Old Testament Reading:             Zechariah 9:9–12
                                                             Epistle Reading:                          Romans 7:14–25a
                                                             Gospel Reading:                          Matthew 11:25–30

This weekend gives us a unique opportunity to consider our independence.

On July 4th we will celebrate our 250th year of independence from the English King. That independence had to be won by armed men with muskets battling an organized, well trained army that took years. It was finally achieved when the British signed the Treaty of Paris September 3rd 1783. Even then, we had to retain it by repulsing their aggression during the War of 1812.

A far greater independence was won for us by Jesus on Good Friday with His sacrificial suffering and death on the cross to redeem us from our sin debt. Yet this independence went far beyond just a freedom from sin. In His salvific work Jesus restored us to the divine familial relationship we were created for (Ephesians 4: 1-16). We are no longer servants but children of the heavenly Father who adopted us for the sake of Jesus. In our baptism by water (the created) and the Word (the divine) we were joined to Jesus. In that blessed water we died a death to sin and were raised up in true, eternal and abundant life in Him (Romans 6: 1 – 14). God the Father AMEN'ed Jesus sacrificial suffering and death on the cross by raising Him up on the morning of the third day. God owns us as His own children by putting His name upon us and declaring we are His beloved children with whom He loves and is well pleased. We were then no longer slaves to sin but co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8: 16-18) and stewards of the means of Grace (Holy Scripture and the Holy Sacraments - 1 Corinthians 4:1-2). We are free to enter God’s presence with an excitement and joy that our heavenly Father and Creator, our Lord and Savior and our Helper and Comforter delight in calling us His beloved both here in time and then in eternity with angels and archangels and all the faithful departed (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). We now do the good work God daily gives us in our various vocations (child, sibling, spouse, parent, neighbor and co-worker) in agape love that fulfills the Law because it frees us from the letter (curse) of the Law.

Then on the Last Day we can rejoice for our enemy, sin, is not only defeated but will be finally and completely destroyed. We will live the life we are created for: to live in the heavenly Father’s house and feast and fellowship with Him and all His holy ones at the wedding feast of the Lamb that will know no end (John 14: 1 – 4). We AMEN these promises daily and then joyfully gather with all our brothers and sisters on Sunday where God promises to meet us and AMEN them as His family.

While we live in this time of grace we joyfully do the good work God places into our hands. While this work is joyful it is also spiritually and physically exhausting. Yet, we rejoice knowing our weariness and labor as children of God who reject and renounce the evil that assaults us daily is finite and has an end. On the final day (either our individual or creation’s) God will raise us up and bring us into eternal, peaceful and joyous fellowship with Him, His angels and archangels and all the faithful departed.

Tragically, those who refuse to believe Jesus is the King of kings, Lord of lords and their Savior will also be raised on Judgement Day with an immortal body. God the Son/the son of Mary will be their divine Judge who will cast them into the outer darkness where they will suffer the wages of their sin eternally. An eternity of torment and anguish, without hope, devoid of peace and joy, or rest knowing that God patiently, graciously and faithfully offered them true, abundant and eternal peace and joy in His loving fellowship during this time of grace (Luke 16: 19-31). Therefore, let us not weary of praying that they would repent (turn to Jesus - Galatians 6:8-10) and receive the free gift of grace that God offers them daily (Romans 6: 23). Then we can rejoice and enjoy eternal peace, joy and rest also with them as our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen and Amen

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
21 June 2026

Sermon:
Our Daily Bread Illuminates Good While Revealing Evil


Old Testament Reading:                    Jeremiah 20: 7 – 13
Epistle Reading:                                  Romans 6: 12 – 23
Gospel Reading:                         Matthew 10: 5a, 21 – 33

Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, today’s readings challenge us to truly understand and acknowledge what is good and what is evil. Sin has so spiritually blinded us that we can only comprehend, see and differentiate civic good from evil. We are powerless in our own reason or strength to see what is spiritually good and, thus, fail to acknowledge and affirm it. We are just as powerless to see what is spiritually evil and, thus, fail to renounce and reject it.

God refuses to abandon His beloved humanity to hopelessness and helplessness. Jesus, God’s love and compassion made flesh and blood, works no less powerfully and faithfully for you and me today as He did for Jeremiah, St Paul and His disciples those days.

Jeremiah cried out to the One who was His only hope for comfort as he faithfully gave God’s people the divine truth that their very thoughts, words and deeds were evil.

• They called God a liar because they spiritually whored after created gods and gave those idols the honor and love due only God. They refused to keep God’s name holy but treated the names of the idols as holy and not to be taken in vain and reflected the lifestyle of the heathens that surrounded them instead of God's chosen people. Jeremiah called them to turn back to God but they continued to worship idols on the high places and thought they could deceive God with their ritualistic practices in the temple and synagogues.
• God was delighted and glorified that Jeremiah affirmed His faithfulness and truthfulness even as he suffered under the physical and verbal scorn and abuse of the people.

St Paul called the church in Rome to acknowledge and affirm that sin was spiritually fatal and they had received grace through faith in Jesus. The internal struggle of the sinful nature against the new creation in Christ Jesus is real. They must remember daily they were the redeemed children of God so that they would not become entangled, ensnared and enslaved by the lure of sin and the gratification of the flesh.

• St Paul’s admonishments and encouragements to the Christians in Rome were founded on his redeemed life in Christ Jesus. As Saul of Tarsus, he called God the Son/the son of Mary a liar and a fraud who was neither the Messiah nor God. Saul’s self-righteousness and self-justification was evident in his persecution and torture of Jesus’ disciples of the early church. Saul reveled in the fame and position that the Jewish rulers heaped upon him for his evil work.
• The risen Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus and Saul immediately was convicted and repented of his evil. Paul would no longer look inward for righteousness but acknowledged and affirmed that Jesus is God the Son/the son of Mary and the Messiah. Paul would do this even as his ministry was rejected and attacked by the Jews and he died a martyr who refused to deny the one true:

     - God revealed in Holy Scripture as the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
    - Savior who redeemed every sinner from the wages of their sin on the cross. Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life by which we have abundant, true and eternal fellowship with God and His holy ones.

Jesus assured His disciples that day that the good work He was sending them out to do (proclaim the kingdom of God was at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons) would be met with evil – unbelief - and they were to not abide or fellowship with those that rejected His authority.

• Even more, in the future they would experience evil that not only rejected His authority as the Prophet, the Priest and the King but would physically abuse them and kill them.
• Jesus assured them that they were not spectators with the good work He would give them but to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all He had commanded and believe His was with them to the end.

God gathers His beloved children, you and me, when and where He promises to meet us with the Means of Grace (the Holy Scripture and Holy Sacraments): this and every Sunday morning in His church. God comes and gives us good things to do by acknowledging and affirming with our Amen that He, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit:

• abides with us in the Invocation.
• forgives our sins for Jesus’ sake in the Confession and Absolution.
• has mercy upon us in the Kyrie.
• are at peace with Him the Gloria In Excelsis.
• receive our prayers both individually and collectively.
• gives us the Words of Life in the Old Testament Reading, the Epistle Reading and the Gospel Reading.
• in the confession of our faith as found in the Ecumenical Creeds.
• accept our offerings in the Offertory.
• is with us and receives our worship and praise in the Preface and the Sanctus.
• as we pray the Lord’s Prayer.
• as we hear the Words of Institution.
• is at peace with us in the Pax Domini.
• has mercy upon us and gives us peace in the Agnus Dei.
• gives us the true

          body of our Lord and Savior in, with and under the host.
          blood of our Lord and Savior in, with and under the wine.

• strengthens and preserves us in the Sacrament of the Altar and gives us peace to depart His table.
• assures us we have received the promise of salvation that He has prepared before the face of all people that is a light to the gentiles and the glory of His people Israel which is the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Nunc Dimittis.
• assures us He receives our thanks and praise for the Sacrament of the Altar in the Post Communion Collect.
• we are truly receiving His blessings, His loving care, His favor, His countenance and peace in the Benediction.

Then God sends us back into this world filled with lost and unrepentant people who unashamedly do evil by calling God a liar, a fraud and a cheat:

• He is not God;
• He has no right to judge us but we have the right to stand in judgment of God and His church.
• His name isn’t holy;
• His is not worthy of our time and He has no authority to expect us to be when and where the Church gathers around His means of grace;
• He doesn’t rule and reign through earthly parents and governments;
• and He has no authority over us to expect we love our neighbor as ourselves.

God gives us more good work every day as His children that He delights in and uses to overcome evil and save lost sinners by:

• awaking us in the morning and acknowledging
  • He is our heavenly Father and Creator, our Lord and Savior, and our Helper and Comforter.
  • we are His children: beloved and well pleasing; co-heirs with Jesus; and stewards of the good things in His kingdom.
• We receive every good spiritual and physical thing from His hand by which we are sustained, strengthened, safeguarded, and comforted even as He conforms us more and more into the image of His only begotten and beloved Son/our Lord and Savior and keeps us steadfast in the one true faith unto life eternal.
• Praying:

        thankfully that He has given us:
         - Every good thing for the day.
         - most importantly Himself to abide and fellowship with as His beloved children
                 here in time and there in eternity.
          - the Holy Spirit in our baptism to help and comfort us in this time of grace.

         for those to receive the free gift of salvation God offers who are:
            - in authority over us to rule according to His will and means.
            - lost in the darkness of sin and the grip of spiritual death that:                . verbally abuse and grieve us.
                . refuse to hear, outright reject or mock the Gospel.
                . Intend us professional, social, financial, relational and/or public harm.

        thankfully for keeping us, our families and those we love:
          - safe from all harm and danger.
          - safe from sin and every evil.
          - with food and drink to physically nourish us.
          - home and shelter to rest in.
          - in the care of ministering and protecting holy angels.

God calls us to be humble and faithful stewards with the wisdom to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents who:

• look to Him first and foremost for our daily bread.
• know, acknowledge and accept that we are full participants in advancing His kingdom and are not called to be spectators.
• being faithful disciples and witness expect and experience the evil of sin that will break, fracture and damage our:

    - familial vocations and relationships.
    - professional life and relationships.
    - social life and relationships.
    - civil life and relationships.

• Believe and trust that though we may lose temporal and physical possessions we will never lose our heavenly reward in His house and at His table.

Let us ever pray to the Lord of the Harvest that we are where He calls us, doing what He calls us to do and when He calls us to do it AND to be confident that He sends other workers to participate in the good work He lovingly and compassionately provides this day.

Amen and Amen. 

Old Testament Reading:                   Genesis 1:1—2:4a
Second Reading:                              Acts 2:14a, 22–36
Gospel Reading:                               Matthew 28:16–20

As we celebrate and honor the Holy Trinity we affirm the Godhead’s desire His children delight in His will and walk in His ways.

The most obvious means by which God places His name on us is in Holy Baptism. We believe, teach and confess in the Book Of Concord that Holy Baptism is the means by which God joins us to Jesus through the water (created thing) and the Word (divine thing) and we died a death to sin with Jesus and then He raised up with Jesus in true, abundant and eternal life. God owns us His beloved and holy child because He put His name (of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit) and for Jesus' sake. God proclaims He is our heavenly Father and Creator, our Lord and Savior and our Comforter and Helper. In baptism He made us co-heirs in Christ Jesus and stewards of His kingdom.

Augsburg Confession Article IX: Baptism
Apology of the Augsburg Confession: Baptism
Small Catechism: The Sacrament of Holy Baptism
Large Catechism: Holy Baptism
Smalcald Articles Article V: Baptism

Jesus taught us to pray aright in the LORD's Prayer where He instructs us acknowledge God is our heavenly Father.  In a most personal way Jesus illuminates God has restored us into the divine familial relationship that HE created us to be in. This relationship spans time and eternity. It supersedes the physical family we were physically born into. It unites us with the faithful departed that rest in the Church Triumphant, the faithful currently alive and advancing the kingdom of God as His Church Militant and those that will be adopted into God's family to the Last Day.

God the Father desires all would receive His free gift of salvation found solely in His only begotten and beloved Son Jesus. The cross is where Jesus paid for the sin of every man, woman and child when He bore the full weight of the divine wrath and gave us His righteousness.  On the morning of the third day God the Father gives His Amen to Jesus' work by raising Him up as the first born of the dead. God the Father joyfully receives us as His holy and righteous children for Jesus' sake.

Today Jesus leads us in rejecting, renouncing and rebuking sin, death and the power of the evil one as we live and move and have our being in this time of grace. God the Son/the son of Mary shepherds us faithfully and graciously on His path of righteousness that leads all the faithful to our heavenly home. While we have only a partial and flawed understanding of the divine fellowship awaiting us in eternity God generously and graciously has brought us into it here in this Time Of Grace.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we proclaim the Gospel to our neighbor through our thoughts, words and deeds in our various vocations as spouses, parents, children, workers and neighbors.

God will bring us into the fullness of His fellowship when we enter eternity and abide and fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit AND all God’s holy ones, both human and angels. It is there that we will know good and enjoy divine joy and everlasting peace.