Following the Lead of Jesus in the Neighborhood of God.

 To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                              June 16, 2026

 This Sunday, our Scripture passage is from the Gospel of Matthew,  Matthew 9: 35-10: 8.   

³⁵ Then 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 laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

10 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. 

Jesus taught, He proclaimed, He healed and cured, He did all this in company with His disciples who He was training up to take up His mantle when He returned to heaven.

 When we read about what Jesus has done, when we absorb it into our church community, our souls and psyche, our hearts and minds, when we seek actively to live into Jesus’ statement, “As My Father sent me, so I send you”, what do we see God doing?

We see that God changes ordinary life into abundant living.  But not in the abstract for ‘somebody’ out there, but for us.  And we recognize how Jesus accomplishes it.  These are the ‘how-to’s’, participating in worship, Christian Education, fellowship and service. 

We recognize that the means by which God changes ordinary living into abundant life comes in the creation of communities within our Neighborhood, communities of worship, of learning, of fellowship, and of service.  This pillars, these investments of our Time into the work and worship of the church, these are the ways in which Jesus acted and led His first batch of disciples.

He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven (of which we are a Neighborhood), the proclamation which is at the heart of our services of worship to this day.  He was teaching in the synagogues, while also teaching the disciples in all He did.  He set them up to serve, giving them power to cure all diseases and illnesses (we have healing in our midst, but not usually to THAT scale).  All that was then bound together with the ‘simple’ act of fellowship, simply being with His disciples, being with us, that we may know Him and trust Him and call Him friend (how simple, yet how completing).

As we are Jesus’ disciples in this, our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of Heaven, these ‘how-to’s’ serve us coming and going.  They serve us coming into God’s presence, that we may know our God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, ever more personally and deeply.  They serve us going as well when we dare to be Christ’s witnesses to the world in need.

I always have a hard time believing a famous person who is being employed to be a spokesman for some commercial product or other.  But when someone shares the reality of what has changed their life for the better, when I can see it and experience the change it has made, that’s the hook that draws me in. 

Jesus does not want disciples to ‘sell’ the faith.  He wants disciples to live it, that others will know the blessings we have received, that there is True Love in creation, that there is the Way, the Truth, and the Life to be found in Christ Jesus.

 

Pastor Pete

For the Lord's Day: The Reading of God's Holy Word for Sunday, June 21, 2026

https://youtu.be/a7jDfW0Q2L0 

Our Scripture for this Sunday is Matthew 9:35-10:8.  Jesus is sending out his disciples for their first foray into carrying forth the Word of the Lord in their turn.

This Sunday is our Family Service and we shall be sharing this lesson for our Young People and families to hear together, to know what we too are called to do in the Name of Jesus.

Peace,
Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/a7jDfW0Q2L0

Some Hints of What Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God Could Be

Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God is an earthly beginning to the perfect Kingdom completed at Jesus' return.  But what does it look like in earthly terms? 

Because attempts to portray the 'ideal' Neighborhood are made in the popular culture and media.  It is all over Children's programming.  The one that set the pattern for me growing us was Sesame Street. I will confess that I am not of the "Elmo" generation and never really got the popularity of "Elmo's World" (but for some reason, I love the extended "Noodle" family).

I grew up when Mr. Hooper was the shopkeeper.  And it still brings a hollowness of heart to me in remembering how they had to share the news of Mr. Hooper's death with Big Bird.  But that was what the Neighborhood was about, people caring for one another in community.  It was done in a way that sought to protect kids growing up in a dangerous world.  Monsters weren't bad, people cooperated with each other.  Cookie Monster was my favorite.  Grover was my voice.

Not all children's programming is this way.  Most "children's" programming is not for children except to turn them into consumers.  How many shows are just there to sell the merchandise?  Even Sesame Street has its share of that.  "Tickle Me Elmo" comes to mind (and not as a fond recollection).  

It is even proper to be looking into the world for hints of the Kingdom of God?  I think it is more than proper, it is necessary.  But with discernment.  God is the Creator of all.  The good things of faith, love and grace and caring, they continue to exist in the world, all tangled up with sin and evil and greed.  

Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God also exists in the World.  We are not called upon to withdraw to a mountain stronghold and defend Jesus against all comers.  It is just the opposite, in the Name of Jesus, we are called to invite the world in.  It is a line that we, as a church, have sought to discern since the first disciples of Jesus, how do we live "in" the world while seeking not to be "of" the sinfulness of the world?  

The good things of God continue to exist in the world, even in the presence of sin that, if it cannot undermine them, will twist and tweak them.  We know this is the same for the Church.  The good things of God exist in the church, but even here, the presence of sin seeks to undermine and to tweak and to twist what is good.

This is God's world.  We know God is here for us.  We know God is here for the world, despite sin.  So, all around us there are hints and clues of what our Neighborhood could be, should be in our world.

Pastor Pete          

 

For the Lord's Day: Sunday, June 14, 2026 The Reading of God's Word.

https://youtu.be/mpeCLRrJrjE 

Our passages for this Sunday include Joshua 20 and Romans 6: 1-11.  As always, we share them in the KJV, the Pirate's Bible, the NRSV, and the Message.

May the hearing of God's Word provide guidance and clarity in the week ahead.

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/mpeCLRrJrjE

A Lord's Day Preview: Our Scriptures and Some Thoughts for Sunday, June 7, 2026

To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ,                              

 Our passages for this Sunday come from Genesis 12: 1-3 and Matthew 9: 9-13.  The first is the promise God made to Abram and the second is that call that Jesus extended to Matthew:

 Genesis 12:  ¹Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Matthew 9: 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.”

          The promise in Genesis is made to Abram (even before God changed his name to Abraham).  The piece we hang our presence on is at the conclusion of verse 3, “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  That is us, among others.

          Our passage in Matthew shows Jesus doing that work.  His work began among His people, God’s Chosen.  It is something that the leadership in Jerusalem is watching.  And then Jesus makes a point.

          “Tax collectors and sinners”, Bible-speak for ‘riff-raff’, for the unwelcome, those who have made bad life decisions, the people on the other side of the tracks, those people who, in the eyes of the Pharisees, are unworthy.

          Apparently, theirs was an early version of “See Something, Say Something”, because these are not the sort of people that Jesus ‘ought’ to be caught having dinner with.  They are sinners.  And tax collectors (a special brand of treacherous in occupied Israel).

          Jesus’ response is cutting, to say the least.  “Those who are well have no need of a physician…”  In other words, “I am not here for YOU.”  Jesus is here for those who are not well, who, in the eyes of God, are “ill” with sin.

          But Jesus is not done.  The Pharisees, the teachers of the Bible of Jesus (alongside Jesus), they would recognize Jesus’ work in fulfillment of the promise to Abram.  So they’d recognize Jesus’ second cut, one that runs deeper. “Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

          It is from Hosea, the prophet who calls “BS” on the practices of ancient Israel when they turned away from God for their own benefit.  The second part of the verse in Hosea goes, “(For I desire)…the knowledge of God rather than burnt sacrifices.”

          Israel, blessed by God and in a good economic situation in the time of Hosea, has gotten very good at following the letter of the law for their own desire and benefit.  Because they forgot they needed God, the Giver of all. They’d forgotten the spirit of that law, the knowledge of God.  What is the knowledge of God?  Most basically, that God is love.

          Jesus has not come to call the righteous, but the sinner.  In speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus is not telling them something new, but reminding them.  They are the ‘righteous’ and they should know better.  More than knowing better, as leaders of the people, as those who claim to be scholars of the bible they share with Jesus, they should be doing this work.  Most especially INSTEAD of critiquing Jesus for it.

          While this will not endear Jesus to the leadership of the people, it is the people, not their leadership, that Jesus has come to serve.

 

Pastor Pete      

Our Scripture Lessons Read in Anticipation of Sunday, June 7, 2026

https://youtu.be/mH4LMWQA0nQ

 This week, we share Genesis 12: 1-3 and Matthew 9: 9-13 in the KJV, the Pirate Bible, the NRSV, and the Message.  

We begin at the promise made to Abram and how Jesus took that promise and made it real.

Pastor Pete

https://youtu.be/mH4LMWQA0nQ

Can We Still Doubt in the Face of The Great Commission?

 To You Who Are Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and our passage is Matthew 28: 16-20, the Great Commission.  It is here where the language of the Trinity is drawn together most clearly:

 ¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

             For all the depth of purpose included in the Great Commission, three little words always pop at me, from verse 17, “but some doubted”.  The simplest explanation (to me) is that this is a nod to the Gospel of John, where the story of the Doubter, Thomas, is related. 

So why insert this little hiccup in the grand finale of the Gospel of Matthew?  Is it simply a nod, an homage, or is it something else?

Is it a reminder?  Is it a reminder that, as the grand sweeping vision is laid out by Jesus in these few verses, that we are still human?  And it is a grand, sweeping vision. 

 Go and make disciples of ALL nations.

Baptize them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!!

          Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you!!

And, you are not alone, for I am with you always, to the end…

          But, what if it gets hard?  What if I don’t know what I am doing?  I got love and I got faithfulness but…  What if the going gets tough?  Because it does.  Here’s an excerpt from Paul’s Resume of Suffering from 2 Corinthians 11:24-25: “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods.  Once I was stoned...”  (I have never heard this called a Resume of Suffering but it powerfully fits).

          So, maybe these three little words are included as more than a nod or an homage.  Maybe they are included as an “Easter egg”, like in the movies.  In the movies, an ‘Easter egg’ is a reference to another movie or scene or something that the director is honoring.  One of my favorites is in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars are hieroglyphics in the underground temple in Egypt.

          So, maybe, when someone is living into the Great Commission and things have gotten tough, when there are serious bumps in the road, nothing seems to be going right, disappointment and doubt have settled in…  Remember this Easter egg.  It takes us to the Supreme Doubter.  And it walks us through how Jesus worked with him.

          It is a visual of Easter.  Jesus’ resurrection body, wounds healed BUT present.  Jesus present and transformed.  Jesus up from the grave, in fulfillment of all the promises made about grace and salvation and forgiveness and eternity.  But, more profoundly, THE reminder that even death was overcome by our Lord.  All to remind poor Thomas to believe. 

          The work is getting hard?  The Great Commission feels more like a Great Weight around the neck?  Go back to the Doubter, who had to see and touch to confess, “My Lord and My God!”

          Read again what Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen Me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

          That’s us.  Reminded of where the blessings truly come from.  Where the strength truly comes from.  Where the renewal truly comes from.  In the Triune God.

          God the Father and Creator, who is not just THE power in the Universe, but THE Maker of the Universe.  In Jesus Christ who did the work we are not able to, in perfect obedience, dying and rising again to fulfill the promise of a gift given to us all.  In the Holy Spirit, who is Jesus in our hearts.  As Jesus says to conclude the Commission, “and I am with you, till the end of the age.”

 

Pastor Pete