Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Where should we go with our Gospel this morning? Our initial thoughts might have to do with welcoming those who come through our doors, with being a welcoming congregation. Upon reflection we might think about our being welcoming as individuals, whether here at LCC or at home. As we think a little more about what Jesus is saying, our thoughts may go in the direction of how we welcome those who come in Jesus' name. Going a little bit further, maybe our thoughts wander in the direction of the welcome we receive when we go in Jesus' name. Oh! But now we are beginning to think in terms of mission! Do we want to go that far? I think we should.

Now we do think of our congregation as a welcoming church, friendly and accepting of all who come in through our doors. To an extent, we are. When I meet with folks who are interested in joining our congregation, I often hear about how they felt welcomed when they came in to worship. I also hear the refrain that the welcome does not always extend as far down the hall as the celebration center because once a newcomer gets there they find that the tables are closed to outsiders. Not that anyone wants to be intentionally excluding but our tables seat eight people comfortably and it is kind of rare that there are not eight friends who gather around a table to catch up or share with one another.

Both Pastor Glenn and I can tell stories about the welcome we have each received in the homes of many of our members, the hospitality, the conversation, the acceptance that we have felt. I suspect that most of you can say the same about the welcome you have received in the homes of other members of our congregation.

In the nearly three years I have been here I have seen the kind of welcome our congregation extends to those who come bearing God's Word. We have received the Word from guest choirs such as Age to Age, the Concordia choir, and Teen Challenge and we have been welcoming each time. We have had the occasional guest preacher, such as Bishop Tom last year, or some of our lay members, or retired pastors. They have all been welcomed to our pulpit.

We have also welcomed those who come with needs, those who grace our campus through IHN, various community groups who use our facility, those who come during rummage sale time, and those who come at other times such as VBS.

But now my thoughts are turning in a somewhat different direction. The Greek word translated as "welcome" in our Gospel also means, even more appropriately, "receives" or "accepts." I mention this because sometimes our "welcome" is honestly kind of superficial. Oh, the welcome is on the face and in the eyes, but it does not always seem to reach the heart. In other words, our "welcome" falls a little short of "receive" or "take" which is another appropriate meaning of the Greek word, it falls a little short of "accept." Now in this context, receive, accept, take are all shades of the same word, variations of a theme if you will.

So what do we mean when we talk about receiving those who bring God's Word? Welcoming the messenger as one would welcome the message-sender was a common thought in the early church. Now your pastors come bearing a message, bearing the Word of God. It is not always comforting or comfortable to hear it, and over the years I have seen different reactions in our members. Certain of you look up, your eyes follow me as I wander through the sanctuary, or you watch me when I am in the pulpit. Some of you are listening intently, even taking notes, sometimes smiling or nodding at me or at the message I bring. On a vital level, you are receiving/accepting/taking from me God's word.

There are others, however, who apparently find fault, grimacing, crossing arms, looking elsewhere, apparently impatient for the preaching ordeal to be over. It may be that the message is not acceptable in their ears, or it may be that the messenger is not acceptable. Either way, there is no welcome, no receiving/accepting/taking. The messenger and the message are rejected.

Some folks are open to what is heard, others are closed.

Now I bring this up because there were four points I made as I began this morning.

Let me take a moment to refresh your memory. The first point was welcoming those who come through our doors, our being a welcoming congregation. The second was how we welcome as individuals, whether here at LCC or at home. Third, and this where I diverged a little bit, how we welcome those who come in Jesus' name. Which brings me to my fourth point, which concerns the welcome we receive when we go in Jesus' name. This last point is one of those that can make us feel quite uncomfortable, and we sometimes simply do not wish to hear it.

Thoughts of mission! Jesus tells us he was sent. He has sent out disciples, in this case, me. We welcome the messenger, in this case, me. We receive/accept/take that which is brought, the word of the Lord. We welcome/receive/accept/take the one who sent me, Jesus. In so doing, we welcome/receive/accept/take the one who sent him, God the Father.

Jesus was talking with the twelve. Now he is talking with you. He has been talking about taking up one's cross and following him, he has been talking about losing one's life for his sake. He was about to send the twelve, now he is sending you.

This is not just about us as individuals but as a family, as a congregation. It is not just about me and Pastor Glenn, it is not just about the 22 youth and five adults who left Friday for the Borough of Queens in New York City, it is not just about the 16 youth and four or five adults who were out working at Hart and Common Goods on Thursday. No, it is really about all of us.

We are Christians, "little Christs," each one of us. We represent our congregation, our denomination, and our God, the God we serve. We are servants of God. Now you may not think of yourself as bringing Christ when you are out and about, visiting a friend or a shut-in, having a meal in a restaurant, shopping, fishing, water-skiing, whatever, but the truth of the matter is, that is what you are to be about. You cannot profess one thing in here on Sunday morning but live another when you are not in worship. Put another way, you cannot profess to love the God you have not seen, but not love the brothers and sisters with whom you interact whether in other settings here at LCC or in your life away from this church. In all your interactions with others, inside our facility, or outside, you should be aware of who you are and whose you are. You, my friends, are being sent for mission, by none other than Jesus Christ.

You have been hearing this, and variations of it, for some time now. You are going to continue to hear about it because this is the message we bring. We have something vital to share with the world, and being a servant of God means, among other things, perceiving the work of God in others and responding to it, and taking the work of God, the word of God, as your mission in life and giving it to others, living it for their sakes and for your sake. It might be the smallest of gifts, a cup of cold water, to the most insignificant of people, one of these little ones, but it is also the gift of life. Real life. Life eternal.

Notice that I said a cup of cold water. Not tepid water, not lukewarm water, not water that Jesus spits out of his mouth. Cold water, living water, Christ himself. Jesus, the Son of the Living God, is sending you. Will you go? Will you accept/receive/take this commission from the Lord himself? Brothers and sisters, this is what it means to be a servant of God.

AMEN