Proper 8 (13) – Year A
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: June 28, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
10:41 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;
10:42 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."
Context
Welcome to the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus offers a vision of the Kingdom so small we might miss it entirely. “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water…” That’s it. No grand miracles or heroic faith. Just a cup of water.
It’s easy to assume this passage is about being sent, doing something important for God. But Jesus shifts the focus. The action doesn’t center on the one going, but on the one receiving. “Whoever receives you receives me… and the one who sent me.” God isn't arriving with power and spectacle, but hidden in the fragile exchange between people.
This creates a kind of holy chain reaction: to receive the other is to receive Christ, and to receive Christ is to receive the One who sent him. Which means the smallest act of welcome becomes the place where God shows up. Not later or somewhere else. Right then and there.
And notice who holds the power in this story. Not the messenger, but the one who offers the cup. The disciple is the “little one” — sent out without status, without control, dependent on the response of others.
Jesus is quietly undoing our ideas of importance, success, and even mission itself. The Gospel doesn’t move forward through strength, but through vulnerability. Through the risk of being received — or not. It turns out, nothing given in love is ever lost. Even a cup of cold water becomes a doorway into the life of God.
Question
Jesus sends the disciples out as the “little ones,” dependent on being received. Where in your life are you being invited to risk that kind of vulnerability?
Reflections
Embracing Hospitality
By Trisha Welstad |
A part of the disciples' call is to be recipients of hospitality from those to whom they are sent, even as they anticipate the hardships and risks of following Jesus into the unknown. However, they are assured that provision will be made for them on their journey — God will be with them.
The Hospitable Iconoclast
By Lina Thompson |
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
Missional Hospitality: Blessed by Grace
By Joel Van Dyke |
Our Gospel reading this week draws from just three little verses at the end of an incredibly dense Matthew 10. The chapter is full of missional directives, which are bookended by the topic of missional hospitality we find in verses 40-42.
Hospitality Among the Flies
By Stephanie Dunlap |
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me."
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Guest House
by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Prayer of Vocation:
Let us pray.
Jesus, like the disciples who were blind to your real presence until they dined with you in the resurrection, we too are blind until you dine with us. You are the stranger among us, revealed as the Loving Host and Forgiving Victim of the meal of reconciliation. Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see and celebrate you at work in the world, especially in the hard places, creating, sustaining, and uniting all of creation in love. In the same way, you took the bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to your disciples, and said, “This is my body, broken for you.” May we too be taken in love, blessed in love, broken in love, and given in love, that we might become the spoken word of your love in a hurting world, and find ourselves part of the ever-expanding Body of Christ. May we become what we receive.
Amen.
