Matthew 10: 37-42 (links validated 5/24/23)

Because if God is not our everything, something or perhaps someone is – which eventually will let us down. There’s a great prayer from a Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Pedro Arrupe that is a favorite of mine and speaks to this – it goes: Nothing is more practical than finding God than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything...

Or I consider a moment at our Vacation Bible School last summer. The children were playing when one of them, a nine-year-old, stepped away from the group, ran to me, and without speaking a word, threw her arms around me and then returned to her friends. Many a Sunday morning now is marked by this child doing the same and I am grateful every single time. Indeed, I am taken back to a time so many years ago when I stood quietly among a crowd after worship and a child just came and stood quietly next to me. It was in those first weeks after my dad had died and this small one perhaps sensed my vulnerability. I looked down and asked her what she needed. And she said, “Nothing. I am just sanding here.” I have found that children often ‘get it,’ in ways that I too much miss. And that they, too, have the ability to extend a small gift, like a cup of cold water, which is just the ‘welcome’ needed for us to continue...

The special joy of nature-loving boy Howard Kelly was hiking great distances and studying animals in the wild. On a walking trip, up through Northern Pennsylvania one spring, young Kelly stopped by a small farmhouse for a drink of cool spring water. A little girl answered his knock at the door, and instead of water, she brought him a glass of fresh milk. He thanked her profusely and went on his way. After years of medical studies, he became Dr. Kelly. Dr. Howard Kelly (1858-1943) was a distinguished physician who was one of the four founding doctors of Johns Hopkins, the first medical research university in the U.S. and, arguably, one of the finest hospitals anywhere. In 1895, he established in that school the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Over the course of his career, Doctor Kelly advanced the sciences of gynecology and surgery, both as a teacher and as a practitioner. Some years later, that same little girl from Northern Pennsylvania who had given him that glass of milk years ago, came to him for an operation. Just before she left for home, fearful of a huge bill, her bill was brought into the room and across its face was written in a bold hand, “Paid in full for one glass of milk.” — That was Dr. Kelly’s style of showing gratitude and hospitality. While he charged the rich patients substantial fees, he provided his services free-of-charge to the less fortunate. By his conservative estimate, in 75% of his cases he neither sought nor received a fee. Today’s Scriptures challenge us to practice hospitality, seeing Christ in others...

First, another reference to a cup of cold water and then a question. This drink is found in Helmut Walser Smith’s Germany: A Nation in its Time: Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500-2000 (2020). The trains were known as Judenzüge: “Jewish trains.” Between 1942 and 1944, some two thousand trains transported well over two million Jews to death camps—a small number compared with the total passenger traffic of the German Reichsbahn in these years. Yet from testimonies of peasant and Jewish survivors, we know that people in villages abutting the rails heard screams of the thirsty, doomed passengers as they passed on their way to the extermination camps. When the trains stopped—which happened often given the confusion of transport, death traffic, as well as ordinary freight and passenger trains—a market for water sometimes came into being, as Jews trapped in cattle cars paid Poles and Ukrainians for sips of water. In the Polish town of Szczebrzeszyn, a young woman exchanged her wedding ring for a cup of water for her child...

In The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida writes about this discovery which Abraham made (and caused Kierkegaard to call him “the Second Father of the human race”): “…this is the moment when Abraham gives the sign of absolute sacrifice, namely by putting to death or giving death to his own son, putting to death his absolute love for what is dearest, his only son; this is the instant of absolute imminence in which Abraham can no longer go back on his decision, nor even suspend it. In this instant, therefore, in the imminence that no longer even separates the decision from the act, God gives him back his son….”

("When the great playwright and wit Oscar Wilde was sent to prison in 1895 it was an ultimate humiliation for him. In his day he was a real celebrity but all that evaporated once he was convicted. Whenever the prison authorities moved him in public he was spat at and jeered. On one occasion when the crowd was particularly hostile, a friend of Wilde appeared and made a simple gesture of friendship and respect that silenced the crowd. What did he do? As Wilde passed by, handcuffed and head bowed, the man simply raised his hat to him..." and another illustration)

(includes lots of Greek exegesis!!)

("I went on sabbatical a couple of years ago and joined a group of students from the Center for Global Education. We traveled to an indigenous village in Mexico called Amatlán. A man came to speak to us about his experience with crossing the border and working in the United States. The man, who looked to be in his early 30's, told us about how when his wife became pregnant they had no money and no financial hope for starting their family. So they made the decision for him to go to the U.S. and find work..." and other illustrations)

(always good insights!)

("The beautiful Indie film, The Railway Man, tells the true story of a Scottish WW2 veteran, Eric Lomax, whose soul is haunted by memories of the years he and his friends spent as Japanese captives, being tortured and humiliated in every way, and used as slaves to build a railroad in Burma. He is unable to control vivid nightmares from which there is no waking, and in which he relives, re-suffers, is spiritually devastated. Love, which came to him all unexpected, begins the journey that sets him free..." and other illustrations)

(excellent exegesis)

Scarcity of water continues to be a major concern in our contemporary world, with around 1.2 billion people across the globe lacking access to clean drinking water. Indeed, in light of recent water crises such as that in Flint, Michigan, safe water seems to have become even more a commodity of the rich in our world than it was in Jesus’ day in which the water-rich bath houses were reserved for the rich, while the poor relied on sometimes distant public cisterns and wells. In both worlds, however, the same basic truth remains: water is central to life.

Don Shula was the longtime and very successful head coach of the Miami Dolphins football team. One time he was on vacation in a very rural part of Maine. The local library advertised the showing of a recently popular movie on a Saturday night. This was in the days before the internet and the TV reception was almost non-existent in those woods, so the Shula family was very excited to go to the movies that night. They walked in just a few minutes before it was to start. Everyone stood up and gave them a standing ovation. Shula thought, “isn’t that something. Even way out here they know me!” His excitement only lasted a few minutes. Someone told him, “We have to have 15 people or they won’t show the movie. Your family pushed the crowd to 17.” The welcome really wasn’t for Don Shula...

A successful man known for his generosity was driving his new car through a poor part of town. A boy tried to flag him down. The man didn’t want to get involved, so he pretended he didn’t see the child. As he slowed for a red traffic light, he heard a loud crash. Someone had thrown a brick at his car, denting the trunk. The man stopped, jumped out of his car and grabbed the boy that threw the brick. “You juvenile delinquent!” he yelled. “You’ll pay for this or go to jail!” “I’m sorry, mister,” the boy cried. “My mom’s lying on the floor in our apartment. I think she’s dying. Our phone’s been cut off and I’ve been trying for ten minutes to get someone to stop. I didn’t know what else to do! Take me to jail, but please, call a doctor for my mom first.” The man was filled with shame. “I’m a doctor,” he said and asked, “Where is she?” The boy took him to his mother and the doctor administered CPR and called an ambulance. “Will she live?” the boy sobbed. “Yes, son, she will,” the doctor said. “Then it’s worth going to jail. I’m sorry I ruined your car. You can take me in now.” “You’re not going anywhere,” the doctor said. “It was my fault you had to throw a brick to get my attention.” The doctor made sure the boy was taken care of, and as he drove home he resolved not to fix the dent. He would keep it as a reminder that not everyone in need has a brick to throw...

Have you seen or heard the old fable, "The Rabbi's Gift?" It's an effective presentation of Sunday's gospel lesson (Matthew 10:40-42). If you haven't seen it, you can watch the six-minute video below, or you can keep reading and I'll tell you what happens.

On the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation and in some subsequent films there is a nightmare alien species known as The Borg. The Borg capture individual people of all races and backgrounds but then essentially wipes out their individual personalities, cultures, distinctive features. Through a kind of brainwashing, each person becomes just like every other person, assimilated into the Borg Collective. Every single Borg looks alike, talks alike, thinks alike. If you meet one, you quite literally have met them all for they are all one. A Borg never uses the 1st person singular pronoun “I.” Every sentence instead begins with “We . . .” Although Christians are brought into the one Body of Christ through baptism, baptism doesn’t have a Borg-like effect on believers. Becoming a Christian does not make you less of an individual. We may lose our lives for Christ’s sake, but Jesus also promises in Matthew 10 that once you so lose your life, you get it right back again. You are still you after baptism...

In June of 2005, U.S. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and SEAL Team 10 were assigned to a mission to kill or capture Ahmad Shah a high-ranking Taliban leader responsible for killings in eastern Afghanistan and the Hindu-Kush mountains. Local sheepherders stumbled upon the team and ended up betraying the SEALS to local Taliban militia, and a horrific gun-battle ensued. Marcus was the only survivor. Badly wounded, he managed to walk and crawl seven miles to evade capture. He was miraculously given shelter by an Afghan tribe, who at the risk of their own lives alerted the Americans of his presence, and American forces finally rescued him six days after the gun battle. The Afghan man who gave shelter to Marcus is Mohammad Gulab. Mohammad lives by the “Pushtunwali” code of honor which promotes self-respect, independence, justice, hospitality, love, forgiveness, revenge and tolerance toward all, especially to strangers or guests. Part of the Pashtunwali code is the concept of “Nanawatai” meaning sanctuary. Nanawati allows a person to seek refuge in the house of another, seeking asylum against his enemies. The host is honor-bound to offer that protection, even at the cost of his own family or fortune. When Marcus found himself in enemy territory and bound by the beautiful “Pushtunwali” honor code, Mohamed prepared a table, a shelter for Marcus that literally saved his life. Mohamed was not only threatened during the time Marcus was sheltered in his home, but continued to face persecution afterward. The Taliban has targeted the whole village for being traitors. Marcus and Mohamed have become dear friends, and Mohammed has since immigrated to the USA with his family because the persecution was so strong from the Taliban, a consequence for providing shelter to a complete and total stranger who found himself in enemy territory...

My dad was in intensive care. His condition was precarious and we were understandably worried about him. Two of my sisters, my then one-year-old nephew, our mother, and I were hovering outside his room. He was sleeping, however, and we did not want to disturb him. Since there was no waiting room near by, we walked down the hall and went into the surgical waiting room to sit and visit and rest and wait. The volunteer in the pink smock welcomed us with a big smile. There was only one other family in there and so we got a lot of attention. She invited us to sit down, offered coffee and doughnuts and found a toy for little Andrew to play with. We were thankful for the kindness — for the ‘cup of cold water’ — if you will, and we sank gratefully into a sofa and chairs.

Stanley was ordained in 1963 and served five years as a parochial vicar, in four churches of the diocese, before he volunteered for the Catholic Mission of Oklahoma in the Diocese of Solola, Guatemala. His first assignment there was the ancient Catholic Church in Santiago Atitlan, a village of 40,000 souls cradled in the country’s western highlands. Thirty thousand of them were Tzutuhil Indians, descendants of the Mayans.

In her book, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Kathleen Norris tells a story that is said to come from a Russian Orthodox monastery. A seasoned monk, long accustomed to welcoming all guests as Christ, says to a young monk, “I have finally learned to accept people as they are. Whatever they are in the world, a prostitute, a prime minister, it is all the same to me. But sometimes, “the monk continues, “I see a stranger coming up the road and I say, “Oh, Jesus Christ, is it you again?”

In 1443, Europe was just coming out of the Hundred Years War in which plague and deprivation were the order of the day. In Beaune, a city in the Burgundy region of France, Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Duke Phillip the Good, established a hotel-Dieu that remains one of the most beautiful buildings in France. A combination homeless shelter, soup kitchen and health clinic, the physical plant of the Hospices de Beaune included two buildings around a courtyard. One of the most distinctive elements of the complex is the multi-colored roof.

Heval Mohamed Kelli arrived in the US as a Syrian refugee three weeks after 9/11, after spending six years in Germany. He arrived in Clarksville, Georgia, a city that welcomes 1,500 refugees per year. Kell is a cardiologist now who has moved away from Clarksville but describes his welcome by saying, “’Two days after we arrived in Clarkston, we were terrified. And then all these people arrived at our door with food, wanting to help us learn English … You know, we thought they were the CIA or something, all these white Americans knocking at our door.’ In fact, they were members of Clarkston’s All Saints Episcopal Church: ‘They didn’t look at all like us. But they changed our lives.’”

Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, along with many Enlightenment figures, saw Christianity as a spent project, as a dying reality, its demise the inevitable death of childhood naiveté. But Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, looking at the same evidence, saw things in exactly the opposite way. For him, Christianity was still “in diapers,” struggling still to grow in maturity, a child still learning to walk; hence its occasional stumbles. Contemporary spiritual writer, Tomas Halik, the recent winner of the prestigious Templeton Award, suggests still another picture. For Halik, Christianity in the West is undergoing a “noon-day fatigue,” a writer’s block, a crisis of imagination. In this, he is very much in agreement with what Charles Taylor suggests in his monumental study, A Secular Age. For Taylor, what we are experiencing today is not so much a crisis of faith as a crisis of imagination and integration.

The current political climate and eruptions of anti-immigrant sentiment and violence have resurfaced a clarion call toward Christian dispositions of welcome. Jesus' followers are again invited to take risks in our welcome, to embody sanctuary in the way we make space for “the stranger,” the vulnerable, and those in need. Since the 2016 Presidential election, the number of churches who have officially “declared Sanctuary” has grown exponentially. Declaring Sanctuary means a church is willing to house people, short or long term, to protect them from deportation. In Western North Carolina churches who cannot or do not want to declare Sanctuary can declare themselves as a “Supporting Sanctuary” church, pledging resources, people, and assistance to those churches who have declared Sanctuary.

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. - Bonhoeffer..."

("In one snapshot from the early third century, the Roman lawyer and Christian Minucius Felix pictures how Roman society viewed believers. His dialogue between two friends called The Octavius is a short text, and surprisingly accessible to a general readership. In the first half of the dialogue, Caecilius presents his pagan criticisms...")

("Mark Twain is well known for something that he calls 'elaborating the truth', so you never quite know where some of his stories step past the boundaries of absolute fact and enter into the area of almost fiction. He has an incredible ability to observe human beings, and see what's really going on. His analysis is always sharp and witty, usually gentle and loving, often challenging...")

("In her book Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris tells the story of a nun who, although she has Alzheimer's, still asks to be rolled in her wheelchair to the door of her nursing home so she can greet every guest..." and good discussion of welcoming)

("The surgeon Richard Selzer relates a story that may help us understand how people see Jesus in us. One day, Selzer writes, he had to remove a tumor from the cheek of a young woman. After the surgery, the woman lies in bed, her postoperative mouth twisted in a palsied, clownish way. A tiny twig of the facial nerve had been severed in the operation...")

(includes several quotes)

(includes several quotes)

("It was the summer of 1975, Marsha was pregnant with our first-born, and I was required by the seminary to spend a month doing an urban plunge on the west side of Chicago. My host family was the Charlsens; Mama, four boys, five girls, all living in a two bedroom apartment. Yup, it was crowded. They let me sleep on the love seat in the living room, and I displaced the two youngest children in doing so. Every morning, they would let me have the bathroom first. If I arrived after dark, two of the older boys in the family would wait for me at the subway stop two blocks from their apartment...")

("In her book Dakota, Kathleen Norris tells the story, said to originate in a Russian Orthodox monastery, of an older monk telling a younger one: 'I have finally learned to accept people as they are. Whatever they are in the world, a prostitute, a prime minister, it is all the same to me. But sometimes I see a stranger coming up the road and I say, "Oh, Jesus Christ, is it you again?".'...")

("In my second year of seminary, while I lived on campus, Ella and Henry settled in next door for a semester-long sabbatical. Henry was a professor and author, an expert on 'black preaching'....")

(includes several quotes)

("In her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Kathleen Norris tells a story that's said to come from a Russian Orthodox monastery. A seasoned monk, long accustomed to welcoming all guests as Christ, says to a young monk, "I have finally learned to accept people as they are...")

["Like my friend Kyla, Saint Brigid carried her hospitality with her from the time she was a young girl. Extravagant and precocious in her generosity to the point of giving some of her parents' possessions away ('holy thieving', as one writer has described it), Brigid grew up to become a woman renowned for the way she welcomed others"...]

("He was raised in a large family. His parents survived the depression but they struggled to provide food and clothing for the family. When he was around ten years old a friend invited him to go to church with his family. He went - the Sunday School class was great. As class ended the teacher pulled him aside and said, 'Son, please don't come again dressed as you are now.'..." and other illustrations)

My understanding is that in early times the Canaanite religion demanded the sacrifice of a son to the fiery god Marduk. This was ingrained in the people's thinking, and they felt that an offering such as this was necessary to keep foreign enemies from invading the land. This kind of thinking was common. There was human sacrifice in that part of the world, and human sacrifice is indicated in some other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. This story of Abraham taking Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him illustrates to me a change in Abraham's understanding of God. This God that was calling him to be the father of a new nation was not like Marduk or any of the other gods worshipped by the people of that time and place. Abraham discovered that this God that he was coming to know did not demand human sacrifice.

("Entertaining says, 'I want to impress you with my home, my clever decorating, my cooking.' Hospitality, seeking to minister, says,'This home is a gift from my Master. I use it as He desires.' Hospitality aims to serve..." and others)

("In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. 'How much is an ice cream sundae?' 'Fifty cents,' replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it. 'How much is a dish of plain ice cream?' he inquired....")

("I like the popular phrase Random Act of Kindness or RAC's. The idea is to go through the day performing RAC's: This is done for no reason, other than to fulfill Jesus’ admonition...")

("Burger King has the right idea. They have printed a customer's Bill of Rights right on the paper placemat on the tray under the food. I would call it Customer Friendly. It says: 'You have the right to have things your way...")

("When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to halt on the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below...")

("St. Brigit of Kildare was the daughter of a noble pagan who sold her mother, his Christian concubine, to a druid when he learned of her pregnancy. It is said that once St. Brigit was of an age to fixed her mind on God, all she asked for was granted...")

"I once read about a woman whose church group bought Christmas gifts for a missionary family. After meticulously selecting the presents based on the family's needs, sizes and ages, the group gathered to pack them..."

("Once upon a time there was a kind of worthless teenage boy. I mean he never did much wrong, but he never did much right either. He got the kind of grades which would just barely get him into college...")

("One night, Mark Ralls, a minister in North Carolina, was leaving his church at the same time a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous was adjourning. He found himself in conversation with a man standing next to his rusty, worn-out Ford, and introduced himself as one of the pastors of the church that had hosted his group. The man sighed and told Mark how long he had intended to "get back to church." So Mark invited him to worship. Immediately, the man launched into a story of his life...")

("One Dutch family living in America tells their story about hiding Jews. They wouldn't tell it for years out of humility. It just wasn't their nature to go around talking about these things. Besides, they said, they thought everybody did it...")

("No matter what you do, someone can always criticize it. What is the opposite of criticism? It is acceptance, support, encouragement. We all need that to be our best selves. It is said of parents rearing children that our children become what we think of them. If we think they fall short and do not meet our expectations, then that is what they will become. If we support and encourage them, see them in the best way, they will rise to the challenge...")

listen to the story of a young man named Francis Giovanni. Francis' family was very wealthy. Francis was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he acted that way. At the age of twenty Francis enlisted in the army. He wanted all the glory and honor that came with being a great soldier. So, he went to war and was captured. After his release he went home where he returned to his old ways while he recovered from an illness. Still wanting glory, honor, and personal prestige, Francis went back to the war. But something wasn’t right. He went home and then went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Outside of St. Peter's he saw the beggars and gave them his money and his clothes. He spent the rest of the day begging with them. This experience affected him immensely. Francis returned home. He broke away from his friends. He gave away his money and when his parents gave him more he gave that away too. Francis spent his days with the poor and the lepers. He dressed in rags and started to rebuild an old abandoned chapel. His father wanted him to continue in the family business. He was enraged with Francis' activities. As a result he put him in a cellar and appealed to the authorities. He took Francis before the Bishop. Basically, Francis was given a choice. He could obey his father and use the family goods wisely or give them up. Upon hearing these words, Francis gave up his inheritance, gave his father the clothes he was wearing, and left naked into the woods. We know this young man as St. Francis...

("The day was June 3rd, 1886. The place was Namugongo, Uganda. An event is about to take place that will change the shape of Christianity in this country for all time...")

("As many of you know years and years ago I used to play football. In fact I went to the doctor some years after college and he immediately recognized my athletic build...")

("Henri Nouween writes, 'At first the word "hospitality" might evoke the image of soft, sweet kindness, tea parties, bland conversations, and a general atmosphere of coziness...")

("While Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in a nazi prison for opposing Hilter, he became dependent on others for any news from the outside. It was a red letter day when the post came which broke the drab monotony of prison life...")

("Bernie Seigal in a book How To Live Between Office Visits has an interesting note on on what he would like to see in hospitals: What should the hospital of the future be like? The word hospital derives from hospitality...")

("There are some truths that seem more apparent to children. Hans Christian Andersen recognized this in his story The Emperor's New Clothes....")

(includes several quotes)

("we watched the movie Bright Young Things, a film based on the Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies, set in England during the heady days before the tragic outbreak of World War II. The opening scene is one of a party, the first of many parties, with all the expected costumes, dancing, drug-taking, and illicit liaisons...")

("A pastor says: 'In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha...")

("In the June 2005 issue of Touchstone Magazine, Fredericka Mathewes-Green writes about her journey from hippie adolescence to life with her husband, a former Episcopal and now Eastern Orthodox priest...")

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