June 28, 2026 - sermon - Michael Anthony Howard

Sermon Text...

"The Small Welcome"

Matthew 10:40-42

Rev. Michael Anthony Howard

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Please join your heart with mine as we lift them up to God— 

 Welcoming Creator, Living Word, 

Take flesh among us once more.  May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, bear witness to your Welcome, for you are our strength, our hope, and our peace. Amen. 

Have you ever noticed how Scripture trains us to expect God’s glory? Think about the great moments. Moses before the burning bush. Ezekiel by the Kebar River. Isaiah in the Temple. 

The heavens torn open at Jesus’ baptism. 

When we imagine God breaking into the world, we imagine fire. Thunder. Visions. Something unmistakably extraordinary. 

And then… Jesus ends one of his greatest sermons with a cup of cold water. That seems almost… disappointing. Unless the cup of water is the point. 

Matthew has spent this entire chapter preparing us for something enormous. Jesus looked upon the crowds and was moved with compassion. He sent the disciples into the world. He warned them about wolves. About persecution. About crosses. About losing their lives. 

Some scholars, like Albert Schweitzer, believed this whole discourse was building toward the end of the age. They argued that Jesus expected the end to come soon. A thoroughgoing eschatology. Every part of Jesus’ teaching moving toward the apocalypse… the great inbreaking of God. 

I think they’re right to expect something extraordinary. I do think Jesus was preparing for the inbreaking of God… I just wonder… if Jesus is teaching us to look somewhere different. 

Listen to how he ends. Whoever welcomes you… Whoever welcomes me… Whoever welcomes the One who sent me… Whoever welcomes a prophet… Whoever welcomes a righteous person… 

Whoever gives even a cup of cold water…  

Notice what happened. The cup of cold water isn’t an afterthought. It isn’t the smallest example at the end of a list. It’s the lens through which we understand the whole list. 

 What is a prophet for? Welcome. What is righteousness for? Welcome. 

What is discipleship for? Welcome. 

Jesus doesn’t diminish prophecy. He tells us what prophecy has always been pointing toward. 

The Welcome of God. The extraordinary glory of God… revealed in ordinary things. 

A little while ago… this was just water. And now?  

It is still water. Its chemistry has not changed. Its molecules have not changed. 

But now… this water has become a witness. It has become part of the story of God. Today it welcomed Henry. Today it welcomed Grace. Today it welcomed us back to our own baptism. 

The paper in your bulletin is still paper. But today it bears names. Promises. Memories. The flowers are still flowers. The music is still music. You are still you. Nothing stopped being ordinary. And yet… everything became part of God’s promise. 

That’s what holiness looks like. Not ordinary things escaping the world. Ordinary things participating in God’s redeeming love. 

Perhaps that’s why Jesus ends with a cup of cold water. Because once you’ve seen the Welcome of God there… you begin to see it everywhere. 

Around dinner tables. In hospital rooms. In folded bulletins. In prayers whispered before dawn. In neighbors who make room for strangers. In parents who make room for children. In churches that make room for hope. The sacrament is not the world becoming re-enchanted. It is the world being revealed. The glory was never waiting somewhere else. The glory was waiting to be welcomed. 

So, in a few moments, I will invite you to remember your baptism. Not because this water is magic. Not because remembering changes the past. But because remembering teaches us where to look. For wherever God’s Welcome takes flesh… there the holy is encountered. 

And perhaps… that cup of cold water Jesus spoke about… has been waiting all along… to teach us how to see. Glory to the Welcome of God. 

Amen.