How do we know good from evil? It is not an easy task. In 1 Kings 3:5-12, Solomon asks God for the gift of discernment between good and evil. The parables Jesus tells, in Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52, explore this task: Last week the parable of the wheat and the weeds warned us that we are not always best ones at judging. This week we have a similar parable about the nets of fish: all are gathered in, the good and the bad together. The other parables compare the kingdom of God to mustard seeds and leaven (yeast); whilst both tiny things that produce remarkable transformations they are also both considered dangerous and were heavily regulated under Jewish law. It was forbidden to sow mustard seed in a crop field, perhaps because the mustard seed runs amok, taking over everything, growing without boundaries, just as leaven cannot be stopped from causing fermentation and change. Why is the kingdom of God compared to these forbidden things? Perhaps to alert us to the presence of God working in very unexpected people and places. When Solomon asks for “an understanding mind” the literal translation of the Hebrew term is “a listening heart”. Again and again, we are instructed not to judge but rather to grow to understand the world as God does, with a listening heart.

It’s always all about us! We so often read the Bible, especially the parables to tell us something about us, who we are and how we should behave. Today’s readings can certainly be read in that light but actually they are all about God and what God is like. If we start with God, in whose image and likeness we are made, who we are will become clear. Isaiah 55:10-13 comes as a relief after long passages about how God’s people have made a mess a things; it promises that whatever we do, God’s purposes will still be accomplished. God’s creative Word will not return empty but, once spoken, will achieve God’s purposes. In Matthew, 13:1-9, 18-23, there is an interpretation of the parable of the sower which focuses on the kind of soil in which God’s word can take root and flourish. Yet the more important and astonishing point of the parable is that the farmer sows his seed, not just on the good soil, but everywhere: rocky, thorny, dry, the farmer doesn’t care. This God offers everyone the opportunity to thrive; this God is generous and profligate with God’s gifts. Whether the soil is rocky or thorny or good, the harvest will come and it will be a bumper crop. Our task then, is to work with God, mirroring God’s generosity and impartiality, knowing that the fruits of the harvest are in God’s hands not ours.

What kind of God do we want? Whatever it is, we are likely to have expectations disappointed at some point or other. In the gospel, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, Jesus lambasts the crowd: when God sends John they complain that he wails and mourns, when Christ comes, they complain that he is too joyous. God comes to us in many forms and most of them do not fit our expectations. This is not something new, Zechariah, 9:9-12, promises a God who will come on a colt not on a warhorse, brining peace, not conflict. We often want a God made in our image but such a God is unlikely to be of much use to us. If God is not what we expect, neither is following God. In the gospel Jesus explores the paradox of discipleship: a yoke that is easy, a burden that is light. When we lose our ego, our desires, our deeply held beliefs about who we are and how the world should be, we are not losing we are gaining. The life God offers us is beyond what we had hoped for.

Today’s gospel, Matthew 10:40-42, is all about welcome but also about the rewards we will receive from offering welcome. The nature of the reward depends upon the nature of the welcome.

The reward for welcoming the prophets and the righteous will be the same reward which they receive; both positive and negative, both awesome and exhausting.

Prophets, those who speak out against injustice, encounter conflict and opposition; the righteous, encounter the kingdom of God, because, of course, that is what they are working to change the world into.

The reward of welcoming “the little ones”, the least, the lowest and the over-looked, is not mentioned.

This is because they themselves ARE the reward.

The word welcome means to take and to hold, to receive and to accept as you would a gift or an honour. To truly welcome someone is to open ourselves to all that person is and all they bring, to value them, to learn from them and so to receive, from them, the presence of God their maker in our midst.

The magic number 12 is back. Last week we recalled that a team of 12 is a Kingdom Team, a team chosen to do the work of God in the world. Today in Matthew 9:35 - 10:23 Jesus sends out his 12 disciples, recalling the 12 tribes of Israel gathered at mount Sinai in Exodus 19:2-8. The problem with picking a people for a team is that some will be left out of the team. In this morning’s gospel Jesus’ team are sent out to do the work of God: healing, liberating, restoring, unifying. But they are only sent to the people of Israel, the original Team Kingdom, the team that were told in Exodus that they were God’s “treasured possession out of all the peoples.” This all feels a bit elitist, a bit undemocratic. Yet these teams, the one gathered by Moses in Exodus and the one gathered by Jesus in Matthew, are not formed for their own benefit. Yes, they are to be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” but what this means is that they have a job to do and that job is for the benefit of all God’s people. To be holy does not mean to be any better than anyone else (even Judas is on the team) it means to be anointed, consecrated, to be set aside for God to use to bring healing, freedom and life to God’s world. The People of God are only the People of God to the extent that they are being a blessing to all God’s people.

Last week was Trinity Sunday, a day when we remember that God desire’s to bring us into relationship: with one another, with God, with creation. This week’s readings explore what that might look like. According to Hosea (5:15-6:6) God has caused the people’s suffering because they are not in relationship of love (with God or one another) “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Our gospel makes it clear that God is not punishing or judging anyone: Jesus chooses Matthew, (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26) a tax collector, a collaborator, an oppressor of his people. He does not judge him he invites him into a relationship in which he can experience a different way of living. Jesus is then asked to heal a girl, a favoured daughter of Israel but this healing is interrupted by another woman, this time an outcast. Jesus heals the outcast first, not because he favours her over the privileged child but because the child (who represents Israel) cannot be healed until the outcast are brought into a relationship of love. When we reach out in love to those in need, we are not healing them, we are healing ourselves.

This morning we welcome Cara and Abbi as they come for baptism.  Usually on a baptism Sunday we hear only the gospel reading but today’s first reading is too good and too important to miss: it is the story of genesis, the very beginning.  Today we will hear Genesis 1:1-4, 26-28 the story of the creation of humanity and how community and diversity are embedded in the new life that God brings forth.  Here both God and humanity are described as plural: we are made by community for community: each wonderfully different yet needing each other.  Our gospel reading comes from the end of the gospel of Matthew 28:16-20.  This ending turns out to be a whole new beginning in which Jesus sends out his disciples to all people everywhere.