Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN (coming . . .)

Jesu Juva

“Miraculous Growth”

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans 8:12-17

 

I preached on this Gospel for the youth at Higher Things a little over a week ago. So this sermon for you today is an slightly edited and expanded version of that sermon.

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

Jesus is not giving you spiritual gardening tips today. He is describing the reality of living in our sinful and sin-filled world. This is the reality His disciples are going to face as they go out and proclaim and sow the Seed of His Word. 

Furthermore, with this parable today, Jesus is not telling you to take a look at your heart and try to figure out how much is good soil or not, or to weed and unrock your heart, as if you could. Nor is this for us to compare ourselves to others, how weedy and rocky they are compared to us. No, this parable is your reality. Jesus is describing your life. What happens to the Word that is sown into your heart.

For consider . . . Perhaps this has happened to you . . . You stay up late one night, really late. Maybe for a really good reason! Because you were taking care of a sick child or a troubled friend. Or maybe you just had a lot on your mind - a project at work or school, a doctor appointment coming up, and your mind just kept racing and you couldn’t get to sleep. Or maybe it was for a not so good reason. That happens too, right? And the next day is Sunday. So you get up and go to church, but you just. can’t. focus. You’re not following. You’re too tired. And what happens? The Word that is read and preached and sung is snatched away. That ever happen to you?

Or maybe this . . . You did something you knew was wrong. You didn’t want to do it, you knew you shouldn’t do it, but you did it anyway. The temptation was too great, and you were too weak. It didn’t really even seem that bad. Talking about that person behind their back, neglecting your responsibilities at home, looking at that stuff online . . . And maybe you even tried to justify it, wondering, questioning, Did God really say . . . ? And the Word of God, planted in you, got choked. 

How ‘bout one more . . . A friend of yours, or maybe someone in your family gets sick or hurt - really bad. They’re suffering, hurting, dying. And so are you, for them! Or your grandma gets Alzheimers and doesn’t remember you anymore. Or internet trolls or real life bullies are making your life as a Christian bitter. And the questions come . . . Why God? Why her? Why me? Do you even see, and care? Do you love me? And the Word of God, planted in you, got scorched by the heat of sadness and tragedy and death.

If any of that has happened to you - and I’m pretty sure ALL of that has happened to ALL of you! - then you’ve lived this parable of Jesus today. There are a LOT of enemies of God’s Word, all bearing down on you, attacking you. The devil and a sinful world from outside you, and your own hard-hearted sinful nature from inside you. And you think about all that - the attacks and assaults, the troubles and trials, the pounding and the persecution, and how life just seems to be getting harder and more complicated every day . . . and you realize: It’s a miracle the Word of God grows in us at all!

Exactly! It’s a miracle. It’s not your doing. If it were, nothing would grow! But Jesus is working in you. And that’s what Jesus wants you to know, what He is teaching us with this parable. That despite the best efforts of the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature to snatch and scorch and choke the Word of God, they’re not going to win. Despite their best efforts, Jesus is going to produce a harvest in you. 

And make no mistake about it: it is all the work of Jesus. You cannot unrock your heart, change the sinful nature you were born with, but Jesus can. The one who can command stones to become bread in the wilderness (Matthew 4:3), the one who can raise up children for Abraham from stones (Matthew 3:9), the one who can bring water from a rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17), and the one who could not be held in the tomb by a great rock . . . yeah, that one can give you a heart of flesh and make your heart into good soil, which will produce a harvest for His Word. 

And He not only can, He has! He did when you were baptized. By water and the Word, He raised up a child of Abraham and made your heart a place where His Word can grow and produce good fruit. Maybe even a hundredfold! Though thirtyfold is a lot, too. I think I’d take that! 

So they’re not going to win. These enemies of God and His Word aren’t going to win because they’ve already been defeated by Jesus. He took on the temptations of the devil and the world, the worst they could dish out. And He won. On the cross, the Seed promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, the Seed that was sown into the womb of Mary, on the cross, He was scorched and choked and attacked. And dead. Really dead. Planted six feet under dead. Under a great rock.

And then that Seed grew! They could not keep Him down or dead in the tomb. He rose and grew and is still growing. He won on the cross and He is winning in you. And His harvest is more than we know, more than we can count, more than we can imagine. More than the sand on the seashore or the stars in the heavens. The Word of the Lord now planted in you.

So yes, you’re going to be attacked, and attacked hard - by the weeds of sin, the scorching heat of persecution, and the hatred of the devil, but the Word of the Lord grows. And not a little. Abundantly. Lavishly. And directly in the face of all these enemies! Because Jesus didn’t just sow His Seed in you once. He continues sowing His Seed in you.

For now consider this . . . That the Scriptures and Liturgy aren’t just words about Jesus - they are Jesus speaking to you and sowing the Seed of His Word into your heart. And every time you read His Word, or hear His Word, or sing His Word, He is sowing His Seed in you, that you know all that He has done for you and promised you. And that Seed grows.

When you succumb to temptation, when you fail and fall, He throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and plants it into your heart and says: I died for those sins! I forgive you all your sins! And that Seed grows.

When you have doubts and fears and troubles, He throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and plants it in your heart and says: I baptized you! You are mine, and I’m not letting you go! And that Seed grows.

When you’re faced with death, so fearsome and so final, so filled with sorrow and dread, He throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and plants it into your heart and says: Been there! Done that! Came out alive! And you will, too. In Me. And that Seed grows.

And when you are scorched and choked and weak, He throws the Seed of His Word into your ears - and your mouths! His Body and Blood feeding, nourishing, strengthening you. And that Seed grows. 

For as Isaiah reminded us this morning, the Word of God does not return empty. It accomplishes that for which He sends it, and it succeeds in that for which He sent it. And God’s will is that His Word grow in you. That even in the midst of the persistent attacks of the devil and the world and your own sinful nature, you be led by the Spirit of God, as St. Paul told the Romans, and so a harvest of good works and good fruit be produced in you. 

So what to do? What can you do if you cannot unrock your heart or weed your heart and make it grow? Well, first of all, repent. That’s always good to do! Repent of your part in all this. Your sinful nature and how you have rebelled against God and His Word. For you have. Me, too. And then hear and receive the forgiveness you need. The forgiveness that can change your hard and rocky sinful nature into good soil.

But then, this too: drone swarm your heart! Drone swarm it with God’s Word! One or two seeds are an easy target. But a hundred? Or more? 

Moses told the people of old to do this, when they were getting ready to enter the Promised Land. He told them: have God’s Word everywhere! On their clothing, on the walls and doors of their houses, on their hands - even hanging between their eyes! When they get up in the morning and when they go to bed at night. His point being to have the Word of God always around you and always being sown in you. That though some be snatched and some be scorched and some be choked, some also grow and produce a harvest in you. That you always have hope - not in yourself! - but in the words and promises of God. For His Word never fails. Not even when it is crucified. 

So Jesus sends His disciples out into such a world. This is what they will see. This is what they will experience. In those they preach to and in themselves. Scorching, choking, snatching, and a harvest - all of the above. And you, too. This is your life, because Christ is your life. If they attacked Him they will also attack you. But He won, and so you will win. He is your hope. He is your victory. So no matter what is going on in your life, look to Him. Listen to Him. Follow Him. He is growing in you. And producing a harvest. Count on Him. He won’t let you down. 

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 7 (July 13-18, 2026)

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

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: Romans 8:18 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #754 “Entrust Your Days and Burdens”

Hymns for Sunday: 663, 754, 619, 664, 714, 819

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

Monday: Psalm 119:57–64

How do the words and promises of God change us and guide and shape our lives?

Tuesday: Genesis 2:7-17

What food did God give man? What food did He not give? Why? What was God teaching? How are we still learning this today?

Wednesday: Mark 8:1-9

How does sin produce “desolate places?” How does Jesus provide for us in those places? What does He use? Who does He use?

Thursday: Isaiah 44:6–8

How does knowing who God is and what He has done help us not to fear? With such a God, what is there to fear? Why?

Friday: Romans 8:18–27

Do Christians suffer? How does suffering help us? Who helps us at such times? What does He do for us? What hope do we have?

Saturday: Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43

Why is there evil in the world? Why doesn’t God just get rid of it? When will He? What should we do as we wait for that day?

The Catechism - The Lord’s Prayer: The First Petition [part 1]: Hallowed by Thy name. What does this mean? God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.

Collect for the Week: O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Your Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of Your final judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with You in perfect joy hereafter; 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 recording treasurer, Caroline Trundle.

+ the Ev. Lutheran Church in South Sudan / Sudan, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, wisdom, and provision for the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty.

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 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

After a week away at the Higher Things youth conference in Saint Louis, we were privileged to have the Rev. Dr. Karl Fabrizius preach for us this morning. No text to post here, but you can watch the livestream recording of the service on our YouTube channel here. (Video posted after the service!)

Thank you, dear brother, for giving a tired pastor a break today!

Higher Things Thursday Matins

2 July 2026

Saint Louis, MO

Higher Things Thursday Matins

Dying Church, Rising Hope     

Jesu Juva

“It’s a Miracle”

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

Jesus is not giving you spiritual gardening tips today. He’s not telling you to take a look at your heart and try to figure out how much is good soil or not, or to weed or unrock your heart, as if you could. No, this parable is your life. You know it. You live it.

Maybe this has happened to you . . . You stay up late one night, really late. Maybe for a really good reason! Because your little brother was sick and you were helping take care of him, or you had a project to finish up for school. Or maybe it was for a not so good reason. That happens too, right? And the next day is Sunday. So you get up and go to church, but you just. can’t. focus. You’re not following. You’re too tired. And the Word that is read and preached and sung is snatched away.

Or maybe this . . . Have you ever done something you knew was wrong, and you didn’t want to do it - you really didn’t! - but you did it anyway? The temptation was too great, and you were too weak. Maybe it didn’t really even seem that bad. Talking about that person behind their back, looking at that stuff online . . . And maybe you even wondered, Did God really say . . . ? And the Word of God, planted in you, was choked. 

How ‘bout one more . . . A friend of yours, or maybe someone in your family gets sick or hurt - really bad. They’re suffering, hurting, dying. And so are you, for them! Or your grandma gets Alzheimers and doesn’t remember you anymore. Or internet trolls or real life bullies are making your life as a Christian bitter. And the questions come . . . Why God? Why her? Why me? Do you even see, and care? Do you love me? And the Word of God, planted in you, is scorched by the heat of sadness and tragedy and death.

If any of that has happened to you - and I’ll bet pretty much ALL of that has happened to ALL of you! - then you’ve lived this parable of Jesus today. There are a LOT of enemies of God’s Word, all bearing down on you, attacking you. From the devil and a sinful world outside you, to your own hard and rocky sinful nature inside you. And you think about all that, and how life just seems to be getting harder and more complicated every day, and you realize: With all this, it’s a miracle the Word of God grows at all!

Exactly. It’s a miracle. It’s not your doing. It’s Jesus working in you. And that’s the hope Jesus wants you to have with this parable. That despite the best efforts of the devil, the world, and the reality of your own sinful nature to snatch and scorch and choke the Word of God, they’re not going to win. Because you are baptized. Your heart made into good soil by Jesus. To produce a harvest. 

So they’re not going to win. These enemies of God and His Word aren’t going to win because they’ve already been defeated by Jesus. He took the attacks; all the attacks of the devil and the world, the worst they could dish out. On the cross, the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, the promised Seed of God that was sown into the womb of Mary, was Himself scorched and choked and attacked. And dead. Really dead. Planted six feet under dead. 

And then that Seed grew! They could not stop Him or keep Him down or dead in the tomb. And that growth continued ever since, and is producing a harvest more abundant than can be counted. The Word of the Lord now planted in you. 

For the Scriptures and Liturgy aren’t just words about Jesus - they are Jesus speaking to you and sowing the Seed of His Word into your heart. 

When you stumble and fall in sin, Jesus throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and says: I forgive you all your sins! 

When you have doubts and fears and troubles, Jesus throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and says: I baptized you! You are mine, and I’m not letting you go!

When you’re faced with death, so fearsome and so final, so filled with sorrow and dread, Jesus throws the Seed of His Word into your ears and says: Been there! Done that! Came out alive! And you will, too. In Me.

And when you are scorched and choked and weak, Jesus throws the Seed of His Word into your ears - and your mouths! His Body and Blood feeding, nourishing, strengthening you.

And that Word grows. Christ grows! In you. And not a little. Abundantly. Lavishly. He promised. And He produces a harvest - a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold. 

So though you are harried and harassed, assaulted and attacked, and maybe look like a dying Christian, and feel like one, too . . . you have implanted in you a rising Seed that cannot die, and that will produce a harvest, and a resurrection. That is your hope - a sure and certain hope, in a sure and certain and risen Saviour. 

That’s your life. Christ is your life, your hope, your victory. Look to Him. Listen to Him. He won’t let you down. 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Rightly Ordered Loves”

Text: Matthew 10:34-42; Jeremiah 28:5-9

 

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

It’s a good thing the Holy Gospel for today wasn’t read last Sunday - Father’s Day! To hear that Jesus had come to set a man against his father - that would have been awkward! But, of course, it still is. Quite awkward. No matter which week we hear it. Jesus the home wrecker.

Today’s Gospel is the last of three where Jesus is instructing His disciples before sending them out. As you may remember, it started out so well! He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. . . . He told them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. That’s cool. But then it was all downhill from there . . . Things go from bad to worse.

They’re going to face rejection. They’re going out as sheep in the midst of wolves. They will be handed over to the authorities. They’re going to be hated and called demons. And now this we heard today! So maybe they’re having second thoughts? Couldn’t blame them!

And that happens to Christians today . . . maybe even you. Second thoughts, when you hear God’s Word and what it says. 

I mean, Christmas and baby Jesus is cool. O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, candles, Joy to the World. Like that! And Easter - the flowers and alleluias. Good stuff. Love and joy and peace - who doesn’t want that?

But stick around, and then you begin to hear more . . . Things like: your enemies? Love them! Those who persecute you and make your life tough, pray for them! Turn the other cheek. Lay down your life for others. Forgive without limit. Don’t repay evil for evil, but repay evil with good. Be sexually pure, honor the authorities, no matter who they are . . . and then things like we heard today. That as a Christian, you may have to give up some things; change some things about your life. Not to win God’s favor - you already have that! But because they’re not good for you, even if you think they are. 

Hmmm. This Christian thing, this Jesus thing . . . I didn’t know it was going to be so hard! 

But this is how it has been, the pattern of things, from the beginning. When because of the sin of Adam and Eve, things plummeted from great to worse. From perfection to death and hell on earth. 

So what kept them going . . . all the saints of old, living in such a world? From Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, the prophets - what kept them going in the midst of the opposition and pain and struggle? One thing only, really - the promise of a Saviour, who would raise them and this world to life and love, peace and joy, again. And so the book of Hebrews says that all those saints of old, they could have gone back; they could have just thrown up their hands and given up . . . like maybe some are tempted to today. But instead, they looked forward to what was coming. To the greater, the more glorious, the restoration. So going back, giving up, really wasn’t an option. There wasn’t any guarantee that would be easier or better anyway. The good ol’ days usually aren’t as good as we remember or imagine. 

Which brings us back to the words Jesus spoke to His disciples today . . . these tough words!

The thing to know about those words, to help us understand them, is that Jesus wasn’t the first to say them. They were first said by the prophet Micah, describing the evil and wickedness in the world. This was their reality. This was happening in Israel. They were turning against one another - even families! They weren’t living as God’s people. There were false prophets in those days, too - one we heard of today in the Old Testament reading, named Hananiah - false prophets who were saying in the midst of all the wickedness and evil: Don’t worry! Be happy! All is well. Even though they had been conquered by the Babylonians and many people had been taken there from Israel, it won’t last long! Hananiah said. God’s going to bring you back. And soon. We are His people, after all!

But that wasn’t true, the prophet Jeremiah said. I wish it were! he said. We’re His people, yes. But God was disciplining His people, and it was going to last the full 70 years, as God had said. 

So you had these two prophets - and more - saying different things. Not unlike today, where you have lots of different people saying lots of different things, about God, about life, about truth . . . sometimes making it hard to know what to believe.

So what did Micah say, living in that situation? After being the first to say these words about families divided? He said this, in the very next verse: But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. That’s exactly what the saints of old did. Looking forward, not back; looking to the Lord, and no other; and waiting for His salvation, not taking matters into their own hands. No matter how great the evil or how bad the wickedness in them and in the world, they looked to the Lord for forgiveness and waited for the Lord to come and fulfill His promises. For He always does.

So by Jesus taking up these words of the prophet Micah and quoting  these shocking words - by doing so He wants you to think about four things: 

First, the condition of the world, how steeped in sin and rebellion and division it is, as it was in Micah’s day.  

Second, to think about the condition of your heart, and the sin that has maybe snuck its way in and that maybe you are a little too comfortable with, as the people’s in Micah’s day. 

Third, that He is proclaiming that He is the one Micah and the saints of old looked forward to, the save from this mess. 

And then fourth, He wants you to do the same; to look forward as well, to Him and His salvation. His salvation coming not only on the Last Day, but already here, already now, in His Word and Sacraments.

For Jesus doesn’t hate families! There’s a commandment, in fact, about honoring your father and mother - remember that? And it’s importance is shown by its being the first commandment in the second table of the Law, about loving your neighbor. That placement is important, and the commandment is important. And Jesus isn’t contradicting that Word of God. But important also are the commandments that come before it, regarding God; the first table of the Law. And we can never pit them against one another. But living in a world steeped with sin - sin without, sin within, sin all around! . . . what if there comes a time when honoring God and honoring my father go against one another and I can’t do both? What then? Which do I do? And what of other situations - impossible situations - when it seems like of the choices I have, both are wrong? That no matter which I do I’m sinning? 

And you begin to realize . . . I’m the one Jesus was taking about. I am not worthy. And I can’t be. And if it were up to me, I never will be! Hard as I might try. Full stop. Because these situations come up. And I have crosses I don’t carry and won’t carry. I have divided loves. I do try to save my life, what I have, what I’ve done. The world may be a mess, but so am I.

It’s good to know that. Hard! But good. Not so that we’ll throw our hands up, give up, and stop trying. But so that we look for help in the right place. Not within ourselves and what we can do - but that we look forward and look to Jesus. The only one who ever was and is worthy, and who came to make you worthy.

Because the truth is that Jesus didn’t come to wreck families, He came to wreck you! You who are wrecked with sin, divided loves, and doubts - He came to finish you off! To kill you, so that He could raise you to a new life. The sword of His Word slaying you in repentance, so that His healing Word of Absolution raise you again in forgiveness to a new life. That you find your hope in Him and turn to Him alone.

But to do that, to save you like that, Jesus had to be slain Himself. He had to take your place under the sword of God’s wrath Himself. Take your sin, take your guilt, take your shame, take your divided loves, take your doubts, take your unworthiness, take it all away from you and lose His life to give you life. That in His resurrection, you rise, too. That joined to Him in Baptism and made His child, you find your life in Him. So that knowing the depth and enormity of our sin, we also know the greatness and glory of our Saviour.

And then, baby steps. Receiving a prophet, to listen to him speak God’s Word. A cup of cold water to a little one. And a reward . . . for that? Yeah! 

And maybe a Father’s Day example here - a week late! When children are little, the gifts they give are small, usually homemade, but precious. When they get bigger, the gifts might get bigger and more expensive. But isn’t it those little gifts that are remembered and kept? The drawing, the little plaster handprints, the homemade card. What we do is like that. What you do - so little and rudimentary - when done in love, when done as His child, is precious to your Father in heaven. 

That’s what makes you and what you do worthy. Not that what you do is perfect or even close to it, but that you’re His dearly loved child, adopted into His family, by Baptism, washed clean in the blood of the Son, and with a seat at His Table. When you’re not here, He misses you. When you rebel, He grieves. When you repent, He rejoices, and He lavishes His love and forgiveness on you. And when you do those little, rudimentary, imperfect things, trying to be like Him, He loves it. 

So Jesus is no home wrecker. He is, in fact, a home builder. It is the sin in our world that has wrecked our homes and lives and disordered our loves. It is only His forgiveness and life and love that can restore them, and His forgiveness and life and love that also gives us a new home, and a new family - a family of faith and a heavenly home. If you want to save your life in this messed up, disordered, wicked world, you can. You can do that . . . But why? You have another life, one without the sin and death and evil, that will last forever. Maybe that’s the one worth saving?

So love those God has given you to love, as Jesus did His earthly family. But even more, love Him who gave them to you, and gave Himself for you. And then, in Him, you’ll find not one pitted against the other, but your loves ordered rightly.

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