "No, that's not good enough. I need something warmer for my horse." He showed him the second blanket for $89.95. "That's not good enough, either. Don't you understand? This is for my horse, and nothing's too good for my horse. Now show me your most expensive blanket!" The store became very quiet as the storekeeper reached under the counter to the $89.95 stock, pulled out a plaid one, and spread it on the counter with great finesse. "This is our finest and the only one I have. Colorfast, 100 percent wool, with a very tight weave. It sells for $250." “Now you are talking. I'll take it." He counted out the money, folded the blanket, and left with a big grin on his face. As the shopkeeper opened the cash drawer and carefully counted the money, he said, "Matthew 25:35, He was a stranger and I took him in." Hospitality, reaching out with a cup of cold water, is hard to find. Traditional Our lesson for today is to remember hospitality – hospitality comes from two words, stranger – friend. Making a stranger into a friend – which I certainly hope that we can do in the days to come. It goes back to our scripture lesson for today – which is very short – but also timely. The lectionary Gods were nicer to me this week, than they were last week. First of all the lesson is short, shorter then I have seen in a while, secondly because it is powerful – these two verses say a lot, and thirdly because it fits into the theme of the infamous Methodist first Sunday, where a perfect stranger walks into the congregation and is expected to preach on their first Sunday. As I have spent that last few weeks thinking about not only my farewell sermon for a congregation that I had been with for seven years, and then an introduction sermon for a totally new congregation, the working title of today’s sermon was – are you kidding me? Really? After the ordeal that I have been through in packing, saying goodbye, staying up until 2:30 in the morning in one of the worse neighborhoods in Chicago to vaccum and clean carpet and moving, and finding the box with my shoes in it, and your expecting me to have something intelligent to say. But then as I get here, I see that there are a lot of people here who have done the same thing, working hard to get the parsonage ready and to prepare for this day. I thank all of your for all that you have done. The good news is that this lesson in Matthew is for both of us. it is for the preacher, as well as those who listen to the preacher. Matthew 10:40-42New International Version (NIV) 40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Jesus is telling his disciples these words just as they are about to go out on their first missionary tour. He is preparing them to go out into the world and to make disciples of all nations. Just by getting to know them, just by developing relationships with them , just by telling them the good news of the presence of the messiah. Before this he has told them to take nothing for their journey – I have to remember that one, but to walk into a town and be accepted. Be dependent on hospitality. Be dependent on how you are treated. And know that if they welcome you, then they welcome Jesus Christ. Jesus message to the people who are listening in the pews – that you will receive your reward. Not from me – but from God. I am probably going to fail miserably many times, and disappoint many people. But that is okay. Because my message is not about me, it is about the one who sent me. God reminds us that God is always watching. When no one else sees our actions, God sees, God cares, God is grateful. Earlier Matthew says what you do to the least of these you do to me. Now he repeats that theme – when he says whoever gives a cup of water to these little ones - will receive their reward. To me that is the most powerful lesson to remember in this scripture. He tells us to give a cup of cold water – not just water to the little ones. Free Ice Water You may have heard the story behind the Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. The owners, Ted and Dorothy were having trouble keeping the store afloat. Five years earlier they had moved from another state to buy the store, and now it was going under. That was not unusual in 1936. One day Ted said to Dorothy, what could we do to get some people to stop here and buy something? The only thing Dorothy thought of was to give them a cup of ice-cold water. That might be a nice treat in the middle of South Dakota, in the days before air conditioning. The towns there are few and far between, and people would like the break, and the drink of water. Ted thought it was silly and too expensive, but Dorothy prevailed. Ted drove a little ways from town in every direction and put up a sign that said “Only twenty miles to Wall Drug Store, and your cup of free ice-water.” To Ted’s amazement, people were soon lining up for their free drink of water, and more than enough bought an item or two. Then they came up with the idea of paying people anywhere to put up a sign, directing people to the Wall Drug Store. The store was saved, and as you may know, people are still stopping in Wall at the drug store and buying a few things. We did it last year. The Wall Drug Store still lives off that idea of “free ice-water,” although today it is from a drinking fountain in a courtyard, by the stuffed grizzly bear. They still have signs. There is a sign on Long Island, on the other side of New York City, but because of the highway beautification act, there are more in other countries than the United States. There is one in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on a bus in London, at the Taj Mahal, and at the north and south poles – they all point out the mileage to Wall Drug Store and your glass of free ice water. Do not be fooled, it was not the free ice water that made the store a success, and saved the store from the creditor. It was their welcome, their service, and their attitude toward the thirsty traveler once they were in the store. Jesus said that whoever welcomes the disciples, as they went out to preach this new gospel, welcomed him and the one who sent him. Larry Klaarn, Welcome! What we do for others really does make a difference – who we are to people really does matter. The only way we will have more friends, is to meet more strangers. And to remember that this thing about following Jesus – it is a lifestyle. It is what we do every day all day to all people. Not expecting a reward from them – but from the one who sent us all – Jesus Christ. Let us pray….