Rewards (Matthew 10)

    “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” From the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 10, verse 40.

    In the Name, etc..

    Today’s Gospel, all three verses of it, has got to be the shortest in the lectionary. I haven’t checked it out, but I can’t think of any that are as short, or shorter. In any case, as short as it is, there is much to consider in it, especially that one word “reward,” which is repeated three times.

    My dictionary says that the Greek for this, misthos, means pay, wages, reward. It can mean recompense or gain. It can also mean retribution, punishment, payback. Of course, Jesus is not thinking of these dark, negative meanings.

    Related words, like misthoma, meaning expense or rent, or misthios, meaning hired hand or laborer, emphasize the core meaning: payment in money, cash. Jesus is pointing out the solid, valuable nature of his teaching. He is taking advantage of the familiarity of money, of transactions with money, to make clear the nature of his teaching. The Twelve are receiving something solid, something valuable, from Jesus.

    The whole of chapter 10 of Matthew’s Gospel is a collection of empowerments, instructions, and warnings to the Twelve. Today’s Gospel is the conclusion to this collection of instructions and so on, and refers back to them. Jesus is saying that in spite of the warnings and dangers, people will receive them. In the end, their work, dangerous though  it may be, will not fail, will not be unrewarded.

    Although Jesus uses the word ‘reward’ emphatically, earlier in the chapter, when he is giving instructions to the Twelve, he cautions them very strongly not to take the notion of payment literally. He says, “You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts.” So when they hear the word “reward” they have been prepared not to think of payment in money. Their work is not about monetary reward at all.          

     Let us list the things that Jesus told the Twelve to expect, and none of them sound like rewards. If anything, they sound like the negative meanings for misthos: retribution, punishment, payback. They are: flogging in the synagogues, being dragged before governors, betrayal, hatred, persecution --- not the kind of rewards that anyone would seek out.

    Jesus says to the Twelve, “do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” This is exactly the definition of a prophet, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18: “I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak...everything that I command.” Jesus expands the meaning of prophecy when he says, “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

    What, then, is the reward of a prophet? Jesus has made it clear that it  is not a monetary reward, and he has warned them what will happen during their mission. It doesn’t sound very rewarding. Jesus reassures them, in spite of this, of their value, paradoxically, when he says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? ...do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Jesus turns notions about money and success upside down, to free the Twelve from any idea of worldly gain.

      Today’s Gospel mentions a prophet’s reward, and a righteous person’s reward. A prophet is God’s voice in the world; a righteous person is a person made righteous, justified as the Apostle says, by faith. Each of them is close to God. Each is answering God’s call. And each, both, have the same reward. When Jesus says, “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me,” he is saying that the prophet and the person made righteous by faith have welcomed the Father, that is, they have accepted the presence and power of God in their lives. Their reward is their awareness of the reality of God. Jesus says, earlier in the chapter, that “everyone...who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” This acknowledgement is not merely an event in the world to come, but is a this-world experience made possible by faith, and by openness to the Spirit of God. The reward is the direct experience of God, in this world and the next.

     In the Name, etc.. Amen. (2.VII.17.Adv.)

   

Naming of John Baptist (Luke 1)

    “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.” Luke 1.68.

    In Nomine etc..

    Today we commemorate the birth of John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, also called John the Forerunner, because he prepared a way for Jesus and directed his followers to Jesus, when Jesus began his ministry. Jesus, as we know, accepted baptism from John, an event in which Jesus came to full understanding of his relationship with God. John is very important, essential really, to Jesus’s own understanding of himself, and to our understanding as well.

    Today’s Gospel, the first part of it, makes clear the importance of John by emphasizing his name. Evidently was a name unexpected by Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives, and they protested and queried the choice. It is interesting that the neighbors and relatives would not take Elizabeth’s word for it, that the baby’s name would be John. They insisted on asking Zechariah, even though he could not talk. He confirmed the choice, as we heard. And the moment he confirmed it, he was able to speak. Let us ponder this for a moment.

    “Zechariah” means “God has remembered” and “John” comes from “Yohanan” which means “God is gracious.” The story of the naming of John is a proclamation of God’s purpose, his nature really. God remembers, and he is always gracious. The ministries of John, and Jesus, taken together, are God working through John, the last of the prophets, and Jesus his Son, to recall humans to awareness of our real nature, which is one of life with God. John’s greatest task was to prepare Jesus to hear from God himself who he was. Only after this was Jesus able to take up his work. John is not only the Forerunner of Jesus; he is the Forerunner of all believers who follow Jesus. John directed people to follow Jesus, and passed his followers on to him.

    Zechariah’s prophecy is in two parts: in the first part he says “he has raised up a mighty savior for  us in the house of his servant David”; in the second part he speaks of his own son: “and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High.” Recall that the “mighty savior” hasn’t been born yet. Luke doesn’t say how Zechariah knows this, except to say that he  “was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy.” When the archangel Gabriel spoke to him in the Temple, he did not mention Jesus, so it seems to me that Zechariah heard  of the savior from Mary and Elizabeth, or he heard it directly from the Holy Spirit. In any case, Zechariah wastes no time, with the first words out of his mouth, in proclaiming the yet-to-be-born Savior and his cousin John as his Forerunner. Zechariah is himself a forerunner, and has a place in the history of salvation, as do Mary and Elizabeth and all their ancestors and all the prophets before them. We can learn from this that the message of salvation, which is the message of our participation in the life of God, has been repeated many times, and revealed to many people and  passed on to others from generation to generation. God does not give up, and goes on revealing himself, until everyone is participating in his life, has reached the destiny that God intends for them, for us.

    “And you, child...will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.” The meaning of this is clear: God has already forgiven sins. He is giving through John the knowledge that salvation is available, and has only to be accepted. There is no suggestion that salvation will be held back; no one is excluded from the promise. “The dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Dawn, light, peace, are promised to all. Let us accept knowledge of our salvation, and walk the way of peace.

     “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.”

     In Nomine etc..  (24.VI.17.Adv.)