Christ calls us to into a tough space. A space of compassion and care for our enemies, perceived and real. In the midst of a cultural environment that constantly calls for us to raise up heroes who will root out these enemies, we stand with Christ, the Son of Man, who tells us to compassionately tend to the weeds and the wheat together.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Growing up I loved to play baseball. One summer when I was about 12 or 13 I was old enough to play in the Babe Ruth League, a step up from Little League. I knew I could make the team and wanted the chance to show my stuff. But for whatever reason, the coach was gracious enough that we didn’t even need to try out. Everyone made the team without having to earn it. This would have been good news for me if the sport had been soccer or

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Smack in the middle of the summer growing season, we get this parable about a farmer – specifically, about one who sows the seeds – “The Sower.” I know many of you have grown up or lived for a long time here in the Farmington Valley where there are many farms dotted around our landscape – both big and small. I grew up in the Midwest, a region renowned the world over for its massive

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Well, Happy Father’s Day! Don’t you think this text just perfect for Father’s Day? “I will set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother.” … “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me!” Doesn’t that just make you want Father’s Day brunch! Yes, this text is most certainly jarring. Especially today as people around our country celebrate fathers an

Gospel Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In the towns and cities the crowds are gathering. They are jostling and tussling for access to one man who is apparently overwhelmed. He is moved with compassion as he sees their desperate need. He seemingly mutters to himself, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers few! Lord, send out laborers!” He has a flash of insight! He turns to his 12 di

Earlier in his gospel Matthew quotes Jesus again, but not with the mystery of a parable: “The harvest is plentiful,” he says, “but the laborers are few, therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers...” Farm country, big city, suburb… we are all called to faith by the living God to sow the seeds of faith ourselves, and care for one another… wherever we live, whatever our occupation.

Earlier this year I was blessed with the opportunity to join a group from the New England Synod on an accompaniment trip to Honduras. Sixteen Lutherans from New England, including Bisho Pipho, five pastors, and ten members of various congregations, participated.

Discovery, growth, and engagement in our faith in Jesus Christ take place throughout the year at St. Matthew in many ways. We often do ministry together through prayer and in love for one another and our community. We grow through fellowship,

This same Holy Spirit that empowered the disciples at Pentecost lives in you! This same Holy Spirit is at work in us to transform us into bold apostles. To facilitate spiritual growth in us and bring us to spiritual maturity. To establish us as good fruit for the world. To make us people who embody God’s goodness and love in our words and deeds.

Jesus doesn’t abandon the disciples. Instead, he commissions them telling them: “You are witnesses of these things” as part of his blessing. In other words: the story is not over. In fact, it is just beginning. Jesus is not ‘leaving’ the world, he is ascending to the Father to sit at the right hand of God – being an authority over the mission of these Spirit-filled people that he commissioned to be his body in the world.

When we’re feeling frustrated with our lives or what’s happening in the world. When we’re feeling hopeless or depressed or angry. When we’re feeling lost or have no sense of direction or we wonder if God has forgotten about us. Remember Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit abides with you, lives in you. Trust that God is there even and especially when you don’t feel it.

The first part of our Gospel reading today makes Jesus sound like a travel agent! I know that’s not an image that typically shows up alongside more grand images like, “Christ the Good Shepherd” and “Christ the King.” “Christ the Holy Travel Agent” doesn’t really ring in the ear the same way… However, in verses 2-6 Jesus promises his disciples that he is going to make loving preparations of dwelling places at “his Father’s house.”

There are a lot of metaphors for God throughout scripture and the history of Christian theology. And I think it’s helpful for people of faith to occasionally explore these images and how others have understood God throughout the centuries. Doing so may help us grow in our own understanding of, and trust in, the divine reality to which these images point.

Our lives are lived around food. In our happiest of celebrations, we eat together! In our saddest moments… we eat together! We celebrate births, graduations and marriages by eating! When we die… our family and loved ones come together and eat. The power of the table to nourish, to fill, to make and sustain relationships and to comfort and heal, is amazing.

When doubt comes your way, sit with it. Invite it to purify your faith. Invite it to teach you to trust God beyond feelings and experiences, beyond signs and wonders, beyond spiritual consolation. Invite God to use trials and doubts to transform you.

Matthew 26:26-46 Today is Maundy Thursday. It’s the first of the great three days of the Paschal Triduum, the final three days of Lent: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, that is the Vigil of Easter. Tonight we remember our Lord’s institution of Holy Communion at the Last Supper. Where he instructed his disciples to eat and drink a meal of his body and blood in remembrance of him. Then, according to the Gospel of John, he washed his disciples’ feet and procl

Today is our church’s day of great celebration! The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia! And we come to know Jesus’s resurrection story because Mary Magdalene goes back to Jesus’s tomb the day after the Sabbath, what we now call Sunday, and encounters the first, alarming Easter morning.

Jesus’ tears precede Lazarus’ return, so does the pain and suffering of the cross precede the joy of Resurrection. Assuring us that while suffering is indeed very very real; suffering does not get the last word.

Jesus invites us to find a place of calm in Him. To have our vision reset. To receive the clarity and groundedness that the man born blind received in our Gospel reading today. Because we may not be able to navigate through all the smoke and clouds in our lives, but in Jesus Christ we will experience clarity of vision. We will find groundedness in unsettling times. We may even feel the peace which surpasses all understanding.

As I reflect on my time in Honduras and the impressiveness of that giant monument Christo del Picacho, I know Jesus was present there. But He was present just as much, if not more, in the smiles of children, in the tears of parents, in the concerned faces of people living on the edge of poverty, in the hearts of Hondurans worried about the fate of loved ones in the US.