5th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Sermon: 5th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Texts: Jeremiah 28: 5-9; Matthew 10: 40-42; Romans 6: 12-23

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the Baptist Church of my childhood, there use to be a song we would sing when folks were prompted to greet each other. It said something like this: “No hay un saludo más lindo, que el saludo del cristiano. Te da la mano y te dice: Dios te bendiga, mi hermano.” Which means: “There is no greeting more beautiful than a Christian’s. They give you their hand and say: God bless you, my brother”. Indeed, this is the ideal isn’t it? That when people come through this door, that they are beautifully welcomed! To remind ourselves, that we are called to an expansive siblinghood, where we greet each other with blessings from the One who is our Life and Ground of Being. This simple act can be the change of someone’s day. To be greeted with great love is indeed a blessing! It is the entrance to deeper relationship. To greet in this spirit, is to become an instrument of God’s hospitality of all life. So what would it

mean for us to greet in such a way, that leads to a song like this one?

In our Gospel text, we heard what Jesus says about how His followers should greet each other. And if we take into account such a lesson, it is quietly transformative. Hospitality has always played a large part in the biblical witness. In the ancient world, hospitality could really mark the difference between life and death. Travelers and pilgrims depended on the mercy and hospitality of strangers. It is no surprise then how hospitality also became a divine and sacred command. In the Old Testament, God commands to care for the foreigners, since the people themselves were foreigners in Egypt. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer instructs his community to receive strangers since you never know if you are receiving angels unawares. Jesus, in line with this divine command, extends the practice of hospitality to His own. Not only that the disciples are to be hospitable, but that anyone who receives one coming in the

name of God are themselves blessed. Why this blessing to such an encounter? There is much to mine here, Beloved. First, we should see the disciples’ own state of being. They themselves did not come bearing material wealth or riches. When they followed after Jesus, they did not wait to become financially secure or to have their affairs settled in order to follow Jesus, they left their nets and followed Him. And this also meant to live in accordance to Jesus’ own vulnerable ministry, for He was one who was also poor, who lived at the subsistence level, He depended on God’s providence through the generosity of strangers, He did not carry much with Him. The disciples, were indeed like the “little ones”, one’s who depended on God’s mercy for their daily bread. They did not follow Christ from a point of security, but to the point of vulnerable imitation. They were also, as we like to say often, little Christs for others. Which is the reason why Jesus says: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” The disciples certainly did not have much to give, except

the Living Word of God in Jesus Christ, that is the Gospel. For those that opened their homes to the disciples, they also welcomed Christ’s presence, and in that there is a great treasure indeed. For those who received them, they welcomed the presence of the One who liberates us from sin and death; they welcomed divine love and mercy, and in turn they receive that great reward of the kingdom of God come near, of the new world that wants to burst into the scene.

If we ponder what it means to be hospitable, we open the door not just of our houses, but of our lives. We enter this space of vulnerability, where different worlds and perspectives collide, and the space is set for generative new relationships and ideas to emerge. Hospitality truly is the open space where new worlds can be born. Our homes and inner lives can often become prisons of our own making. But if we open the door, the light and new air can enter in. It can rearrange old patterns, introduce new ways for love to reach us. The same way, this heavenly

reward that Jesus promises when we are hospitable to Him and those He sends to us manifests. When we open the door to Christ, He brings with Him the Kingdom of God, the newness of a liberated existence, life resurrected from death. God does this for us at the glimpse of such a simple human act. Such a simple act of extending a glass of water is truly the key to a lot in this life! What then would it mean to us to extend such a cup of refreshing water to others? What would it mean for us to practice this divine hospitality with others and then for them to see the light of Christ’s love in us?

Paul exhorts us clearly in this direction: “No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.” Paul describes sin as a ruler which dominates our lives, but that through the grace of God in Christ, sin no longer has dominion over us. We are now free to follow Christ

instead of the deathly rulership of sin. Paul says that we should not present our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness. So our actions, our dispositions, our thoughts are called to reflect the rulership of Christ in us. So when it comes to the hospitality of Christ, we are called to present to God His hospitality, not our rejection. If Christ comes in as someone to be received by us, how much more ready do we need to be to present our lives as instruments of righteousness, meaning in right relationship with God. This is part of our spiritual growth, to grow in compassion, to grow in how much we can love and receive our neighbors.

Due to its relevancy to us in this historic moment that we are living in, with the established relationship we have with Free Pentecostal Church of God in Dorchester, we’ve been informed that many of our Haitian brothers and sisters are in danger of having their protected status removed from one day to the other, and therefore this can be seen as a rupture of hospitality. We are aware that those in power have decided to render their

bodies as instruments of unrighteousness rather than righteousness, and therefore rescind any claim to following Christ in practice. But I’m hopeful to say, that this community has given it’s heart to be hospitable to those that Christ identifies with. In this place, we are attempting by the power of the Spirit, to glimpse the promise of God’s new world, a world where humanity is received with grace, rather than rejection. In here, we have literally extended the cup of water in a time of need, and I know that God will continue to strengthen us and inspire us to be instruments of grace in whichever way that takes shape.

So Beloved, practice your beautiful greeting and hospitality. Extend God’s blessings to all who come to your door, to all you give your hand to. You never know where that blessing, that good word that you bestow on behalf of Jesus Christ, will go. Your life-giving hospitality can be the cup of water that somebody else needs to keep going through the sufferings of

this life. Having the Venezuelan people in my prayers, I’ve seen so many images of people saving and encouraging others in the name of Christ, giving water to others in the name of Christ. Amidst such devastation, I bring to you the testimony that Christ’s name is a strength, it is the cup of water our soul needs to go beyond our bodies’ penchant to serve sin and death. So as we greet each other in the name of Jesus, know that your greeting is beautiful and powerful, it is a seed planted in the new world of God’s reign. So let us pray together: