06 Jul Sermon – July 6, 2025
In today’s first reading, we are told what it looks like when the hand of God is with his servants. We are told that loving and mourning go together. We are told to be glad and satisfied with the nourishment and consolation that comes from what God provides.
“There is plenty to be had,” says the Lord. Prosperity like a river, wealth like an overflowing stream. God’s people will be well cared for, physically and emotionally. They will have their needs met and their psyches made content. If we would but see how God cares for us, our hearts shall rejoice; our bodies shall flourish like grass, and everyone will see the favor we’ve been shown because God is with his servants.
Imagine a healthy, well-fed baby. Overall, they look robust and appear full as do their cheeks and thighs and bellies. A healthy, well-fed baby is the picture of contentment.
In contrast, Jesus paints a picture of discontent. He foresees that as his disciples travel toward every town and place where he himself intends to go, that their efforts to bring peace and to deliver healing won’t always be received.
Like a baby who can’t or won’t latch on properly during the early days of a mother and child both learning how to do the breastfeeding thing, there’s frustration between what is available, what is being offered, what amounts to outright rejection of a good thing, and the disappointment that comes when what would otherwise amount to a wonderful provision, a provision thwarted by a mismatching of capabilities.
The harvest is plentiful. The milk has come in, in fact, now every duct has overproduced; the tissues are engorged and excess prevents the good use of even using what has already been prepared. The kingdom of God has come near. Jesus and his disciples are leaking with hope to deliver what God offers to provide.
Being sent out as lambs in the midst of wolves speaks not only to a relationship between prey and predator, but to the fact that wolves hunger for lamb. They get excited at the prospect of an easy meal. In the presence of a lamb, a wolf won’t have to run very long or work very hard to get what will bring deep satisfaction.
A lamb in the midst of wolves practically amounts to dinner served on a platter, right? The equivalent of succulent meat handed to a wolf which requires no effort on their part. They are like babies cradled in the correct position with little more to do than simply take what’s being offered.
The disciples are in a similar position. They don’t need to worry about having their needs met. God has provisions for them arranged ahead of time. They don’t have to take purses, bags or sandals. They are not to greet anyone on the road, lest they give away what they’re offering without receiving in return.
They are to enter a house and immediately say, “Peace to this house!” They offer peace up front and wait to see if anyone there shares in peace. If so, their peace will rest on that person, if not, it will return to Jesus’ disciple.
This isn’t necessarily about judgment, but capacity. It describes how things will be if, like a baby, they can’t or won’t latch on properly, they’re not going to receive the nourishment or peace. For whatever reason, they can’t even though what is offered would surely be to their benefit.
When things work out, it’s all good. Eating and drinking whatever is provided benefits both parties. What is both deserved and due is able to be delivered to those in need. God has a system in place designed to deliver mutual benefits. It’s worth pursuing and at least trying to make work.
“Let the relationship develop,” Jesus says. “Don’t move from house to house. Eat what is set before you wherever you are welcomed.” These sound like good words of advice to many of us in relationships: parents and children, spouses to each other, employers and employees, teachers and students, even pastors and congregations.
“Where you are made welcome, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ Wherever they do not welcome you, go out and say, ‘Even the dust that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’”
Again, this may simply be stating the fact that an opportunity has been missed. It doesn’t necessarily imply judgment although protest seems to suggest displeasure at the very least. I think the bottom line is: God doesn’t like a good deed or provision to be hindered or outright rejected.
At the start, people were offered a verbal greeting/blessing of God’s peace. The proper response according to Jesus was that they listen, or receive what his disciples offered. If they did that, they could be cured and experience the kingdom of God firsthand. You see, the opposite of listening amounts to no less than rejection, not only of Jesus, but the one who sent him.
Like a mother wishing to succeed at breastfeeding who cannot seem to figure things out or make things work by design, God feels personally rejected when we don’t listen or receive what God lovingly offers. His disciples prove, once again, that as humans, we often put emphasis on the wrong outcomes.
We get excited by what we can do, our successes, what comes as a result of our efforts, our skills or the powers given to us. But Jesus tries to reorient us by saying, “Authority and power will never count as much as being in a mutually beneficial working relationship, because the ultimate goal is for everyone to be healed and thrive together.”
The second reading really brings this message home. “If anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.” Take care that you are not tempted to become spiteful over being rejected, in other words, making a show of shaking the dust off your feet, wanting to put up a yard sign that reads, “This person or group of persons did me wrong.”
We are to bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. If Christ’s intention was truly for all to thrive, praying for all to thrive is required. We are not only to pray for those who welcome us, but for those who don’t but nonetheless also reside in the location to which we’ve been sent, in other words, to all the towns and villages Jesus himself intended to travel.
For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work and carry their own load rather than focus on correcting their neighbor’s work or finding cause to feel pride in themselves. To paraphrase Paul’s words, “We must share all good things as a sign to others that we ourselves have been taught by God’s word.”
It is a constant battle to have the right motives and not be deceived by what feels right or just comes naturally. I believe that part of the reason Jesus advised his disciples to leave a house if they didn’t welcome them was so they would not grow weary doing what is right. If you only have so much time and energy available for harvesting, you have to make practical decisions, right?
If we do not give up and keep working for the good of all, especially those in the family of faith, we will succeed. God will reap the harvest such that the good of all equals eternal life. Also to note: The good of all includes honesty, not deception, listening not rejecting, bearing one another’s burdens, sharing, and meeting each other’s needs. Prosperity was never meant to be for just one set of people. And justice, by definition cannot be a one way street, it must include every person.
Paul’s main point was that human beings ought not to try and distinguish themselves in any other way than by claiming their identities as new creations in Christ: crucified with him to follow him. Then the rule shall be that peace and mercy will flow freely from its source, the God of Israel, which doesn’t mean that God belongs only to Israel, but simply refers to the God historically known as such. The one God who came to earth as Jesus and sent his Holy Spirit to comfort, teach and guide us in his stead.
In our country, we are used to having laws serve the purpose of preserving and upholding our rights, with rights being privileges we claim as ours, and those things we feel that we inherently deserve.This is why in some aspects, we tend to like Jesus saying that it’s okay to shake the dust off our feet and protest not having our needs met, our gifts received, or generally being rejected without being shown hospitality or partiality.
But what if, it’s not about us. What if Jesus’ instructions merely point to the efficacy of doing business where conditions favor the greatest success or outcome? I mean, is God that pragmatic when it comes to human healing or wholeness? Does God really prefer to only confer his blessings upon those willing to receive his ambassadors? If so, those with no faith or faith of the “wrong kind” are in trouble.
What if God really does wish for all to receive what God offers? What if God is like a new mother engorged with exactly what’s needed to sustain and grow her offspring? Are we, as her young, willing to learn what it takes to benefit from God’s provision?
As babies, are we willing to stop crying long enough to close our mouths and open our eyes, to allow our innate selves and our inborn senses to guide us to the source of all we need? After all, aren’t we still in the early earthly stages of our ultimate spiritual development? I think so.
Let us pray.
God, we are good at fussing, but perhaps not so good at realizing all that you have done to prepare for our present well-being and our eternal existence. Help us not to be so self-oriented that we fail to develop the close relationships you would foster between us and among us. Teach us to welcome and receive, to listen and to love for the good of all, so that all may rejoice in whatever place we each call home. In your holy name we pray, Amen.