Scripture Readings: Isaiah 56:1–8 | Psalm 67 | Romans 11:1–2a, 29–32 | Matthew 15:10–28

“Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all.” (Matthew 15:22-23).
 
Our Gospel reading today is certainly a hard and challenging one. Nothing I’ll say today will be able to totally change that reality. 
 
Just like there are all sorts of hard and challenging seasons in our lives… times when our faith will face serious obstacles, and we find it hard to go on. And as much as I wish it were otherwise… nothing I can say will change that reality either. 
 
That’s where my mind often goes though: following that strong impulse to try and smooth things over… to try to make everything easier… less disruptive… and more manageable.
 
And that’s fine, when it works. But sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes we can’t smooth things over. What then?
 
What do we do when the truth is hard to hear? What do we do when we’re completely confused? When we’re faced with deep discouragement, and it seems like the help and hope we’ve trusted in has let us down?
 
What do we do when we don’t understand what God is up to?
 
I won’t make you wait too long for the answer. It’s simple, but not easy: Don’t give up! Don’t give up.
 
I mean, what else is faithfulness then choosing to press on, and place our trust in our Saviour precisely when it’s hard? When we don’t understand? When we are deeply challenged, and have every reason to walk away? 
 
The Canaanite woman from our Gospel passage this morning, the one whose own beloved daughter was being held down and bound by deep spiritual evil… she doesn’t give up. She seeks out Jesus, and persists, trusting that this Jesus can set her daughter free… and He does. She doesn’t give up, and in the end Jesus does not disappoint. 

Of course, we’re talking about the end of the story. Not how it all starts… or how it seems most likely to play out.
 
As we heard this morning, the Canaanite woman doesn’t give up, even though Jesus gives her lots of opportunities to do so… good reasons to doubt Him, and just walk away. I mean, He remains stone silent when she first pleads for His help. Doesn’t say a word. Then His followers, the disciples don’t give her the time of day… and instead of interceding for her, they urge their Master to reject her outright so they can go on in peace and be rid of her. And then, Jesus Himself says some things that seem to… that seem to be intended to tear her down. But despite all that, she doesn’t give up, and she trusts in His compassion and power to set her beloved girl free.
 
And Jesus does. Matthew 15:25-28, “she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’  She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

In an instant, this woman’s life and her family’s story was changed forever. One moment, hope seemed so remote, and the darkness so strong… and the next: freedom and life and light. Imagine if she had walked away and given up a moment before, and missed out on this beautiful turnaround?
 
But there’s more. As important as this story is for the woman and her daughter, this story is also an important turning point in St. Matthew’s Gospel… revealing the heart of the Living God not just for those currently on the inside… but for all. 
 
Right after this encounter, which took place beyond Israel’s borders to the Northwest, in the lands near Tyre and Sidon, Jesus travels to yet another region populated by many Gentiles. In Mark’s Gospel, this place is identified as the Decapolis… which in Greek means “ten cities”… a region largely settled by Romans and Greeks. And yet, let’s hear what happens when Jesus goes to them, and gives them a chance to draw near to Him in faith, like the Canaanite mother did.
 
Matthew 15:29-31, “After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.”
 
Here we have crowds of “unclean” Gentiles… the lame, the maimed, the blind, and mute… ‘outsiders’ and ‘undesirables’ to folks like the disciples that took it for granted that God only cared about people like themselves… all drawing near in faith, and being set free by Jesus’ power and mercy… and as a result, the outsiders begin praising the God of Israel.
 
St. Matthew’s Gospel begins with a fairly clear sense that Jesus of Nazareth is Israel’s Messiah… the Chosen One God sent to save His chosen covenant people. But over the course of Matthew’s account, episodes like our passage this morning, and what follows after it, reveal more and more of God’s whole heart… His great love, not only for Israel, but for all nations… for everyone. 

And this has been the Living God’s heart and intentions all along, of course. Lest we think this is merely a New Testament invention, listen again to our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 56:6-8,
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
and hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.
 
Thus says the Lord God,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
besides those already gathered.”
 
And again, listen to our Psalm as well. Psalm 67,
“May God be merciful to us and bless us,
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
Let your ways be known upon earth,
your saving health among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has brought forth her increase;
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
May God give us his blessing,
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
 
And this is exactly what happens when Jesus begins ministering among those on the margins… the Living God is praised, and the people stand in awe of the healing and hope they find in Him.
 
Finally, St. Matthew’s Gospel ends with the Great Commission, with the Risen Jesus telling His disciples:
“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.” (Matthew 28:18-20).
 
By the time his whole story is told, St. Matthew wants us to see that the whole world is God’s concern. Every single people, and nation, and family of the earth matters to Him… including the families of those who seem to be outsiders and enemies. This is the beautiful Good News of God’s reconciling, redeeming, and resurrecting love that Jesus Christ offers to anyone who will draw near, and place their faith in Him.
 
That’s where St. Matthew’s story is headed, from the start to the finish… but there was absolutely no way that our desperate Canaanite mother could have known all this at the time. She had no way to know how her story was going to unfold… or that her daughter’s terrible ordeal would in some way become intertwined with the Living God’s merciful mission to achieve the redemption of the world.

But even without knowing how everything would turn out… she still didn’t give up. And happily, in this case, her daughter was immediately set free from the dark powers that held her bound.
 
And along with her, we didn’t give up reading and listening to this story… even when it was completely confusing and challenging for us. It probably still is, by the way. But even so, it has now become something much more! This story has become a sign of hope… hope that the Risen Christ can bring new life even out of things that still confuse and challenge us. Things that took place long ago, and things that will happen in the days to come.
 
The cross is, of course, that central place where all our confusion, and griefs, and our complete inability to smooth out the harsh realities of life come face to face with the true power and mercy of God… reflected in the face of Jesus… embraced by death on behalf of us all… exposing by His great self-sacrifice all of our failures to truly live and love God’s way… equalizing everyone’s footing, once and for all… in order to have mercy on all.
 
At the cross, we see the depths of God’s love for all us outcasts and sinners… dying to set us all free from the powers of darkness, death, and sin. And rising again to bring us with Him into God’s eternal life.
 
And the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the gift of a glimpse even now, of where our whole story is headed! Where God’s mercy and power to bring peace out of our chaos… wisdom and truth out of our world’s folly and rebellion… to bring new life even out of death is taking us in the end. 
 
So many experiences we face in life, and a great deal of the story of God found in Holy Scriptures can be really hard and challenging for us to hear. But we do ourselves and our world a great disservice if we simply try to smooth it all over. Because the Good News of the Risen Lord Jesus finds us and speaks to us as we face all these challenges… calling us to faithfulness, and to place our trust in the power and mercy of the Living God to the end.
 
So when we are faced with our own grave situations… when it seems that God is deaf to our pleas, and silent to our prayers… don’t give up! 
 
And when we see people struggling all around us… especially those who are outsiders, and vulnerable… fighting against the tide to have their struggles taken seriously, and receive the care and compassion we can easily take for granted… don’t give up on them. Help them. Reach out and intercede for them. Become God’s own merciful hands, listening ears, and open arms to them.
 
And when we see those still content to try and divide our world into ‘us’ and ‘them’… those more concerned about keeping up appearances than with loving their neighbours… don’t give up on them either. Show them another way. Christ’s way. The way of mercy, and truth, and love, even when it means taking the hard road. Even when it means being willing to suffer for what is right.
​
And when we don’t understand, or know what to do: Look to the cross of Jesus, where God’s own self-giving love is raised up for all to see… and drawing near to Christ Jesus in faith… don’t give up. Amen. 

Our service of Morning Prayer, & Sermon this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: 1 Kings 19:9–18 | Psalm 85 | Romans 10:5–15 | ​Matthew 14:22–33

“Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.” (Matthew 14:28-29).
 
Well, it’s good to be back with you all here in Gondola Point. For the most part, our trip out West was great… with no major hiccups or obstacles to overcome. The only real cause of concern that we had was when we drew near to my old neighbourhood in Northwestern Ontario, and started to see all the smoke, and to catch wind of the serious forest fires that had began to burn across the region.
 
Now, we ourselves were never in any real danger… just a few days of heavy smoke, ashes, and anxiety… but many others were directly faced with these devastating and overwhelming forces of nature… ones made much worse by our warming climate, lack of rain, lightning strikes, and an abundance of dry woodlands. Whole communities in Ontario and beyond have been evacuated, and some even overrun by the flames. So please keep on praying for all those still affected by all the wildfires and other disasters as this hot summer stretches on. 

In our Gospel passage this morning, disciples of Jesus find themselves facing another dangerous force of nature… not wildfires, but fierce winds encountered while rowing across the lake. Winds threatening to capsize their boat, and overwhelm them all.  
 
Just hours before, they had been on the shore with their Master, Jesus, assisting Him as He taught the gathered crowds all about the Kingdom of God... and marveling as He miraculously multiplied their own meager dinner provisions… turning their five loaves and two fish into a meal able to feed over five thousand hungry people, with plenty left over to spare. To put it mildly, it had already been a big and busy day.
 
And so Jesus sent His disciples on ahead in a boat, while He dismissed the now well-fed crowd on His own, and then He took some time to be alone on the mountain to pray, communing with God, His Heavenly Father. 
 
This might remind us of our first reading this morning from First Kings, where the disheartened prophet Elijah encounters God alone on the top of Mount Horeb after a deeply discouraging season. We’re told that Elijah hears God’s voice, not in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire… but in the silence. He discerns God’s holy presence precisely in the absence of any dramatic displays or signs.
 
And this is an important reminder for us all that connection with the Living God doesn’t depend on a special setting, or particular atmosphere. Sure, we might find this or that context more to our own liking, and that’s fine for what it is. But God is not bound to or limited by our own sense of sacred time or space. He’s free to meet us whenever and wherever He wills… not just on our schedule, but on His own… in a gathering like this, or maybe in some random parking lot. In a crowded grocery store, or maybe on an empty highway.
 
For our part, though we can’t force God to ‘show up’… we can actively seek Him, and set aside time and space to listen for His voice, and offer up our attention to Him as best we know how: as we gather together with His Church, and carve out quiet moments alone for prayer… trusting Him to make His presence known when and where He knows we need Him to. 

And as the disciples were struggling hard in the boat against the overwhelming force of the wind and the waves… hard at work just trying to stay afloat… not making any headway despite all their efforts… in that dark moment, in the midst of their fears and struggles… Jesus sees them, and comes to them, walking across the waters.
 
In the Scriptures, and in many Ancient Near Eastern cultures, chaotic waters often signified all that is deadly and dangerous about the created world. The imagery of the watery abyss seemed to embody all that is uncontrollable… the forces that if not contained, would completely overwhelm all in its path.
 
But again and again throughout the Holy Scriptures, the Living God is portrayed as bringing order to even these overwhelming forces… and even turning them into instruments that end up serving His own good purposes. He doesn’t eradicate them… not yet at least… they remain a part of life outside of Eden. But despite their own great power and devastating potential, these forces of nature cannot in the end overturn or overcome the Creator’s ultimate purposes. 

And so, far from being some random magic trick, or gimmick, this miracle account is meant to offer us all a word of hope when we feel like we’re being tossed about on the seas of life, and about to be overwhelmed… overwhelmed by obstacles we can’t seem to overcome… maybe forces like wildfires or floods… or fading health… financial pressures… or relationships in turmoil… or maybe something else entirely.
 
In the midst of the chaos and the struggle… Jesus walks out towards His disciples… treading the wind-tossed waves beneath His sandal clad feet… embodying the Living God’s own power and authority over all His creation. Jesus meets them and us as the one who is not overwhelmed by the things that overwhelm us. He comes to us, undeterred by even our darkest circumstances, inviting us to believe that we are not alone, as we sometimes imagine… and that we are not without help even in our times of great distress. Though He may not necessarily eradicate all our troubles… we can trust Him to see us through them. To help us face them faithfully, knowing that no matter what comes, our Saviour stands with us… even upon the waves. 

But as powerful and unexpected as it may have been to see Jesus walking upon the waters, that’s only the beginning, and not by far the strangest part of this episode! The strangest part is what happens after Jesus arrives: when Peter says that he wants to get out of the boat and walk on the waters right along with Jesus!
 
I mean, it’s one thing for Jesus, the incarnate Son of God to do something as dramatic as walking over the dark chaos waters. What makes Peter, a simple fisherman, think that he could too? And even more astounding… how is Peter actually able to do it?
 
As strange as Peter’s request may seem, this moment shows us something really important… a very different kind of challenge that Christ’s disciples back then, and today all face. One perhaps just as overwhelming and seemingly impossible: that is, can we actually be like Jesus?
 
Not: can we be Jesus. No, He is the only eternally begotten Son of God… utterly unique as the human incarnation of the Living God… the second Person of the Trinity.

We cannot be what and who He is. But can we in a real sense be made like Him? By His grace at work in us, can we actually embody the life of the Living God? And be filled with the same Holy Spirit? And live out the same kind of holiness, and love for our neighbours as He does… and teaches us to? As impossible as this might feel at first, Peter’s example points us squarely in this direction. 
 
Peter sees Jesus walking on the waters, and he wants to step out of the boat and join Him in large part because he understands what it means to be a disciple of Jesus… Peter is seeking to do what his Master does, and to become more and more like His Lord. 
 
And so Peter asks Jesus for an invitation to join Him out on the water, and Jesus says to him, “Don’t be so stupid, Peter! Who do you think you are? You don’t have what it takes?” No. What does Jesus really say? As impossible as it seems, He says to Peter… and to all of us: “Come!”
 
Come join me. Come follow me. Come take the risk of living God’s way. Come walk with me on the waves.” 
 
And Peter does it! He steps out of the boat, and he begins to walk on the waves just like His Saviour! Not because Peter has the power to master these forces of nature… but because his Master Jesus does. Peter can answer Christ’s call, and join Him in doing the impossible only because of his trust in Jesus. That is, only because Jesus His Saviour truly is trustworthy. 
 
But when Peter sees the strong winds, and notices all the forces that threaten to overwhelm him, the disciple becomes afraid, and rapidly begins to sink, crying for help.
 
And of course, Jesus stands back, arms folded and head shaking. “Serves you right Peter, for being so arrogant.”
 
No, of course not! Matthew tells us that Christ swiftly reaches out, and grabs Peter’s outstretched arms, and keeps him from falling beneath the waves. And our Lord says to His frightened disciple: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). Far from cruel mockery, or words of condemnation… this is an invitation… and encouragement for Peter to keep trusting Him… even in the face of the wind and waves, and every source of danger.

As Christ’s disciples today, it can seem overwhelming at times when we stop and really think about what Jesus our Lord is calling us to do. I mean, how can ordinary people like us hope to be like Him? To be faithful like Him? To forgive like Him? To resist sin like Him? To extend mercy and grace to those around us like Him?
 
Even so, Jesus says to you and I: “Come. Step out of the boat. Fix your eyes, not on the frightening forces at work all around you, but fix your eyes upon Me. Learn from Me. Lean on Me. Trust in Me. Follow Me… and I will make you more and more like Me. Not driven about by fear, but filled instead with the fruit of my Spirit: Love, peace, generosity, self-control, kindness, faithfulness, patience, gentleness, and joy.” 
 
And when we fail, or are overcome by fear, or feel overwhelmed… when we start to sink beneath the waves like Peter… the answer isn’t to just give up… or to start frantically thrashing about, looking for some other source of security. In those times, we can cry out to our Saviour, who stands by our side atop the waves, eager to rescue us!

Because we believe that Jesus really is Lord of all, and that the Living God raised Him again from the dead… we really can trust Him with our lives too. Because of this Good News, we can believe that He will help us to become like Him, and help us to walk in His good ways… even when that seems too risky, or far beyond our own abilities. 
 
Because Jesus is Lord, and because God raised Him again from the dead, even when we feel overwhelmed… we can be confident that we are not alone in any of our struggles… and that no force on earth… no raging wind, or stormy sea… no wildfires, or other misfortune… nothing at all can separate us from the loving arms of our Saviour! Nothing at all can overwhelm the power of His saving love. 
 
So let us come, and draw near to Him again in faith… stepping out of our boats, to receive the gracious gift of His life, offered once for all at the cross… trusting that, no matter what comes our way, we can trust that Jesus Christ our Risen Saviour will see us through, and that one day He will raise us up to be with Him, and share in His saving love forever. Amen. 

​Starting Friday July 10 Rev. Rob has been on vacation, and will be returning to St. Luke's on Friday August 7. 

While he's away our excellent team of Lay Readers will be leading our In-Person services of Morning Prayer. For the Sundays when he is away, Rev. Rob has prepared Reflection Questions to help us engage with the Scripture Readings for the week.

The reading of Holy Scripture together as a community has been a central part of Christian worship throughout the Church’s long history. It has deep roots within the spiritual practices of Israel, and sustains God’s people today.
​
We read Scripture together not simply to learn new information about God’s dealings with humanity in the past, but to listen in faith to what the Living God is saying to us His people today.

It is a profound act of worship, a way of turning of our full attention to our Lord. We listen to His Word to draw closer to Him, and to one another in love.

After every Scripture Reading in our At-Home Morning Prayer service, you're invited to take a few moments in silence to reflect upon the passage, and how God’s Spirit might be addressing us through it, as individuals and as a community.

In those moments, pay attention to any words, ideas, or images from the reading that stand out to you. In the silence afterwards, ask God to help you hear His word for you today.

After the Gospel Reading, take 1-2 minutes to reflect, and then read over this week's Reflection Questions. Take whatever time you need to prayerfully sit with these questions, taking notes if you find it helpful, or perhaps even returning to the questions throughout the week. 

Starting Friday July 10 Rev. Rob has been on vacation, and will be returning to St. Luke's on Friday August 7. 

While he's away our excellent team of Lay Readers will be leading our In-Person services of Morning Prayer. For the Sundays when he is away, Rev. Rob has prepared Reflection Questions to help us engage with the Scripture Readings for the week.

The reading of Holy Scripture together as a community has been a central part of Christian worship throughout the Church’s long history. It has deep roots within the spiritual practices of Israel, and sustains God’s people today.
​
We read Scripture together not simply to learn new information about God’s dealings with humanity in the past, but to listen in faith to what the Living God is saying to us His people today.

It is a profound act of worship, a way of turning of our full attention to our Lord. We listen to His Word to draw closer to Him, and to one another in love.

After every Scripture Reading in our At-Home Morning Prayer service, you're invited to take a few moments in silence to reflect upon the passage, and how God’s Spirit might be addressing us through it, as individuals and as a community.

In those moments, pay attention to any words, ideas, or images from the reading that stand out to you. In the silence afterwards, ask God to help you hear His word for you today.

After the Gospel Reading, take 1-2 minutes to reflect, and then read over this week's Reflection Questions. Take whatever time you need to prayerfully sit with these questions, taking notes if you find it helpful, or perhaps even returning to the questions throughout the week. 

Starting Friday July 10 Rev. Rob has been on vacation, and will be returning to St. Luke's on Friday August 7. 

While he's away our excellent team of Lay Readers will be leading our In-Person services of Morning Prayer. For the Sundays when he is away, Rev. Rob has prepared Reflection Questions to help us engage with the Scripture Readings for the week.

The reading of Holy Scripture together as a community has been a central part of Christian worship throughout the Church’s long history. It has deep roots within the spiritual practices of Israel, and sustains God’s people today.

We read Scripture together not simply to learn new information about God’s dealings with humanity in the past, but to listen in faith to what the Living God is saying to us His people today.

It is a profound act of worship, a way of turning of our full attention to our Lord. We listen to His Word to draw closer to Him, and to one another in love.

After every Scripture Reading in our At-Home Morning Prayer service, you're invited to take a few moments in silence to reflect upon the passage, and how God’s Spirit might be addressing us through it, as individuals and as a community.

In those moments, pay attention to any words, ideas, or images from the reading that stand out to you. In the silence afterwards, ask God to help you hear His word for you today.

After the Gospel Reading, take 1-2 minutes to reflect, and then read over this week's Reflection Questions. Take whatever time you need to prayerfully sit with these questions, taking notes if you find it helpful, or perhaps even returning to the questions throughout the week. ​

Scripture Readings: Zechariah 9:9–12 | Psalm 145:8–14 | Romans 7:15–25a | Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30

“Come to me, all you that 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.” (Matthew 11:28-29).
 
For the past five years now, we as a Parish have set aside one Sunday in early Summer to gather outside in the Churchyard of St. Luke’s to worship the Living God, surrounded by the beautiful works of His hands in creation, and the graves of our brothers and sisters in the faith… remembering with gratitude all those who have laboured long in the service of our Lord here in Gondola Point, and who have now been entrusted into His loving arms to receive His blessed rest.   
 
This service reminds us that we are but one chapter of a much, much longer story… that we are never alone, but in Christ Jesus we remain connected to… we remain in communion with all those who are His. And we are reminded that although we still have our own labours and work to do for the Kingdom of God here in Gondola Point… one day we too can look forward to sharing in the blessed rest of the faithful.  
But what about before we receive that blessed, eternal rest?
 
As we look around at the world, and the times, that God has placed us in, a world growing more and more divided… and times that seem ever more troubled and uncertain… it seems like there’s no shortage of good work to do, and it can be really easy for us to feel overwhelmed. To struggle to stay motivated… worrying about if all this effort and work is worth it… feeling the weight of all that needs to be done, and wondering if we are up to the challenge.
 
If we feel this way today, we’re in good company. And thankfully, our Heavenly Father knows full well that we His children are not superhumans, or machines. God knows the burdens we carry. He knows our constant need for encouragement, and His sustaining grace. He knows we need more than the promise of an eternal rest in the future someday, as wonderful as that gift is. We also need to receive real rest right here and now… in the midst of our work in this world.

​Thankfully, our Scripture readings today from the letter to the Romans and the Gospel of Matthew remind us where to turn to find the rest that we all really need. 

In our reading from the Letter to the Romans, we heard St. Paul give voice to some of the tensions and turmoil at work inside us… the fight between our desire to do God’s good will… to walk in His holy ways, and serve His Good Kingdom well on the one hand… and on the other hand all our old selfish and sinful desires that pull us away from His side, and lead us into spiritual darkness.   
 
Romans 7:22-24, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
 
St. Paul well understood that the Christian life is not a cake walk. It’s a struggle at times to stay faithful. It takes sincere effort and hard work to stay true to the ways of God, and to say no to all that might come naturally to us, but which keeps us from loving God and all of our neighbours. And this work might even feel fruitless and futile at times… like it’s a battle that we can’t hope to win… an unending conflict without any chance of relief.
 
But right when St. Paul brings us near to the point of despair… he points us straight to the source of our greatest hope. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
 
The truth is though we cannot rescue ourselves from this internal conflict… that’s what Jesus Christ has come to do! To save us from our sin, and self-destructive ways… to set us free from our pasts… to be forgiven, and begin to live God’s way today… to lay to rest our old selves with Him at the cross, and raise us up again with Him forever.
 
Yes, we are still called to co-operate with His grace… to put in the effort to actively choose to trust in and follow our Lord in the face of many temptations. But the Good News is when it comes to our salvation, Jesus Himself has done all the heavy lifting! He truly is our Saviour, bearing our burdens and bringing us New Life. Dying for us at the cross. Rising again for us. Reigning now for us at the Father’s right hand in glory, and returning one day for us and our world… reconciling all things by His blood, and saving love. 
 
If we go about trying to find our own spiritual relief apart from His saving grace, we’re bound to feel burdened. But if we place our trust in Jesus, and in what He’s done for us and our world… we can start to breathe easy. We can lay down the weight of our mistakes… of our fears, and our need for control… and trust Him with our fate. Believing the Good News that God really loves us, and His grace really will carry us home. 
 
And turning now to our Gospel passage this morning, we hear Jesus Himself beckoning all who are feeling weary and heavy laden to come to Him and find rest. Yes, the ultimate rest, of eternity one day… as our brothers and sisters surrounding us this morning now enjoy… but also rest for today… rest in the midst of our labours and struggles in this life.
 
Notice though the way that Jesus says we will receive this blessed rest: not through sitting idle, and doing nothing, but through actively following Him. Matthew 11:29-30, “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.”

A yoke is an instrument of labour: a piece of wood placed upon a team of oxen to pull a heavy cart or a plow. But Christ says that taking on His yoke is actually easy, and that the burden He asks us to bear is actually light. That is, in comparison to the labours and the burdens that our world has to offer.
 
For the yoke that He offers us is the life of faith… of learning to trust in His guidance and redeeming grace… to bear the burden of believing that the path He calls us to walk, and the works of love that He places on our shoulders actually sets us free from the dreadful weights that we otherwise bear on our own when we walk apart from Him.
 
And when we look around at our world, and our troubled times, Jesus reminds us that, the fate of our world ultimately rests in our Heavenly Father’s hands, not ours! That God Himself is hard at work bringing about His Good Kingdom… and as dark and heavy as things may seem at times, He will not rest until all is set right again.
 
In the meantime, we are all called to draw near to Jesus our Saviour. To place our trust in Him day to day. To learn from Him how to live God’s way… who leads us with gentleness and humbly meets us where we are. To let Him handle all our burdens and everything that’s weighing us down in body, mind, and soul… inviting His Holy Spirit to be at work in us… sustaining us, comforting us, and empowering us to do far more than we can ask or imagine.
 
With Jesus’s help, we can carry on the work of God, here in Gondola Point, knowing that all our efforts for the Kingdom will not be in vain. We can work, knowing that He is calling us to walk the path that leads to life and peace, and joy, not futility. We can work, knowing that we will one day share in the rest and reward of all the faithful. And we can find rest while we work, by trusting in the One who died, and rose again for us… and who alone makes all things new. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 28:5–9 | Psalm 89:1-18 | Romans 6:12–23 | ​Matthew 10:40–42

“For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.” (Romans 6:19).
 
What kind of things come to mind when you hear the phrase: “Too good to be true?”
 
Right now, our world is facing a whole lot of complicated and serious challenges: struggling economies, political systems and international relationships under deep tensions and strain… climate change and severe weather events… technological revolutions like the rise of A.I., that threaten to upend and destabilize our societies even further… not to mention all the age old issues we humans have struggled with like greed, prejudice, inequality, and war.   
 
And whenever we’re faced with complex and serious challenges, there often seems to be a whole lot of people ready to step in and offer us some sort of optimistic and simple solutions… over-promising spectacular results, but ultimately failing to deliver. They might say the things that we want to hear… but their words are too good to be true.

But what we need isn’t simple and easy answers… what we need is the truth, even when it’s hard. Even when it asks a lot of us. Hard truths are much better than easy but empty lies.
 
This was the kind of conflict at work in our first reading today, from the Book of Jeremiah, when the faithful prophet of God confronts a literal fake-news false-promise prophet named Hananiah, whose message of peace and an easy recovery for God’s people turned out to be too good to be true.
 
At the time, Judah had just been dealt a terrible blow: they had suffered their first defeat at the hands of Babylon… with the king of Judah, the sacred Temple vessels, and many of their leaders carried off into Exile, leaving behind a large portion of God’s people, struggling to make sense of their painful situation. Had God abandoned them? Was this the end of their nation? Was there any hope for them now?
 
And in this dark and confusing time, Hananiah stepped up to try and offer some good news… some hope that their enemies would soon be overturned… saying God would step in to intervene and fix things very soon. That this whole situation was only a minor setback, soon to be resolved.
 
In Jeremiah 28:1-4, Hananiah proclaimed “in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
 
Sounds like good news to me. Yes, things were rough right now, but according to Hananiah, God said that real peace was just around the corner. The problem was, of course, that God had said no such thing! Hananiah’s words were truly too good to be true. And as unpopular as it would be to challenge this hopeful message, it fell to Jeremiah to stand up and speak the truth, and call out this empty promise.

Hear again Jeremiah’s response to the false hope offered by Hananiah: “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” (Jeremiah 28:5-9). In other words, Jeremiah says to him: “Peace sounds great, but we’ll believe it when we see it!”
 
Jeremiah knew that the hard truth was this first defeat was just the beginning. Soon Babylon’s armies would return and completely destroy the Temple, and torch the whole Holy City, shattering their entire world. Soon the rest of God’s people would be killed, taken off into Exile, or scattered among the nations. Instead of returning soon to the status quo, the people of Judah would spend generations in a land not their own… strangers in a strange land… serving at the mercy of new masters… apparently abandoned by God, and cut off from their future as God’s holy people.

I say apparently because as hard as this truth about Judah’s future was, their Exile was not actually evidence that God had abandoned them… but rather that God was committed to correcting them. Disciplining them, as a loving parent does with their wayward child… not out of spite or cruelty, but out of the deepest devotion and compassion.
 
In the centuries leading up to this point, God’s people had steered so far off course from their covenant partnership with the LORD, and had adopted all sorts of unjust, and oppressive, and evil practices, that God allowed them to face the dire consequences of their choices… the death of their whole way of life. Their society, their sacred traditions, their sense of identity… all of it was shaken to the core… in order for God to restore His people, and begin to turn their hearts and lives back to Himself.

And this work of spiritual restoration would take more than a moment… more than a few years even. It was going to be a slow but essential process if God’s people were going to learn to trust and follow Him again. To learn that, even when everything else is lost, that they could depend on the Living God, and that walking in His holy ways really does lead us into life.  

In our own moments of devastation, or times of great difficulty, it can be really tempting to turn to those like Hananiah who offer us easy answers and the hope of rapid results. But the danger of easy answers is that they usually end up being too good to be true. Not only leaving us disappointed and disillusioned… but also distracting us from the necessary truths that we need to engage with. The truths that might be hard, but that offer actual hope, and that can help us to get through the tough times before us… helping us to find a better way forward, even if it’s not the easiest path. After all, what’s best for us is rarely what’s easiest.

And the truth is, the Good News is far better than any false hope that we could dream up or imagine! The Good News that the Living, Triune God truly loves us, and our world… and wants us to share in the blessed life of His Good Kingdom through Jesus Christ the Risen Lord… graciously forgiving our sins, and drawing us into a new fellowship of faith. This new life is not always easy, and it invites us into a life-long journey of learning and growing… but even so, it is so worth it. It is so good… and thanks be to God… it is also true. 

But there is also the real danger of taking something wonderful and true, like the Good News of God’s great love for us all… and trying to reduce it into another easy answer… distorting what is meant to bring us real help and hope by twisting it a bit into something else entirely… into an excuse for selfishness, and sin… a cover for our misbehaviour.
 
This is the kind of confusion that St. Paul tackled head on in our second reading today from the letter to the Romans… shining a light on a potential misunderstanding of the Good News that goes something like this: if God really loves us, and will keep on forgiving us, we can just do whatever we want, right? If we’re saved by His grace, as a gift… and not by our obedience to the Torah, to the Laws of Moses… then we can just live however we want… right? “Should we sin” St. Paul asks rhetorically “because we are not under law but under grace?”
 
As Christians today, does this describe our own attitudes at times? Are we concerned about how all the choices we make in our daily lives line up with how our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us to live? Are we seriously trying to walk in His good ways, or are we just doing our own thing… not bothered much about turning our lives around, content to take the easiest paths forward, even if it means letting our selfishness and sins take the lead more often than not?
 
For St. Paul, that would be a ridiculous choice, and he goes on to use the image of a slave being set free from a deadly master in order to serve one that brings life instead.  

He understands that the Good News of Jesus Christ is meant to set us free from sin itself… not just the punishment from sin, but our actual slavery to it. So, if we’ve been set free from its power, why should we turn back to it again? It only leads us into trouble, and ultimately death… and we have a much better alternative!
 
Romans 6:20-23, “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Once, like the Exiles of Judah, serving their new masters in Babylon, we too were held captive by sin… driven by forces inside and beyond us that trapped us in habits of self-destruction. But now, in Jesus Christ, God’s grace has been given to us to set us free from sin, to follow a new Master… the One who loves us, and laid down His life at the cross to purchase our freedom and cleanse us from sin.
 
And now, with the help of His Holy Spirit, our Master Jesus Christ calls us to live each day as those serving Him, the Risen Lord of Love and Life… leaving behind all those things that drag us back down into selfishness and sin. And putting all His ways into practice. 
 
A good word for this process of putting sin to death in our daily lives, and learning to live God’s way is sanctification: a word St. Paul uses, that basically means being made holy. Being set apart for a sacred, special purpose… and being made pure… refined like silver and gold in a furnace.
 
Sanctification is itself a gift to us. The results of the work already begun in us by Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the ongoing work of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s not about trying to fix ourselves up first in order to be good enough for God, trying to earn His approval. It’s what happens when we simply obey His voice, and follow His lead… placing our faith in Him, and then cooperate with His work in our lives… with the gracious gift of New Life He alone can give… saying yes to His offer to cleanse our hearts… to keep healing our old instincts… and to redirect our actions in ways that bind us closer to Him, and to one another. 
 
Sanctification… holiness is a gift to us in Jesus Christ. A gift that unfolds and deepens over time, and one that invites our intentional efforts… our daily choice to walk in God’s own holy ways, and not to just appreciate them from afar. It’s not always the easiest path in life. But it is a path that is both good and true… ultimately leading us away from false hopes, and leading us towards the fullness of life… to experience life the way our loving Creator always intended us to: not preoccupied with our own self-righteousness, or status… but driven by mercy, integrity, and grace… set apart to reflect the holy love of the Living God in our daily lives, and all our relationships. 
 
As Christians, we’re not being offered a bunch of easy answers or instantaneous results when we give our lives to, and place our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Instead, we are called into the new life of holiness… of growing more and more like our Lord, and choosing again and again to walk in His ways. Not so we can play pretend, and act like we’re somehow better than others… or have all the answers.
 
The goal is not to become ‘too good to be true’… but by God’s grace, to truly become good. To share in God’s own goodness… so that through our lives… our words, and actions, and choices that reflect His own holiness, God can bring His healing and hope to our hurting world… working through the lives of His holy people to share the Good News of Christ Jesus… the Good News of His saving love, especially as we face all these complex and serious challenges before us.  
 
So may God’s Holy Spirit continue His good work in us, sanctifying us… making us more like Him… and working through all we say and do to share God’s holy love with our world. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 20:7–13 | Psalm 69:7-18 | Romans 6:1–11 | Matthew 10:24–39

“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 those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39).
 
Now I don’t know if you were looking forward to a nice, straightforward, family-focused Father’s Day sermon today… but our Gospel passage this morning has sure set us up for a much more difficult time of reflection… inviting us to wrestle with some very challenging, and frankly confusing words spoken by Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
For many folks, the bonds between family members are the most sacred… the most essential relationships that can be imagined. Our attachments and responsibilities towards parents and children… to those we have shared our lives with at the most intimate levels… and who depend on us… these are not things to be trifled with. What is Jesus actually asking of us here? How does this fit with what else we know about Him, and His calling to take part in the work of His good Kingdom?
 
Well, whenever we find ourselves confronted with something in the Scriptures that catches us off guard, and confuses us, it really does help to step back a bit and recall what has already been made known about God’s character and intentions… especially through Jesus Christ His Son.
 
And what do we know? Well, we know that the Living God loves us all… including our family members... our fathers, and mothers, our children, and siblings, and spouses. More than we do, in fact. And we know that God has called us to love everyone… including our family members. So then, whatever Christ is calling us to do in our Gospel passage today, it’s not coming from a desire to undermine our deep connections to those we love and share our lives with… but to establish them on a firmer foundation… and to keep us from asking more of them than they can possibly offer.
 
In these words, Jesus is using an extreme example to highlight a dangerous and difficult choice that lies before us all, a choice about where we’ll place our deepest devotion. He’s challenging us with the question:
Do our hearts and lives really belong to the Lord, or to someone else? 
 
Turning now to our Gospel passage itself from Matthew Chapter 10, we need to locate these words in their context, and work through the logic of the message as a whole. Today’s reading is a continuation of a much larger section in which our Lord is preparing His disciples to be sent out to the various villages of Israel, and share with God’s people the Good News that God’s Kingdom has come near. He sends them out to preach, and to heal, to bring God’s help and hope to those who have long lived in despair. But He’s also preparing them to face the real friction and inevitable rejection that they will also encounter.
 
He says to them: “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.” (Matthew 10:24-25). And so, if some of God’s people have already slandered and accused Jesus of being in the wrong, they can expect to face the same treatment. But even so, Jesus reassures them, and tells them not to be afraid of what mere mortals can do.

Matthew 10:28-31, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” [In other words, be much more concerned with staying true to God our Creator. Jesus then goes on:] “ 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.”
 
Notice that Jesus doesn’t promise that they would somehow avoid difficult times, persecution, and even death. Actually, He says the opposite. Christ says that they need to be prepared to face real suffering if they are to serve as His disciples, and share in the work of God’s Kingdom. Just like Jesus already had, and soon would once and for all at the cross. And sure enough, these same disciples would all one day face fierce persecution, and martyrdom for the sake of the Good News.
 
And yet, Jesus does offer them real hope to hold onto: the hope that comes from knowing that God their Father would always be mercifully watching over them... intimately aware and invested in every detail of their lives… even when they felt alone. Lovingly counting the hairs on their heads… even when they felt abandoned and insignificant. As Christ sends out His followers into a dangerous world, He assures them of the Father’s devotion to them… His steadfast love and faithfulness… inviting them to trust that even if like a little sparrow they end up falling, the Father will not forget them, but will one day vindicate and raise up His faithful ones again. 
 
This is the same sort of hope we heard today in our second reading from Romans Chapter 6:4-5, where St. Paul says to His fellow believers: “Therefore we have been buried with him [that is, Jesus] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Now St. Paul’s context and argument is not exactly the same here. In this passage He’s speaking about the big implications of being a Christian, of sharing completely in Christ’s story… being joined to Christ in baptism… dying to our old self, and being raise with Christ to share in a whole new way of life that Jesus Himself now makes possible.

But the same hope that empowered the disciples to share the Good News of God’s Kingdom… the hope of the Father’s saving love empowers us to live as Christ’s own faithful disciples today… giving us assurance that no matter what obstacles we might face, our ultimate future is secure in our Father’s hands… and challenging us in the present to not give up, but to walk in the ways Christ Himself has taught us… considering ourselves already “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11), no longer bound by our old ways and distorted desires and devotions, but forgiven and set free to live God’s way even now.
 
Paul’s point here can be summed up like this: Do our hearts and lives really belong to the Lord? If so, let’s actually live like it! Let’s cling to Jesus our Saviour, and learn from Him how to walk in God’s good ways. And let’s let go of anything that pulls our hearts and our lives away from His side.
 
Just like Jesus in our Gospel passage, St. Paul is calling his fellow Christians to be clear about their commitments: to not mess around with old habits and sinful practices that undermined the new life that the Living God had shared with them… but to reaffirm their wholehearted devotion to the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead… loving Him more than anything and anyone that tries to pry us away from His side. 
 
Remember: love is not a zero-sum game… the more we love God, the more we can love all those around us. But the order here really does matter. And Jesus Christ pushes all His followers, those living back in the days of His earthly ministry, and those of us who seek to follow Him today… He wants us all to be clear about our commitment to Him: Are we His people or not? Will we pick up our own crosses and follow Him, or forsake Him? Will we seek the new life that He offers us, even if it comes with a cost, or look for what we need elsewhere?
 
These are the questions Christ confronts us all with… not because He’s cruel, or doesn’t care about our close family bonds, and the communities that mean so much to us… quite the opposite! After all, our gracious Creator has made us for human connection and community.

But Christ also knows that when we devote ourselves to anything or anyone above Him, we end up upending and distorting these good gifts, and lead each other away from the love of God that we are all made for. He knows we need to have our hope built upon something even more stable than the bonds of family. We need a foundation even more solid than any human community can offer. Jesus confronts us with these questions about our devotion to Him because He knows that it is only the Living God who can be trusted to never falter. It is God alone whose saving love will never fail. 
 
In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus makes this striking claim:
“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;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
 
What is this all about?
Well Jesus is quoting the Prophet Micah Chapter 7, a passage where the Prophet is despairing because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. In Micah’s day, it seemed like no one could be trusted to be true. Everyone, even those you’d expect to be reliable were ready instead to lie and cheat and kill. God’s people had let their devotion to the Lord grow cold, and so they replaced love with wickedness. Micah 7:2-6,
 
The faithful have disappeared from the land,
and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and they hunt each other with nets.
 
Their hands are skilled to do evil;
the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice.
 
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
 
Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household.”
 
This all sounds pretty bleak. And unfortunately, some things have not changed that much between then and now. All around us, and maybe in our own lives and relationships, we can see signs of distrust and disunion… of sin and selfishness shaping and distorting our society. So many have no one they can trust, and are cut off from those who should be closest to them.
 
And so, when Jesus quotes this passage from Micah, He’s warning His followers that the world around them… the world He’s sending them into is not a rose-garden. It’s often a mess. And they may even end up at odds with those they have known their whole life… their own flesh and blood might very well turn on them.
 
But even so, Christ sends them out. Because the Good News of God’s Kingdom is worth rocking the boat for. The Good News of God’s saving love… the message of redemption and the forgiveness of sins, and God’s new life is more precious than any peace built on lies, and distrust, and deception.
 
And even though this Good News might not be always well received… and even though our loved ones might even reject us because of Christ… we have Someone we can trust… Someone who’s love we can rely on… Someone to turn to with wholehearted devotion and who will never let us down.
 
As Christ quotes Micah to warn us of the untrustworthiness of the world, the Prophet then goes on to offer a better source of hope: inviting us to place our trust in the LORD.  Micah 7:7,   
“But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.”
 
By quoting this passage, Jesus is calling us His disciples to trust in Him as the LORD. To love Him more than any other, because as the Son of God in the flesh, He really is the answer to our prayers: the Saviour we’ve all been waiting for, sent by our merciful Father to set us free to share His new life with all those around us… including those closest to us. []
 
So then, if Jesus calls us to love Him and remain devoted to Him more than anyone else… what does He actually call us to do with our families? He calls us to love them!

​He calls us to share God’s kind of love with them. To share the grace, and the patience, and the forgiveness that Christ offers us with them too. To do our best to care for and encourage them. To pray for them.
 
That doesn’t mean it will always be easy. We might still encounter a lot of friction, and even face rejection from our family members. As we all know, all families can be messy. We can’t make others respond the way that we’d like them to. But Jesus Christ our Lord call us to love them anyway. To learn how to share with them our Heavenly Father’s love. The love we have come to know in Jesus Christ. The love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit for us to share with everyone. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Exodus 19:2–8 | Psalm 100 | Romans 5:1–8 | Matthew 9:35–10:23

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6).
 
Well, as most soccer fans know, the World Cup is now underway… with teams from countries around the world competing to prove that they are the best of the best. And truth be told, the World Cup does give us a chance to see some incredibly talented athletes and teams who have trained and prepared and fought hard to get to this level, a pursuit that requires an impressive level of grit and commitment.  
 
Along with Mexico, and the United States, Canada is co-hosting the World Cup this year, which is pretty cool. And even though it’s pretty unlikely that we will end up winning the whole tournament, so far this time we’ve done better than ever before… ending our first game with a draw. Compared to many other countries where soccer, or football is almost a way of life, Canada is definitely an underdog. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up and not even try to do the best we can.
 
This reminds me of my own incredibly brief experience with playing soccer in High School. I like soccer. It’s pretty much the only sport that I enjoyed playing growing up.  Back in Middle School, we used to play it all the time during recess. And while I started out pretty terrible, over those years I improved a lot by just playing with my friends. That said, compared to the kids who played on teams where they ran drills, and actually worked hard on their skills, I couldn’t really compete.
 
In Grade 9, a friend and I attended the try-outs for our High School soccer team, and let’s just say, my performance was pretty weak. It became clear very quickly that I was trying to take part in something completely outside of my capabilities. Now I may have been able to get there… to get to that level if I had put in the effort and hard work… and pushed myself to improve… but instead, I just gave up after that one tryout. As much as I loved playing soccer, I didn’t want to risk being so vulnerable, and face rejection… or endure all the hard training that making the team would require. I gave up because I believed I was not good enough… which in that case was probably true. 

Do you ever remember feeling not good enough? Like the goal ahead is just too far out of reach? Like we don’t have the right skills, or strengths, or insights, or resources to accomplish what needs to be done? Like we are too weak to overcome the challenges before us? I know many of us have felt this way from time to time.
 
But thankfully, our Scripture readings this morning bring us a message of hope… hope offered especially when we are all too aware of our own weakness and unworthiness… and are asked to endure great difficulties, and suffer for the sake of something of ultimate value.
 
A word of hope, not about how to avoid these harsh realities… but how to endure them faithfully. How not to give up, but to press on towards the goal of the good Kingdom of God. 
 
In our first reading today from the book of Exodus, we heard the Living God’s invitation offered to Israel at Mt. Sinai… an invitation to enter into a sacred covenant relationship with Him… to be transformed into a new people set apart for God… a royal priesthood, a holy nation… not because they were the biggest and best… the most powerful or pious… but chosen as an act of sheer grace… as an extension of God’s love offered long ago to their ancestors Abraham and Sarah… inviting them into His plan to set the whole world right again… living as His people, guided by His commandments, and walking in His holy ways so that the rest of the world may come to know God’s goodness and saving love for themselves.
 
And we heard that at Sinai, all the people eagerly said yes to this arrangement… to do everything that the Lord says. But throughout the story of the Old Testament, God’s people proved to be just as ungodly as the nations around them… turning their back on their Lord again and again, and losing their way, like sheep wandering with no shepherd. Yet even so, God never gives up on His wayward people, but sends them messengers… Prophets who warned and challenged them to turn around and repent… and who also beckoned and encouraged them not to give up… to return to their Lord and place their hope and faith in His great compassion and faithfulness.
 
After many centuries of this pattern playing out… Jesus Christ, God’s Son comes onto the scene, and He sees all this… He sees the ways Israel’s leadership had once again lost the plot, and were pursuing their own concerns. He sees how the people themselves were struggling and suffering, “harassed and helpless”, just like lost sheep in the wilderness without a shepherd. Jesus sees all this with the eyes of God’s great compassion for His wandering people. 
 
And in response to this great need, Christ says 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.” (Matthew 9:37-38). And then He summons twelve of His disciples and sends them out as His ambassadors… His messengers, announcing the Good News of God’s Kingdom through their words and miraculous deeds. Jesus sends them out to the people of Israel only… at least for now… as the fulfillment of God’s promises of love and faithfulness to His covenant people, spoken long ago through the Prophets… announcing to these communities of God’s people struggling on the margins that their Saviour has come at last. 

But notice, Christ sends His disciples out into Israel’s villages, not as professional experts… as the best of the best… but as vulnerable ambassadors… as sheep among wolves… completely dependent on the hospitality of strangers and on the sustaining grace of God. And they were asked to do the seemingly impossible: as they share the Good News of God’s Kingdom, they were to “[c]ure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8), deeds only possible through God’s power and Christ’s own authority at work in and through them.
 
The disciples weren’t superheroes… they were just ordinary people that Jesus summoned and set apart to share in His story… and to share His story with those around them.
 
And God tends to call us to do what we cannot do without Him. He calls us to do things that require us to trust Him… to place our faith and our hope in His grace and faithfulness. In a profound way, that’s what it’s always meant to be His people, and to walk in His ways: not being led by our own sense of what can be done, but by what God Himself has called us to do. 

But as Christ warned His disciples in the rest of our Gospel reading, this way of life will not be easy. Following Jesus and sharing in the work of His good Kingdom is not a guarantee of a painless path forward. Far from it. Staying true to Jesus in a world wandering far off course often involves times of great trouble for God’s people… and we too may have to face painful rejections, and suffering as a result.
 
But just as God calls us to do what we cannot do without Him, God doesn’t ask us to do more than He is willing to do first on our behalf. After all, Christ Himself endured great suffering at the cross… and the rejection of the leaders of His own people… dying for them, and rising again to save them while they were still acting like His enemies. 
 
At the cross, God shows us His great love for us “while we still were sinners” (Romans 5:8)… suffering to set us free from our sins while we were at our weakest… reconciling us to God, and to one another. 
 
After the resurrection, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the Risen Christ sends out these same disciples to announce the Good News not only to Israel, but now to all nations! Messengers announcing that the Saviour of Israel and the Saviour of the world has come at last! 
 
The Risen Christ sends out the twelve into a world full of sheep without a shepherd… into all the brokenness, and divisiveness and suffering we humans keep bringing into existence. And instead of looking down on the nations around them in condemnation… Christ sends them out driven by God’s great compassion… God’s clear commitment to lift up this world He loves, and set it free to be more than it could ever be on its own... reconciling all the peoples of the earth through what Jesus Christ God’s Son has done for us all. 
 
Of course, this has never been an easy mission, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. And even the disciples had to take it one step at a time… starting with those close at hand in Jerusalem, and then, following God’s Spirit, stepping out from there to spread the Good News all throughout the earth.

And those of us who are Christians, Christ’s disciples today are all a part of this same story… this same mission to make known the Good News of the Risen Saviour of the world through our own words and deeds.
 
And we can easily feel ill-equipped for this mission… like we don’t have what we need… the skills, or insights, or resources. We might feel too frightened… too vulnerable... too weak to be of any use to God in this way.
 
Maybe like High School Rob a that soccer tryout, we’re all too aware of our own inabilities, especially compared to others… and we’re ready to give up even before we really began to try. 
 
These are all understandable fears and feelings. I mean, no one wants to feel foolish, or inadequate, or weak. Yet, it is precisely in situations where we’re asked by God to do things that seem far beyond us that our faith can be put to work and flourish! That is when we can experience God’s grace at work even in our weakness… when we can see His great strength, and wisdom, and compassion at work in and through us in ways we could not imagine before… and when we might actually find that He’s placed us exactly where we needed to be…  and find our friends and our neighbours surprisingly open… not to being manipulated or guilted, or frightened into the doors of the Church… but open to the Good News of God’s great love for them… offered to us all in Jesus Christ at the cross, while we were all still weak, ungodly sinners.
 
If you and I are to take part in this story today, where do we start? The Twelve Apostles went first to their own people… to those who already knew of the Living God, and His good ways. And maybe we Christians need to start by helping each other rediscover what the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord is really about!
 
That it is not about gaining power and status for ourselves. That it’s not about health and wealth and prosperity in this life. That it’s not about ticking the right theological boxes, and shunning those who don’t… or competing to be the most pious… or arguing over whose service, or music, or food is the best. It’s not about desperately holding onto the things that bring us comfort, while cutting ourselves off from our neighbours. 

It’s about believing the Good News that Jesus Christ our world’s Saviour King has come. That He has died. That He is Risen. That He will come again to sort out our messed up world, and make all things new… including you and me. 
 
It’s the Good News that God so loved this world… you and me included… even while we were at our very worst… and that God sent His Son Jesus, so that all those who believe in Him will have everlasting life. 
 
And maybe before we turn to one another to share this Good News, we need to start first with ourselves!!! Maybe today we are the ones who need to be reminded… or even believe for the very first time that God really loves us… and that in His great compassion God sent Jesus His Son to save us, and to offers us His Holy Spirit to make us new even now, and to share with us His eternal life of love. 
 
When we face times when we feel that we’re not good enough… may we trust that our weaknesses are not a problem for the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ.

May we believe the Good News that God loves us all… and that He wants us all to share in the life of His Kingdom… that in unimaginable compassion and grace God is reaching out to rescue His people… as weak, and helpless, and ungodly as we are at times… to rescue us from ourselves, and our sins… and then to send us out into the world to share this same Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ with those around us.
 
And when we face setbacks and challenges, let us not give up, but rather remember that Jesus Christ our Saviour King shares in all of the sufferings we face… and through His Spirit at work in us, He strengthens us and our faith as we follow Him… using these moments to build up our endurance, and form our character, and nurture a holy hope in our hearts that will not disappoint.
 
I’ll end now by returning to our second reading this morning from Romans 5:1-8.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
 
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Amen.