Offer the Cup-Pastor Brad Stienstra
Matt. 10:40-42
6/28/26
Perhaps as you sit here now in the familiar space of the sanctuary in your much-loved church home, you are completely unaware of how closely your congregation is following the teaching of Jesus found in this morning’s gospel. Maybe it has become second nature to you here over the years, and therefore something you don’t have to talk about much, but let me take a moment to point out that your behavior toward me thus far is worthy of commendation. Just as the members of the early church in Matthew’s time were urged to do when they were confronted in their worship service with the presence of a weird-looking traveling preacher, you have chosen to greet me with warm hospitality. Not only metaphorically, but literally, I have received from you the appropriate gesture of welcome Jesus outlined as appropriate in such cases. A number of you went out of your way to offer not just a polite hello but to ask if there was anything I needed, if I would like some water. You indicated by this simple act that you wanted me to be comfortable and to feel accepted as I perform the ministry of bringing God’s word of grace to this campus where I have never before set foot. Somewhere along the way, you have clearly learned the lesson and taken it to heart that it matters that care is offered, because in the person of a disciple of Jesus, the presence and power of the Lord is embodied. So, in faithful obedience to Jesus, you have become cup bearers to me. In doing this, you have not only opened yourselves up to the blessing of receiving the Christ in the words I speak and the sacrament I am here to share with you, but you offer Jesus, too. You show that you have a firm grasp on the important truth that you also are called to this work that has been given to the whole church and not just to the clergy. What we are to remember is that, as ill-considered as it might appear at first, it is the plan of God that each believer is granted a role in representing, or maybe we might better say re-presenting, the ministry of the Savior of the whole world. And it is those exemplary folks who intentionally live out this understanding who have a chance to make resurrection life real for each person they encounter – not only for those who summon up the courage to walk through the church doors, but also for those who seldom dare to entertain the thought of doing such a scary thing. In the gospel reading I think Jesus is celebrating cup bearers who understand they aren’t just supposed to engage in welcoming preachers. He encourages all who would be his followers to open their eyes to the potential that every human being carries inside. He would like his church to be as attentive to those who are in need of care as he is, because that is how his work can continue to be done in the world. One man I heard about not long ago seems to have embodied the importance of maintaining this outward focus. He had recently purchased a fitness center. His dream was to better the lives of those who paid for his expert services, making each of them stronger and healthier by guiding them through individually designed training regimes. He fully expected that his business would soon thrive as word spread through the neighborhood of what he had to offer and how hard he was willing to work to make it possible for his customers to reach their goals. But that was not how things appeared to be going. The economic environment was proving even tougher than his most pessimistic projections. In spite of getting to the fitness center by 6 each morning and staying until 9 or 10 at night, Monday through Sunday, his business was making little headway, and he had a lot of time on his hands to worry about what he was going to do to avoid having to close the place down. He couldn’t seem to think about anything other than his own troubles, because they hounded him throughout the long, mostly unproductive hours of his day. The only moment of peace to which he could actually look forward in what was becoming an otherwise depressing routine was right after he unlocked the doors each morning. Since it was still too early for any of his handful of regular customers, he had time to make himself a cup of coffee and then take it out into the small yard behind the building to drink it in the solitude provided by the still slumbering neighborhood. However, even that rare time off from his worries was disturbed one day when he discovered a young man sleeping in an old car that had long ago been abandoned on the property. He immediately walked over to the car and knocked forcefully on the window to rouse the trespasser and send him on his way, fully expecting that he would quickly move on, never to be a problem again. But the next morning, there he was again, asleep in the same spot. Once more the owner of the fitness club pounded on the window and shooed the intruder from the yard. This exercise soon became an unwanted additonal part of the morning ritual as the young stranger stubbornly continued to seek the relative safety of the abandoned car to sleep off the hangover from yet another night of binge drinking. Getting tired of dealing with this added problem after a full week of having his wishes ignored, the owner of the property, who could make himself very physically intimidating, was just about to take more aggressive, hands-on action when he suddenly remembered the values with which he had been raised and stopped himself right before angrily putting his elbow through the glass of the window. Taking a deep breath, he instead walked slowly back into the building, where he made another cup of coffee, this one for his young trespasser. He then returned to the car, awakened his “guest,” presented the coffee to him, and gently began a conversation instead of running him off. He inquired into his story, learning about the many burdens this stranger had been suffering under for the last few years. Over the next days of ongoing chats over a cup of coffee, a relationship started to develop between them. The business owner took the homeless young man under his wing. Forgetting his own problems for a while, he bought him some clothes, helped him find a job, and made sure he had a safe place to stay. While all this effort was appreciated, it didn’t bring about an immediate happy ending. Bouts of drinking and other setbacks didn’t magically cease. Each of these many disappointments caused the frustrated fitness center owner to contemplate drawing a line in the sand and telling the younger man this was his last chance. At least weekly, he would hear himself loudly declare that if the young man messed up again, he was done trying to help him. But he never could bring himself to act on his ultimatums. Instead, he persisted in his attempt to follow Jesus’ teaching about being a bearer of a cup of hospitality. And this determination to care, to meet this troubled person where he was with the patient encouragement to become something new finally made the difference. A very slow to unfold miracle began to take place – far outside the church’s walls – and today a greatly changed person is now a fully contributing member of the community. Without it ever being identified as a goal, he has even found his way into the assembly of believers – all because of a man who remembered he was chosen by God to be a cup bearer to those who were thirsty for the water of life. I wonder about the difference we could make in the world if we, too, lived each of our days in a way that offered welcome and caring to those who cross paths with us outside these walls where Jesus comes every Sunday with the cup of blessing for us. He still wants to be present for every one of God’s created children, and it is in the person of each of you that such a glorious thing can begin to happen. All it takes is your willingness simply to be as hospitable to others as you have been with me, providing them with a taste of the Easter life that is yours. Amen.