“Just GREAT,” I said to myself as I took a look at the lessons appointed for this Sunday. “On the day we are having a Parish Family Picnic and celebrating the joys of the ties that bind us, the gospel lesson has Jesus envisioning some very BIG and NASTY family fights… ‘One’s foes will be members of one’s own household?’” “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother?”

“Why can’t we have a happy gospel lesson for a happy Sunday at the end of June?” I muttered to myself. I don’t like to have to preach from gospel passages that sound more like sad news and bad news than good news… I even thought briefly (and not very kindly) of making Bob preach this morning, but then he needed to be out of town this morning, so here I am…

What is Jesus getting at, in this passage addressed to his disciples? Is there any good news here, or is it as depressing as it seems? Maybe the place to start is to look at the other lessons appointed for today, and try to put them into context next to what Jesus has to say.

The passage from Isaiah serves to sum up the trouble that the people of God have gotten themselves into over the centuries – since that long ago time God first called Abraham and promised to create a family relationship between God and Abraham’s descendants. The trouble is that the family, the people of God, likes God to be around, but just not real close. They like to hold him at arm’s length so they can still feel free to call the shots, but they also appreciate knowing he’s around just in case they get in over their heads. That’s what Isaiah is getting at when he talks about the haughtiness of the people. At the end of the section we read today we hear, “The haughtiness of people shall be humbled, and the pride of everyone shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.”

We can identify with all of that, if we’re honest. We have a tendency to believe that we’re in charge – that we are capable of calling the shots and making the decisions – and that if we need God, we’ll ask for his help – otherwise – “God – stand back, stay away, and let us do our thing. We’ll let you know if we need you.”

But at the same time we want God to stand back, we also need to know that God is up close – right next to us. We want to be in charge, but we mess it up time and time again. We think we are smart enough to figure out what will give our lives meaning and joy and real pleasure, but we are constantly surprised and astounded that more money isn’t the answer, a great job isn’t the answer, good health isn’t the answer, and the right “someone” isn’t the answer. We find ourselves humbled that everything we thought would give our lives value and meaning just aren’t any kind of solution at all.

I don’t know if we’re haughty, hypocritical, or high maintenance, but we sure are human. And that’s where Jesus comes in. In his ministry, Jesus paints a picture of human health and wholeness – it’s right there radiating in and through his own person – but it’s also inseparable from his relationship with God. Every time in the gospel accounts that Jesus says, “Follow ME” – he’s saying that he has the answer – he IS the answer - to our haughtiness, to our selfishness, to our misguided attempts to find meaning and make a difference in all the wrong places and in all the wrong people.

It is by simply by casting our hopes on Jesus that we find the way forward. It is in putting our priorities where he did, practicing what he preached, praying like he prayed, acting the way he did, serving the way he served, and loving the way he loved that we find the answers we waste so much time looking for in all the wrong places.

Jesus calls us to change direction, to change focus, and to re-order our priorities. From here on out, all we do we are to do in his name, all we are we are to claim as coming through the power of his spirit animating us. “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me… whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…” Jesus says.

Paul, that passionate convert, says that when we claim Christ, when we decide to follow him, it’s as though we’ve died and been born again. “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Newness of life – isn’t that what we seek as human beings? Doesn’t that sound like what we most want?

Claim Christ. Follow Christ. Act like Christ. That’s the key to newness of life – to a brand-new future where possibilities are endless, where joy and gladness are by-products, where we are constantly surprised and delighted by God’s grace lavishly bestowed upon us, and where God’s dream for all human beings will begin to come true through us.

You’ll notice in the gospel passage that Jesus isn’t charging us to change the world – he’s not asking us to topple institutions and governments and sick systems. He’s asking us to do those small things, every day, that hold within them the miraculous power to change everything; to make a drastic difference in unprecedented proportions.

Jesus didn’t raise an army to overthrow the Romans. He didn’t put out a vendetta against the religious leaders. He didn’t work systematically from the top down, but rather person to person from the bottom up. And he taught his followers to do the same. In the passage today, he names two small, seemingly inconsequential things: the first is welcome (we’d call that hospitality) and the second is giving out cups of cold water (we’d call that acts of kindness).

Those two things – hospitality and acts of kindness – seem to me to sum up so much of what St. Andrew’s is all about. We will never know how our small acts of hospitality and kindness will make a difference in God’s grand scheme of things, but we do know that in our hospitality and in our acts of kindness, we can literally feel Jesus within us, and we feel blessed.

Claim Christ. Follow Christ. Act like Christ. There are no other requirements for a good life than these. There is no other course towards newness of life than these. So for us at St. Andrew’s, let us thank God this morning for the work Christ gives us to do – for hospitality and acts of kindness – the ministry of welcome and water.

Let us pray:

“Living Lord, you pour out your life for us, you pour out your life in us, you pour out your life through us. Help us to pass it on.”

Amen.