St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon

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Six churches gather at Heartland Forest for worship and a picnic to follow this Sunday.  The organizers note there will not be a live stream and likely not a recording either.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost- June 28, 2026

Prayer of the Day
O God, you direct our lives by your grace, and your words of justice and mercy reshape the world. Mold us into a people who welcome your word and serve one another, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever 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, 42 and 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.”

Attendance today -> 12   – Last year N/A (at Heartland Forest Service)

We’re cool inside

Sermon 🔈 (audio only)

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon

Worship Guide

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost June 21, 2026

Prayer of the Day
Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we do your will, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 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!

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 the one 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.
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.

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

Sermon:
For those among us who are risk averse and hard wired to get along, passages like the one we just read are confounding and fear inducing. Yet, three times in a few sentences Jesus says “have no fear” or “do not fear”.

The divisions Jesus speaks of are inevitable consequences of being who you are and doing what you’re called to do. Jesus’ followers —remember Matthew, the tax collector?—make choices that put them at odds with their families and certainly with the occupying empire.

It’s scary to take a path that others don’t understand or accept. The prospect of alienation or reprisal is frightening.

Modern wisdom teaches us that if we let fear rule us, we react in a mix of four ways—we flee, we fight, we freeze, or we fawn over those who threaten or oppress us. If we’re reduced to living only with these fear responses, what happens to our essential selves? Who else loses if we abandon the path we’re called to walk?

Danny Zacharias from Acadia Divinity school speaks about how indigenous Christians are caught in the middle, in a condition similar to Jesus’ earliest followers. On one hand, the European-born church doesn’t understand or completely accept the traditional celebrations and values. On the other hand, some indigenous voices accuse these Christians of betraying their own people and siding with the oppressor. Imagine the cost a person or community would incur by denying parts of their truest selves.

A man incarcerated for 27 years for resisting the apartheid regime in South Africa knows all about fear and about others denying him his own sense of self. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president famously says that “Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the triumph over it.” His commitment to the freedom and equality of all people earned him enemies from nearly all sides—the White minority government charged him with terrorism because of his methods of sabotage. When he was finally free and was dedicating his energy to the truth and reconciliation process, his own people accused him of forgiving too quickly.

In 1994, as we sat in class one early afternoon, the door whooshed open and our classmate Thuli Ndelu, a Xhosa woman from South Africa, burst in, beamed, pumped her fist in the air and said “For the first time ever, I voted!”. In the spring of 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected president of the country that imprisoned him and that denied him status as a full member of his society. His Vice-President in the early days was one of the architects of apartheid, F.W. De Klerk. Together, they and their people began the arduous task of reconciliation and dismantling structures that oppressed all but a few.

Perhaps Professor Zacharias, Mr. Mandela, and Thuli can teach the church and all of us about what the contagion of courage looks like. Being better together happens when the courage we find together clarifies who and whose we are… maybe it is in this discovery that what Jesus describes happens—in losing, we find and are found.

May the Spirit of the risen Christ breathe courage into each of us and among all of us- Encouraged, may we keep following Jesus along the path to the restoration of all things.

Attendance today -> 10        last year -> 9

We’ve now got air conditioning in the sanctuary !!

Sermon 🔈 (audio only)

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon

Worship Guide

Third Sunday after Pentecost June 14, 2026

Prayer of the Day God of compassion, you have opened the way for us and brought us to yourself. Pour your love into our hearts, that, overflowing with joy, we may freely share the blessings of your realm and faithfully proclaim the good news of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 9:35—10:8 [9-23] 35 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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These 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; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. [9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff, for labourers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

16 “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”]

Attendance today -> 7 – last year -> 12

We’ve now got air conditioning in the sanctuary !!

Sermon 🔈 (audio only)

Transcript of the Gospel and Sermon

Worship Guide

Second Sunday after Pentecost-June 7, 2026

Prayer of the Day
O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being. By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world, and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
10 And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Sermon:
Bishop Larry’s sermon last week helpfully reminds us that this second half of our church year pivots to explorations of the life of the church as it’s informed by the life of Christ. This shift invites us to read this week’s Gospel through the lens of faith community. The faithful question that follows is, what might Matthew’s Gospel be saying to today’s church?

In just a few words, Matthew describes a seismic shift in one person’s life that goes far beyond a career change. Historians believe that Matthew’s specialty in a port town like Capernaum was to tax transported goods. If there were ever an opportunity to gouge somebody for money, this was it!. Tax collectors were equated with robbers, brothel owners, and corrupt officials. Matthew’s leaving his post leaves jaws dropping for two reasons. First he disrupts his own life built around exploitation and greed. Second, he ghosts more than an employer. Not much of a chance that there was cake in the break room as a farewell for Matthew when he left the tax collecting racket to follow Jesus. Even less chance that Roman management issued the blasé memo wishing Matthew the very best in his future endeavours “thank you for your attention in this matter.” Taxes fed the imperial beast’s insatiable appetite. Everyone was expected to feed the beast one way or another. Matthew stops playing along. Imagine the stand Matthew takes and the personal risk he assumes when he follows Jesus.

More questions: What about Jesus is so compelling that at a word, Matthew leaves his post? Just where is it that Jesus is going and wants Matthew to follow?

The disapproving muttering among the religiously respectable signals that where Matthew is going TO is even more revolutionary than what he has left behind. We’ve been clued in that tax collectors are outcasts. Jesus’ other dining companions are “sinners”…sort of a blanket term for outsiders and those judged to be too far gone for redemption.

And Jesus eats with these people? On purpose? Absolutely on purpose. In Jesus’ culture and in his day your dining companions were those you identified with and befriended—reputations were thought to rub off on each other. So where is Jesus going? To the margins of society! What’s he up to? He enacts and embodies the insistence that there is no such place as outside the scope of God’s love. This is the “new place” Jesus leads Matthew. And us.

This week I read work by the Rev. Dr. Danny Zacharias. Reading his biographical notes was a treat—He is Associate Dean and professor of New Testament Studies at Acadia Divinity school in Wolfville Nova Scotia. He’s originally from Winnipeg and is Cree-Anishanabe and Métis…so I was intrigued to hear what an indigenous person from Turtle Island might have to say about Matthew and his community.

Professor Zacharias speaks of indigenous ceremonies as being more about relationship that rubric. And indigenous ceremonies are carefully curated so the emphasis on relationships is truly inspiring. Through his cultural background Professor Zacharias sees what he calls God’s restorative mercy as communities are formed and nurtured. He goes on to say that such mercy isn’t pretty words; it’s tangible actings showing what the kin-dom of God ought to be like.

The professor also invites the church to put itself in Matthew’s place—as those profiting from present and past injustice to others and to the planet. When Jesus calls the church to follow we work to leave those ways behind and to join Jesus as he embodies the scandalous message that there is no such place or thing beyond the reach of the love of God. Amen.