Recently, more email programs and internet providers are now labelling any posts, with hyperlinks, as Spam (suspicious email) and sending them directly to the email recipient’s SPAM (JUNK) folder.
Since all Sunday worship video posts contain several hyperlinks, this misdirect is happening frequently.
You can still view them from the SPAM (JUNK) box. You can also move them to the INBOX, or mark them as NOT SPAM.
Fourth Sunday of Easter April 26, 2026
Prayer of the Day
O God our shepherd, you know your sheep by name and lead us to safety through the valleys of death. Guide us by your voice, that we may walk in certainty and security to the joyous feast prepared in your house, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Gospel: John 10:1-10 [Jesus said:] 1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
SERMON
Some religious people speak about God’s maddening penchant for being indirect— Jesus shares a family trait here. My brother would call such indirection “taking the long way around the barn”. Jesus’ opponents express exasperation when they press him on whether or not he’s the Messiah—-“just tell us plainly, already”, they say.
Jesus’ followers like Nicodemus (well, eventually) and the disciples don’t get all the figures of speech Jesus relies on to describe who he is and what he’s about.
The occasional pastor, like this morning’s preacher, gets a bit flummoxed too— Are we talking shepherds here or are we talking gates? Who are these thieves and robbers?
Since we’re in the season of Easter, let’s look at Jesus’ words through the lens of the resurrection. After Jesus has been raised from the dead his people don’t recognize him. Hardly surprising because in our experience the dead stay. The last person people expect to see is Jesus.
Mary Magdalene’s new life as the first preacher and evangelist comes when she hears Jesus call her by name.
Jesus walks through a locked door and breathes a spirit of peace upon his fearful followers.
Jesus shows Thomas his wounds—well he offers to. We really don’t know if Thomas takes him up on that.
On the road to Emmaus (the story from Luke’s Gospel) Jesus teaches two of his followers—they figure he’s not from these parts so isn’t up on current events. That night he accepts their kind offer of hospitality—and he breaks bread and blesses it and suddenly the travellers know exactly who this companion is.
What Jesus says and does after the resurrection might remind us of things he did and said before the resurrection.
He calls Lazarus by name and the man comes back to life.
If you were to read today’s Gospel reading and leaf back a page or two you would find the story of Jesus healing this person blind from birth. Jesus speaks, saying “wash the paste from your eyes and you will see”. The person might have thought someone was pranking him. Instead he hears and follows. When some religious experts grill him about who did the healing the person doesn’t really know; all he knows is some guy put a mud paste on his eyes, told him to wash it off—All he knows is that he started they day like every other in his life with unseeing eyes. Now he sees. Go figure. How truly sad that in response the religious experts write him off calling him an irredeemable sinner.
Jesus words about shepherding, thievery and about being the gate to abundant life immediately follow the healing story story, which ends with a dust up between Jesus and these judgy religious leaders—the ones who don’t see newly sighted person as a person—they just slap the label “sinner” on him and effectively swipe left so they don’t have to deal with him. Jesus sees a human being made in God’s image who suffers, who is excluded and judged—Jesus heals the person’s brings him into his community.
A few years back a Christian denomination in the U.S. called the United Church of Christ put out banners saying “God still speaks”. More now than ever we pray that God still speaks. We pray that the risen Christ still speaks, summoning us by name and calling us to follow in God’s work of blessing and loving the world.
Third Sunday of Easter April 19, 2026
Prayer of the Day
O God, your Son makes himself known to all his disciples in the breaking of bread. Open the eyes of our faith, that we may see him in his redeeming work, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 24:13-35
13 Now on that same day two [disciples] were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
SERMON
When monks at a monastery I visited a couple of times would see a guest or a stranger approaching, someone would kick off an inside joke muttering, “Oh, Jesus…it’s you.” Sometimes a little humour names the risk of opening yourself to the unknown. Sometimes a little humour reminds us to anticipate the surprising ways Jesus makes himself known to us now.
Faith communities inherit a tradition of welcoming the stranger that goes back at least to Abram and Sarai when they welcomed two messengers. Sometimes hospitality is risky because it can upend your life. Just ask Abraham and Sarah who become parents years after they started collecting their pensions. Just ask Cleopas and another Jesus-follower, not named in Luke’s Gospel.
Cleopas and his companion walk home, unsure how they’ll put their lives together now that their teacher is gone. A stranger engages them asking, “what’s happening”? The disciples’ automatically assume this fellow traveller is the only stranger in these parts. Evidently he hasn’t heard about the collusion between the empire and some religious leaders that brought about the public execution of Jesus. Has this person from another place heard that any hopes for God’s redeeming died with Jesus?
The stranger doesn’t argue— he does provide perspective by outlining the continuity recent events have with this Jesus person—going back to the liberation from Egypt, the giving of the law and the witness of the prophets. One just hopes that along the long walk, Roman sympathizers or officials aren’t overhearing what Jesus is telling them.
Seven miles of subversive talk later, the trio arrives at Emmaus. At first it looks like the trio will part company there. However it’s getting dark, making travel much riskier with predators both two and four legged emerging with nightfall. Cleopas and the other disciple take the risk of persuading this stranger, to stay with them and share a meal. Their master, Jesus would have done as much.
They recline at table, which is partly why hospitality is so remarkable; it’s intimate as people eat together in close quarters. Then things get weird. The stranger who becomes the host—he takes bread, blesses it and breaks it.
This was no stranger—maybe they recognized how Jesus often shared bread with all sorts of people. You might know that the word companion comes from the latin and literally means to share bread with another. Luke’s Gospel presents sharing of meals as central to Jesus’ ministry and identity. A professor of ours liked to say that the reason it takes Jesus and the disciples so long to get to Jerusalem was because they were always stopping to eat! Those stops were not pauses. Those stops were the living out of Jesus’ radical hospitality. Those embody God’s love to all in the here and now—or as Luke puts it often, “today”.
Did Cleopas and the other Jesus follower even eat the bread Jesus broke and blessed before dashing out at night to leg it another seven back to Jerusalem?
Some would say that Cleopas and the unnamed disciple are a microcosm of the church—We struggle when hope is dashed…we ask hard questions….we seek perspective and continuity to our tradition and the witness of the faithful who have gone before us. We welcome the stranger. We share bread. And in rare moments of clarity we might say, “Jesus, was that you just now?”
Second Sunday of Easter April 12, 2026
Prayer of the Day
Almighty and eternal God, the strength of those who believe and the hope of those who doubt, may we, who have not seen, have faith in you and receive the fullness of Christ’s blessing, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Gospel: John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears to the Disciples 19
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas 24
But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue[b] to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,[c] the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
SERMON
Doors locked…excellent idea. Will the locks hold? What if the authorities just kick down the door? If the door holds tonight, what about tomorrow? We might be talking about the disciples or we might be talking about ourselves. How soon before we can just take a breath and let our guard down for a minute?
We are forever changed since COVID and in ways we’re only starting to understand. Some researchers believe that we are still living in alarm mode even though the nature of the threat of COVID has changed. They conclude that living in permanent vigilance wears us down psychologically as well as physically.
You know the saying if you see the world as a nail the only tool you’ll learn to use is a hammer? I think the writers of wisdom literature like Ecclesiastes warn that we always reach for bigger and bigger hammers—we do what’s necessary to live life and that’s good. But we accumulate and strive and think our lives will be vouch safe…it’s security we’re after. Not a bad thing. Just not the only thing.
Every bump and squeak must have set off the inner alarms of the those gathered in that room long ago and far away. Having Jesus walk right through the door..not the doorway but the door itself couldn’t have been instantly reassuring. Jesus doesn’t rail against their fear. Instead he breathes peace upon them…he offers them himself—not an easy answer—his presence among them and God’s Spirit upon them.
The first hearers of John’s Gospel we need this story. John’s people lived with the prospect of being ousted by their faith community and they lived with the absurd cruelty of an occupying empire. Their lives were anything but secure. What a powerful thing if they could somehow trust in the Risen One though they hadn’t seen him.
John’s Gospel declares itself as being for us too. Despite savings accounts, insurance policies, door cams, and soft ware updates—we still feel jittery about the next visit to the doctor, or about whether our retirement savings will get gobbled up by inflated food prices. We wonder whether we’ve damaged the planet to the extent it won’t be able to support human life before too long. Trillions are spent on bombs and missiles while people starve. Is there a locked door strong enough to keep all that out? Maybe not. John’s Gospel itself says stories like this one we read today are so that we can trust in the One who walks right through our defences into our fear—and then breathes the Spirit of God among us and offers us his very self; wounds and all. We need these stories for when we realize the bolted door isn’t secure enough; not really, God’s steadfast love is. Having life in his name is about experiencing that steadfast love as it finds its way to us. Amen.
Easter Sunday April 5, 2026
Pastor Bart wishes you and your families a blessed Easter
Prayer of the Day:
God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
John 20:1-18
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada 
Love it Rona. Thanks On Sat, Mar 7, 2026, 11:20 a.m. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church,