Made and Kept--Isaiah 55:10-13. Sermon preached on July 12, 2026

            I wonder if you have given any thought to what makes our relationship with the Lord strong? What makes it durable when other relationships around us crumble stale bread? 

            These are questions that I believe the Israelites agonized, and wrestled with, over generations. 

For while they cannot open their scriptures as we do today, we know that the Israelites gathered together in families to share God’s message. We know that they gathered as worshipping bodies and listened intently. We know that their ancestors told the stories of how God made a covenant with Father Abraham, how He was faithful to that covenant in the life of Joseph while he dwelt in Egypt even as the journey started off on a frightening path. 

            These same Hebrews shared their stories of walking on the dry ground of the Red Sea and how at the sound of the trumpets the walls of Jericho fell. The anointing of King David and promise of the Messiah to come… these are their stories of how the relationship with God was made and kept.  

            Time and again, God stepped in and acted as only God can in the lives of His people. 

And I know that each of you know these stories—and many more just like them that bring color and passion to the relationship that you have with God. For like the Hebrews of old, you learned these stories of God’s faithfulness in Sunday School. They were taught to you as we taught them to the children at Bible School—passed on from generation to generation.  

            A faithful God who made and kept His promises to be with us always even if God’s very people chose unfaithfulness. 

So as Isaiah 55 is read before these same people, people who lived in exile and wondered, “Where is God now?” or “When will God hear my prayers,” we can imagine that they wondered about the faithfulness of their God. They might even wonder, ‘Hasn’t this gone on long enough, Lord?’ 

            For if you are so faithful, if you answer our prayers and preserve us, then why are we living in this moment? A question that I think we have also asked God a time or two in the life that each of us live. Perhaps Isaiah 55 offers us an answer to this relational question and struggle.  

Move 1- relationships take time.

            A first lesson that we can learn from Isaiah 55 as we seek to understand our relationship with God, and the promises that God makes and keeps, is that a relationship with the Lord takes time. 

Humanity is not good at a patient, deliberate, practices. As we often witness, we want things to work out right now… in our way. But building a relationship with God, and nurturing it, takes time. 

            This time element that Isaiah references in his imagery is not the length of a past or a momentary inciting incident. But as God is ever-present, ever-faithful, the Lord is not burdened by our intense need to fix or to have everything right now. 

Perhaps you are like me in this… for I like right now. If I am thirsty today, at any point in our service, I can reach under this pulpit and pick up my cup and get something to drink. This is an instantaneous response to my desire. Google works the same way, as does much of our shopping industry. 

            But when described a relationship with the Lord, it often feels as natural as a hand in a glove. It just fits. Our relationship with God can feel equally natural, relaxed, like it has always been in this moment—and always will be. Using Isaiah’s imagery consider the ever-present snow or rain that waters the earth and brings forth new life. We might get two or three inches of rain in a few minutes this summer, but for that water to sink in, do we need a soaker of a rain. A slow, methodical, consistent rain that pours down upon us for a long period of time. 

            In this way, the image reminds us that rain/snow is not an immediate response to a need.

            Much like any fad or resolution that we see in our day. They come and they go. But I wonder how many of those ‘ice bucket challenges’ endure year after year? But God’s word endures always. God’s promises do. Our relationship with God will. The Lord made these promises, and God intends to honor and keep them. The scriptures testify to this fact. 

            The word Isaiah uses to support this idea is found in verse 11 where the prophet says, ‘so shall my word be that goes out.’ Isaiah attributes these words to God and not to himself or to another person. 

            “My Word.” This speaks directly to the idea of divine proclamation. Not human words that claims to speak for God or about God or reference God in the past. No, this is God speaking for Himself alone in a way that only can do. God’s word and voice are ever-present, and this very word that Isaiah writes was recorded all the way back in Genesis 11. 

            Elements of time invested in the relationship with the Lord and elements of God’s Word being spoken by God since the very beginning as a demonstration that God is doing His part to offer the relationship, we must reciprocate and patiently comes to the Lord. 

Move 2- Relationships do not come back empty.

            A second idea relates in verse 11 to the next thing that God says, “It [my word] shall not return to me empty.”

            The idea of emptiness that God says here is in direct opposition to the very faithfulness of God—how God is and how God always will be. If I asked you to quantify the faithfulness of God, to tell me or someone else how big it is, now take the idea and completely reverse it. Flip it around. This is the meaning of empty here. 

            This then defines how deep God’s faith in us, and His commitment to a relationship with us is. Even if, and as, we wax and wane in our faithfulness to the Lord and to His Word, and even when we think how clever we are in the moments of our day as if by some miracle we have re-invented the relational wheel, God is so much more than we can conceive of. He will never be empty and always offer us more than we realize. Always and forever. 

            God Word shall not, will not, cannot be emptied by us. 

Move 3- relationship bring out joy.

            Finally, our relationship with God, and our acknowledgment of the faithful promises of God in His word, brings only one response: Joy. 

            This concept is written for us in verse 12 and following. Just are relationships take time to grow and reach what God intends for them. Joy can take time; joy take perspective. The perspective to look around and see that, even if we live in exile as the Israelites did, God made promises to be with us and the Lord is faithful and will not leave us behind. 

            Our relationship with the Lord will grow if we hold fast to His Word and to the promises that He made in it for us. the growth and maturity in that relationship takes place because it is founded in God’s faithfulness to us and not on what we bring to the table with God or how hard we work in an attempt to demonstrate a level of faithfulness that God is not looking for from us. 

The Word of the Lord states this clearly. His promises, which have been written down and shared for so many generations stand as proof, reliable proof, and therefore the Lord’s will is accomplished as we, to use the image from last week, just accept the Yoke of the Lord and walk with Jesus consistently. Daily. 

            And because we make this choice we, to use the words of Romans 8, are no longer condemned. We are no longer outside of God. This is just another way to conceive of a broken relationship with God that is not durable and shows no evidence of the promises of God at work in our lives. We are welcomed into fellowship with the Lord. We are held secure by God and in His Word for we have invested the time, we have made the space, for God. 

            This then leads to the appropriate response which is the joyful sharing of promises of God into the lives of other people. 

            Even if we find ourselves in an exiled moment. Can we take the Word in our hands and bring to mind the place where, even if life seems to hard or difficult in the moment, God’s faithful presence shows through? 

Conclusion

            Our relationship with the Lord is durable, it is long lasting, because God won’t leave us behind. Instead, he made promises and kept them for us. I wonder, how you might take God’s word in your hand and help others build and sustain their own relationship with the Lord? 

 

 

DM

The Yoke--Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. Sermon preached on July 5, 2026

            Over the last few weeks my attention has been in a few places. On a large scale we celebrate the 250^th birthday of our country, and the music today affirms this. While the climate of our country is, well, what it is, this weekend we celebrate and honor our country’s beginning.

            On the homefront, you know well the places where my attention has been drawn as doctor’s appointments and tests have been conducted, and results have come in, for both myself and Jennifer. 

But now there is a new focal point that has also come into focus which you are also aware. Our nephew: Colton. 

            And as you know he is attempting to work through the complexities of a thing that you and I, as formed adults in Christ, will struggle with. Loss. Grief. The language of speaking about this pain, and regardless of what that loss is, or how it is manifested, this is hard work. 

In Colton’s case the loss is deep. Jennifer and I have seen him search for the necessary words to his questions only to watch those same questions be ‘un-formable’ in his young, impressionable, mind. This is not to say that anything is wrong with him; for he is 5 and 5-year-olds will struggle to make sense of what he is dealing with. 

            His work, his struggle, if you prefer that word, is noteworthy if you remember that when I often talk to the children of the church, I will tell them how wise they are. I will tell them that we need their wisdom. I will conclude by telling them that they teach us many things and show us directions forward that we often miss. For in the mind of a child lives complexities, nuance, and perspective that we cannot fully see or unlock. 

            It is in this fact that Jesus in Matthew 11 begins by making children, or infants, the subject of this discourse that are considering before we come to the Table of the Lord. 

Move 1- Infants/children.

            Twice in this passage Jesus speaks about children. Each time he tightens up what he is stating to the church. Let’s look at them each. 

            The first occurrence is right from the outset of our text. In verse 16, we have the word for children. Little children. Jesus compares the current generation, and by extension every generation that follows, to children. Then Jesus tells us why he makes this assertion. And his illustration or example is harsh. The children seem to complain that the rules of the game, the rules of life, whatever game they could be playing or attending to, are not fair. 

            We find this in verse 17-24. For the child did everything they were supposed to . . . play music but no one danced. Wailed and no one mourned. This example is pushed outward is extended to include Jesus and John the Baptist. 

Jesus says that the cultural expectations have not been fulfilled as the child (or the body of believers) thought it should be. John does not behave as the people thought and neither does Jesus and our Savior offers no commentary on why or how but just states his conclusion.  

            So, we are left to wonder about why this is happening and what lack of learning has taken place in this moment. . . 

            The second example of this idea is found in verse 25. 

At this point Jesus focuses his language even tighter and used the word: Infants. Now this is a two-prong approach that our Savior is using to speak to us. First, he is again talking about those who are very young: actual infants. But that might carry little weight to some who hear Matthew 11 and remember what he just said about welcoming the Little Ones from last week (those of little esteem in the community). 

            It is the second, figurative, definition that focuses us in further. 

This is new material that builds off that first concept or definition that Jesus offered in verse 16. Now Jesus adds on teaching us to widen our view to include those of immature faith, understanding, or behavior. This links us back to the Little Ones that we thought about from last week for we again know who they are. These people, however, they might be defined, are the folks who God seems to have chosen to reveal himself to. 

            Jesus knows that there is something special happening in the mind of the Little One, the infant, and so we are left to think on this as we grow in our faith and our understanding. Why do they understand the mysteries of God, and at the same time, we are left to wonder why Jesus and John are not living up to our expectation? 

            With the Table of the Lord set before us, we come considering what is it about this type of mind, these little ones, these spiritual infants who seem to comprehend the mysteries of the revelation of God? They might just understand the depth of the Lord in a way that we have clouded with our mature minds. 

Move 2- the yoke.

            As Christians we are called to recapture our children’s level of understanding and faith and stop working so hard by ourselves. In this Matthew 11 text, Jesus wants us to learn about dependance, surrendering to God, and working with God—not trying to push ahead alone as if we can do this on our own, as if faith is a matter of just working harder and longer than the person next to us. 

            Perhaps the primary answer is found as we keep reading in the text and settle our minds on that most familiar of images that comes at the end: the yoke that Jesus speaks about. 

Now normally we draw ourselves to the close of this reading and focus our attention there, but that means we lose the general context of what is happening and how we need to approach this work.

            For there are always strenuous demands upon each of our lives as disciples of Jesus as Matthew 10 told us, and we are often rejected as the early parts of Matthew 11 teaches us. Yet Jesus offers us not freedom from work, but freedom from hard labor. Jesus offers us union . . . dare we believe, in this moment, that Jesus offers us communion. 

            The Lord takes the vulnerable, the young, the small, those who struggle, as we each do, with the words and the work of faith, and he places them beside himself. Jesus walks/works with us even as we cannot find the words, and especially as we do not understand the places where life is taking us. 

And again, there is freedom in this work for we are not working against God, and we are not working alone, but we walk with him in union.

            Side by side. Learning as we walk. Even if we do not have the words or understand the places where this path is taking us, as the vulnerable of the Lord, we walk with Him—together. Yoked. And together, with Jesus, the work becomes lighter. 

Conclusion 

            The image of children in this text, they teach us this. For more often than we know, we will find ourselves doubting, wondering, and feeling lost or isolated.  These are especially important moments to return to the Table of the Lord and to the experience of communion with Jesus. For here at this Table, Jesus invites the broken, the vulnerable, and those who struggle to understand any of this, to join him. 

            So as we come to the Table, and eventually leave this very same table, I wonder if you will take those lessons with you and find others to invite to join our Lord here? 

 

 

DM 

Welcome In--Matthew 10:40-42. Sermon preached on June 28, 2026

            “The man was finally heading home. He ignored the noisy college kids on the bus and stared out the window anxiously/nervously. After a rest stop, a young woman sat down next to him, and they struck up a conversation. 

            He told her that he’d been in prison for four years and that his wife hadn’t written in three and a half. When he learned that he was being paroled, he wrote her again and said that he still loved her. He said that would understand, however, if she never wanted to see him again.

            To make it easier on them both, he suggested that his wife use a yellow handkerchief to communicate her feelings. If she wanted him back, she would tie the handkerchief on the old oak tree near their home. If there was no handkerchief hanging from the tree, then he would stay on the bus and keep going. If he saw the handkerchief, he could come home to her. [Perhaps you have heard the song with the same title as he suggestions.]

            Word of the arrangement spread through the bus as rumors/stories often do. As the bus came into town, those noisy college kids flocked to the windows hoping to witness something. . . When they saw the tree, a feverish cheering broke out among them before the man could come to the window himself.

            On the tree was not one but dozens of yellow handkerchiefs.”[1]

            As we consider this text from Matthew, I want you to remember this story, and consider it. . . But not from the point of view of the ex-con or his wife who welcomed him home.

            If someone told you that story and then asked you to speak about the sense of welcome and hospitality from the story, and how that action is mirrored in Matthew 10, you could do that. Instead, I wonder about the college kids, the woman, who witnessed this scene from the bus. 

            I wonder what happened to them? How were they impacted and changed by witnessing this level of welcome from our story?

            For in their practice of welcome, we learn the lesson that Jesus teaches his followers venture into their community. 

Move 1- Little Ones

            Working backwards through our text, Jesus focuses our attention, and our welcome on specific people. Without naming these people directly, Jesus calls each member of the church to care for the: Little Ones.

            And so, the first question that we must consider here is: who are the Little Ones that Jesus is speaking about? 

            Now the first answer could be literal. Children or the younger of age in the church. That would make sense. Here at Bethesda, as we just completed VBS, and cared for a number of children, the words of Matthew 10 would seem to align perfectly with this concept.

            But a second rendering, and perhaps a better application, could be those who we might define as having a smaller or lesser sense of dignity in this community. The marginalized. The forgotten. The folks that we might see who have their own yellow handkerchief tied around the tree because they do not know if others will welcome them home or their midst.

If you were to go to looking through your New Testament for examples of where these little ones are found, you would find Jesus using the same word when he meets a little man who climbed up in a sycamore fig tree to gain a better view. Marginalized by the community, welcomed by Jesus. And as that story goes, Jesus wanted to go to his house, and to have supper with Zacchaeus. 

            Another location of the idea of ‘little ones’ is in the parable of the Mustard Seed. Jesus again uses this concept to label something, little, small, but very important. The littlest of seeds that grows into the greatest bush he tells us in Matthew 13. 

            Finally, searching out one of the most important stories of our New Testament, Mark 15:40, the author tells us about a man names James the younger, who, along with Mary Magdalene was present as Jesus was crucified. And by now you know that he could also be ‘James the little one,’ present at the crucifixion—a witness to Jesus’ death—beside his mother Mary.

            People, items, that the world would, or could classify as little, insignificant, forgotten, brushed aside, but in God’s eyes and heart, they are important. Their stories further the will and purpose of God. These people are the subject of what Jesus is instructing the hearers in Matthew 10 to be attentive to.  

Move 2- welcome.

            And more than just being aware of them, for so many people in this world are aware of the presence of these people, and their role around us, Jesus repeatedly gives us direction as we find these Little Ones. Jesus tells us how to Welcome them In. 

Four times in verse 40, and then again 2 times in verse 41, Jesus teaches the church to welcome, or receive, these little ones into our midst.

            This welcome involves a high level of self-involvement and attention. Whenever we find this concept in the New Testament, regardless of the style, or the author who wrote it, the word describes a whole-hearted, welcoming response rather than a passive allowance. This is not tolerance of an individual. 

Whether it was Jesus in the gospel, or Paul in the epistles, or John the revelator at the end of the New Testament, when the welcome was given, there was a personal investment made and so we are told to follow that example. We are asked to invest ourselves in a like way and not to assume that someone else will do it for us. 

            At Bible School, from the director of the program, down to each group leader, to everyone who handed out food, and with each station leader who taught and instructed, it did not matter, we had to invest ourselves in the lives of each child. To welcome them in; to hear them when they questioned us--actively. And when that investment was made. . . oh the things we saw and we heard. 

            The children watched with rapt attention as the Bible stories were shared. They listened as the crafts were demonstrated and they danced passionately as the songs were sang. Together they played their games and fellowshipped and built relationship as a small community around the supper table. 

But that joyful work can only happen when we intentionally and consistently choose to be present with them. Even as we had a few families just walk in off the streets to see what this was all about, our focus had to shift and adapt to welcome the unexpected into our church and so by doing this… we again made a choice we welcome the little ones in. 

Another feature of this welcome is the idea of covenantal hospitality. This aspect of the welcome that Jesus teaches us encompasses ideas of lodging, protection, and listening is in this idea as well. It is all wrapped up in that simple directive by Jesus to welcome the little ones into your midst as a church. 

Back at Bible school that safety spoke for us again. There were some parents, who did not know us, and so they wondered if their child might cry and/or want to go home… but that never happened. And I believe that is because YOU welcomed them fully as Matthew 10 instructs. 

            Welcoming in this way can make us vulnerable as well. For when we extend ourselves in this manner, we let others see who we truly are rather than just giving them a piece of a small part of who we want to be. 

Move 3- 

            But Bible School ends. . . Yes, the work and the joy of that program ends. The easy places to practice this welcome stops. Then, as that realization sets in, our text calls us to work moving forward as the church this summer. Like the people on the bus from the beginning story, we have work to do long after the joy of the moment recedes and the singing and rejoicing ends. 

Every one of us can identify the Little Ones who live in our midst and cross our paths. As they cross our path, we have an opportunity to share the gospel with them and invite them into the relationship with the Lord that we have grown and fostered each day. Each of these same little ones also knows the feelings of judgement of being called ‘less than,’ but this is also an opportunity to live as Matthew 10 suggests. 

            Sometimes welcoming is done like the man who saw those yellow handkerchiefs on the oak trees that I shared when started, and sometimes, honestly, often times, welcoming, as Jesus talks about it, is done by finding space to allow others be drawn closer to us by God as we share what we have learned through testimony and the care of service. 

            Now we must be the light that shows others how welcoming in takes shape—even if that welcoming in is only offering a cup of cold water on a hot day. And we will have many hot days this summer. As the church we are called to make the constant, consistent choice, willingly to bring others into the presence of God and share the gospel. 

Conclusion

            But that final part of that welcoming in, is the aspect of testimony. For we can sit here and state how kind, how wonderful, and how active God is in this very space. But if we do not leave the space, with expressing how we have seen the Lord, felt the Lord’s welcome in each other’s lives, then the mission of Christ that we are called to share bears no fruit. 

            And so I wonder now, if you will join me in find people who this community defines as little ones, and show them how Jesus welcomes them in?

 

DM

---

[1] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2008-06/unmerited-favor.  Accessed on June 28, 2023. 

 

Welcome Home--Jeremiah 20:7-13

            “Welcome.” I said, as warmly as I knew how. Extending my right hand, as I have seen done many times before by others, I continued, “Thank you for coming. The family is in on the left.” JonMark and I received nods of appreciation and support as we did our work of welcome that day. And as friends and families made their way through the entry way, and then on to the left, they found Jennifer and, eventually her sister, Jamie, waiting. 

            I tell this story because it can be an interesting experience, offering hope, offering the gospel, offering words of honesty, to people who may not know that they want or that they need it in that moment. And also, it is not that those words are unwelcome. . . it is just in moments of heightened emotion and suffering, sometimes we can forget that we need to hear the Lord. 

            And while some might be tempted to think that the message of our Biblical authors is not applicable to the suffering and struggles of our day, just as we might think that what they went through has so little to do with how we feel today as we struggle to be the faithful people of God, Jeremiah experienced this feeling as well. He intimately felt this way.  

            For God spoke to him. God revealed himself to his servant. 

Yet in the beginning of chapter 20, the prophet is beaten and put in stocks. His public suffering is made worse because it takes place in “the house of the Lord” (Jeremiah 20:2). The Lord God calls him to preach, to evangelize, but what do you say when the people who you are sent to do not yet know that they need to hear what God has placed upon you heart? How do you offer them a word when you are so beat, so broken, so wounded in the moment? 

            I can imagine tears in Jeremiah’s heart and on his face as he pondered that question himself—a question that we wrestle with ourselves. What could faithfulness look like to him? 

            He would leave the safety of his home and go out into the community once again and share the very same message that brought the ridicule, the separation, the abuse… even if he did not have the words as he started. 

Move 1- honest beginning

            Our text begins with honesty. Regardless of the translation you read; it’s in there. As verse 7 begins the prophet is with the Lord. 

We do not know if these words are spoken out loud or if they are a silent desperate prayer that lives in his heart; something seeping out when no one is around. Truthfully it does not matter. The words are honest. “You have deceived me. . . and I was deceived.”

I selected this translation today because of that stinging word. “Deceived.” While other translations say ‘enticed’ or ‘persuaded me,’ this rendering captures the full emotional struggle of the prophet. For there is a large gap between those words. 

            Jeremiah’s prayer stings of hurt and a feeling of being let go of by God; of being too far from the hand of God to be safe. And in Jeremiah’s life, and the very moment that he is dealing with, this prayer testifies on its own that the prophet has reasons to think and feel this way. If we walked up to him, we might affirm his feelings. And he honestly looks at God in this moment and uses strong language. Deceived… not enticed… and certainly persuaded. 

            I wonder when was the last time that you said that you felt God deceived you? When was the last time you used a similar sense of strong language before God? 

            You knew that God sent you in one direction, called you, empowered you, but as you arrived in the moment, it was only a moment that you could best describe as painful, and in a place that you should locate God, the Lord felt absent.

Move 2- Not deceived.

            But Jeremiah’s apparent deception. . . it is not exactly what we might think. For in Hebrew the context of the verb determines its full meaning and its implication. 

In this case, the ‘deception’ serves a greater purpose in the Lord and in Jeremiah’s relationship with God. And we are most certainly NOT boot-strapping ourselves to a blessing. His suffering is not about be a badge of honor that he can hold up against others as a sign that he is more holy or more worthy. 

As we read verse 7 in English, we might draw a conclusion that puts Jeremiah, and his faith and trust in God, on shaky ground. A first reading seems to support that the prophet has trusted God only to be let down; only to be beaten, put in stocks, and ridiculed. 

            But instead of just holding onto that conclusion solely, look deeper into the text with me. Let’s move further into the text. Go with me to verse 11. “But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior.” 

            In the previous four verses Jeremiah states that the people have tried to tempt him to either tone down his preaching or stop proclaiming the word of the Lord all together. And yet the prophet has remained faithful to his mission and message, as best as he can, that God gave him. Most certainly this would be hard. And of course, there would be tears involved both internally and externally. While Jeremiah dwelt in the stocks, and after he was ridiculed, and as he dealt with feelings of isolation from his community, Jeremiah remembers that God is with him.

            If that is hard for him, I wonder how hard it can be for you and for me?  

There is a burning fire in the prophet as verse 9 says. 

Jeremiah knows that God hears his prayers, his calling in chapter 1 would affirm this, and further that God is with him all the back before he was even born. The expression that Jeremiah gives us for this level of confidence is in the form of: The dread warrior. The person of God himself. 

This would be like Jeremiah using God’s personal name himself. But of course, that would be challenging for any Hebrew. So, in verse 11, in a way that only Jeremiah could, he says, “In moments such as this, when I could doubt, Yahweh is my personal champion.” For our purposes, He is not Bethesda’s champion, he is my personal champion! What a confession to make!

            Jeremiah is not deceived away from faith, but in his very moment of suffering, in his very moment where his faith could fall apart, Jeremiah stands stronger in that faith than we might think that he could. He is not enticed away; he is not persuaded to believe that God has heard someone else’s prayer. God heard his prayer in his most desperate moment when his very soul broke.

And in that moment, the prophet confesses who his champion is, who he places his faith him, who he trusts, and in verse 13, who he will sing praises to. He confesses that when his heart is broken and tears are his food, in the words of verse 11, Jeremiah says that he will sing praises to the God who is ever with him and did not leave him even as the evidence seems a bit shaky in that moment.

Move 3- the question

            This leads us then to the moment of question and challenge for ourselves and back to my initial story as an example of how this moment takes shape in our very lives. 

For while you may not have been in a valley like Jeremiah was in chapter 20 having been beaten and placed in stocks and ridiculed, and you may not have stood beside a loved one was last week and heard that soul cry tear at you, you know people, you work with people, you live beside people, who are living in that space every, single, day.

You know people who either have very little faith or who might define their faith as terribly fragile because their feel deceived by the Lord—as you might have thought Jeremiah was. 

Their prayer, their confession, could take on the same shape as the prophet’s. People who stand before us and say that in their moment of need, when they reached out to God, hope was lost and their prayers felt like they were going up to nowhere. No one was listening. 

They asked the question, much like I believe Jeremiah might have asked as the stocks rested down upon him: “Lord, why should I go? Why should I continue to preach? To be faithful? Why, Lord!!!”

            It is in that moment that we return once again to the words of verse 11. For the Lord is the presence that goes with us, and we will not be overcome. The Lord, in the words of verse 12, sees our hearts and minds and therefore is committed to us even if we think that we are terribly alone. 

            And so, again, we sing, as best as we can, even if it is a mumble that God is delivering us. And we teach others to do the same. 

Conclusion

            For Jeremiah’s life tells us, as a testimony that there is always space to hope, reason to hope, reason to share God’s message, IF, and AS, we stay close to God. God is always there to draw us back to his side, even if in that moment our hearts feel broken. For He is with us. 

 

 

DM

Not Giving up--Hoses 5:15-6:6. Sermon preached on June 7, 2026

            This is a world of sin; and it is everywhere. Sinful choices. Sinful leaders. Sinful teachers and sin-based practice. . . and, no, I am not speaking about today and the struggles associated with our current moment in history. You read and hear enough about that.

Rather, this is the context that the prophet Hosea lived and served the Lord in. As the end of the Northen Kingdom of Israel drew close, Hosea stood before God’s people with some of the harshest words recorded in the Old Testament. I once attempted to count the sins listed in Hosea’s prophecies against God’s people and I stopped at 44. . . 44 unique sins. Not 10. Like the 10 Commandments. 44 sins.

Hosea’s vivid imagery sets up a stark contrast for us, today. God is well-aware, well acquainted and familiar with the sins of His people and yet Hosea also offers us the rich imagery of our God who will not give up on the relationship He has with us. 

“This passage witnesses to God’s compassion toward a people who cannot even repent properly without God’s grace.”[1]

            In spite of all our sin, and in spite of the sins of the Israelites, God will not give up on His people. As you think about that today, I wonder how that feels in your life? 

Move 1- begging for favor

            While we know that God’s grace is the most important truth in this passage, it is not how the passage begins. 

Instead, as our passage begins in chapter 5. There in that one verse that I read, God seems aloof. Far off. Willing to walk away; walk back. And this is not a trait or a choice that we associate with God. For there are few hymns, and few confessional statements that affirm that farness of God. Or the aloofness of God. We do not celebrate a God who stands at a distance from us.  

            We all prefer to confess, and we can testify to how close God is to those who build, and nurture, a relationship with him. Last week I spent time reflecting on the relational nature of God in His Triune sense and I said that God wants us to mimic that relationship with each other. Here in Hosea, God seems to back away from that conclusion. 

            Verse 15, God is speaking, “I will return again to my place… until they beg for my favor.”

            And the place that God returns to, it is not close to His people. It feels, it reads, as far away from us. I wonder when was the last time that you felt God pulling away from you—by God’s choice? 

            While our world talks about the great pressure that we are under and spends great amounts of time talking about protection and security, or text today, leaves us feeling a bit… vulnerable. And in our vulnerable state, God withdraws.

 

            But even as he withdraws, there is a hint of our good news. 

            The NRSV uses the word ‘beg.’ Now your Bible might say something like, ‘earnestly seek me’ or ‘seek me early’ when it translates verse 15. As I often like to say, the word choice is important here—and Hosea’s word choice is very important to clear up what God is asking us to do. 

The word that I am focuses upon indicates a pre-dawn choice; something done early in the morning. And a task performed earnestly.

Like seeking God’s mercies which are fresh every day. New as we awaken. There is vigilance in this action. An undistracted heart is necessary for as we face each new day, and the challenges of these new days, we recognize that God has placed a redemptive summons right before us as our eyes as we open them and therefore there is but one response. 

            Just in that little phrase, as God has seemingly withdrawn, the Lord makes space for us press back towards him. To earnestly move towards God. 

Is that a choice that you are making, church family? To seek God . . . Not just today on Sunday, in worship for this time or during a time of Bible study at home? But is that a choice that you make each morning as your eyes open as you confront a new day. Hosea calls it ‘begging for God.’ 

            Do you seek the Lord in this way? 

            In Hosea chapter 5, God wonders if our hearts yearn for him, beg for him in our distress in this way. 

Move 2- our response

            For as we do. . . well. . . we read the people’s response as chapter 6 begins and this should get you excited. 

            Now there is a tendency when we ‘make our God’ to make the Lord in a safe, pleasant image. We tone God down a bit. Now this is done in response to how we read about God in the Word. So, an image, or a creation, that elevates this ‘begging’ imagery from chapter 15 that Hosea offers us, and frankly, we tend to tone it down a bit. This makes the message of the Lord a bit more palpable, easier to accept each day.

By doing this, we elevate grace above the reality of the God of Hosea; the God who expressed those 44 sins I began with a short time ago. 

Why would a God who wants us to earnestly, prayerfully, seek him, each morning? Why would this God not welcome us with open arms, offer us new mercies each morning, without though, the reality of purging us from sin. 

            Verse 1 holds this dichotomy up to the church and it asks us to think and to patiently reflect on what God is saying and asking of each person who finds chapter 6. 

For in verse 1 we are torn, and we yet healed. Struck down, and yet it is God who binds us up. In that one verse we find such strong language by the prophet that does not easily fit into the mold many have created for God. 

And why does this happen? Why are the wounds revealed, because sin is still in the picture—even as grace is also in the picture in Christ. 

            And it is only as we seek the Lord faithfully, it is only as we know this and accept this, that we are healed and revived as verse 3 tells us. 

            For once we find the Lord, once we are revived, the entire tone of this passage shifts, and we can respond faithfully to God. While the work in the text began with us… we had to find God. We had to beg; to earnestly seek the Lord each day. We had to confess our sins. The church finds that God’s faithfulness is speaking for the Lord. 

For God will not give us up.  

            Even if our combined behavior might mandate that God should give up on us. Even when 44 sins condemn our behavior and our lack of faith, God does not give up on us.

Move 3- to know God

            For in this moment God desires that His church, that you and I, in the words of verse 3, “press on to Know the Lord.”

            This idea does not encompass book knowledge. As a Hebrew it is not the ability to confess the Shama in public, or any other confessional statement of the church or society today. It is, instead, the deep ability to discern, to discover, and to know in your very core of being, where nothing can shake or touch you, that “I am the Lord your God.” 

            This is one of the most profound verbs in the entire Hebrew language. To know in this way stretches the people from a superficial level into a deep, covenantal awareness and intimacy. This knowledge is the place where we hear and feel God whisper our name and draw us close and He did to Moses before a bush that did not burn.

And while we think the Hebrews did not have a depth of relationship as we have with Jesus following his resurrection, to know, in this way, tells each of us, that they did. That they sought it. They longed to know God in this way. 

            To know God deeply in this way, alters the entire focus and reality of life and mission and ministry for us as the Church. Everything changes when we have sought God and know God. God is no longer living a distance from the people, but God is close and the pre-dawn seeking of God, is the pre-dawn reality of living with God. 

            For God, the God of Hosea who felt so cold and judgmental, the God who enumerated all those sins, was busy the whole time trying to stay close to his people hoping they could choose the same level of relationship with Him that he was trying to choose with them. 

Conclusion 

            Church family how does it feel to develop a relationship with the Lord who does not give up on you in this way? 

            For we all have that understanding in our lives as the Church. It should motivate our faith and our work here at Bethesda together. It should underpin all that we do each day for God. For while it might seem that God is pulling back from you, in fact, God has never given up on us. 

 

DM

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[1] https://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/28-2_Amos_and_Hosea/'Let%20us%20press%20on%20to%20know%20the%20Lord';%20Preaching%20the%20Knowledge%20of%20God%20in%20Hosea%205;15-6;6.pdf  accessed on June 2, 2026. 

 

Making Disciples--Matthew 28:16-20. Sermon preached on May 31, 2026

This is Trinity Sunday, but people who struggle and suffer from any form of a disease that ravages their body and mind, they probably do not care about the label of this weekend. "But this is Trinity Sunday," proclaims the church, “It is the Sunday immediately following Pentecost in the church calendar.” Even so, the family dealing with the wayward teenager, the person who has lost their job and the ability to provide for their family and feel the stability that comes in that, those people who we know intimately, I am not sure that they care that it is Trinity Sunday.

            Does it really matter to them that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when they suffer vocally or silently like our neighbors who we work with? 

Many people just want to know that God is God and that God somehow, God knows who they are, where they are, what they are, and what they need. (Steven P. Eason)

 

            This is the basic affirmation of the Church—that God is with us.

 

            This is Trinity Sunday. This morning we consider a doctrine which has only been spoken about in pieces in Scripture, and never in the same place in totality as we find here in Matthew.

            Certainly, the scriptures speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but where does it say that those three persons are 'three in one?' Where is the word "Trinity" found in the Bible?

 

            Today we hold up the Triune nature of the God who is—the God who is the Creator of heaven and earth, The God who is the Redeemer of the world, and the Illuminator of scripture and the giver of the Words of prayer when we suffer and cannot find a way forward. 

As we hold these three persons up, we go on to say that together they make up something we cannot completely conceive of in our human minds knowing that time is required to reflect on God and who God is as Jesus in Matthew calls us to a very specific task: make disciples. 

 

Move 1- Begin by working

            I believe, the doctrine of the Trinity is formed in this fashion, with all the mystery which surrounds it, to make us work a bit as we encounter the people of our world and community. Instead of sitting back and letting someone else explain in their words who God is, each of us is called to figure it out for ourselves—as best as we can. We are called to find our own definition of who is this Triune God who saved you? 

For just sitting in the pew, and participating in worship only, does not lead to a deeper understanding of who God is—we must enter the relationship—just as Jesus is in a relationship with His Father and the Spirit. 

 

            Further standing outside of who God is will also not help us ‘make disciples’ as Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 28 to do.

            For the doctrine of God's Person is essentially a relational doctrine [Feasting on the Word, Year A]. Jesus is not telling the disciples to share something intellectually-based only. He wants them to ‘make disciples;’ to create relationships. It must be entered into in a relational fashion- not only in a mental fashion. 

Remember what we know of the Trinity. . . The Father begets the Son at the Incarnation. The Son breaths the Spirit onto us at his Ascension. The Spirit opens our eyes so we can see the Father and give us the words to speak his truth on Pentecost. This is the traditional language.

            But the only way to begin working to understand it, the only way to locate ourselves in among the three persons of God, the only way to make it accessible, if that is even the right word, and if it is possible at all to understand, is to enter a relationship with the God who we define as Triune. We cannot stand outside of who God and use our concepts to explain him.  

            Maybe instead of standing outside of the Triune God and using human illusions and symbols to define him, we come close to him, and we begin to work hard at getting to know him so that we can ‘make disciples.’

 

Move 2- Mystery in our lives.

            But do not misunderstand, we do not work to unravel the mystery of God so as to become equal to God or above God. For that is not possible. Instead, we work to unravel our place in the mystery of God and God's will for our lives, and we call out to all people inviting them into the mystery we are processing and encountering on a daily basis.

            For what did Jesus do when he began his mission on earth, he called those first followers to what. . . follow him. In that first encounter, Jesus made disciples. He began the work of God in their lives. He asked them to enter the relationship. He was making disciples. Not brow beating them to follow God. Not talking down to them because they could not understand the Torah. Just sharing who he is with the very people that God sent him to be with be. That is our task as well. 

 

            You see, God reveals himself to us (T.F. Torrance) because God chooses to do so. God incarnates the Son because God chooses to do so in him. God sends the Spirit because, again, God chooses to pour a piece of himself out on us. 

I do not understand why, and you do not either. And even if you say, ‘Well, it is because he loves me and died on the cross for me.’ I truly wonder why the all-powerful God would choose to do this? We only understand as much as our human minds can. 

 

You see, God does not ask me to understand exactly how in totality. God asks me, and you, again, to make disciples by sharing what I know, and what I have experienced, and what I am learning about Him each day with the very people that God places in my path all the while knowing that my knowledge is partial—all the while confessing that I do not see fully what God knows.

But the relationship that I have with God, that I cultivate each day in my time with God, it fills in the rest as a witness. As I enter that relationship, I am able to live at peace with my sisters and brothers. Because I find myself in that type of relationship with God, and sense him with me, I can agree with others. I can trust them. I can listen to their words. I can serve them.

 

Move 3- Making Disciples

            We need to trust the power of a doctrine that we cannot fully understand as we work together in the Church to make disciples—which Jesus states in the imperative form. It is not a request that Jesus makes of his followers in Matthew 28, or us now, but a word of instruction; a word of call. 

The verb focuses on teaching often with a desired, or specific, goal in mind. To make disciples in Matthew’s context is to lead the readers of the gospel back to the words and deeds of Jesus, but that is a hard sell often. For who wants to follow someone just because their offer good words and lofty deeds? That is what the Pharisees sold to the people of Israel, and it did not translate into faithful followers of the Lord. 

            It is only when we look back at the wholeness of Jesus’ relationship with His Triune self that we see the call to Mercy which is situated in the call to make disciples. For as I have said, we do not fully understand what this mean in in the moment. And so, we need to have mercy on ourselves when we don’t truly understand who Jesus is in our lives, and offer mercy to those still trying to understand who Jesus is in their lives. 

 

            Just like our graduates who believe their lives are fully formed before them, and yet most of us know that a curve or two is still left to take shape before them. I do not say this to shame to, or to pour water on their dreams. Instead, it is a reminding for them that when life throws them a curve, we in the Body of Christ extend them grace right alongside of sound guidance because that is what God has done in each of our lives. We give them mercy, and continue to help make them into the disciples that the Lord asks us to become. 

            Mercy is necessary each day as we share who God is and work with people who learn who God will manifest himself in their lives. . . both inside and outside the church.  

 

Conclusion

            It is because God reveals himself to us and calls us to re-create relationships of trust as we have with him with others, that we are called to faithfully make disciples. 

            We will remember those who find themselves scared, sick, alienated from Him and we remind them of the saving grace of God. We will also remember in prayer who God asks us to make disciples of. 

 

            He is the Father who creates all in his image. He is the Son who redeems those who would harm him. He is the Spirit who calls us back to the Father. He is in relationship with himself and now invites us into relationship with him. 

 

 

 

 

DM

 

 

The Empowerment of the Church--Acts 2:13-21. Sermon preached on Pentecost 2026

            While the ascension of the Lord is the moment when the church is called, and charged, by Jesus to begin their work, Pentecost is recognized as the day when we are empowered to take our first steps as the Church. Now as the story of the tongues of fire is told, we understand that the work begins. 

But I wonder, what does that mean? 

            What does it mean that today we are Empowered to Be the Church? 

            A simple search of the term “empowerment” yields a variety of definitions to help us to understand the term. That search yields phrases like: “having the authority, the confidence, or the strength to act, or make decisions.” And while that sound about right, that is what ‘to be empowered means in a secular sense,’ I further wonder, is that what spiritual empowerment, empowerment in Christ, empowerment as the Church, truly is about? 

On Pentecost are we confessing to having the authority, the confidence, the strength to act, and make all the decisions because of what is taking place as we think about Acts 2 and the miracle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? I don’t think so . . . Is that actually what happened as the tongues of fire fell and the disciples spoke in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to do so to the great crowd assembled in Jerusalem?

            Is that what Peter did when he stood before the assembled mass and preached the first post-resurrection and ascension sermon and nearly 3000 were brought to into the church an act of secular empowerment?

            Or is it possible that something different is happening, something more mysterious, something more holy took place on that day? 

Today I want to think about how the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, as it is recorded in Acts 2, because what took place in that moment, on that day, how it empowered the church. And while we cannot recreate that moment today at Bethesda on this Pentecost Sunday, we are Empowered to Be the Church—make no mistake about that. So, as we think back upon what happened on that first Pentecost, can we see how that empowerment is lived out now moving forward? 

            As we prepare to come to the Table of the Lord, let us take a moment and consider this story and learn what God intends for us. 

Move 1- brings us together.

            Considering Pentecost and the movement of the Holy Spirit, there are a few things to notice. 

            First off, the empowerment of the church is the act that brings the church and the community together—in Christ. It is the first lesson of Acts 2. When we are empowered the Be the Church, we are drawn together by the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Illustratively this moment is the reverse of Genesis 11—the Tower of Babel—where humanity, who were once together in one language was driven apart by the movement of God’s Spirit. 

In Genesis 11, the people have come together, but they did so with human motivations—not together because they felt called by Christ to come together. In fact, our text says that they gathered and began this work of building their tower so that they would be remembered for all of time. Not so they would serve the Lord faithfully. 

They did not build that tower so that they could come close to God. Or serve God. Or love God more deeply or fully. 

Admirably as it might be to build as one people. They only wanted to be remembered. 

            Now here in Acts 2, as the languages are confusingly-spoken in Jerusalem, the people are united by the name of Jesus. While the scene could feel, or sound of it could feel, like a confusing cacophony of noise as the larger narrative was read, I suspect that underneath it all was almost a tone of unity. For when the gospel’s message is faithfully present, and it is preached, God is there bringing the people together.    

Further, Peter’s preaching in the remainder of Acts 2, reminds the people of their history and the message of the prophet Joel that the Day of the Lord would come, and God would be at the center of their lives. Dreams. Vision. It did not matter; God would be with these people because God brought them together—even if they were in exile once. And God would do it again. Throughout the Old Testament, God sought to bring the people back to unity with God as the center of their lives and relationship.

And yes, this seems to contradict expectation, but God often does it. God often seem to contradict the expectations of his people to show us that in Him alone, a miracle is possible. On Pentecost a division in language should separate us, but in Jesus, and his message, we are brought together and empowered. 

Move 2- miracle of hearing

            A second miracle that takes place is that act of hearing itself. 

When Acts 2 is read, the church focuses so much of our time and our reflection on the miracle of the languages that are recorded and the act of proclamation. We think about the testimony of the great noise that takes place when the wind of the Holy Spirit blows through the area and those languages are spoken and the gospel is proclaimed in the way that it was. Even now I imagine that your imagination is filling in the gaps of the story with color and details.  

            But do not forget that they people in Jerusalem that day, they had to hear it. They had to be open and that takes a movement of the Holy Spirit as well. 

This is worldwide proclamation of God’s word in an unexpected way. First step of the empowerment in Christ was that the people come together to witness the event, then they hear what was happening. 

This also reflects back onto what happened in Genesis 11. For when the people heard the languages back in Genesis, it drove them apart. Now when they hear; they linger. Perhaps they are curious. Perhaps their hearts are quickened by the movement of the Holy Spirit to listen to the gospel that is about to be shared. They are gathered—and ultimately, they are sent out with the full gospel in their hearts. 

            What does it take to make you linger around God and his word when you hear it? You see, I could stand here all day and read God’s word out loud, but would that make the healing nature of the gospel sink deeply into your hearts and lives? Or into the lives of the people of this community? 

            It has to be heard. . . internalized.  

            This is the act of hearing that took place in Acts 2, and in our text today that act is just as important to as the message being shared. Peter’s preaching is important but so are the empowered hearts of God’s people who hear the message.

            The ‘frank’ proclamation—and open and public proclamation, unafraid and borne by joyful confidence—of God’s ‘deeds of power’ is just as much the result of the pouring out of God’s Spirit as is a new community of diverse persons and groups of people—such as the Church who gathers together around this table.[1]

Conclusion 

            So now we turn to the Table which sits before us. 

            Communion is the act where we remember that on Jesus’ last night with us, he empowered us to be the church. For as we are gathered together, as we are drawn to this table and remember what takes place here, we are also reminded how those first disciples of the Lord gathered around and heard the message of the Lord. 

            So let us take that same gospel with us from this Table and faithfully share it as it has been shared with us. 

 

 

DM

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[1] Michael Welker. God the Spirit. 230.