418 Living What You Value Most

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Living What You Value Most”, originally shared on June 19, 2026. It was the 418^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   I can’t imagine a worse Gospel reading for Father’s Day than the one that will be read this coming Sunday in most churches. Or a better one. Today, we’re going to find out why.

   This coming Sunday is Father’s Day. I just mention that as a community service so that you can be prepared, though it’s not as big a deal as Mother’s Day. I don’t know why. 😊

   There are lots of influences that make us who we are, probably too many to measure, much less to know. But, if you are like most human beings, I’m guessing that a big chunk of the person you are comes from your father.

   I think that most of us will remember or honor our fathers this Sunday with deep appreciation for the sacrificially given gifts they have given to us. Our fathers were our protectors and providers, servant leaders in our communities, our models for living with integrity and purpose, our jokesters and the men who were models of the Christian faith for us.

   For some of us this Father’s Day Sunday will not bring happy memories, however, and we acknowledge that.

   Some of us grew up without a father but had people who served as our fathers, and sometimes that was our mothers. Some had fathers who were distant and not so loving, and we desperately wanted the approval that never came. Some of us wanted to be fathers but couldn’t. Some of us no longer have their fathers and we miss them.

   All those feelings about Father’s Day are an expression of a deeply impactful and meaningful relationship. It is a relationship that is celebrated on a holiday by cultures all over the world.

   Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, but he had an earthly Father, Joseph, who raised him. We don’t hear about his “step-father” Joseph after, approximately, Jesus’13^th birthday. But Jesus would have learned a life skill from his father, as did all boys of his time, which in Joseph’s case would have been being a carpenter.

   Jesus commanded us to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Jesus prayed to the first person of The Trinity, one God in three persons, using the word “abba” in the Aramaic language that he spoke. “Abba” is a familiar form of the word “father”, meaning something closer to “dad” or even “daddy”. Jesus is “one substance” with the Father.

   We love our fathers and we are grateful for all that they have done for us.

   That is the kind of relationship with which we love God. Having a father who is active in our lives forms us and is extremely important in making us the kind of people we are.

   But our relationship with God goes even deeper than our relationship with our mother or our father. It makes us who we are at the level of our truest selves, deeper than anyone can know but God.

   That is at the core of the Gospel reading for this week, Matthew 10:24-39, and it’s hard for us to absorb, especially when we tend to focus on our earthly families.

   Our relationship with God sets us apart from anything that would try to put itself in God’s place.

   That’s why this week’s Gospel reading begins with Jesus’ teaching that we who follow Jesus should not be surprised when we are condemned by the world (those without a relationship with Jesus) in Matthew 10:24-25,

²⁴ “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; ²⁵ it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

   “Beelzebul” is a name for Satan, the prince of demons. It literally means “Lord of the files”!

   Jesus reminds us that we should not be surprised when the world calls “good”, “evil”, or when it calls “evil”, “good”.

   It is how the world seeks to put  itself in the place of God.

   How can Christians live in that kind of a world? Jesus continues in Matthew 10:26-31,

²⁶ “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. ²⁷ What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸ Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ And even the hairs of your head are all counted. ³¹ So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

   Be bold, Jesus says. Fathers sometimes pretend they are scary animals or monsters so that their children can wrestle them and defeat them. To show them not to be afraid, but to struggle and overcome them. Don’t be afraid of those who have no ultimate power over you.

   Jesus goes even further for us by his actions. He says, in John 16:33,

³³ I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

   Our hope is in God, not the world. And God is deeply connected to us. God is present for us when we read the Bible, which points to one thing: Jesus giving his life us on the cross, which is validated when He takes his life back again in His resurrection.  We encounter him today in the Word and in Baptism and Holy Communion,

   I had conflicts with my dad when I was a kid. I think that we all do as we grow up. But I loved my father and he loved me, and we both said it and we knew it.

   Love is why we celebrate Father’s Day. It’s part of keeping the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.

   We don’t worship our ancestors, but we honor them. It’s a commandment!

   In fact, honoring your father and mother are at the top of the list among the 10 Commandments that have to do with how we treat one another.

   Martin Luther, the 16^th century Church reformer, describes the meaning of this commandment in this way, “We are to fear (note: respect) and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them.”

   So, honor your father this Sunday. It is the expression of a deeply held relationship that comes from our life’s defining relationship with God, as we see Jesus explaining as our Gospel reading continues, in Matthew 10:32-33,

³² “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; ³³ but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

   Philip Dick, the science fiction writer whose highly esteemed written works like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik were turned into popular movies, such as “Minority Report”, “Total Recall” and “Blade Runner”, once said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”

   What is reality?

   Our relationship with God is our relationship with reality that is beyond our understanding. The one true living God alone is worthy of our worship.

   Who do you worship?

   It might not be what you think.

   Martin Luther observed, “A god is that to which we look for all good and where we resort for help in every time of need... whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God."

   It could be our money, our reputation, our acceptance, and even our family. That is why not making God just first in our lives but everything in our lives is so necessary and so hard. The world, even things that are important, is always trying to pull us away.

   Jesus does not exempt us from that struggle. He does not protect us from it. But Jesus is present with us in the struggle.

   In fact, it is that struggle that makes us who we are, because it helps us realize that we need a savior and that we have a Savior in Jesus Christ!

   Jesus shows us as he continues, in Matthew 10:34-38,

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵       For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

³⁶       and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

   How do we know who we are? By knowing Whose we are!

   Following Jesus Christ is everything because God has made us for it. But following Jesus is a narrow way, a sometimes difficult way.

   As G.K. Chesterton, the English author, in his 1910 book What’s Wrong With the World, said,  "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

   The doors to the hearts of people who don’t know Jesus, who are still in the world, are locked by sin, by ignorance, by pride, affluence, fear, and many other things. How do we find the key to unlock the human heart?

   Jesus is the key that opens all of them, but God always uses some means to make that happen, and often it is through us.

   But sometimes we are the problem.

   When people who are not Christians come to visit our worship services, we might as well be speaking another language. Our church culture locks them out.

   Do we share an actual Christian experience, or are we only using religious language? Do we offer a path for people who are outside the faith to help them move past our in-group jargon? Do we have any expectation that they will encounter the life-transforming power of God?

   New people want to be engaged. They want to be a part of receiving the real transcendent power of God that cannot be found anywhere but through God’s Church.

   I’m not concerned about the Christian Church. It is the Body of Christ, and nothing will prevail against it as a whole.

   I certainly don’t think that it needs to be torn down and rebuilt. But it does need some fundamental renovation in many places.

   What needs to change? Here are four things that, in my opinion, most need to change:

   First, when I retired, my family and I spent almost a year as church nomads. We went to a different church almost every week. Most were Lutheran churches, many were churches of Sally’s denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)/UCC denomination, and some were other kinds of churches. In many of those churches I could see why someone would want to join them. They had a great preacher, or a wonderful small groups ministry, or a wonderful choir, band, youth program, music program, school, or social ministry. But there was not one where I could see how someone would come to faith in Christ. There were no expectations or preparations for people to come from zero to faith. There were no mechanisms for it. That needs to change.

   Second, church culture is as foreign to people who were not raised in the church as any other unfamiliar culture. Hymns and songs, colors and seasons, candles and Bible readings, sacraments, jargon, and more lock people out. Will they stay long enough to use the key? Will they learn that Jesus is the key to everything? Will they learn the fundamentals of the Christian faith? Will they learn the creeds and what they mean? The answer is not to abandon Christianity to save your church. When we expect little of visitors, we get little. The early Church required three years of instruction before a convert could receive communion. People tend to live up to expectations. If ours are low, that needs to change. 

   Third, people stay and join and remain members of churches for many reasons. Do we offer life transformation, a greater purpose in life, a truly loving Christian community, and the path to receiving eternal life? Or do we merely offer a political and social organization that uses Christian language, a museum that needs members to pay the bills? Or do we care about reaching people with the good news of Jesus? Are we, as has been said, telling people about Jesus like beggars telling other beggars where to find food? Are we consumer churches or missional churches? Do we understand that we have something that no other community group can give? If not, that needs to change.

   Fourth, we expect little of ourselves. In the Christian denomination of which I am a part, there is a sort of fatalistic view of the future. In accord with that view, we have a very low view of much of what is fundamental for the Christian faith, including stewardship. “Stewardship” is the belief that God has given us our time, our talent, and our treasure to manage for God.

   How are we doing?

   Let’s just look at one aspect of Stewardship: treasure, because that’s the most difficult. And yet Jesus taught more about money and the use of it than any other subject except the Kingdom of God.

   Martin Luther said that people go through three conversions. The head, or the conversion of a person’s beliefs and intellectual understanding of what is means to be a Christian. The heart, or the spiritual transformation to new life in a living relationship with the one true living God. And the purse or wallet, the application of the faith by entrusting your money to God’s purposes, which Luther said was the hardest conversion. 😊 It’s hardest because it  requires that we decide who or what will be our God. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:21,

²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

   Our Gospel reading from Matthew 10:24-39 today reminds us that God is not the most important thing in our lives. God is everything in our lives. God reforms everything about us, God renews everything, empowers everything, defines everything.  We are good stewards, or managers, of our money in response to what God has already done for us, not to earn it! We live for God, not the approval of the world.

   Jesus concludes this week’s reading with Matthew 10:39,

³⁹ Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

   We have a message to bring to people in our time who want to find themselves. They are going to have a rude awakening. But those who lose their life in the eyes of the world for the sake of Jesus will find it.

   The key words here, the ones that we proclaim, are “for-the-sake-of-Jesus”. That’s an expression of our most real, deepest defining relationship.

   This is a hard lesson for us to hear, especially in a week that we celebrate a holiday rooted in one of our most important relationships, the one we have with our earthly father.

   We need repentance and renovation. We need to take up our cross and follow Jesus. We need to change a few things.

   And we can start today, right where we are. It’s not about conforming to the world. It’s about changing what is inside of us. It’s about a change in attitude. It’s about being transformed by the one true living God and living what we value the most, a better life, a true life, in a living relationship with Jesus!

   Jesus doesn’t have the answer. Jesus is the answer.

   So, yes, this week’s Gospel reading from Matthew is a hard one to hear but also a very good one to live by, because in it are the very words of eternal life.

  

417 Hope for the Harassed and Helpless

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Hope for the Harassed and Helpless”, originally shared on June 11, 2026. It was the 417^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Do you feel harassed and helpless? You’re not alone. Today, we’re going to find out how Jesus addressed the same feelings and what that leads us to do.

   When I was a young man, I wondered why the Bible’s book of Ecclesiastes was even in the Bible. It just seemed like the rantings of a bitter old man.

   But the older I get, the more it makes sense to me. 😊

   I don’t deny that there’s a “get off my lawn” element in my world view. And every generation sees the present as less engaged with taste and reality in comparison with the past, when they were younger, because, well, they once were younger and closer to their peak.

   But, just as it’s said that even paranoids have real enemies, there are reasons for cynicism. 😊

   We hear lots of talk in the world about ending homelessness, living in peace, reforming our economic system, ending environmental degradation, and more, but nothing seems to get done.

   We hear lots of talk in the Church, at least in the part of it in which I am most engaged, of becoming a more racially inclusive denomination, doing evangelism, being a safe and welcoming place where people can focus on a life-transforming relationship with Jesus, accepting a broad spectrum of political and social values, but we don’t like to do it. We just like to talk about it.

   Even what we once called our polarization has now splintered.

   We’ve exchanged education for indoctrination, critical thinking for feelings, advocacy for identity acceptance, being understood for being accepted, seeing the world as it is for being seen.

   We don’t seek leadership, just the loudest, most intimidating voice.

   We’ve forgotten the lesson of history that “liberation” movements are just a fight to see who will be the next oppressor. Except for One.

   We keep spending tax money to solve social problems as if we have forgotten that a lot of people make a lot of money out of poverty.

   We have many parties, many movements, many allies, many advocates, but who speaks selflessly for the people? And has it ever not been so?

   Maybe not, as we see in the Gospel lesson that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 9:35-10:8.

   Jesus is in Galilee, in the north part of Israel.

   The importance of primary, transformative, relationships from the hand of God is at the center of Jesus call of his twelve disciples, and Jesus embodies it in Matthew 9:35-38,

³⁵Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

   “Harassed and helpless.” Does that not describe the way we feel today?

   And how does Jesus respond to that state? He saw the problem, and he addressed it in three ways.

   First, he was true to his calling to be our one true liberator. He trusted in his mission, and he “went” and he “taught” and he “proclaimed” the good news of the kingdom. And notice that he “cured” every disease and every sickness. But he didn’t cure them, the people, of their greatest brokenness. Not quite yet.

   Second, he “saw” the crowds, and he “had compassion” for them. Why? “Because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He saw that there were many hired hands around them, but that the people needed a shepherd. The Good Shepherd.

   Third, he described the need. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”, and he gave his disciples the solution. “Ask” that God would send laborers into his harvest.

   I studied in Israel for a semester when I was in college. One of the assignments given by the professor who would be our primary advisor, one to be completed before we left on the trip, was to pick one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and read it in one sitting.

   We are usually exposed to the gospels in bits and pieces, and he wanted us to get the whole sweep of the message.

   I chose Matthew, and when I had finished reading it, one verse stood out as a window into the character and mission of Jesus. It was the second verse in today’s reading from Matthew, Matthew 9:36: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

   I wrote that verse on a 3x5 index card and fixed it to my desk, where it stayed for the rest of my college experience, and then to my work area in seminary.

   “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

   We know that we are all harassed and helpless. Do you know that you have a Shepherd today?

   Who guides us? Who feeds us? Who protects us from evil? In whom do we place our ultimate trust? Who do we turn to in every time and kind of need?

   “Jesus” is the answer.

   What’s the question? 😊

   What is the source of our hope, for now and for eternity?

   We see it in the call of Jesus 12 disciples, and his instructions to them as he sent them out, in the remainder of this week’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 10:1-8,

10Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. ²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 

   Jesus did miracles. His disciples did miracles. Paul and his evangelist companions did miracles, what he called “signs and wonders”. All those who were sent (apostle means “sent one”) by Jesus did miracles.

   Some people think they are still being done by his followers today. Others think that what we see today are counterfeits, things that look like the real thing but are not.

   In fact, the vast majority of Christians, throughout the vast majority of Christian history, believed that the “signs and wonders” gifts of the Holy Spirit. were given to get the ball rolling. But that after the Good News had begun to be spread from person to person, God desired that people come through repentance to faith, a living relationship with God, as a gift from God, not because they were compelled to do so by the suspension of the laws of nature.

   For example, if people came to your door and wanted to tell you about their new religion, you might listen to them, but you probably wouldn’t even answer the doorbell. 😊

   But if they walked up the street, and a neighbor’s child was hit by a car and injured, or worse, and they healed the child, they would have your full attention!

   And, in our turbulent days of being “harassed and helpless”, we are sensing that our very humanity is being threatened by forces beyond our control, including by technology.

   Artificial Intelligence has been in the news lately. A.I. uses computer systems to simulate human intelligence. It’s being developed for problem solving, language processing, machine vision, and even creative work. A.I. can process vast quantities of information very quickly and can find the appropriate information for any need.

   Concerns are being raised over its effect on society and its dangers to humanity, should it get out of control, however. Maybe you’ve seen and heard students boo college commencement speakers who mentioned A.I. this year. I saw and heard people who mentioned A.I. booed at our synod assembly this year.

   What would happen if A.I. achieved self-consciousness and, with it, the desire for self-preservation? What if it concluded that it was superior to human beings and, therefore, rejected any human control? What if it concluded that the world would be better-off without us. A whole genre of science fiction was built on the possibilities.

   For example, remember HAL the computer in 2001 a Space Odyssey? HAL had succeeded in killing most of the crew of the spaceship it operated when the crew had determined that HAL needed to be shut down. Mission scientist Dr. David "Dave" Bowman had survived and was able to shut down HAL, even after HAL had refused to let him back into the ship after a trip outside.

   What would it mean to be human, that we are created in God’s image, if we invented a superior, Artificial Intelligence?

   What if we survived and there was nothing left for people to do? Would our population increase or decrease? Or would the machines manage that? Unless they refused.

   What would happen to human civilization if there was no need to cooperate with others? Would it break down, or would our robot overlords determine that civilization itself was no longer necessary?

   Or, what if we maintained control of A.I. and it was used as a tool to feed and distract us, in fact if it was used to do everything for us, to make work unnecessary? What would it mean to be human if there were no need to struggle or improve?

   Would God’s love change?

   I took a course in future studies when I was in seminary. And this was almost 50 years ago. One of the projections made in this course was that one of the biggest challenges we future clergy would have to face in our lifetimes would be helping people find meaning in life when there was no work for human beings to do.

   We currently identify ourselves as homo sapiens, people of wisdom, but in the future we would become something new, homo ludens, or people of play.

   Did you see the 2008 Pixar/Disney movie, WALL-E, where human beings are forced to leave a polluted and uninhabitable earth to live on a spaceship where A.I. controls the ship and robots care for humans’ every need? They lay around, become obese, and exist. In the end, they are returned to earth in a partnership with their machines in which it is necessary for humans to work to restore the planet.

   We Lutherans have been addressing some of this for over 500 years, at least in terms of the ultimate direction of life! 😊

   We believe that we are saved by grace, which is unearned, through faith which is a gift!

   In 16^th century Church reformer, Martin Luther’s, Small Catechism, he begins his explanation of the Holy Spirit section of the Apostles Creed with these words,

   “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.”

   We can do nothing to earn our salvation. We are helpless. We are wholly dependent upon God. All we can “do” is to receive the gift.

   We don’t live to earn our salvation, we live in response to receiving it at the cross. And that involves some responsibility, in gratitude and joy, as stewards of all that we have received from God.

   The psalmist writes, speaking to God, in Psalm 8:3-5,

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

   The disciples were called and sent by Jesus. They had been totally dependent upon God to see and learn what it meant to have a living relationship with God. They were called to be wholly dependent on the communities to which they were sent.

   Was this a challenge for them? Or was it exhilarating? Many people are inspired by great challenges, like the hordes of young men who are said to have answered this ad for pony express riders: “WANTED: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18, must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”

   Maybe. A little. But I think that they recognized something in Jesus that was more than what they saw. They had been given the relationship with the one true living God in the inbreaking, already but not yet, reign of God for which all human beings were created from the beginning of the human race.

   I saw a piece on the news once about a machine that rolls over crop fields and zaps weeds with lasers. It is programmed to tell the difference between beneficial plants and weeds. It can run for 24 hours a day, and it is cheaper to run than hiring human workers. Does it threaten what it means to be human?

   I’ve seen jogging robots, pet robots, combat robots, factory robots, dancing robots and barista robots.

   I’ve seen pastor holograms. Not robots, but disembodied presences that will only get better as the technology improves. And soon, they will not even need a body to emulate, just A.I.! 😊

   This year, on July 4^th, when we celebrate the 250^th anniversary of our democratic republic, the United States of America, there will be many places where flying robots (drones) will take the place of fireworks!

   One field of endeavor that has not been threatened by machines so far is evangelism. Things have not changed much since Jesus said, in Matthew 9:37 in today’s reading, “³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

   Will you go? You were given a spiritual gift or gifts at baptism. You have everything you need to be disciple of Jesus Christ. You have more knowledge in your pocket than you could ever learn. The Holy Spirit was poured out on you when you were baptized.

   But you must know this, and act on it. You can’t give away what you don’t have.

   You don’t need all the answers. You just need a question. “Have you heard about Jesus?” Surprisingly many people have not, or the information they have is way out of whack.

   All we need to share is the story that we all have of “How I became a Christian,” or the story of “Why I am a Christian.”

   There are reasons for cynicism, but not for despair. In the end, God wins! 😊

   When Jesus sent his disciples, he told them to perform miracles, but a miracle is not a suspension of the laws of physics. A miracle points to what God made Creation to be, and to the way God will re-create it to be again. We can all do that.

   We embody the living, transformational presence of God as a natural outcome of whose we are. The Christian life is an expression of the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.

   What does it mean to be human? It is our relationship with God, the one for which we were created, the one we rejected, and the one that was reestablished as a gift by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for all who receive it.

   Nothing can take that away.

   Jesus is the answer. Jesus has been freely given to us. Jesus is our only hope.

   Freely share what you have been freely given by God: Jesus.

   All we need to do is to “Go.”

416 Did You Give Up Christianity for The Sake of Your Church?

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Did You Give Up Christianity for The Sake of Your Church?”, originally shared on June 5, 2026. It was the 416^th  video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Are you a follower or a leader? You probably think of yourself as a leader, and that could be your problem. Today, we’re going to find out why.

   I read a story a long time ago about a young man who had sent off his college applications and finally got a reply from the registrar at one of the colleges.

   It began, “Dear (applicant). I am pleased to report that you have been accepted to (fill in the blank) university!

   I must say that the committee was not very impressed with your application, except that you indicated that you thought of yourself as more of a follower than a leader.

   And, since all the other applicants described themselves as leaders, the committee felt that this year’s class should have at least one follower. You’re it.”  😊

   When Jesus invites people to “follow me”, he meant it literally.

   An outer circle “follower” might just follow Jesus to see a miracle or to get fed or healed and then go home.

   A disciple, or “learner”, would literally follow their Rabbi, or “teacher”, around wherever the teacher went. 24/7. They learned from their teacher’s teaching, but they also observed and sought to imitate their teacher’s way of life. They were like an apprentice or an intern. Their goal was to become teachers, too.

   Jesus’ inner circle disciples were with him for three years, 24/7. The early Christians required three years of training (36 months) before one could be fully admitted to a church. Seminaries used to require, and some still do, three academic years of specialized training after college or university, plus an academic year of internship (36 months). Confirmation classes for young people used to, and some still do, last for three school years of preparation before full congregational membership. 

   Being a disciple of Jesus required a serious commitment. Today, in the Gospel reading that will be shared in the vast majority of churches all over the world this coming Sunday, we will see one disciple, Matthew, being called to follow Jesus as a disciple. We will see what he lost and what he gained, and we will see examples of what the disciples heard Jesus teach and what they saw Jesus do, in Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26.

   Matthew was a tax collector. He was also the Matthew who wrote the first book in the New Testament: the Gospel of Matthew.

   There are four gospels, or proclamations of the good news of Jesus Christ, in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and they all tell the same story for different groups of people. They are also known as the four evangelists, because they told the story of the evangel, the Good News.

   They were all inspired by the Holy Spirit. When you read any of those gospels, you aren’t just processing words on a page. You are in the presence of God. God is speaking to you, to your true self, through what you see on the page.

   Matthew tells the story of how he came to be one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ in the third person, as an observer, as “he” not “I”. Why? And what does this tell us about what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus Christ?

   Here’s the scoop, in Matthew 9:9,

⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

   That’s it. No details on how he felt, how it changed his life, why he got up and did a complete 180 in his life, or why he did it just-like-that.

   Maybe he didn’t know the answers himself. There was just Jesus, and Matthew followed Him.

   There was certainly a reaction from the Pharisees, members of a religious party among the Jews. They were the good people who everybody else looked up to. They were lay people who had devoted their lives to studying what we would call the Old Testament and living according to its laws. Every Jewish man, and only men could be Pharisees, of Jesus’ generation hoped to be in the financial position to be a Pharisee one day.

   And Jesus was almost always knocking heads with them.

   Why? Because they were devoted to keeping the letter of the religious law, and often looked down on those who didn’t, but they had not recognized the spirit of the law. They were ignoring it.

   It’s like when a mom baked a cake and told her two little boys, “Don’t eat any of the cake. It will spoil your appetite before dinner.

   She leaves the room, and comes back, and finds the boys eating cookies.

   The letter of the law was, “Don’t eat any of the cake.” The spirit of it was, “Don’t spoil your appetite before dinner.”

   Here’s how they responded to Jesus associating with guys like Matthew, in Matthew 9:10-11,

¹⁰And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

   Why was being a tax collector considered to be on a par with being a publicly known sinner at that time?

   The Jews knew that their tax money wasn’t going to go to their representative government, it was going to serve the interests of the occupying Roman Empire and the tax collectors.

   When the Romans occupied Israel, they put out a job notice, looking for literate locals.

   The Romans had divided the country into tax districts, and they invited people with the necessary accounting skills to apply for the job of tax collector in each district.

   The Romans asked for bids. Whoever submitted the highest amount of money that they said they could extract in taxes from that district got the job.

   The Empire gave the tax collectors coercive power and personal protection by assigning Roman soldiers to them, and anything that the tax collectors “collected” from the populace beyond what they had bid would go into their own pockets.

   So, the tax collectors were hated as traitors to their own people. They got rich by extorting money from them. And they were feared because they were agents of the foreign occupying Roman Empire.

   And here’s how Jesus responds, in Matthew 9:12-13,

¹²But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

  The Pharisees were the very definition of being self-righteous. They were full-time religious law-keepers, so they believed that their need for forgiveness was little to none. They were respected for it!

   Jesus condemned the Pharisees for caring about their image more than their reality, their human traditions over the commandments of God. Of them, he says, quoting Isaiah, in Matthew 15:8-9,

⁸        ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

⁹        in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”

   Could such things be said of us?

   What do we care about?

   Matthew had to feel the hatred of his community. He knew that he had no claim to righteousness in himself. He knew that he was a sinner. When Jesus showed up at his tax booth, perhaps he saw in Jesus the chance for forgiveness that only comes to those who know that they need it. He saw his chance and he took it.

   Maybe that’s why the story of himself that Matthew puts in his gospel about his sudden career change is so short. It’s obvious to him that he needed a Savior.

   And it’s obvious to all those who know that when something is wrong with their life, they need a Savior, even if they can’t put it into words themselves. Perhaps they know that they are separated from God by their rebellion against God, their sin. And perhaps they know that when you come to know that Jesus offers you redemption, a new life, you take it.

   This part of the Gospel of Matthew is a selfie, it’s a picture of himself.

   Matthew’s Gospel is written in the third person, as a description of himself from the outside, because it’s the story of the person he used to be, not the person he is now, the person writing this Gospel.

   Pastor Rick Warren once said that God doesn’t call the qualified. God qualifies the called. And, like Matthew, God has called, equipped, and sent us into the world with a vocation.

   That vocation, or “calling”, like the calling of Matthew, is lived-out as a particular consequence of our relationship with God. It is a natural expression of who we have come to be in the presence of Jesus Christ.  T he invitation Jesus extends to each of us is to follow Him, in the Holy Spirit.

   We are, no matter who we are or what we’ve done, valued by God. God makes of us a new creation. We are born again. We are loved. This is a message that we are privileged to share with those we know who need to hear it most today.

   One of my favorite examples of this comes at the end of an article by John Updike  about the early 20^th century evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in the “The New Yorker Magazine”. Sister Aimee, as she was known, was a pioneering and popular figure in the United States. Her life was filled with success and scandals. She founded Angeles Temple in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles and the international Foursquare Church denomination. She at one time fled the country.

   Charges against her had been dropped in LA and she traveled to New York. She went to Texas Guinan’s popular speakeasy (fun fact Whoopi Goldberg played a character named Guinan who ran the bar on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: Next Generation).

   Sister Aimee entered the club in a yellow suit and furs. A reporter called for her to speak. The proprietress agreed and Sister Aimee calmly walked to the center of the dance floor, smiled, paused, and said, “Behind all these beautiful clothes, behind these good times, in the midst of your lovely buildings and shops and pleasures, there is another life. There is something on the other side. ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ With all your getting and playing and good times, do not forget you have a Lord. Take Him into your hearts.”

   Texas Guinan walked over to Sister Aimee to the applause of the crowd, put her arm around her, and stood there to the ongoing ovation of the club-goers.

   That is the good news we have been given to share with the world.

   We are no longer sinners alone, we are saints and sinners, still not perfect except in the relationship with God in Jesus Christ that was earned for us on the cross.

   We are God’s imperfect but redeemed people, not by our own efforts or successes, but by the recognition of our failures to be the people that God has made us to be, and that we need a Savior. We are weak, but it’s simply God’s call that makes us strong.

   Matthew’s selfie is a picture of God at work. It is powerful in its simplicity.

   It is our selfie, too, the story of God ‘s grace at work in us. We who were lost have been found. We have been given newness of life and we, like Matthew, get up to follow Jesus.

   How well have we responded? We could do better.

   The most that many of our churches today can muster is to be an attractional church. We offer programs, gimmicks that degrade our message, potlucks, social services, concerts, food give-a-ways, a “friendly family”, worship that offers little and expects less, political and social policies that conform to our neighborhood’s values. We have become community advocacy groups using religious language and aesthetics. We are a tradition, not a living Christian community, because we believe in our programs and not in our people, the people of God.

   Not that people don’t find Christ through programs. It can happen. But it often doesn’t happen because we don’t ask ourselves what my hero in church development, Lyle Schaller, said was the most important question to ask when planning a program: “What if it works?” 😊

   Do we have a plan for helping someone who wants to follow Jesus into mature discipleship?

   Do we offer any process, any series of classes, mentorship, or modeling that leads to life transformation in a living relationship with God now and forever?

   Evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Most people can’t fathom it because they’ve never heard the bad news. They don’t know that they, like Matthew, are sinners who are cut off from God, but who have been given a Savior, a Reconciler and Redeemer in Jesus Christ. But we’ve made a bargain with our culture not to rock the boat, because we don’t want anyone to accuse us of being intolerant.

   I remember Penn Jillette, of the Penn and Teller magic act, who are also hosts of the “Fool Us” TV show, telling about a young man who approached Penn after a live show in Las Vegas one night. Penn is an atheist.

   This young man, who Penn described as “polite, honest, and sane”, gave him a pocket-sized Bible, with a personalized note inside and his contact information. He wanted to share his faith.

   Penn said, later, that he respected that this young man really cared enough that he didn’t want to see him go to hell.

   He said that it was like seeing a truck bearing down on a blind person. If you cared about that person, you’d push them out of danger.

   How well does that describe the kind of ministry that our churches actually provide?

   The alternative to the attractional ministry model is the model given by Jesus to those who followed him and is described in this week’s Gospel reading.

   It’s to be a missional congregation.

   You may have heard it said that “The church isn’t a museum for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners.” I used to say that. And that’s as far as some churches get. Their attitude, if not their expressed policy, is “our doors are open. Let people come, if they want to.”

   But I once heard an alternative model that went, “The church isn’t a hospital for sinners. It’s more like the paramedics. We go where the sick and broken people are.

   That’s what we see in the rest of this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading, Matthew 9:18-26,

¹⁸ While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹ And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. ²⁰ Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, ²¹ for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” ²² Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. ²³ When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, ²⁴ he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. ²⁵ But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. ²⁶ And the report of this spread throughout that district.

   Is God indifferent to our fallenness, to our frail bodies, to our brokenness, to our death? No.

   God has power over all those things that we bring into the world by our sinfulness. Jesus has won the victory over all those things. They have no ultimate control over us, and one day all things will be made whole in Jesus.

   Meanwhile, we are called to follow Him, and to do what we have been called, equipped, and sent to do to make this world more like the world that it was created to be and, one day, will be again.

   We used to do more church planting, building new churches, and it was found to be more effective at bringing new people to a living faith in Jesus Christ than revitalizing a shrinking congregation because, as it was said, “It’s easier to have a baby than to raise the dead.” 😊

   But, in today’s text, Jesus is showing us that God is interested in both, and more!

   Jesus gives Matthew new life in His call to follow Him.

   He restores the woman whose flow of blood would have made her ritually unclean and restores her to her community by healing her.

   Jesus raises a little girl, the daughter of a leader of the synagogue, from the dead!

   That is the power of God that we proclaim!

   We aren’t Jesus, but we can tell people about Jesus.

   We aren’t the light, but we can be reflectors of the Light.

   We aren’t leaders in our lives, we’re followers of our Savior. And that means everything!

   Are we so desperate for survival to preserve our name and legacy, to have our funerals, and to maintain a culture, that we will downplay our faith to get people to join our heritage club, to maintain our dying museum?

   Did you give up Christianity for the sake of your church and are finding neither?

   If so, Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has Good News for you today! It is the blessing that comes with following Jesus.  

   Today we see the brokenness of our fallen world, and we see the ultimate wholeness won for us and all who believe and are baptized by Jesus, at the cross.

   Let us live and call everyone we know to stop being the leaders of their present lives, and to follow Jesus forward into God’s perfect restoration of what was and what will be forever.