Hope Even When We Are Weak - Sermon for the Third Sunday After Pentecost (June 14, 2026)

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.