SERMONS

Ivory Casten 8/30/26 Ivory Casten 8/30/26

Proper 17: How To Avoid Becoming the Voice of Satan

Readings for August 30

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is wonderful to see you this morning. Last week we heard about St. Peter’s confession. Today the pendulum swings and he gets called Satan by Jesus. What an emotional rollercoaster! It happens because Jesus teaches something that upsets Peter’s deeply held convictions and expectations and this reveals a misalignment in Peter about his will and God’s will; ultimately this becomes an invitation into a deeper relationship with his Lord. I want to invite the kids down now to talk more about it.

Kids sermon

How many of you have worked with clay before? What have you made? As you’re working with the clay, you might have an image in your mind of how something should look, but then as you begin to work with it, it’s not looking like the image in your head. What do you do?

These seeming imperfections are an opportunity to ask what we want it to look like and what we need to do to get it there. Once we get it as we would like it to be, then you have to let it air dry before painting it. After you paint it, then you can fire it in the kiln. Whatever you’ve done with the wet clay will become permanent once it’s fired in the kiln.

Today St. Peter is being reminded that his ideas about Jesus have not yet been fired in the kiln. He himself, and his ideas about who the Messiah should be, are like moldable clay being pressed on, worked, and reshaped. It is easy as you grow older to become crusty old clay, but St. Peter reminds us to stay moldable. He is going to get a stern rebuke from Jesus, but this isn’t meant to shame or isolate him; it is meant to invite him into deeper formation and life with God. You kids are very moldable. I love seeing you wonder at God’s world. We adults have a lot to learn from you about staying moldable. Today’s passage encourages us to take in the lessons that Jesus is teaching us, to be honest with God about our expectations and where they might not be met, and then look for the ways that Jesus wants to help us grow in a deeper vision for who he is.

Would you please pray with me: “Dear God...thank you...for loving us...when things don’t go our way...we trust you...make us more like Jesus...amen.”

1. The move from triumph to unmet expectations (vv 21-22)

Last week we looked at the Gospel passage just before this where St. Peter and the disciples are up in Caesarea Philippi with Jesus. He asks them who they say he is and St. Peter, on behalf of the disciples declares that Jesus is Messiah. Jesus declares Peter to be the rock on which he’ll build his community, the church. That confession is a pivotal point in St. Matthew’s Gospel because it is here we begin the journey to Jerusalem. “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great sufferings at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”[1] You and I are very familiar with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, but this would not have been familiar to them.

The disciples have seen him proclaim the kingdom and heal people. They expect a king to rule, and reign, to bring God’s justice. They don’t expect the deep paradox that the way to glory is through death on a cross. Passages like Psalms 22 and 66 do hint that the coming Messiah will suffer, but people have not systematically put together how this is possible. The Judaism of Jesus’ day was reconciling if there would be one messiah who would accomplish the suffering for the people and the conquering, or if there might even be two Messiahs: משׁיח בן יושׂפ who would suffer and משׁיח בן דוד who would reign.[2] To the disciples, it is incomprehensible still that Jesus’ reign would come to this.

Because Peter was representing the mind of the other apostles earlier, I think it is likely he is here too. As the spokesman he got all the encouragement earlier, but that is risky because now he will be taking the fall for others’ thoughts. He pulls Jesus aside to talk with him in private. He says to Jesus “God forbid it Lord, this should never happen to you.”[3] Now it is understandable why he says this, but that doesn’t make it right. He has too small of a vision for what Jesus is going to do and the challenging of his assumptions is going to expand his imagination not just for a greater vision of who Jesus is, but what following him looks like.

2. Misalignment: When the foundation becomes a stumbling block (vv. 23) — Bring in Jeremiah

Because Peter is acting as a spokesman for the disciples, Jesus rebuffs him publicly in front of the disciples, despite Peter’s attempt to pull him aside. Jesus says to him, “Get behind me Satan!” This reminds us of Jesus’ third test in the wilderness where Satan offered him the glories of the earthly kingdoms if he would skip over the suffering involved. Peter’s voice became the voice of Satan, not because he worshiped Satan, but because he allowed his mind and heart to be caught up in human and earthly affairs rather than keeping heaven’s perspective.

Jesus calls him a stumbling block and the irony should not be lost on us that the rock is now a rock of stumbling. This is a good warning to us of why we need St. Paul’s reminder in Romans 12 this morning not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we might discern what the will of God is. It doesn’t say that the will of God is easy to imagine or comprehend, the path of least resistance, or even logically deduced; it does, however, say that God’s will is good, acceptable, and perfect.

We don’t become the voice of Satan to one another because we long to disobey God or follow something evil. We become the voice of Satan often because we’re spiritually negligent, held down by unhealthy patterns of trauma and family systems that go unexamined, have a tight grip and high control grid for how our world should be and how others should exist be in our world; we try to keep ourselves safe, but actually we are perceiving God’s world incorrectly, and often times this results in self-condemnation, unwittingly cursing others, immaturity, and not seeing the world as God does. This happens in friendship, in marriage, at work, in relationships within the church. It is endemic to humanity because we have an enemy who seeks to keep us from becoming fully human by following our Lord. The good news for Peter and for us is that stones of stumbling can get picked up again and by the grace of God put back into the walls of the temple of the people of God.

I’ll give an example. I’m actually motivated to achieve when people tell me I cannot do something. My attitude is “forget you...I’ll show you” because I do not like to fail and I refuse to look incompetent. That has a good side and shadow side. Sometimes, without being aware of it I take on other’s failures to achieve as my own, because if they achieve, then I look competent. It is under the surface whether I’m leading a staff team or coaching baseball. When someone isn’t doing well I am dysregulated and as a result I will likely overreact to someone’s failures and rob them of the opportunity to learn. I have had to work on the phrase “tell me what you learned” as a way to regulate myself so that I can bless them with the voice of God rather than curse them with the voice of Satan and try to control outcomes so that I make myself feel better. We all have things like this we need to work on. Where do we curse because we are trying to control our world? This is an opportunity for repentance and the renewing of our minds.

Suffering and crises do not mean that we are outside of God’s will. In fact these might just be the pivotal points of growth where God will shape our imagination for His kingdom. We do often miss the kingdom because of our story, proclivities, or negligence. God’s grace is available to deepen us in relationship with him. Glory will come, but it is through the suffering of the cross. The community that Jesus was building on the rock is one that is marked by bearing the cross.

There is something communal and cooperative to our salvation, especially in Romans 12. As you understand your gifts and proclivities, do the hard work of repentance and transformation, you are uniquely equipped to build up others in love. This involves considering others to be a part of your life, belonging one to another, when it is inconvenient and hard. And yet we need one another. This is what bearing our cross means in the kind of community that St. Paul envisions in Romans 12.

Conclusion:

Our moments of suffering and pain are the pivotal moments that invite us to deeper growth. Peter could have walked away angry and learned nothing, but grown deeper in bitterness. Instead he received Jesus’ grace and learned more about the kingdom. I heard an interview once where someone asked why people get more bitter when they get older and the speaker said “I don’t understand. People don’t get bitter when they get older. People get bitter, then they just get older.” In other words, age amplifies our current formation. Are we renewing our minds through repentance and receiving grace?

The community that Jesus began continued through the work of the apostles. It is a community marked by grace, forgiveness, and restoration. We are called to the daily renewal of our minds, to attune our thinking to the will of God. And we know that we will fail at times, so we when do, we need to accept God’s grace for ourselves, and relinquish our resentments to prefer forgiveness as we name things accurately and trust Jesus to heal the wounds. It is through the pivotal moments of suffering in faithfulness that we will come to a deeper knowledge of Jesus and his kingdom.

Let us pray:

O Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow after us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

[1] Matt 16:21

[2] Cf. 4Q372, Talmud Sanhedrin 98a-99a.

[3] v 22.

Ivory Casten 8/23/26 Ivory Casten 8/23/26

Proper 16: The Church, Stewards of Paradise

Readings for August 23

Introduction

Good morning dear friends. It is great to be with you all on this final day of summer vacation. Many of you will be entering new rhythms and a new reality tomorrow. You will learn new things, some things will be really fun and some will be really challenging, but in it all, Jesus goes with you. The disciples in our Gospel passage today were being taught something very important that would carry them through the rest of Jesus’ ministry, even when things did not go as they thought they would. The disciples will confess Jesus as the Messiah and learn about what he is building. They’ll also discover that their call is to so know heaven’s reality, that they steward its resources for building up the community where heaven is supposed to be experienced, the church. This is our call as well, which we’ll look at together. And now I want to invite the kids up...

Kids sermon

Good morning friends. Can anyone tell me what a key is for? Can I just shove any key in any lock? What happens? Who wants to guess what all these keys are for?

What do keys represent? For example, my keys can get me into the church office which provides me a place to prepare sermons, gather supplies for cookouts, hear confessions, etc. A key can open the prayer box, where I read someone’s prayer request and follow up with them to see how they’re doing. My key opens my house, where I sleep, cook, eat, workout, and have family time. Keys unlock opportunities for heaven’s realities. Have any of you been part of a house blessing? What do we do for those?

A house blessing reminds us that the miraculous, transformative work of the kingdom of heaven most often happens in the very mundane. We just need to attune our imagination to it. In Jesus, you and I have been given keys to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. When we follow Jesus and trust him, we are invited to see God’s work happen in our ordinary days, but we need to be looking for it. We can do this by asking him for help and for giving him thanks for the good gifts he gives us. And as we see Jesus at work, we can share that gift with others. That is our responsibility because we hold the keys. Would you please pray with me?

“Dear God...thank you...for your work...in our lives...through Jesus... You are with us...and you love us...Help us...as we start new rhythms this week...amen.”

13-15 Jesus sets them up with what they need for what’s coming up

The story we get to today is a pivotal one in the story of Matthew. Jesus has had a lot of public ministry in the north, in Galilee. Today’s passage takes him and the disciples away from the crowds, away from the noise, because Jesus has a very important thing he wants to share with them. Jesus, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, never comes out and says publicly, “hi everyone, it’s me...The Messiah”. A self-declaration would make him public enemy number one of the secular and religious authorities.

And yet, after this story, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus begins the journey toward Jerusalem. The disciples will need to know who Jesus is when things don’t turn out as they expected. Jesus knows this, and he is preparing them with what they need for what is to come.

Jesus and his disciples get to a mountain up in Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” Some thought he was a prophet: John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah. But Jesus’ ministry was more than prophetic. Jesus will expect his disciples to have a better answer, even though they may not know the full implication of their answer.

Pay attention to the moments where we are faced with the question of who Jesus is. These are often moments of preparation. People have all kinds of expectations on Jesus. Here are some examples: “if we do things the right way, then he won’t let us fail.” “Jesus is a warrior” “Jesus said not to make any judgments on people”. Jesus will be no one’s political prop or a puppet for one’s own internal authority. The reality is much more nuanced. Jesus is Lord and creator and good. We cannot make good policy without centering the image of God in all people. We have to make judgments about just and unjust, good and harmful. As men and women are both made equally in God’s image we cannot honor manhood without equally honoring womanhood. Jesus will frustrate all of our incomplete and culturally constructed images of him. This is why we must read with the whole of tradition across time and geography. The disciples of Jesus have to have a better and more nuanced answer than the crowds. We must have a higher view of Jesus than any subculture’s caricature.

16-17 Peter’s confession is the confession of the church

Peter’s confession should be ours as well. He is a spokesman for the disciples, and when asked who they think he is, he says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” This is what Jesus wants them to understand while they’re on the mountain because they are about to see some things that will shake all of their expectations for what the Messiah will be. This brings together the language of 2 Samuel 7:14 with the anointing of David as king with the enthronement language of Psalm 2:7. This is language of adoption and sonship, which was very commonly used with divine enthronement. Caesar, Herod, and the temple authorities better watch their backs.

It is a bold declaration and Jesus tells Peter that this truth would not have been revealed to him without the work of God. Heaven is beginning to break into the life of the disciples. Isaiah 51 is what we read for the Old Testament today and it was written to the exiles in Babylon. God says that he will console Zion in this time where his people have been wrecked because of sin and idolatry, taken into what feels like the undoing of creation in chaos once again. What seems like wastelands will become again like the garden of Eden. The arid valleys that are dusty and unproductive will become once again like the garden of the Lord.[1] Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ means that God’s people look forward to paradise where they are abundantly supplied, where creation is ordered for their well-being, and where communion with God is unobstructed. The whole earth will become for them a temple, a thin place where heaven and earth meet.

18-20 Peter leads the way for the church to bring heaven to earth

Jesus is not going to build an actual temple or literal city, but a community whose allegiance is to Jesus the Messiah, a community that becomes the place where heaven is brought to bear upon earth. Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus functionally says to Peter, “Yes, I am Messiah, and you, my friend are the rock; the rock on which I will build this community.” This historically is played out in the history of the church. St. Peter is the leader among the disciples and when we read the book of Acts. He is there to ratify the movements of the Holy Spirit in building the church, including the Samaritans and the Gentiles. He has a prominent place in the church of Jerusalem until James eventually leads.

The gates of Hades would not prevail against this community. This is a poetic way of referring to death itself, which is how it’s used in Isa 38:10. Death will not prevail or stop God’s work through the Messiah or through his disciples. And Peter, in this context is said to bind and loose. The imagery is not of Peter standing at the gates of heaven and unlocking it for people, contrary to popular imagination. The imagery is one of stewardship, as though St. Peter is like a a chief administrator who unlocks granaries and storehouses and locks them based on the need of those who come. This continues to be the church’s task after St. Peter. We give to others the healing we ourselves have received. This is the logic of the confession liturgy. The priest is merely an imperfect agent of the church.

I will say that hearing confessions is one of my favorite parts of ministry. As I sit with someone and we ask questions together about what the Lord is doing and why certain things have come to light as particular roadblocks and places of stumbling, it is the beautiful time where the church helps someone dig deeper into their stories and proclivities, help shape someone’s faith through wise counsel and historic rhythms, and proclaim the absolution that Jesus offers. It is an earthly moment of heavenly reality.

Conclusion:

We all carry with us the apostolic call to become the kind of community that reflects the heavenly reality of the church. This means that we live in allegiance to Christ and seek Christ’s peace and welfare for others. The confession made at Caesarea Philippi is the confession of the church, the agent of God’s re-creating the world; the people of God are becoming the place where heaven is restoring earth. You and I get to be part of the process of bringing paradise and refreshment, and the unrestrained communion with God that creation is groaning for. Consider the week ahead, the new people you’ll meet, the new rhythms that will be part of your calendar, and let’s just take a moment in silence to ask the Lord this question: Lord, where do I need your help this week and who do I know that needs your help too?” I’ll close our silence with a prayer in just a moment.

Let us pray:

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

[1] Isaiah 51:1-3.

Ivory Casten 8/16/26 Ivory Casten 8/16/26

Proper 15: Derailments and the Path to Grace

Readings for August 16

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is wonderful to be with you. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. In our passage today, Jesus has an encounter with a Gentile woman. The way Jesus talks to this woman sounds potentially rude, possibly even racist, but it is neither. His intent was not to exclude the Canaanite woman, but to draw her into deeper life in the kingdom of God.

Kids sermon

I want to invite the kids up with me for our kids sermon.

Anyone here ever heard of grafting? What is it?

I happen to have everything we are going to need for it here. [Show them how to do it]. It doesn’t work with every tree, but it will work with trees of the same family, like stone fruits: cherries, apricots, plums, etc...anything with a pit. Someone actually created a tree of 40 fruits in New York to preserve some older and more rare varietals of stone fruit that had been grown in North America before we depended on supermarkets so much.[1]

When you graft things in, nutrients are taken from the roots of the original tree, come up through the original stump, and then produce new fruit. St. Paul talks about this today in our Romans passage. God’s people had by and large been rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and the result of this was that God was cutting off the original branches in order to graft in new branches, nourished by the same root system. We get to hear about that today in our gospel passage. The good news for us is that God saved Israel in order to save all the nations and you and I are a part of that work. Through faith in Jesus, we are grafted in and given life to live out God’s love for the good of the world around us. You and I are a part of what God is doing and he loves you.

Please pray with me: “Dear God...thank you...for loving us...and for Jesus...who died and rose again...to give us new life...thank you...for making us...into a new people...amen.”

• Jesus is interrupted during his retreat — Interruptions are the ministry (21-23)

Our passage begins with Jesus leaving the place where he was to go to the district of Tyre and Sidon. The Gentile regions were not on his calendar for preaching. He is going away to be with his disciples: away from the crowds and away from the opposition. The time of rest comes to an end when a distraught woman comes to him and his disciples.

The text says she is a Canaanite. Canaanite is not an ethnic term in Jesus’ day. Canaanite is an historic and theological identity as an enemy of God’s people. And yet, this woman, when something deeply troubling happens in her life, has the internal sense that she can come to this Jewish Messiah.

Her daughter is tormented by a demon, she is beside herself with fear, and she knows enough about Judaism to recognize Jesus could help. She calls out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David...” She seems to have come to understood that if this Judean Messiah comes, then his deliverance means mercy for the nations. A Canaanite woman receiving the mercy of God would present a compelling case that God’s kingdom for his people would be for the good of all people. It would be a kingdom entered into by faith and not merely family lineage.

But the strange thing is, in this case, her pleas are met with silence from Jesus and annoyance by the disciples. He doesn’t answer her at all. I see the silence of Jesus here not rejection, but an invitation to clarify her longing. The Canaanite woman reminds me not to pass too quickly over what I might perceive as difficult distractions, inconveniences, and annoyances. The disciples may have perceived her as derailing them from God’s real work, but she and her daughter were God’s work. The things that might feel like a distraction from the work, if we would pay attention to God’s work in them, will invite us to a deeper vision of the kingdom of God.

• Israel’s salvation was meant to be for the good of the world (24-28)

Jesus is silent and the disciples are annoyed. They believe he can heal, but they don’t believe this person is worth their time. This will become an opportunity for a mercy that would stretch their imaginations for what the kingdom of God would be. Israel’s salvation was supposed to mean the salvation of the nations around them. This was the vision of the Old Testament as well. Isaiah 56, which we read today, speaks of foreigners, “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...”[2]

St. Paul in our passage in Romans 11 talks about a tree that natural branches were broken off of and wild olives were grafted in. St. Paul’s warning to the Romans is that the natural branches, the Jewish people, had seemingly rejected the Messiah; not all of them of course, but its not like a majority were following Jesus. And God is then said to have broken off the natural branches to graft in the Gentiles who would now be nourished by the same trunk and root system: one tree, one people, to carry on the call to Israel in this new covenant. The Old Covenant must be held in honor as something that nourishes and flows into the New Covenant, it is not a dismantling of the old covenant for a new gentile religion.

Jesus knows that salvation will come to the Gentiles from his Scriptures, and I think he is drawing this reality out of the situation with some pointed statements for the woman. He says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” His statement ratchets up the intensity and she kneels before him and says “Lord, help me.” He says, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” This is not at all flattering, in fact it feels quite cruel, but the point isn’t to insult or shame her, it is to test her grasp of what her ask really involves.

It kind of reminds me of a coach who might say “Do you want to win today?” And the team says “yes”. Then he says “I don’t believe you.” So they yell “yes” even louder. Then the coach might say “Go run a mile, get back here and do 20 push ups and show me how much you want to win.” So the team does it. He isn’t disbelieving them or discouraging them, he is teasing out the intensity of their longing — Do they know what they are asking for and what it will take to get there? The test proves to the suppliant how much they want what they’re asking for.

The woman cleverly turns Jesus’ statement on its head and says that even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from the master’s table.[3] She understands the implication that the Jews are the children of God and that the Gentiles are not. And yet, she has the humility to say that she too needs nourished by the hand of the God of the Jews. She articulates the fact that the deliverance of Israel was meant for the deliverance of all. This woman has come with a good desire, faith, and the resolve to wrestle with God. And the result is that Jesus says, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done as you wish.” And the daughter was healed instantly.[4] The qualifier of great faith is said of no one else by Jesus except this woman. Perhaps this is why one writer in the church’s history calls her the mother of the Gentiles.[5]

Good desire, faith, and a resolve to wrestle with God over his promises and your reality is great faith. I’m grateful that this was included for us as a prayer in our Eucharist liturgy: “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy.” One person told me once that they hated this part and they refused to say it because it sounded like groveling; however, remember the context of the woman’s words. What she confesses is that she is in need of God’s merciful help and wrestles with God in dialogue because the things he promised and the things she’s experiencing are not aligned. We too come to God with the desire for goodness, faith in God’s work, and the disposition to wrestle with God’s promises and our current realities. The prayer draws out the intensity of our longing rather than making us cower in groveling shame. As a community, we need to continue to welcome one another into our lives, showing hospitality and love to the end that we grow by wrestling with God with one another. Who feels outside to you this morning? And what would it look like to open our lives to those who feel other and discover the mystery of the kingdom? Jesus’ disposition is invitation, even if on the surface today it felt like rejection.

Conclusion:

Today’s passages remind us that God is saving a people for the good of others. The things that might feel like frustrating distractions and bumps on the path might just be the very things that God uses to bring about his kingdom work if we are attentive to them. This passage reminds us that as we pay attention to the kingdom, we come like this mother of the Gentiles with a faith that produces good for others, a great faith that is persistent and wrestles, and a faith that humbly sees our need for God’s help.

Let us pray:

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] https://www.samvanaken.com/tree-of-40-fruit-2

[2] Isa 56:6-7.

[3] Matthew 15:27

[4] Matthew 15:28

[5] Epiphanius the Latin: Manlio Simonetti, ed., Matthew 14-28 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002), 27.

Ivory Casten 8/9/26 Ivory Casten 8/9/26

Proper 14: God Sits Enthroned Over the Chaos

Readings for August 9

Intro:

Good morning friends. It is so great to be back with you. It was good to have a time to rest up and recuperate. I’m so glad that you got to meet my friends, Fr. David Griffin, two weeks ago, and Fr. TJ Ono, last week. Thank you for welcoming them. They really enjoyed being with you. This week I wanted to look at our Psalm passage together. Psalm 29, which we prayed together today, presents God’s kingship as terrifying thunderstorm and beautiful comfort. God will not let his work and fame be challenged by any lesser idea, god, or person who promises salvation. He will ultimately subdue chaos, and give his people the strength and peace they need for transform and to see His Kingdom come. As we look at Psalm 29, I want to invite the kids to come up.

Kids sermon:

How many of you have drink coasters in your home? Why do you have them?

When Ashley and I were first married we lived in Chicago in a little apartment. As a housewarming gift we received some coffee coasters from a local Christian bookstore. They had this black, glossy finish, with words like “faith”, “hope”, “love”, etc. The funny thing is, the more we put hot cups on them, the more scratched up they got. The damage continued as the plastic coating on the top began to start peeling. I scraped at one of them a bit more and realized that the veneer of faith, hope, and love, was only held on there with the plastic seal. I scraped it off to reveal a beautiful painted chicken underneath. Ha! Once this seal came off it never got scratched up again. Someone had taken a perfectly good coffee coaster and cheaply pasted a christian veneer on the outside. The hot cup’s heat would not be outdone by the plastic coating.

Today’s Psalm portrays God as a thunderstorm, destroying all kinds of things that people are tempted to worship or the things their false gods needed to use to survive: cheap finishes thrown onto what we really need. God’s voice shows up in this poem 7 times like peals of thunder and the idea is that God is never ultimately unresponsive. He will make his voice known and his plan will be accomplished. Sometimes we get off track and go down the wrong path because we love the wrong things too much, or someone tells us lies about ourselves or the world around us and we believe it. And because of these things we find ourselves overwhelmed by the chaos of bad outcomes even with all our good intentions, the weight of lies we have to keep up and keep track of, and the discouragement we might feel when we try to become good and virtuous when unhealthy people around us might call it ignorant, uncool, or shameful. But despite the chaos, God shows up and reminds us that he loves us, and the pain of getting rid of the wrong things will give way to God producing good things in us. Ultimately, he is conquering the chaos of sin and death in this world and in our lives. My constant hot cups of coffee would burn away the veneer of “nice Christian sayings” to reveal something more stable, good, and lasting. God too will show up, and when he does, what is ultimately good and beautiful will be made known. Would you please pray with me:

“Dear God...when we are scared...we can trust in you...take away the things...we trust in...that are not...worthy of you...and make us more like Jesus...Thank you...for your love for us...Amen.”

1. God will be over all and in all (1-9)

In Psalm 28, the Psalmist demanded that God not remain silent. Psalm 29 answers back with the voice of YHWH showing up 7 times. [Psalm 28:1]. The BCP and other english versions tone down what’s happening by translating the addressees as “the mighty” or “mighty ones”; however, these are deities, literally sons of the gods! This phrase shows up in Scripture in a number of places to refer to deities, dead heroes, and other things that are supernatural. [This comes from the language of the divine council of YHWH. See Gen 6:2,4; Job 1:6; 2:2; Job 38:7; Ps 89:7; Deut 32:8.] Israel would eventually come to be truly monotheistic, but at least in this point in its history, the people are at best, henotheistic, believing that YHWH is the supreme God, but that other gods like Amun, Hadad, and Baal still exist. This is precisely why the prophets rise up all the time to tell them to put away their idols!

The themes of this Psalm are set against the backdrop the theology of the Baal myths in popular Ugaritic, or Canaanite, theology: Baal was the Canaanite storm god who rides on the clouds, who clutches lightning. It is Baal that is worshiped in order to bring rain and given thanks when the rain comes for the flourishing of the harvest. In Psalm 29, Baal is just another worshiper in YHWH’s heavenly worship, “Ascribe to YHWH, you sons of gods, ascribe to YHWH glory and strength. Ascribe to YHWH the glory that is due his name. Bow down to YHWH in holy splendor.” This Psalm invites us into the both the beauty and the holiness of YHWH as king. The world that God made has been filled with sin and destruction, but God will restore it and God’s people would do well to pay attention to God’s ongoing work of re-creation both in worship and in the phenomena of nature.

God was victorious over the floodwaters of primeval chaos in the creation of the world and Psalm 29 invites us to reimagine this victory through the imagery of a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm sweeps in from the Mediterranean over northern Canaan. God will not remain silent. His voice is referred to seven times in this poem, like thunder-peals showing God’s absolute power and presence as an answer to the supposed silence. The voice breaks the cedars of Lebanon. These trees were needed by the gods to build the houses in which they dwell. YHWH is unconcerned about this. The lightning scares off the animals and makes the mountains quake. The storm moves from northern Canaan south into the wilderness. God’s power rules even over the vast wastelands where demons dwell, lands which long ago forgot humanity and humanity long ago left it behind. In the places long forgotten where demons seem to dwell and retain power, God is at work to subdue the chaos, if we would listen for his voice.

This passage challenges us to pay attention to the work of God in worship and in creation. What gets in the way of discovering the kingdom is often our own busyness, the false narratives we hold to in order to sustain that busyness, and the gods of money and power that we often unwittingly worship. One time I was on a hike with Cole and it was the time of Spring where the Virginia peepers were croaking incessantly. We heard them, but as we kept moving, the sound went away. They were still there, but they were hiding. Eventually we stopped walking and just listened. There they were again. We stopped and paid attention and their loud peeps reminded us that they were still alive and strong. God is the one who subdues the anti-creation forces that war against us. Jesus did it in his death and resurrection, and has given the Spirit to continue the kingdom work which destroys our false pretenses, wayward affections, and the gods we’ve created. His glorious thundering presence isn’t one ultimately of destruction, but a life-giving force of goodness, subduing that which is set against our healing. The Spirit is at work, we don’t have to manifest it or create it, we just have to pay attention to it.

2. God is kind and his goal is to grant strength and peace to his people.

The final thunder-peal of verse 9 moves us back to God’s throne-room where all cry “Glory”! God’s kingship has a goal, which is that his strength and peace are present and put on display in his people.

A good question to sit with is this “Today, or in this season of our life, what causes us the most emotional and spiritual turbulence?” Is this the anxiety about a new grade or new school in a few weeks? Is this the death of a loved one or a chronic health issue? Is this an unresolvable conflict in a relationship or the painful disappointment or realizing our life is half over and we wished we’d accomplished more? Is this the worrying dehumanization we see in political discourse or the current affairs we are reading in the news? There are many so-called solutions and false gods we might be tempted to run to for help, but what we will discover in them is actually chaos; they are anti-creation, and something that makes us less human as image-bearers of the divine king.

The Gospel passage today gives us an incarnate picture of this God. Peter walks out onto the water at the command of Jesus in a storm. [Matt 14:22-23]. Jesus is unaffected by the turbulence and chaos and Peter joins him. Peter takes his sight off Jesus for a moment and starts to sink. Jesus is undeterred by the storm on the sea or by the storm inside Peter. Instead, he reaches down in compassion and lifts him up out of the chaos. He reminds Peter of his lack of faith and asks why he doubted, but this does not deter him from rescue. Peter is lifted out of the chaos and when they get into the boat, the storm ceases. Jesus is YHWH who subdues the chaos: the chaos out there and the chaos in here.

Conclusion

The God at work in creation, who orders the chaos, is the God who provides the strength and peace his people need. He is also the God who looks at us with compassion, and reminds us that despite our times of inner chaos and doubt, our desire to be rescued is enough and he will reach out his hand and calm the storm outside and within. We, of all people, should be the most calm, unaffected, and differentiated because we pay attention to and worship the thunderous and mighty God whose voice breaks the cedars and stills the waters of chaos. When your senses get dull, take up Psalm 29 and let it be your prayer to help you see, feel, hear, know, and sense the God who subdues chaos, rules over all, and in whom all things will be made new.

Let us pray:

“Almighty God, our strong tower of defense in time of trouble: We offer you praise and heartfelt thanks for our deliverance from the dangers which lately surrounded us and for your gracious gift of peace. We confess that your goodness alone has preserved us; and we ask you still to continue your mercies toward us, that we may always know and acknowledge you as our Savior and mighty Deliverer; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Ivory Casten 7/19/26 Ivory Casten 7/19/26

Proper 11: Patience for the Good Work of God

Readings for July 19

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is great to see you this morning. This morning’s passage from the Gospel is another agricultural metaphor, but with quite a different purpose than the parable of the soils, which was the Gospel passage last week. This week highlights God’s kindness, mercy, and his patience as he invites people into life in the kingdom of God. The way to discover a good spiritual harvest in this passage is through patience to look for what is ultimately good and beautiful versus what is ultimately harmful. I want to invite the kids down now for our kids sermon.

1) Kids Sermon

Hey everyone. I know that we have talked a lot about plants lately. I have one more to consider today and then I’ll move off of plants when I get back from vacation.

I want you to look up at the screen with me. Does anyone know what seedlings we might be looking at here? [Let them answer] On the left, the one with the finger, this is a common carrot. Once it is fully grown, you can pull it out of the ground, wash it, and eat it. The one in the middle is wild carrot, or Queen Anne’s Lace. It is mildly toxic. But the one on the right is called Hog Weed, or poison hemlock. It looks deceptively like a carrot, and it’s related to it, but every part of that plant is poisonous. Can you imagine being a farmer who sells their carrots to the market to make a living, and have someone mess with your crop? Imagine that in the middle of the night someone came in and took seeds from poison hemlock and queen anne’s lace after you had just finished sowing your carrot seeds and then the queen anne’s lace and hemlock both grew in with your carrots. That would be absolutely devastating!

What if, after about a month, the farmer notices that not all the plants are the same? What is the risk if they start pulling things at that point? That’s right! They might pull out the actual carrots with the other things. This means the farmer will lose money. If the farmer would wait, they will be able to figure it out. Queen Anne’s lace will flower after about 2-3 months. Poison hemlock and carrots both take over a year to go to flower. But in that time, the poison hemlock stems will start to turn purple and the leaves will become big and broad. The farmer’s patience will pay off. If they can wait 6 months to a year, they can eradicate the wrong plants so that their harvest can still be plentiful.

We often want things to go our way right now. But it is through patience, in waiting, that God is at work. Sometimes we go through really difficult things and we just wish God would make them better already. Jesus’ disciples felt that way too. Would the kingdom just come already!?! Jesus is reminding them, and us, of God’s kindness and our need for patience. God is at work even when we don’t understand it in ways we may never fully be aware of. What we perceive as slowness is God’s kindness at work, drawing people to himself. And because God is at work, we need to trust Him even when things didn’t go how we thought they would. The disciples of Jesus were to look to Jesus in their waiting and keep growing in their relationship with him. This is the same call for each one of us as well. Please pray with me: “Dear God...thank you...for your mercy...you give good gifts...and when we don’t understand...all that is happening...we know you are working...for our good...thank you...that you are with us...and that you love us. Amen.”

2) God’s Patience is Merciful (cf. OT and Psalm) (vv 24-30 and the other parables afterward)

In today’s parable about the kingdom of God, Jesus tells us about someone who sows good seed in a field, but then when everyone is sleeping, an enemy comes and sows weeds. These are not just any weeds, but they are likely darnel, which looks exactly like wheat until the heads of the grain form. If darnel gets mixed in with the wheat, it will ruin someone’s crop. Even though it looks like wheat, darnel is actually toxic and can make you quite sick.

The slaves of the household, understandably, want to pluck it, but the problem is that in trying to get rid of the darnel they risk losing some of the wheat crop as well. Instead, the master says to let the two grow up together. Essentially, once they mature, they will see exactly which is which. Then the reapers will be called and will separate the wheat from the darnel and store the pile of wheat in the barn. They will take the pile of darnel to be burned.

The slaves’ question is helpful in understanding why Jesus tells the parable. They say “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then, did these weeds come from?”[1] It gets to deeper human questions: “Why did you put this cruel person in my life?” Or “Why do tyrants still rule over people?” Or, “Why do good, hard working people, get exploited?” Or “How could you allow me to go through that awful situation in which I was so harmed?” Or even, “Why can’t I be healed?” These are good questions that God is big enough to hold for us.

Jesus isn’t providing answers for the “why”, but acknowledges the real and spiritual reality that the Lord, which he laters refers to as the Son of Man as a way to refer to himself, has planted good things. God gives good gifts and makes things good. When creation is described in Genesis it is described as good. In the Syriac translation of the Old Testament they translated it with a word that has semantic overlap between good and beautiful. I like thinking about what God does for us and in us as ultimately good and beautiful.

But that beauty is always growing up next to things cruel and destructive. The enemy of humanity sows counterfeit and toxic weeds next to good wheat. That which is most subtly wrong, what might even appear beautiful at first, is the most diabolically wrong because it is the enemy of what is truly beautiful. These weeds can be people who look like they’ve got it all together, but to try to imitate them is to bring about death. The weeds might be that we should defy our aging and changing bodies to pursue vain beauty. They might be messages about how we should be doing more, or that we should be better off by this point. These might be subtle messages that promise the kingdom and salvation, but don’t ultimately produce the freedom promised. We can see this on a grand scale with leaders who lie and make up problems that don’t exist so that they alone can fix them in order to stoke fear and anger and garner support.

We can see it in good desires gone awry — which is also diabolically subtle. For example, it is a good desire to have children; it would be harmful to desire children in order to fight a culture war or have someone to take care of your needs. It is good to desire a relationship with others, but not at the price of cutting off part of yourself to please them. Good desires misapplied fall short of what is truly good and beautiful. It is a good desire to see God’s kingdom, but the subtly diabolical lie is that it must happen right now in my time and by my power. This is fear and power that circumvents the patience necessary to see God at work.

This passage speaks directly to fear. The disciples may wonder if this is the time to take up arms and fight for the kingdom. There were certainly militaristic groups of Jews at the ready for it! If we take up arms at every injustice we will live in constant fear and exhaustion, and miss the opportunity to see what God does in his patience. There are several times in the Old Testament where God is called the one who is long-suffering and patient, showing mercy and compassion, etc. His character functions like a creed that forms the foundation for the covenant he made with his people. His compassion, mercy, and patience are the guiding principle of his working. He ultimately wants renewal through repentance, and not destruction and separation.

3) God’s glory will be revealed in renewed humanity (cf. Romans 8) (vv 34-43)

While the central theme of this parable is patience, the other part is that there is hope for the renewal of mankind. What God plants is truly good and beautiful. When Jesus explains the parable he says that the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, an allusion to God’s restorative work in Daniel 12. Patience is necessary to hang on long enough to see God’s mercy at work. God won’t ultimately let evil win, nor will his work be rushed by us. I do often wish that God would work on my schedule, but transformation is often slow, happening at the speed of restored relationships. God leads with mercy. He is a kind parent. NT Wright says this beautifully: “God is not a sadistic monster who would happily consign most of his beloved, image-bearing creatures to eternal fire. But there are equal and opposite caricatures we should also beware of. God is not an indulgent grandparent determined to spoil the youngsters rotten by letting them do whatever they like and still giving them sweets at the end of the day. We must refuse the second just as firmly as the first.”[2] We can come to our patient God who longs to meet us with his mercy and transformation. He sows good things and his nature is to love his good creation.

Conclusion

Today’s passage is an encouragement for us to discern God’s beautiful and good work with patience. Sometimes things or people spring up who are opposed to what is ultimately good and beautiful. Rather than being immediately reactive, we need to be prayerfully responsive. This requires patience and trust to see what the Lord will do. At the same time, be aware of subtly diabolical work in this world that is set on destroying the good work of God. The best way to expose what is good and beautiful versus what is subtly destructive is stay prayerfully aware of the work of Jesus. In the hard work of patiently enduring and looking for Jesus, God is slowly transforming us into a people who gloriously bear his image.

Let us pray:

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] Matt 13:27

[2] Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 173.

Ivory Casten 7/12/26 Ivory Casten 7/12/26

Proper 10: The Heritage of the Suffering Servant

Readings for July 12

Introduction

Good morning friends. Today we read a beautiful passage from the book of Isaiah which I’d like to unpack for us today. You’ve probably heard parts of it quoted in the New Testament, but I want to see it in its context. The passage raises questions we often ask, like “Is working this hard and not seeing any outcome really God’s will?” Or “Why do I feel so spiritually dry and the Lord feels so far away?” The passage is all about the goodness of life promised by God sitting juxtaposed with the reality of the muck we’re in at the moment. I want to invite the kids up for our kids sermon.

1) Kid’s sermon

How many of you have heard that song “I’ve got peace like a river”? Can you sing it with me? [sing] Have you ever thought about what that means? Why are rivers peaceful?

On the one hand, it is a peaceful thing for us to sit next to something beautiful we cannot control. If we are talking about our passage though, rivers do much more than just create beauty. They provide what is necessary to make things grow. Can anything grow in this dirt? Why not? [Hold up dry dirt and let a child pour water into it.] How about now? What will happen if the dirt gets too dry again? What would happen if we continued to consistently water it? There is so much about God and rivers in the Bible. In our Psalm passage we heard the phrase “the river of God is full of water, to provide the people with grain”. They counted on healthy rivers and streams for life. Our passage in Isaiah 55 today starts with this verse: “Look! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” We need God’s wisdom for our lives like the thirsty ground needs water.

Over time if we try to do things on our own, our hearts can grow hard, but God has planted the seeds of the kingdom of God, of new creation, in our hearts. When we come and seek Jesus, ask him for help, ask him to know his love for us, it is like pouring water on the dry soil of our hearts. God makes good things grow. We are invited to come to the one who says “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Would you please pray with me? “Dear God...thank you...for sending Jesus...who died for us...and rose again from the dead...we come to you Lord...because we need you...when things are good...and when things are hard...thank you for loving us. Amen.” Thank you for listening. Go ahead and head back to your seats.

2) vv 1-5 Wisdom for the heritage of the suffering servant

Before jumping into Isaiah 55, let me give a bit of intro. The book of Isaiah from chapters 1 through 35 are inviting the people of Judah to come back to covenant faithfulness to God through cycles of oracles of judgment and salvation. Chapters 36-39 are narrative and tell the story of King Hezekiah’s run-ins with king Sennacherib of Assyria. While Assyria does’t take the southern kingdom, by chapter 39, King Hezekiah does something foolish. He welcomes the Babylonian envoys of king Merodach-baladan, the king of Babylon and shows them all the treasures of Judah. This set us up to anticipate the exile where Babylon would come and conquer the southern kingdom of Judah, destroy the temple, take all their riches, and relocate most of their people across the Tigris and Euphrates, into Babylon.

In chapter 40 we encounter Judah already in exile, people who have been ripped away from everything they know, who long for the good things God said he would do. Chapters 40-55, sometimes called deutero-Isaiah, traces the story of God’s deliverance from exile and healing from their years of unfaithfulness.

In this section there are four songs that are called Servant Songs and they mention how God would restore his people through his servant. This servant would bring justice to the nations and would be a light for the nations.[1] Then in a surprising twist, the servant would endure all kinds of suffering while trusting in the Lord, and he would suffer for the people to bring them healing.[2] If you’re reading or hearing this text before Jesus, it is a unclear about whom this servant language is referring. God promises redemption to those who join in the heritage of this servant.[3] This brings us to chapter 55 where those who are part of the heritage of the suffering servant are invited to God’s renewal and restoration.

God has promised a new and everlasting covenant with the those who join the heritage of the suffering servant. The servant has made redemption possible and those who will join him will find life. Judah had wandered, like a lost hiker who veers off to the right for a long time into they do full circle, Judah had become lost and some may have wondered if they were to far gone to be found.

This is a problem we are all prone to. Like Judah, we need this invitational reminder to come and find what we need in Jesus, who is the ultimate heritage of the suffering servant. God’s posture is kind and invitational, eager to show mercy to those who return. It is not one of waiting to see where we will fall in order to say “look where you are at now...I told you so.” There are hundreds of micro-decisions we make in a day and we need this invitation. I want to encourage us to ask this question right now: “How do I seek the Lord’s wisdom in my...[you fill in the blank]?” Reflect as you consider a typical day, times of vacation coming up, anxieties that sit below the surface about big things in the near future. As we consider the week ahead, what meetings we will have and the people we will encounter, where do you need the Lord’s wisdom? If we can make a habit of asking that question, we will keep the ground soft and wet for the seeds of the kingdom to grow because we are seeking Jesus.

3) vv 6-13 Invitation to trust the Lord for what we don’t yet understand

In verses 6-13, those who follow the suffering servant are invited to seek the Lord whose thoughts and ways are not our own. We are invited to entrust ourselves to the one whose ways are mysterious as we put away evil, and return to the God who shows mercy. In the context of deutero-Isaiah, this meant trusting that the exile was not permanent, that God’s plan was not done, and that someone they couldn’t see would suffer for them and deliver them. The prophet says, “Seek the LORD while he can still be found; call for him while he is still near.” The Lord hasn’t left. The encouragement is that it’s not too late, but also don’t wait. Everyone has stuff to work through that impacts their relationship with God and relationship with others. If you don’t start processing those things in your 20s, you will in your 30s. If you haven’t done the work in your 30s, you’ll probably have to do even more work in your 40s because now there’s an extra decade of baggage and the load just gets heavier and heavier. Often the times we are most disoriented is where the Lord is most at work as he brings us into a place of reorientation.[4]

Sometimes doing the hard work of figuring out the real problem can be scary because it takes us to unknown places. Whether it’s a staff meeting, hearing confession, or spiritual direction, I’m always struck by the fact that the problem as presented is often not the real problem. Someone might say “I spend to much time on this social media app.” If that’s the real problem, then the solution is just simple behavior modification. A better questions might be, “When do I look at this app, and what happened prior to going on it?” “What did the content of this app provide for me?” “Does that same longing and desire show up any place else? And I wonder why I have this desire in the first place?” This could be used for overworking, over-exercising, avoidant behaviors, or overreactions. Once we have asked better questions, then come to the God who is near and waiting for us, this will be a much more profound opportunity for healing as we learn the Lord’s will for us and our good desires misapplied.

Our places of instability and disorientation might just be the soil of new creation. This passage reminds us that God’s ways and thoughts are not ours. In fact, they are about as different as heaven and earth. The good news is that in Jesus, heaven breaks in to renew the earth. And so it is that in the vulnerable places of faithfully opening ourselves up to God’s healing as we obey him, the promise is that He will restore and renew what has been broken and torn down by sin and shame. This is precisely what it means for the writer to say that God’s word shall not return empty. Isn’t it interesting to have this promise bookend this part of Isaiah both in chapters 40 and 55.

Conclusion:

In the experience of feeling uprooted, untethered, and away from home and familiarity, God is present to refine, renew, and restore. God hadn’t finished his story with his people, but it certainly took unanticipated turns from their perspective. These moments of disorientation were the very seasons that God used to dislodge His people from her brokenness, idols they trusted in, sinful desires for autonomy, and their false hopes that their neighbors would keep them safe through political alliances. More importantly, he took these image-bearers and highlighted where cracks had occurred so that as they come to him, he can restore what was broken.

This new-creation work comes through Jesus, who is the suffering servant in whom the new covenant begins and in whom the people of God are restored. For those who claim allegiance to the heritage of Jesus as the suffering servant, and seek him as their savior, his word will not return void. Today’s passage is an encouragement to trust him, to depend on his wisdom in the face of what is unknown, and to ask better questions of ourselves so we can call to him for healing. Dependence, good questions, and vulnerability soften the soil of our hearts to the kingdom work that the Holy Spirit is doing in and among God’s people.

Let us pray:

O Almighty God, you pour out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1] Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6.

[2] Isaiah 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12.

[3] Isaiah 54:17.

[4] Cf. This comes from the orientation — disorientation — reorientation from Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on the Psalms.

Ivory Casten 7/5/26 Ivory Casten 7/5/26

Proper 9: Finding Wisdom and Rest in Jesus

Readings for July 5

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is so wonderful to see you. This morning’s passage is a very familiar one and is a beautiful invitation to come and know Jesus both because he is the source of God’s wisdom and because he is the source of rest for us who are weary. He is teaching his disciples something really important, and as we look at what he’s teaching them, I want to begin by inviting the kids down to join me.

1. Kids sermon

This picture is of Ashley and I when we started dating. We were about 18 and just getting to know each other. Since I didn’t know her that well, how do you think I got to know her better? [Let the kids answer]

I could have put together a document or spreadsheet and made observations, asked people who knew her about her: family, former teachers, friends. I could have asked to see old home movies or seen a baby book to learn information about her. But if I had done a bunch of fact-finding without being present with her, then that would be very strange. I’d be more like someone in a fan club than someone in a relationship. Getting to know someone better requires presence, vulnerability and trust. We need the moments where we play and laugh, get into arguments and need to make repair, work on projects together, take long drives, and share lots of conversation along the way. These are the ways people come to know each other.

How do you all make friends? [Let kids answer] Even that requires presence. Sometimes we treat the Lord like we’re in a fan club rather than in relationship. We might memorize facts about God and the Bible, read history, know theology, do the liturgy, do really good service for the community in the name of God, but to do these without constantly coming to the presence of God means we run the risk of knowing a lot about God without knowing him. Today’s passage gives us a glimpse into the ways that Jesus, the Son of God, lived in the presence of His heavenly Father. He wasn’t just studying to know facts about Yahweh, but He was living his life in the presence of the Father, listening for his voice, and kind of like in an apprentice, he was watching and then imitating. In our lives we will have really fun things we get to do, really hard things we have to do, times that we are lonely, sad, and scared, times that we are excited, and many times we’re just making it through the day. The invitation today is to live in God’s presence in all of these spaces, listen for his voice, and learn wisdom and how to rest as we grow in our relationship with Jesus. And to do that, we have to know Jesus and not just about him.

I want to invite you to pray with me: “Dear God...you are here...with us...you never leave us...thank you for loving us...give us grace...to live our lives...to know you....and your love for us...amen.” You can head back to your seats. Thank you.

2. Invitation for the simple to find wisdom — Come to Jesus as the revealer of true, hidden wisdom (vv 25-27)

In Matthew 11, St. Matthew takes us into a prayer of Jesus. In this prayer, Jesus names that everything has been given to him from the Father, no one knows the Father except the Son, and if anyone wants to know the Father, he only can if the Son reveals him. In other words, if we want divine wisdom, we must know Jesus.

Jesus is actually alluding to a Jewish tradition about wisdom that we find in the book of Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Sirach.[1] In Sirach 51:23 it says “Draw near to me, you who are uneducated, and lodge in the house of instruction.” Then in verse 26, “Put your neck under her yoke and let your souls receive instruction: it is to be found close by.” This was written several hundred years before Jesus’ ministry and represents a wisdom tradition within Judaism that seeks wisdom from God as its source. If you want to know the goodness of divine wisdom, then come to know Jesus. If you want to know the goodness of the life that wisdom promises learn from Jesus. This involves grounding ourselves in the grace of Jesus. We have to build our lives around habits of knowing Christ and his grace for us.

3. Invitation for the weary to find comfort — Come and bear the yoke of the one who bears us (vv 28-30)

Jesus then invites us into rest. Each Sunday we take time to confess our sins to the Lord. This is not to plague ourselves with a deep sense of guilt, but to take seriously our disordered loves and attachments, the harms we have done, the good things that we have neglected, the ways that we’ve messed things up for ourselves and others, and to tell God about them because he is the one who can make all things new. We make a daily habit of confession to build the muscle of agreeing with God about what is broken and where his grace is available to make us more like His Son. This daily habit builds into what we do each week in confession corporately. It only makes sense if you’re doing it regularly and individually outside of Sunday worship.

As we receive absolution in community, we are invited to share this peace with one another. Exchanging the peace is not primarily a welcome time; however, your smiles that welcome one another in peace are holy and should not change. The purpose is symbolically to remind one another of the grace we’ve received and give to others.

In any given week we been overbearing, controlling, hurtful, avoidant, inappropriately fearful, selfish, longed for the praise of others, neglected the good work God that has for us in the name of what is easier, and we’ve spoken curses against one another. In confession we name these as places of brokenness as we come expecting the grace of God to begin and continue to change us. The work is never done this side of God’s coming again, but there is progressive healing when we are attentive to the work of God. And in between the confession and the offer of pardon, we hear the comfortable words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Insofar as we have come to know the brokenness of our lives and the world around us and we’ve come to grips with how weary we’ve become because of it, we are made all the more aware of our need for rest. One author put this well, saying, “To all of us who are burdened, exhausted by our sin or its effects, the first gift of the Comfortable Words is that God acknowledges our misery. We do not have to hide our longing and need for good news. Even better, God loves to respond and provide the rest we need.”[2]

Jesus says his yoke is easy and burden is light. This isn’t like an animal yoke where two oxen pull a yoke together. This is a yoke that helps distribute the weight of pulling something across someone’s shoulders to lighten the load. The Pharisees had spoken about people carrying the yoke of the Torah, which is the heavy burden of the Jewish law and all its commandments. This is cumbersome and confuses the minutiae for the guiding principles. Sometimes we can make much of the minutiae to try to keep ourselves spiritually and emotionally safe. A rigid and self-imposed heavy load is not necessarily virtuous, but it can make us feel safer. It becomes a wall to keep ourselves in and keep others out. We can do this in other areas of life as we try to control small details, but miss the bigger picture.

Rather than religious scrupulosity or holding onto control, Jesus invites us to come to him and find rest. Pursue rest; this isn’t laziness, it’s not taking the easy way out, but it is prioritizing Jesus as we arrange our day’s goals and calendars. If we find ourselves in a state of overwhelm, exhausted, emotionally drained, totally spent, fed up, and deeply hurt or troubled, come back to this image of the good shepherd with his arms open wide. He is not waiting to condemn us or berate us. He is here to welcome us with tenderness.

Here is one place this showed up for me. I remember sitting with my church planting coach a few years back and telling him about a really hard week I’d had. I probably spent a good 20 minutes in an emotionally-charged rant that spanned different areas of frustration between different areas of my life. He looked at me, took a deep breath, affirmed that what I was feeling made total sense with what I was going through, and then he kindly asked me questions about what my fears were, what Jesus might be asking of me, then he asked me why it was so hard to have grace for myself in the things that were hard. We can often spiral and then heap shame on top of it because we feel like we should be able to move on and get past it. We berate ourselves for our reactions and then become much harder on ourselves than God is. I think deep down, there was this felt sense of “no one is going to come and help. It is up to me. If things fail, I am at fault. If things go well, it is because of me.” As I took that to Jesus later, it’s like he was saying, “Your yoke is too heavy. You’re carrying things I did not ask you to hold. Give yourself the compassion I give you. The outcomes are mine to hold.” Jesus invites us to rest and learn from him.

Conclusion

We busy ourselves with outward markers of accomplishment or networks, successful ventures, or status, that makes us feel safe; these things deceive us into thinking that we just need to push through in our own strength. Jesus’ invitation is to come and rest. Come to know him in the example left in the tradition of the church in the Scripture and in the lives of the saints. Come to know him in the community of faith; in the lives of one another. Come to know him in the prayers of the church, in the moments of attentiveness in the midst of very ordinary daily rhythms. Come to know him in the stillness and silence, no matter how brief, as we learn to frame the the day in the light of God making his dwelling in our midst, giving us rest, and making all things new. Come to the one who says to us, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

[1] Sirach 6:23-30; 51:23-27.

[2] Justin Holcomb, “The Comfortable Words: An Invitation to Rest.” The Living Church, February 16, 2024. https://livingchurch.org/covenant/the-comfortable-words-an-invitation-to-rest/

Ivory Casten 6/28/26 Ivory Casten 6/28/26

Proper 8: The Relational Cost to Real Transformation

Readings for June 28

Introduction

Good morning dear friends. It is wonderful to be with you this morning and continue together in the Gospel of Matthew. As we look at Matthew 10, I want to invite the kids down.

Kids’ Sermon

I was thinking about an analogy in a book I was reading and it reminded me of our passage today.[1] Cars have these great dashboards. Anyone want to guess what any of these lights might mean? Now I want you all to take a pen cover up things one by one. Ah.... now that it is all covered we can drive in peace, right? We don’t have to be scared or anxious anymore do we? No way! Those lights are meant to tell me to go get something fixed. I know it is hard to stop what I’m doing one day and get the car fixed, I know I have to risk spending a lot of money and potentially putting myself into debt. But the reality is, if I don’t fix the car and I ignore its signals, there will be a moment where everything just gives out and there will be no hope of getting to my destination...or worse — We might get into an accident.

Our bodies have indicators just like a car’s dashboard. When we start to get angry, we might start to feel our shoulders tense up, our neck might feel warm. When we get sad, we might feel something like a lump in our throat. I got into a disagreement the other day; I had this feeling down in my left side, something despair and guilt. We should pay attention to these things: anger can give us energy to push back against something wrong, sadness can point us to what is important to us, and guilt may illuminate something we need to apologize for. They are all indicator lights that something is happening inside us.

If we cover the dashboard and keep driving it will be hard to follow Jesus with our whole selves. Someone may make us really angry and we want to lash out and hold a grudge, someone hurts us and we want to hurt them back. Perhaps we feel ashamed and we go off by ourselves and don’t let anyone else into our life. We keep everyone at arms length can’t figure out why things feel off. Will we pay attention and let Jesus bring peace and healing so that we can share the goodness of Jesus with others?

Sometimes when we are honest about who Jesus is, what we need from Jesus, and what others need from Jesus, it can make them upset. Is it worth the risk? This is what Jesus is talking about today with his followers. It can feel really risky to respectfully tell our parents that we feel hurt by what they did. It can be risky to ask a friend if we can pray for them. When we do this, we’re not being disrespectful, we’re giving a gift. It’s up to the other person to accept it as such. That risk is the only way to real peace and healing. When we do the hard work of following Jesus and being honest, it might be hard, and there might be pain, but you know what we discover? We discover life as it ought to be because Jesus is in charge and we will know his loving friendship even when it is hard. Can you please pray with me?

“Dear God...thank you...for loving us...you died for us...and rose from the dead....and you are with us...even when....doing the right thing...is really hard....thank you...Amen.” Thank you all, go ahead and head back to your seats.

34-39Though costly, prioritize God’s kingdom

In St. Matthew’s Gospel, we have just read a really challenging passage. In the overall picture, Jesus has just commissioned the twelve disciples to carry out his ministry. Then he tells them that as they are following him they will encounter persecutions and trials. This is to be expected. Today’s passage is intentionally provocative. Jesus, what do you mean you came to bring a sword and cause family members to hate each other?!?!

He’s not saying that we ought to hate each other. There are plenty of other places in Scripture where the reign of the Messiah is associated with peace and where we are called to love our family members and our neighbors. There is nothing virtuous about loving violence or hatred, but when Jesus and his kingdom are our first priority —which is virtuous— the result might be violence and the breaking of relationship. This is the risk of following Jesus as Lord. It is about priorities: Following Jesus more than pleasing other people.

Jesus is quoting from the Bible and putting us in the line of the prophets when we follow him.[2] Another prophet told the religious leaders, “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying “peace, peace,” when there is no peace.”[3] Jesus’ disciples, including you and I, enter into the prophetic burden of his messengers where we do what is good and right, following Jesus in the midst of chaos, waiting for God’s vindication. Rather than sweeping things under the rug in the name of niceness, we seek for real transformation.

Real peace is hard-fought and costly. Here is a composite scenario; this isn’t anyone’s story in particular, but feels like several scenarios I’ve heard. Darryl comes to me and says that his supervisor at work is often rude and condescending to him. In the break room one day the supervisor comes in and tells Darryl, “Your coworker Alice told me that I talk down to people, what does she know? She doesn’t know anything.” Darryl follows Jesus, and has endured a long history of condescension from his supervisor, but has done the internal work to know that he is competent and a hard worker. More than that, he knows how beloved he is by God and now has the capacity to hold space for his supervisor’s condescension. He has a choice, he can tell his supervisor “You’re right, what does she know?” This is uncaring, but it is easy, and it does not take his supervisor’s wound seriously. He is preaching peace, peace when there is no peace. Or, he can risk. Depending on the amount of risk, he might say “I can appreciate Alice’s experience. I have experienced you that way too.” Or he might be more subtle and say “Huh, tell me more about what you think made her feel that way. Have others told you that before? What might it feel like to apologize for that and what keeps you from it?” Darryl would be giving his supervisor a gracious gift: an opportunity to see Jesus at work. The risk is that Darryl’s supervisor is provoked to anger, resentment, and a grudge. This could set up Darryl for real trouble at work, but this is the risk in naming the grace of God to help free people from disordered attachments to sin and evil. We have to do the inner work with Jesus on our places of disordered love, fear, and attachment, looking to Jesus for help, so that we can offer true peace to our relatives, friends, and even those in our church family. Triangulation and indirect communication, slander and gossip, dehumanization, resentments, and coping behaviors are all indicator lights that show us something is broken, but carefully helping others name their own brokenness is costly.... and the only way to peace.

Some people think that prioritizing the kingdom just means doing a lot of stuff for the church to the neglect of other duties. This is to have good desire and good intentions, but the wrong execution. The world is not split up into secular tasks and sacred tasks. Instead, and I get this from C.S. Lewis, the daily tasks are all invitations to the will and kingdom of God and it is up to us to participate in them religiously or irreligiously. It does take healthy rhythms of prayer, Scripture reading, and community to frame the day this way, but it also sanctifies and makes holy all the parts of our day: Those conversations you’re not looking forward to with a family member, coworker or friend, making lunches in the morning, correcting a child or apologizing to a child, going to doctor appointments, the inconveniences when things don’t work out the way we’d hoped. Doing the hard work of rightly ordering our interior world with Jesus creates the capacity we need to help others discover the kingdom of God. In other words, the hard conversations aren’t derailments from the work of the kingdom, they are the soil in which the seeds of the kingdom begin to grow.

What keeps us from the work of the kingdom? This gets us back to the warning lights on our body’s dashboard? What story does our body tell? Perhaps there is a fear of rejection (Which ironically is Jesus’ point). It could be the voice of self-condemnation: we have come to believe the voice of someone who told us that we are a trouble-maker, an outsider, unlovable, ugly, overemotional, just too much, clingy, etc. And as we hold to those scripts we begin to act out of self-defense and self-preservation, incapable of vulnerability because we’ve vowed never to let ourselves get hurt again. We need time in Scripture to know the God who longs to be at home among his people, especially when they do things that are evil and turn towards him in repentance. We need time in prayer to know the nearness of God or to be fully ourselves in the presence of the one who might seem distant sometimes, but who always holds space for our full selves. It is hard work to carve out time to pay attention to our good loves and desires have become distorted such that we now notice our overreactions, our sinful proclivities, our disordered loves, and our wayward desires. It is so much work. And it is precisely that work that Jesus uses to make all things new. And when he does this in us, we have capacity for that hard work with others — even in the face of rejection.

Conclusion

When it comes to discipleship, being nice and not making waves is like a ceasefire. It doesn’t move things forward in the work of God’s kingdom. It is just the path of least resistance. Kingdom work involves honest curiosity and wonder in the face of brokenness — and that starts with ourselves. Of course we must have wisdom about when to stay silent and when to speak, but the reality is that it is risky to be courageous, kind, and curious about what is true of someone and the world they’ve constructed because it involves us constantly reorienting our interior world toward Jesus and his kingdom. This is the hard work of following Jesus; this is true peace-making.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1] Chuck Degroat, Healing What’s Within.

[2] Micah 7:6

[3] Jeremiah 6:14.

Ivory Casten 6/14/26 Ivory Casten 6/14/26

Proper 6: Sowing Grace, Harvesting Joy

Readings for June 14

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is so good to be with you this morning. Last week we looked at the calling of St. Matthew and today we are in the same chapter of his gospel. People have been questioning Jesus’ authority to heal people, even wondering if he is something like a spy who works for the devil, or Beelzebub. But he is showing them the power that is coming in the kingdom of God and our Gospel passage summarizes that ministry and shows us how it is going to be passed on down through Jesus’ disciples.

Kids Sermon

As is our new custom over the summer, I want to invite the kids down for our kids’ sermon. [bring a flower not yet in seed and one that is seeding]. How many of you have been growing things at home? What kinds of things are you growing?

This is from our meadow that we have been working on at our house Anyone know what kind of flower this is? That’s right: [whatever the flower is]. What are the differences between these? One’s job is to produce pollen for bees, moths, butterflies, etc. The other one has moved into a different stage where it has gone to seed to spread and make more flowers. [Pull one seed]. How many seeds do you think I’ll get from one flower? Who knows...perhaps 20 or so. Trick question: How many flowers are in one seed? There is no way to answer that question! A seed will fall into the ground and produce another flower, which will produce more seeds, which will produce more flowers, and on and on it goes. It would be possible over a long period of time to fill a field by starting with one flower!

Today’s passage is all about the good news of God’s kingdom being proclaimed to individuals who were looking for God’s king to come. Jesus says this really interesting phrase about “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers” What he means is that God is doing amazing things. He is healing people, their lives are being restored, just like Matthew the Tax Collector. When they are encountering Jesus they are seeing God’s kingdom breaking into their world. People are ready! And he tells them to pray for more people to help with the harvest. The funny thing is....they are an answer to their prayers! They will be ones helping sow the seed and do the harvesting. This is how we follow Jesus. We ask God for help, we look for what Jesus is doing, we give him thanks for it, we share it with others. And then they do the same. And in the church then we start to see the harvest where God’s new creation is coming about and you can look at the church like a field of flowers blooming with the beauties of the kingdom of God. From our lives there goes seed which spreads this goodness to our friends and neighbors that are also longing for Jesus to be king. You and I are part of that story. Before you head back, can you pray with me?

“Dear God...thank you....for loving us...and for Jesus...Who died for us...and rose again...to make all things new. Amen.”

1) 9:35-38 Compassion motivated his kingdom ministry (in the face of evil shepherds who accused him of working as an agent of Satan).

Where are we in Jesus’ story? Last week, Jesus had invited Matthew, the tax collector to follow him. He would go on to heal people of their diseases and the demons that afflicted them. All of these are tangible signs that God’s kingdom was breaking into the present evil age. These were the signs prophesied about what the Messiah would do from the Old Testament.

In his summary of Jesus’ ministry, St. Matthew takes time to note that Jesus saw the crowds, and had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. There are passages of the Old Testament that condemn Judah’s leadership for being bad shepherds. I’m thinking specifically of Ezekiel 34 where the leaders are compared to shepherds who completely neglect their flock and as a result, the sheep are scattered and injured and no one is there to care for them. God promised to remove those shepherds and then to personally be a shepherd to his people, seeking out the sheep, bringing them back, binding their wounds, and leading them to pasture.[1] In this Gospel passage, I think St. Matthew means for this to be a veiled critique of Judah’s spiritual leaders, and I think he means to underscore the ways that Jesus is doing what God promised He would do.

Jesus’ ministry begins with God’s compassion, and the best ministry happens when that continues to be the lens through which we see others. A long time ago I’d been a supervisor in a coffee shop and remember being so annoyed that one of the employees would come in late for her shift every time. There was never an explanation; it was just normal for her. After months of this she revealed some things about her mom that demonstrated that she was essentially dealing with an incredibly dysfunctional household and then as a result, she had to shuttle her little sister to various places. I had to repent of my misrepresentation of her and my lack of compassion. It’s these little moments that remind us that the people around us, no matter how put together they might look, are still wandering and helpless like sheep with no shepherd. There are people who annoy us, perhaps even anger us, but can we be moved to a place of compassion for them? Having compassion is the first step in joining the harvest that Jesus talks about.

2) 10:1-4 Jesus invites the disciples/apostles into the ministry of compassionate healing

Jesus tells the disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest and that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.[2] The way this is followed by the next chapter suggests that the disciples themselves become the answer to this prayer...and of course anyone after them. Jesus summons the 12 and gives them authority to carry on this ministry. St. Matthew then lists out the twelves disciples. This authority, through the apostles, is also given to the church to carry on this mission.

This is the first time in this gospel that the disciples are also called apostles. We use that word and we don’t often know what it means. It means, “Sent ones”. The good news of the kingdom of heaven was a message to be announced. It was being announced by Jesus with preaching and miracles and now Jesus is sending out the twelve in the continuation of this work.

Bishops continue the apostolic office and remind us all of our own part of the apostolic call. They carry on in the tradition that is passed down from the 12 sent ones through those they sent, down today to the bishops of the church. When a Bishop is consecrated, one of the things we pray over him is this: “Grant to this your servant such grace that he may ever be ready to spread abroad your Gospel, the glad tidings of reconciliation with you, and to use the authority given to him, not for destruction, but for salvation; not to hurt, but to help; so that, as a wise and faithful steward, he may give to your family their portion in due season, and at the last may be received into everlasting joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This feels very similar to what Jesus is asking of his disciples. While we don’t all hold the apostolic office, we do all carry on the apostolic mission of being bearers of the kingdom work and message. Like I mentioned to the kids earlier: We ask God for help, we look for what Jesus is doing, we give him thanks for it, we share it with others.

This has been lived out in different ways in different times. One of my favorite examples from our Anglican heritage is in the Celtic spiritual heritage. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, the common way of doing ministry is that a Bishop would go to a place and evangelize, bring some monks and nuns with him, set up a monastery and churches for a robust life of prayer, leave the administration of it all under the care of an abbot or abbess and then move on. The landscape was dotted with monasteries and churches that engaged in a robust prayer and monastic life even as the Bishop created front porches of entry through hospitality and care for people to encounter Jesus in new cities and towns. Then the process repeats. Bishops were trailblazers and the abbots and abbesses functioned like our bishops do today.

This is why I love church planting so much. It feels apostolic. We started a church to create a thin place where heaven meets earth, where new creation is coming about through a robust communal and sacramental life of prayer, to then engage in mission as we create front porches of hospitality for people to discover Jesus. Our various ministries give us spaces to build rhythms of hospitality, prayer, relationship-building, and service. Our community events cultivate an imagination for hospitality and welcome as we have cookouts, go to baseball games, have coffee, do stories in the park, have fun at the skatepark, and however else we think to gather and make space for friendship. Every person here has people they know who long for Jesus’ compassion, even if they couldn’t articulate it yet. We should hold them in prayer with compassion, look for ways to invite them into life with Jesus, and let the church’s rhythms of prayer and community shape our lives for what kingdom-minded harvest looks like where live, work, and play.

Conclusion

We have seen Jesus’ compassion as the motivation for his kingdom proclamation. He shares this ministry with his disciples who are sent as messengers of this kingdom. They aren’t in it for wealth, ease, or fame. They are ambassadors of renewal who keep their eyes open for those ready to hear this message. We share in this apostolic ministry, looking for the Spirit’s work of new creation, practicing it in the church, for the good of the world. As we say goodbye to some dear friends today, I’m so grateful for the ways they’ve made this church what it is. One of my prayers is that as a church, for as long as we have an individual or a household, that this would be a resting-place of grace for their journey, where people experience the goodness of the kingdom to be sent out more healed by Jesus than when they arrived. As long as we are here together, there is always more work to do. We are looking for the Spirit’s work, harvesting where He has sown seeds that have matured, finding those ready to receive the message and power of God’s kingdom and the reign of Christ. As we walk faithfully with the Lord, and name his work for others along the way, we do not know the lives we’ll impact along the way.

Let us pray:

O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only-begotten Son into the world, that all might live through him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill his command to preach the Gospel to all people. Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and faithful Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1] Ezekiel 34:1-16.

[2] Matthew 9:37-38.

Ivory Casten 6/7/26 Ivory Casten 6/7/26

Proper 5: Substantive Discipleship Involves Risk

Readings for June 7

Introduction

Good morning dear friends. It is so wonderful to see you this morning. Today’s Gospel passage and the passages in Hosea and the Psalms have a lot to do with getting our priorities straight as we follow the Lord. As we think about this text and what God is teaching us through it, I want to begin by inviting the kids down.

Kids sermon

How many of you like cookies? What are your favorite kinds? There was one night where Ashley and I really wanted to have cookies for dessert, but we had to use the few ingredients we had in the cupboard. I looked online for help with recipes and I discovered a peanut butter cookie that only uses 4 ingredients. Because there are only four ingredients, each one is super important. Cole, do you remember what we call them? ...Dad’s super fast peanut butter cookies. It takes one cup of peanut butter, one cup of sugar, one egg, and a bit of vanilla extract. Then you stir it all together, ball it up on some baking sheets, use a fork to flatten them out, and bake them at 350 for about 9 or 10 minutes.

They are not healthy by any means, but they are delicious. There are certainly more complex cookies with a lot of additional ingredients that are not necessary, but in this cookie, three of the four ingredients are absolutely necessary. If you forget the vanilla extract, they’ll taste fine, but they’ll taste like something is missing. if you forget the peanut butter then you’re just eating sugar and eggs. If you forget the egg, the cookie won’t bind together. If you forget the sugar, it won’t taste good at all. When we are cooking or baking, there are some necessary ingredients we really cannot skip out on without doing irreparable harm to what we’re trying to make.

Today in our passages, we are hearing some different ingredients of Old Testament discipleship being put together: sacrificing animals, keeping the law, rules about keeping someone clean, and who to avoid. Some of them are more important than others. Jesus meets some people who were worried more about the less-important ingredients than about the main ingredients that are involved in following the Lord. Jesus wants to help them put their priorities straight. These texts were recorded for us so that we learn how to love God, love our neighbors, and invite them into his love. Jesus is helping us prioritize what is most important. As we look at our text together, will you pray with me? “Dear God...thank you...for teaching us...how to follow you...and for giving us...the Holy Spirit...to become more like you...Amen.” Thank you. Head on back to your seats.

I. Jesus sees need rather than failure and offers healing rather than quarantining himself.

In St. Matthew’s Gospel reading today, Jesus is walking along in Capernaum and sees a man sitting at the tax booth named Matthew. Matthew would have been one of those who was hired out to collect various taxes that were levied by Herod Antipas on goods carried through the town and goods that were traded. He would have been working with a group in this booth. The fact that “tax collectors” is paired with sinners shows you how these folks are seen. A foreign oppressor was taxing the Jewish people on their goods, serving as a reminder that they were not free, but under the subjugation of an enemy. Tax collectors were seen as part of the system of oppression and a Jewish tax collector is then seen as a traitor to his people. And this is where Matthew ends up in his life. I doubt he is proud of it, but this is how he has made his living. His home, its furnishings, even down to the utensils he would use to host Jesus, were funded by the taxation of God’s people.

This was someone the religious culture saw as undesirable and someone to keep at arm’s length. And yet where the Pharisees saw a failure, Jesus saw someone in need. This is the one Jesus saw, one whom God loves, and in whom God’s glory would be made known as his life became transformed and he was put into communion with other followers of Jesus—like Simon the Zealot, who was part of a group that militantly opposed paying Roman taxes.

Jesus risks his reputation to heal people and bring them into the kingdom of God. We would do well to remind ourselves that we are people in need. We are in need of friendship, of salvation from our disordered attachments, healing from our coping strategies, healing from the ways we react out of our own hurt, healing from the ways that we walk away from God’s will for what is best for us. We are needy people whom Jesus longs to heal.

As we follow Jesus and experience healing, we become, like Henri Nouwen talks about, wounded healers. We should err on the side of wanting to see others changed by Jesus and not err on the side of what others might think of us. This doesn’t mean we capitulate to someone’s sin, or even accept it as good, but neither do we need to hold every person at arms length who doesn’t align with our faith. It is incumbent on us to remember that no one is outside the reach of the grace of God. As we think of those we rub shoulders with, whose sin makes us tense up and avoidant — why? Of course be wise and safe, but begin to pray about how this person might be in need of the love of God as we ourselves are. Rather than asking “what will people think of me if I associate with this person?” begin to ask, “what does this person need from the Lord and how can I care for them in that need?” We are still confident, pursuing holiness, differentiated, but also compassionately pursuing what is good for another image-bearer.

II. Jesus allows the guiding principles of the law to govern its application rather than being hung up on external false flags of piety.

Jesus sees a need where others see failure. In the latter part of our Gospel passage, he gets to a guiding principle. Being transformed by God’s love to then share it with others is the key ingredient of discipleship; if we miss this, discipleship becomes obscured — and potentially legalistic. C.S. Lewis talks about priorities in discipleship. He says, “I read in a religious paper, “Nothing is more important than to teach children to use the sign of the cross.” Nothing? Not compassion, nor veracity, nor justice? Voilà l’ennemi.”[1]

There are certainly times to stand at arms length from people we disagree with because they are potentially harmful, or we’re not differentiated enough not to get sucked into their sin, or because we need to put up a boundary to keep ourselves physically or emotionally safe. Some of those exceptions aside, a defensive posture that makes people less human and keeps them at an arm’s distance should not be a guiding principle in the pursuit of holiness. If someone disagrees with us, it is an opportunity for us — and for our kids—to have great, age-appropriate conversations. It is an opportunity to come with curiosity an notice someone’s need.

Kids, when you go to the doctor with a horrible cough, and you’re still contagious, the doctor will mask up and get in the room with you to run tests, help figure out what is going on, and help you get better. There is some risk in being a physician, but to risk is the only way to heal. Rather than asking “What will happen if that sinner gets near me” Jesus says “What might happen if their life of brokenness is given back to them as a story of redemption?”

Jesus uses a rabbinic phrase with the Pharisees when he says “Go and learn what this means...” Then he quotes Hosea 6:6. In Hosea, the prophet is warning the Northern Kingdom of Israel of the ways they have strayed from the Lord to then call out the southern kingdom for the same. The quote says “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. The quotation as its recorded matches perfectly the Greek version of the Old Testament. The word “mercy” is one you’re probably familiar with ἔλεος as in when we say “Kyrie eleison...” We usually mean something like compassion. But this word is translating Hebrew word חֶ֥סֶד, which has less to do with compassion and more to do with covenant love and faithfulness. We often translate it lovingkindness, which is true if by that we mean the lovingkindness connected with faithfulness to God’s covenant with his people. God’s desire is that Israel and Judah would love obedience to Him and when they make a wrong turn, to turn back in repentance, to throw themselves onto the grace of God which he longs to meet them with. God desires a deep relationship of love and trust, not merely some sacrifices. He is not some Pagan god that needs to be fed by human beings through their offerings.

So with St. Matthew, God’s desire is for those who have strayed to come and find life in him. One can obey the Sabbath religiously, hold all the feast days, sacrifice the best offerings; and for us— have all the kids in Sunday school remember to bring their bibles, hold the most church programs, do all the family prayer times, do all the daily bible readings, memorize all the Scriptures we can, but if the result is a defensive faith that culminates in tokens of piety without the substance of real life change that produces a desire for the love of God for ourselves and others, then we have missed the guiding principle of Jesus. We don’t want a faith that only keeps us safe, we want a faith that makes us holy.

Conclusion

The faith that makes us holy risks something because it enters the messiness of life with God with others. Worshiping together forms us to go into the world to love and serve the Lord; it doesn’t form us to perform the liturgy better. To love the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves, as we say each week, becomes the guiding principle in following Jesus. Without this key ingredient, we miss the result of discipleship, which is Christ being formed in us. A good and right faith prioritizes what is most important in a life of discipleship and produces what is ultimately good in us and others — whether we call this the virtues or the fruit of the spirit. This is where God’s kingdom comes. If we miss this, the external badges of piety won’t mean much. Let’s join Jesus in noticing others’ needs rather than their failures, inviting them into God’s transformative love, and to make Jesus’ transformative love become our guiding principle in living out a life of discipleship.

Let us pray:

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

[1] C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Letter 6.

SERMONS

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