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August 6, 2026 · 12:57 am

Serving More Than Bread (Sermon)

The Feeding of the 5000, from Das Plenarium, woodcut print (1517), by Hans Schäufelein. Available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

The readings for the 10th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21, Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on August 2, 2026.

As a former youth pastor, I know well that when the Church considers the Feeding of the Five Thousand, we often do so in the context of Vacation Bible School or Sunday School. It is kind of a “kid friendly” story, because kids understand bread. They eat it every day. It is something they can experience through their senses. Jesus, the Bread of Life, can be revealed to them through something as simple as bread. And if we bake it with our children or youth? Oh, that’s always an exciting activity – and likely a messy one to boot. This, of course, only helps with the story’s popularity.

Yet, this ancient story isn’t just a children’s tale. Baked into it, we find connections to the earliest scriptures, the circumstances surrounding Jesus and his ministry, and even a pinch of End Times eschatology. As a participant in our Bible study astutely pointed out, there’s a connection to the parables we’ve been hearing from most recently. Jesus has been teaching about the growing expanding nature of the Kingdom of God. Then further, Jesus who was born in Bethlehem (meaning House of Bread”) also identified himself as the Bread of Life. He said, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” We rightly anticipate that there’s a lot going on here…something more than charity.

Oh yes, Jesus is not just serving up bread this morning. He’s not just feeding hungry people. And as fun as it might be to try to explain away or understand the “how” of what is done, as humans looking back, we cannot truly know. We must accept a mystery of this miracle, for that search can become a distraction or even an impediment to faith. One might better consider why did Jesus do this in the way he did? And why did all the Gospel writers include this story? The earliest Church understood this event as something critical to Jesus’ mission and identity.

And thus, Matthew goes out of his way to specifically explain that Jesus was exhausted by the demands of the crowd. Indeed, Jesus had tried to escape them. He’s probably also grieving the loss of his cousin, John the Baptist. And thus far, his efforts in ministry has been toward healing including exorcisms. These are therefore called “therapeutic miracles.”[i] They tend to meet the concrete needs of the persons touched by them…Jesus often literally touches the person in need as the miracle happens but not necessarily so. In these instances of healing, Jesus is embodying promises related to God’s love and the promised Messiah. He echoes the behaviors of some of the previous prophets. His activity roots him in the shared faith and hope of the Jewish people…but it also attracts many people to him. People who are hungry for something more than bread.

As Professor Matt Skinner rightly points out, “The crowds know [Jesus] as a healer, so they come to him for healing, not conversion. In the passage in front of us, he is not forgiving sins or teaching about finding belonging within a new kinship group. These crowds of Jews who seek him don’t appear to be religiously marginalized or dissatisfied in any way.”[ii] This is true as far as we can tell from the text. Certainly, we cannot know everyone’s motivation, yet regardless of how and why they were there, no matter how tired he was, Jesus sees them in their need. More than that, he has compassion upon them…all of them. It doesn’t matter if they believe in him or not. Jesus had compassion for them.

In the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus to be sure is acting in a way fulfilling Isaiah 55 (which we heard today) along with other texts. There’s an invitation to faith, but it is not forced. Jesus demonstrated a provision and care for all, even as more than food was being offered. In his actions, Jesus embodied how God fed the Israelites with Manna in the desert. And just as Elijah performed a miracle with flour and oil to feed a widow and her son for days (1 Kings 17), and his successor Elisha went further by multiplying bread to feed 100 men using only 20 small barley loaves and some fresh grain (2 Kings 4), Jesus here goes further. He feeds more than five thousand people. Jesus wants people to believe in him as not just a prophet or miracle worker, but as the Son of our Living God, the promised Messiah. Jesus reveals himself and his power through this meal.

Yet unlike the garish meal of King Herod Antipas a few verses earlier which would lead to sin and death, particularly death for John the Baptist, this meal that Jesus offers to the crowd is quite different. It speaks of community, provision, and life. Yet it would not be Jesus final word on the matter. Echoing promises in Isaiah, just a few verses after the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus will again feed a large crowd. A mass feeding happens twice in Matthew. Note that only Matthew records both meals. So, why?

In the Feeding of the Five Thousand, we see twelve baskets of food remain. This parallels the twelve Apostles certainly, but before them, it reminds us of the twelve tribes of Israel and God’s promises to them. In ancient Jewish numerology, the number came to represent divine governance and completeness as well. So, symbolically with the numbers, those familiar might understand God’s promises are involved in what Jesus is doing.

Similarly in the Feeding of the Four Thousand, seven large baskets remain. Seven came to represent completeness and perfection. In Jewish mysticism, it speaks of the integration of the spiritual into the physical world which is what is happening through Jesus. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for seven, שֶׁבַע (pronounced sheh-BAH), shares a linguistic root with שָׁבַע (pronounced shah-VAH) meaning to swear an oath or covenant, as well as שָׂבַע (pronounced sah-VAH), meaning fullness or satisfaction. With the seven loaves, we are reminded symbolically that Jesus is perfectly fulfilling God’s earlier promises or oaths to satiate those he loves.

In both meals, Jesus embodies and symbolizes the fulfillment of earlier promises through the food that is left over. Yet perhaps the most significant aspect of these two accounts is that where the crowd of five thousand was filled with Jewish people, the feeding of four thousand addressed the needs of primarily gentile people. Again, God’s loving kindness is expanding to become more inclusive as always promised. People are coming to the Jewish people and ultimately God through Jesus. We are reminded again that salvation is not just the Jews. From the start, God intended to call Gentiles. Indeed, Jesus says he came to call all people to himself (John 12:32).

Therefore, these meals are anything but ordinary. Jesus is serving up salvation. The Kingdom is bring made manifest. We are witnessing what is called a nontheraputic miracle.[iii] In the midst of “little faith,” Jesus reveals his awesome authority.[iv] By exercising power over wind and wave, walking on water, or multiplying the food before him, those of us with the eyes to see are meant to discover that he is indeed the Son of the Living God who has come to find, care for, and save his sheep…all of them…fulfilling God’s most ancient promises. Jesus has come to satisfy us fully.

And this Jesus, Son of God, could have fed everyone with the snap of his fingers or just a thought. Yet what does Jesus do? Foreshadowing the Lord’s Supper and a foretaste of the ultimate feast yet to come, Jesus takes the bread and blesses it. Then, Jesus gives it to the disciples. From there, it is to be passed out and shared with the crowd. Jesus uses his followers as he will use his future Church. We are sent to preach, teach, and baptize. We are sent to heal.

Even today in modern times, we are gathered and we are sent to others each and every week. We take a collection of money, food and other items in order to share. We are offered grace, so that we can bless others. We come hungry, but we leave full for a divine purpose. We are forgiven, not just for our own sake, but so that we can forgive others and call others to Jesus so they too can have an abundant, eternal life. We love because Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19).

In these verses, not only might we discover who Jesus is, we catch a glimpse of what we as Church are meant to be. What we do or give to others is not just about charity even as it helps others. Any nonprofit or person outside of Christianity can give to others. (See Matthew 5:46-48, for example, where Jesus says just that.) Through our service, charity, and all aspects of our daily life done in the name of Jesus, we are used by God to reveal the values of his Kingdom which is not of this world. These are values reflecting generosity beyond rational belief; ultimately pointing to Jesus and our salvation. Through our love given freely, we are to become a witness – a witness to all the peoples (Isaiah 55:4).

Previously, I’ve told you that all that happens in Matthew relates back to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapter 5-7). This teaching that I just referred to was first revealed in Matthew while Jesus shared the Beatitudes. As a children’s curriculum simply puts it, “The Beatitudes includes nine sayings from Jesus about the hearts and actions of people living out his Kingdom reality.”[v] The “Big Idea” about the Sermon on the Mount and the Kingdom of Heaven described, they say, is, “a new kind of society where generosity, justice, and peace reign. It’s a world where love is the final word.”[vi] It is a world where our God who is love intends to work through us. Jesus’ Kingdom is one in which suffering, hunger, loneliness, grief, selfishness, and so much more that troubles us will ultimately be defeated, even death itself.

And thus, Jesus taught at the same time as the Beatitudes about the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6). We are asked to ask God for all our needs, “our daily bread,” “extending through all conditions on Earth,”[vii] trusting that God’s will is to indeed meet all our needs for food and beyond. Martin Luther in his Large Catechism says, “that all our shelter and protection rest in prayer alone. For we are far too feeble to cope with the Devil and all his power and adherents that set themselves against us, and they might easily crush us under their feet.”[viii]

Simply, we cannot save ourselves. We rely on God’s grace for everything. And so, we rightly trust in God and so we rightly turn to the God who has promised to love and care for us for all good things, our daily bread…not because we deserve it but because of who God is and the promises God has made to us.  We ask trusting that we are embraced within God’s gracious, expanding, overflowing will to provide for us now and eternally.

For this reason, as Jesus feeds the crowds through the foreshadowing of the Church and the sacrament (the Lord’s Supper particularly), as Jesus reveals himself to us and his great love for us through his compassion, we also learn a bit about our own part in this mysterious, inbreaking Kingdom of God. We are called to similar compassion reflecting his love for us. We are asked to seek to be like Jesus in our daily walk with God’s help; unashamed to point to Jesus all the while.

Yes, hunger will be persistent until the Kingdom comes to fullness. While we wait, “God summons the church to mercy, generosity, and problem-solving,” writes Professor Skinner.[ix] Still, just as many prophets of old were resisted, abused or killed, or John was rejected and killed, and Jesus is condemned to the cross, we might need to carry our own crosses as well; potentially sacrificing all that we hold dear.  Yet the promised Kingdom is coming nonetheless. It is already at work around us and in us.

In the meal we heard about today, in the meal we are about to share, in the way we share all that we are as bread for a hungry world, we become living signs of the Kingdom. We reflect and reveal Jesus, the Bread of Life, who is here with us and working though us.

Seeing others in their need, having compassion upon them, we have the capacity to perform miracles through the smallest acts of love. In a world that tends to reject Jesus, or that too often laughs at compassion, we are set aside as witnesses of the Risen Christ. We aren’t just meeting needs. We are to remember that each loving action done in faith is meant to reveal Jesus as our Savior to a hungry world. Amen.

[i] Card, M. (2013). Matthew: The Gospel of Identity. Lisle, IL: InterVarsity Press. p. 70.

[ii] Skinner, M. (July 2026). Commentary on Matthew 14:13-21. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-matthew-1413-21-7 on July 31, 2026.

[iii] Card, M. (2013). p. 77.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Bible Project. “Bible Project Guide: The Beatitudes.” As downloaded at https://bibleproject.com/guides/the-beatitudes on July 31, 2026.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Luther, M. (1529). Large Catechism. Part 3, Paragraph 76.

[viii] Luther, M. (1529). Large Catechism. Part 3, Paragraph 30.

[ix] Skinner, M. (July 2026)

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 21:57 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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July 27, 2026 · 8:04 pm

Living Parables (Sermon)

The readings for the 9th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: 1 Kings 3:5-12; Psalm 119:129-136, Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on July 26, 2026.

Field Mustard in bloom, also known as Brassica Rapa, or by the alternative older name, Cruciferae, meaning “cross-bearing” (Detail). Image by: P.M. Dzuik at Minnesota Wildflowers.

You might not yet know this about me, but I love mustard. No, I mean really love it. If you look inside my fridge, there are twelve distinctly different varieties of mustard at this moment. Overtime, they change regularly, but I am never without several choices. When traveling in the Midwest, I was compelled to stop at the National Mustard Museum. And on the first Saturday in August, it is a safe bet that I will mark the National Mustard Day somehow. (And yes, National Mustard Day is a real thing.)

During my last year at Christ Lutheran, the youth ministry held a National Mustard Day Pool Party. The youth really got into it. We had mustard tastings, mustard inspired dishes, and many of the youths wore yellow without prompting because they bought into the passion and excitement I shared – at least for that day. It was a wonderful day with many memories made, and my love of mustard became sort of a lasting joke among us. Some have sent me cartoons since I left picturing me with them and, of course, mustard.

And then this year, God surprised me with another gift. Standing almost five feet high, one stalk of field mustard now grows in my back garden. I didn’t plant it. I’ve not seen that species anywhere in my neighborhood before. It just suddenly appeared. And although farmers tend to consider it a weed, I have learned that one can eat it as mustard greens or make a kind of mustard out of it. I consider its appearance a kind of miracle. Why? Because to me when I look at it, it brings me joy reminding me of mustard, but also past trips, youth formally entrusted to my care but whom I still deeply love, and in no small part, today’s Gospel.

Yet, the Parable of the Mustard Seed is not the only one we hear this morning. In a kind of rapid-fire succession, the lectionary asks us to consider five, very short parables uttered by Jesus. In Jesus’ presentation, one commentary writer, Zina Jacque, compares Jesus to a comedian working the room.[i] Different verbal tidbits are thrown to the crowd hoping that something lands well. The comedian knows that the audience is made of varied people with unique experiences, and so the illustrations used vary to hopefully help different segments of the crowd relate.

Remember, parables can be stories, sayings, or riddles. They might even seem humorous at times. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, parables were used by all kinds of teachers to land a desired lesson…to help their students critically think, learn, and remember. Similarly, Jesus wanted to connect to his original audience and to us.

In detail, Zina Jacque argues this is exactly what Jesus is doing in his teaching and preaching. The repetition is intentional. First, “The mustard seed and the yeast (verses 31–33) speak to those who know the land and the kitchen.”[ii] Meanwhile, “The hidden treasure and the pearl (verses 44–46) speak to those who understand acquisition, risk, and the marketplace.”[iii] Last but not least, “The dragnet full of fish (verses 47–50) speaks to those whose livelihood depends on the sea.”[iv] And I think it is kind of appropriate that this last parable was offered to the Apostles when alone. For as scholars suggest, at least four and up to seven of Jesus’ Apostles were likely fishermen.[v] He tried to connect with them.

Yet despite the variations, she also notes, “no matter which parable grabs your attention, the point remains the same. “The kingdom of heaven is valuable beyond measure, it is at work even when you cannot see it, and it will cost you everything to participate in it fully.”[vi] As humans, we can only get a sense of such wisdom…We taste and but don’t fully see yet what the inbreaking Kingdom has in store.

Still, we might often catch glimpses through the smallest of things…the ordinary…often imperfect things in our eyes. For example, in a central parable of the five, we hear of leaven being worked into flour in order that it might grow, expand, and become the bread that is intended. That, too, is intentional. And, leaven is often used in Matthew as a negative symbol for the teaching of the Pharisees.[vii] “Beware of the leaven,” we are cautioned.

Yet as with last week’s wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43), the parable’s leaven is worked into God’s good will for us. Jesus elsewhere says he did not come to abolish the Law but fulfill it. He draws his own teachings from the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom literature of Judaism and expands upon it as only God can do. In our Bible study last Wednesday, it struck me that the Jewish image for Wisdom or God’s Spirit was a woman. Perhaps, true wisdom is partly understanding and trusting that all things, even evil things or our own sin, can be used by God in the end to bless us just as Paul argues (Romans 8:28).

Yet always remember that with the Resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Kingdom is here…not in its fullness yet, still breaking in, but here. In the small neighbor children whom I saw playing with abandon a few nights ago, or through the relationships we might have (particularly perhaps in the Church), and in our gardens or on our daily walks (including our vocational walks), or in the lowly Field Mustard in my backyard…we can witness and learn about the inbreaking of the Kingdom at work within us and around us. Even amidst the leaven, weeds, or any bad, the Kingdom is here and yet still coming. So, we are to watch and wait with expectation and hope.

In Psalm 46, speaking for God, we read, “Be still, and know that I am God.” This use of “still” (raphah) means to stop stiving or let go (“let go and let God”) in Hebrew. It is an invitation to experience God’s sovereignty and love…to witness God’s grace at work. And that is what Jesus is doing with these parables. Stop, contemplate, listen…In modern psychology or other faith traditions, we might say “be mindful.” We who are faithful are to rest and act in a kind of conscious or intentional love. “Abide in my love,” rest in my love, Jesus invited us before he died.

Similarly, in seminary, I was exposed to the writings of Therese of Lisieux. As Therese died from tuberculosis while a young nun, she likened her experience to that of a small butterfly. Even as she did things to help her health, she saw her soul like that time creature entirely dependent on God’s grace to carry her to heaven …the grace now available to us in the Resurrected Christ.

She came to call herself, the Little Flower, as she saw that she was like a hidden wildflower in God’s garden rather than a grand plant. Even from her sickbed, she could serve God through her prayer and faithfulness. Easily overlooked, even in her suffering, she trusted that she mattered to God.

Also, she compared herself and her budding faith to being like a small bird with untried wings looking up at the sun with profound and total confidence. She knew who she belonged to. She would mindfully go through her day looking for signs of God’s Kingdom of love and grace breaking in all around her. She would keep watch and stay awake as Jesus taught.

Today, she is commonly known as the Little Flower, and many people seek to model what she called her “Little Way,” a way of holiness…ultimately Christ’s way. She came to believe that by doing small tasks and performing her duties with great love she was fulfilling her calling within the Kingdom. Heroic feats were not mandatory…are not mandatory. This reminds me of quotes from Mother Therese in Calcutta, but it is also the wisdom shared by Martin Luther. He, too, argued three centuries earlier that in living out our vocations we can make Christ known. He wrote that in the smallest acts done with great love we serve Jesus. Even the diaper changing of a baby when done in love, he suggested, becomes a sacred act…a holy moment.  

Thus, the Kingdom of Heaven is not like the human ideas of power, might, nor significance. We are already significant to the God who made us, the Son who died and rose from the dead for us, and the Spirit who lifts our hidden prayers as with groans. In God, we find the fullness of our significance no matter our station or our lot, nor even our ongoing struggles with sin. We cannot be loved more than we already are despite living imperfectly in an imperfect world.

Sadly, since the 1970s at least[viii], the United States Church has been obsessed with growth models related to size, and yet with seventy percent of congregations worshipping at less than 100 people, maybe growth in numbers isn’t the point of our ministry? In the Kingdom’s economy, faithful witness is what matters…no matter the challenges or whatever dangers we face…no matter alone we might seem…even facing our own death. And as Christian denominations and persons tend to struggle and argue over the merits of cultural domination versus cultural accommodation,[ix] maybe we are getting it wrong there, too? That might not be the battle the Kingdom calls us to wage at all.

I like how a former Bible professor of mine, Professor John T. Carroll, summed up the hopeful message that these parables provide us:

“Jesus and the disciples carry out their mission in a world that includes a whole lot of bad. Yet even though God’s reigning presence will not swiftly cancel and eliminate the brutality of Roman armies (to name one example), people of faith can trust the future to the holy justice of God. The parable in 13:47-50 summons readers today to the same courageous trust.”[x]

Now, I could be wrong, but perhaps we who believe are to live more like the humble Field Mustard in my backyard after all. We won’t always be appreciated. We are sometimes forced to live amidst rocky soil or battered by storms. And yet, we each have a purpose that’s special to God. We become a kind of living parable for others to help them understand just a little bit more about the Kingdom of God at work in the world and Jesus’ own call to them in their lives.

Yes, some might see us to be beautifully within this special “mustardy family” we call Church despite our imperfections. That botanical family is a family traditionally known as Cruciferae, which means “cross-bearing” in Latin. For their four petals form a cross when in bloom. This reminds people of Jesus. And through our own crosses born in faith with God’s help, God will surely make us bloom. People can see Jesus in us. And just as Jesus bloomed in his resurrection, we too will fully bloom when his Kingdom comes in its fullness. That’s God’s promise to us. Amen.

[i] Jacque, Z. (July 2026). Commentary on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17/commentary-on-matthew-1331-33-44-52-7 on July 24, 2026.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Harris, M.D. (March 12, 2025). Why Did Jesus Choose So Many Fishermen to be His Disciples? MD Harris Institute. As downloaded at https://mdharrismd.com/2025/03/12/why-did-jesus-choose-so-many-fishermen-to-be-his-disciples/.

[vi] Jacque, Z. (July 2026). Commentary on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.

[vii] Card, M. (2013). Matthew: The Gospel of Identity. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press. p. 110.

[viii] Holy Post Media (July 22, 2026). Holy Post Podcast: The Idolatry of Church Growth with Andrew Root. Episode 730.

[ix] Bell, J. (July 2, 2026). The End of Christian America: What Actually Killed American Christianity. Livewell. As downloaded at https://jamesbell333289.substack.com/p/the-end-of-christian-america-227?r=6utlc2&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true on July 22, 2026.

[x] Caroll, J.T. (July 2023). Commentary on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15/commentary-on-matthew-131-9-18-23-6 on July 23, 2026.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 21:33 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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July 21, 2026 · 10:27 pm

No Other Rock (Sermon)

Wheat and Weeds, Olga Seifutdinova on iStock

The readings for the 8th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Isaiah 44:6-8; Psalm 86:11-17, Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on July 19, 2026.

It has been a rough week for some of us. We have had some folks receive terrible news about their health or those they love. Certainly, depending on where you live, creation has suffered with fires in Canada, drought locally, and flood this week in Texas. This morning, I am reminded of my body’s own limits with all the smoke in the air negatively impacting my asthma.

Certainly, life is imperfect. People can betray us or choose to live as our enemies when we don’t deserve it. Humans can be unspeakably cruel, and nature at times seems little better. Our complicated lives are such that some of our evangelical and charismatic neighbors have more recently, wrongly, hyper-spiritualized their fears; finding a demon at work under every bed and sometimes in any person they don’t like.[i] Everything becomes spiritual warfare, and some err in assuming that means Christians must be ready for an earthly war as well.

Still, I must admit that there does seem to be a cosmic, spiritual battle going on at some level. Even our Lutheran, traditional theology recognizes that Sin, Death, and the Devil are still at work despite Christ’s resurrection and ascension…for now. So, where is our hope until Jesus comes back?

Just as Isaiah 44 originally spoke to the broken, defeated, exiled people of Israel under the foot of the mighty Babylonian Empire, the passage speaks to us. Our hope is not ultimately in ourselves or our abilities. Reminiscent of God’s conversation with Job from a whirlwind, God through the prophet Isaiah reminds us that we are not God, nor can we understand this problem of evil existing around us and within us. How can God allow it? Our only answer is sometimes one we struggle with. We must trust that God is truly love and loves us (1John 4:8).

And in facing this very real world with its incredible problems, recall that prophets like Isaiah are not fortune tellers from God. Their primary, divine duty is always to point people toward God – calling them to repentance, reconciliation, and trust; asking them to live in hope. Isaiah reminds his suffering, exilic community struggling for hope and facing death “that their own identity should be understood in relation to the character of God…the exiles are reminded that they are witnesses of the Redeemer God”[ii] even in their dire predicament.

And so, from this passage and others, we learn that God is our only true hope. God declares that he is our rock, our foundation. God is what allows us to stand when the world seems against us and the Earth quakes and crumbles beneath our feet. There is no other God, but God. And God has chosen to love us. So, “Do not fear or be afraid,” we are told (Isaiah 44:8).

Believing this doesn’t make life easy. It is not a guarantee against tears or other human emotions. It certainly does not prevent our encountering evil. It perhaps even attracts evil’s opposition due to our desire to follow Jesus. Yet, Jesus, Son of the Living God, had it rough. He would have no place to call his home, would be resisted by those who should know better (including his family and religious authorities), would unfairly suffer terribly (tortured and crucified to death). No, life isn’t always fair, and the fully human, fully divine Jesus knows this firsthand.

We cannot answer why things are the way they are. We might guess, but we will err. We are told only that there is a plan. It doesn’t mean that God is punishing us with what goes wrong, but we are told that his plan allows for weeds to exist among the wheat. It is somehow for our ultimate welfare for “in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them” (Matthew 13:24).

In such a situation, so often vexed on all sides, tossed about as on a stormy ocean, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19-20). Jesus is Risen, and his Spirit claims us through our faith and baptism. Of his sheep, he will not lose even one (Luke 15 and Matthew 18). Indeed, despite all the signs of Sin, Death, and the Devil surrounding us, we are assured through the promises of scripture that Jesus is already victorious. We need not be afraid, because Jesus has won the battle for us. We share even now in his victory.

Yet just because weeds are allowed by God to remain among the wheat, and although we are victorious thanks be to Jesus, one should never adopt the heresy of quietism. That was a 17th Century heresy of extreme passivity, where people give up on striving, helping others, or performing good works. It still raises its head among some modern Christians, as they say, “Why help? Nothing is ever going to change,” or “It has always been that way. There’s nothing that can be done.”

Well, mature faith says otherwise. Jesus issued a challenge against similar thinking and behaviors. In Matthew 26:11, Jesus says the poor will always be with us. Martin Luther might extend the meaning of “the poor” out, so that it applies to all forms of poverty and suffering. Jesus also warns his disciples about the wolves in the world. Due to these wolves, or weeds if you prefer, which we will encounter, Jesus cautions that we be wise as serpents and yet gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16). He recognizes that evil and struggle exist in our current world.

Despite supposed futility, or real or imagined threat, Jesus continues in his teaching. We are yet to serve others, feed others, and heal others in Christ name. We live in opposition to death. And when we do so to the least of these, we do so to him (Matthew 25:40). This is not for merit toward entrance into heaven, but we are sown into God’s will for the world and live out God’s will for us. “Love one another, as I have loved you,” Jesus said before he died.

It is true that Martin Luther cautioned against the understanding that our works are redemptive in any way, but we are also asked to understand that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). We are to always serve, reform, and love in response to our gracious salvation. Certainly, the world, its people, and our bodies will betray us. Governments and political entities will go astray. We will let ourselves down at times giving into temptation. Yet throughout, it remains our call as Christians to pick up our cross and follow Jesus wherever he leads.

Unreasonable sacrifices in the eyes of the world are possible when we seek to follow Jesus and pray that God’s will be done, and we hope these values are reflected in our government. No, our nation is not Christian as a Christian nationalist might argue. We are not a theocracy, but as Christians we are to pray for and participate in the world around us. Just as the Apostles experienced with the Roman Empire, our neighbors and our government might reflect more weed than wheat. Yet, we are to be prophetically pointing people toward Christ – encouraging a better, more loving conduct certainly, but ultimately toward an abundant life in Christ through faith…because Jesus wants to redeem them, too.

Like Jesus, I understand that faithful witness does not always mean winning every public battle. And as followers of Christ, we aren’t called to be realistic. Instead, we are identified as prisoners of hope (Zechariah 9:12) and slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:22). The fact that we are saved by grace alone calls us to costly discipleship. As outlined by the martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, before World War 2, this is a commitment to follow Jesus Christ that demands unconditional surrender, obedience, and self-sacrifice, because Jesus offered all for us.[iii]

In such a theological construct, we aren’t to give up as Christians. We aren’t to think, “Well everyone does it.” We aren’t to ever accept that the ends justify the means. And we certainly aren’t to rationalize injustice with phrases like, “It is just the way of the world,” or “Life (or the Church) is just messy sometimes.” That does not free us from responsibility for caring for others. Such thinking only tangles us in the weeds of sin and death.

The truth remains. Many abysmally fail at loving their neighbor and anger can be justified in such cases. It can be hard to forgive. It might take a lifetime. It may never come fully in this life…Like the Psalmist, we might hunger for revenge, but ultimately, we are asked to leave it to our Defender and Redeemer God to act, our Rock. Sure, we might need to act in this world to protect others or even stop any offenders from hurting himself or herself by their weedy actions, but we should do so with mercy and a hope for restoration and reconciliation. If we can’t forgive, we confess it and pray for God’s peace.

Recently, a favorite cartoon of mind came to mind as I wrote back and forth with someone about the difficult call to pray for those weeds among us who seem unworthy of forgiveness. In the mind of the cartoon’s young boy, Calvin, this becomes a stumbling block to faith. He says to his imaginary tiger friend, Hobbes, “Its hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” Hobbes just looks at the reader with a kind of stunned disbelief. We should feel at a loss too, for Jesus teaches, “love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back” (Luke 6:33-35).

Friends, there is real evil in the world. There are temptations and evil at work in us. Anger might prove reasonable, crime might merit punishment, and we might not be able to help everyone as much as we would want to. At some level, we must recognize that this is always true in a fallen world. Yet, Jesus, the Son of man has come to us to open our eyes and our hearts much wider than that. With Jesus Risen, that’s not all there is too our story.

In the period between the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Jesus’ time included, there existed great revolutionary fervor as Judah was occupied by Rome. There developed a hope that a particular Son of Man, an apocalyptic or End Time kind of Messiah, would come to establish everlasting justice and peace. In some visions, he was on a horse with a sword.

And so, Jesus often used that term, Son of Man, for himself as he performed his ministry, as he faced his own passion and death, and as he looked toward the future. A harvest will come, and their will be justice where Jesus will be the judge. Yet the Good News remains that Jesus loves us…even his most lost sheep will not remain lost (John 6:39). In Matthew, Jesus shares that it is God’s will (which will be fulfilled) that “not even one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14). Because we trust in Jesus, we will be looked upon as righteous.

We can’t explain evil in this life, for it is unfair by its very nature. Still, surrounded by ruins and threat, much like the defeated and subsequently exiled Jewish people of Isaiah’s time, it is God’s voice that echoes off them and into our hearts. Perhaps it might sound like this:

“Do not fear or be afraid; I am your rock. Stand on me facing the wind and the rain and believe the sun will shine again. Rooted in me, draw from my strength, grow in love and beauty. Know that the grave is not the end. I am your rock; nothing else. Get up and walk in faith. For you are my witnesses, and I alone am your rock and your salvation.”[iv] Amen.        

[i] This is a well-documented trend in many articles about the New Apostolic Reformation or sometimes identified as those among independent charismatic movements. Spiritual warfare, exorcisms, and imprecatory prayer are normalized and often threatened against those they don’t agree with. Read this gift article, “The Demon Next Door,” in the Atlantic for just one example: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/charismatic-christian-church-tennessee/687624/?gift=dWl6b-Mr0EhPmRK_XXCXJh4srdrvdDmpfHbUGVXMllo&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share.

[ii] Claassens, J. (July 2026). Commentary on Isaiah 44:6-8. Working Preacher. As downloaded at: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-16/commentary-on-isaiah-446-8-7 on July 17, 2026.

[iii]Stetler, D. II. (January 24, 2023). The Cost of Discipleship Summary And Quotes. Newstart Discipleship. Downloaded at https://www.newstartdiscipleship.com/post/dietrich-bonhoeffer-cost-of-discipleship-summary-and-quotes.

[iv] This is not a scripture quote, but echoes scriptural themes. Some credit goes to Steven Curtis Chapman’s song, Heaven in the Real World, which I often listened to as a police officer facing a difficult world. It comes to my mind whenever I think of theodicy issues.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 26:23 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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July 9, 2026 · 8:13 pm

The Hands of God (Sermon)

“Christ Risen from the Tomb” (Detail), by Bergognone, c. 1490

The readings for the 6th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Zechariah 9:9-12; Psalm 145:8-14, Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on July 5, 2026.

As we celebrate our 250th Anniversary as a nation, particularly the Declaration of Independence, I hope we are thinking about our history and world in relationship to our understanding of God, as imperfect as that might be. In our Lutheran tradition, Martin Luther similarly looked at the world in his time, and with his barely post-medieval mind, he explained our world as being influenced by Two Kingdoms. God seemed to rule the world in “two distinct yet overlapping ways.”[i]

On one hand, some say with the right hand although Luther did not specify, God rules over the spiritual realm. On the other hand, again not Luther’s description but reflecting the bias of the world (at least as I see it as a lefty myself), God rules over the temporal realm. After all, God created it all, so God uses both the spiritual and the temporal to ensure God’s will is done.  That’s a pithy explanation of a somewhat complicated relationship, and most certainly, Martin Luther spoke and wrote more on the subject (as well as those after him). Yet even Luther understood that as perfect as God was, is, and will be, both the Church and the State fail…always fail!

And yet, this isn’t God’s fault. We humans prove the weak link. Our hands, our heart, each and every itty-bitty part of us are fallible. Thus, we find ourselves always wrestling with temptation and often giving into sin. Even when saved, remember that term sinner-saint. We still struggle with sin although saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Even the great Saint Paul did not do the good that he wished. He did the evil that he wished not to do. He could not always help himself…Paul sinned! “For,” as he wrote in Romans 7:18, “the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.”

Yes, my friends, we live in a fallen world, not a perfect one, where despite what some denominations or secular gurus might tell us, there is not enough self-help manuals in the world to set us free from Sin, Death, and the Devil. Not even the Bible, as helpful as it is, given to us by God, cannot save us. No, we don’t say that the Bible saves us, we say that only Jesus can save us. We must cast all our cares, doubts, and darkness into his loving hands, because it is those pierced hands calling us to faith, inviting us to follow, and embracing us through the gifts of both faith and our baptism.

Who will rescue us from our body of death? Paul said, and Luther agreed, only Jesus can save us, nothing we do. Spiritual disciplines can be used by God to help us grow in love. Cooperating with grace can be used by God to help shape us. Laws can remain helpful to us, and any subsequent confession and repentance is good for the soul. Yet, that comes only with God’s help too. Yes, we are only saved through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who stretched out his hands and died for us on the cross for all of our sin – that which is baked into us as fallen humans, that which we have done, that sin that we are struggling with, and yes, even the sin that we have not done as of yet, but we certainly will do. Jesus died for all our sin…your sin…not just some of them.

And when we surrender ourselves into Christ’s hands, when we seek to trust in him even when it might not make sense, that’s when his hands begin to change and transform our hearts through faith and the presence of his Holy Spirit.  “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope, and today I declare that I will restore to you double,” so spoke Zechariah (9:11-12) to the exiled Israelites. They had chased false gods of this world. They had failed to love God with all that they were and love their neighbor as themselves. They were languishing as a result. Their government had failed them horribly. And yet, God promised to restore them double the suffering they were experienced as his gift…pure grace. God offers this to us as well.

The Israelites certainly did not deserve this restorative salvation, for them, a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple. And so, early Christians saw this as God also speaking to us about Jesus and our own eternal salvation. We don’t deserve to be saved, but we are. Trust in that…receive God’s gift through Christ’s body given for you and his blood shed for you. Doctor Stephen Reid points out, “Gospel writers each echo [Zecchariah’s] imagery in their accounts of Palm Sunday: Matthew 21:5; Mark 11:2; Luke 19:30; and John 12:14–15.”[ii] The Jewish rescue from Babylon foreshadows our rescue from Sin, Death, and the Devil.

And yet even the best of us can still doubt or wonder. John the Baptist, the greatest of all prophets according to Jesus, seems to be struggling with uncertainty when facing death. He dares sends his own disciples to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3). John’s doubt and the doubt of others is the context of our Gospel today. Things aren’t playing out as John expected. He’s facing his own beheading. And perhaps Jesus’ message just seems too good to be true, because it doesn’t seem to be moving mountains from his cell.

Yet, an immediate change, for whatever God’s reasoning, is not the divine plan. No, Jesus’ ministry is relational and built on trust not fireworks or magic. It spreads through one person to another, “one act of mercy at a time.”[iii] Jesus was changing the world when one has the eyes of faith to recognize his saving ministry for what it is – always miraculous no matter the timing. And yet plenty of people who should have known better were joining John in questioning and doubting. Jesus was fulfilling prophesy. Still, Jesus was failing to meet the expectations of John and other faithful people, and he is resisted in Jewish communities like Bethsaida and even his base of operation, his hometown of Capernaum. The way he is operating is becoming a stumbling stone as recorded in Isaiah 8:14-15.

I often enjoy the incites of Bible scholar and singer, Michael Card, who puts it aptly. “Jesus has failed to meet John’s expectations – yes, even John’s expectations! And if Jesus failed to meet John’s expectations, certainly he is likely to fail ours. There is nothing wrong with Jesus; it is our expectations that are patently wrong.”[iv] And so, we get back to where we started. Because we get Jesus wrong, we often get wrong how we should interact in the world whether Church or state or creation itself. Yet, Jesus did not give up on John, nor will Jesus give up on us. He loves us, but we are like children.

“What should I compare,” that phrase, was a typical formula to begin a rabbinic parable,”[v] and Jesus compares his accusers and doubters to children that always find fault. John practiced asceticism but his detractors called him demonic, and while Jesus conducted “his ministry with joy and inclusion, yet his detractors label him vulgar, unserious, and soft on sin.”[vi] Whomever God sends, including sending you or me, people will tend not to listen, but guess what? We aren’t so good at listening either. We need God’s help even to listen…even to believe. Yet even as Jesus might speak of judgement, note that he also has “an unrelenting desire to see mercy spread to every corner of society.”[vii]

Despite our doubts and darkness, we always remain in the loving hands of God. The hands that created us are the hands that in Jesus spread out to die for us in order to share with us eternal life. Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). What Jesus is promising is that God will reveal God’s love to us through him. In the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God will use all things to make God known to us and help us in our unbelief, because God wants us to believe. (See for example Mark 9:24.)

Yet even as Jesus wishes to put his yoke on us, we are encouraged not to be afraid. His yoke is easy and his burden light – even when times are hard, when the government might seem unfair, when violence is all too common, when those who should love us betray us, or when our own expectations about life or about Jesus prove wrong and thus become a heavy weight. His hands will work through ours and our entire being as we comfort, heal, serve, or speak in his name to make his Church and world a better, if still imperfect, place.

And when our hands cannot do it and all seems lost, when living into the Law and perfection leaves us still falling short, Jesus extends his hands to us to help us carry the crosses that we face…even death itself. Grace abounds.

Consider this in closing. “The yoke” Jesus spoke of, to the Jewish ear of Matthew’s time, meant one thing – the Law of Moses, the Torah. The Mishna, the first written collection of Rabbinic oral traditions, states (with some explanation added):

He that takes on the yoke of the law,
From him shall be taken away the yoke of the kingdom,
[They mean the yoke of repressive worldly empires, people will
find freedom from living out the Mosaic Law.]
and [from him shall be taken away] the yoke of worldly care;
but he that throws off the yoke of the law [those who ignore it],
upon him shall be laid the yoke of the kingdom
and the yoke of worldly care.[viii]
[In effect, those who ignore the Law will suffer from the choices
made to ignore it.]

Yet, Jesus says something a bit different as a corrective…to extend that understanding. Learn from Jesus. Make him our only rabbi. Unlike the burdensome law, he is manifestly gentle and humble. Unlike the 613 burdensome commands of the Law of Moses which we never can fulfill, Jesus promises rest for our soul.[ix] Jesus vows to hand us our salvation and fulfill the Law which we can never do. It is only Jesus that can rescue us from our plight and establish a new heaven and new earth where tears and strife will be wiped away forever.

This is so because, despite our faults and failures, Jesus loves us and wants more for us than we can accomplish on our own. Oh, yes, laws (including Biblical laws) can still benefit us as Church, a society, or individuals, but Jesus? Jesus came to save us. And because of that we live as prisoners of hope (Zechariah 9:12). Amen.

[i] Google AI

[ii] Reid, S.B. (July 2026). Commentary on Zechariah 9:9-12. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14/commentary-on-zechariah-99-12-7 on July 1, 2026.

[iii] Skinner, M. (July 2026). Commentary on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14/commentary-on-matthew-1116-19-25-30-7.

[iv] Card, M. (2013). Matthew: The Gospel of Identity. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press. p. 108

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Skinner, M. (July 2026). Commentary on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Mishnah ‘Abot 3.5 in Danby, Mishnah, p. 450 as cited in Card, M. (2013). Matthew: The Gospel of Identity.

[ix] Card, M (2013). Matthew: The Gospel of Identity.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 24:40 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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July 1, 2026 · 5:54 pm

Welcoming Jesus (Sermon)

Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash

The readings for the 5th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18, Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on June 28, 2026.

In the mornings, I like to scan for breaking news using social media. This morning, I came across a lay person who I know to be active in the Anglican tradition say that if she were preaching, she would focus on our text from Romans. She said people just don’t hear enough about our need for salvation from sin.

Well, that’s true. That can happen. People can sometimes focus solely on the good stuff. Martin Luther called that the Theology of Glory. People skip the need for the cross and go right to the resurrection. Yet, we are Theologians of the Cross as Lutherans. We should be thinking about Law and Gospel always going together.

So in the comments that followed, several people indicated that they would indeed preach on Romans, but one person went so far as to say that if pastors did not preach on Romans they are cowards. Whoa! I thought, “Wow, that’s some Law for you right there.” Yeah…I am not speaking of Romans today. For one thing, we are Lutheran, and Romans is a critical piece of Luther’s on transformation. And so, we speak of that a lot as Lutheran because of its historic importance to our “Lutheran lens.” Also, I think we need to hear about these three short verses in the Gospel. We need to consider how our sin plays into that…how our acceptance of others and offerings to them is something done in effect to Jesus.

So, let me explain. We use what is called the Revised Common Lectionary to guide what texts are covered in our worship services, we do so with many other denominations and individual congregations.  These groups and other people use this lectionary (or list) because we wish to focus on the same texts during worship. It is a sign of our ultimately universal or catholic unity of faith. More than that, it helps us live into our unity more concretely. The Spirit working through scripture seeks to shape the Church and call all to Jesus. Yet, any lectionary is ultimately an arbitrary list discerned by scholars and pastors with the help (hopefully) of that Spirit.

And so sometimes, we have passages that are very difficult that might not otherwise be chosen by pastors and worship committees. Or, this lectionary might break up the sections of scripture a bit differently than your Bible editors might to help better fit the scriptures to the season or echo themes between the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel texts. And then like today, one can presented with an extremely short passage and wonder why.

These short sections of scripture might seem easier to digest or quickly understand, but I would suggest that we might be fooling ourselves. We possibly will not be discerning properly in our rush toward understanding. Remember that each book of the Bible, section, paragraph or verse is incredibly rich. As a Puritan reminds us, “God is still speaking,” through those words. We might need to slow down and listen better for the Spirit. Don’t assume it is easily understood because it is short.

For today’s three lines, varied translations of scripture (ultimately the boards that created the NIV, NRSV, and other translations) provide us with headings to help us focus on an understanding of what comes next. The headings you find are not scripture, nor are the verse numbers (the original Greek and Hebrew have no verse numbers), but additions. Yet supplying us with these headings, each can do so a bit differently. For example, in the Evangelical centered Amplified Version and Roman Catholic favored New American Standard Bible, their heading for today’s section of scripture is “The Reward of Service”…which might make sense considering the groups that like it tend to lean into work’s righteousness. The Common English Bible, the English Standard Version, and the NRSV used by the ELCA just say, “Rewards,” which might seem to indicate all kinds of benefits received through grace.  The work of “service” is removed. Meanwhile, the New King James Version used by Episcopalians and others offers the heading, “A Cup of Cold Water,” reminding us perhaps that the smallest efforts offered in love by us to others fulfills Jesus’ teaching. It is a sacred act.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I looked at numerous translations, and I was surprised that not one offered the heading, “Welcoming Jesus.” And yet, in my study and our conversation during Bible study, the word “receiving” truly popped out to capture my attention this time around. The Greek word used by Matthew only appears three times in the Gospels, and it is in this short passage. Like another recent Sunday’s Gospel lesson (from earlier in this chapter), there is an element of our being received or welcomed in Jesus’ name. As Paul reminds us, we are his ambassadors.

And so, recall that Jesus is one with us. We represent his name and authority. And like an emissary or ambassador, if we are rejected or mistreated as we come to others in his holy name, Jesus, too, is being rejected. Thus, he says, “Those who receive you [as disciples] are also receiving me, and those who receive me are receiving the one who sent me.” We are connected intimately with Jesus and his divine mission.

Then, Jesus indicates that those people who receive a prophet or righteous person in his name…people who represent well the faith, hope, and love that Jesus came to share and make concrete in our lives particularly through his Church…they receive the reward of those who have come to them in Jesus’ name. If a prophet, those welcoming him or her receive a prophet’s reward…Those welcoming a righteous person (and in Matthew’s use of “righteous” that is a person who who’s life demonstrates an active, internal relationship with God, characterized by mercy, compassion, and inward purity), well, the welcomer receives that reward. The great reward of these awesome followers of Jesus (the prophets and righteous ones) is graced upon those who receive them – just for the welcome! Their honor is shared with those who receive them.

We’ve heard earlier in the chapter that those who reject the servants of Jesus also reject him. Now, we hear that the persons who “receive,” “welcome,” or “accept hospitably” (that same word is used in the Greek for these meanings) the followers of Jesus receive the follower’s reward. In short, by welcoming people representing Jesus’ grace that is reaching out to them through these followers, the welcomer is welcoming Jesus.

As one commentator writes, “This discourse as a whole makes clear that God’s power is now at work not only in Jesus, but in and through his disciples.”[i] So, if you or I believe in Jesus and seek to share him through our words and actions, guess what? We are one with Jesus. We despite all our imperfections and sin, no matter our status, are in a spiritual sense Jesus going to others.

Yet, this passage is not just about sharing in and benefitting from God’s saving grace through our welcome of others. We share the faith that we receive through them. Yes, Jesus does speak about reward, but let’s unpack things further. What about our welcome of still others – the little ones? What about when Jesus sends us the people that need his love…has us cross paths with them…so that we can share what we ourselves have received? Well, we are to receive, accept, welcome, and be hospitable to them too. Jesus says, “…whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” So, if we are to take what we experience, learn and receive from other disciples…a lifesaving and nurturing drink of any kind…it is well with us. We are receiving and helping Jesus.

Yet, those “little ones” who Jesus identifies elsewhere as his  children proves to lie beyond his current disciples. His children or little ones include those marginalized by society, the sick and lame, those struggling with sin, the hungry, the imprisoned, the naked, the lonely, and more. About fifteen chapters later in the Gospel According to Matthew (remember it is one cogent whole, and scripture needs to interprets scripture), Jesus teaches, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”

So clearly, it isn’t just the prophets, righteous ones, or imperfect ones, the children among us…all those Jesus loves need to be received, accepted, welcomed, and treated with hospitality…for Jesus came to draw all people to himself…He loves all people. Thus, this is why Martin Luther in a letter to his sick friend (the Elector Frederick of Saxony, in 1521) writes, “I cannot pretend that I do not hear the voice of Christ crying out to me from Your Lordship’s body and flesh saying, ‘Behold, I am sick.’” Our sufferings are shared by and born by Christ, thus he is in the suffering and one with them.

And if that’s not enough, oh boy, let’s really challenge ourselves. Let’s stretch our minds and hearts further. I am going to share one of my favorite quotes from an Orthodox saint, a nun known for her care of the poor and sick, Mother Gavrilia. Get ready…it is a dozy! …”If you don’t like somebody, remember that you are looking at Christ in the face.” Christ is in those we don’t like calling us to forgive and love our enemies…asking us to forgive and love him. So, for those Republicans or Democrats we judge harshly? Those who, for whatever reason, we think are a lost cause, or too hard to love, or a waste of time? Oh, man…Jesus is in them too…And you thought Elvis was everywhere…

No, Jesus, our Lord, one with our Creator, one with the Spirit that animates us, fully one with our humanity even as he remains fully divine…Jesus is here…God is with Us. In those who go to others in his name…in those who receive his servants…in his children, the little ones, who have so much left to learn or far to go, even all those we greet this afternoon…Christ is in them…calling all of us to accept and love him. Not only that, we are to grow deeper and more intimate in our love.

This truly ancient understanding that comes out of this was encapsulated and shared well by my spiritual mentor of sorts, Br. Roger of Taizé, in his writings. For example, he wrote, praying to Jesus, “Before we even knew you, you loved us.” And so, when we feel overcome by the world or our own struggles with sin, thinking our fire is going out…Br. Roger urged us to remember that we were not the one who lit the fire. Jesus is still there. And when we, the Church, seek to listen, heal, and reconcile, “it becomes what it is at its most luminous—a communion of love, of compassion, of consolation, a clear reflection of the Risen Christ.” 

In this ancient understanding of the Christian mystics, or Martin Luther’s understanding, or the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Orthodox belief…although sometimes regrettably forgotten or ignored by us as modern people…Br. Roger prays a prayer that we all can share in no matter how long we’ve been Christian, whether an inquirer or deeply intimate with Jesus, or just the person without faith yet first suspecting the there is a god calling them to rise out of their tomb…In doing so, he prays for us all:

Jesus Christ, Love of all loving, you were always in me and I did not know it.  You were there, and I kept on forgetting you. You were in my heart of hearts and I was looking elsewhere. Even when I remained far from you, you kept on waiting for me. And the day is coming when I can tell you:  Risen Christ, you are my life:  I belong to Christ, I am Christ’s.

Today, as we welcome people of all kinds and faith experiences to our installation service, or tomorrow as we serve others in our greater community, it is not just us being Jesus going out to love others. We are welcoming the Jesus in them. It is his presence alone that makes it possible to understand and love all life as sacred, and his presence that works through others to help save us.

Amen.

[i] S. Saunders. (June 2026). “Commentary on Matthew 10:40-42.” WorkingPreacher.org. Downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13/commentary-on-matthew-1040-42-7 on June 26, 2026.

Post Script: After the service, a few people came up to me to talk about how hard it is to forgive some people who in our view have committed grave wrongs. For example, what does one do about Hitler? Well, nothing I said above means that in the world there cannot be consequences. Lutheran theology has always recognized what Martin Luther called Two Kingdoms, “two simultaneous, overlapping realms through which God rules the world,” (Google AI), in effect the State and the Church. We also talk about three uses of the Law:

  1. The Mirror or Pedagogical Use points to our sin and need of saving, ultimately pointing us to Christ.
  2. The Civil Use restrains evil in society. It basically echoes the much later, scholarly Deterrence Theory. Threat of punishment can restrain sin.
  3. The Guide Use suggests that laws can help us as believers how to live a holy life and express their love for God. One might think of this as “spiritual disciplines,” but always remember that Lutherans do not believe we get “extra credit” for salvation or any saving benefit. Only Jesus saves in the Lutheran view.

So in the world, there can be consequences, and certainly the Bible teaches there is a Judgement Day. We know, as Luther argued that those who trust in Jesus are saved. Beyond that, we risk being unscriptural. On that day, God judges, not us. I am not a universalist, even as I hope those who are lost will experience the mercy of God as I have in my own salvation. The Bible does teach about judgement, and we can not ignore it. Yet, God is more than fair. God is gracious. God is love. So, be ready for surprises.

Yet as we interact with those who have offended and meet out human justice, we seek to always remember a desire for repentance and redemption in that person’s life. We want to protect the community, but we also want to try to remember that there is no justice without mercy. We strive to forgive and want the best for them which includes a relationship with Jesus. If force is necessary, we use the least amount to stop the behavior.

Offering forgiveness is something that also blesses us freeing us from anger which can lead to sin. And if we struggle to do so? Remember that anger is not a sin, but we can be tempted to sin through it. If we do, confess your sin and try to sin no more. Pray for your enemy, the people you are struggling to love. I find that helps free me. Go to a trusted friend, pastor, counselor, or spiritual director to confess your struggles. Yet know, forgiveness might not come fully in some cases. Some offenses are so toxic or harmful they can continue through your life – at least at times. Still, your willingness to work toward forgiveness will result in more peace in your life. Last but not least, some people will never repent or do better. It is ok to shake off your sandals and move on as a last resort, but try to remain open to reconciliation. Ask God to help you.

This is a difficult teaching, but that is exactly why I wanted to speak to it during this sermon. When we sense we are resisting to love someone, it is Jesus who we are ultimately hurting. What we do for or to the least of these, we do for or to him.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 19:05 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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June 27, 2026 · 1:58 am

Valued More than Swallows (Sermon)

The readings for the 4th Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69:7-18, Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on June 21, 2026. Without any children present, I still wanted to share some of my intended talk with the adults, the “older children of God, as I suspected it would be of interest and a help. So, this sermon is longer than my normal length due to integration of my children’s material.

I was hoping some of the younger children of God would be here with us today, because I was going to show them something…a picture…a picture that was taken for our Office Administrator’s, Cindy’s, seat. Out the office window, there is a lovely bush (a butterfly bush), and there must have been five to six beautiful Goldfinches in that bush. And then one day when I was driving home last week, I was passing the bridge over Lake Anna, and I saw this big, majestic Bald Eagle swoop down, hit the water, and fly off with its prey. Very cool! And then this morning driving to church with my wife, we are driving in and this Turkey Vulture flies up from the side of the road and almost gets hit by our car. That’s not the best ending to the week if that was to happen, but I think it is ironic or some kind of synchronicity that I encounter all these birds, and in the Gospel, we encounter Jesus speaking about two Sparrows.

When we think of God, we often think of Eagles, those majestic birds. Yet, Jesus often speaks about the smallest of birds. We can walk through our day, hear them singing, and we don’t even notice them! They are just part of our background. Yet, Jesus sees them all.

Recall, that just five chapters before in his Sermon on the Mount, the first of five discourses recorded in Matthew, Jesus presents the Beatitudes. As part of that gathering on that mountaintop, he tells the crowd, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26). And today in chapter 10, what does he do?  He tells us that we are of more value than two sparrows. It is very similar.

Jesus uses this very common imagery of small birds to reassure us of God’s great love for us. Today, he wants to reassure his Apostles (for that is who is talking to) that they are loved despite the bumpy road ahead. Certainly, God loves all of God’s creation, but God loves us more. This repetition or echo of teachings found in chapter five and chapter ten might just be a flag calling us to pay closer attention…to look deeper into this passage today.

You might recall that Moses received tablets with ten sayings on a mountain top. Centuries after Moses, Jesus gives sayings to a crowd on a mountain. Notice, Moses receives from God ten sayings as a prophet, but Jesus speaks or gives sayings to the crowd as God. He does so to help people start to realize with this echoing of the past his authoritative, prophetic status, and to help build a foundation for his new community that’s going to be called Church. The way Matthew tells his story, he hopes that people will start to understand the divine import of Jesus by seeing such parallels.

Yet, the beatitudes, this gift that Jesus presents to the crowd and to us, his Church, aren’t about what we do as the Law of Moses was. (“Thou shall or shall not…”) They are about what God does to bless us by grace through faith within even the most difficult of situations. Jesus wants us to reflect God’s blessings at all times. At the communion table, we often pray, “It is good at all times and every place to offer our thanks to God,” right? Jesus wants us to live into God’s blessings…as his Children…because that’s what we are now. In Matthew’s Gospel chapters five and six prove the lens we need to better understand what comes after in his account.

So as Jesus continues his discourse to expand upon these all important sayings, he says that we should not worry about how we might succeed or even survive. Worry about the future? No! Avoid that. Try to pull yourself back from that ledge. Don’t let fear hold you back. Yet, don’t fear guilt because you are afraid. God gave us that emotion to help us interact with and process our world. Certainly, fear too can be a gift helping us to preserve our life or the lives of other…Fear can save our behind…It is fear shouting, “Look! Danger! Do something!” Nevertheless, fear should never stop us from following God’s will. For we are loved and provided for by God, just like those vulnerable, almost powerless birds and lilies of the field.

So, my flock, vulnerable as we are, we need to listen closely to Jesus’ words today. If we have faith in Jesus…if we dare to follow him…he warns that there will be consequences. Oh, there’s already consequences living in a fallen world…everyone, everyone faces consequences of living in this fallen world…but just as the world rejects Jesus, don’t be surprised when it rejects us.

Using a rabbinical teaching style of his day, Jesus is saying we are his slaves – his emissaries, his ambassadors, or messengers if you prefer. We serve Jesus, and we represent Jesus in the world. And we are being sent in his name. Thus hen we go out into the world (whether to the golf course, work, or school), in that ancient mindset, we fully represent him. In that honor-based society, if we, as his representatives, if we are dishonored by others, it is as if someone is doing something to him.

In the face of this, Jesus says, “Expect it.” It is going to happen sometimes. Expect dishonor. Expect family rejection, and religious persecution, or scorn, being made fun of, being gossiped about…expect it. Expect that in following Jesus, people might misunderstand us enough or hate us enough to even kill us. And we are lucky enough to live in the United States that the threat of death is not always before us, but our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world still do. In trying to love in a world that so easily rejects love…rejects Jesus…there will be costs…The costs might vary, but there will be sacrifices that we have to face.

And just as in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 10, Jesus responds to the fear that we might rightly feel as humans. “Do not worry,” he says. For we who follow Jesus…who are his slaves…belong to Jesus. More than that, we are one with him…one with Jesus! And that’s exactly what Saint Paul describes to us. In some passages Paul calls us slaves to sin, but in others slave to God. In faith, we are to be totally dedicated and seeking to follow divine direction as we love those who Christ has entrusted to us, for we belong to Jesus. We represent him in the world. Yet as slaves to Jesus, we are also one with him. And if we die to ourselves or die as martyrs, it is ok. Paul writes, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” We are now dead to sin and are alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are something different, fully the Children of God…and thus ultimately free to live, love and serve as called.

We who are called by Jesus to follow him are deeply and intimately loved, for he is one with us. And God chose to create us and call us out of love and delight to accomplish God’s will in the world. So, to help mitigate our justifiable fears, Jesus compares us to sparrows. In those days, sparrows were considered insignificant. As many as they can be, they are small and vulnerable to the environment, carnivores, and other birds. In addition, in Jesus’ time, they were common food for the poorest of the poor. Thus, sparrows have been called “the Poultry of the Poor.”

Additionally in the Torah, the Law of Moses, sparrows could be the poor person’s offering at the Temple, instead of more costly animals. According to Leviticus 14, sparrows were particularly prescribed for sacrifice by lepers…the feared, homeless, isolated, and poor as lepers. As one commentator writes, “The most remarkable thing about sparrows is probably how unimpressive they are. Although you may have seen thirty of them today, you may not have noticed a single one.”[i] Still as with the other birds of the air, or lilies in the field, and now just two small sparrows, God notices. God sees. God cares. More than that, God saves. Yes, “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” They are caught within God’s loving gaze, attention, and care…And that’s exactly what Jesus promises for those that believe…who trust in him. And that’s exactly what Jesus promises for those who believe in him.

In the Hebrew scriptures, one of the names we hear for God is el roi (pronounced el raw-EE) which means “the God who sees.” Hagar, the concubine of Abraham who was cast out from the tribe due to Sarah’s jealousy, alone and unseen in the wilderness, uses those words to name God.[ii] At risk of death, alone and afraid, she was rescued by the intervention of an angel who also announced she would give birth to Abraham’s other son, Ishmael. In her suffering, without hope and alone, she understands after this experience that she was seen by God in her suffering all along. And so, she calls him el-roi (the God Who Sees) in her prayers of thanksgiving.

And el-roi sees us, too, even within our doubt, darkness, and suffering…even when we try to run away in our sin like Adam and Eve in Paradise in their shame after eating forbidden fruit. Even when we just feel small and powerless, God sees us and loves us. God seeks for us. More than that, Jesus promises that we who follow Jesus…who serve as his ambassadors and share in his death…We belong to Jesus. He will never let us fall beyond his love’s reach. Never! We are intimately loved and cared for…even when we think we are alone and God has abandoned us…whatever wilderness we find ourselves in. Yes, “even the hairs of your head are all counted” (Matthew 10:30). We are precious to God and loved as if by a perfect mother or father.

Yet since we believe and trust in Jesus, the world naturally rejects us to…For, we are in the world but not of it (John 17:16). We are Jesus’ flock. (Whether you prefer bird or sheep imagery, we are his flock.)…We are no longer slaves but God’s children (Galatians 4:7)…We are claimed as his family. Jesus said, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Saved through our faith and baptism, that’s who we are now! We are saved, sent, and ultimately safe because of Jesus’s steadfast love for us on Judgement Day…whatever we have done or failed to do.

Yet at the time that Matthew’s Gospel was first received, faith in Jesus meant people could be cast out of the family of faith (the Synagogues), their genetic family (as a friend of mine in Africa was), or even their greater community. To be one with Jesus, set one apart and often in opposition to others of this world. So, Jesus encourages us to hang on. We aren’t being called to conflict, but it will come to us since we represent Jesus. In faith, trust him with everything that we have. Don’t let any familial or other loss keep you from Jesus or what he calls you to do. Chose following Jesus first, even if it means facing death, even if dying to oneself as we sacrifice things to fulfill our mission assigned to us…Because as Jesus explains, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Look also at the prophet Jeremiah, heard from today as well. He was often criticized for suggesting the powers that be were in error. He shouted against the people of his time turning against one another and God. Doing so, he became a distraction that eventually led him to be viewed as an enemy. Until finally, he was cast in a pit to die, and once rescued, later jailed. When Jeremiah finally is released, he is not freed by his people. No, Jeremiah is liberated by the conquering Babylonians, and all those he loves are now in exile and the Temple and Jerusalem are in ruins.

As a human being turning to God, we often hear Jeremiah outline how he feels let down and in need. That’s why he wrote Lamentations. God has enticed and overpowered him, he says. Jeremiah could not resist following God, yet when he does? I can hear him saying, “What kind of trick is this, God?” He has become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks him. The powers that be and his people think he’s a joke – his family, friends…it seems that everyone has turned against him…And still then, likely through tears, he decides to trust God.

As Jesus warns us, that kind of rejection and dissension can happen when we try to follow God’s will for us…when we bear the name of “Christian.” Yet, it’s not the name per se. It is more than that. When reflect Jesus in what we do and say we will find the world against us at times. There are a lot of people that will cry out Lord, Lord! And not be saved.

Yet when all was said and done in Jeremiah’s story, we learn that God is big enough to use our enemies, even our imperial enemies, in his case the Babylonians, to do God’s will.[iii] God sees Jeremiah and his stiff-necked people and will save both of them. This is not because they deserve it, but God freely loves them. It takes some time…70 years!

Yet even then, God remains at work. The exiled Jewish people could not make sacrifices at the Temple which no longer existed. The Emperor intended to wipe out their religion and culture to fully integrate them. Many of that time wondered if there really was a God at all. “We are God’s chosen people, so how is this happening to us?” And, then the Rabbinical system began, and Synagogues were established in exile, to help the Jewish people remember their culture, language, and God’s love for them. They heard during their suffering God’s promises, and they hung on…with everything they had. And through that suffering and their faithful response to it, God made them more unified than ever before…more steeped in their faith…more faithful than they had been.

This is just the way God is…God has a steadfast love for us….never ending. We hear this promise throughout scripture. Before time began, at Creation, in Christ’s ministry, and in the world since Pentecost…God is love, and God freely chooses to love us. When Jesus has called us through his Spirit…we might struggle in faith…We might suffer for the sake of righteousness or in this Fallen World…but we are always seen and never alone.

As common as we are…as worthless we feel…or as sinful as we truly might be beyond anyone’s awareness…Jesus will catch us when we fall…like those small sparrows. For when we are one with Jesus through the gift of our faith and baptism, not even death can defeat us. Follow Jesus, we are told, serving and sacrificing as he asks each of us, because there’s nothing to truly fear. God is waiting to catch us. We…you…will not fall to the ground apart from our Father. Amen.

[i] Anon. “God of Eagle and the Sparrow.” Living with Faith. Downloaded at https://www.livingwithfaith.org/blog/god-of-the-eagle-and-the-sparrow on June 19, 2026.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Reid, S.B. “Commentary on Jeremiah 20:7-13.” Working Preacher. Downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-12/commentary-on-jeremiah-207-13-6 on June 19, 2026.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 23:11 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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June 17, 2026 · 5:34 pm

Give Without Payment (Sermon)

Image: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Detail from “Calling of the First Apostles,” 1481. via Wikimedia Commons.

The readings for the 3rd Sunday After Pentecost, Yr. A were: Exodus 19:2-8a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35—10:23. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on June 7, 2026.

As the Twelve Tribes escaped Egypt with God’s help, we can sometimes wrongly assume too much about them. They did not initiate the Exodus on their own. It was God’s will…God’s loving actions freed them. Indeed, God’s intention all along was to rescue them due to God’s previous promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Yet after generations of slavery, they had lost themselves in those dehumanizing, traumatic, and I must emphatically say evil conditions…I have to say this because despite what people like Doug Wilson and others might be saying on the national stage or social media, slavery is evil and not the will of God. [Just because God tolerated our sin historically does not mean that’s God’s will for us. God wishes the slave to be set free.] And sadly, I know firsthand that some people still abhorrently and ignorantly try to use scripture to make that sin of slavery more palatable within our American history.

Yes, slavery can be on the personal level soul crushing, but it also serves an effective form of cultural destruction if not genocide. Empires and other entities throughout history have treated people like property, but they also in many cases, as with ancient Egypt, sought to erase those they considered “the other.” After the Israelites 400 to 430 year experience, the Israelites were not unified. They were more tribal (more divided) than when their sojourn in slavery began. Thus, God had lots of work to do. They needed time and care to recover from that horrific generational experience. The situation necessitated that they get to know and trust who God was again, but they also had to relearn how to love one another.

So, God would affirm Moses as their leader, God’s prophet, and eventually seventy elders would be appointed to help him. And God would soon (a chapter later) give them the Ten Commandments or as some of our Jewish siblings call them, The Sayings of God, to help build them up and shape them into the people of God our God intended. Yet, it is easy to miss what matters most. God names them saying, “Indeed, the whole earth is mine [everything including you and me], but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 5c-6a). Deuteronomy recalls God naming them similarly, and perhaps most importantly, a lasting “Holy People of God” (Deuteronomy 26:19 and Deuteronomy 28:9). And within this naming, this proclamation by God, we discern their vocation which shapes all that comes after in the Bible including our Christian texts. God will steadfastly love and help them, but also God’s going to use them to spread faith, hope, and love throughout the Earth. Ultimately, God has set them aside for a holy purpose. Despite sin, despite failure and infighting, gossip and unfair criticism of one another…God will remain willing to forgive and intends to keep them part of God’s plan.

Now after this foundational context, let’s fast forward to our reading about Jesus today. It’s Good News. Jesus’ ministry is up and running. His capabilities and authenticity are starting to attract great crowds, and in the midst of these crowds, his heart is moved toward compassion. In direct opposition to what some religious but un-Christlike people are claiming in the United States these days, compassion is not a sin…Compassion is not a sin….We might err in how we offer our compassion, but Jesus who was without sin, Jesus had compassion on others…the poor, sick, the lame, the poor and cast aside.

We are told in English that these people were harassed and helpless. In the original Greek, the word for harassed literally means flayed, skinned or mangled. This wording as used here signifies that Jesus saw people who were “tired to the bone, continuously annoyed, and beaten down by life’s burdens including by too many of the religious leaders.”[i]  By helpless, the text means “thrown down, cast off, and abandoned…unable to pick themselves up again.[ii] Many of these folks were beyond desperate…some near death in body if not spirit. They were too often enslaved by sin, the powers of death, and the Devil. These many stories of healings, exorcisms, and other miracles accomplished by Jesus out of compassion will reveal him to be the promised Messiah, “God with Us” – but in a bigger way than anyone expected. And as people start to see…dare to hope…that there’s something special going on in and through Jesus, the fully human while fully divine Jesus requires help as Moses did before him.

You see, this work is physically taxing. You will hear that he sometimes needed downtime with prayer in the mountains just to recharge his human body as we all must do at times. Yet, his methodology is not pure circumstance. Jesus knows his mission. Jesus knows the time he has left to complete it and all the effort that will be necessary. And Jesus knows that he wants to create – not just a nation, nothing cultural or political per se – but a vastly expanded “Holy People of God” beyond anyone’s imagination which will ultimately be called, Church. Jesus has come to call all people to himself (John 12:32). 

Now, someone at the Lectionary Bible study asked a wonderful question that got me really thinking. He calls all people to himself, and yet, it seems quite peculiar and perhaps counter to his intention to instruct his new Apostles, “Do not go among the Gentiles or the Samaritans.” That is not in the other Gospels, only Matthew. And Matthew, a Jewish believer himself, was writing particularly for a Jewish-Christian community and those who might join them. If you want to help people identify Jesus as the Jewish promised Messiah to Jewish people, you help them through your story telling…the rhetorical focus of your written or spoken witness. You use these devices to point out things that you think will guide them to a correct understanding of Jesus as Son of the Living God, the fulfillment of all of God’s previous promises to the Jews.

Thus, the Gospel According to Matthew (his account or witness), is chalk full of scriptural citations pointing particularly to the prophets’ description of the Messiah. You can say, “Oh, that sounds like Jesus…that sounds like Jesus. Jesus must be the one promised.” When Jesus teaches, he reports that he did so and was recognized as if he was a wondering prophet or a Pharisee. They were called Rabbi, or teacher. Matthew tells the story in such a way that there are five discourses of Jesus. Five in ancient Jewish numerology already represented and helped identify something having a deep connection to divine power, spiritual elevation, and God’s interaction with the physical world. Jesus gave many discourses as a traveling rabbi. We should not assume there were just five, but Jesus embodies or reflects this cultural understanding and expectation. He wants his audience to come to understand that Jesus is God. Even Jesus being named Emmanuel, God with Us, reflects back to Isaiah, but also Isaiah’s understanding that no matter what happened to the kingdom or its people, God’s promise to Moses still stands. It would makes sense to Matthew’s earliest audiences that Jesus focused on the Jewish people first, for God had promised to “keep them as a treasured possession out of all the peoples” (Exodus 5b). Again, it was through them that all the world would be blessed. So, it makes sense within the Jewish expectation that the promised Messiah would go to the Jewish people first.

Yet in going to the Jewish people first, this does not mean Jesus did not love the Gentiles. His Church, despite hesitation and challenges, would grow out of the Jewish people and mix in people of all races and places where there is no longer Jew or Greek, nor male or female. Why? For as Church, “all of you [the Church, the saints, the Children of God…those saved by through the gifts of our faith and baptism] are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). God used the Jews to move toward a next step in unity, but God has not forsaken God’s promise to the Jews. And God is using us now, too, alongside those with the faith of Abraham. For according to Saint Paul, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,” he says in Romans 9. Or Jesus says that not all who cry our “Lord, Lord!” will be saved (Matthew 7:21).

And so in Matthew 9, we see Apostles chosen and sent first to Jewish inhabitants of the land, but the mission won’t end with them either. Seventy disciples will be sent, then more, from the Jewish people to the Gentiles and throughout the Earth…until Jesus sends you and me. The needs are great, and there will never be enough workers in this world to heal all the pain and suffering. Yet, Jesus will finish this task…when he comes back again to establish a new heaven and earth. And while we wait, we serve. We love. We call others to work with us not using guilt or threat but by invitation. “Come and see. Come and help.”

We are asked to look at the way Jesus walked, and we are to listen to him, not only for our own spiritual benefit, but for the benefit of others. This is not for extra credit either. As Christians, we are supposed to understand and believe that even faith is a gift, and we cannot earn our salvation….not a smidgen of it. It is all about Jesus and what Jesus did. As Martin Luther famously said, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” What he’s saying is, “Have compassion on them…like Jesus. They are suffering. They are broken and wounded. Have compassion on them like Jesus.”

There are people in need, people without a shepherd feeling lost and alone, and Jesus wants to send you and me. Those people might “coincidentally” cross our path unexpectedly, or we might have to seek them out, but they are out there…It might be just one person that you are supposed to impact, but they are out there. Every sheep matters to Jesus. If you help just one person in your entire life discover Jesus’ love for them…Oh, my goodness. Your life is worth living. Everything you lived through was worth it for that one person who needs to know Jesus. Yes, people are waiting, hungering, to hear about Jesus and be healed. And in our Lutheran tradition, you might recall that we often speak of the priesthood of all believers. We might have slightly different calls, roles, and abilities…we might have different challenges…but Jesus calls us all to do something…something…out of his compassion for the world. 

Remember, the time Jesus walked the earth among us as a human being remained close to an indigenous worldview in many ways…It was still tribal and more connected to the natural world than we might be. So, Professor Zaccharias of Divinity College pointed out in an essay, “In many Indigenous cultures [and I have seen this too having worked in Native communities and nonprofits), leadership is not about hierarchy (Who am I in charge of?) but about service (Who can I help?). A true leader is one who cares for the people, ensuring their well-being. Much like a Wisdom Keeper or Medicine Man, Jesus responds to the needs of the people, embodying a leadership that is deeply relational and motivated by compassion.”[iii] And if you ever saw those eagle feathers that they wear, they can receive those for bravery in battle, but also for the compassion and generosity they show others. We, my fellow Holy People of God, share that exact, same sort of call.

Yet, before anyone starts to feel guilty about not doing enough, you like Jesus need to be realistic about your bodies and other limits, too. It is ok. You might need restorative time in the mountains. And like Paul, hopefully you understand that your call is not my call, and we each have our unique gifts of time, treasure and talent to offer, along with uniquely varied health, abilities, and obstacles. We have to discern what I can do. Furthermore, our calls can change. Being a pastor, for example, is not who I am but what I do.

Amidst this diversity of skill and need, laborers are indeed few. And just as there was an urgency to the Apostles mission due to the cross, there’s an urgency to our mission because Jesus is coming soon and very soon. “You received without payment; give without payment,” Jesus commands us. What can you, me, and all of those who believe do in thanksgiving for the grace and love that we have received? We are being asked to be as patient, generous, hospitable, kind, and generally loving as possible. We are asked to embody and share the Good News of Jesus until our last breath.

Rather than worrying about what we cannot do, consider what we can do. We are the called, chosen, and set apart people of God after all. Life might get harder. We might die before Jesus returns. Yet, we already share in Jesus’ victory. That’s God’s promise too. Be wise but be caring. Value justice but offer mercy. Be good stewards but also be generous. Be bold, but flee or step back if one must at times for our health or wellbeing. You will know when you need to be a martyr. Don’t assume. It is not selfishness to care for oneself if it helps us love God and others all the more tomorrow.

Friends, there will always be poor among us, and we will never get to everyone no more than the Apostles will reach all of Israel, but the promises of God last forever. The mission will be completed to its fulness on the Last Day by Jesus. And yet, he longs for us to share his compassion and love while we wait for the blessed day. Amen.

[i] Etheredge, C. (u.d.). How to Identify Disciples: Helping the Harassed and Helpless (3 of 3). As downloaded at https://discipleship.org/blog/how-to-identify-disciples-helping-the-harassed-and-helpless-3-of-3/

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Zacharias, D. (2026). Commentary on Matthew 9:35—10:8 [9-23]. Working Preacher. As downloaded at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-11/commentary-on-matthew-935-108-9-23-3.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 31:37 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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May 19, 2026 · 2:45 pm

Sharing Christ’s Suffering (Sermon)

Image credit: iStock. “Way of the Cross or Stations of the Cross, Jesus falls,” by rudall30

Readings for the 7th Sunday of Easter, Yr. A – Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on May 17, 2026.

On a beautiful day participating in worship with the birds singing and sun shining, it seems odd to be speaking about suffering. It appears out of place. Yet that’s life in a Fallen World – good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hate tend to be at odds. It is all part of our earthly existence. And so in the season of Easter, we hear for Christ glorified and are reminded of suffering through our assigned readings. Whether the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry or following Jesus today, it remains the same. This is not just “something strange happening to us” alone (echoing Peter’s words in 1 Peter 4:12). Until Jesus returns, we live in a time where the Kingdom is here, but it is not yet in its fullness. There will be suffering at times. We live within the tension of darkness and light waiting for Jesus to put an end to sin, suffering and death.

The Bible is filled with such real-world tensions, and they similarly stare us in the face today. Immediately before Jesus is betrayed and arrested in the Gospel of John…before Judas treacherously kisses Jesus…before his disciples run away in fear leaving him alone and abandoned…and before Peter denies Jesus three times…Jesus prays for his disciples. Jesus asks God to protect them. As fickle, weak and treacherous as his disciples might be at times, Jesus asks, “protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11).

I find that sort of curious. This action of grace appears a bit shocking considering the upcoming disciples’ sin and lack of faith. Think about it…Jesus is about to face the biggest challenge of his earthly life…one that would in the most grewsome of ways end his human existence…and he chose to pray for those who had the propensity to let him down or abandon him…Yet, Jesus prays for his disciples amidst all their imperfections, because they are his sheep. They belong to him, and he loves them. And it is true that with God’s help all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). These disciples will yet be one as Jesus and his Father are one. And that to me seems quite profound.

As Jesus prays, he knows that he will be beaten then hung on a cross until death. That’s been part of the plan for his earthly ministry. His experience of the cross was necessary for some divine reason in order to help bless the world and save us. And to fulfill God the Father’s will, Jesus set his face toward the cross, accepting its indignity, the betrayal, and all pain that came with it, and he could not be turned away from it. Oh, he was tempted to, for remember he also prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.” Still, he could not turn aside. He asks the same of us. We, too, are to accept our crosses in faith.

Thus, to follow Jesus is not an easy gig. We are supposed to love as we are loved…impossibly perfectly. We are supposed to love our enemies and forgive…not easy! We are to seek justice with mercy, care for the sick, provide for the poor, love the aliens in our midst, and share what we have with others. Out of fear of not having enough, we sometimes hesitate. At other times, we are too busy or easily distracted. We are supposed to witness to Christ to the ends of the Earth reflecting faith hope and love…which can be awkward and uncomfortable…can take sacrifice. Sometimes, we are afraid to witness to our next door neighbor.

And especially for we Lutherans, we sometimes joke that sharing faith seems impossible. We are “the frozen chosen” – too stoic, too silent, too shy perhaps…uncertain of how to share our faith. And on our own, it is impossible to be confident…We will fail…BUT we are not alone…and God can transform even a Lutheran. For, Christ promises that he is with us. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, guides, protects, and even prays for us. Whatever we have done or left undone, we can move forward towards our goal just as Jesus did, seeking to bless others on our way. Loving them as they are is our start. Sure, we will fail Jesus like the first disciples did at times, but he calls us anyway. We don’t need fancy words or a degree. We need the authentic love of Jesus to shape our lives, and the willingness to take up our cross knowing that we might stumble and fall as Jesus literally did on the way to Calvary. Unlike God’s love, our love will never be perfect, but we need to try to love anyway. It is ok if we make mistakes, or stumble on our words, or don’t do so perfectly. Seek to love.

Now, sometimes suffering seems void of meaning. Bad stuff can happen to good people…all…the…time. It can happen. We can even cause our own suffering. And, Jesus taught that God the Father makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous alike (Matthew 5:45). What he is saying is what we often feel….This life is often unfair. Suffering is part of life.

And although suffering might come, we aren’t to seek out martyrdom or pain for its own sake. For example, Paul avoided arrest until he couldn’t, ultimately being put to death. Just like Jesus, he died when the time was right. And because suffering is not always glorifying Jesus but a consequence of evil, sin, and the imperfections of a fallen world, it can be just what it is…suffering with no redeeming value to our eyes. It stinks. It’s hard. It’s messy. And just like the prophet Jeremiah, we want to lament. And still even then, because God loves us, we are told that God can use suffering…even the most meaningless suffering for our good…somehow, some way, at the right time for our individual or collective good. It might lead us to knew relationships or opportunities or wisdom for just a few examples. Our suffering can be used to prove Jesus’ steadfast love for us and bring glory and thanksgiving to God in a way we might never understand until we are with Jesus on Resurrection Day…but that’s God’s promise.

Yet it doesn’t feel great when you are in the midst of suffering. The Apostle Peter knows this firsthand, and so does the community he is writing to. In their case, they are facing social hostility and family rejection. Those who have tried to attend Synagogue are being cast out and abused. There’s been unjust suffering because they believe in Jesus and are trying to shape their lives in a way to reflect his life and teachings. This is not just suffering but suffering for Christ’s sake. Yet, some are losing hope, and some are walking away.

This letter was meant to be circulated around the congregations of Asia Minor: “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1).  Recognizing that these fellow disciples are not of this world although still in it (John 17:16), Peter (tradition indicates it is Peter, but scholars debate this) addresses his readers by calling them “exiles” (1 Peter 1:1) and “aliens” (1 Peter 2:11) as the letter began. They aren’t going to fit in, and the powers of the world will rage against them at times, because that’s what happened to Jesus too. So, with great eloquence, he argues for us to do what we can but also hope…hope in the promises and steadfast love of Jesus.  

Seek to accept the suffering for what it is…often unfair. Grieve it, deal with it as best one can, confess to God that you don’t want this cup, but we are to humble ourselves as Jesus did in the Garden recognizing this suffering might not be avoidable. “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you,” Peter writes. No matter how big or small the suffering, no matter plain old suffering or holy suffering, Jesus cares about us…about you! God’s in the mix “working for your welfare not for woe” as Jeremaih similarly reminds us. Paul asked, “What then are we to say about these things [the sufferings of the present]? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). Oh, our suffering is real, and it hurts, and I don’t want to suffer either, but it will come not just because of our vulnerability as humans but also because we are trying to live like Christ.

Yet, if we remember whose we are and who loves us, it can help us through. And if we don’t? Jesus intends to help us through anyway. That’s why he came. That’s why he accepted his cross. It is why he claims to be our shepherd, and he calls us his sheep, his children, and his brothers and sisters. He cares about us. He wills to save us. Trust this: suffering will never have the final say, God will…God has already spoken the final Word in Christ Jesus. God is a god who loved us enough to suffer and die for us.

So, even with all the suffering the world can send at us, even as we are down and out, confused or dismayed with our eyes filled with tears, our hearts sinking, and our heads spinning….at the point of giving up, remember this….Jesus cares for us…Jesus cares for you. Strive to make the next decision, take the next step, do the right thing and fight the good fight in Jesus’ name. Trusting that all will be well, seek to always follow Jesus. Yet, it is never really left up to us to succeed at this. It never was or will be. Jesus has already asked for our protection, for we are his, and he wills us to be one, as he is one with the Father. It will be so whether we can fully believe it or not. We share in his victory as gift through faith.

“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen” (1Peter 5:10-11).

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 19:20 minute mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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May 11, 2026 · 8:42 pm

Knowing the Unknown God (Sermon)

Image: The Via Egnatia, by Philipp Pilhofer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Yr. A – Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21. This sermon was preached at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church in Palmyra, VA on May 10, 2026.

In the Book of Acts, we encounter the early Church on the move. Starting in Jerusalem on Pentecost, we hear of its spread from person to person through large cities toward what was considered at the time to be the center of the world in every sense –  Rome. This movement depicts the fulfillment of Jesus’ command (if not prophesy) heard in Acts 1:8 that receiving power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them, his disciples will be Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth. This is that exact same power that we receive through our faith and baptism. Our little church community is directly connected to this grand, miraculous, universal story…Our faith has come person through person, generation through generation, until the source of that story called us to gather here today including those on Zoom.

Also, please note that this movement was not haphazard even as it spread in unpredictable, sometimes uncontrollable, willy-nilly ways. Yes, the Apostles likely discussed and planned their evangelism. (There’s evidence of this in scripture.) Yet ultimately, it was Spirit-activated and led. Relationship by relationship, crisis through crisis, the Holy Spirit used people and circumstances…even what seemed the worst of circumstances…to introduce Jesus to the world…to make Jesus known.  

So just imagine St. Paul moving from town to town along the Via Egnatia, a primary Roman road connecting the eastern and western parts of the Empire. He traveled primarily (most likely) on foot, but occasionally by ship. On his way, Paul picked up work as a tent maker and leather worker to help pay his way, but it also introduced him to strangers who were soon to become his siblings in Christ. Paul traveled over 10,000 miles…hard to believe, but true…often with great risk and personal cost. Yet, he didn’t just pass through. He left a mark as his life touched the lives of others – the mark and seal of his own baptism, Christ’s cross was shared.

Certainly, the growth of the church was facilitated by the modern roads and ships of that time, just as the digital age helps us get the word out, but it was ultimately ordinary people who brought the Good News to others that proves critical. Someone must speak of Jesus for the Good News to spread. Someone must model his love and make it concrete in a world so in need of love. The prophet Isaiah rightly proclaimed, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (Isaiah 52:7).

In knowing the “unknown god,” we inherit some responsibilities. According to the theologian, Carl Braatan, and others, our very own Martin Luther saw the Church as “an acoustical affair” (ein akustisches Geschäft). Echoing Romans 10:17, Luther emphasized that faith primarily comes through hearing the preached Word of God, rather than through visual spectacles, works that we do, or any internal contemplation. “Stick your eyes in your ears,” Luther is reported to have said. Rely on the spoken word, particularly as we hear in scripture. More than visual evidence or human reason, that reveals Jesus. In contrast to the non-Reformation congregations of his time, he argued that the churches of the Reformation were “mouth-house churches” (Mundhausen) where God’s work was spoken. The Word of God is heard through the liturgy and the readings. (If you look closely, you can find scripture in our liturgy.) The Word, which is Jesus, is couched somewhere within every sermon (even bad ones, he argued). And he highly valued music and hymns famously saying, “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.”

Yet, we all know that not everyone will come to our building. And we ourselves cannot stay here. The Church must go out into the world. “So go into the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast,” Jesus taught through a famous parable (Matthew 22:9-11). As this congregation’s first pastor taught as recently shared in a congregational history, the Church is not ultimately the building…it is us with all the saints. And the Church should not allow any walls to close us in. In our daily lives, our sacred callings (our vocations lived out in roles at school, work, or retired life, in and out of family or within tribal boundaries), we are the Church in the world. Trying to break out. Trying to share the love of Christ with everybody. For, where we are God is with us too, and more than that, we are declared to be Christ’s body.  

Shortly after the Reformation had begun in 1522, Luther preached:

“When a prince sees his neighbor oppressed, he should think: That concerns me! I must protect and shield my neighbor….The same is true for shoemaker, tailor, scribe, or reader. If he is a Christian tailor, he will say: I make these clothes because God has bidden me do so, so that I can earn a living, so that I can help and serve my neighbor. When a Christian does not serve the other, God is not present; that is not Christian living.[i]

What he is saying it that how we live our lives and relate to others is a kind of sermon too. It testifies to the God we know in Jesus.

In the time of Acts, the Church grew by fits and starts despite persecution and setbacks. St. Luke who wrote the Book of Acts shares this experience in such a way that the story juxtaposes those who resist the Gospel with those who accept it. We need to remember that Acts was originally to encourage and urge on early believers facing rejection from their families, economic consequences for their faith, and in some cases, outright persecution and death. Even the great Apostles are shown at times in Acts to doubt, argue, or make mistakes. So despite struggles or want, Luke wants us to remember that this process is the will of God and Spirit-led, and all things will work for the good of those that love God (Romans 8:28).

Today we hear that while waiting for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him, Paul addresses Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Areopagus Hill (also known as Mars Hill). Our true God, Paul indicates, was already reaching out to them before these wise philosophers and teachers ever knew God by any name. This was evident by the altar he saw dedicated to “the unknown God.” Inherently, they somehow knew that there was more to be found, understood…known. Paul points out that God might use the ordinary and even profane to connect us…to invite us into a relationship…with the One we have been waiting for…Jesus. Nothing can stop God’s will, and as Christ’s disciples share the Good News of Jesus in the marketplace, synagogues, and homes, others become enfolded into God’s purpose. They come to know Jesus and believe.

Now please understand, there is no “one size fits all” formula for evangelizing. Like Paul, we, too, have to consider our context, abilities, audience and obstacles. First, I would suggest that we all come to understand and trust that God is all around us and always with us. We can indeed encounter the Risen Christ through all good things. This is how Julian of Norwich came to understand that even in the simple beauty of a lone hazelnut one heard preached that God made it, God loves it, and that God keeps it. This is why Luther would speculate (inspired by Romans 8) as he deeply grieved the death of his beloved dog that he fully expected to meet him again at the Resurrection, and he would have a golden tail. It is why John Calvin later taught in his systematic theology that even a sunrise can be used by God to draw a person outside of themself and ultimately toward Jesus Christ. Like the people in Athens, the person might not understand who this unknown god is (not yet!), but they hear something calling them, and they know it hints of the sacred…the ultimate love, beauty and truth we know to be God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second, we, too, as human beings are created “things,” a being in our shell of a body. And yes, as people often say, God is in our hearts. Our selection from John 14 this morning spoke of this new reality with the Risen Christ. Christ is in us and we in him. Jesus might be seen in us as we serve, but he is also crying out from the bodies of those oppressed, hungry, or suffering in anyway…crying out for us to help him.[ii] My past spiritual mentor, Br. Roger of Taizé, argued (echoing ancient teachings of the Church) that Christ’s light shines within us, transforming inner darkness, but it is also calling us to recognize the same “silent wait of a presence” at work in all people. There’s a divine spark or light already burning within the hearts of other before they know it; waiting to become known and grow in its brightness.  

How can we serve God at all times and every place? I understand that we are not the great Apostles. Yet, we can seek to model Christ and his teachings in all our dealings as they did – loving God and neighbor along the way. We need not be afraid to speak of Christ…acknowledging him as Lord of your life…as why we try to do what we do…even amidst our imperfection, hesitancy or doubt. Don’t deny or hide that we follow Jesus. Just speak of Jesus, as we know him in our life. This does not require a seminary degree. It does not mean you must understand every theological argument or scriptural attestation about Jesus, but if you are a Christian…why? Who encouraged you? Who shared this faith with you? What calls you? Why do you do what you do? Start there, testify to what you do know, and the rest will come later within God’s timing and plan.

In sharing our faith, we don’t need to be pushy or performative. We don’t need to know it all. Instead, let the authentic, gentle nature of our own love and own seeking (our questions) be what attracts others to faith in Christ. Martin Luther and many other spiritual masters argued that faith should not (could not) be forced. Jesus invited people to follow him, but he always left it up to them to do so or not. No one can identify Jesus as Lord without the Spirit’s help. As we relate to others, offer them the patience, the forgiveness and love that we ourselves have received first. We can trust the Spirit will do something, although we might never know exactly what in our lifetime. And if we don’t have the answers, point them to someone who might and offer to lovingly wait with them for their answers.

Third, as found in Hebrews 10:25, don’t neglect the assembly. In worship, fellowship, stewardship and service, you are part of the body of Jesus Christ, and it cannot be whole without you…It cannot be as vital as it is intended to be if you are missing. Yet know this, too…Through your intentional, sincere participation…whether on Zoom, in the worship space, serving, or praying for others or the Church and its concerns…as you are able to; not with guilt or obligation but out of joy…your own faith will grow as well. Absolutely, Jesus will be made more known to you. You will meet the Risen Christ as you continue to knock, seek, and serve. Your presence might also encourage someone else’s participation in our shared life faith in ways you will never know.  

Our Orthodox brothers and sisters tell a story where one man asked a priest: “If God is everywhere, what do I go to church for?” To which the priest replied, “The whole atmosphere is filled with water; but when you want to drink it is good to go to a fountain or a well.” Through fellowship, the sacraments, the preaching and teaching, our shared service, and even quiet times, grace enters more deeply into our lives. We need to gather at times in our homes including through our Shepherds’ Team, through the internet, in the sanctuary and elsewhere out in the world.

Yet never forget, even apart, we remain part of this communion called Church. We are connected to all those believers that have come before us, those that gather throughout the world in the present, and all those believers yet to come. We are never alone…always connected by the Holy Spirit. “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.” Oh, no…our true God is much more than that. God is very much alive in the creation around us, in the Christ who is risen, and on the move in and through us and the world around that surround us as the Holy Spirit blows us toward where God needs us to be. Jesus will never leave us orphaned (John 14:18), my friends, and he wills to be made known in and through our lives. Amen.

[i]  Luther. M. (October 25, 1522). Sermon in the Castle Church at Weimar. D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar edition), Vol. 10/3:382.

[ii] Martin Luther argued this in a letter to his friend.

Below, please find a video of our worship service. The sermon starts at about the 27:15 mark.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.

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March 30, 2026 · 4:04 pm

Come to Die (Sermon)

Cross located at Hochhädrich, Austria (2018). Photo by Thanti Riess on Unsplash

The below sermon was preached on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026, as I served as a supply preacher at Madison Presbyterian Church. Readings included Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11, and Matthew 26:14 through 27:66.

When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna!” (meaning Save us!), Jesus embodies the fulfillment of prophesy. The Essenes, those responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, were an ascetic and apocalyptic Jewish sect living in the desert. They and many others expected the Messiah to come to Israel’s political if not spiritual salvation on a warhorse. Yet the true prophets of God did not focus on the promise of a worldly, powerful warrior but rather that of a suffering servant…a Messiah who was willing to die for us.  

You might recall that the prophet, Zachariah, lived at a time coming out of the low ebb in the flow of Israel’s long history with God, the later 6th Century BC. The Temple had previously been destroyed by the Babylonians, and the people, especially the elites, had been sent into exile. The Babylonians hoped to eradicate any resistance as the Jewish culture, religion, and society was forcibly mixed into Baylon’s own.

Then, after the Babylonians were defeated by the rising Persian Empire under Cyrus, the Israelites were allowed to return to Israel. For, Emperor Cyrus had a different idea about ruling conquered peoples. He assisted them, aiming to win their favor so that they would become a faithful vassal state. Thus, Cyrus and several of the rulers following him wanted to help reestablish the Jewish cult in Israel, the center of which would be a second, rebuilt Jewish Temple.

This benevolence, seen as something directed by the hand of God, is why the prophet Isaiah calls Emperor Cyrus a messiah…not the Messiah mind you, a messiah (with a small m). Cyrus was an earthly king who would help reestablish the Temple and Israel’s religious laws. He would help regather the people of Israel, but it was never likely that he would bring world peace and the knowledge of the one true God to all peoples as the Messiah would.

Certainly, Zechariah lived in a difficult, transitional period under the later Persian Emperor, Darius. It was a time of external and internal threat and uncertainty. Therefore, much of his writings encouraged the returned exiles to rebuild the Temple (the Temple of Jesus’ time, but before Herod the Great’s grand expansion), and he urged them to repent from pagan and unfaithful practices.

Under the thumb of Persia’s power, Zechariah hoped that the Messiah would prove a truly victorious king, but he also had some curious prophetic insights to share. He foresaw a humble Messiah entering Jerusalem on a donkey. This shepherd-leader, a suffering servant, would be rejected for 30 pieces of silver. And eventually through a final battle, God would restore Jerusalem. All nations would come to worship God because of him, and the city would become a new Eden with living waters.

If this sounds like what you know about Jesus and the story of his intense suffering and death, the Passion as people call it, or even the establishment of a new heaven and earth at Jesus’ Second Coming, this is no mistake. Indeed, as Jesus enters Jerusalem, we hear Matthew clearly identify Zechariah’s text as pointing toward Jesus as the Messiah. We are supposed to see and understand the connection. Jesus came on a simple donkey. Not just that, it clearly states that it was a colt. For those with the eyes to see and a memory of scripture, Jesus was claiming the humble, messianic role.

So, it is no wonder the crowds under the thumb of Roman cruelty cry out, “Hosanna! (Save us!).” They have huge hopes after seeing or hearing about his miracles and authentic preaching. Right before them, Jesus is fulfilling prophesy! Liberation is at hand! Yet, as we will see, the crowds and even his dearest friends do not yet fully understand that Jesus is offering a very different kind of salvation than they expect.

After Palm Sunday, Holy Week rapidly transitions our focus. We move from triumph to intense grief followed by ecstatic joy. Each day through assigned lectionary readings, we can follow Jesus and his friends during his final week of human life until we come to the Great Three Days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter – a microcosm of the overall rollercoaster that is Holy Week. After his Passover meal, Jesus will be arrested at night, tried in secret by religious and secular authorities, suffer horribly, then die the death of what his contemporaries might consider “the worst of the worst”[i] – a criminal’s death under the Roman Empire’s rule. The process of public crucifixion from scourging to hanging on a tree where one dies slowly through blood loss and suffocation helped assert and solidify Rome’s worldly rule. It served as a stark warning to others challenging Rome’s claimed dominion.[ii]

Amidst all the jubilation of Palm Sunday hosannas and the bookend of Easter alleluias, we are asked to remember the cost…Remember the cost of the cross…not gloss or rush over it toward Easter. Jesus had predicted this death, as did prophets before him. Jesus willingly came to Jerusalem to die…He had come to die! Christians debate about the mechanics, about the why and how of his suffering, death, and resurrection, and how it redeems and saves us, but within this “mystery of faith,” we are asked to understand that thanks to our faith in Jesus and because of what he has done…that alone…nothing to do with our own efforts…we become eternally saved.

Yet even then, the mystery does not end. Jesus himself taught that we who hope to be his disciples must pick up our own cross and follow. For although Sin, Death, and the Devil are defeated with his resurrection, the Kingdom is not yet here in its fullness. We have work to do sharing the Gospel with others through word and deed. Or as one of my favorite theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, similarly proclaimed, “When Christ calls a [person], he bids [that person] come and die.” We die to ourselves. We die in our surrender to God’s will amidst times of trouble. We die as we try to love the Jesus in others as Jesus loves us. We might face rejection for following Jesus, and some of us might even die as Christian martyrs.

Now, we are not talking about some sort of a bait and switch here. For, Jesus is clear. To follow Jesus in a fallen world which often rebels against him infers the likelihood of suffering for Love’s sake…for God’s sake…or in other words, to fulfill God’s will for our lives and the world. This true Christianity of costly discipleship is antithetical to any false prosperity gospel, unhealthy Christian nationalism, or worldly selfishness. Through it, we discover that our good behavior does not prevent our own suffering in a fallen world.

Instead, we are asked to both love others and trust in God no matter what happens, for thanks to Jesus, our resurrection day will come. In fact, we are already victorious… we are conquerors Paul writes in Romans 8:37… redeemed…saved…whether we feel it or not, understand it or not, or fully trust in this or not. Jesus declares this, and that one day, every tear and suffering will be wiped away…just not yet. This promised perfection will only come at the Parousia, the Second Coming of Jesus.

Yes, our baptism or conversion of heart always comes with a cost. By divine necessity, we must die, yet God will be glorified in and through our suffering and sacrifices made in love…always. Love is never wasted, and Jesus will be with us. The Spirit will pray for us with a groaning too deep for words. And someday, we will rise as Jesus did to be with our Triune God forever. Death no longer has power over us, so why do we so often act as if it does?

As we heard Paul write to the church in Philippi (2:5-11), Jesus nonsensically and willingly lowered and sacrificed himself. He is no victim. He knew what he was about. It hurt emotionally and physically. He struggled, shedding tears and sweating blood in the garden (something that science shows can happen under extreme duress). Jesus even experienced all the horrors of crucifixion. And yet, he humbled himself, “becoming obedient to death even on the cross.” He trusted and understood that resurrection day would come.

Many love the exuberance of Palm Sunday, but the cross? Ah, it seems easier to skip forward to Easter, for the cross remains a scandal to many, even at times for those of us who believe. No, not all of us are called to be martyrs. I’m not saying that, but day by day, we are called to die little deaths[iii]…to offer our lives for others (perhaps figuratively, but offer them nonetheless)…to go without at times in order to help others…to offer our time, treasure and talent because of who we are, out of love, not what we might get…to give even when it hurts or doesn’t make sense only because it is the right thing to do and pleases God. We are asked to accept the realities of suffering while never giving up hope nor stopping our attempts to alleviate it.

Yes, Jesus loves us still even amidst our shortsightedness, struggles, or failures…and he has called us to this time and place to be his body. Yet make no mistake, we come to die…Still what of it? We can rejoice amidst our sufferings (see Romans 5:3-5), even if through tears. For, Jesus never lies. Resurrection Day is on its way. Amen.

[i] The “worst of the worst” reference might remind us of current immigration policy where political entities have falsely called people with administrative issues criminals and peaceful protestors terrorists.

[ii] Perhaps this, too, might bring to mind the modern dominionists who long for theocracy and theonomy, or those who dream of a political American empire shaped by Christian nationalist fervor and bad teaching.   

[iii] One of my Pastoral Care professors at Union Presbyterian Seminary, The Rev. Dr. Charles Brown, often reminded us of this.

© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author. Scripture passages are from the NRSVue translation.

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