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Ministering from the Margins

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This is the sermon I'll be preaching tomorrow at St. Timothy Lutheran Church's Drive-In service. The gospel text is Matthew 10:40-42 . We have a reputation as a welcoming church and so we are. However, in these days of Coronavirus, we have to welcome differently. We cannot hug or shake hands with those with whom we do not live. We need to maintain a physical distance of 6 feet from others. As we wear masks, people cannot see if we are smiling or frowning. So, this leaves us in a quandary. How are we to be welcoming in these days, when physically distancing ourselves from others may be the most welcoming, loving thing we can do? Right out of the box, the basic theme of today’s gospel is obvious—welcome. Before these verses, Jesus was preparing his followers for what they may experience as they were sent out into the world; persecution. Here things have been flipped a bit with the emphasis more on the benefit to those welcoming the evangelists instead of what the sent ma