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!

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.”