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July 26, 2026 - Matthew 13:44-52
Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is kind of an older show now, I used to love to watch American Pickers. American Pickers was a show which followed Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they search through rural America for antique treasure. They rummage through eccentric collections acquired each with a unique story. They spend each episode searching through old barns, sheds, and garages full of junk with the rare occasion of coming across long forgotten collectables. They made their money by buying rare treasures people did not even know they had. It is almost humorous how Mike and Frank respond with such an exuberant great joy as they rediscover that rare piece of history which was lost and forgotten under decades of dust, dirt, and rust. Maybe another contemporary example would be seeing that steam train that had been restored which passed through Pacific on Monday. Hundreds of hundreds of people went out to see it and they cheered as it passed. In the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Merchant of Pearls, Jesus describes the man and merchant in an equally excited manner. Dear Christian friends, today we are on the third Sunday of hearing Jesus’ parables from Matthew Chapter 13. The first two parables really are a pair that go together. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Allow me to point out, Jesus doesn’t provide an explanation of these parables like He did for the parable of the Sower and of the Weeds in the Field. We’re left to figure these out on our own. That beings said, what are these parables about? What is this great treasure? What is the invaluable pearl? Are they referring to the Kingdom of Heaven or is the treasure and the pearl the people of God brought into the Kingdom of Heaven by Christ? Upon reflection one will notice that Jesus is no longer talking to the crowds. He is now located in a home and He is talking to his closest disciples as his only audience. I’d like us to understand, the parable of the treasure and the pearl are recorded in chapter 13 and in many ways they serve as the climax of the narrative. If you recall back to from Chapter 11, John the Baptist was put into Prison and Galilean communities had refused Jesus’ message. In the beginning of Chapter 12, Israel’s religious leadership were beginning to form factions and they had set themselves against Jesus by accusing Jesus of following Satan. “Can this be the son of David? They said. No, For it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man is able to casts out demons.” At the end of Chapter 12, Jesus rejected by his own family and his home town when they reprimand him and hostilely ask him to stop his ministry. Jesus responds, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? Whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Later in Chapter 14 and 15, the situation escalates. John the Baptist is beheaded in Chapter 14. In Chapter 15 we see the most unlikely of unions when the Scribes and Pharisees unite to begin plotting the death of Jesus. With all these things happening around them throughout chapters 11-15, the disciples needed assurance. They needed Jesus to steady their nerves; to assure them that God is reigning and that following Jesus is the good and right thing to do. How about you? We are all sinners… we all say the wrong things and do the wrong things. We all fail God and other people every day. Do you need a bit of assurance? Luckily for us these parables tell us God needs NOTHING from us, that the Kingdom of Heaven does not depend on you or me or anyone, except Jesus and Jesus alone. Jesus and His work is the Kingdom of heaven. That is true, but it still feels like we are being attacked on all sides just like the disciples. Even so, it can be comforting to know that in the midst of all this Jesus meets us where we are at in order to bring to us into His Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is not about our King sitting on his throne somewhere way out there. But it is about our King who hung on a cross. The Kingdom of Heaven is not about our King dressed in fine apparel. But it is about our King who was stripped naked and flogged and crucified. Jesus gave us just what we needed. He comes today with the same words of comfort he told the disciples. He assures them that the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” You are Jesus’ beloved creation. You are Jesus’ treasure. None the less, we have been hidden within the world. You, as well as I, have become tarnished by sin. You, as well as I, have become dirtied by the world. The world is too much for us and the devil is too powerful. But what did Jesus do? Did he forget about us? Did he leave us in this world to collect dust and rot, and to let decay conquer us? He did not bury you in this world to forget about you? No, the Lord has not forgotten about you. Rather, in joy Jesus came into this world. He sold all that He had and He bought you. Did you hear that? Jesus sold all that He had and gave up everything that He had to redeem you… Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus had all the power and glory and might that anyone could ever imagine, and he gave it all up. He sold it away when he was arrested by sinful men, when he was sentenced to death, and when he was flogged and crucified. He gave up everything. He gave up his life for you. And that is exactly how he bought you back, and that is the Kingdom of Heaven. There are people who hear these two parables and yet they miss the beautiful message of our Savior King who has come to rescue His great treasures and buy back His precious pearls. I’m not sure why they miss the point. Maybe it is because they don’t feel treasured or precious. Maybe, it is because they feel dirty, miserable, and unworthy of God’s love. I don’t know how you feel, but we’ve already had two Sundays of parables. In the Parable of the Sower, who was the central figure? The sower was Jesus. In the Parable of the Weeds, who was the Master of the field who saw to it good seed was sown in the field and would make sure that the weeds were separated, bundled, and burned at the harvest? Again, He was Jesus. As you can see, the common feature of Kingdom Parables is that even when there are multiple characters in the story, the one in the central position always represents God and is about what God is doing to bring about His kingdom. You are the treasure. Jesus found you and Jesus purchased you. He gave up all the glories of heaven. Why? Because you are the pearl of great value. Because You are God’s great treasured possession, and because He bought you at great expense, you are now part of His Kingdom. Trust in Him. Receive his holy precious forgiveness, and have joy as he has joy. With joy Jesus has come to buy us back and with joy Jesus offers us the forgiveness of sins. In the grace of God which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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July 19, 2026 - Matthew 13:24-30, 34-43
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Last week our Gospel text was the Parable of the Sower. We acknowledged how this world is anything but fertile soil. We reflected on the fact that life is tough on faith, yet even so, the good news was that the Sower is Jesus and He is so intent on forgiving sins that the throws his Good News everywhere. Jesus is throwing his seeds into excellent soil and also among the weeds and the rocks. So desperate is he for his Good News to be heard that the sower even throws seeds upon the path. That was last week. This week Jesus adds to last week’s lesson by giving us another parable. It has similar metaphors, but if anything, the message is a little more troubling. Today’s Parable is so important Jesus emphasizes it by saying at the end, “He who has ears let him hear.” Thanks be to God, the sower has sown his seeds among us and thanks be to God He has given us ears… Let us now hear, contemplate, and respond accordingly. Like last week, picture a farmer sowing “good” seed. Anyone who has even been to the Coop knows good seed is big business. As you know, there are isle after isle of seeds which claim to bear higher yield or are resistant to various problems. In the parable the sower claims to have sowed good seeds, but the only problem is that it is not that simple… Jesus tells us the Evil One also goes out into the field to spoil the harvest that God has prepared. It is important to understand this is intentional and also very deceptive. The sower works all day in the field just to have a diabolical figure come at night throwing weeds among the good seed. And what are the weeds? They are sin and those who seek to cause harm in creation. And how could we not look into our own heart and notice all the problems sin has caused us. Wouldn’t it be nice if the answer were as simple as paying a guy 100 dollars and by the afternoon your flower beds are nice and weeded and it’s good until next year? It would be nice, but it is not that easy. What makes the weeds particularly insidious is that no one can tell the weeds from the wheat until it is time for the harvest. In the text, the weeds sown in the field were called zinzania, what is known today as darnel. Darnel looks so much like wheat that people call it “false wheat”. When they grow together in the same field, their roots intertwine and so they cannot be easily pulled out without harming the wheat. One time I had a neighbor named Martha. In order to get a nice green lawn, she rooted up her entire front lawn and re-seeded. The truth is the weeds had become so tightly intermingled in the lawn that it couldn’t be spared without starting over. Jesus tells us in this parable sin and evil are just like the weeds that used to be in Martha’s lawn. Have you ever wondered why doesn’t God just wash his hands of this whole thing and why doesn’t he just start over? Did any of you see the rainbow in the sky about two weeks ago? There was a big beautiful rainbow directly over the wildwood town center. The rainbow is to stand as a symbol that God will never decide to get rid of us and start over. And moreover, the reason why He does not start over is because God is both perfect in love and faithfulness. And so rather than starting over, instead he sent a Savior. In the parable the master of the field does what WE could not imagine. In order to save the wheat, he allows the weeds to cohabitate… I doubt we can even imagine how much it must grieve a God who is perfect in love and faithfulness to see and allow the problems of the world to persist. But God says let them grow until harvest time when the wheat is ready and it can all be separated. As Christians, how nice is it to know that there will be a day when everything that causes grief and pain and sorrow and sickness will be removed. What a joy is it to know that God will make good on his promises, that he will remove the good from the bad, and He will gather us all together, and we will rest in his presence and praise His name. In the meantime, let us have faith in our Savior Jesus, who is also the master of the field. Let us have hope in the power of His salvation. Let’s have faith because Jesus came into this world as mixed up and troubled as it is and He came not to condemn the world but to save it. He could have just started over, but instead he has done something better. By going to the cross, he has given us a perfect deliverance. And for this reason, though we continue to live among a weedy mess, we can also know that God has made us a promise, a promise to forgive our sins and a promise to raise us back up again, just as he did to himself. Even though we live in a world of weeds, and even though sometimes it is hard to look at the world and not lose hope. Remember that the sight of a weed reminds us of the patience of God and perfect love of God. Remember also, that God does not want us to turn away from suffering but towards it. He tells us to look to the cross and there we will find true comfort and true strength. The cross tells us that Jesus understands what it is like to live amongst weeds. Understood correctly, this parable is not troubling but rather a great comfort. Notice the attitudes of the sower in the parable. I’m sure all the servants of the sower would want nothing more than to get rid of the weeds. And to be fair, it is not right that the good plants should have to compete for resources with the weeds. Besides, if Jesus has really come from heaven to set all things right and to restore the rule of God, then it is not right that Christians should be beset on all sides by the devil and his sons. That being said, recall the owner of the field. He is not worried about His good seed being choked out. What He is worried about is them being uprooted in the process of getting rid of the weeds. He is sure of the seed he has planted. He is sure they will bear fruit even if they must live in amidst the weeds, and above all, he is patient. In this parable Jesus is making an implicit claim that He has directed the sowing of the good seed and He will oversee it until the harvest. Rest assured that Jesus, the Son of God, is the Sower and He is the owner of the field. He will direct the harvest and it is for your sake and for your protection that the weeds are not uprooted.
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July 12, 2026 - Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Picture with me for a moment a farmer waking up early in the morning and driving his pickup truck to the co-op. After purchasing a couple hundred-pound sacks of seed, he puts them in the back of his pickup and journeys home. When he gets to the farm-house he is so excited he pulls the sacks out of the back of the truck, he runs his fingers through all the seeds smiling, and begins to disperse them. He spreads them in a nice even layer throughout his entire property, on the driveway, in the bushes, on the grass, on the gravel road, and finally on the newly tilled acre of land in his back yard. Even to people who know nothing about farming, this depiction sounds so unusual and foolish. Why would a farmer seemingly waste good seed? Well, that is exactly how the Sower in our Gospel lesson is presented. Brothers and sisters in Christ, Matthew 13 is the first recorded instance where Jesus teaches in a parable. Parables are funny things. Parables are stories which use familiar comfortable language to teach uncomfortable and unfamiliar truths. At first this story congers up images of sunshiny fields and dirt under your finger nails, but then when you get into the meat of the parable it gets difficult fast. On the surface, this parable seems to be about farming, but it is really a story about how we respond to the Word of God. As I read through the Parable of the Sower, I instinctively wondered which soil have I been planted into? I certainly don’t want to be in the rocky soil, or the soil with thorns, or worst of all, the path; having absolutely no opportunity to flourish and grow. Either way the problem still remained. Where am I! Maybe you think this is an odd question. I imagine most Christians read this parable and assume they are in good soil. Upon honest reflection, I become less and less confident of that. The reason being is that my faith life is subjected to constant struggle and trial every day of my life. And so the concern remains maybe I’m not in the good soil. What I love about the Parable of the Sower is that Jesus gives this parable at an interesting transition in the Gospel of Matthew. Throughout the beginning of Matthew, we are met with the phrase, “They were amazed for he spoke as one with authority.” It is not until chapter 11, 12, and 13 that Jesus’ authority comes into question. Jesus’ response in chapter 13 is very interesting… the Parable of the Sower. But what has changed between chapter 5 (the Sermon on the Mount) and now (chapter 13)? What changed is that the crowd formed expectations of Jesus and when Jesus proved himself to be different the crowd questioned his credibility and authority. Like the crowds in Matthew, have you ever found yourself in a situation that was “less than desirable”. Many of our lives are full of heart ache. We’ve got broken relationships, deaths in the family, unexplainable accidents, loss of jobs. All these things can get between us and our relationship with God. We can become so distanced that we too play the role of the crowds who questioned Jesus’ authority. The truth is there are times in my life I feel I’m on the path, stagnant with the Word of God and I don’t want to act on it at all. There are other times when I feel I’m in the rocky soil. I am excited and passionate about God’s Word, but rather quickly it becomes extinguished due to lost motivation. There are yet other times when I feel like the soil around me has thorns and the realities of day to day life are too overwhelming to spend time studying God’s Word. This Parable is about me and you and the realities of our sinful human nature. Today Jesus brings us together and asks us to take a serious look at our sinful condition; recall the words that we spoke earlier in our confession, “I a poor miserable sinner confess all my sins which I have ever offended you.” We continually turn away throughout life. Sometimes our environment is full of thorns and briers. Even as Christians we sometimes do not always follow God’s Will for our lives. This parable leads us to acknowledge our human condition but it also leads us to acknowledge we are creatures of our Heavenly Father. The challenging thing about this Parable is that we live this parable everyday. I often imagine what it would be like if all the faces that have visited this church actually returned. Where are they? To be fair, some of them might be going to another church and some of them might have been just visiting while they were in town for a short time, but still; why is it that so many can hear and so few believe? Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t seem fair, that we are dealt with a sour hand and life experience is just so hard on faith… it is but why? Jesus does not answer that question, but what he does say in Verses 10-17 is that “some see and don’t perceive and some hear but don’t understand.” It sounds like a riddle, but it is not a riddle… It’s a quote. It is a quote from the book of Isaiah. It comes from Isaiah Chapter 6 and I’m sure you know the chapter. In Chapter 6 Isaiah sees God in the Thone Room. At that time Isaiah realizes he is a man of unclean lips and an angel touches him with a hot coal. In the midst of this, Isaiah hears God saying, “who shall I send?” and Isaiah said, “Here I am send me.” God said, ok Isaiah. Here is what I want you to say: Go tell the leaders of Israel “you hear but don’t understand. And you see but do not perceive. Your hearts are dull. Your ears are heavy. And your eyes are blind.” Why do you think God wanted Isaiah to say that? Well, he said that to warn them that they would soon be in exile and that soon they would waste away… that is, unless they turned from their ways. But why would Jesus repeat those words? Well, this is Jesus comparing the leaders and the people of his day to the leaders and people five hundred years ago. What this meant for them and what this means for us is that our life-style and our poster before God effects how we hear God’s Word and it also effects how we respond to it. If you do the math in the parable only 25 percent of the seed actually produces crop. If we are honest we would also admit that the world into which Jesus came and the world into which we currently live is as far from a perfect fertile field as you could get. Just turn on the news…. It is full of beaten down, broken, rocky, weedy places. It has been that way ever since sin entered the world so long ago. It is so far from the garden God intended it to be. Yet even so, this is the world that Jesus came into in order to share his Good News. The Good News is that Sower is Jesus and in our text our Lord is throwing seeds without apparent regard for where it lands. He is doing this so that at least SOME will receive the Good News. It may not sound like good news if you are stuck on the path or in the rocky soil but none the less this parable illustrates the gracious character of Jesus, who is desperately inviting all into repentance: Jesus is throwing his seeds into excellent soil and also among the weeds and rocks. So desperate is the Sower that he even throws seeds upon the path. Understand this a story about a reckless farmer. He is so intent on spreading the forgiveness of sins that he goes to everyone, to tax collectors, and prostitutes, to fishermen and soldiers, to Pharisees and Sadducees (everywhere he possibly can). He went to blind men and to lepers. To rich men and to widows. To all people Jesus said, “Come to me ALL who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest”. He also said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (meaning us)” (Matt 9:13). We can take comfort in the fact that no matter what our current soil, Jesus is continually sowing the seeds of God’s Word within us and within those around us; calling us to repentance, removing the sting of a guilty conscience and leaving us with a freedom no longer bound by sin. The Sower is sowing His seeds, sometimes even wasting his time and resources, all because he wants you. Thanks be to God that this good news has come to your ears again and again and again. Luckily for us Jesus is desperate for a harvest. And He is also desperate for you. In the grace of God which surpasses all understanding trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
July 5, 2026 - Matthew 11:25-30
The Gospel text we have just read includes some of the most comforting and well-known verses in all the Bible. “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy burdened - and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me - for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." These words are easily some of the most loved in all of Christianity. They are some of the most quoted verses by believers to comfort the troubled soul. That being said, these verses in their context are deeper than we have time to mine. But I’ll say what I can about them in hopes that you can glean something for your life. Tim Keller once said, “Religious people find God useful. Christians find God beautiful.” I have no intention to suggest that those are mutually exclusive terms. “Christians find God beautiful.” Let’s understand the application of that statement. I would encourage us to look no further than our prayer lives and I would ask you to consider your praise and your adoration of God in prayer. I think that for so many of us we categorize praise as thanking God for His usefulness to us. We thank God for the ways He blesses us and gives us what we need, which is actually so often what we want, which is why when He doesn’t give us what we want we cease to talk to Him. For so many God is so commonly just useful. The call of this text is that He is worthy of adoration and praise. Do not relegate Him to mere usefulness. When he’s merely useful, if, and when, we bump into a doctrine that isn’t seemingly “useful” in our opinion we will ignore it or revise it so that it fits our utility. Very dangerous and quite honestly very common. Here in this text we have a remarkable privilege of eavesdropping on Jesus. We actually get to hear him pray, and more than that, we get to hear Him praise. He is going to worship his father because his father is beautiful not merely useful. So as we consider this text this morning I encourage us to hear Jesus’ wonder and welcome and may we in the end find ourselves growing in amazement at the Father’s beauty. But first, why is the Father worthy of praise? Well there’s obviously very many reasons the Father’s worthy of praise. Because of who he is, that’s part of his beauty. The Father is not worthy of praise because he’s useful to us which often times gets categorized as thanks or thanksgiving… thank you for what you have done. Praise says: I praise you for who you are. So why is he worthy of praise? There are many reasons but some very specific ones here. Jesus articulates his adoration in verse 25 as he says “I praise you Father Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes Father this was your good pleasure”. Jesus has just entered into praising the Father about a doctrine that we often apologize for or seek to escape. I think it’s very important for us all to know this is the Son praising the Father and no one knows the Father like the Son and he finds no fault in who the Father is with regards to how He reveals himself. Here’s why the Father’s worthy of praise… Because he hides truth from the elite and he reveals truth to the elect. And I’m guessing that not many of you have said praise to the Father for the way he hides truth from the elite. That probably is not the note of our praise. It’s probably the note of our confusion and disturbance. Why? Because that’s not a very useful doctrine in a world that prizes fairness. But Jesus finds no fault with the doctrine. He sees it as beautiful and worth of adoration. Understand this, as it says you have hidden these things, the glory of the gospel from the wise and the learned, what is he saying? First know his hiding is not unjust. Even more it’s not unfair. Fairness is not an attribute of God. He’s just, and he’s above fair, that is, he’s merciful. God doesn’t owe the race of sinners one thing. He is not our debtor we are His. It is his sovereign choice to reveal himself to whomever he pleases. And Jesus worships that reality. And this hiding is not based on hatred. It is based on honor. I point this out because it is true that the Bible “Jacob I loved. Esau I hate.” (Even there it is simply saying Jacob I have had a relationship with and Esau I have not.) But I believe here His hiding is because of his honor. He says you have hidden this from the wise and the learned. Here’s what’s true of God; He will absolutely never share His glory with another because there’s not any other that’s worth His glory. There is nothing in all creation that is worth the glory that is to be attributed to God. So what does his hiding have to do with that? Imagine if the smart and the strong and the sharp and the wise and the learned and the intellectual and the educated could find knowledge of God through their own wisdom and learning… then who would receive glory? Not God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “Brothers think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. And not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong he chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are.” Why? So that no one boasts. Paul goes on to say, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. “Therefore, as it is written let him who boast boast in the Lord.” It is to the honor of God that he hides his truth from the wise and the learned because he will not share his glory with those who would boast in themselves for finding God. It is a hard truth but Jesus stands right before us and says it’s beautiful. The application of hearing this prayers is: don’t trust your wisdom. Don’t trust your intellect. Don’t trust your education to get you to the knowledge of God. This does not mean that God doesn’t use those things, but God makes very clear here that all intellect, all wisdom, all learning, is to be held in the posture of a little child to whom he reveals himself. You see God is worthy of praise because he hides himself from the elite, the proud, the self-sufficient, but he reveals Himself to the elect who are as he says “little children.”… the little children sitting in the pews coloring, the little children cry in the back. The little children asking for snacks. If you’re a parent of a child you know the metaphor of children is not one of innocence. It’s one of dependence. You see the wise and learned see themselves as self-sufficient. They’re dependent on themselves, but he says the elect, those to whom receive and have my revelation, they are like little children. They are dependent. So I say to us, in light of this, Jesus makes no apology for how his Father chooses to reveal himself and neither should we. Our apology, as a church that believes Jesus’ words, which we do, should be this: that the elect so often act like the elite. That is a great trespass upon the very thing that Jesus adores the Father for. Because when the elect act like the elite they are boasting in themselves to the detriment of all those who are not in their camp. The elect should be the most humble and dependent people on the face of the planet. And I say with sadness that is not how people characterize us. I know you have met those people who believe they are elect and act like it. But at the end of the day who is the elect? Notice who God welcomes? “Come to me ALL who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Those who are welcomed to come to him are those who are truly weary and truly burdened. This is much more than fatigue. In case you don’t know, this isn’t the kind of yoke you might have ate for breakfast. Jesus is not talking about eggs. This is a wooden bar or a frame that was used to join animals so that they would then carry and pull a load. A yoke in the bible is a symbol of service, subjection, and often slavery. In Ezekiel the LORD says “they will know that I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.” The yoke imagery is one of service and subjection. Into the midst of this, Jesus comes with a welcome to those who are weary of such heavy yokes and says I offer a yoke that’s free and easy and gentle and humble. It doesn’t mean you’re independent. It’s still a yoke. But it beats all the wearisome burdensome yolks we bear. Now if you’re to come to his welcome, you have to recognize that the yokes you bear are actually burdening you, sometimes even as Christians. What yolks are we wearing? Perhaps some of us are still seeking to somehow make God happy or somehow cause God to love us by obeying His law. I’m sure that’s not going well for you, and if you believe it is you aren’t really all that familiar with God’s law and what he requires of us. Listen to C.S Lewis in Mere Christianity, “Make no mistake if you are really going to try to meet all the demands made on the self, the more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand. And at every turn you will become angrier. You must either give up trying to be good or else you’ll become one of those people who as they say live for others and becomes so discontent and grumbling that you become a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than had you remained frankly just selfish.” See the burden of that is that you can never be truly good yet you’re trying to be your own savior. This is exactly what Christ warned us we cannot do. As he said a thistle cannot produce figs. If I’m a field that contains nothing but grass seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short, but I shall still produce only grass. At best, that’s what happens without Jesus. You might be successful to keep your life neat and tidy. But you will produce no fruit because it is under a heavy burdensome yoke of trying to please God so that somehow he’ll love you. But into the midst of this, when I hear him say “Come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke… “ What is the Good News? The Good News is that Jesus Christ offers you the forgiveness of your sins. This was won for you on the cross when He suffered and died. Jesus displayed the ultimate miracle when he rose from the dead and now sits at the Father’s side. This was done for you so you could be here sitting in this place hearing His word of comfort. Know that until he returns, He reveals Himself as one who invites all to His side for rest. He cares about us and it is evident through the words that he spoke to the crowd. He is inviting you to come to Him this day. In the midst of your burdens, be certain Jesus is here for you... continually calling and reminding us that with Him we have rest in abundance. “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy burdened - and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me - for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Anytime these words are heard, let them be a reminder that God is active in your life sustaining and preserving you. May God be praised!
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June 28, 2026 - Matthew 10:34-42
On this upcoming Saturday we will celebrate our nation’s 250th Independence Day. Our church sign has already been changed to say: 250 years of blessings, praise God for USA. Given that, and we are having a picnic today, I figured I’d take the opportunity to remind you our nation’s Independence Day is more than cookouts and concerts. It is more than time off and trips. It is more than friends and fireworks. It is about celebrating the Independence of this country that thousands upon thousands of people have fought and died to protect all so that we could have the luxury to shoot off a firework or to eat a cheese burger or even worship as we are now… in a public place. I want to make very clear from the outset that I am thankful and proud to be an American. I have lived in another country and this will always be my home. I love this country and I am grateful to be a citizen of this great country. That being said, I don’t love everything about America. I love this nation, but I don’t love everything this nation or its leaders do. Ultimately, I also acknowledge that God is not an American… that God is not a Jew either. God is not white. God is not black. God is not a republican. God is not a democrat. God is much bigger than all our self-identified systematics. I wish acknowledging that much would settle at least some of our man-made self-adsorbed disputes. But none the less, we are living in one of the most bizarre, challenging, and dangerous times in American history. Even within our church body our synodical president was just reelected for another 3 year term but it was one of the most divided elections I’ve ever seen. Yet all things considered, I’m not all that surprised when we don’t all just “get a long”… especially given our text for this Sunday. But I have to admit that this passage poses quite the challenge for me when I hear Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” That is certainly not the words I expect to hear from Jesus, especially given Isaiah, who called Jesus the “prince of peace”. Zachariah sang “Jesus would be light in darkness and a guide to our feet into the way of peace.” The angels cried at His birth “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will towards men.” We know how Jesus greeted his disciples and how he so often said to them “peace be to you”. In John Chapter 14 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled.” We long for peace among the nations. We want peace between people. But the peace Jesus came to give and the peace Jesus talks about in Scripture is none other than peace between us and God. Ultimately, that is where peace begins and peace ends. There will be no peace anywhere apart from God. That being said, where there is peace with God it effects our relationships with everyone else. It affects how we look at other people and it affects how they look at us. Jesus was sent to bring peace but the reality remains not everyone will receive this peace that Jesus brings. The truth is that some will choose to travel down a different road and there will be times when their roads and our road collide. Jesus asserts at times the division will run deep. It will divide families deeper than a house divided between the Cardinals and the Cubs. Yet understand Jesus is not encouraging the division within our families. He is simply telling us that commitment to Him must come before and above our allegiance to everything else. And this is actually a wonderful thing, because as you will find, when you begin to put Christ first in your life, you will also begin to love and appreciate everyone else accordingly. Of course, we know that Jesus’ own ministry was wracked by conflict. We know that Jesus was at war with Satan, and the more Jesus taught and healed people the greater his opposition rose-up against Him. Jesus’ ministry led to conflict against Satan and the world and that means with us too there will be conflict between us and the world. Even within ourselves there is no peace. I fight a war everyday against my own internal conflicts. Sometimes it seems the best route is to avoid the conflict, to bend my values here and there, just go with the flow and don’t make waves. But to this end Jesus give us his Word to encourage us to stay true to our confession. In the verses directly preceding our text, Jesus said, “If you confess Me before men I will confess you before my Father in heaven. If you disown me, I will disown you.” Some of us know what it is like when one spouse takes faith more seriously than the other. Needless to say, it becomes the object of division… that is why it is so important to support each other while we are in Church. It is lonely enough when you are the only Christian at work or at social gatherings. It is doubly lonely when you’re the only Christian in your family. Above all, Jesus wants you to know you are not alone in this struggle. Even when you feel alone, even when your own family has betrayed you or denied you, Jesus has not. Today Jesus is giving you His peace. He is giving you assurance of your sins forgiven. Above all, he is giving you a bold confession. On a day like today, even in the midst of conflict we can rejoice in that confession, the fact that Jesus was sent to reconcile us back to God, the fact that He took our place and suffered the wrath of sin for us. The fact that through him we have been made one with God, and more than that, that through him and in this place he has made us many. All this is to say, I’d like to see our church as a place of peace and as a place of love and of support. The world outside is tough on faith and it will get increasingly worse over the coming decades. But it does not have to be that way among us. We can act like we belong with each other because we do belong. Christ makes us belong. Is there conflict wherever two or three are gathered? Sure, there is… there’s conflict even when only one is present. But the point is this, the peace that surpasses all understanding comes from Jesus and only Jesus. We know that in Christ, being found in him and him in us, we belong. My prayer for us, therefore, is that he would strengthen and equip us to face whatever conflicts might come. In the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Amen.
June 21, 2026 - Matthew 10: 5, 21-33
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is Father’s Day. To all the father’s in the congregation, happy Father’s Day. The Church does not formally celebrate Father’s Day nor does it formally celebrate Mother’s Day. That being said, Father’s are uniquely important in the Christian Church. If you recall, I said on Mother’s Day, “Mothers are a child’s first impression of God’s love.” To contrast that, Austin Sorenson says this about fathers, “A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father.” That can a tough pill to swallow. More than that, a child will need to be taught to distinguish between the two. Archie says to me, “You are not the best dad but you are the best earthly dad.” That is an important distinction to make. Because you want a child to see something of God in you but you don’t necessarily want them to extrapolate too much into God because of you. None the less, a father plays an integral role in the faith of the family. And Fatherhood, like motherhood, might be one of the most difficult things in life, but it is also one of the most wonderful, and there is hardly anything more important. Happy Father’s Day. Today I intend to change our focus from Father’s Day to the Gospel Lesson. And as we transition, I do readily admit I’m not good at what I’m about to talk about. Jesus is about to address the necessity of taking Christians and increasing their pain tolerance. Just to define the term, pain tolerance is your ability to carry on life while in pain. Pain can be different for different people but all people have to be trained to learn a greater pain tolerance and a lot of time it is due to pain that teaches them a greater pain tolerance. If you have suffered an injury many years ago you might now have to live with chronic pain as a result. You could have suffered the loss of a dream, you wanted to have kids but you find out you or your spouse cannot. Soldiers have to learn and be trained a different pain tolerance and threat tolerance that is not normal for the rest of us. Firefighters have to be taught to control all the internal stresses as they hear all the alarms going off… but they must stay calm so they can carry on. Preschool teachers, Lord have mercy, have to learn a tolerance for pain so they can stay patient… Now, so does the Church. Jesus is about to challenge our tolerance of pain, and to be frank, he is going to say it’s far too low. Just to remind you, last week and in the text between this week’s and last week’s he gave his followers a spectrum of pain. In Chapter 10 verse 14 he said, “they are going to be people that wont welcome you.” Then in verse 25, they could call you beelzebul (name calling). Then in verse 22 he says they will hate you. Then a little bit further toward aggression, in verse 17 it says they will hand you over. Then in verse 19 they will arrest you. They will also scourge you, meaning beat you. And verse 21 and verse 22 he speaks of death, and worst of all, it is being turned over to death by family members. That folks is a spectrum of pain. And every one of you will experience some measure of this. Expect it. Endure it, no matter how afraid you are. I also do want to add that fear is an endurance crusher. It is for me. Three times he says don’t fear. And three reasons he gives us to not be afraid. These are the three reasons. He says God’s truth triumphs, he says if we aim our fear correctly it can trump bad fear, and he says God really is in control. The Scripture tells us we have nothing to fear, yet even so, when the storms of life are before us it is so easy to lose sight of God and become terrified. What is fear? We can think about things that cause fear or things that fear does, but when was the last time you considered what is fear? Just recently my kids hid a fake rat behind the toilet and when grandma found it she screamed at the top of her lungs. What is fear? Fear is simply this, the body’s instinctive natural response to a particular situation. I say this to point out fear is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes fear keeps us from doing something dangerous. I, for example, would not climb a ladder and go up to the church steeple for any reason. I would not, for example, jump out of a perfectly good airplane… even with a perfectly good parachute. My point is that fear can be a good thing. Fear can keep us from doing things that are obviously imprudent. That beings said, sometimes our fears are misdirected. Sometimes our fears get the best of us, especially when the very thing we face is the very thing we have to do. In Matthew Chapter 10 Jesus is talking about being a disciple. He is talking about servanthood and masters. He is talking about being a slave to fear. And when you think about it, why is it that we are so afraid to serve Jesus. Is it a lack of knowledge? Is it a fear of the unknown, a fear of what might happen… or what people might think of you? Maybe it’s a fear of moving into a place that might be unfamiliar or uncomfortable… but maybe it is just an excuse. Here in lies the problem… sometimes we use fear as an excuse. Hey Archie, why are you not eating your peas? I’m afraid. Their green. There’re little. What are you afraid of? I don’t know but I’m not trying them. Hey Adeline, why don’t you jump into the swimming pool? I’m afraid the water is too cold. Is it too cold? I don’t know… I’m afraid to find out. (I know Adeline never said that. I’m the one that’s afraid to just into water that’s too cold.) You see, sometimes we use fear as an excuse to not try something new or to keep us from doing something that might be uncomfortable. This morning the word is encouraging us to focus on Jesus… to set our eyes on him who is the author and perfect of our faith. As we look to him and focus on him, let us not focus on those things around us that give us fear. How many of you are afraid of flying? It is not really flying I don’t like. It is the thought of an unexpected stop. But what do you do when you are afraid of flying? You say a prayer at take-off and at landing. Above all, you pause. You put your eyes on Jesus and you turn it over to Him. Think about that for a moment. Jesus said, “have no fear, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” I have to be candid with you. When I first read that I was like what??? Then I read some commentaries and I was still like what??? Then I started thinking about life and I thought I wonder… follow me. Have you ever noticed when sin happens it covers. When we do it, we cover, we hide, we put it away. In Genesis after the fall, Adam and Eve made themselves close to cover themselves and then they hid from God. Evil always covers, always hides, and tries to exist in the dark. Ironically, truth could hide too, when it’s being opposed. I am a religious bureaucrat so I do it charmingly. You may not even notice. I’ll just do it by not saying anything. I think what you are hearing Jesus say is this: don’t be afraid. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. It is not just about evil and sin, but it’s included. Then he adds truth… whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight and when it’s whispered in your ear, proclaim it from the house tops. Do you know what makes abuse even more frightening? When no body knows. There is no accountability and no body can stop it. Jesus is saying I will not miss it, and even though our lives may not be in our hands, none the less, our lives are in God’s hands. I just love the story about that time when all the disciples were in a boat, in the middle of the might, in the middle of the sea. They had been fighting the wind and the waves all night and all of a sudden they became terrified by the sight of Jesus walking on the water. They were terrified but peter wanting assurance said, “Lord, if it is you bid me to come to you on the water.” And we all know the story ends. That Peter got out of the boat on proceeded to walk on the water out to Jesus. But let me ask you, what is the real miracle in that story? Is the miracle that Peter walked on water? No doubt that was miraculous. But so too was the miracle that Peter overcame his fear and stepped out of the boat in the first place. It was his faith in Jesus that helped him overcome his fear. It was his faith in Jesus that allowed him to walk on the water, and just notice what happened when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and began to focus again on the storms of the world. The fear returned and when it did he began to sink. What can we learn from these Scripture texts? I think we learn that fear is a part of our lives (and so is pain) and sometimes God uses fear and pain to turn us back to him. Luther said in the small catechism, “Fear, love, and trust God above all things.” All things considered, it is not so much that we should fear nothing but rather we should not fear things that have no lasting or real power over us. Let us understand that our lives and our eternity are in God’s hands. And as we focus on Him we need not be afraid of anything that Satan throws at us in this present life. Sometimes the fears of this world are used by the devil to strip us away from faith but we need only to fall back into the arms of Christ. The Psalmist reminds us “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” That means Jesus is there to conquer our fear. He is here to deal with the fear, and to remind us that he has overcome all things. Dear Christian friends, what scares you most? Maybe you are scared of snakes, maybe your scared of spiders, maybe you are scared that your doctor will tell you have a terminal illness? Maybe you are scared of losing your job or that you’ll never get one. In times like these, we need to acknowledge Jesus Christ… Although doing so may not get you a job or cure you of your cancer. None the less acknowledge Him not just here in Church but more than that, we need to acknowledge Him before all the men and women and children of this world. Jesus said, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” To borrow from F.D.R. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Jesus preached the Word, and although it got him crucified; remember this, that even though they tried to work against God with all their might, all they did was fulfill God’s plan. Jesus intended to offer himself in our place. The Word is the light of the world, that word empowers us and that word is Jesus. By the power of the holy Spirit, let’s break through the fear. Let’s shatter the fear and break through its allusion of control. Let us rather live in the strength of God and in the purpose of God. May the grace of God which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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