Barbara Moyer Lehman: On Giving Drinks

June 29, 2008
Matthew 10:40-42



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The gospel text for this Sunday is a short two verse passage that concludes this section know as the “Mission discourse”. If we flip back to earlier chapters in Matthew, we see that Jesus is preparing for others to share in his mission. He begins to recruit...calls his first disciples...invites this assortment of persons to be his followers. Then it becomes orientation time! They need to learn.... to be instructed. What IS Jesus’ mission all about and where is it leading?
It seems like a wise plan...this orientation time. Many of us have started new jobs at some time in our life. We like to have a job description clearly in hand, maybe a meeting or two with our supervisor, check things out with another person in the office or work team. We feel more prepared to start a new thing if we see how our gifts and experience might fit into the larger picture and vision. So Jesus gives them a solid course in “Mission and Evangelism 101". He calls them together and commissions them. He makes it clear that his mission and their mission are one and the same. Jesus empowers them, gives them the authority to do what he has been doing, not only preaching and teaching and proclaiming the Kingdom is near, but also healing the sick and casting out demons!! He gives them the authority and sends them out with instructions.

Jesus explains to them where they are to go: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(10:5-6) At this point Jesus limits the boundaries of mission to Israel. That task must be completed before the mission can be broadened. And we know that by the end of the gospel, the restriction is lifted as the disciples are
SENT OUT to ALL the nations.

Jesus explains to them what they are to do: “proclaim the good news, The Kingdom of heaven has come near, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” (10:7-8) Pretty clear job description, isn’t it? Many of us desire one so clear.

Jesus explains how they are to travel..lifestyle issues are addressed: “Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag, or two tunics or sandals or staff.” (10:9-10) Obviously this is what you call Travel Lite Ministry. Packing list is short, more like non-existent! They wouldn’t have to worry about paying extra money for another piece of luggage.
I wonder if any of them raised questions with Jesus..like,” can we take an extra change of clothing or two pair of sandals?”

Jesus explains to them what the accommodations will be: “when you enter a town or village, find who is worthy and stay there, if they are not worthy, leave and move on.”(10:11-14) Pretty simple!

But then Jesus adds a piece of reality...things may get tough. There will be persecution, suffering.... “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves”. Following Jesus will cost them something.

Last week Ron Copeland preached so powerfully on the text that immediately precedes the two verses for today. (Listen to his sermon, if you weren’t here!)

We come to the end of this major teaching. Jesus has adequately briefed his followers about their mission and now is the wrap-up session. The gist of these two verses at the end of this discourse is this:
You are my representatives out there in the mission field, my messengers, my hands and feet, my voice. When people open their hearts and homes and welcome you, they are welcoming me. This work is so interrelated and intimately linked. We are partners, equal partners in the work. The ones who proclaim God’s message AND the ones who welcome and support the messengers will be rewarded. Those who stand firm for what is right and those who support them in their stand will be rewarded by God as equal partners. This is a huge mission. There is plenty of work for everyone. Don’t be overwhelmed. No matter how ordinary or apparently insignificant someone’s contribution may seem, it is important!! Even if it is something so small as offering a cup of cold water to an ordinary citizen of the kingdom, one who is out there sweating and toiling, one without status, or degrees or a large bank account, even that small gesture, act of kindness to these ‘little ones’ is important. God will give them full credit for it.

Nothing is lost on the breath of God. Nothing is too small or too insignificant for God to notice. A cup of water....that’s where we begin.

It doesn’t have to be a strawberry-pineapple-mango smoothie served in a crystal goblet on a silver plate to the visiting dignitary. It can be a cup of cold water extended to anyone who is thirsty, and shared in the name of Jesus.
When the needs in our world and all around us are so enormous, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. It’s important to remember it isn’t on our shoulders alone. We do this harvesting, this mission work together. Sometimes we are the messengers, the proclaimers, teachers, healers, evangelists, “sent out” ones. But sometimes we also need to be the ones to open doors, to put out the welcome mats, to offer bed and breakfast, to prepare a meal, to welcome the stranger, as well as the traveling preacher. In God’s eyes, we are equal partners in this work. Sometimes we start small, even with a cup...of water.

Two weeks ago we commissioned Vic and Christina Buckwalter to a 3 year term with MCC in Kenya. I have no doubt that they will do good work and be well received. It is wonderful to know that with Vic’s training and many years as a family physician, he can now use those gifts and wisdom to mentor and train young doctors in a country that is struggling and experiencing many challenges in health care. It is exciting to think that Christina will be able to use her gifts and wisdom learned over years as a teacher to build relationships with women and children in the villages, to be in a position to both extend and receive hospitality. But we can’t forget our part in this mission. Their support team, small group, close friends, this faith community...we too need to pray for them, write to them, encourage them, maybe even visit them. Some may need to check in with their adult children on occasion, be surrogate moms and dads! :-) We are partners in this work.

CUPS OF COLD WATER.....they are being offered all over. Have you noticed?

1.) A caring church member drops off a plate of cookies to the church staff as she makes her way to the home of a family in crisis with another plate of cookies.
2.) Two sisters, aged 87 and 85 in Winnipeg, make 30 baby quilts a year for MCC. They have done this for 20 years. Why? Because when they were children in the Soviet Union they remember being helped by MCC as they received care packages and blankets. Now they want to give back, to be partners, to give cups of water.
3.) A small group in our congregation has been energized, heard the call, to organize an MCC Blitz for our congregation, which will occur on August 12. An opportunity to knot comforters and assemble kits for MCC.
4.) After the May 22 tornado that damaged over 600 homes in Windsor, CO, MDS stepped in, along with other groups, to help. “MDS volunteers brought hope through acts of service, helping those affected to regain faith and wholeness in the midst of uncertainty” ( MWR June 2) They are assessing the next steps for long term rebuilding, focusing on the most vulnerable population, the uninsured, underinsured, unemployed, single parents and elderly.
5.) MCC Central States (Kansas) is helping to cover food and housing costs for families affected by a raid on May 12 of a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It resulted in 389 workers without documentation of citizenship or other legal status being captured, carted off in buses waiting for them and detained for processing. Children were left without parents, businesses were shut down. Cedar Rapids MC has felt compelled to stand in solidarity with the people of Postville. Their pastor Susan Jansen writes,” In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us that on judgment day God will ask us how we treated and welcomed the strangers among us. HOW we respond to the ‘least of these’, which in our context includes the immigrants detained in this raid and their families, is a sign of our faithfulness to God.” (Krista Zimmerman, MCC Washington office said, “immigration raids aren’t the way to fix a broken immigration system. Congress needs to enact comprehensive immigration reform.” (MWR June 2)

The list could go on and on..... you get the picture.. Cups of cold water being offered everywhere.

Tuesday afternoon driving to UVA, I listened to a program called, “The Story’ an interview by Dick Gordon. The woman being interviewed was named Irene, a volunteer coordinator for a small town in Mississippi that was almost wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She could tell story after story about persons and groups offering “the cup of water” to the survivors of this tragedy. 3 examples:
-a woman who had survived cancer 4x and came to help clean up said to the coordinator, “what you are facing here is much worse than my experience with cancer 4x.”
-college students who came to work....every morning would get up, take buckets and bleach and go to the ruins of someone’s house. They would crawl on their hands and knees in and out and under unbelievably small and dirty and dangerous places, making their best effort to find something, no matter how little or insignificant, but something that the homeowners could still salvage and have out of the total ruins of all their life possessions. After that, the same students would return to the place the next day, stand with the homeowners, hold them, hug them, cry with them as the bulldozer would remove all the rubble.
-a group of people from Indonesia came to help with the clean up. Why? They were survivors of the tsunami, still poor with little to offer, yet they wanted to give back, to help others in the wake of their disaster. They found a Presbyterian agency who helped them come to the US, which allowed them the chance to be equal partners in this Kingdom work.

When Dick Gordon asked the coordinator, Irene, “Weren’t you ever discouraged and just felt like giving up?” She replied that 3 weeks after Katrina hit, another hurricane came through, Rita. It took off every single tarp from ever single house that they had put on in 3 weeks time. All the work was “ down the tubes!”
How did they keep their morale? Their motto/saying became:
“One day at a time, one hour at a time, one wall at a time, one volunteer at a time!”

On July 27, Steve Brown will be preaching here at Park View. (lastest Connections, photo of Steve) Steve is assistant moderator of VA Conference. He is also the vice-president of the Churches Supporting Churches, an ecumenical effort supporting African-American churches in New orleans through congregational partnerships, resourcing pastors and fundraising for needs the communities identify. We will have more opportunity to hear about this on that Sunday, but in preparation, read article in MWR, June 16, front page, right column, “Together a rebirth.” We will also have some brochures in your mailboxes in the next few weeks. We are exploring the possibility of becoming one of those partner churches, but it takes a strong commitment and willingness to risk something new and long term (3 year committment).

Last week Ron challenged us at the end of his sermon with, “What is God whispering to you in the dark to your heart? What are you hearing in your head and feeling in your heart? What vision are you called to follow or speak about?”
Maybe in the weeks/months ahead we will hear, we will know, we will follow a new vision.
Where and to whom can we offer a cup of cold water? Is there a new place for us to sweep off the steps and throw down a new welcome mat, to open the doors and say, come on in! Or maybe we are feeling burned out, always doing for others, giving, giving, caring, caring and neglecting ourselves. Maybe we need to take a ‘time out’, and receive a cup of cold water from another to be refreshed and renewed. As much as Mennonites love to SERVE and DO, sometimes we need to graciously ACCEPT, to learn to RECEIVE, and just BE, recognizing our own needs and neediness.

Macrina Wiederkehr, a Catholic sister and writer, one who gives much, knows what it is like when sometimes you are caught between needing the cup of water yourself, yet someone is there before you just as needy, and they are just there. What do you do?

She writes in “Seasons of Your Heart”, about this:
Sometimes I get tired of walking with strangers. Sometimes I get tired of giving drinks. One such tired moment found me in the Kansas City airport. I was on my way to Phoenix to give myself a drink, a workshop and retreat given by the monks of Weston Priory.
But strangers have a way of bumping into me even when I’m not handing out free drinks. This one was obviously very thirsty. And before I realize what was happening I became the woman at the well (John 4:11) asking the same kind of questions, struggling with the same living water. Looking into the eyes of that thirsty stranger, I was able with the help of grace to notice that his well was deep and that I did, after all, have a bucket. “Give me a drink!”, he said.

I’m tired of giving drinks
I’m closing up my well for the winter
I’m throwing the bucket away
By the time I get to Phoenix
I’ll be ready for a few drinks myself.

But I hadn’t even gotten out of Kansas City
when someone came up to me
already wanting a drink.

He was old
and not used to traveling alone.
He had just had knee surgery
and couldn’t get around very well.
He wanted to talk.

I back away in my heart.
Everything in me said:
“Giving drinks is not in season for me
My well is closed for the winter
Don’t ask me for a drink
Please don’t
I am too empty
I am thirsty myself.”

But it was too late
I had already seen his eyes
I had already heard his voice.
“Give me a drink,” it said.
And I?

Because I couldn’t avoid him
I said, “Oh, a little one maybe,
a short one
but not much.
It’s the wrong place.
It’s the wrong time.
It’s the wrong....”

And then I heard it!
It was the Gospel voice all over again;
“Woman, if you but knew the gift of God
and who it is asking for a drink,
you’d ask him instead
and he’d give you the living waters.”

“Sir,” I challenged him,
“This airport is big
and you can barely walk.
Where are you going to get those living waters?”

And the Gospel voice continued:
“If you drink the water
I have to offer,
you won’t have to go to Phoenix
for drinks anymore
or to Weston Priory
or anywhere else.
In fact, you won’t get thirsty again
for my drink will become
a fountain within
gushing forth eternal life for all,
and then you’ll be a renewal center
for others to come
and drink from.”

And I?
Well, I didn’t cancel my trip to Phoenix
but I was filled
with a new kind of vision
and I knew
that
by the time I got to Phoenix
my well would be open again.

All our work is important!! Nothing is too small, too insignificant. We are equal partners in this Kingdom work. We are all channels of GRACE! Nothing is lost...not even a cup of water offered to the little one, offered in the name of Christ.

AMEN.



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