Views from the Valley

Pastor Mary Jo's Sermons from Charlotte Valley Presbyterian Church

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About

Pastor Mary Jo Koehler serves the Charlotte Valley Presbyterian Church in Davenport, New York. She has served parishes in Kentucky, New York, Iowa (she originates from Iowa), and Wyoming. The church is a small, loving congregation nestled in a valley of the foothills of the Catskill mountains. Sunday worship services are held at 10:00 a.m. Coffee hour follows worship on the second Sunday of the month.

  • A Taxing Question

    Sunday, October 18, 2026

    The Scripture

    Matthew 22:15-22

    15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.

    The Sermon

    Every now and then I watch a YouTube video of someone being examined by a political committee about something important – if the subject is important enough for me to subject myself to such a challenge! As is true in any proceeding, court, senate, house or any other committee, examining someone always involves either naysayers or devil’s advocates. Especially when it comes to politics. The videos I watch usually involve a person of one persuasion being challenged by persons of an opposing persuasion, with the end goal of finding fault in the actions and views of the person being examined. A tactic used in this process involves asking questions that get the person being examined into trouble by catching them in a lie, or making them confess when they really don’t want to. The questioners try to goad and trick the person into saying something incriminating, even if the person isn’t really guilty of the nefarious activity that has caused them to be the subject of investigation.

    News reporters do the same thing. They find delight in coming up with the perfect “gotcha question;” one which will make the subject look guilty even when they have little culpability for the alleged crime.

    It’s like a sport. If a person can set aside his or her biases toward or against the subject of the examinations, it is almost comical to watch. Recently, I saw someone sabotage himself in the middle of a “gotcha question,” because the person asking the question used totally inaccurate information that was pointed out later in the hearing. So much for a person’s balloon being deflated. Time to swallow one’s pride and move along, pretending the mistake didn’t happen.

    And so we find Jesus in a very similar situation. He is being examined not only by one representative of a group of people who are set against him, but representatives of TWO groups. Ironically, these two groups, the Pharisees and the Herodians, normally don’t agree with each other on much. But for the purposes of causing trouble for Jesus, they feel compelled to work together to trip Jesus up and ask the perfect gotcha question. A question that no matter what the answer is, it would get him into trouble with someone, and justify their anger with him, and give them an excuse to prosecute him with the approval and support of the group they represented.

    The Pharisees represent the religious group. The Herodians represent the government. The question is whether or not Jesus deems it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. If he answers “no,” offering a religious reason, he offends the Herodians whose role it is to serve Caesar. If he answers “yes,” the Pharisees would consider him an opponent of God and of them as arbiters of how to live a life of faith. It appears, even after their attempt to flatter him at the beginning of the questioning, that they have Jesus cornered. I can imagine them snickering to each other as they prepare their attack. I can feel their swelling sense of pride in their cleverness as they devise this plot against Jesus. Imagine disliking someone so much you are willing to collaborate with your own enemy in order to defeat someone you both perceived as a threat. It would be the ultimate takedown, and no doubt many are ready to watch Jesus go up in flames.

    But as we have seen time and again, Jesus doesn’t rise to the bait. And unlike in the case of our foolish politician whose ignorance caused him to ask a question based on false premises in a senate hearing, the question itself isn’t based on untruth. I suppose the idea of paying taxes to the government was an item under discussion in many parts of Judaism in those days. But clearly, the Jews – the Pharisees themselves – enjoyed the benefits of citizenship in their land just as much as anyone else did, and they probably DID pay their taxes as expected. After all, they used the common coinage.

    Jesus uses this to rope them in and lead them to his answer. “Show me a coin. Whose head is on this coin?” They all give the obvious answer. “Caesar’s.” And so, Jesus offers his reply. “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

    Gotcha. Instead of them “getting” Jesus, he “gets” them. They shake their heads and go away, swallowing their pride. In time they’d come up with something. We see in the larger story of Jesus that they never really find anything, but they are determined to get rid of a person whose very existence seems to be a threat and a bane to their own desires and ways.

    Oh, if we all could be so clever. Oh, if we all had our proverbial “stuff” together in our hearts and minds to be able to answer difficult questions that could get us into trouble. And oh, if only our favorite public figures had such clever wisdom to be able to withstands the gotchas of their political enemies while under scrutiny. Some, I must say, come pretty close. But we humans always have a way to deflect and deny the things we don’t want to see – the errors or the goodness in the people we either hold up on a pedestal or wish to knock down from their place of power. We launch into our questions, either aloud or in our hearts, based on how we feel, rather than the truth of what we see and know. The people of Jesus’ day were no different.

    And so, Jesus gives advice to the people who are wondering. One might ask if they actually cared that much about whether or not who paid taxes to whom; instead, they hope, over anything else, to cause Jesus to say something incriminating.

    We are grateful for Jesus’ wisdom, which serves not only to address the questions of the people of his day, but to answer ours. That said, most of us do not ask ourselves or anyone else the question as to whether or not as Christians we should pay taxes to our government. I suppose there are some who may, out of some portion of their conscience, refuse to pay a certain amount of taxes that they believe would go for a cause with which they disagreed. Imagine what would happen if we all did that! Imagine if we refused to pay a certain portion of our taxes, or pay any taxes, because we didn’t like what the government was doing in a certain area. What a mess it would be! We know that a part of paying taxes means our dollars are going towards things we like and get benefit from and things we don’t, and it is simply a fact of life. We take what we get, and we do best by paying the tax that includes the value of our vote, if we choose to vote at all.

    And here, we know what Jesus says about this. We may think in our minds about the separation of church and state; the separation of our religious beliefs and expressions and the ones that involve our commitment to our country. But that separation is not designed for us to avoid speaking on the issues that are addressed by our politicians while we are in church. In my understanding, this separation is designed to prevent the church from becoming more powerful than the government, dictating to the people how they should live according to one the religion’s preferences. It was for this reason that the United States became the free nation it was designed to become – to escape not only the rule of a king, but the expectation that religion be solely what the government said it should be. Religion is separate in that it is not wielded by the government in order to control people, though some seem to behave as though it does. Our government is designed to offer humans the freedom to choose and live out of our convictions and values. As soon as we start expecting our government to honor one faith over another, we live in the threat of Caesar becoming God, rather than God being at work among people of faith whose decisions and votes seek to influence the government for the best of all people, and not just some.

    So we know that Jesus did not discourage the people to pay taxes to their government. The same is true with us. We receive many benefits from the money that is poured into our government, and the wheat among the chaff is what we have to deal with when it comes to choosing the things we like and don’t like about it. Fortunately, we are free to run for office, vote, march, protest, and contact our legislators if we want to see change.

    And then, we are also allowed to serve our God. We are allowed to attend church, place our tithes and offerings in the plate, and to use our gifts and talents and valuable time to make sure our church is the house of worship and fellowship that we want it to be.

    We can’t separate out which money we give to the church – that is, there are no special dollars bearing the face of Jesus on the front and a photo of a church on the back – from the money that bears the image of government and important leaders. We are citizens of a country that has given us the freedom to act, speak, and vote our hearts and minds as we choose, and at its best, our faith informs us as to how we act, speak and vote. It’s OK to talk about politics in church, as long as we are giving to the government the things that are the government’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

    So what are the things that are God’s? The answer is both complicated AND easy. We give ourselves. We give our hearts, our minds, our lives, our commitment, to Christ. To God. To our church. To our spiritual growth. To our fellowship. And we use the minds and hearts we have as we live as citizens of this world. These things are not really separate, nor should they be. It isn’t about where we give of our time and treasure, but what we expect when we give it. If we expect our government to take control of our religion and become for it what it simply cannot and should not be: an arbiter of our prayers and a dictator of how citizens should express their faith in God, we are in trouble.

    If we expect our religion to take control of our government and make of it what we think it should be, we are also in trouble. We all don’t agree on what that should look like. But we also know that out of our beliefs we hold certain political issues as dear to our hearts, because they are a part of our lives every day.

    So we render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and we render to God what is God’s, and what is God’s is US. Our lives, our hearts, our hands, our trust. God in us is the motivator for how we live, and how we take advantage of the many freedoms we have. Let us be careful not to expect one to solve our problems at the expense of another, for that is not the basis on which our country was founded, nor is it our calling in our faith.

    At the same time, let us let what we believe about living the Christian life: of loving our neighbor as ourselves, and loving God, and welcoming and supporting the needy, and making this world a beautiful, livable place – inform our politics, our actions, and our work in this world. What a privilege it is that we can do this and no one can tell us how to do otherwise! Let us give ourselves, in every way, to God. Amen.

  • Words for These Trying Times

    The Scripture

    Philippians 4:1-9

    Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

            I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.

            Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

            Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

    The Sermon

    At the top of this blog is a meme that serves as one of the pictures that runs on the “desktop” on the screen of my computer. Does the name Gladys Kravitz ring a bell? She was a neighbor to the main characters Samantha and Darren, on the TV show “Bewitched” that aired back in mid-60s to early 70s. (Show picture of the meme.) Here’s Gladys, peering out her window, watching Darren and Samantha’s house, looking for more odd things to happen that will send her into shock, as we can see from the expression on her face. The meme doesn’t talk about “bewitching” events, though. It says, “Looking outside to see which chapter of Revelation we’re doing today.”

           How many of you get up in the morning, turn on your TV, radio, internet or open the newspaper with that same attitude? I do. Just when I think I’ve heard and seen it all, something else happens in the world to boggle my mind. Often it’s political, but it can happen with the neighbors, with people in towns or cities nearby, or sadly for some, right smack in the living rooms of our own houses.

           The situation can be reasonably benign. For example, due to my cat Jupiter’s age, he is getting to the point where he tends to miss the litter box. I have a system for keeping things clean after such mishaps, but often I sigh and say to myself, “There he goes again,” and I have to remind myself that though the situation is inconvenient, I can thank God for pee pads and enzyme cleaner and a cat that is healthy enough to still pester me when I’m sitting on my couch. It is NOT the apocalypse.

           There are many things that happen around us that are confusing, saddening, disappointing, and concerning. Another family crisis. A recurring health issue rears its head again and things aren’t moving along the way we wanted them to. The price of fuel goes up once more. The price of food skyrockets even higher with no ceiling in sight. We hear about war, and wonder if or when there will ever be the coveted peace on earth for which we long. We see homeless standing in the streets and asking for money at the entrances and exits to Walmart and Hannaford. Threats of weather dangers and environmental disasters loom as humankind seeks to wrest control out of the hands of the God of nature into our own hands, without success, and sometimes to our detriment. Morals and values seem to be given only glancing thoughts by influential people in the world. More people are being treated unjustly, and we don’t understand why.

           And as a result, it’s easy for us to become an anxious, worried, discouraged and cynical people, peering out our proverbial windows at a world that continues to spin out of control.

           It’s good for us to know what’s going on in the larger world around us. Some days I’m better at reviewing the news than others. I think like many, I tend to avoid this review so that I can maintain some semblance of peace, but I can’t help but be like Gladys, peering out the slender window or the crack in my front door to see what’s going on because, well, I just have to know. And then, I find I want to slam closed the doors and curtains and retreat to my safe space. After all, what is there to do about most of it? My little voice of complaint or protest, my little worries, won’t make much of a difference anyway. Our greatest hurdle involves leaping through the feeling of powerlessness that fills us. Each of us is but a drop in the bucket in a very big world. It’s easy to either obsess over things and complain, which can often while away many hours of our lives, or to worry, and to be downright scared.

           Sure, somewhere, someone may be pushing solutions, but they are not coming fast and hard enough for our liking. So complaining and worrying seem like the only things left to do.

           But the apostle Paul, writing to the church in Philippi, knew that complaining and worrying wasn’t going to solve a thing. Interestingly enough, he was writing from prison. According to an internet summary, “first-century Roman prisons typically featured poor ventilation, intense cold or heat, minimal food and water rations, and a heavy reliance on outside visitors or believers to supply basic survival needs like cloaks and food.” That life was much more like the apocalypse than the lives of Paul’s followers, and far much more like the apocalypse than our own lives of comfort. It’s obvious that Paul had a lot to complain and worry about. But what did he say instead?

           He told the Philippian folk to “rejoice in the Lord always.” And he repeated it, just to be sure his readers would know he meant it. “And again I will say, Rejoice. Let your goodness be known to everyone.” In other words, “be good people,” in a world where not everyone is so good. Be different. Be the kind of people you want the world to be filled with.

           “The Lord is near.” Perhaps a different kind of apocalypse was expected in Paul’s day, but he wasn’t advising people to stand by their windows and doors and watch with eyes as big as saucers. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Well, that’s not something we’re inclined to hear on the morning talk shows. Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving? People would laugh and squirm and hit the “off” button on their remotes if such a thing happened these days.

           What I like about Paul’s letter is that it gives every person something to DO with their minds. When looking at the world around us and the day’s version of the apocalypse, instead of dwelling on the lies, the injustice, the unpleasant, the dishonorable, the impure, the foul, the spoiled and the broken, we focus on the opposite. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I imagine myself sitting in my office with my co-workers and we are discussing the good things about our place of employment: the kind word spoken to us by a supervisor; the customer or client who responded with gratitude at our work; the good job we did on completing that project; the satisfaction we had when we actually put into action a plan that solved a particular problem.

           In our world, too, as we look around us, we can focus on the good things: the politician who offers solutions and inspires us to cheer them on as they do their work; the people who are working behind the scenes, often quietly, but perhaps even a bit subversively, to ensure that decisions made on our behalf by our leaders are ones that will help us, and also benefit the least among us; the times when people we think are least motivated work together to make a difference in the world; the kind gestures in which people give away their time, talent and treasure to those who least expect it; the smile and hug received from a neighbor; the offer for help when you’re stopped with a flat tire on the road; the neighbor who shovels your sidewalk without being asked or paid; the flowers and plants and cards, the phone calls, the happy voices on the other end of the line.

           Even the things we take for granted on a day-to-day basis: paved roads instead of gravel and mud, even if there might be holes and bumps from time to time. The snowplows that are traversing roads almost before the storm even begins. The sounds of sirens reminding us that people are on duty, ready to provide rescue at a moment’s notice.

           There are people in our lives – ourselves and others – who, in spite of daunting circumstances, just keep going and doing and working for the best. Energizer bunnies, we call them. We all can tap into even just a little bit of that bunny inside us that keeps us going; that leads us to keep going even when we are discouraged. I find the serenity prayer to be quite helpful. “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

           That’s me with the cat mishaps. I have been trying different things – and recently ordered an extra-large litter box that has great reviews by people who also have senior cats who find the traditional litter box a bit difficult to navigate. If that solution fails, I will say the serenity prayer.

           Here’s what we can DO: we can offer prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, letting our requests be made known to God. We may think God tires of our issues and our petitions, but isn’t it amazing to think that God is not like us and is willing to listen even if we ask for the same things day after day? We know also that God gives us the wisdom to continue trying for change, or to slow down, stop, and accept things as they are. We need someone greater than ourselves to show us the way.

           Now that I’ve listed solutions and things we can DO and PRAY and consider as alternatives to being Gladys Kravitz, how do you feel? How does it feel to take the time to consider the goodness that exists in this world and the way things are going right, instead of what is going wrong?

           If Paul could do it in a very uncomfortable place like a prison, then so can we. If Paul can rejoice, then now’s the time for us to do the same. I’m not saying it’s easy. And I forget. And there are times when I find it hard to focus on the good.

           But at least I can try. There really is a lot to be seen and known and embraced in the world that inspires us, and it’s these things that serve to make the world a better place to live in. We may not be able to solve everything with a twist of a nose, like Samantha with her witchcraft, but we can make an about face and move in a new direction, away from complaint and worry to rejoicing and focusing on the good, at the advice and wisdom of the apostle Paul. It can’t hurt to try, can it? Let’s see what we can do! Amen.

  • Whose Ministry Is It, Anyway?

    The Scripture

    Matthew 21:33-46

    [Jesus said,] “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

            Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

            ‘The stone that the builders rejected

                     has become the cornerstone;

            this was the Lord’s doing,

                     and it is amazing in our eyes’?

    “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

            When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

    The Sermon

    Jerry wanted to open a nice restaurant in Snarleyville. You could never have too many nice restaurants in a community, and in this case, the community could use a few more. Jerry lived in New York City, had opened restaurants in small cities in the state, and he had a reputation for being a good owner, allowing his employees and managers to use their talents and abilities to make the restaurant work, and when they celebrated and shared success, everyone profited.

            It didn’t take much for him to find a suitable place, a building just begging for renovation and renewal. Jerry was excited.

           As he prepared, in his painstaking way, he was careful to select the best of everything: furnishings, lighting, music and decor to immerse the customer in a delightful dining experience. Jerry was also careful to install and select the best kitchen equipment to enable the chefs to have every type of utensil and appliance at their disposal, organized in a way that made meal service smooth and satisfying, as long as the people the manager hired were gifted and highly trained in running a kitchen. Jerry could afford it. His name on the restaurant gave the place an advantage because of his good reputation. Soon managers were selected and hired and waitstaff and kitchen employees ready to go. All he had to do was press the “start” button and let things happen, then wait for the profits at the end of the first quarter.

           What Jerry learned from his secret customers in disguise, who frequented the restaurant several times during that first few weeks, was that things were going well. Hiccups, sure, as was true for any new business. But Jerry had hope. He liked to picture his employees enjoying the way in which he set up his kitchens to maximize convenience and quality. He wanted his waitstaff to feel proud of their work at the end of each shift. He could relax and enjoy the spoils, knowing that not only he but his managers and employees, too, would reap the benefits that they all had agreed upon when the restaurant was set up.

           In anticipation of success after a few months, Jerry sent an area representative named Adele to the restaurant to confer with the managers and obtain a report on Jerry’s portion of the profits. But Jerry did not expect what happened when Adele, his area representative, set foot in the booming business one balmy night in mid-June.

           As soon as Adele announced her purpose and asked for the current manager on duty, the friendly waitress smiled brightly. “Sure! Lenny’s in the kitchen. He loves to taste-test the food,” she said over her shoulder as she led Adele through the path between tables.

           On the other side of the swinging kitchen doors, Lenny stood, platter of appetizers in hand, scooping up clams and butter and slurping them down with gusto! “Doggone it, these are delicious, Pete!” he sang. “I’m gonna weigh a ton if you don’t stop cooking such tasty food!” he laughed.

           Then Lenny saw Adele with his favorite waitress, Veronica. Adele put out her hand for introductions and the explanation of her mission to the Snarleyville location. But instead of greeting Adele with delight, Lenny’s bright, wide smile went dark. “Profits? To Jerry? Who does he think he is, after all the hard work we’ve put into this place? Ain’t no absentee owner living in the City gonna get a single, thin dime of any profit made in this restaurant!” He grabbed a slice of garlic toast from the tray that went past on its way out of the kitchen, and he bit into it.

           Adele stepped forward towards Jerry, wanting to ask him to elaborate on his very unreasonable and not-agreed-upon perspective on profit sharing, and Jerry reached a greasy, buttery hand out towards Adele. “Don’t come near me, lady,” he said as his beady eyes pierced hers and the smell of garlic butter floated off his breath.

           “Mr. Leonard, you signed an agreement with Jerry, the rightful owner of this place. If it weren’t for him, you’d have nothing.”

           Lenny spit out a wad of garlic bread onto Adele’s face. “What the heck?” Adele said, wiping the glob away. “Who do YOU think YOU are?” she said.

           In answer, Lenny said, “This is MY restaurant and this is MY work and these are MY employees and this is MY profit, and you can get right on outta here!” He pumped his hand back, then shoved it forward towards Adele again, this time not stopping when it reached her chest. Adele fell back, the back of her head hitting the floor. Adele was out for a few minutes, then upon returning to consciousness she picked up her bag and exited the restaurant, heading back to the city to inform Jerry of all that had transpired.

           Several months had passed since Adele had attempted to gather the profits of the Snarleyville franchise and settle the disagreement with Lenny. Jerry had sent two more area representatives, with similar results. One fellow, Lou, came back with a black eye and broken nose. Jerry decided that if no one was going to respect his area managers, he’d send his son Joey. Surely that would put the fear of Jerry into Lenny and the other managers who’d insisted that the last thing that restaurant would do would be to share the profits with an absentee owner. This was the restaurant family, and they were a tribe.

           But the night Joey parked his Lexus in the lot outside Jerry’s restaurant turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. As soon as word caught on that Jerry had sent his own son Joey to the restaurant to get them to pay up, Lenny and a couple other guys got to work preparing Joey’s car for the last lesson Jerry would ever need to learn about whose restaurant this was. As soon as a discouraged Joey got into the car following an unsuccessful discussion with Lenny, the automobile exploded into flames and noxious chemicals filled the air inside the car, causing Joey to pass out before he had a chance to exit the vehicle. Joey died that night.

           But the managers of Jerry’s restaurant didn’t get away with it – they suffered the consequences of their behavior through the closing down of the venue and the arrest of several restaurant managers in a conspiracy to commit murder. (Pause)

           As you know, I like to tell stories in my sermons. I wrote this story out of the connection I felt to the vineyard owner, imagining him thoughtfully putting his efforts into the details of the vineyard he was developing. I pictured Jerry, the restaurant owner, finding satisfaction in the thought of reaping business profits for not only himself but for all of the managers and employees involved. Jerry, who could have carelessly taken most of the profits and run with them, as so many absentee owners are wont to do.

           And yet the employees spat on it, and more than that, they murdered Jerry’s own son in the process of claiming all that the restaurant yielded, all that was in it and all the profit that it brought, was theirs.

           What a tragic, grievous disappointment.

           Jesus equates the vineyard tenants with the Pharisees, those God appointed to run the business of faith in their day, and God with the vineyard owner. The Pharisees had taken what God had sent, what God had given them gifts and treasures to care for, and they spat on them, taking not what was solely theirs, which would have been sufficient, but insisting that the religion, the interpretation of the scriptures, and the profits thereof were theirs alone.

           They’d forgotten God, upon whom that religion was built. God kept sending people – prophets – to glean God’s good part of the agreement, which left more than enough behind. But they wanted it all. Their very reaction to Jesus proves this, for he is speaking of himself as the son God sent, to be murdered simply for trying to teach what the religion was really about: the profits of goodness and love and hope and challenge that came in God’s name. How to live a faithful life. How to bring zest and a taste for living and loving into the world by his teachings and presence.

           They didn’t want to share.

           How about us? Could we be like the Pharisees, insisting our form of faith and way of worship and living be the best way, a way we have worked hard to develop and nurture, forgetting whose ministry it really is? Could we insist it’s our way or the highway, and fail to step back and remember whose creation, managers, tenants, and workers we are? Can we remember that God has painstakingly and lovingly created a world in which we can do this work, and generously given us gifts and opportunities with which to do it? Can we open our hearts to new ways for God to work, always remembering whose house this is, whose love and spirit of joy and forgiveness motivates us to represent and create the wine of faith in our community and our world?

           Whose ministry is this, in this church? It is God’s, first. Then it is ours. We enjoy the fruits, and we share of our abundance with God, in whatever ways God calls us to do so – by our service, by taking what we have and consciously using it to make Jesus known in the world. The fruits of our labors. Knowing we are Christians by our love, and praying others will want to join us in that knowledge and the joy of service.

           Whose ministry is it, anyway? It’s God’s. And ours. May we work in harmony and joy, ever open to how God wants to use us as we manage the world in which we have been gifted and placed in service. May our ministry bring joy to our community, and joy and satisfaction to God as we share the profits with all.

           Amen.

  • The Double Yoke

    Sunday, July 5, 2026

    The Scripture: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

             But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

             At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

            “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    The Sermon

    Before I begin my message, I would like to say words of gratitude to Philip Gladden who wrote commentary about these verses in the online magazine, The Presbyterian Outlook, to which I subscribe. This version has commentary on each Sunday’s lectionary passage. I also get some elements of our liturgy from the magazine which is always written by the person who wrote the commentary, as you can see in the bulletin.

           A portion of our scripture reading for today is quite appropriate as we wrap up a weekend in which the U.S. has celebrated its 250th year of independence from the rule of King George III and Great Britain. Several people of the day wrote some profound words during that time. In the Virginia Declaration of Rights, published in June of 1776, it was written “…that the people of this colony can no longer groan under the heavy yoke of British tyranny.” Thomas Paine wrote that same year in his pamphlet, Common Sense, “…’tis our duty to throw off the yoke of Britain.” John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail, in which he said, “It has been a severe Trial, but the Yoke is broken and we are Free.”

           We know that the breaking of that yoke involved intense, heavy sacrifices that were made on behalf of the quest to achieve the freedom of this country from tyrannical rule, and for this we will always be grateful.

           One conclusion of many that can be drawn from this is that we should never take such freedoms for granted and ever and always keep on the alert for those who would seek ultimate power in our nation. Sometimes it’s not clear exactly how that power grab shows up. From what I understand, sometimes such tyranny sneaks up on people in a nation under the guise of the benefit of all, and turns out to be for the benefit of only a certain elite, with oppression for those who don’t fit the category of a proper citizen.

           But that is another discussion, a political one, I suppose, though I also believe that how we manage our public life can be a reflection of how we also pursue our spirituality and our study of faith in Jesus Christ, his life, and the example he set of how to live in the world as he often challenged authorities and ministered to the outcast, the rejected, the poor, and the downtrodden. Jesus will always and forever be the example I follow as I read and interpret Scriptures. Sometimes I wish we had a more definitive picture of him, but the Scriptures were not written to be an accurate portrayal of Jesus’ historical timeline. They are a compilation of stories seen from the perspective of many people who lived many years after Jesus’ life on earth, and were written to specific people for specific purposes and occasions.

           Out of these writings, then, come the tidbits and treasures, the lessons and the inspiration we find so meaningful in our lives; treasures that are never to be fully and completely uncovered as we dig into the sands and silt of the soils of all we have and know about him. So much to know! This leads us to faith and trust, for we know that God works through the Scriptures, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of many – sources that might surprise us if we keep our ears open.

           This leads me to our lesson for today. The first thing we encounter in Jesus’ teaching is his description of some whiny people. How many of you know whiny people? These are the ones that, no matter what you do or say, or how you do or say things, they will never be satisfied. They didn’t like John the Baptist because he was too outspoken and radical for them, even as he sought to live a life of an ascetic – a person who sought ritual purity. This would supposedly be pleasing to some of the most legalistic of Jewish leaders, and yet due to his biting prophetic messages, they were offended with him, and passed him off as being possessed.

           And then came Jesus, who attended festivities and spent time with sinners, and they didn’t like him, either. It didn’t seem to matter. It was the message they were rejecting, anyway. They were using John and Jesus who served as God’s mouthpieces as their excuse to claim that the message was not legitimate.

           But Jesus’ perspective on that was his recognition that those who claimed to be the wise, all-knowing ones are often the whiners. As long as they are the ones who get to decide who has the authority, they are fine. But anyone who claims to know anything that contradicts their own personal wisdom and ways is rejected.

           We know, too, that in our day, we may not have whiners like the “generation” Jesus was speaking to, but we do often have whiners who have preferences, but no matter what anyone does, or how hard anyone tries, they are never going to be satisfied. In the first parish I served, things were going along fairly smoothly until one day I realized one of my parishioners was unhappy with me. The sermons were too long. I’d hired someone to clean the church and they didn’t know the proper way to clean the very difficult-to-clean flooring in the basement fellowship area, and it was my fault. I let someone borrow tables and they allegedly never returned them. I don’t know what other offenses I committed, but the person went from an ally to an enemy, and I’m not even quite sure how. I’m sure she had a list of my faults. But what I knew then and still know now about her is that she is probably most unhappy with herself. Maybe there has been or will be a time in her life when she will come to terms with this and look inward. Until then, a whiner she will be, wherever she goes.

           But let’s remember that God reveals things to the people we might least expect to understand. “The infants.” Those who claim to not have all the answers. Let’s remember in our own lives that we, too, don’t have all the answers…we have a Savior who does!

           And here’s the great part about the yoke. We all are weary and carrying heavy burdens of so many kinds in our lives these days. Some maybe more than others. We have mental and emotional struggles, family struggles, medical struggles, uncertainties in our faith, uncertainties about the future of our lives and our church; issues with work, school, communication with others, and just getting from point A to point Z some days.

           But these are the beautiful words of Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

           Maybe in your mind you are thinking of a single yoke, which is the part that goes around the neck of the beast that it is put upon, but in most cases, there are two yokes, so that two animals carry the burden together. You can put one yoke across your shoulders, and carry two buckets or other items on each side of them so the weight distributes evenly.

           This is why I named this sermon, “The Double Yoke”, because when we receive Jesus’ yoke, he carries it with us. And he said it is easy, and the burden is light. This is a different kind of yoke from the one of tyrannical rule under which our nation first began. It was a heavy burden, and did not allow the early Americans to do the things they needed to do here in the colonies that would work best for the way and place in which they wanted to live. They were expected to bear the yoke of lives that were ruled in Britain. Part of that included the establishment of a national religion, and any people who worshiped God outside that religion were subjected to fines, harassment, or imprisonment.

           And so here, our Constitution provided for what we call the separation of church and state, in which the state will not demand that its citizens abide by a national religion, but all people living in this country are allowed to live by each one’s moral compass, with the freedom to establish a variety of religions and faiths that would not be subject to regulation by the government.

           It’s a beautiful thing. I know many people who want us to be a Christian nation, and believe that we were built as a nation upon Christian principles, and in part, we were, though not all signers of our Declaration of Independence were Christian. Some were Diests, some were Unitarian, and some were Freemasons. The main point was their commitment to freedom from a religion run by the State. And to this day, our government has sought to honor this part of our Constitution, for the most part.

           Meanwhile, we have been freed, as citizens, celebrating our independence from a national religion, and we, as individuals, have chosen to become part of the Christian faith, honoring who we believe to be our Creator, who sent Jesus to be the central figure of our faith. And this man Jesus, who went to be with God and is present now with us in prayer, spirit and in truth, now tells us to take up his yoke and share his burden.

           What is his burden? He invites us first by learning from him. Learning requires listening, absorbing, practicing, remembering. And the person Jesus, who shares this yoke with us, is gentle and humble in heart, a place where you can find rest. Imagine working alongside someone like that, who works with us, carries part of our load, and is gentle and humble in heart. How pleasant it would be to work with someone like that! We know that the work we do for Jesus isn’t always easy, and that the responsibility we have to live a life that glorifies him is not without its challenges.

           But as American citizens, freed from the yoke of a national religion, and as Christians who have donned the yoke that we share with our loving Savior, Jesus, who is more than ready and willing to help us bear our burdens, we can live our lives in this place of freedom relying on the knowledge that he shares our burdens and carries the load with us. For this, we can give much thanks to God as we celebrate who we are in 2026! Amen.

  • Risky Business

    Sunday, June 21, 2026

    The Scripture: Matthew 10:24-39

            “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

            “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

            “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

            “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

            For I have come to set a man against his father,

            and a daughter against her mother,

            and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

            ands one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

            “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and hose who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

    The Sermon

           Who would have thought that being a Christian in these days would be risky business? What, to you, is risky about the Christian message? What is it that people don’t seem to like about it that makes them react like some of the people around Jesus reacted? And what is it that has caused Christians throughout the ages to be persecuted: thrown in prisons, hung, beheaded, burned at the stake, shot, and nailed to crosses?

           Well, let me take the easy route and summarize what AI says. First: “Authoritarianism. In countries with extreme government control like North Korea, Christianity is legally suppressed. Totalitarian regimes view the Christian principle of ultimate loyalty to God as a direct threat to state authority.” Hard to believe, isn’t it, in our country, where the current trend in the government is to tout Christian faith as the nation’s top religion, attempting to base its principles on what some interpret the Bible to dictate as appropriate for us to do? Though that point could be debated, because we know that Christians themselves interpret the Bible in different ways, and place more emphasis on certain parts of it than others. So the religion our nation may claim to serve as its guide isn’t necessarily a definitive view. This is, in part, why our country has respected religious freedom and has sought to separate its dictates from what the government guides us to be and do. It’s dangerous territory to wander into when it comes to trying to claim a particular religion as a nation’s guide. We see trouble that has brewed from here to the ends of the earth each time a country claims anything – or anyone – as in the case of North Korea – as the sole arbiter of a country’s leadership and faith. Even Christian-oriented nations can become authoritarian regimes.

           Second: “Religious extremism. In various regions across the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia, radicalized militant groups target Christians through terrorism, abductions, and the destruction of churches.” These are products of religions that believe their way is THE right way, and that their deity sanctions the harming of anyone who dare think or worship differently. Even Christians need to be careful about this. It occurs everywhere, and Christians can also be the perpetrators of persecution.

           Third: “Ethno-Religious Nationalism. In nations where national and religious identities are tightly intertwined (such as specific policies in India and Pakistan), Christian minorities frequently face discriminatory laws and social ostracization.” It is a sad thing to know. And yet, we as Christians in the United States must also be careful, for I have seen minority religions being treated in the same way right here in this country.

           Fourth: “Cultural Rejection. In places where Christianity is viewed as a foreign, non-native influence (such as parts of the Middle East), Christians are often met with suspicion and scapegoated for local political or social issues.”

           And fifth: “Human Rights Advocacy. Because church leaders often speak out against corruption, violence, and the exploitation of the poor, they are frequently targeted by powerful criminal organizations and oppressive governing bodies.”

           And so it is that being Christian can be risky business. But how often do you or I feel that we are in danger, at risk of estrangement from loved ones or under the threat of death, mocking, imprisonment or persecution because of our beliefs? I don’t, though I know some who fear it.

           Is being a Christian in your home, or among your family members and even friends, risky business? If you spoke up and declared your faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, do you think you would be in danger? What do you think might happen? What’s the worst thing that has happened to you as a result of your declaration of faith?

           I can give you two stories in my life where expression of my faith caused trouble, that I can remember in particular, one direct, and one indirect. I don’t mean to get one of my brothers into trouble, because he is one of the kindest, most loving people I know, but when I was in college I launched into evangelical Christianity with all the enthusiasm I could muster. This led me to attempt to convert every soul around me. College roommates and friends. Strangers on the street on rare occasions. Even members of my own church! And one day, in a fit of concern for my brother, I sent him a letter telling him it was necessary for him to believe in Jesus Christ so that he could end up in heaven with the rest of us true believers. Well! That went over like a lead balloon! I got a letter back from him with a fairly firm chastisement that he didn’t appreciate me trying to save his soul. I don’t remember the actual words, but I do remember that it really stung. I’m sure my words stung him as well, and I have often regretted my impulsivity, even if my motives based on my beliefs at the time were well-meaning. Never again did I speak to my brother about such matters, at least not in that way. Since then, my beliefs have matured and mellowed, and he knows that my faith as I hold it now is all about God’s love, with very little else to add, save for my belief in the ways Jesus taught us to live, and I see him living often in those ways anyway.

           The second time you might say that my Christian faith got me into hot water had more to do with my identity as a clergyperson. In this case, it also involved that same dear brother. He had unfortunately married a woman who had a great deal of trouble with alcohol. She had a beautiful, sincere and loving spirit deep inside her, but she could not handle life without liquid spirits. It was sad. The time came when my brother had finally had enough. He was in the midst of an effort to get her to leave, and tensions were high. They had a small child at the time as well, and it was difficult for me to watch the turmoil and the life that child had to live in the conflict between his father and mother. And so, I spoke up, which I rarely did. Usually, I was the pastoral, sympathetic ear to her hurt and pain, part of which I discovered later was fabricated. An attempt to get attention. And when I did speak up, she was furious. I think the final words I heard from her as I drove away from their home one evening, perhaps the final words I ever heard from her at all, were something like this: “I can’t believe you said that to me! And you’re a minister!” As if a pastor couldn’t have an opinion about how someone was being treated, and that I would actually express it to her face. I surprised even myself, but I never regretted saying it. I don’t really remember what it was, but I’m sure that she learned that I was not happy with the way she was behaving with my brother and their child. I was stung, once again, but this was different. Yes, my opinion was because of my faith, though I’m sure what I said had no words in it about anything spiritual. My opinion was because of how I believed God called us to live – in love and kindness and respect for one another, and care for vulnerable children. And my brother, well, he wasn’t perfect, but he was doing his best.

           In the days in which Jesus spoke to his disciples about what it meant to be his followers, being one of “those people” was a bit more dangerous than it is now. It might be easy to see their world as a rather benign place with lots of friendly people around sitting under shade trees and mountainsides and next to lakes teeming with fish. But there were also authoritarians there. Extremists (as some claimed Jesus’s followers were). Probably some ethno-nationalism. Certain among some of the Jews, there was a bit of that, as we know that in addition to the Romans, some of the Jewish leaders were the instigators of Jesus’ arrest and death. There may have been cultural rejection – Jesus was a Jew, and Jews were a minority among the people living under Roman rule. And one of the main aspects of Jesus’ persecution had to do with his advocacy for the poor, the needy, the sick, the unclean, those possessed by entities and mental illnesses, those being told that true worship involved not doing all the right things and serving the religious establishment, but serving God alone.

           People were searching, full of unrest. Wanting a better world. Feeling deprived of privileges given to those who had more means than they did. Wanting to have a closer relationship to their Creator without the trappings of religious ritual, law and expectation. Seeing that kindness and mercy was much more preferable than proper obedience to sacrificial laws and rituals.

           Jesus came on the scene and offered that, and much more.

           And those in authority, be they the government or the religious establishment, saw that as a threat.

           And then there was the sticky, sensitive situation of relationships in families and among loved ones. In volatile times and places that I suppose are somewhat different from ours, having different religious beliefs was threatening as well. In those days I wouldn’t be surprised if people saw God as much more ominous than many of us do now. I do believe that based on our faithful forefathers and mothers we were taught to respect one another, and our laws at their essence were set up so that we would have such respect. Our culture is a melting pot full of so many colors and flavors that we find ourselves much more accepting.

           Again, what about our faith is actually risky business?

           Well, I think there are some things about our beliefs that we keep locked behind little closed doors in our lives because we fear the persecution we might experience if we truly expressed them. We love and need our families. We love and need our colleagues and friends. We love and need our church brothers and sisters. And if we tell them about something we believe, about inclusivity or the lack of it; about the place government should have in our lives and the things the government should or should not be legislating; about how we should dress or look or behave; about how we should spend money or encourage the spending and the distribution of it; about who we should invite or avoid to be a part of our tribe – well, if we open those doors we might find ourselves in the position Jesus warned his disciples about.

           Only you know what is hiding behind those doors, and I know what’s behind mine. If someone asked me personally about some of my beliefs with an open mind and heart, I’d be happy to tell them. I hope that all of you are those kinds of people. And I hope I would be the kind of person who would listen to you, with whom I might disagree on some points, and with whom I pray I would agree that love – God’s deep and all-expansive and all-understanding love – is the most important thing that exists in this world.

           So there really still is risky business in our faith, and most of us keep quiet about it, because conflict is messy. I understand this – I hate conflict.

           But I pray that we each and all will feel free to live and express ourselves without fear – and be willing to turn to God as our guide in times of the conflict and persecution that may come when we actually do express some beliefs and views that we know are not going to be looked on with favor by others.

           I pray that we can be the kind of people who love God so much, and place God first in our lives, that we are willing to love others just as much, and find ways to live in love with one another, allowing ourselves to share as brothers and sisters with deeply generous hearts – even when we disagree.

           For it is God we follow, and God is the one who loves us in every way we need, when others may seem to be against us.

           That is the life Jesus calls us to. Let’s walk that road together. Amen.

  • Welcoming Jesus

    Screenshot

    Sunday, June 28, 2026

    The Scripture: Matthew 10:40-42

    [Jesus said,] “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple–truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

    The Sermon

    As I thought about what it means to welcome Jesus, as the title of this sermon suggests, I thought about some experiences I had years ago when I was a staff member of a worldwide evangelical Christian organization whose responsibility it was to go out and tell the world about Jesus, and how each person needed to accept him as their personal savior in order to be in right standing before God.

           And so, regardless of what area of the ministry we were working in, going out and telling others about Jesus was at least one small part of our ministry. I worked in the media department, mostly as a phototypesetter (a rare career in these days of personal computers that allow even the least typographically-savvy people to work up a flyer, a poster, or a card). When I was in training for work in this organization, I joined up with a group of young, starry-eyed people who were accepted into the ministry and given training in Ft. Collins, Colorado. I learned a lot. Played a lot of guitar. Enjoyed the daily rain showers that fell every afternoon on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. And one day, we went up into the Rockies on a soul-winning expedition. Rocky Mountain National Park, full of all sorts of summer vacationers. Our goal was to share the contents of a little booklet, otherwise known as a tract, called “The Four Spiritual Laws.” It was developed by the organization’s leader and was seen as an almost magical formula for a person’s salvation, should they choose to accept the words of this little tome.

           And so we proceeded to hike near an area where we found a group of young folk, relaxing in the shade near a footbridge. I seem to remember maybe a bicycle or two lying in the grass nearby. And two of the people in our little team went over to them and began sharing with them the Four Spiritual Laws.

           I watched them. The idea of doing such a thing terrified me, and part of me wanted to walk away from that little trip and never go back. Meanwhile, the recipients of our well-intentioned encounter were not happy at all, nor were they welcoming. This happened so long ago that I don’t exactly remember what I did, but I am almost certain that I said, or tried to hint, to the people who were pressing this news upon the young vacationers, “Let’s go. Let’s leave them alone.” And to my embarrassment, the brave crusaders were determined to get all the way through that book. Did they convert anyone? I’m pretty confident they did not. What a relief it was when my friends finally got the message. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were asked, flat out, to just go away.

           Another aspect of my time with this ministry was when I reached my destination in San Bernardino, California and had become full-fledged staff in that same organization. We were encouraged by our media supervisor to take part in a phone campaign. Bibles had been given out by staff all over the country, and in them was an 800 number to call if any interest was piqued by the recipients. Our job was to follow a script, probably not unlike the booklet we used in the Rockies, only it was a large thing, like a diagram, with boxes and quotes and arrows guiding us from one subject to another. If they gave one response, we’d go one direction. If they gave another, we’d proceed a different way, with hopes they would all end up in the arms of Jesus.

           Unfortunately, I received a call by a number on the other end of which was a woman in a very, very dark place in her life. Needless to say, I decided not to be your typical crusader – I wonder who would have been – and I found myself completely ignoring the script in an effort to meet this woman in the place where she was in her life. I can only pray that my response was helpful, because there was no way I would ever be able to contact that person again. It did not involve sharing four spiritual laws. I can’t imagine how that would have gone.

           This leads me back to the Scripture lesson. Jesus’ disciples are actually the subjects of this lesson: they are the prophets, the righteous people and the “little ones” Jesus tells his listeners to offer their kindness and hospitality to. And granted, while we know that at some point along the line the disciples’ role was to convey the message that Jesus wanted them to convey, they were also told, as was proclaimed in the gospel lesson two weeks ago, from Matthew 10:8: “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

           Hmmm. Interesting. There’s something missing from this enjoinder: A booklet. A formula. Four spiritual laws about how to know the man who was very possibly standing among them, or somewhere nearby.

           He didn’t say, “If you share a booklet and a formula, the commonwealth of heaven will come.” He said, “Tell them the realm of heaven has come near.” He also told them to heal people. Make people better. Give to people. Take care of people. Do good to people.

           And in this one, he speaks to the listeners, telling them how to treat the disciples, the people who were out there serving with him. “Welcome them,” he said. “Give them a cup of water,” he said. “Because when you do, you will receive the same reward as they.” And most crucially, he says, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.”

           That’s where we find out what it means to welcome Jesus. Welcoming Jesus means to welcome those who represent him; those sent to work on his behalf. Prophets. Righteous ones. Little ones. All three of those roles were taken on by the disciples. Prophets: by proclaiming that the kingdom of God is near. Righteous people: I really like Google AI’s summary of Matthew’s view. “In the Gospel of Matthew, ‘righteous’ people are those who humbly obey God’s will and show compassion, rather than acting in religious pride.” Little ones: Also the disciples. Prophets in the name of prophets. Righteous people in the name of righteous people. Little ones in the name of a disciple. Little, as in children of God. Learners. Out there doing something new and probably just as scary as reading tracts to unwilling folk in the Rocky Mountains. Jesus asked the people to treat his disciples – and I have no doubt he didn’t mean just the twelve, but his many followers, men, women and children alike – with respect, and love. And in so doing, they would be treating him the same way. They would be honoring him. They would receive their reward – because the realm of heaven was near.

           And so we come to this little church in this little town called Davenport. Who might we be? Are we the people to whom Jesus speaks, being asked to treat Jesus’ representatives well? Who would those people be? Pastors, teachers, guides: people out there in front, whose names would be associated with the word “leaders” and “Christians.”

           But we also are the disciples. Don’t forget that I included women and children, too.

           In fact, this gospel passage encompasses a lot of people. For those who treated Jesus and his disciples well likewise became disciples and followers. Just handing out something as simple as a cup of cold water to a disciple was highly meaningful to Jesus, and we know that he often used simple illustrations to convey very big concepts. A cup of cold water could mean a hello, a handshake, and a bit of respect. Even respect for people who don’t want to hear the contents of a booklet called “The Four Spiritual Laws.” Great respect and compassion for people who call a phone number when they are in desperate need of help, and not words of a formula that takes a person nowhere because it has nothing to do with what that person really needs at that moment.

           We are those disciples. We are to be treated with respect. And we are also to treat others in the same way. With love, and compassion, willing to proclaim God’s love in word and deed, and willing to share at the very least a cup of cold water with others. Because you never know when you might be sharing something special with Jesus in disguise.

           A cup of cold water could mean more to someone than all the riches in the world. Food, a kind word, a helping hand, all expressed in the name of Jesus, could mean much more to someone than offering them a formula for how to know God. Jesus and his followers went out and spent time with people, and the receptive ones listened, heard, and heeded.

           So can, and do, we, in so many, many ways, too, because each of us has gifts to offer others. A sweet spirit. A helpful hand. A book. A card. A smile. Cooking. Baking. Fixing. Guiding. Our time, our talents, our treasures. Our prayers. You are valuable. You have something to offer. And I believe every one of you is aware of the impact you can have on and in the world around you.

           And I believe that by being who we are, where we are, as the wonderful people that we are, we are indeed welcoming Jesus.

           One final word, though. In one of my commentaries I read this little story: “Recently a friend told of an interaction with a bagger at her local grocery store. She had been talking with this woman off and on for a year, and upon learning that she no longer worked on Sundays, invited her to come to her church, to their casual, outdoor, come-as-you-are service. Much to my friend’s surprise, the woman responded by giving her a hug!”

           This is the cup of water we can offer. The invitation. We love our church, so why not invite others to join us here? We are God’s prophets, God’s righteous ones, God’s little disciples, all. May we, by opening our doors to others, know that in so doing, we are always and forever welcoming Jesus. Amen.

  • Take a Look Around

    Sunday, June 14, 2026

    Scripture

    Matthew 9:35-10:8

    Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

             Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

            These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

    The Sermon

    Take a look around. It’s quite a world we live in. We see people scurrying all over the place; we see idle people; we see people with great means and all sorts of creature comforts; we see people struggling, having to walk to the store to get their beer because they probably don’t have a driver’s license. In your world on a routine basis, what do you see?

           In our gospel reading, we see Jesus as he takes a look around his world. He sees his people – the Jews, the children of Abraham, and the myriad people who live around them, and he has compassion on them. As Matthew says, they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He is moved by them. He knows that under the guidance of many of the Jewish leaders, and as people living under Roman rule, they have not been treated well. He aches to help release them from that bondage and make their lives better. And as we know, he does many things in that effort.

           As we take a look around, we see that times are tough for many people in our world, too. We ourselves complain a lot, but the truth is we have it really quite good. Think of those whose lives are a challenge for many reasons. We work with them in the community, and for some of us, our hearts go out. It’s a mixed thing – we often are of the opinion that if people could only just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps they could do better. I wonder if that’s what some of Jesus’ cohorts thought? But Jesus’ compassion isn’t conditional. It isn’t based on what he thinks they ought to have done in their lives or what they ought to be doing to make a better world for themselves. He looks out and sees a great harvest. What’s the harvest? People ripe and ready and waiting for something new and different. Hope. Healing. Joy. Empowerment. A knowledge that God is on their side.

           How about us? What’s the nature of our compassion? We know it’s not quite as simple as, “see a person in need, give them what they need, and all is well.” We know there are ways to help people help themselves. That’s a solid way to handle things. Who knows what was available to the needy of Jesus’ day? We certainly hear of the beggars on the streets and the roadsides. There may have been places for them to go to rest, to eat.

           And when we have that compassion, what do we do with it? We extend our sympathy, we help them directly sometimes, and other times we give to organizations that are specially trained to give out such care. Sometimes find it appropriate to invite them to be part of our church or our community groups. We are not uncaring people.

           We also realize that a large part of Jesus’ ministry involved sharing the news of God’s love. Times are different now in the church – that news has been proclaimed and interpreted in many ways. If anyone wants to know about our faith, they don’t have to look far. Christianity is not new. But the news may still be new to some whose lives never really included anything related to the church. That news is that God loves them, that God/the realm of heaven is nearer than they can ever imagine; that they are not alone.

           Another piece of Jesus’ story is that he made sure his followers knew that this harvest wasn’t just for him to take care of. Just because he had a powerful personality and amazing ability to teach and minister to others didn’t mean he was supposed to do everything alone. What would be the point? And so, he looked at his followers and said, “The harvest is plentiful! But the laborers are few! Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

           After all, you can’t really harvest a crop, most of the time, without help. We have some pretty amazing machinery that can do the work of multiple people, but we still need help. In Jesus’ day, the harvest involved many people. So he started with his disciples. Imagine what it was like to be them: with the ability to do works of healing and deliverance and change lives in such radical ways. It would be surreal. It would seem like a dream.

           We really don’t hear a lot about what the disciples actually did on their harvest journey. Unlike Jesus, we find other places in the gospels where they had a lot of questions, just like you and me. Who was this man Jesus, and the God that he claimed to get power from? Even in the midst of all of this, they still had very real doubts and uncertainties about what they were being asked to do.

           And, well, so are we. We are still called to gather in the harvest. We are still called to BE workers and to pray for more workers. We take a look around and we SEE what that harvest might be. In some ways, it’s very much like what Jesus saw. In other ways, it’s not, although at its very basis, it still involves people seeking a life in which, regardless of circumstances, there is a sense of security and peace. A knowledge that someone or something greater than they are is at work in the world, loves them, and upon whom they can depend.

           And so, as people of this fellowship, we have a calling, right here in the gospel of Matthew. We are called to look around and see the needs. They are many. We’ve probably been a part of meeting many of those needs even when we were unaware of it.

           But the question is this: do people know in whose name we reach out in compassion and caring? Maybe our Christian love and compassion is so much a part of us that we forget who we represent – which is really a kind of cool. But the people Jesus and his disciples ministered to surely had to have had some knowledge – well, especially since there were miracles involved – of who it is that had come into their lives and helped them to realize that there was more in life than living in subjection to cruel, selfish authorities.

           It’s good also to remember that Jesus’ disciples and followers were not loners. Whether they hung out with him every day and traveled with him, or were supporters and hosts to Jesus in his travels, they were a community. They worked and prayed and served together.

           These were the workers, and in their work they brought in more workers – because they told people who it was who gave them authority to do what they did. It was Jesus. And because of that, we know about him, and we know him today.

           That is important. We don’t have to be preachy about it. But we can certainly be bold to express our connection to this church and our reliance on God in our daily lives. We can make a difference, just like Jesus and his disciples did, to the point where it literally changed a big part of the world.

           So look around you. Will you open your eyes to see the “harassed and helpless” people, like sheep without a shepherd? Would we know them? Let’s point our lives, and our friends, family, and neighbors, toward the Good Shepherd of the sheep: Jesus, who will never lead us astray and will comfort us with his rod and staff. Let us be the laborers, able to discern which of the planted crops are ready for or in need of harvest.

           And let us most of all cast our hearts and minds on God, who through the Holy Spirit will guide us and introduce us to possibilities galore in which we may minister to the lost sheep of our community and our world. Amen.

    ****

    Questions for Reflection

    Here are some questions to reflect on as you consider this message and the words of Jesus.

    Take a look around you, wherever you live, work, play.

    Do you see people who are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd?

    Who are they?

    Where are they?

    What do they need?

    Is there anything you can do to fulfill Jesus’ command to his disciples; i.e., what can you to do to be of assistance to these sheep without a shepherd?

    How can you incorporate that into your life in the Charlotte Valley Presbyterian Church, or any church you attend?

    How can you incorporate that into your life in the world?

    Is it something different from what you’re doing now?

    What’s the first step you might take? What’s keeping you from taking it?

  • The Doctor Is In

    Sunday, June 7, 2026

    Scripture

    Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

             As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

            And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

            While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district.

    Sermon

           Everybody needs a doctor sometimes. Some of us are well-acquainted with our doctor, or in most cases, doctors. Others of us might darken the door of a doctor’s office now and then, but each time we go, the greetings are cordial and the history needs to be revisited due to the passage of great lengths of time between visits.

           There are doctors for so many things. Even things we don’t normally think of that need “medical” care. I recall years ago – I believe I was living in Cheyenne, Wyoming – when I heard a jingle in a TV ad that went like this: “Call the Glass Doctor: he’ll fix your pane.” Whoever came up with that ad was pretty brilliant, if you ask me. I decided to do some research since the internet is just a few finger taps away, and I discovered that, for heaven’s sake, the Glass Doctor is almost everywhere. Even as close as Syracuse. Window “pane” is being fixed all over the country!

           And we have doctor specialists for all sorts of remedies, with all sorts of names and functions. We have doctors who specialize in treatment of body parts that make us wonder why they made the choice – you know what I mean. There are also doctors called “nocturnists.” They work in hospitals only at night, and treat general medicine issues. One might think they are “night owl” sort of people, and I suppose they are. A new term that’s crossed my path in recent years is that of “hospitalist”. This is a doctor who sole job is daytime work at a hospital, seeing patients through their care from the day they arrive to the day they leave.

           But like I said, pretty much all of us need a doctor, even if it’s not the kind that treats issues of body or mind. Sometimes we need a physician who can tend to our many needs – someone who can teach us and help us to heal the many problems we encounter in life, like issues with money, the lack of it or the excessive desire for it, with complications involving the way that we obtain it and the way we use it – ways that result in either blessing or bane for ourselves and others.

           Others of us need a doctor who, if we are willing to allow it, can work with us to help change our perspective on things in our lives. Sometimes we think and feel as though we are superior to others for various reasons. Our status in life is important, and we don’t need people threatening to usurp that status, even if by the grace of God we obtained it as we look back through our lives. We think we are the author of our status and achievements and deserve all the recognition and honor we can get.

           There are many, many ways in which we could use a doctor: a physician, who treats problems and brings about solutions. What kind of doctor do you need today?

           Our Scripture reading for today portrays the person around which our faith is centered: Jesus, the Christ. To many, as a result of this particular report of Jesus’ actions and words, he has been named down through the ages as “The Great Physician.” It’s easy to see why. He’s not only a “Doctor” of religious studies and wisdom, simply by virtue of the fact that his thoughts and actions are informed and motivated by the Creator. He is a healer of a woman with a menstrual issue, a constant passing of blood for years. We women can imagine what that would be like – so inconvenient and so utterly exhausting. Just being in his presence and touching the fringe of Jesus’ cloak summons the amazing healing power of God.

           He even raises a dead girl to life, even though the mourning crowd has already surrounded the girl’s home. “She is not dead but sleeping,” Jesus says. And sure enough, Jesus goes into the house and walks the girl out to the amazed onlookers, family and friends.

           But Jesus uses the analogy of the physician when he speaks to the Pharisees at a dinner to which he has invited what the scripture calls “tax collectors and sinners.” We can imagine what the tax collectors have done in their lives, but don’t you wonder what personalities the word “sinners” covers?

           Why, the Pharisees wonder, does a man like Jesus, who is so well-acquainted with the faith the Pharisees treasure, teach, and abide by every day, hang out with impure people? The Pharisees are steeped in their tradition in which anything flawed must be cleansed and made perfect in order to please God. It seems rather ironic, doesn’t it, that One who created the entire universe and everything in it, from the dirt on the ground, the germs, the bacteria, the sludge, the ashes, the cinders, the goo, the glop, the debris, and the decay, can’t seem to handle anything but perfection? Or at least that’s what the Pharisees believe – that God cannot look on anything less than pristine.

           They are about to get a different lesson. When they wonder about this to Jesus’ disciples, Jesus replies, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Jesus quotes the scriptures that those Pharisees ought to have known well if they read their scrolls. Hosea 6:6 proclaims as a word from God, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” How and why do they seem to miss the point of God’s mercy, even though, along with the law, it has been mentioned and proclaimed many times throughout the Old Testament? How did Abraham and Sarah come to be the heirs of God’s promise, when no Hebrew faith had yet been formed? God was at work, loving and ministering to people long before any idea of law and sacrifice and burnt offerings had ever been conceived. It appears that, in the eyes of many religious leaders like the Pharisees, there was a sense of security in knowing just exactly how to please God. There was a sense of pride in being able to do so in the very best ways. And that sense of pride led them to claim superiority over the others who were invited to the dinner.

           Jesus foiled their plans, and dashed their confidence. He acknowledged his gifts as a healer. He also had a gift that attracted “sinners” to him, such as Matthew. Google’s AI overview describes someone like Matthew in this way: “In the time of Jesus, tax collectors (publicans) were Jewish men hired by the Roman Empire or local rulers to collect customs, tolls, and tributes. Deeply despised as traitors and extortioners who grew wealthy by overcharging their own people, they were socially ostracized and classified alongside the lowest sinners.”

           Jesus, the man of God, inviting into the physician’s office not only those who thought they had righteousness in the bag, but those who knew they had big issues. They were the ones who were the most enthusiastic about having been invited. They were the ones who most deeply needed, received, and appreciated the welcome they got from someone who was deemed quite special in the eyes of God.

           Jesus, the Great Physician, healing the desires of publicans who no doubt were tired of having to resort to crooked, shameful means in order to do the job they were hired to do. And how was he healing them? Not through the medicine of the law, the statutes, the requirements religions often laid out before their adherents that enabled them to remain connected to the group, But through the medicine of mercy. Sheer mercy. Sheer love of people for who they were, as they were, no questions asked. People who longed to see a better, more honorable life, but felt the standards of the Pharisees were far too lofty to achieve, so why even bother?

           And it was those same publicans and sinners who became some of Jesus’ most ardent and devout followers. It was those same publicans and sinners who were a part of Jesus’ mission of mercy, bringing into the fold people who might never have darkened the door of a house of worship.

           That’s who Jesus was, and is. A physician to all of us sick people, in whatever ways we are in need, in this hospital for sinners, as opposed to that proverbial “museum for saints.” I hope we all realize the magnitude of this reality. Even as the church of Jesus followers began on this mercy and grace, and though no doubt the Jewish law and customs were honored, the church was not necessarily intended to be what, in many places, it has become. A place of expectations. A place of staidness and stiffness. A place of exclusion. A place of stilted ritual and shame when humanness breaks through (though I don’t think we’re like that in our church). A place where pharisee-types still parade up and down chancels and aisles proclaiming a distant God of judgment. That’s not the church Jesus and his early disciples intended. They met in homes, along roadways, gathered in rooms, sat in windows and on the grass, and worshiped, welcomed, learned and prayed. What happened to the church centuries later was that the trappings took over. Jesus became someone to revere and put on a pedestal, at a distance. Yet thank God that we here still do our best to remember the personal, very real nature of a man who had a special connection to God, and yet loved and adored REAL PEOPLE like you and me. He loved the Pharisee types, too, but they just didn’t understand.

           Jesus still does this work, among us, in us, and through us. He still heals, in ways we may not realize. He welcomes children. He includes people our society deems as “odd” or “other” or “foreign.” He has compassion on people in need. He came to set an example to us of who we are to be among others: physicians and caregivers and helpers all.

           As we come to this table today to share in the simple, yet symbolic supper that represents Jesus giving of himself for others, let us imagine him here with us as the bread is passed and juice is poured and distributed. He is why we are here. He is with us as we share together. He is our Great Physician, who knows just how to heal our hurting hearts, and challenges us to become like him as we live in this world: Willing to hang out with and welcome both sinners and saints. Willing to offer mercy and grace to those who think they’re not good enough to come to church. Willing to reflect on our own importance as actual servants of God, not keepers of the castle and guardians of the breach.

           Jesus, the Great Physician, invites you to join at the table with him, and then take that grace that has been poured to you and share it with others in whatever ways you can.

           Does anyone need special help? The doctor is in! Amen.

  • Having It All

    for Sunday, May 31, 2026

    Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

            Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

    The Sermon

    There is a laundry detergent on the market that probably every single person in this building knows about and has possibly used. It’s called “all®.” It was developed in 1959, which means that I was a little one when this miraculous project came into being. My mother didn’t use it that I recall, but I’ve used it from time to time. I’ve found it to be an effective and slightly less expensive purchase compared to some of the leading brands, though at this present moment I’m using laundry sheets instead, trying to do my little bit in helping save the environment by using fewer chemicals. To my delight, these laundry sheets work pretty well.

           No websites say why the detergent was given that name, though I might offer a few guesses: It’s a detergent that has been formulated to rid garments of “all” stains and dirt, including oil, catsup, pawprints, mud, ice cream, and frog slime. I can still hear the jingle sung by Leon Redbone, “the stain lifter, that’s a-l-l.“ with its cute verses and iterations that will probably be archived for generations on YouTube. Ironically, all® was known to be without some things throughout its life, so it didn’t quite contain “all”: it was the first sudsless detergent on the market, and in the 1990s it created a form of the detergent that was “free and clear” of dyes or perfumes. But that made all® even more special for those who didn’t want all those extras. If you look on the website at Henkel, the company that now owns all®, you’ll see that if you put it on your grocery list, it would be wrong to capitalize the title. It’s lower-case “a-l-l” with the registered trademark added. Not sure what that lower case “a” choice indicates – it’s probably just a stylistic typeface effect. But maybe the company is trying to be humble. It may recognize that it’s “all” (with a lowercase “a”) when it comes to cleaning clothes, but it’s not “All” (with a capital “a”) when it comes to cleaning up the world.

           And the world does need some cleaning up, so to speak. Problems, predicaments, toils and troubles (along with the soap bubbles), are abundant all around us. We need some kind of something to throw in this great laundry tub we call existence when we attempt to clean it up. So let’s take a look at what the scripture says about what I’ve entitled this sermon: “Having It All.”

           In this short passage from the gospel of Matthew, the word “all” is used three times. Twice is written the exact word, “all,” and the third time the word used is “always”, which contains the meaning of the word “all,” as in “total,” or “entire,” or “complete.” Always. All times, and in all ways. Can’t get much more all-encompassing than that.

           But before we get into the particulars of the “all” that is offered to us on this Trinity Sunday, I want to remind you about the scene in which Jesus declared his commitment to his disciples and to the world. Jesus was on the mountain with his eleven disciples, those left of the original twelve. We know that Judas was no longer with them, having dropped out of the group due to his apparent belief that the word “all” as we will see it here was not adequate enough for his satisfaction. Jesus on the mountain: always and forever a place in the scriptures that symbolizes the intersection between heaven and earth. When we see Jesus on a mountain, we know something important is going to be said.

           The first thing that happened is that the disciples worshiped him. Who would not want to acknowledge and express the wonder and amazement of what had just transpired in recent days? No doubt they were still pinching themselves to make sure they were still awake as they saw Jesus, knowing what they had seen before in his horrible suffering on the cross and his death. But even as they worshiped Jesus, they also doubted. And the sentence does not say, “some doubted.” It says, “they doubted.” Can you relate to this? There had been so many things going on around Jesus, so many signs and wonders, and then so much treachery and struggle and death. A proverbial roller coaster of events, climbing up the hill of mundane, and pleasant, and challenging, and exhilarating, and then over the top and down into terrifying and gut-wrenching, all in a series of days, weeks, months – perhaps years. Wouldn’t you be confused? Uncertain? This was not something the average person saw every day. What were the disciples – all of them, not just the eleven on the mountain – to think? To feel? To believe? To hope for?

           And so in their worship, reverence and delight, they also doubted.

           What makes this notable for its inclusion in this passage is that Jesus still comes to them. He knows of their doubt. And he does not stand before them, point his fingers in accusation at them and proclaim, “All you doubters, shame on you!” He might have good reason to, because there he was, standing right there among them. But we don’t really know that that doubt was about, do we? What did they doubt? Perhaps like us nowadays when we see something questionable on the internet or in photos, we examine it carefully and often say, “That’s fake. That’s AI.” If the entire Jesus story were to happen on earth today, because of our technology and skepticism I am pretty sure there’d be a different outcome. Nowadays, people don’t even believe the unvarnished truth when it’s staring them in the eyes. God would have to reach out to us in an entirely different way. (Who knows? Maybe God’s doing that as we speak!)

           And so they doubted, too, just as they worshiped. Mixed emotions. An unprecedented moment, unlike any other moment the disciples could ever have dreamed or imagined.

           In this moment, Jesus then began to proclaim the totality of his personhood, his relationship with God, his authority as one who had come from and dwelled in and with God, by saying, “ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” All authority! In heaven and on earth! Everywhere! Not just some authority to perform a few nice miracles and say a few profound words, but ALL authority. That’s quite a statement. It’s not said with a lowercase “a”, like the detergent – something that does some pretty amazing things in one area of life in the laundry room. It’s said with an uppercase “A”. All. Stronger than mere dirt, or anything else. Something that relates to this whole world, this whole universe, this entire creation.

           The disciples lived, walked, talked, ate and breathed with the man who had this authority. And by virtue of our trust in him, we do the same. Don’t forget that. We walk with this same authoritative giver of life.

           Then because he had all this authority, he said something that, in essence, passed that authority along. He didn’t say it in this passage, but he said it in so many words elsewhere: “God gives me this authority, and so I give it to you.” This proclamation comes from the Gospel of John, in which Jesus promises that his presence will be with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. He said that what he did, we would do also. Can you wrap your mind around that? I’m not sure I can. I may fit into the doubter category some of the time, but it is something to think about and really hang on to as a believer in the One with Authority.

           As such, he told the disciples, then (in spite of the fact that they doubted), to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

           The disciples could stand there and doubt all they wanted, but now they were given what is called “the Great Commission.” Make disciples. Baptize. Teach. To do such things indeed takes a lot of authority. A lot of confidence. A lot of experience, and a lot of knowledge. The disciples had it, and were going to get a lot more of it in the months and years to come. It was their job to step out and DO it. But I want to point out the word “all” here. He didn’t go out and make disciples of Jews only. Or Greek people only. Or Romans, or Phoenicians, or Egyptians, or Arabians. He said, “ALL nations.” Not just the people who looked like them, spoke like them, had the same habits, beliefs, moral codes, work ethic, or customs as them. All nations. All people.

           Another thing he didn’t say is, “Go out and convert as many people as you possibly can and make them believers so that we can fulfill a quota and make God happy. Convert them and let them go. You will have fulfilled your duty, proclaiming the gospel in every corner of the earth, and God will be satisfied.” As some say, in evangelistic circles, “’Til all have heard.” That is very nice. You can throw flyers out of airplanes the world over in every language and hope people read them. They’ve heard! That’s it! Good for them! All is well. ALL is well.

           Well, all IS well, because I believe that with God we do not live in the tyranny of the urgent, holding on our own shoulders the responsibility for saving every human on this earth. Why? Because I believe God is bigger than that. After all, didn’t Jesus say he had all authority on heaven and on earth? We don’t know how Jesus chooses to reach all people – that is far beyond my scope, though I believe he reaches people in far more amazing ways than we’ll ever imagine.

           But he DID tell us to make disciples, and baptize, and teach them to obey. Those that we bring into the fold, who want to know, to understand, to be baptized, to follow, and to grow, are the ones Jesus calls us to tend to. We’re not here to complete a checklist, we’re here to be shepherds – not just for SOME people who might seem acceptable to us, more like us, think like us, talk like us, live in relationships and have personalities and identities that fit our social mores…but we are to be shepherds to all people. Jesus said so. Well, I guess we’d better get busy.

           And finally, there is the word “always.” “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” I’ll be honest, when I hear the words “to the end of the age” I think…is that always? What does that mean? But what it means to me is that right here, now, this afternoon, tomorrow, next week and beyond, Jesus IS WITH (not just will be with) us. Continually. Totally. Completely. In every way, not just only in some ways, not just part-way, but all the way. How reassuring this is!

           And isn’t this a message we want to talk about to others? Teach them? Baptize them into, make disciples of, and include in our midst? We ourselves, who are available to be Jesus in today’s world, are now commissioned to baptize in the name of God our Creator/Father/Mother; Jesus our Savior/Teacher/Healer; the Holy Spirit our Counselor/Advocate/Wisdom. All aspects of God, all of the power and authority of God, all of the wisdom and resources of God. There really is nothing left out. We often wander around and act like we don’t know what to do or how to do it when it comes to our faith. But God gave us the Holy Spirit, who dwells IN us, and God loves us, and believes we have so much to offer, and wants us to share God’s love in whatever ways we can. Trust this! Embrace this! The best news is this, and don’t you forget it: In Jesus, we really do have it all. Amen.

  • Prayers Ascending

    Sunday, May 17, 2026

    Acts 1:6-14

             So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

            Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

    Romans 8:26-27

            Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

    John 17:1-11

            After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
            “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

    The Sermon

    I have belonged to many internet type groups over the years. Once upon a time, when I was working in my second church parish in Wyoming, I used an internet forum called “Ecunet.” In most of the groups, we shared information about common interests and replied to each other’s posts. Sometimes someone would make a prayer request, and another person would reply, “Prayers ascending.” I’ve heard that sentiment expressed many times since then.

           It’s a meaningful image. It makes me think of prayer as like smoke from some kindling or a candle, where the smoke rises and ascends upwards into the sky. (Of course, that’s assuming the wind isn’t blowing and you’re always seated, no matter how many times you move, on the side of the campfire where the wind blows smoke right into your face.) Some people say, “Prayers arising.” Both portray to some extent the image of prayers moving upwards. Which shows us that what when we think of the location of God, to whom we pray, we visualize God being “up there.” “God above,” we say. “God, in the heavens.” “God, the man upstairs.” The gospel lesson says that “Jesus looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come…’”. His looking upward was an act of respect and confidence in his faith in God, though it’s easy to interpret it as affirmation that God, and heaven, are above us, and when we pray, our words rise upward toward God.

           The word “ascending”, or “ascension,” has another meaning that applies today. Last Thursday, the 14th of May, was “Ascension Day.” The passage that was read this morning from the book of Acts briefly describes the event as a time when the disciples gathered, after some conversation during which Jesus told them of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then with those words spoken, the scripture says that “as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

           Now, that would be something to see! Of course, we know that those who’d spent a significant amount of time with Jesus would not be as surprised as we would if someone we were just talking to suddenly rose into the air like a balloon and disappeared into a cloud. They’d already seen Jesus do amazing things, not the least of which was rise from the dead. The story in Acts does not describe their surprise, though it does give an impression that they were a bit mesmerized. “What just happened?” “Where did he go?” “Is he coming back?” And it’s then that angels come to the rescue, snapping them out of their trance, just as angels did at the tomb when the women were standing there wondering where Jesus was after discovering the stone rolled back and the tomb empty.

           And so what did the disciples – the men and women who had gathered together – do after that? They returned to Jerusalem, and ascended the stairs into a room where they were staying, and they prayed. Jesus, their greatest pray-er, their greatest friend and teacher, had just ascended, and now their prayers were ascending right along with him.

           Imagine it: a room, who knows how big, filled with people, praying. They had just gone through the most amazing experience of their lives and were still trying to sort it all out. One thing after another. Jesus teaching, being beloved by so many. Jesus experiencing pushback from the leaders of the faith, then being betrayed by one of their very own among them, then undergoing a trial and a horrendous crucifixion. Jesus dying. Jesus lying in a cold stone tomb. Jesus no longer in the tomb, but appearing to them in all his glory, with evidence on his hands, feet, and torso, proving the ordeal he had recently been through. And now, there he goes…poof! Up into the clouds.

           Yet there were no tears that we know of. We don’t hear of weeping and grieving, even though Jesus was no longer with them. Instead, we hear of them in prayer. It’s as if, in his absence, something was still present among them, binding them together in this shared experience. Who could describe it? The most challenging part was that even though they’d heard and seen all these things with their own eyes, not everyone to whom they told the story would have that luxury.

           And yet, we know, because we are here, that the story had an impact on people who were not present to know the living, walking, resurrected Jesus. And for some, that impact was no doubt just as strong and powerful as it had been for those who experienced it first-hand. Maybe even more so.

           They prayed.

           In our gospel lesson, we see Jesus himself in an intense posture of prayer. A prayer that was prayed in the presence of those same disciples. It wasn’t a personal, secret prayer that Jesus said when he was off on a journey in the wilderness. It was a prayer for the disciples, on their behalf. He said so directly in the prayer. What makes this prayer especially powerful is that Jesus himself had just told the disciples that he and the Father were one; that whatever the Father did, so Jesus did.

           This means that God was praying for the disciples, for the people who loved and surrounded and learned from Jesus, through Jesus himself!

           Which leads me to the Romans 8 passage that I also included as a scripture reading. It says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

           Here, as was mentioned in last week’s message, about the Advocate Jesus promised to send once he was gone, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spoken of after Pentecost, which we will celebrate next Sunday. The promised coming of Jesus’ presence into the hearts and minds of the disciples and to all those who would believe in Jesus in the millennia to follow. The promised presence of Understanding, of Help, of Advocacy, of Comfort, of Counsel. Not Jesus in the flesh, but God in Spirit, coming into our hearts – yes, not just the disciples’ hearts, but yours and mine and the hearts of all who seek God through understanding and knowing Jesus. Jesus returning to earth by living inside us. Dwelling in us. Inhabiting us. Praying for us, in us, with us, and through us.

           And this is where “prayers ascending” is appropriate and essential and necessary.

           We see Jesus praying. He’s honoring God, and speaking to God, in the presence of all those for whom he is praying, asking God for the things he knows that God wants for them and for all his people.

           We see Jesus’ followers, men and women crowded together in that room, praying, looking to God, speaking to God, in the presence of one another and what sense they had that remained of Jesus, because even though he was no longer visibly with them, they felt him. Through that prayer they felt and expressed him, lived him and breathed him.

           We have the letter to the Romans that speaks of the Spirit, who was sent following Jesus’ ascension – the prayer of God, going to God, coming from God, whose power lit up the church like a magnificent, fiery, beautiful Christmas tree, energizing it from the bottom to the top and the top to the bottom. The Spirit of God, who prays for us when we don’t have the words. The Spirit of God, who knows the heart of God and the will of God, and prays the most magnificent, perfect prayers for us. How nice it is to know that it’s not all on our own shoulders to create beautiful, effective prayers.

           And it is true. So many people wonder how to pray. I am sure I can hunt up a formula or two – some say to use the Lord’s Prayer as a model. But let’s say that we don’t have access to the Lord’s prayer. Let’s say that we are in deep distress, or confusion, or bewilderment, or grief, or fear, or even excitement, ecstasy, and joy. So moved are we that we don’t know what words to say. But we want to say something. We have to say something. Even if it’s just, “Gracious God!”

           It’s then that we remember, and trust in the words that Jesus said, the words that were said in the book of Romans: that the Spirit intercedes on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. We don’t need a formula. God isn’t interested in the correct words. God is groaning and rejoicing and agonizing right along with us, whether we realize it or not.

           Because we are believers, and we know and see Jesus, learn about Jesus, sing, pray, give, shake hands, smile, commune, eat, and ring bells together, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We can say, “Teach me how to pray, O God,” and then say whatever words that are in our hearts, and then we trust. Trust that God will speak the words and desires of our hearts through us, like breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Air goes in, it goes out. Air may change constitution along the way as it nourishes our bodies in the way that it does, but it is an ever-circling, ever-flowing process. We pray. God hears. God enters our hearts and minds as God sends us the fresh oxygen of inspiration, and we pray it out, and it goes to God, and comes back again, and it circulates, recycles, always perfecting itself into better things.

           Maybe we want it to feel like magic. It is, but it is not. It is life, and living, and breath. Prayers are you, asking God to inhabit your thoughts. Prayers are your thoughts going to and coming from God, not only for yourself but for all those with whom you live, work, play, love, and worship.

           We are the disciples, gathered together in this place, praying, through every aspect of our worship. We are praying, and we are waiting for God to move.

           The reality is that God has moved, is moving, and will continue to move. We trust, we allow, and we move, too.

           On Pentecost, we will celebrate the day when God’s presence became known in a very powerful way. Whether or not we experience that power in that amazing way is up to God. But we know that this is the essence of prayer: God breathing us as we breathe God. Let us think of this today, and go into this week asking God to help us to be joyfully aware of this presence, this reality, asking God to show us in small and gentle, or large and specific ways, just how present God is with us. God prays for us right now. God loves us so much that we are all God thinks about, that’s how devoted God is to us.

           And it’s because of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and what we’ve learned in the Scriptures and in our faith among our brothers and sisters, that we know this and will continue to live from this day forward. Go and breathe God’s spirit, and live in prayer and joy. Amen.