Matthew 10:40-42

40 “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.”

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome – it’s a bit of a tongue twister, the Scripture this morning.  Only three verses, but yet he says “welcome” six times.  Some translations of the text say “accept” or “receive”:  whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me; whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.  Welcome, accept, receive; all are welcome at the table.

I didn’t grow up in a tradition that welcomes children to the table.  I‘m going to share a few stories this morning about the importance of children being involved in liturgy and ritual as well as explain the importance and significance of this image, my favorite image in all of religious art history.

The Trinity, also called The Hospitality of Abraham is an icon created by Russian painter Andrei Rublev in the 15th century.

Although Matthew here isn’t referring, technically, to little ones, as children, he is referring to the little ones, meaning those that are most vulnerable in our society and how they are important, as important as the prophets and the righteous, although vulnerability and interdependence are often contrary to the patriotism and rhetoric of our American culture.  But what the kingdom and Jesus are working on is vulnerability and interdependence.  And yes, hospitality and welcome were incredibly significant and important in that time and place.  So yes, Jesus is saying it is important how you treat others, as small as giving someone a cup of cold water.   But he is also saying that being a part of this community involves risk and sacrifice.  This triad: little ones, prophets and righteous.  Prophets had to do with proclamation and they expected opposition, even violence, as they challenged the powers that be.  And the righteous, righteousness is the enduring pursuit of justice and the healing of relationships and the restoration of those relationships; those involve risk and sacrifice.   So Jesus is saying there’s no hierarchy in the community: the prophets, the righteous, the little ones, they are all important.

Two stories about little ones that have helped me understand the significance of hospitality and welcome to the table.  The first is about my friend, Asher, who at the time was 18 months old.  The church in Bellingham where I was before here had a circular chancel and there was always a stool behind the table.  So I’m leading communion, about to break the bread, and Asher just helps himself to coming up and takes the stool and stands up on the stool.  At that time Asher knew about 4 or 5 words: Mama, Dada, ball and eat.  So he just takes the half loaf of bread and says, “eat.”  And so I said, “We share with everyone, Asher, first.”  So he and his little stool came out and he stood on his stool with his loaf of bread and everyone comes up and he just holds the loaf and says, “eat.”  (It gives me chills just to tell this story.)  And to watch all these grownups in the innocence and vulnerability and the welcome.

My second favorite story involves one of our own who is not here, unfortunately, but Wyatt, the little green guy who had the green hair when we did the rainbow story.  A few months ago when we were at family camp for the weekend, as a family I served each family the bread and cup.  Wyatt’s f