Even a Cup of Water

Tomorrow's Gospel reading is probably the shortest of the three-year cycle of readings that takes us through the Bible. The whole of it is that Jesus says,

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 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; 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."

In preaching on this, I gave a sermon six years ago called Small Things Done with Great Love which is titled from a Mother Teresa quote I have returned to again and again in my own life if not in sermons. She said that we can do no great things for God, only small things with great love.

I told in the sermon of going to Brazil to take still photos for a documentary film a friend of ours from Georgia Southern was filming in Brazil. It was about a group of middle class guys using their skills in the uniquely Brazilian martial art called Capoeira to improve the lives of kids in a tough slum. Before leaving, I went with one of the instructors to the street where he first ran across some boys in the slum who wanted to learn. We played capoeria in the street there. The sermon continued:

After a while, the mid-day heat got to us. We stopped to catch our breath. A boy who I had just been fighting ran off and came back quickly with a tin cup of cold water. The sun was beating down. I was covered in sweat. Yet, my first thought was of the signs posted all over the neighborhood warning of the danger in drinking the water without treating it first. The water was known to contain a cocktail of bacteria and viruses.

There stood the boy beaming as he offered me a cold drink of untreated water. I knew that he would be devastated if I turned down his offer. How could I get him to understand? Instead, I did not pause to think. I drank down the whole cup in one long satisfying drink. The boy was elated. “By the time the sickness kicks in I’ll be back home anyway,” I thought.

I never did get sick. God looks out for fools and I was no exception. So I look back in my mind and see that boy grinning from ear to ear as he offered my a tin cup of cool water. The roles were all reversed. The scene was taking the world and turning it on its head.

I was the American who had flown down to Brazil with all my expensive photography equipment. He was the kid in the slum with nothing to offer anyone. And yet, it was he who was reaching out to me. He was the host and I was the guest right there in the street.

It is this scene in my mind that shows me clearly the world as God sees it. To God, the person who others look over is the one with the gift, if we can stop and pay attention long enough to receive it. The person who seems to have it all together may be the one with the greatest need.

Whatever reward I may have had coming to me for being foolish enough to play Capoeira in that slum street is not mine now. The reward is the boy’s. He is the hero of the story.

The full text of the sermon is online here: Small Things Done with Great Love.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor