June 28, 2026 (Fifth Sunday after Pentecost) - Deacon Matthew Sanaker

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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

So this gospel reading, I think it might be one of the shortest ones in the lectionary. It's only three verses, and if we don't read it in the context of what precedes it, we can kind of wonder what's happening here.

Luckily, in our lectionary, we have heard what happens before in the past few weeks, but I'll refresh your memories just a little bit.

Within the context of this section, Jesus is sending his disciples out on a mission without him. He's doing this while he's still with them. He's been training them. They've been learning from him. They've been watching all the things that he's been doing. And now he is telling them, "I am giving you the authority to do all of these things. You are going to be my representatives to the people of Judea, to all the people of Israel. You are going to do all the things that I've been doing. You're going to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. You're going to cast out demons and unclean spirits. You're going to cure the sick, and you're going to raise the dead."

So all of those things—I was kind of like, okay, as disciples of Christ today, we can do all those things. I'm not sure about the raising the dead part. I haven't seen that yet, but I'm open to it.

You know, Father Steve, have you seen that yet?

No? Okay. Once or twice. Good.

And he sends them out and says, "Don't take anything with you. Don't take any money. Don't take any extra clothes. Don't take any provisions. You are going to be relying on the hospitality of the people that you're going to."

So basically, they're going out there vulnerable. They have no power in terms of the world, but they have the power of Christ and of God to do what he has sent them out to do.

The other thing that he tells them, right before sending them out, is, "Oh, by the way, you will probably be persecuted. There are going to be people who argue with you. They're going to hate you. They might run you out of town. You kind of remember that thing where they wanted to throw me off a cliff? Well, that could happen to you also."

So that's the background for this passage:

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the Father."

This passage can also be read or translated as:

"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the Father."

He's telling them, "You will be my representatives, just as I am a representative of the Father. You are going to be my representatives, my emissaries, to these people who need to be saved."

The disciples have been transformed by their relationship with Jesus. We don't know exactly how long into his ministry they are sent out, but we can guess it's probably been a couple of years. They have all left everything else behind, and they are following Jesus. They are watching him. They are participating with him in the miracles.

And now he's sending them out, and they have been prepared. Otherwise, he wouldn't send them.

We are also invited into the work of Christ. We are invited to proclaim the kingdom of God, to build up the kingdom of God, to feed people, to be there with people when they need healing, whether it's physical, mental, or spiritual.

That's what discipleship is about.

It's good that we are here, that we are learning, in many ways, at the feet of Christ, as the disciples did. And it is up to us to go out and do the work that Jesus, that God, has prepared for us to do.

In many ways, it's about stepping out in faith. It's about being willing to be vulnerable. It's about entering into conversation with people.

The disciples, when they went out, weren't just preaching on the street corner. They had to be in relationship with people because ultimately they would need to be invited into somebody's home to eat, to have a place to sleep.

So it was really about entering into relationship.

I think that is one of the things that sometimes we might miss in the gospel. We hear about all the things we're supposed to do, but I think being in relationship is how we do all of those things.

Entering into conversations with people involves a lot of listening.

We have to listen to God. Where do we think God is calling us? Where do we hear God calling us?

And then we have to listen to the people who are in our communities. What is it that people need? We might have an idea of what people need, but when we actually listen to them, we're going to hear what they truly need.

So it's about being in relationship. It's about being committed to being in relationship.

And that's not always easy.

We have received Jesus. We have received the Father. We have received the Holy Spirit. We have been invited to change our hearts and minds and our way of living.

As part of accepting the invitation of welcoming and receiving God, we have to live our lives as though the kingdom of God is around us.

We're living into this vision that Jesus gave us of the kingdom of God, and it's countercultural.

Everything around us, especially in our society, is very individualistic. The kingdom of God is about community. It's about what we've probably heard called the beloved community, where we care for one another and serve one another.

And there are sometimes when we are served.

It's mutual.

There are times to serve, and there are times to receive.

This past couple of weeks, when I was gone, I traveled to England. The first couple of weeks were simply vacation with my wife. We saw lots of cool things—cathedrals and stone circles and all of that.

But the third week was what I was really there for.

It was a course called Learning from London, and we visited different churches that have been, and are continuing to, revitalize themselves.

One of the ways they are doing that is by going out into the community, listening to what the community needs, and then responding in faith that God will provide, that people will come, and that the church will be revitalized.

And I see a lot of that right here.

In the past eighteen months that I've been here, the number of people coming here has grown. The ministry that folks at Grace have been involved in has grown. There were a lot of parallels.

Of course, they were doing some different things. Maybe it's not going to fly to have screens over here with praise music and all of that. Maybe it would. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't bring that up.

But it was really beautiful, especially to see how welcoming people were and how engaged people were.

I think this is part of what we're hearing in the gospel:

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me."

Part of that is us welcoming, seeing Christ in the people around us, welcoming them in, and being ready to be welcomed by them.

It's very mutual.

One of the other things—and of course, in all of this, I'm always reading something—my book to take on the plane was by Rowan Williams, as one does when traveling to England.

Bishop Rowan wrote a book called The Way of Saint Benedict. He talks about the Rule of Saint Benedict, though not chapter by chapter.

I haven't gotten through the whole book yet, so if anybody has read it, don't tell me how it ends.

He's talking about being in community with people. It's difficult to be in community with people.

One of the things he continually comes back to is that we have to open our hearts. We have to welcome people. We have to be ready to be vulnerable, honest, and authentic with people.

That welcome is a two-way street.

It's not simply, "We have this thing, and we're welcoming you to partake in it."

It's, "We are going to build this thing together. We are going to be in conversation. We're going to be in community. I am welcoming Christ in you. You are welcoming Christ in me. Together, we are welcoming God into our lives and into our community."

I believe this is how we build the kingdom of God right here in our own time and our own place.

And this is something that can, I believe, radically change our society.

Amen.