New Hope UMC of the Northern Berkshires Rev. Stephen Dale

Patience ain’t easy. Sometimes we are so looking forward to something, or maybe even just so looking FOR something, that our ability to wait is compromised. We just can’t do it. So we turn to something else.

But as the old song reminds us: that’s looking for love, and grace, in all the wrong places.

We quote this scripture a lot. We really do. Actually, we really don’t. What we do is take the very last verse, pick it out, forget its context, and let it make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

But the truth is if we read the entire scripture it’s not quite as warm and fuzzy as we want it to be.

Where two or three gather in my name, I am there sounds great, and it can be great… but it can also be a challenge to which we often don’t live up.

Jesus’ warning to his disciples about the cost of discipleship isn’t about passively accepting the difficult things life hands us. Rather it’s about actively accepting our responsibility for loving sacrifice. In short, it’s about following Jesus. And that’s what Peter found out.

In this week’s Gospel reading, the disciples are out on a boat and Jesus, well, isn’t. A storm kicks up, and the disciples are afraid, and Jesus comes walking out towards them on the water.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus points out the way the Pharisees and the religious authorities can’t decide what they want in their prophets. While sometimes we see this as an either/or, which is the right way to be a follower of God, the truth is that it’s not either/or.

It’s both/and.

An author once wrote that home is the place that, when you go there, they have to take you in. While that may be true, it sets a pretty low bar on the subject of hospitality!

Jesus had a different idea of what it means to be welcoming. Let’s talk about Jesus’ expectations of us when it comes to extending hospitality and welcoming people home!