Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN (coming soon)

Jesu Juva

“The Transforming Gospel”

Text: Matthew 10:5a, 21-33; Romans 6:12-23; Jeremiah 20:7-13

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the Holy Gospel last week, we heard Jesus instruct His disciples as He sent them out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That instruction continues in the Holy Gospel today. 

And Jesus sent them with His authority, but not ease. They will be met with opposition. They will be as sheep in the midst of wolves. They will be dragged before the authorities. And why? For proclaiming the good news of Jesus, that He is the promised Messiah, and for healing and casting out unclean spirits. That good news and good work, Jesus says, will be hated.

Which seems odd, doesn’t it? That’s like hating the doctor who heals you!

Well, physical ailments and problems are easier to diagnose than spiritual ones. And easier to acknowledge, too. And just as we can ignore physical symptoms because we don’t want to acknowledge we may be sick or have something wrong with us, so too with our spiritual signs of sickness. And while physical healing may be welcomed, spiritual healing may not be. For implicit in the news of a Saviour is that we have need of saving. And as in Jesus’ day, not saving from the Romans or any other earthly power or authority, but from ourselves; from our sin. Which means with the good news of a Saviour comes also the not-so-welcomed call to repentance.

A call that is often met with denial and opposition. Don’t tell me I have an unclean spirit. Don’t tell me I’m wrong. Don’t tell me I have to change. Don’t bother me. I’m fine just the way I am. Even more, I’m GOOD just the way I am. God created me this way. Jesus loves me just the way I am. Except . . . He didn’t, and He doesn’t. He didn’t create you with sin, and He doesn’t love your sin. That’s why He came. Not to accept you in it, but to save you from it.

And so St. Paul said today in the Epistle, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. Now note what Paul didn’t say! He didn’t say be without sin, for that is impossible this side of eternity. He said not to let it reign in you; rule you. Now, that can happen in two ways; two errors when it comes to repentance. First, and probably more obvious, is when sin reigns in us because of our resistance to repentance. I don’t want to repent and so I won’t - I’ll let sin reign in my body and claim I’m fine and right and good, and don’t you dare say otherwise! 

But the second, while maybe not as obvious, is more problematic. The attitude that I’ll repent to be forgiven . . . but with no intention to change or resist the sin in my body or even try to. Because I like it. I need this sin. This sin is necessary. It’s too hard to try to stop. And it’s okay - I’m forgiven anyway! I’ll let this sin reign in my body because I can get away with it.

Now you know that’s not right - either of those things. Both of those is being, as Paul says today, a slave to sin. A slave to that old, sinful Adam in you. 

But Jesus has better for you than that. That’s why He baptized you - to set you free from the old Adam and his clutches. Which, again, doesn’t mean you’re not going to sin, or that temptation isn’t going to be hard - it most certainly will be! The devil is going to press you hard and exactly where you’re weakest. But though you were born with sin and succumb to temptation, your sin isn’t who you are - not anymore. You are a baptized child of God. That’s your identity; that’s who you are. You are not defined by your sin, labeled by your sin, marked by your sin, or enslaved to your sin - you belong now to Jesus. To lead not a sinful life but a holy life. A sanctified life - that’s the fancy word for that. Jesus working in you by His Spirit to give you better.

That’s what Jesus came to do and what His baptism does in you. He came to die and rise with your sin on Him, to take it away from you. And then in baptism to take you through His death and resurrection to a new life in Him. If you were fine, if you were good, He wouldn’t have done that; He wouldn’t have needed to. But He DID because you WEREN’T. He DID so you WOULD BE. So you would be forgiven. Free from sin, not free for sin. 

Which is much needed. For, as Jesus continues in His instructions to His disciples today, the evil in our world is great. A world where (to paraphrase what Jesus said today) parents kill their children with abortion, children kill their parents with euthanasia, and siblings kill each other over the inheritance. A world where we see others as inconveniences rather than gifts and blessings. A me-first, pleasure-first, power-first world. In such a world, the message of the Gospel isn’t going to be welcomed with open arms or received with thanks. They didn’t thank Jesus; they called Him Beelzebul. They didn’t thank Him; they crucified Him. 

So why bother? Why go through the trial and trouble and tribulation? 

That was the prophet Jeremiah’s question (or more like his complaint!). They don’t want to hear the Word of God. I just get grief for it . . . and worse. So why bother? Why put myself through that?

Well here’s why: because that Gospel can transform just such a world. Because the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). It transformed the disciples, it transformed you, and it can do so for others - even the most hard-boiled of sinners. We hear stories of that sometimes - of people caught up in the hardest, nastiest sins who have been rescued by Christ Jesus. Pornographers, murderers, internet scammers, abortionists, atheists, adulterers, traffickers, drug addicts and dealers. No sin too deep, no sinners too great for Jesus and His forgiveness. 

That’s the world Jesus sends His disciples out into, and the world the Church has been planted into. It’s going to tough, Jesus tells them. There’s more than you can do; you’ll never be done before the Son of Man comes. Many will hate you for it just as they hated Me. They’ll call you demon-possessed just as they did Me. But in the midst of all that, there will be those who hear, who repent, and who receive the life-changing forgiveness of Jesus. The world needs the Church.

So have no fear of them, Jesus says. Don’t be afraid. Easier said than done! Look at the cross - that’s what the world does: crucify, death, hatred, opposition. So don’t be surprised when that happens. But don’t just look at the cross! Look also at the empty tomb - that’s what God does! Resurrection, life, love, good, victory! So don’t be surprised at that either. When the Word does its work. The one with you is greater than the one in the world. He knows every sparrow that falls to the ground - nothing escapes His notice. And He knows every hair on your head - everything about you. And you are of far more value that many sparrows. In fact, you are worth the life of God’s own Son!

So no matter how bad things gets - and they might get real bad . . . in the early church Christians were fed to wild beasts and burned at the stake. In more modern days, there have been beheadings and imprisonment. But no matter how bad things get, Jesus says, they can only kill the body, not the soul. And Jesus will raise your body to life again, to an eternal reward in heaven, when it will be HIS turn to confess YOU who confessed Him here. For in Jesus, you have a life that death cannot end. You have a life that cannot be overcome by any earthly persecution and sorrow. You have a life purchased and won and nourished by the Body and Blood of God’s Son.

You have that. That’s your in Christ. So do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of the world and its raging - that’s what the world does. But also do not be afraid to repent - that what Christians do. Don’t be afraid to humble yourself. Even if others take advantage of you, God will forgive you and raise you up. And do not be afraid to live the new life you’ve been given; to let go of those sins that beset you. You may think you’re better off with them, but you’re not. You may think that you need them, but you don’t. They’re really holding you back, holding you down, holding you in their grip. That sexual sin, that anger sin, that selfish sin, that power sin, that greed sin, that slothful sin, holding you back from loving your spouse, loving your family, loving life, loving God, and keeping you from the life that Christ has for you. The life Christ is here to give you in word and water and bread and wine. To break that grip so you can live - free from sin, free from fear - even in a world of sin and sorrow. So that forgiven and raised by by Jesus, you can lay down your life for others, as Jesus did for you.

It won’t be easy. Jesus is abundantly clear in His words to His disciples today about that! It won’t be easy, but what’s good often isn’t. And heaven in filled not with the high and mighty, but the poor and lowly. The poor in spirit and the lowly in heart. That’s who Jesus was, and it is enough for the disciple to be like His master. So don’t be afraid to be so now. It won’t be easy, but in the end, you will be like Him, too. In glory.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Congregation at Prayer

For the Week of Pentecost 4 (June 22-27, 2026)

Invocation: In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: Psalm 89:1 – “I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #685 “Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus”

Hymns for Sunday: 583, 685, 620, 579, 718, 919

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: Psalm 119:153–160

How does God’s Word give us hope, assurance, faith, and salvation? Are you ever tempted to look for these elsewhere? Why?

Tuesday: Isaiah 40:1–5

What warfare is ended? What do we receive instead of what we deserve? How did John the Baptist fulfill these words?

Wednesday: Luke 1:57–80

Nativity of St. John the Baptist. What gave Zechariah more joy: the birth of his son or the coming of his Saviour? How did both go together? What would the Saviour do? What would his son do?

Thursday: Jeremiah 28:5–9

Why did Jeremiah doubt the words of other prophets? How do we know a prophet is speaking the Word of God? 

Friday: Romans 7:1–13

What does death do to the law? What did Christ’s death do to the law for us? To whom do we now belong? How do we now live?

Saturday: Matthew 10:34–42

Hard words from Jesus! Do people have false expectations of Jesus? What do people want? What does Jesus want? How might those sometimes work against each other?

The Catechism - The Creed: The Third Article [part 2]: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. What does this mean? I believe that . . . In the same way [the Holy Spirit] calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies that whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. . . .

Collect for the Week: Almighty God, by the working of Your Holy Spirit, grant that we may gladly hear Your Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational vice president, Rob Douthwaite.

+ the Free Ev. Lutheran Synod in South Africa, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, wisdom, and provision for our Synod’s Board for International Mission.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“He Had Compassion”

Text: Matthew 9:36-10:20; Exodus 19:2-8; Romans 5:6-15

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the Holy Gospel today, we heard that Jesus had compassion.

If there’s one sentence that summarizes Jesus, all that He is and all that He does, that just might be it. He had compassion. Pity. Sympathy. He sees what has become of us, men and women created in His image but now wracked with sin, and He has compassion. He sees what has become of His perfect creation, and the havoc sin has wreaked in it through and through and He has compassion. It wrenches His gut. He has so much better. 

So He has compassion. And He acts in compassion.

First, Matthew tells us, in compassion Jesus teaches, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. That is teaching by word and deed. Teaching of a God who is good in the midst of a world that is evil, and then giving that good by healing. Teaching that is needed, because the people had been and were being misled. Taught wrongly. Maybe by their own teachers. Certainly by the culture around them - the people around them and their false gods and false beliefs. That happens to us, too. The culture influences us. We are catechized by the world through all the information we receive - and not for the better. We maybe don’t even realize how it has seeped into our thinking and effected us, and effected how we act and how we live, what we desire, and how we prioritize our lives. As funny as it may sound, we need to be taught what good is again. Oh, we think we know. But sin pulls us away from good, and if we read something in the Bible and then think, Oh, that doesn’t sound good! Or right! . . . But others are saying; others think . . . then we don’t know. We’ve been misled. 

So Jesus has compassion.

Because when Jesus saw the crowds, he saw that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. What do sheep without a shepherd do? They don’t know what to do! They need to be told. They need to be led. They need to be shepherded. Now think: Have you ever thought, or felt, or said, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to turn. I don’t know which way to go . . . Then you are harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd. We don’t want to be that. We don’t want to admit it. We want to be smart and able and independent. And the devil convinces us that we are! Playing on our pride. That you can do it. Follow your gut. Trust yourself. If it feels good, do it. If it feels good, it can’t be bad. You’re smart, educated. Others might need a shepherd, but not you! You’re okay! Strong. Able. But the one telling us that is the devil in shepherd’s clothing, leading us astray, leading us to destruction, leading us into his jaws. 

But you are only like sheep without a shepherd. Because you have a Shepherd, a Good one, who has come to you and come for you. So Jesus sees that, and has compassion.

So He tells His disciples to pray. First thing they should do. Whatever the problem or issue is, first thing: pray. In this case, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Good advice for us, too. Sometimes we belittle prayer. We put that word only before it. I can only pray. We should never say that. I can always pray. That’s better. No matter how young or old you are, whether the problem be close at hand or far away, you can always pray. Not everyone can. Not everyone believes. But you can. You can lift up people and problems and issues to your Father in heaven and know that He hears you. He promised. For you are His child. So that’s not the only thing you can do, but the best thing you can do, to bring others before your Father in heaven who can do all things. You may not be able to do anything, but you can bring whoever, whatever, to the one who can do everything.

And chances are pretty good - like, 100%! - that He already knows how He will answer. 

For right after telling His disciples to pray for laborers for the harvest, Jesus sends them out to be those laborers! And while the crowds He had compassion on were like sheep without a shepherd, the disciples will be as sheep in the midst of wolves! That must have been hard, to send His friends out like that. Like a soldier going off to battle, or a child going off to college. Hostile forces all around. But in compassion, Jesus does. 

But as He does, as He sends them, He arms them. With His authority. The authority of His Word. And by His Word they will cast out unclean spirits, and heal every disease and sickness. They weren’t just to tell people to get better or do better, but give them better. Give them Jesus and His gifts of forgiveness and life. Have compassion on them, as Jesus does. And they were to take nothing else - acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff. Don’t worry about that stuff! The God who created all things can supply all those things. Just take the Word. Be armed with the Word. Have compassion with the Word.

Which is also the case for the Church today. The Word is our only authority. It’s really all we have. But it’s all we need. It is enough. For this Word gives life. The Word teaching us, showing us, and giving us what is good. The Word casting out unclean spirits in the waters of Baptism, giving life in the forgiveness of sins, leading us to the green pasture of Jesus and feeding us with His Body and Blood. And this is true even when that Table is set in the midst of our enemies and we’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:5, 4) in the midst of wolves. It is true even when it doesn’t seem like it, when it looks like the Church is losing. When it seems we’re losing the battle against a hostile and evil world, hell bent on sin and rebellion against God and His Word. 

The Word is enough. For the Church is not about self-improvement, or fund-raising, or pumping ourselves up with a spiritual workout. It’s not about bigness or power. It’s not about us at all. It’s all about Jesus. Jesus having compassion on us, and then we having compassion on others. And a Church that has compassion will always have compassion. The gifts of the compassionate one, and with them the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

Peace in a world where peace, where contentment, is hard to come by. Where compassion is dwarfed by criticism and competition. A world which has bought into evolution and the survival of the fittest. Every man, every woman out for himself or herself. Weed out the weak. Keep up or get run over. Achieve or get left behind. 

How different the compassion of Jesus. Who didn’t demand we keep up, but came to lift up those the world runs over and rescue those the world tosses aside. To die for those who deserve death - us. That we rise with Him to life. Good life. Compassionate life. Real life. Eternal life.

And for those who don’t want that, there is a judgment coming. And it will be more bearable on that day, Jesus said, for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them. Which if you remember that story, is saying a lot! But that day is not yet. It may seem far away; it may seem like it will never come. The people of Israel may have thought that - living in Egypt as slaves for a very long time. But that day came for them. And the people of Israel waiting for the Messiah may have thought that day would never come. But that day came for them. And it will come for us, too. At the proper time. Which is maybe not soon enough for us! When life is hard, with battles from without and within, battles against foes and even against friends! When we’re tired and weary. When the wolves seem to be winning . . .

And so still today, Jesus has compassion, because we are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Still today He is sending workers into the harvest. Still today He is casting out unclean spirits, forgiving our sins, and giving life. Still today His Word is proclaimed and calling sinners to His gifts. Still today His gifts abound to give peace to troubled hearts, fearful consciences, and worried souls. For as Paul said in the Epistle we heard today, while we were still weak - harassed, helpless, cast down, frightened - Christ died for the ungodly. God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, - not after we cleaned ourselves up, or achieved enough, but while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And having been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. . . . Wrath against our sins. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Not that word: abounded. Not just a little grace; abounding grace! Grace greater than you can imagine. Grace without which we would be lost. But with such grace we are raised up, abounding in the love, forgiveness, and life of God, who has compassion on us.

Be cause that’s who God is and what He does. He has compassion. That one sentence summarizes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pretty well. He has compassion. Compassion for you. Compassion for all.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Perfectly Imperfect”

Text: Matthew 9:9-13; Romans 4:13-25; Hosea 5:15-6:6

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Follow me, Jesus said to Matthew.

[Looking around] Me?

Yes, you! Follow me.

But I’m a tax collector! A Jew collecting taxes for the Romans! Nobody wants me. 

I do. You’re perfect. Follow me.

Perfect?

Yes, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Outcasts. The ones nobody else wants, I do. Follow me.

But Lord! [Now the others there chiming in . . .]

Yes?

A tax collector? Really? I mean, a couple of smelly fishermen was bad enough! Now this? Him? And the others like Him? 

Isn’t it great? 

No! You’re making yourself unclean, hanging out with . . . you know.

No, I don’t know. With who?

With . . . them! 

Exactly!

What?

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I will become sick, I’ll take their sickness, that they may be well. I will become unclean, I will take their uncleanness, that they may be clean. That’s what I came for.

But he doesn’t deserve it!

Neither do you! Now, where were we? Oh, yes. Matthew, follow me.

And he rose and followed him.

That same scene could have played out with Abraham, who was an idolater until God called him (Joshua 24:2). And with Paul, who was a persecutor of Jesus and the Church until God called him. And maybe with the prophet Hosea, too, though we don’t know much about him. They were all perfect because they weren’t. Because it all depends on God and His grace. Whoever they will be, whatever they will do, will be all by grace through faith.

And what about you? You fit this pattern too, don’t you? Perfectly imperfect. For what is there about you that should disqualify you from being a Christian? Because I know there’s something! Something in your past. Something you’re struggling with right now. Something with your children or your parents. Something with your family or your marriage. Something you wish you wouldn’t have done, or done differently. Regrets. Failures. Great and magnificent sins. What is it for you? What is that thing that if others knew about . . . would make you one of . . . you know, them.

Truth is, you shouldn’t be here. Yet here you are. Sick with sin. Ashamed. Unclean. Perfect for Jesus.

For Jesus said to you: follow me. Actually, even more than that. For when you were baptized in His Name, He said: you are mine. Washed clean, forgiven, by grace through faith. Because whoever you are, whatever you are struggling with, you are exactly who Jesus came for. 

God used the prophet Hosea to illustrate that for Him. As I said, we don’t know hardly anything about Hosea before God called him to be a prophet. But after that, we know how God used him. And what God had Hosea do was marry a prostitute as a living parable; as a picture of Himself and the nation of Israel, who was being unfaithful to Him and prostituting themselves with false gods. And while God would strike Israel down, as we heard Hosea say today, He did so in love! So that He could raise them up again. To bring them back from their unfaithfulness and rescue them. And Hosea explains how: 

After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.

Two days and three days are figurative days for the nation. They will be struck down for just a short time, not forever. But they were also literal days . . . for the one who would do the raising. For the one who would take their sickness and uncleanness to make them well and clean. Who would take their shame and guilt and atone for it. The one who came to do that for Israel and all the nations and people of the world. 

Even for tax collectors.

The one who was promised to Abraham when God called him from his idolatry for this very special purpose: to be the father of the one to come; who would come and do this and be heir of the world. Who would redeem the world - all people of all time, from Adam and Eve to even those today not yet born - to redeem us from our bondage to sin. That all follow him. From the least to the greatest. From the least sinner to the greatest sinner. From tax collectors and fishermen, to accountants, lawyers, and technology gurus. That on the third day, as Paul said, the one who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, bring us to life together with Him in His resurrection from the dead. That by grace, [our] faith be counted to [us] as righteousness. 

That’s what happened for Matthew. He tells his own story in so few words that it’s easy to miss its significance. But once we realize this, it also makes this account a perfect reading to begin this long, green Pentecost season with. To start this season by reminding us who we are and how we got here, and what we might be struggling with.

Struggling, because it’s easy to look around and compare ourselves with others and maybe think: I shouldn’t be here! And it’s easy to look around and compare ourselves with others and maybe think: They shouldn’t be here! But the truth is: none of us should. My issues may be different than your issues, my sins than your sins, my struggles than your struggles, but all of us are here by grace through faith. The perfectly imperfect made perfectly perfect in Jesus. 

And so it is now to this house that Jesus has come to recline at table with many tax collectors and sinners. To be our great physician. To feed us and lift us up from our sins to sit at His table. And what makes us worthy to do so, the Catechism teaches us, is that, like Matthew, we know we’re unworthy! But Jesus said: follow Me! So follow we do, as we follow Him to the cross, and from the cross to the Table, where acknowledging our wretchedness and unworthiness, repenting of our sins, the Body and Blood of the cross are given to us to eat and drink and raise us in forgiveness to life.

Now, the Pharisees didn’t like that! Jesus should be keeping better company! But that’s not how Jesus sees it, and thank God for that! For then He wouldn’t be here, with us and for us. And then we’d have to earn an invitation with our own goodness and worthiness . . . and I don’t know about you, but that is one invitation I could never earn! And I don’t think that would stop the grumbling either. In fact, I think it might even make it worse! For I think those who think they are righteous and have earned it would grumble at those they think unrighteous and unworthy, and those folks would grumble right back at those who think themselves superior! 

So instead, since none of us are worthy, instead of grumbling at one another, we can join together in praise and thanksgiving to the one who made our presence here possible. To the one who said follow me. To the one who died for us all and rose for us all and now feeds us all. Because Jesus wants us all - tax collectors, sinners, smelly fishermen, Pharisees, accountants, lawyers, teachers, technology gurus . . . even pastors! And He wants those not here yet - those still out there, some needing to be struck down, some needing to be lifted up, all needing to hear His call, and for the work of the Spirit through those words, follow me. 

Follow me. 

Follow me to the cross, where I laid down my life for you, and you can lay down your life to be a blessing for others. Follow me to the Font, and remember your sin - all your unworthiness, ALL of it - is washed away and you are raised with Me to a new life. Follow me to the Altar, to be fed and strengthened in your struggle. Follow me to the Word, and hear how much I love you. And one day, finally, you will follow me is rising from the dead, to My heavenly Feast. Where Matthew will be. And not a few smelly fishermen. A few lawyers. Maybe even a few pastors! All one in Christ. All imperfect no more.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.