421 Way to Sow!

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Way to Sow!”, originally shared on July 10, 2026. It was the 421^st video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   We sow seeds so that they grow into what we need to live. How do we do the same, metaphorically, to effectively help others receive eternal life? Today, we’re going to find out.
   I will be glad when the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament is over. I’ll get my life back! 😊
   It is estimated that the decline in worker productivity worldwide during the World Cup will cost employers $17 billion. I know that my productivity has declined. 😊
   I’m pretty sure that I’ve watched more soccer games since June 11^th than I’ve watched in my entire life. And I’ve been interested! And I’ve cared who won!
   I cared when the USA team was eliminated. I cared when our other international team, Portugal, was eliminated.
   I cared when the team of Sally’s primary ancestry, England, won. I cared when the team of my ancestry, Norway, won. And now, they are going to play each other!
   Am I now a soccer fan, and will I be following soccer in the United States?
   Nah. Probably not.
   That probably has to do with not playing soccer growing up, and the artificially elevated drama of focused international competition. But, after watching all those games, I also think that there is something to the reasoning in an article I read on why soccer will never be an American sport.
   The reason is that soccer is built on cheating. You may have seen the games where players may or may not make some incidental contact with one another and then both players fall to the ground in what looks like bitter agony, hoping that a referee, looking at the right angle, will call a foul on the other player. Then, if no foul is called, they jump up as if nothing has happened, “miraculously” healed. 😊
   Americans do not respect or admire people who get away with cheating. It is a cultural value. American sports reflect our aspirations for America, our ideal of a level playing field, where all people are treated fairly and people win by hard work, skill, and developed talent.
   But I’m sure that being taught and/or seeing that “everybody does it”, is why everybody does it.
   Sports in America are, for most people, believed to be training grounds for building character. We don’t see fraud as intelligence, but as failure.
   Yet, we’ve seen heroism on the field in spite of the corruption in the system. There are people and values that we respect and cherish, and we try to learn from them and imitate them.
   And we who are both saints and sinners seek to bring people to a life transforming relationship by proclaiming and living the Gospel of the one true living God that brings God’s reign to all sinful hearts and all sinful systems at the cross.
   How does that happen?
   We see how in the Gospel reading that will read in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.
   It begins with a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, told by Jesus about what happens when we share the Good News, and what we should expect as the result, beginning with Matthew 13:1-9,
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ Let anyone with ears listen!”
   This is a parable about how the Gospel is spread and, it is about managing expectations in the process. 😊
   It mirrors an important lesson from our Gospel reading from last Sunday, in Matthew 11:16-17,
¹⁶ “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
¹⁷       ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
   Jesus compares his generation to children imitating the biggest public events that they saw in their culture: weddings and funerals, with dancing and mourning play. And, like those children, and sometimes even like us in our time, when his disciples brought the Gospel to that generation, they got no lasting response.
   But there is hope given in this week’s Gospel that sometimes, when we share the Gospel “seeds”, the word that the Kingdom of God has come in Jesus Christ, some of the “seeds” that are sown fall on good soil and bring fourth good harvests in the hearts of human beings.
   How does that happen?
   Well, someone has to be sharing the Gospel.
   Someone has to be sowing the “seeds” with the understanding that sometimes there will be no lasting response, and sometimes there will be a great response, as Jesus explains a little later in today’s reading from Matthew, in Matthew 13:18-23,
¹⁸ “Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³ But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
   Is this your experience?
   I looked for players on the FIFA World Cup team of my ancestor nation, Norway, to see if any of them were overtly Christians. I found one.
   Antonio Nusa has been very vocal about his beliefs. He has said, “I am a Christian. I always point to God when I have scored and when I enter the field".
   And Martin Ødegaard has stated publicly that faith is an important foundation for his life and his family.
   That’s about it.
   But even that much is rare among Norwegians. Most would be offended if they were asked about their faith. They would say that it is a private matter, and that it is rude to ask that question. Maybe that’s why contemporary Norway can be described as a secular country with a Christian tradition.
   And are we that far from the same description?
   Have you ever shared your faith with a person who needs to hear it? Or have you not shared it because you thought it was too personal, or even rude?
   Or, if you did, what kind of response did you get, and with what result?
   The Kingdom of God started with 12 disciples and grew from there.
   How does it grow? It’s like sowing seeds. Sometimes, as the result of factors beyond your control, you’ll see no lasting response, but sometimes you’ll see a spectacular response, and even more seeds will be sown as a result.
   Have you ever seen seeds being sown? It has been an almost universal human experience, until the modern age. Today, it’s mostly done by machines.
   In Jesus day, seeds weren’t planted. They were broadcast.
   The field would be minimally prepared, and Sowers would lift a big open bag of seeds onto their shoulders. As they walked through the field, they would reach into the bag, take a handful of seeds, and cast them onto the ground as they walked.
   The seeds would be cast broadly, or “broadcast”, like a video or audio signal is broadcast. Its success largely depended on the “receiver”.
   What happened next depended on the media on which the seeds fell, open ground where they got eaten by birds, rocky ground, thorns, or on good soil.
   What would happen to the seed that grew in good soil?  The rain would come, the sun would shine, the seeds would germinate and grow with no further action from the sower until it was time for the harvest.
   The seed would yield more grain, some of which could be eaten, some sold, and some saved to grow still more grain.
   The Kingdom of God comes in the same way, through no action of our own, but through the providence of God. All we do to grow the Church is to plant a “seed”.
   We are the instruments of God, good or bad.
   We are like salt, or light, or leaven. We are small, but all we have to do it to be true to who we are in the transformational power of the Holy Spirit. We only live in the character and integrity of what God has made us to be: a new Creation, God’s own people.
   Sally and I have a fig tree in our backyard that was here when we came. One fig tree. Now, though, we have “volunteer” fig trees all over the place. The seeds from the fruit of that tree have found their way into our bushes, along the sidewalk, and through our privet hedge. We have seen them all around our neighborhood.
   We don’t know what the results will be when we share our faith like seeds. We do know what they will be when we don’t share it.
   The good news is that the results of “sowing” don’t depend upon us alone.
   The Church grows and we reproduce by God’s agency within us. That’s how the Kingdom of God is planted and grows. Seed by seed.
   We can reject God’s call to do the work of evangelists, but God’s Kingdom grows when God works through the new Creation we have become by God’s gift of new life. We are that new creation!
   In John 15:16-17, Jesus says to his disciples,
   “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
   To ask in someone’s name is to ask in accord with the living reality of that person. That’s what it means to live in the Kingdom of God.
   We do what God blesses through us, God’s people. The seeds are sown. They grow and bear fruit. They reproduce. The Kingdom of God grows. It’s not about us. We know that God’s harvest is here already and will be brought to its final perfection in the time to come.
   Maybe you’ve heard the story of the invention of chess? It’s been told in many varieties in many cultures. The story goes that when the inventor brought the game of chess before a great king, the king offered to give the inventor anything he wanted.
   The inventor laid out the chess board and placed a grain of wheat on the first square. “All I want is this grain, plus two grains on the second square, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on. Doubling with every square.”
   That’s all you want?, said the king. And he ordered it done.
   As the king’s servants started loading the grain it soon spilled over the board and then into the throne room and then the palace. Until the king said enough. Today, it’s estimated that the number of grains, doubled the 64 times, needed to fulfill the king’s promise would be 2,000 times the world’s entire production in a year.
   That’s how thing go viral.
   And that’s how we bring the gospel message those closest to us and to the world.
   This isn’t just mathematics. As we all know, not everyone comes to a living faith in God just because we share ours. Sometimes our sharing leads to no lasting response. But nobody comes to a living faith in God if we don’t share ours.
   People have to open their hearts as a fertile place to receive the seed of faith that God gives. But what “seed” are we offering?
   Some people say, “I don’t talk about my faith. I live it”. And that’s good. We need people to live what they believe. And that might work. People might sometimes connect the dots between what you do and Jesus Christ by themselves. They might.
   But it’s unlikely that you are showing your faith. It’s more likely you’re only showing people that you think you’re a good person.
   At some point, we have to connect the dots. We have to name the name of God in order for people to come to a living faith in God, and not to an expectation of good works by which they feel only the burden of never being sure they have been good enough.
   We have to show people the faith that produces good works, that Jesus changes lives, and that it will change theirs. We need a place where people can go from zero to Christian, and a process to get them there. How many of our churches do that?
   How do we make our message of redemption viral?
   First, we can’t change human nature. We can only appeal to a better one. The most important part of a healthy garden is the soil. Does it have the right amount of living material? That requires transformation.
   Second, we can only pronounce a work of healing when people pronounce a word of their own dis-ease.
   Third, we have to name the name of Jesus and invite people to know Him. Someone you know, a friend or a relative, might be ready to respond right now.
   Fourth, people can’t know the Good News unless they first understand the Bad News. That is the path to repentance and new life.
   We plant seeds by calling people to interrupt the patterns in their lives that are based on what the culture says, what makes them feel good, what has become now just toxic habits and interrupt them with patterns that are based upon what the Bible says, what leads to eternal life here and in the future, that is, what the Bible calls “to repent”.
   One of my favorite stories is a classic stewardship story from Garden Grove, in Orange County.
   Rev. Robert Schuller was raising money for the construction of The Chrystal Cathedral. The building was reportedly going to cost $16,000,000.00, a huge sum  of money now, and a staggeringly large amount then, especially for church construction.
   One morning, the pastor of a Lutheran church in Garden Grove opened his newspaper and read that a member of his congregation had given $1,000,000.00 to the Crystal Cathedral Building Fund.
   He called the member and asked if he could meet him for lunch.
   After some small talk, the pastor asked, “You know, you’ve been very generous to our church, and I’m very grateful and appreciative of your generosity, but I saw in the paper this morning that you gave a million dollars to Rev. Schuller’s church, and you’ve never given anywhere near that amount to your own church, and I wondered “Why?”
   The man looked a little surprised and said, “Because he asked me.”
   It often works the same way with sharing our faith.
   There are likely people that you know right now who just need to be asked, who need to hear you and your story from your heart, your transformed heart.
   The FIFA World Cup will end on July 19^th. Maybe the people of God could find a good use for the time we’ll have on our hands. The one true living God, working through our Christian culture and our values and our faith will show us the way and give us the means.
   It’s time to sow!

420 250 to Eternity

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “250 to Eternity”, originally shared on July 3, 2026. It was the 420^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Americans will celebrate our Independence Day this coming Saturday, July 4th. Christians celebrate it and an even greater day, our Dependence Day. Why?

   The United States of America will celebrate the 250^th Anniversary of the adoption of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britian by our Continental Congress this coming Saturday, July 4, 2026.

   “Two hundred and fifty” may seem like a big number, but we are still a relatively young country. I read some time ago that almost our entire history can be measured in the lifetimes of five American presidents. Five.

   Thomas Jefferson, our third president, died when Abraham Lincoln was 17 years old. Abraham Lincoln died when Woodrow Wilson was 8 years old. Woodrow Wilson died when Ronald Reagan was 12 years old. And Ronald Reagan died when Barak Obama was 42 years old, and Barak Obama is still alive. Almost five lifetimes.

   I am 78 years old. That means that I have been alive for pretty close to 1/3 of our country’s entire history.

   We also watched video on TV showing the wildfires that are destroying land and homes and people because of someone’s foolish use of illegal fireworks.

   A 250^th anniversary is also known as a Semi Quincentennial celebration.

   I remember the celebration of our country’s Bi Centennial in 1976.

   This year’s celebration seems different. More muted. More commercial. Less about ideals and more about power. Less about service and more about empire. Less about liberty and justice for all and more about greed and money grubbing by the favored rich.

   We seem more divided and less sure of ourselves than I can remember.

   The most encouraging thing about being an American today seems to be the positive reaction of people who have come here from all over the world for the FIFA World Cup!

   I think that that’s worth thinking about.

   Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, when asked what kind of government the Continental Congress had formed answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

   He said that, “it would eventually fail and end in despotism if the citizens became so corrupt that they required a heavy-handed, authoritarian ruler.”

   Have we achieved that level of corruption as a nation?

   Do we care more about feeling good about ourselves than about anyone or anything else, or especially about living our virtues?

   Does our economy mean more to us than our liberty?

   Can we give the benefits of citizenship without also requiring the responsibilities of citizenship and still be a country?

   How much freedom, and the benefits of living here, can we give to people who hate our freedoms, and will take them away as soon as they achieve a majority?

   Is the American Dream something that is achievable through hard work, education, sacrifice for the future, and by helping to build a community. Or is the American Dream now an out of court settlement.

   Some of us might spend some time this week reflecting on how fragile our freedoms are, what it took to gain them and to keep them, and how quickly a few hot heads can burn everything down.

   We’ll celebrate the holiday with barbeques and parades, and some time off, and maybe some fireworks.

   We’ll lift our phones to record those fireworks, or this year possibly synchronized drones, but, as the meme I saw once said, “’Let’s watch this fireworks video I took a year ago’, said no one ever.”

   Our celebrations are as fragile as our republic. Our laments are as significant as our will to learn from them, and the witness we bring to our time has no guarantees that it will be heard, as we see in the Gospel reading that will be read in the vast majority of churches all over the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. It begins with Jesus teaching his disciples about John the Baptist,

¹⁶ “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

¹⁷       ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; ¹⁹ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

   Jesus compares his generation to children imitating the biggest public events that they see: weddings and funerals, dancing and mourning. And, like those children, and sometimes even like us in our time, when his disciples brought the Gospel to that generation, they got no response.

   There is a resigned futility here. Almost a sense of resignation, except for the last sentence, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

   Jesus’ critics were focused on earthly things. As in our culture, they were focused on themselves. They were their own God.

   Jesus is God. He is God’s wisdom. What of a long line of God’s might acts could Jesus be refereeing to? God was about to act decisively, once for all, on the cross.

   Those who receive Jesus in their true selves have lives that look like something. They are not our virtues, because Christian virtues cannot be achieved. They can only be received and lived in response to the cross.

   Paul describes this Christian life as the fruits of the Holy Spirit, in Galatians 5:22-25,

²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

   We live by the Spirit, not by the flesh (the human condition without Christ).

   This is the true source of America’s greatness.

   Alexis de Tocqueville was a French diplomat and sociologist who toured the United States in the early 1800’s to learn about America, and he was deeply impressed with our singular democracy.

   After looking for the source of American greatness among the attributes and institutions of our new country, he wrote, in his book Democracy in America, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

   Let’s let that sink in for a minute… “and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

   Are we a good nation, or have we reached the level of corruption that Benjamin Franklin warned us about.

   How do we end the fragmentation, the loss of national unity and identity, the selfishness, the might makes right ideology that has crept into our country, and even into the church?

   M.A.G.A. Make America Good Again!

   Make our pulpits flame with righteousness again!

   What is righteousness in the Bible but the restoration of the right relationship with the one true living God restored on the cross and given to all who will receive it by Jesus Christ?

   What is the Christian life but living the transformed life by the Holy Spirit that comes from within as a natural, unforced, outcome in response to that selfless sacrifice of Jesus?

   And yet, we have piped and the world has not danced. We have wailed and the world has not mourned.

   How do we live with integrity, obedient to His command to love one another and to make disciples of all peoples, seeking only to do God’s will?

   Through the transformative work of Jesus on the cross.

   But sometimes, I wonder if we should just write off this generation as evil and adulterous (spiritual infidelity) as in Matthew 12:39,

³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

   Except that Jesus doesn’t give up on his generation. At the end of this verse, he refers to the sign of Jonah in Jesus’ coming death, burial, and resurrection.

   Proclaiming that message is our mission to this generation, because Jesus has revealed God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to us, as we see as the Gospel for this Sunday continues in Matthew 11:25-27,

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ 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.

   I saw an exchange between two people online the other day.

   One said, “I don’t believe that God exists. There just isn’t enough evidence.”

   The other said, “Let’s do a little thought experiment. Of all the knowledge in the universe, about how much do you think that you know?”

   “Excuse me,” the first person said.

   “Of all the things that could possibly be known, what percentage would you say that you know.”

   “About 5%,” the first person said.

   “I think that you’re being a little generous,” the second person said, “but let’s say that you know 10% of everything that can be known in the universe.

   “Don’t you think that it’s possible that the evidence you seek might be within that 90% of the knowledge in the universe that you don’t yet know?”

   “What do you mean,” said the first person.

   “I mean that, when you come to a problem you can’t solve, do you assume that there is no answer and give up, or do you keep looking?”

   Jesus says that the things of God have been hidden from the wise and the intelligent and have been revealed to infants.

   Why?

   I think it’s because people who know that they don’t know are more likely to receive instruction than people who think that they already know everything.

   In the same way, people who think that they are good people who don’t need Jesus are less likely to receive him and be made new by Him than people who know that they are sinners and need a Savior.

   God has been revealed to us on the cross. How can we make America good again? How can we reveal God to the world? Here are five ways:

1.    One. The world doesn’t respond to the Good News because it doesn’t know the bad news. That comes first.

2.    Two. Most people in Christian, or post-Christian, cultures come to Christ by their 18^th birthday. They see what is important to their parents, and they imitate their parents’ belief and behavior.

3.    Three. Adults come to Christ by the testimony of a credible witness. Who trusts you to tell them the truth when they need to hear it?

4.    Four. Be fishers of human beings. Go to where the people are and bring the Gospel to them as they are.

5.    Five. Know that you are never alone. As Jesus says to us and to the unsaved in the conclusion of this week’s Gospel reading, in Matthew 11:28-30,

²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

   God has not given up on you. He is carrying your load.

   Even when we are unfaithful, God is faithful. God is steadfast, and his steadfast love endures forever.

   As we celebrate the 250^th anniversary of our republic, one of the most important contributions Christians have to offer is 16^th church reformer Martin Luther’s theology of the Two Kingdoms.

   How can Christians who live in the already here but not yet perfected reign of God live and contribute as good citizens of their country?

   Luther taught that God ruled the world through two kingdoms, outwardly through the kingdom of this world through law, the civil authority, and the “sword” to maintain order and curb sin in a fallen world, and through the kingdom of God at work inwardly in the spiritual kingdom through the gospel of faith and grace to grant eternal life.

   Both kingdoms are to be measured by what God is calling them to do. And, as Christians are citizens of both kingdoms, we are to call the temporal (earthly) kingdom to always act in accord with the will of God. That is the biblical definition of “justice”.

   This coming Saturday we will not celebrate the triumph of force. The Revolutionary War ended on September 3, 1783.

   We will celebrate the codification of a set of ideas that have guided nations for 250 years: that all men are created equal, that they are given rights by their Creator that cannot be taken away from them. That is, that we are creations, not some random outcome of the evolution of our DNA.

   Good can only come from God. It needs no justification. Otherwise, it’s just someone’s opinion.

   It seems odd to me that the FIFA World Cup is taking place in North America, including the United States of America, at the same time that our 250^th Anniversary as a nation is taking place. And yet, Christians celebrate the greatest victory in the history of the universe every day!

   We’re about three-quarters of the way through the tournament and we’ve already seen dramatic upsets, unfair penalties, increasing tension, intense drama and rapturous joy. We’ve seen patriotism, laughter and tears, good sportsmanship and bad, ridiculous pricing, and heroic performances.

   Sally and I have celebrated the victories of our country’s team, Team USA, and the teams of our ancestors, Norway and England.

   Yet we haven’t yet seen anything compared to what was, and to what is and to what is to come.

   Christ has won the greatest struggle of our lives for us. We didn’t do it; we couldn’t do it. We didn’t earn it; we can’t earn it. We depend upon Him.

   Christ won the victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil that had beaten us. We depend upon Jesus.

   The day he gave his life for us showed us what it took to be made free forever. Three days later he took his life back again as a promise that we, too, shall rise.

   We couldn’t do it. We are completely dependent upon him for eternal life. We needed a savior, and we have one in Jesus Christ. We declare our dependence on Him every day! It’s what puts every day that we are on this earth in the perspective of eternity!

   We are celebrating many things this week, but the most important one is our Dependence Day, our dependence on Jesus Christ for new life and eternal salvation. It has been given for all who receive it.

   Receive it.

   And share the good news.

419 Prediction Market

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Prediction Market”, originally shared on June 25, 2026. It was the 419^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   Most people are motivated by some kind of reward. One kind is temporary and another is eternal. One divides and another unites. Which reward motivates you?

   Sally and I have got the fever! FIFA World Cup Soccer Fever! 😊

   We don’t usually follow soccer, though when our son graduated from high school and Sally’s mother gave us some money to take him to Europe on a ship, the European Championships were going on. It was a ship based in England, so the games were a very big deal. They were broadcast live on board.

   Somehow, I don’t know why, we started following Portugal. Christiano Ronaldo was in his second year playing professional soccer, and he was on the team.

   We organized our daily schedule around when Portugal was playing. We made friends with people on board who were from Portugal. “Por-tu-gal! Por-tu-gal!”

   When we got to England, we found pubs that showed Portugal’s games, and we watched them until they were knocked out of the tournament.

   Now, with the FIFA World Cup being held in North America, we are again watching soccer. We are rooting for the U.S., and the country of my family’s origin, Norway, and the countries of Sally’s family’s origin in the British Isles.

   It’s exciting to see the world come to our part of the globe.

   It’s also been fun seeing the mostly positive reactions of the tourists to how nice people are in the U.S. Many have been pleasantly surprised by our fast food, our sports stadiums, the wide-open spaces (including around private homes), even gas station mini-marts! One visitor said that he felt like he was living in a movie!

   There has been a wholesome atmosphere among the fans, for the most part, and everyone seems to be having fun and is happy to be here.

   Their passion is infectious.

   Why? Why do they, and now we, care about winning a small trophy?

   Partly, I think, it’s because of the intangibles. We are made for community. We want to belong to something, we want to think that we have an identity that sets us apart. We favor our identity over the identity of others. And we like to think of ourselves as being the best, even if vicariously, and even if only for a short time.

   Right now, the games are pretty friendly, even when played by teams of nations that are in some level of conflict with one another.

   But we have seen what happens when “hooligans” take control. They’re not there for the game. They’re there for the trouble.

   Riots aren’t pretty. And they are more likely to happen as the tournament moves along and there is more at stake and as old grudges take root.

   And, as people have placed bets, and have money in the game, indirectable anger will boil over into homes and communities, among family and friends and neighbors. It is projected that global betting on FIFA World Cup games will be somewhere between $50 billion and $60 billion dollars for this tournament!

   That is the pollution of sport. The desire for tangible rewards.

   We experienced something about pollution this past week. The pollution that has been blowing east from the massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights has been polluting our air since last Wednesday! One small inferno has ruined the air for millions of people across L.A. County and beyond.

   It doesn’t take much to pollute something that is much larger.

   Rewards and punishments themselves can be huge motivators in human behavior, and they can have widespread effects. But which rewards we seek, and what we do to get them, are also huge factors.

   Many retail businesses have rewards programs. Sometimes they’re called loyalty programs. They keep track of your purchases on their apps, and you get points toward getting rewards.

   Sally and I get points from Target, for example, and from our credit cards, and from Mr. D’s Diner, and 99 Ranch Market, and more. At some point we redeem them.

   When I was a kid, the public library had a summer reading program where we got a stamp on a card for reading a book. At the end of the summer, we could redeem those stamps for a reward, a certificate. They worked as a motivator.

   Does God have a rewards program? 

   Yes, though it’s different from any rewards in this world.

   We live in a world that is polluted by sin. We are separated from God by Sin. The world is not the way God created it to be, and it’s not like the way it will be in the new heaven and the new earth that Jesus will usher in with his second coming. In fact, the battle has already been won on the cross of Christ and in His resurrection.

   All who believe and are baptized, who live in a living relationship with the one true living God, receive the gift of new, eternal life now  by God’s gift of faith through God’s grace.

   But God also has a rewards program.

   In God’s rewards program, you don’t need to be a prophet to receive a prophet’s reward. You don’t need to be a righteous person to receive a righteous person’s reward. And you don’t have to be a disciple to receive a disciple’s reward.

   How can that be?

   Here’s what Jesus says, in Matthew 10:40-42,

⁴⁰‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; ⁴²and 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.’

   Rewards? Rewards are not certain in this life, as we hear in Ecclesiastes 9:11,

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. 

   What can we depend upon if there seems to be no reliability in this life?

   This week’s Gospel reading reminds us that we can we can depend on God.

   There was a lot of what commentators called “physicality” in the basketball games during the recent NBA Championship. (Quick question: who won? I’d guess that a lot of us have forgotten already.)

   And there have been a lot of “physical” soccer games in the current FIFA World Cup.

   “Physical” is, I think, a euphemism for violent and brutal, where players get away with behavior that would be called a foul during regular season play.

   One of my favorite sports quotes comes from the comedian Gary Shandling, who once reflected on Leo Durocher, the ruthless coach of the Dodgers when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers, and who famously said, “Nice guys finish last.”

   Gary Shandling said, “Nice guys finish first, and anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know where the finish line is.”

   What is the finish line? And where is it? And when will it appear?

   Prediction markets have become extremely popular, and extremely destructive lately.

   Prediction markets are a kind of online gambling where people go to an app and place a bet on an event happening or not. FanDuel is a kind of prediction market where participants can set up contracts, usually “yes” or “no”, to bet on the outcome or the point spread of sporting events, cryptocurrency, political outcomes, finance, and more.

   It’s shocking to me that these things are allowed to advertise themselves on TV, during the events themselves, and that people think that they can reliably predict the future, especially given the ancient wisdom that we just read that, “time and chance happen to them all.”

   People may think that they have figured out the date for the Second Coming of Christ, even though Jesus said that no one knows when it will happen, and they may want to place a bet on it, and someday someone will be randomly right (though good luck collecting on your bet)! 😊

   No one will know the time, but we do know the outcome already.

   We know that today’s reading from Matthew 10 is the key to living that coming outcome of the welcoming relationship with God that overcomes our divisions and lasts forever. It is finding our connection and our unity in the common relationship with Jesus that we have been given, expressed in John 17:23

23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

   That’s the outcome!

   That’s the kind of reward that lasts forever. It overcomes our divisions and makes us whole. It makes the difference between life and death!

   We were created for a living relationship with the one true living God, but we rejected it. Sin is that separation from God.

   We are sinners reconciled to God by God’s unearned love, through faith in Jesus Christ who earned it for us on the cross.

   The key to God’s reward program is in the first verse of our main text, Matthew 10:40,

⁴⁰‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

   Jesus is the key to eternal life! When we tell the story of our faith, we are telling the story of Jesus! 

   So, if we all were created for a living relationship with the living God and we rejected it, but that relationship was restored by Jesus Christ on the cross, why isn’t there more unity in our churches?

   We are divided, we are fractured, pulverized and digitized. We can’t talk about politics or social values, or sometimes even the Bible and the Christian life, without conflict, so we have devolved into homogeneous groups of political and social values, and race and tribe, and personal identity and sexuality. We now accept our rejection of others as normal. Why?

   I once heard a story about the congregation of a Jewish synagogue that holds true for many, many Christian church congregations, but I first heard it about a synagogue, so that’s how I’m going to tell it.

   A new rabbi was called to serve and during his first worship service he noticed that half the congregation stood during the Shema (the part that begins, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”) and half were seated.

   Those who stood hissed at those who were seated, “Stand up! Stand up! It’s the tradition!”

   And those who were seated hissed back, “Sit down! Sit down! It’s the tradition!”

   After the service, the rabbi turned to the cantor and said, “What was that all about?!”

   “What?” the cantor answered.

   “All that hissing about standing and sitting!”

   “Oh, that. I don’t even hear that anymore.”

   “But how did it get started? And who’s right?”

   “That was happening when I got here, and I think it’s been going on for a long time,” the cantor answered.

   The new rabbi found some contact information for his predecessor and called him up.

   “Rabbi ___. People are arguing during the Shema about whether to stand or to sit. Both sides say that theirs is the tradition. Who’s right?”

   “I don’t know. They were doing that when I got there and I could never get them to settle it.”

   “Well, who would know?” the new rabbi asked.

   “You could try my predecessor, Rabbi___.”

   So, the new rabbi called through a succession of rabbis who didn’t know who was right until one said, “Well, you could call Rabbi ___. He’s the founding rabbi. He’s in a retirement home now but he’s still pretty sharp. He could probably tell you.”

   The new rabbi was relieved that finally he could settle the issue once and for all.

   He took a member of the “sit down” faction and a member of the “stand up” faction and drove to meet the founding rabbi.

   After some pleasantries about the congregation, the new rabbi got down to business.

   “Rabbi___, the congregation is divided. Half the congregation stands during the Shema, and half the congregation sits. Both say that theirs is the tradition. We are here today to ask who is right.”

   The founding rabbi nodded, and the new rabbi said, “Is it the tradition to stand during the Shema?”

   “No, that is not the tradition,” the founding rabbi said.

   The leader of the “sit down faction” leaned forward, excitedly, and said, “So, it is the tradition to be seated during the Shema!”

   “No, that is not the tradition,” the founding rabbi said.

   “Well,” the new rabbi said, “If it is not the tradition to stand and it is not the tradition to sit during the Shema, why do we fight over it?

   “That is the tradition,” the founding rabbi said.

   Change the titles and I think you could tell that story in many, many Christian congregations.

   And I think that it got worse through the pandemic and in our age of tribal identity and social media.

   This is so because we are saints and sinners. But it is not so in the Reign of God.

   Whatever rewards are dispensed, they are not earned. They are given.

   And they aren’t given on the basis of doing what we think is the right thing. The are given on the basis of being the persons God made us all to be. We don’t earn God’s favor. It was bought for us on the cross. We live our lives entirely in response to that reward.

   What is required to receive a reward in today’s text in Matthew 10:40-42? It’s what is done “in the name of” a prophet, or of a righteous person, or of a disciple.

   To do something “in the name of” means to do it in the fundamental living reality of that person, their truest real self.

   To do something in the name of God means to do it in the living reality of God at work within us. We are made for a living relationship with the one true living God. The God of Abraham, and Moses and Jacob and Isaiah and Elijah, and Job and the disciples and Paul. It is the transformative relationship with God that defines us, and it is us, and it cannot be taken away from us because it is given by God.

   I think that the way forward for us as a Church is to define our ministry and our life together in the name of Jesus Christ, to focus on what draws us together not what pulls us apart, and to keep it there. To be drawn together by Jesus defining everything about us and everything that we do every day.

   We don’t need to speculate about what is coming, there is no risk involved for us, we don’t need to predict the future or gamble on it.

   We know what the future holds for us, because we know who holds the future!

   God’s rewards program is the cross. It is reconciliation to God and to one another, it is forgiveness, peace, and eternal life and it is the restoration of our true selves as a gift from God.

   The FIFA World Cup has come to us, but only one team will win the prize.

   Let us take God’s rewards program for all people to those who are close to us, and to the world.

   The greatest prize of reconciliation with God has already been won for us by Jesus Christ!