Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8 (June 28, 2026)
Transcript
This transcript was generated by YouTube AI and further edited for readability.
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please be seated.
Okay. The word of the day is receive.
Remember last week when I told you that we were at the end of chapter 10 of the Gospel of Matthew and we had read this whole section where Jesus commissions the disciples to proclaim the good news and to heal the sick and to raise the dead, and he tells them what their reward is going to be?
And I said, "We're done reading that chapter now." But I was wrong. We have a fourth week of the chapter. We missed the last three verses.
The word of the day for these is receive. Where you see "welcome" in this text, that's the Greek word dechomai, which is also translated "receive." So I'm going to read it to you again.
Jesus said,
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
And whoever receives 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—the least little thing—to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."
Whoever receives you receives me.
There is a high moral calling in this one that maybe many Christians have forgotten.
This whole tenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel is Jesus reminding us that wherever we go, whoever we meet, what we do and what we say represents Jesus to the people that we meet.
Whoever receives you receives me.
So we have a moral calling and a very high standard.
What is it that they are going to get? What are they getting?
It is so, so, so easy to go through life giving out our grievances and our impatience, all of our pettiness. And we know there are much bigger things, but for most of us in our everyday life, it comes down to the very basic things of how we treat one another and treat ourselves.
That's why Jesus says this is about a cup of cold water, the least little thing.
It is so easy to go about giving out our grievance, our impatience, our anger, our frustration.
Whereas, representing Jesus, we are called to go about sharing, sowing his loving kindness, his gentleness, his patience, and self-control.
Whoever receives you receives me.
We know it's actually a very, very tall order.
I want you to think back to the Day of Pentecost a few weeks ago, where we heard that wordWhoever Receives You Receives Me
Matthew 10:40–42
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please be seated.
Okay. The word of the day is receive.
Remember last week when I told you that we were at the end of chapter 10 of the Gospel of Matthew and we had read this whole section where Jesus commissions the disciples to proclaim the good news and to heal the sick and to raise the dead, and he tells them what their reward is going to be?
And I said, "We're done reading that chapter now." But I was wrong. We have a fourth week of the chapter. We missed the last three verses.
The word of the day for these is receive. Where you see "welcome" in this text, that's the Greek word dechomai, which is also translated "receive." So I'm going to read it to you again.
Jesus said,
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
And whoever receives 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—the least little thing—to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."
Whoever receives you receives me.
There is a high moral calling in this one that maybe many Christians have forgotten.
This whole tenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel is Jesus reminding us that wherever we go, whoever we meet, what we do and what we say represents Jesus to the people that we meet.
Whoever receives you receives me.
So we have a moral calling and a very high standard.
What is it that they are going to get? What are they getting?
It is so, so, so easy to go through life giving out our grievances and our impatience, all of our pettiness. And we know there are much bigger things, but for most of us in our everyday life, it comes down to the very basic things of how we treat one another and treat ourselves.
That's why Jesus says this is about a cup of cold water, the least little thing.
It is so easy to go about giving out our grievance, our impatience, our anger, our frustration.
Whereas, representing Jesus, we are called to go about sharing, sowing his loving kindness, his gentleness, his patience, and self-control.
Whoever receives you receives me.
We know it's actually a very, very tall order.
I want you to think back to the Day of Pentecost a few weeks ago, where we heard that word receive again.
Do you remember? Jesus comes into the room with the disciples, and he breathes on them. And what does he say?
"Receive the Holy Spirit."
When we go out into the world, we are carrying within us the life breath that Jesus breathed onto the apostles, and which has been passed to us from one generation to the next through baptism, and which is nurtured and strengthened at the altar table.
We receive again and again from God what God would then have us give to the world.
All this discourse from St. Paul about sin and death—you know, there's a very good Bob Dylan song based on this reading: You Gotta Serve Somebody, right?
The question is, as we go about in the world meeting one another, fellow children of God, what are we witnessing to? What are we representing?
What do we have to give to a world that will receive us as Christ?
Is it our impatience and our pettiness and our many, many grievances?
Or is it loving kindness, gentleness, patience, and self-control?
We can be serving one or the other.
But we can only present one to the world.
I remember when our bishop was up at Bard College about a year ago. He talked to the students gathered in the chapel there about this word sanctification.
Big theological word.
It means to be made holy.
We understand that to be a process by which, as our Baptismal Covenant states, we grow more and more into the full stature of Christ—that we represent Christ through the process of sanctification, through receiving the Holy Spirit and giving forth what is within us, that we represent Christ with more and more integrity to the world.
So that loving kindness and patience and gentleness and the goodness and love which undergird all creation is more and more clear and present to everybody we meet.
What Bishop Matt said, to keep it very simple, is this:
Our souls can grow.
Our souls can grow.
I can't tell you what that meant to me to hear.
Because I—and you—we work with many people. We work with children who are growing up, and with young adults, and people in their middle years who are growing into their agency and power, where growth is so clear.
But we also work with people who are sick, who are dying.
What sanctification means, what it means to say that our souls can grow, is that this is possible in every circumstance.
Whatever is happening to me or in the world around me, our souls can grow, and we can represent Christ more and more clearly to the world as we receive the Spirit.
To take it out of the individual just for a moment, this has to do with how we speak to ourselves just as much as it has to do with how we are to the world.
Whoever receives you receives me.
So notice within yourself: Am I presenting to myself the goodness and loving kindness of God toward me?
Or is what I say and do serving some other thing?
It has to do with our community as a whole—how we show up for one another, how we treat one another, and what the world outside these walls knows and sees when they think about the people in here.
And it has to do with our whole nation.
If, as some would have it, we would claim Christ for a nation, then we had better remember Jesus' words in Matthew:
"Whatsoever you did to the least of these, my little ones, my brothers and my sisters, so then you did it to me."
Whoever receives you receives me.
And remember that our souls can grow.
That more and more over the course of our life, whoever we meet has a chance to meet Christ who dwells and breathes within us.
You know that blessing we often say at the end of church? This is what it is about.
May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet.
And may everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you.
His loving kindness, his patience, his gentleness, his generosity, his goodness—his goodness toward us.
For there is one commandment:
Love one another as I have loved you.
And so, whoever receives you might receive me.
Amen.
Do you remember? Jesus comes into the room with the disciples, and he breathes on them. And what does he say?
"Receive the Holy Spirit."
When we go out into the world, we are carrying within us the life breath that Jesus breathed onto the apostles, and which has been passed to us from one generation to the next through baptism, and which is nurtured and strengthened at the altar table.
We receive again and again from God what God would then have us give to the world.
All this discourse from St. Paul about sin and death—you know, there's a very good Bob Dylan song based on this reading: You Gotta Serve Somebody, right?
The question is, as we go about in the world meeting one another, fellow children of God, what are we witnessing to? What are we representing?
What do we have to give to a world that will receive us as Christ?
Is it our impatience and our pettiness and our many, many grievances?
Or is it loving kindness, gentleness, patience, and self-control?
We can be serving one or the other.
But we can only present one to the world.
I remember when our bishop was up at Bard College about a year ago. He talked to the students gathered in the chapel there about this word sanctification.
Big theological word.
It means to be made holy.
We understand that to be a process by which, as our Baptismal Covenant states, we grow more and more into the full stature of Christ—that we represent Christ through the process of sanctification, through receiving the Holy Spirit and giving forth what is within us, that we represent Christ with more and more integrity to the world.
So that loving kindness and patience and gentleness and the goodness and love which undergird all creation is more and more clear and present to everybody we meet.
What Bishop Matt said, to keep it very simple, is this:
Our souls can grow.
Our souls can grow.
I can't tell you what that meant to me to hear.
Because I—and you—we work with many people. We work with children who are growing up, and with young adults, and people in their middle years who are growing into their agency and power, where growth is so clear.
But we also work with people who are sick, who are dying.
What sanctification means, what it means to say that our souls can grow, is that this is possible in every circumstance.
Whatever is happening to me or in the world around me, our souls can grow, and we can represent Christ more and more clearly to the world as we receive the Spirit.
To take it out of the individual just for a moment, this has to do with how we speak to ourselves just as much as it has to do with how we are to the world.
Whoever receives you receives me.
So notice within yourself: Am I presenting to myself the goodness and loving kindness of God toward me?
Or is what I say and do serving some other thing?
It has to do with our community as a whole—how we show up for one another, how we treat one another, and what the world outside these walls knows and sees when they think about the people in here.
And it has to do with our whole nation.
If, as some would have it, we would claim Christ for a nation, then we had better remember Jesus' words in Matthew:
"Whatsoever you did to the least of these, my little ones, my brothers and my sisters, so then you did it to me."
Whoever receives you receives me.
And remember that our souls can grow.
That more and more over the course of our life, whoever we meet has a chance to meet Christ who dwells and breathes within us.
You know that blessing we often say at the end of church? This is what it is about.
May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet.
And may everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you.
His loving kindness, his patience, his gentleness, his generosity, his goodness—his goodness toward us.
For there is one commandment:
Love one another as I have loved you.
And so, whoever receives you might receive me.
Amen.