RCL Year A, Proper 8, Alternate Readings
Jeremiah 28:5-9, Psalm 89:1-4 and 15-18, Romans 6:12-23, Saint Matthew 10:40-42

In the first scene of his play, Dr. Faustus is alone in his study. In his boredom, he applies his towering Renaissance intellect to scan and to sift different fields of study. He looks for something to relieve his boredom. He comes to the study of Divinity, and he says, first in Latin, and then in English, “The reward of sinne is death.”[1] He is quoting the last verse of today’s Epistle, and he fixes upon the bad news of the first clause, neglecting the good news of the second clause, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[2]

People, and even their sermons, can be like that. We can fix upon one part of the Christian revelation, the part that we want to fix upon, and neglect the bigger picture. You and I want to avoid that. We want to find and to fix upon the big picture.

And the big picture today reveals the prodigious and overwhelming generosity of God. In Romans, Saint Paul declares that slavery to sin can be, in God’s economy, traded for slavery to God. Sin deserves death, but God gives eternal life instead. Again, in other words, sin can be handed in, and you get sanctification instead. These exchanges are prodigiously and overwhelmingly generous.

The reading from Jeremiah reveals another dimension of the same generosity. Hananiah the prophet prophesies that the Temple’s vessels and the children of Israel themselves, taken into captivity in Babylon, will be brought back to Jerusalem. It’s a rosy prophecy, unlike the bleak prophecies entrusted to Jeremiah, a prophet of destruction and gloom. And Jeremiah wisely declares that we shall know that the prophecy is true when it comes true. And, of course, it does comes true.

God’s generosity shines even more brightly in the Gospel’s three verses though we may have to look at them closely. Jesus declares, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.” He speaks to his disciples, and the upshot is that if a person receives a disciple, the person receiving the disciple enjoys the benefit of receiving Jesus himself and God the Father who sent Jesus. If a person receives a prophet, the person receives the reward of being a prophet. If a person receives a righteous person, the person receives the reward of being a righteous person himself. And, finally, if a person gives a cup of cold water to a little one as if the little one were a disciple, that person will never loose his reward.

In all these ways, God is being outlandishly generous. So much generosity is sloshing around that missing out on that generosity is hard. But missing out is possible if you are determined to achieve missing out. Rather than missing out, trade in your sin, receive God’s messengers, and help God’s little ones. It doesn’t take much. And, we all can do these things.

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[1] Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, 1604-1616, W. W. Greg, ed. 1950, (A.i.70).

[2] Romans 6:23b.