title: Wisdom's Call

themes: trinity holy-spirit great-commission letting-go-of-control gods-unconditional-love christian-community us-vs-them

text:
**Scripture:** Proverbs 8:1-4; John 16:12-15; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 6:20

> Because God is Triune, Jesus has the power to save and the Spirit draws us into the eternal love of Father and Son — so we must let go of control and our habit of sorting people, and be sent in the Great Commission to all.

**Illustrations:** mountain-spring-source-flow-creek, barton-springs-source, fire-spark-flame-light, fire-light-heat, warm-room-from-cold, lover-beloved-love, pesky-in-law, hero-of-your-own-movie, cafeteria-table-sorting, military-commission-verb

---

# June 15, 2025
## Trinity Sunday
## Wisdom's Call
### Proverbs 8:1-4
### John 16:12-15

Does not wisdom call
   and understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
   at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To you, O people, I call,
   and my cry is to all who live. - Proverbs 8:1-4

 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:12-15

There are not a lot of mountain springs in Texas. They exist, but they are hard to locate. It is especially hard to locate the source. It's hard to locate the source of Barton Springs; where that water comes up. We got the pool, we got the creek, but what is the precise location of the source of the water? One of my true joys of hiking in mountains is when you come across a mountain stream and you can follow it to its source. You have the source of the water, you have the flow the water, and you have the creek. These three things; they're all the same thing. If you take one away, the other two cease to exist. If you take away the flow, there isn't a source and the water disappears. If you take away the creek, the water dissipates and there is no flow. If you take away the source, there is no flow, no creek.
This is one of the ways the early church talked about the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father is the source, God the Son is the creek, and God the Spirit is the flow, the connection between the Father and the Son, between the source and the creek.
The Son being the visible expression of the Father and the flow of water being what comes from the Father and the Son, or the procession. You may be more or less familiar with the concept of the Trinity. Yet it is not a marginal thing.
Without the Trinity, the Christian faith has nothing left. Without the Trinity, Christ has no power to save us. The Holy Spirit has no presence with us. The deeper we look into the Trinity, the deeper our faith can be,
As well, the Trinity can be a stumbling block for some. This three in one God, some Jews and Muslims called Christians Tritheists, saying that we believe in three gods.

I don't think this is the time to go into an intellectual deep dive into the metaphysics of the Trinity, but the message for today from the words of Jesus is that God is for us in Jesus Christ and with us, in the Holy Spirit. God the Father, the Creator, is for us, in Jesus Christ, and with us, in the Holy Spirit. All three are one God, not three parts. All three have power and unity.

We can come close to understanding the Trinity through analogy. I already mentioned the analogy of water. Source, flow, and creek. All these analogies eventually break down, but they help us to align ourselves and to reflect in the direction of the truth about God. There is also an analogy of fire.

The analogy of fire is that there is the spark, the flame, and the light. Take away the light. There is no fire. Take away the spark. There is no fire. Take away the flames. There is no fire. The spark is not the flame. The flame is not the light. The light is not the spark, and yet they are all three fire. God the Father is the spark. God the Son is the flame God. The Spirit is the light by which we receive the Son and the Father. You can also make an analogy with fire and light and heat. God the Father is the fire. God the Son is the light. God the Holy Spirit is the heat. Many times, we feel the Holy Spirit as much as see it. We feel the heat of God's presence. We can feel the warmth because this is the nature of who God is.

Have you ever been cold to your bones and you step into a warm room. You move close to a fire place. You feel the warmth. Your fears dissipate. You relax. You are safe. This is the presence of God when the eyes of our mind become open to spiritual realities.

Another analogy for today has to do with love. The lover, the beloved and the love between the lover and the beloved. The lover is God the Father. The beloved is God the Son and the love between them is the Holy Spirit. The life of faith is being drawn up and included into the love between Father and the Son. This is what is offered in the Christian life.

We have all these analogies, but what does it have to do with me, pastor Wilson? It has everything to do with you. If Jesus is not God, Jesus has no power to save us. Without Trinity, Jesus has no power, he has no authority. Without Trinity, Jesus is a nice teacher. He gave some good morals. Maybe that's what you're looking for in faith. Maybe you wanna raise your family in the right way, looking for some good morals, and there's nothing more to it. You live in the right community, you think the right things, you vote for the right people, and it will all turn out alright.

In this world, we still keep God at a distance, like a pesky in-law. Maybe they come to town and buy dinner and are nice for a few days, but you need your space.

A non-Trinitarian God gives you space to be whomever you want to be. A Triune God desires to release you from sin and free you to love. Love means change. It is a change for your good, but we don’t always see change as good. If God is not Triune, sure Jesus can’t save us, but at least we are in control.

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God with us. We are included in God. The Father's love for God, the Son. You are included in the love of the creator of the universe. You don't need to stand on the sidelines of God's love. You don't need to stay in the shadows of God's love. You don't need to ignore God's love until Sunday comes along or fill out your checklist of all the things you need to do before you can feel loved and accomplished in this world. The Spirit of Truth that Jesus sends in the passage I read from John 16 offers this for us. It prepares us.

On this day, God offers himself to you. Totally, not partially. The Holy Spirit is all God. It's not just a mode of God, it's not a part of God. It's not an agent of God. It's not an attaché of God or an ambassador of God. The Holy Spirit is all God and it's all offered for us, given to us.
The deeper we look into the Trinity, the deeper we find God's love for us. The more we avoid the Trinity, the more we're stuck with ourselves and what we like and what we want and how we wish the world would be.

All of our desires are a pale shadow next to the glory of God. We can choose to live in the shadows of self-satisfaction or humbly step forward under the light of God’s love. And God’s Trinitarian love isn’t for us to hide and keep for ourselves. In fact, we are commissioned to do something with it.

The last part of the Gospel of Matthew is known as the Great Commission.

>Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We have a modern misconception of what the word commission means. We mostly hear it today with a voting commission or a transportation commission. Jesus doesn't say, I've got a great commission for you. The phrase was added later. We usually use commission as a noun, but here it is a verb. The military has it a lot closer to the Gospels than most of us. When they commission officers, they use it as a verb. An officer is not appointed or passively placed. They are commissioned, they're sent with, that's what it means at its heart.
Missio, to send, Com, with, send with. In Matthew 28, Jesus doesn't just send, Jesus sends the disciples with a purpose and with a partner. The purpose is to go to all the people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The partners are multiple. Partners are, first of all, each other. The Great Commission is a public pronouncement, not a private word to each of the disciples. You can't be a Christian alone or in isolation. You need others. Where do the others come from? This is the Trinitarian key. We humans like to sort ourselves based on preferences, convenience, amiability, relative likes and dislikes. We sort ourselves constantly. Kids are more open than grownups. They play with anybody, but kids still sort themselves. And as they get older, the sorting gets trickier. People sit at different tables in the cafeteria. Grownups are constantly sorting, “who are the people that are worthy of my time?” Well, that's a super selfish way to frame it, but I think that's a really honest one.
And at its worst, that is what church becomes. It becomes a place where we have sorted the people we like away from the people we don't like. But there's no space for Trinity there. There's no space for the great Commission. Jesus does not say baptize the people you like.”When in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus says, blessed are the poor. Jesus doesn't say blessed are the righteous poor or the undeserving poor, but the poor. There are no qualifiers. There are no qualifiers on the body of Christ.
That second partner, after other people, is the Holy Spirit that draws the people together. And if we're going to listen to the Holy Spirit, that means we need to shut down our own mechanisms of sorting. We need to let them go because they only deceive us into thinking we are doing something for our own good.
If we think God is Triune, we've gotta let go of that false sense of control.

 If we think God is not Triune, if the Holy Spirit is not God, if Jesus is not God, then sure, keep control, keep ownership over your life because Jesus doesn't even save you in that world. You are the hero of your own movie and everyone else is a supporting character. It is a convenient lie that leads us to our own destruction. The Spirit of Truth speaks against it.

If God is triune, we are drawn into a far greater story than we could ever be a part of on our own. A story of the eternal love of the Father for the Son through the Spirit that led to the creation of everything and the redemption of everything offered to everyone.
The amazing thing is that when we stop sorting, we find true freedom. We don't need to live a life filled with the worry that we're seeing the right people at the right times. And we're not spending any time with the wrong kind of people, with the dirty people, with the impure people, with the unclean people. We can let that go because God is Triune. That is what Trinity is about. God and God's self is offering all of God's self for you and to you and with you.
Receive that presence. Let go of the desire for control and let us walk together into the future God has for you. Saved. Protected. Whole. Sent.

In the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


site: sermons

title: A Burning Sensation (Summit Fever: A Pentecost Sermon)

author: Wilson Pruitt

church: covenant-umc

series: Easter

themes: holy-spirit trinity church-universal god-equips-the-called aldersgate

text:
**Scripture:** Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23; Joel 2:28-32; 1 Samuel 16:1-13
**Series:** Easter

> A Pentecost sermon that opens with the image of 'summit fever' to frame the Spirit as an empowering burst, then explains Pentecost's Jewish roots (Shavuot) and its expanded Christian meaning through Azusa Street Pentecostalism. Drawing on Basil of Caesarea's On the Holy Spirit, the pastor presents the Spirit as the 'heat' and 'light' by which we feel and see God — raising hearts, enlightening, shifting our loyalties to heaven, and binding the universal church across space and time. Tying the day to Wesley's Aldersgate experience and David's election, he insists God does not call the qualified, so hearers, already forgiven and loved, should freely share the light they've been given.

**Illustrations:** summit-fever, fire-trinity-metaphor, azusa-street-revival, basil-on-the-holy-spirit, transparent-substances-sunlight, wesley-aldersgate-heart-warmed, david-runt-of-the-field

---

# May 24, 2026
## Pentecost
## Acts 2:1-21	John 20:19-23
## A Burning Sensation

#### Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

#### John 20:19-23

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

# Sermon Transcription — Summit Fever: A Pentecost Sermon

Climbing mountains is difficult. Even mountains you walk up have their own challenges, especially if you get to higher elevations. But regardless of the elevation or the terrain, most of us, when going up a mountain, have this sensation called ‘summit fever’ near the top. It is an extra burst of energy that gets us to the summit. Your body pushes you to make it. Your body pushes you to do something amazing.

Today we celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost comes from the Greek word for “fiftieth.” It is the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pentecost was also a Jewish holiday — Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks — which takes place seven weeks after Passover. There are three major Jewish holidays in the Old Testament: Passover, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths, which is near the end of summer. Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah were all emphasized after the destruction of the temple, and in many ways have replaced Pentecost in the modern Jewish imagination.

But at the time of Jesus, Pentecost was a major festival and a major holiday. That’s why there are a lot of people in Jerusalem — they’ve traveled to be there. It was easier to travel to Jerusalem for Pentecost than it was for Passover, because the seas were milder. This is a major consideration. So the people who had traveled to Jerusalem for Pentecost, who were there in the crowds, weren’t necessarily the same people who were there at Passover, because it was harder to travel by sea earlier in the year. Jews in Greece, Sicily, and North Africa may not have made the trip for Passover, but they were able to make it for Pentecost.

The word Pentecost has taken on a lot more meaning in the Christian tradition. We have an entire family of denominations based on Pentecostalism, which started with a Methodist pastor in Los Angeles in the early 1900s, taking over a revival at Azusa Street and spreading into what is now, the second-largest category of Christians in the world.

Pentecost is associated with the Holy Spirit — the fire of God. Next week is Trinity Sunday, but every week is Trinity Sunday for me. So I think it’s helpful to share one of my favorite metaphors of the Trinity: fire. God the Father as the spark. Jesus the Son as the light. And the Holy Spirit as the heat. If you take one away, they all disappear. All metaphors of the Trinity fall apart quickly, as I’ll talk about next week, but I like this one because it makes the Spirit how we feel God.

The Spirit is how we feel God — and feeling God matters. Our subjective experiences matter. They can be fooled and deceived, but they shouldn’t be ignored. So much of our reason — the way we think about God and the world and faith and our lives and our families and all of that — is an attempt to put into words what we are already feeling.

As the Holy Spirit is sent at Pentecost, as Jesus in his resurrected body sends the Holy Spirit to the disciples, they receive the fire of God, the feeling of God. The Spirit is the heat — the feeling. But also, in another way to look at it, the Spirit is the light through which we see, by which we see, by which we can see.

God is not this puppet master far away, pulling the strings, indifferent to our existence. God is the source in whom we live and move and have our being. When Jesus ascended, we were not left alone to face the brokenness of this world.

What does the Spirit do?

I want to answer this question by going back in time a 1500 years.
In the 300s, a bishop named Basil published a book on the Holy Spirit. It was written in a very contentious season for the church. The Nicene creed of 325 has one line about the Holy Spirit. One of the major points of contention was around the divinity of Jesus. A group of Christians claimed that Jesus was not totally divine. They were called Arians. After 325, a lot of the debates around Jesus were clarified, but some still continued. One group with authority in the empire, continued to downgrade Jesus to say that he is not similar to God.

Basil the Bishop of Caesarea argued against this position in 364 in a great work called On the Holy Spirit. Even then, we get to the Holy Spirit through Jesus.

Here is what the Spirit does.

>The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself.

The Spirit raises our hearts. The spirit changes where we are. The spirit moves us.

Going on, Basil offers an analogy.

>As clear, transparent substances become very bright when sunlight falls on them and shine with a new radiance, so also souls in whom the Spirit dwells, and who are enlightened by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and a source of grace for others.

The Spirit also changes where our loyalties lie.

>…Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations.

This is what Peter is talking about at Pentecost. This is the fire that is shared. This is the fire that we should not contain, that will not be contained.

Basil’s writing held sway at the Council of Constantinople in 381 which argued against those neo-Arians who separated Jesus from God and the Spirit from God.

The spirit binds the church across the world. This is why we say in the creed one holy Catholic Church, and one communion of saints. It is not a claim about a denomination based out of Rome. Catholic and Latin is a word that means universal; it covers the world. The communion of the Saints is the phrase in the creed that covers all of time, the past, the present, and the future. Both of these clauses are found under the Holy Spirit for those connections of space and time are possible because of the Holy Spirit.

Today in 1738 off a small Street in London, John Wesley felt his heart strangely warmed. He felt that even he was forgiven and loved by God. The street was called Aldersgate and since that Methodist’s have celebrated this day. I’ve read and stuff a lot about John Wesley in early Methodism. I’m fascinated by that moment in time not because he is particularly interesting or appealing, but because he has not. John Wesley wasn’t an interesting person and he would’ve been a horrible hang. And yet God used him to do great thanks through the spirit. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t call the qualified. Just like with David and his brothers, God doesn’t pick the strongest and most handsome, but the runt in the fields. God doesn’t see us as the world sees us and we don’t need to see ourselves that way either.

When it comes down to it, what the Holy Spirit means to us is that we are not alone. Jesus did not leave us alone. Jesus gave us others in the church. Jesus also gave the spirit, equal with God, to be with us to raise us up otherwise we would stick down in the mud. To shine on us otherwise we couldn’t see where we were going. And to let us shine even when we feel like the most unworthy people imaginable.

That is the power of Pentecost. That is the freedom of Christ. You are forgiven and offered light to share. So share it, give it don’t hide it don’t be embarrassed offer for Jesus because you have already been given. Jesus offer love because you have already been loved.

In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit amen.

method: authored, not translated

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0


title: Ash Wednesday

series: Lent

themes: repentance confession-of-sin fasting lament freedom-in-christ regret-and-counterfactuals

text:
**Scripture:** Joel 2:12-13; Matthew 6:16-21
**Series:** Lent

> An Ash Wednesday homily reframing Lent not as a season of manufactured sadness but as a penitential time to slow down, reset, and confess. Drawing on Joel's call to return to a gracious God and Jesus' teaching on secret fasting and heavenly treasure, the pastor argues modern Christianity has failed to honor the full breadth of human emotion (you are not a bad Christian when sad, worried, or aimless). Using the sunk cost fallacy as a central metaphor, he shows how invested experiences distort our hearts and relationships, and commends fasting and all-encompassing prayer as ways to discern what we truly need, cut our losses, and embrace freedom and renewal in Christ as we prepare for Easter.

**Illustrations:** true-crime-podcast-confession, priest-confession-movies, failing-pizza-shop, dead-end-relationship, giving-300-percent-at-work

---

# February 18, 2026
## Ash Wednesday
## Joel 2:12-13	Matthew 6:16-21

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. - Joel 2:12-13

“And whenever you fast, do not look somber, like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:16-21

Ash Wednesday happens every year. Lent happens every year. Sometimes Lent is presented as the season of sorrow—intentionally being sad and bitter. That's not what Lent is. Lent means to slow down. It is a penitential season, a time of reflection and preparation for the coming of Easter. Ash Wednesday is a day of confession. Now, sometimes we think about confession as what happens after you did something bad—like on a true crime podcast when they catch the killer and the killer confesses. Or if you grew up Catholic or have seen any movie with a priest, when someone goes to confession and confesses their sins.

Sometimes Protestants have issues with confession because we think, "Oh gosh, we don't need to be talking about all that stuff," or "I don't need an intermediary between me and God.”

With Lent and Holy Week, some people want to skip those parts and jump right Easter. I don’t watch sad movies. I don’t want to read sad scriptures.

What we have, though, in the Bible is the full gamut of human emotions. We have joy beyond belief. We have sorrow too deep for words. And modern Christianity, in my opinion, has not been very good about honoring the breadth of human emotion. People have been trained to feel guilty if they are not happy.

You are not a bad Christian when you are sad. You are not a bad Christian when you are aimless. You're not a bad Christian when you are worried. That does not offer value or devalue you.

Ash Wednesday offers us an opportunity to reset our lives—as does Lent. And it is a wise Christian understanding that we are in almost constant need of a reset. Most of our lives fall under the sunk cost fallacy. If you don't know what that is, it's a business concept that's applied in a lot of different areas. Basically, let's say I own a pizza shop, and it's not doing well. I put more money into it, and it's still not doing well. I put more money into it, and it's still not doing well. I really should close it—cut my losses, move on. But I don't, because I've already put so much money into it. I've sunk that cost into the business.

It happens with relationships. You're with a person for a long time, and you realize it's not going to work. But you don't want to break it off because you've already spent so much time with them, and it would seem like breaking it off would devalue all that time. It would make it a waste. We're blinded sometimes by our own experiences. That's what the sunk cost fallacy is about—being confused because of our experiences, our experiences giving us stimuli that is unhelpful.

We can look at the sunk cost fallacy in how it connects to our moral life: we can distort our hearts and our lives so that we no longer act as children of God, as redeemed children of God. So we no longer love. So we see other people in our lives for what they can do for us instead of who they are. We see our relationships for what we have put into them, not for what they are. Ash Wednesday offers us a chance to repent. To confess. To reset. To cut our losses.

Now, all of us may not be in a dead-end relationship—hopefully that is not the case. But there are things, there are some losses we need to cut in our lives. There are some things that we need to move on from, some habits that we don't need.

Fasting is a great way for us to understand that. Fasting helps us to understand what we need in our life. Prayer helps us to do this—not praying as a devotional or before meals or fitting it in, but prayer in an all-encompassing sense.

Our world struggles with attention. Prayer offers a countervailing notion. You don't always have to do the most important thing. You don't always have to go to the best restaurant or give 300% at work. You can just be with God, wherever you are. And sometimes, stopping and praying and opening ourselves up to God is so much harder than giving 300% at work. It's easier to exhaust ourselves in external things than to take a moment with ourselves.

Lent and Ash Wednesday offer us, again, an opportunity for this—to be extra mindful of who God is for us, of who we are in God, of where our value lies and our worth lies in this world. So I encourage you, in the season of Lent, to take up an act of holy devotion. An act of more prayer. An act of fasting. It's one thing to fast from an item—to fast from chocolate or alcohol. It's another thing to just fast for a meal, maybe once a week. Notice the reactions of your body. Respond to it. Realize what you need and what you don't need. Our judgments of ourselves often fall into the sunk cost fallacy. We've always done this; therefore, we always should.

Look afresh. You're free. You're free in Christ. You don't have to be the person you always were. You are someone new. Someone redeemed. As we await the great day of resurrection, let us prepare our hearts.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Broken Rod

series: Epiphany

themes: responding-to-injustice light-of-christ anxiety justice-and-righteousness faithfulness-amid-trials economic-injustice living-in-the-present

text:
**Scripture:** Isaiah 9:2-4; Matthew 4:12-16; Judges 7:1-25; Matthew 6:34; Luke 10:31-33
**Series:** Epiphany

> An Epiphany sermon on Isaiah 9:2-4 and Matthew 4:12-16 arguing that the Christian response to injustice is not mitigation or avoidance ('prevent defense') but the bold light of Christ. Using Gideon's day of Midian, the preacher contrasts fearful, anxiety-driven, tomorrow-focused living with faithful action in the present. The light of Christ breaks the oppressor's rod on our own hearts by freeing us from anxiety and inadequacy, since Christ has done everything for us. That freedom lets us shine light on the ordinary people around us, refilling our lamp through prayer, worship, and serving together, trusting God's ultimate justice will be complete.

**Illustrations:** prevent-defense-football, gideon-day-of-midian, dikaiosune-justice-righteousness, priest-levite-walk-away, refilling-oil-lamp, christ-filled-bucket-list, people-at-safeway-costco

---

# January 25

## Isaiah 9:2-4
## Matthew 4:12-16

## Broken Rod

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
You have multiplied exultation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.

- Isaiah 9:2-4

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.”

- Matthew 4:12-16

Add intro

Football is an interesting sport where time becomes very essential to the game. The scores in the first half don’t matter as much as the scores in the second half because it depends on how much time is left. It literally takes 10 seconds for the fastest person in the NFL to run across the field.

Time has an impact. So usually a team that has a lead late in the game plays defense differently than they would earlier in the game. Early in the game, most teams are trying to prevent a first down. They don’t want the team to keep the ball and keep moving. But late in the game, a lot of teams don’t focus on the first down. They focus on preventing scoring. They play what’s called a prevent defense.

I hate the prevent defense. If a defense is playing well throughout a game, they should keep playing well instead of going into an unfamiliar formation that lets the other team keep moving the ball. Even in the NFL, these guys are human. A first down is a little bit of failure for a defense.

Many of us play a prevent defense against injustice. Many of us play a prevent defense against wickedness. We mitigate it. We don’t confront it. Just in this world, how should we face injustice in our own lives?

Justice and injustice are deep concerns for the prophet Isaiah throughout the 66 chapters. The justice of God and the injustice of humanity and how to respond to injustice—over and over again this is brought up.

Justice is an important term in the Bible. In Greek, the word for justice, dikaiosunē, is the same word for righteousness. So when I’m translating in the Paul class, I flip them a lot. Whenever most translations put “justice,” I put “righteousness,” and vice versa, because the connotations in English of justice and righteousness are very different.

Justice is usually concerned with dealing with other people and macro aspects of the world, whereas righteousness is often spiritualized entirely. We think of justice in the global sense and righteousness in the local sense. Justice also is a much more secular term. You can think about it in a worldly way. We have a justice system. We have a Department of Justice. There isn’t a Department of Righteousness.

The prophet is concerned with justice and injustice and the poor response of the people. But Isaiah lifts up this moment from the book of Judges, chapter seven. If you have a Bible, please turn there. Judges is early in the Bible, after the five books of Moses and Joshua. In Judges chapter seven, we find Gideon, the mighty man of God who is judging Israel. The Midianites are a threat.

So God takes the army, and God says, “No, there are too many.” So 10,000 go home. And God again says there are too many. So the rest go home until there are only 300 to attack the mighty force. They’re outnumbered. The only way they could find victory is if God is on their side. It’s an act of faith. This is the day of Midian that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah chapter nine.

“For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” The rod of the oppressor has been broken.

Now, on that day, Gideon and his army did not run a prevent defense. They acted boldly in a way that would produce a consequential result. They acted by faith.

There are oppressors today—big picture in our world and in the smaller picture closer to our home. There’s injustice today. There are people who don’t deserve it who get a lot, and there are people who deserve more and get nothing.

How do we respond to injustice in this world? How do we respond to injustice in our lives? In Matthew chapter four, Jesus is moving from his baptismal experience toward the Sermon on the Mount, which is going to take up a good chunk of the text. He hears that John the Baptist has been arrested, and he gives word concerning this, quoting Isaiah. He has moved from Nazareth, where he grew up, to Capernaum on the north side of the Sea of Galilee.

Following the words of Isaiah: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the shadow of death, light has dawned.”

What is the light? Where is the light? This is our point. The Christian response to injustice has to do with the light of Jesus, not with mitigation and prevention. This is how injustice continues to spread—when we don’t shine light, when we mitigate, when we say it’s not our problem, when we give away first down after first down. We turn away. We walk away like the Levite and the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We all do it, if we’re honest with ourselves. We’ve all walked away. We don’t have to run the prevent defense, but there is a light.

The light shines in the darkness. The light shines in our lives and offers us a way to live that outshines the injustice in our hearts.

You are loved by God. You are forgiven by God. Confess—confess your sins so they can be forgiven.

The light of Christ doesn’t mean that everything you do is good, but that Christ has done everything for you. So you don’t need to win the game. You don’t need to run the prevent defense with your heart. You can play free. You can live freely.

Teams playing prevent are worried about the next play. They’re so focused on what’s going to come after that they can’t deal with the immediate. It’s a strategy of anxiety. It is creating anxiety, whereas the Sermon on the Mount, the next chapter in Matthew, speaks directly against anxiety. “Do not worry about tomorrow.”

The only way you cannot worry about tomorrow is by faith—by faith that the Holy Spirit has already been present with you. It is an act of faith to say today has trouble of its own. Do not design your life around tomorrow, but live today out of the light of Jesus Christ.

That’s how you break the rod of the oppressor on your heart, because the oppressor on our hearts keeps us trapped and fearful—lies about tomorrow, about our own inadequacy, about our lack of power, about the things we need, the things we think we need. In the light of Christ, we see that we already have everything we need.

You already have it. You have already filled your bucket list. Christ has filled your bucket list. You have done enough, and all the small joys we find in this life are a bonus next to the greatest joy of being chosen and loved by God. So no oppressor’s rod can stand against that.

That’s the internal stuff. But we’re reminded, throughout the scriptures, that we must keep shining the light. The way we keep shining the light is we’ve got to keep it lit. We’ve got to light the next candle. In Jesus’s time, it was candles that were lit and oil lamps. An oil lamp can run out of oil unless you refill it. We need to refill the oil. We’ve got to pour more oil.

We do that together in prayer, in devotions, in worshiping together and reading the Bible together, singing songs of praise together, and in serving together. That’s why it’s so important—serving together, giving of ourselves together.

When we are faced with the injustice of our world, the light we are given is not the light to fix every problem, but to see the world with the eyes of Jesus and to know by faith that God’s ultimate justice will be complete.

So we don’t have to have control over all the different eventualities, but we have the freedom to start right where we are in our own lives—the people we see daily, the people in our family, in our community, the people we see on the street, the people we pass in Safeway and Costco, the people we see at restaurants—and to be light to them. And to not think of acting as a Christian, acting justly or righteously, as a burden, but as freedom.

The freedom to love the people in our lives, whomever they may be. The freedom to not pass by people in need because we are not worried about tomorrow—to let that burden go. The oppressor continually blasts out: “Tomorrow! What about tomorrow? What’s going to happen tomorrow? What’s going to be the case? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do?”

That is the rod that is broken by the light of Christ. May we embrace God’s freedom for us. May we step into it together.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.


title: Broken Rod

themes: responding-to-injustice anxiety light-of-christ justice-and-righteousness faith-over-fear

text:
**Scripture:** Isaiah 9:2-4; Matthew 4:12-16; Judges 7:1-25; Luke 10:30-37; Matthew 6:34
**Series:** Epiphany

> Pastor uses football's 'prevent defense' as an extended metaphor: just as teams cautiously mitigate late-game leads instead of playing boldly, we tend to merely mitigate rather than confront injustice. Drawing on Isaiah 9 and its fulfillment in Matthew 4, and on Gideon's faith-driven 300 at the 'day of Midian,' he argues the Christian response to injustice is not anxious mitigation but the light of Christ. Because Christ has done everything for us, we are freed from worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6) and freed to love the people right in front of us, breaking the oppressor's rod on our own hearts.

**Illustrations:** prevent-defense-football, chicago-bears-playoffs, dikaiosyne-justice-righteousness, gideon-day-of-midian, oil-lamp-refilling, christ-filled-bucket-list, heb-costco-passersby

---

# January 25
## Isaiah 9:2-4	Matthew 4:12-16
## Broken Rod

The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.
You have multiplied exultation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
- Isaiah 9:2-4

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.”
- Matthew 4:12-16

Football is an interesting sport, becomes very essential to the game. The scores in the first half don't matter as much as the scores in the second half because it depends on how much time is left. It literally takes 10 seconds for the fastest person in the NFL to run across the field.
Time has an impact. So usually a team that has a lead late in the game plays defense differently than they would earlier in the game. Early in the game. Most teams are trying to prevent a first down. They don't want the team to keep the ball and keep late in the game. A lot of teams don't focus on the first down.
They focus on scoring. They play what's called a prevent defense.
I hate the prevent defense. If a defense is playing well throughout a game, they should keep on playing well instead of go into an unfamiliar formation that lets the other team keep on moving the ball. Even in the NFL. These guys are human.
First down is a little bit of failure for a defense.
The Chicago Bears this year in the NFL playoffs have become very well equipped at playing against prevent defense. They play a boring game of football early, and then they play their style late because they know they're just going against a prevent and they will score easily.
Many of us play a prevent defense against injustice. Many of us play a prevent defense against wickedness.
We've mitigate it. We don't confront it just in this world. How should we face injustice in our own life?
Justice and injustice are deep concerns for the prophet Isaiah throughout the 66 chapters. The justice of God and the injustice of humanity and how to respond to injustice over and over again
Is brought up.
Justice is an important term in the Bible.
In Greek, the word for justice dikai. Sunai is the same word for righteousness. So when I'm translating in in the Paul class, I flip them a lot. Whenever it most translations put justice, I put righteousness and vice versa because the connotations in English of justice and righteousness are very different.
Justice is usually concerned with dealing with other people and macro aspects of the world, whereas righteousness is often spiritualized entirely.
We think of justice in the global sense and righteousness in the local sense. Justice also is a much more secular term. You can think about it in a worldly way. We have a justice system. We have a department of justice. There isn't a department of righteousness.
The prophet is concerned with justice and injustice and the poor response of the people. But Isaiah lifts up this moment from the book of Judges, judges chapter seven, you the Bible, please, please turn there earlier. Judges is, is early in the Bible after the five books of Moses and Joshua comes judges and judges. Chapter seven has Gideon, the mighty man of God who is judging Israel and the Midianites are a threat.
So God so takes the army and God says, no, there are too many. So 10,000 go home. And God again says there's too many. So the rest go home until there's only 300 to attack the mighty force, they're outnumbered.
The only way they could find victory is if God is on their side.
It's an act of faith. This is the day of Midian that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah chapter nine.
For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian, the rod of the oppressor has been broken.
Now,
On that day, Gideon and his army did not run a pre-vent defense. They acted boldly in a way that there would be a consequential result.
They acted by faith.
There
Are oppressors today, picture in our world and in the smaller picture closer to our home. There's injustice today.
There are people who don't deserve it, who get a lot, and there are people who deserve more and get nothing.
How do we respond to injustice in this world? How do we respond to injustice in our lives? In Matthew chapter four, Jesus, it's moving from his baptismal experience towards the Sermon on the Mount, which is going to take up a good chunk of the text. He hears that John the Baptist has been arrested and he gives word concerning this quoting.
He has moved from Nazareth where he grew up to Capernaum on the north side of the sea of Galilee.
Following the words, Isaiah,
The people who sat in darkness have seen great light.
And for those who have sat the shadow of death. Light has dawned, what is the light? Where is the light? This is, this is our point.
The Christian response to injustice has to do with the light of Jesus, not to do with mitigation and pre-venge. This is how injustice continues to spread. When we don't shine light, when we mitigate, when we say it's not our problem, when we give away first down after first down, we turn away.
We walk away like the Levi and the priest and the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
We all do it, but we're honest with ourselves. We've all walked away.
We don't have to run the preventive, but there is light.
The light shines in the
Darkness.
The light shines in our lives
And offers us a way to live that outshines the injustice in our hearts.
You are loved by God. You are forgiven by God, confess, confess, your sins could be forgiven.
The light of Christ has not that everything you do is good, but that Christ has done everything for you.
So you don't need to win the game.
You don't need to run the prevent defense with your heart. You can play free. You can live freely.
Team's play pre worried about this play, but the next play, they're so focused on what's gonna come after. They can't deal with the immediate. It's a strategy of anxiety. It is creating anxiety where the Sermon on the Mount, the next chapter in Matthew, speaks directly against anxiety. Do not worry about tomorrow.
The only way you cannot worry about tomorrow is by faith. By faith that the Holy Spirit has already been present with you. It is an act of faith to say today has trouble of its own. Do not design your life around tomorrow, but to day out of the light of Jesus Christ.
That's how you break the rod of the oppressor on your heart. 'cause the oppressors on our hearts keep us trapped and fearful lies about tomorrow, about our own inadequacy, about our lack of power, about the things we need. The things we think we need in the light of Christ is that we already have everything we need.
You already have it. You have already filled your bucket list. Christ has filled your bucket list. You have done enough and all each and every small joy. We find this life is a bonus next to the greatest joy of being chosen and loved by God. So no oppressor's rod can stand by that.
That's, that's the internal stuff, reminded it in our response. We were reminded of the light to keep shining the light, the way we keep shining the light. We gotta keep it lit. We gotta switch up the candles, right? We gotta pour more oil. And in Jesus's time, it was candles that were lit and oil lamps and oil lamp can run out of oil unless you refill it. We need to refill the oil.
Do that
Together in prayer, in devotions,
In worshiping together and reading the Bible together, singing songs of praise together and in serving together. That's it. It's so important. Serving together, giving of ourselves together.
When we are faced with the injustice of our world, the light we are given is not the light to fix every problem, but to see the world with the eyes of Jesus and to know by faith that God's ultimate justice will be complete.
So we don't have to have control over all the different eventualities, but the freedom to start right where we are in our own lives. The people we see daily, the people in our family, in our community, the people we see on the street, these people we pass in, HUB and Costco, the people we see at restaurants, and to be liked to them and to not think of acting as a Christian, acting justly or justly as a burden, but the freedom.
The freedom. The people in our lives, whomever they may be, the freedom to not pass by people in need because we are not worried about tomorrow to let that burden go. The oppressor's continually blasts out tomorrow. Go to where about tomorrow. What's gonna happen tomorrow? What's gonna be the case? What's gonna do? What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do? That is the rod that is broken by the light Christ. May we embrace God's freedom for us? May we step into it together In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.


themes: doubting-thomas resurrection exile stewardship the-wounds-of-christ courage

text:
**Scripture:** John 20:19-31; Nehemiah 2:11-20; 1 Corinthians 15
**Series:** Easter

> Preached on the Second Sunday of Easter, this sermon pairs Doubting Thomas (John 20:19-31) with Nehemiah inspecting Jerusalem's ruined walls (Nehemiah 2:11-20) to launch Covenant UMC's capital campaign to pay down roughly $358,000 of sanctuary debt. Pruitt argues that resurrection should reshape how Christians see everything—including money—and that congregations are eager for Jesus's costly self-gift on the cross but reluctant for the ongoing 'maintenance' of building the kingdom on that foundation. Using the Pruitt-Igoe housing project as a cautionary tale that the true cost of any building lies in upkeep and rebuilding, he reframes Thomas's bare-facts realism as a commendable financial diligence, names his own avoidance of money-talk as a ministry weakness, and calls the church—like Nehemiah—to look honestly at fallen walls and rebuild faithfully (not foolhardily) so resources can flow into ministry. Our scars, like the risen Christ's, are not erased by resurrection but redeemed.

**Illustrations:** pruitt-igoe-housing-project, investment-pitch-conversation, promised-gift-not-yet-in

---

# April 12, 2026

## Come and See the Trouble — Come and Start Rebuilding

### John 20:19-31
“So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days. Then I got up during the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the animal I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the animal I was riding to continue. So I went up by way of the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate and so returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us start building!” So they committed themselves to the common good. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building, but you have no share or claim or memorial in Jerusalem.””
Nehemiah 2:11-20 NRSVUE
https://bible.com/bible/3523/neh.2.11-20.NRSVU

“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 Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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.” 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.” 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.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 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.””
John 20:19-29 NRSVUE

One of the largest housing projects in the United States was built in St. Louis in the middle of the 20th century, and it had my last name as part of the title of the complex, the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project. It was built state-of-the-art. It was phenomenally expensive. There was a huge capital output to try and house people in St.
Louis, trying to house people coming to the city in the post-war period, as methods of agriculture was shifting, people were returning from the war within a few decades, they tore it down.

Often drugs and the rise of crack cocaine was blamed for the downfall of Pruitt-Igoe. One key details was that there was federal funding to build it. There was no funding to maintain it, no money to rebuild it.

We try, when we build anything, to plan for the future, but the building is built for the present. The future cost is in maintaining future cost is in rebuilding.

### After the Resurrection
After the resurrection on Easter Sunday, a few of the disciples saw Jesus. He came and met them. They had shared the Passover meal a few days earlier. They are all there except, except two. Judas wasn't there for obvious reasons, nor was Thomas.

Thomas gets the nickname, Doubting Thomas. He hears word of Jesus coming and he doubts what the other disciples say. Understandably, he's not the only one who doubts in the Gospel of John. In fact, there are a lot of people, and over again, a consistent theme throughout the Gospel of John from chapter one, when Nathaniel is told about Jesus and said, what, what good could come from Nazareth

In John Chapter three, when Nicodemus comes by night, the Pharisee too check on Jesus and, and says that he's a wise teacher. Whenever Jesus says he must be born from above, Nicodemus responds by saying “how can I be born again? Am I gonna go back into my mother's belly?”
In John chapter four with the Samaritan woman, John chapter nine, with the people about the, the man born blind, John Chapter, Martha and Mary confronting Jesus about their brother Lazarus.

This questioning of Jesus is not a new theme nor a unique theme to Thomas. It is this consistent message, people have high opinions of Jesus, but they don't fully grasp what he is offering and giving. They enjoy a portion of the good news, what I will call the good-ish news. They've heard, and they're ready for Jesus's great expenditure of dying on the cross for them, but they're not ready for the maintenance of building and rebuilding a new kingdom on that foundation of Jesus.
Thomas was a realist. People don't come back from the dead. That's not what happens. He was a bare-facts kind of person, which is funny in that if we come back to thinking about buildings and finance in those kinds of aspects, it's a commendable attribute to be diligent and transparent with finances; to pay for what you can, not what you can't.

If the claim of the disciples wasn't about Jesus showing up, but was about a big check coming in to finance the growth of the new church, but they didn't have the actual check yet, I don't think any of us would blame Thomas for doubting them.
If someone says they're going to give a very large gift to the church, just being perfectly honest, I'm not gonna doubt them before it comes in, but I'm not going to count on it until it's actually there.

So often we think about resurrection in a spiritual way. Even if we talk about the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ, which I want to talk about. I believe it fully that the tomb was empty. If the tomb wasn't empty. Like, I'm, I'm with Paul in first Corinthians 15, like, let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Christianity is a failed social experiment if that tomb is an empty.

If Jesus rose from the dead, we should look at the world in a different way. We shouldn’t go back to the same way of thinking once someone brings up money.

When we bring in the money stuff in conversation, it gets different fairly quickly. This happens in all of our lives, right? You're playing golf with someone, you're having lunch with someone. Once they bring up money, it's a different conversation than you were before.

There are different stakes involved. If you run into an old friend from a long time ago, you talk about your kids, your grandkids. You talk about your travels, then they start talking about an investment opportunity and you switch into a different mode.

It's a different kind of conversation with different stakes involved. There are very little stakes involved in talking about our kids. I love our kids. I love hearing about your kids. I mean that, but the stories I hear about your kids arm isn't gonna change my life. The stories I hear about your trip to Cancún isn't gonna change my life.

It's nice. The fellowship is good. These are good things. We need to be having these conversations.
If we get into an investment venture together and it goes sideways, there are different stakes involved with that.

The Bible talks about money a lot and building and rebuilding a lot. I want to think about that and the doubting of Thomas with regards to the building and the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah takes place early in the Old Testament. It's before all the sets of the prophets, but it's set during the exile. It's set with the people of Israel. They lost their way of life and they're scrambling to figure out what to do next.
The world is not how they expected it to be. It did not turn out how they expected it to be. We could say the same about the disciples after Good Friday. This is not the world they expected. It changed. How are they going to adapt to this change? What
Are they going to do?

And so we have Nehemiah, a Jew working in the court of Susa the Assyrian King. He hears that Jerusalem is without walls, so he heads to his homeland to rebuild the walls.

And he comes and he walks around the place. He walks around and he boldly declares that with God, he is going to rebuild the walls. He hasn't seen what is going to take place, but he believes.

When Thomas is finally confronted by Jesus and he touches the, the wounds on his hand and the hole in his side that are still there, the scars are still there. Our scars are not erased by resurrection but redeemed. Our scars do not define us, but they are a part of us. Our past does not define us, but it is a part of us.

### Capital Intro
My friends, today, we are starting a capital campaign for the rest of April to try and pay down a good chunk of the debt that was put in place when this sanctuary was built. That many of you, many generous people invested in the future of the church, but through various reasons and situations and historical realities, the payments for this building were not fully completed.

We have about $358,000 left on our debt in September of last year. There was an adjustment to our interest rate with that loan through the Texas Methodist Foundation, and, shocker, it went. So now we are paying less principal and more interest every month, and I think it added three years to the payoff.

If we just make payments every month, our debt servicing is over 50,000 bucks. These details in the newsletter, if you're able to read it, but it gets back to this as I was saying, like when, when someone brings up money, it's a different kind of conversation. When a preacher brings up money, it's a different kind of conversation. And I often avoid talking about money, and this is a weakness of my ministry, but I'm not avoiding it today or for the next few weeks because I think it matters.

And I think this matters because if we can pay down a good chunk of this, it opens up the opportunity for ministry in new ways that we are currently basically paying a full-time, you know, children's director, youth director every year. You know, it's, it's more than we pay for the maintenance costs. It's more than the other costs of the building. Thankfully, our insurance cost finally went down after a few years of sky-high expenses. But we need to do something soon.
We are at a critical point in the history of this church.

For those of you who are still here from the beginning, and there are a few of you, Covenant does not look like you expected it to look when you started it. It definitely doesn't look like you expected it to look when you built that building. For those of you who came later like me, looking back at the records, Covenant used to be a much bigger church. That's why we have the nice large sanctuary. It had twice as big a budget in 2000 as it does today in, you know, dollar for dollar. That does not include inflation.

So we have a physical footprint to take care of, but like I said, we are growing. People are coming and worshiping here, connecting with God here. And so we have an opportunity to bring down this burden and rebuild in order to invest your resources directly into ministry. Directly into ministry, to find a youth director and a children's director, to find people who can care for the next generation.

When we spend 15% of our budget every year, paying back the past, it makes us scrape by in the present when we don’t need to.

After I finish and we say the creed, I am going to ask Rich to share for a moment about what this campaign means to him.

We have to look honestly at where things stand, like Nehemiah walking around the fallen walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah saw a future and worked for it because of who God is, what God had done in the past, and what God promised for the future. That is the same for us today. We are not called to be foolhardy but faithful. Faithful in this season of resurrection to not be trapped by our past but to build for the future that God would have for our community. To invest in that future with our time, our prayers, and even the different conversation of our money.

In this season of resurrection, may we be so bold.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


title: Come Down, Don't Delay

themes: insider-outsider-dynamics law-and-gospel hypocrisy-vs-authenticity reconciliation-and-grace old-testament-new-testament-continuity internal-vs-external-righteousness

text:
**Scripture:** Genesis 45:1-9; Matthew 15:10-20; 2 Kings 8:16-18; 2 Kings 22:8; Matthew 5:17-18; Matthew 21:28-32

> Preaching Genesis 45 (Joseph's reveal to his brothers) alongside Matthew 15 (defilement from the heart, not the mouth), the sermon traces an insider/outsider dynamic running from Joseph's family through Torah's separating function to Jesus's collapse of that distinction. Jesus doesn't abolish the Law but relocates the boundary from tribal/external markers to the heart, condemning only the hypocrisy of saying-without-doing (the Pharisee, not the reluctant-then-obedient son). The sermon closes on Joseph's line to his brothers — 'come down, do not delay' — as an image of grace extended to both victim and aggressor alike, an open invitation regardless of past faithfulness or failure.

**Illustrations:** joseph-technicolor-dreamcoat-musical, thomas-mann-joseph-novels, joseph-sold-into-slavery, bible-in-a-year-small-group, jehoram-evil-reign, finding-the-law-in-the-temple, smudged-iota-papyrus, last-will-and-testament-wordplay, parable-of-two-sons, tax-collectors-prostitutes-kingdom

---

# August 16, 2026
## Ordinary Time
## Genesis 45:1-9	Matthew 15:10-20

#### Genesis 45:1-9

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.
And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.
For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.

#### Matthew 15:10-20

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.
For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

# Come Down, Don't Delay

---

The story of Joseph and his brothers takes up a large portion of Genesis

It's very dramatic. There was a musical about it — _Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat_. Not the biggest fan of the musical but the fact that there was a musical about it should lend to its strangeness. Thomas Mann wrote four enormous novels about it

It's a story that is told in children's Bibles, because you get this image of the coat of many colors — and yet it's a hard story to tell from start to finish. There is reconciliation at the end, but it doesn't seem to justify everything that comes before it.

First of all, why is Joseph Jacob's favorite? I guess Jacob liked his mom the best, and so this is something that happens in polygamy. That's strange. Next, what's going on with his brothers? They seem some problematic dudes.

They are so jealous of the present that their father gave Joseph that they want to kill him. Then they are softened by Judah into selling him into slavery. A lot is happening to poor Joseph, but he just kind of takes it.

He ends up as a slave. And then he's accused of assault — falsely — and imprisoned. But then he makes his way out of prison by interpreting dreams, which is not something that happens a lot in the Bible. Daniel has some dream interpretations, but mostly it is Joseph. So this is not a skill that people gain.

Then he gets to this high position of authority. You need to understand that he's speaking Egyptian now. He's been in Egypt, he's been a slave for years. He's not speaking Hebrew. He becomes successful beyond measure.

And then famine hits. And his brothers come looking for him. Looking for food. The brothers who tried to kill him are begging him for food. If they had known that it was him, they would not have left their house.

## Insider and Outsider

Back at the ranch, before the family broken apart, when Joseph gets this coat: he is being favored too highly by our father. He is too connected to Dad. We need to chop him down, or else we're all going to lose out. We're the outsiders, he's the insider. That isn't fair. We need to get rid of him.

And so they get rid of him. They become the insiders. Joseph is now the outsider. The outsider again and again and again as he moves from their home down to Egypt.
This outsider-insider dynamic is important and consistent throughout the Bible.

This is what so much of the Law was in ancient Israel. The Torah, the Law, the books of Moses, are there to distinguish the chosen people from the Canaanites, the Edomites, the Persians, the Egyptians, and all the others who live in the vicinity. They are rules of separation and safety. They offer a way for people to live in light of who God is. They exist to offer a path to follow.

One of the unique aspects of the rest of the Old Testament is that there isn't a time when the people of Israel are exceeding faithful. In our Bible-in-a-Year small group that meets on Wednesday mornings. We have been working through Kings and Chronicles, which are books of the bible rarely spoken of on Sunday morning. Here is a good example

>In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. **2 Kings 8:16-18**

There are prophets throughout these accounts. Samuel and Nathan and Elijah and Elisha, even up to Isaiah. But were the people practicing Torah at this time throughout these years? Probably not, because they don't find the Law until decades later in 2 Kings 22 when they are renovating the temple and "*Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it."*" (**2 Kings 22:8**)

The histories and prophets of the Old Testament record disobedience more than obedience, yet Jesus doesn't throw Torah out.

In Matthew 5, right after the beatitudes Jesus says

>“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. **Matthew 5:17-18**

An iota is the smallest letter in Greek. It can seem insignificant. On old paper or papyrus, the iota is the first letter to go. It can smudge into an alpha or omega easily so as to be indistinguishable.

But Jesus is about love and freedom not law, right?

A lot of people have this gut reaction. It leads to a tendency to view the Old Testament as a wicked, angry God, and the New Testament as having a kind, and generous God. This is a misreading of both.

Have you ever wondered why the phrase Last Will & Testament uses the same word as Old Testament and New Testament? There are not many other areas of modern life where we use that word. Maybe in reality shows when people go to testimonials, we recognize the root, but testament is really only in those two place: the bible, and legal documents after someone dies. These are both serious material to deal with.

A testament is another way to say witness. The Old Testament is the old witness of Christ. The new testament is the newer witness of Christ. They both point to Jesus. They both point to God's relationship with creation and how this world is in need of saving. Other methods are tried, including monarchy, and they are found wanting. Each offers us a path back to Jesus, explicitly or implicitly.

So what do we do with the Law? The Law seems so serious. I mean, it includes the word **LAW.**

Here is where we need to come back to the insider/outsider distinction. Jesus breaks down that distinction which guided the world since the fall. It still guides the world for many people. And there was a season when it was helpful, but with Jesus Christ it no longer is. The insider/outsider division cuts, instead, right through all of our hearts. So the issue is no longer which external group do we belong to, but where does our heart belong? For it is out of our heart that sin takes place. These are what defile a person.

Now, how we react to this depends a lot on where we see ourselves in a society. If we think Jesus is talking about other people's hearts, it is quite concerning. It is a lot harder to control them or "protect" them when the objective marks of faithfulness to the law no longer apply.

If our position in the world is to make sure other people stay in line, Jesus has some tough words for us. Christians have been missing this over and over again. Who are the people that Jesus is angriest at? The hypocrites. The people who say one thing and do another. But it goes only in one direction. There is a specific form of hypocrisy that Jesus finds repugnant. There is another form that he finds no fault with.

In Matthew 21, Jesus tells the parable of the Two Sons

>“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

>Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

The ones who say, "I will do it," but don't. That is the hypocrisy he criticizes. It is the hypocrisy of the pharisee, of the holier than thou Christian. Of the person thinking more of how the look than how they are.

But the power of Jesus's focus on hypocrisy is that he isn't just creating another system of insider/outsider. The hypocrites are obvious but they are all of us. We are always tempted to hypocrisy. We are not immune. Our institutions are not immune. The first Christians knew of the pharisees and the problem of pharisees, and still became more focused on the external obedience of others than on their own internal connection to God.

The freedom of Jesus, though, is the freedom to let go of external judgment. We are relieved of our duty to make sure other people are living as they should. We are left with the duty to turn the searchlight inward. To measure ourselves and our own heart. And that this is what God sees.

New life in Jesus, conversion is not about moving our heart from one set of rules to another but God changing our heart so we no longer desire the old things. We can still act in certain ways, but our inclusion is not based on those actions. This does not mean that we are to ignore external circumstances. By no means, instead those circumstances need not define us.

The brothers who betrayed Joseph are welcomed. He, in fact, tells them: "*Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay.*"

**Come down, don't delay.** Despite everything, we are called back. **Come down, don't delay.** Whether you have been faithful your whole life just decided to follow Jesus, **come down, don't delay.**

You are not excluded from grace. You are not excluded from Mercy. Whether the victim or the aggressor, come down don't delay.

Where your heart is, there your treasure will be. If your heart is with Jesus, come down, don't delay. The table is full and you are welcome. Lay down your burdens. I must lay down mine, as well. Let us lay them down together. Let us answer the call to come down, don't delay.

*In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.*


title: Come to Me, All You Who Are Weary

themes: rest-in-christ ideology-and-tribalism fasting-and-spiritual-discipline childlike-receptivity yoke-of-christ burden-and-weariness

text:
**Scripture:** Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30; Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

> Preaching on Matthew 11's invitation to the weary alongside Genesis 24 (Rebekah at the well), Wilson argues that Jesus's generation responded to both John the Baptist and Jesus with pure ideology, judging them not on truth but on tribal priors. Against this, Jesus responds with gratefulness, revealing himself to 'infants' — the needy, undefended, and dependent — rather than the wise who are too busy arguing. Since everyone is burdened, Jesus's invitation is universal; taking his yoke means actively doing the things of God (loving neighbor, praying, fasting) rather than passively resting, decentering our appetite for constant satisfaction so we can serve God and neighbor.

**Illustrations:** debate-team-spreading, greek-orator-pebbles, bob-dylan-serve-somebody, food-dieting-self-loathing

---

# July 5, 2026
## Ordinary Time
## Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67	Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

#### Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant.
The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys.
And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has.
My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live;
but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’
“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going!
I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”
and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’
She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.
Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms.
Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.
Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”
And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.”
So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.”
Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb.
Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming.
And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel,
and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.
And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

#### Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’;
the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;
yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

# Come to Me, All You Who Are Weary

*Sermon on Matthew 11*

---

## Spreading

When I was in high school, I was on the debate team my senior year. I did Lincoln-Douglas debate. I was okay at it. I think I won a tournament. My friends mostly did CX, or cross-examination debate. Lincoln-Douglas is a little slower, more deliberate, whereas CX was the blast-you-with-arguments style — full of all sorts of research.

In debate, I learned about this technique called spreading. You never have to do it with Lincoln-Douglas, because you actually want the judge to hear your argument. The goal is not to conquer your opponent but articulate an idea that is compelling.

CX was about conquering and using any technique you could to achieve your goal. Spreading is this idea that you tell your argument so fast that the judge understands, but your opponent doesn't, because your opponent is trying to pick out aspects of your argument that they can counter.

And we would practice spreading by talking with a pencil in your mouth. It goes back to an ancient Greek oratorical tradition of this classic orator walking by the sea with pebbles in his mouth and shouting at the sea in order to work on the projection and articulation of his voice. But if you try it, if you try and talk with a pencil between your teeth and then try to talk out, you realize you're much more— you are much more articulate really quickly, and you can speed up your voice.

## A Counterargument to Every Argument

One of the things I learned in debate is that there's a counterargument to every argument. Any claim can have a counterclaim. There is a naive way of understanding the world that if someone disagrees with you, they're right and you're wrong. Whereas the reality is that every action, every decision by its inception and creation creates the opportunity for a reaction, for disagreement.

## John, Jesus, and Ideology

The first part of the Matthew passage for today gets to this: John came and his followers were very temperate. They abstained from eating and drinking. They fasted all the time. And the people said, "He has a demon." Jesus came, and his disciples were eating and drinking, and they said, "He is a glutton." The book of Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun, and this kind of response is akin to how many people act in our world today.

In many facets of life today, you have your side and then there is the other side, and anything the other side does— If they're temperate, you criticize them. If they are boisterous, you criticize them. Whatever they do, there's an angle you find.

Jesus describes here what later people would call ideology. The generation had an ideological response to both John the Baptist and to Jesus. They weren't receiving what he was saying. They were finding the bucket they could put him in, the right response. So it was no longer a question of whether he was the Messiah. The priors already decided that he was not on their team, therefore he was wrong. They had to find out why he was wrong secondarily.

## Gratefulness

But here, Jesus's response to ideology is gratefulness. It's gratefulness. It's very strange. He says, "I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants."

Wisdom in Greek was the word *sophos*, or *sophia*. There were people in ancient Greece called sophists, which was a really tongue-in-cheek term. They were literally called "wise ones," but it was really a description of a group of people who argued for argument's sake. They just liked to argue. So they argued. The truth was not revealed to them, because they're going to argue about it. They won't receive it. It was revealed to infants.

## The Wise and the Infants

Now, one major difference between wise and intelligent people and infants is that wise and intelligent people have a lot of expectations, habits, practices, standard of living — all these things already set out for them. Infants do not. Infants have modest expectations. They want to eat and drink and sleep. As they get older, they want to add being entertained. But it's these basic life functions, over and over again. Infants, little ones, children — they're great at receiving, great at including. Great at wondering, but also not getting hung up on the past. They can ask a really deep question and then two seconds later running in circles. They're also very needy. Infants are the neediest. They're not ashamed of it. They're dependent, and they're not ashamed of it.

## The Universal Category

Jesus continues to flip things at the end of Matthew 11, because he makes clear what he's been doing throughout this entire chapter: that the people he is seeking are the needy ones. The ones who are weak and burdened by the world. This doesn't mean that Jesus is ignoring the healthy, wealthy, and wise. I think what he's getting at — the reality he's getting at — is that the most universal category of misery on Earth is people who are burdened and heavy-laden and in need of rest. For that is all of us. That is every person in existence. That is every person who has ever existed. That is all of us. We're all burdened and in need of rest.

## A Different Yoke

And what Jesus gives us isn't simply that rest. The rest is not for now. Jesus gives us a different yoke — to put on our shoulders. Jesus gives us a different burden. Because, as with many things, it all comes down to the words of Bob Dylan: you got to serve somebody. It may be the devil, or maybe the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody.

This is why Abraham and Sarah sent Isaac back — to find a wife among their people. They're going to have him serve another god.

## Come to Me

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Those who need God. Come to me, all you who need God — which is all of you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm gentle. Humble of heart, and I will give you rest.

In taking on the yoke of Jesus, we find rest. In learning from Jesus, we find rest. Not in ceasing, not in stopping, not in “me time”.

Taking on the yoke of Jesus is doing the things of God in response to what God has given us. Doing it. Loving our neighbor, not thinking about loving our neighbor. Praying, not thinking about praying. Praying instead of seeking to be entertained or amused.Fasting. Fasting a meal, one meal, trying it, practicing, practicing it. Putting more faith in God than your desire to always be satisfied and content.

Food for us today is a source of pleasure but also self-loathing. We know what we should eat, but we don’t want to do that. We know what is “healthy” but that third dessert is just sitting there. We know the expectations around us. Our doctors may talk to us about it. This doesn’t even get to issues of body image and the challenges faced there especially by women and young people.

Fasting isn’t a way to fix your body. In the christian tradition, it is a way to remind you that you are more that your hunger. You are worth more than being constantly satisfied and amused because that desire to be constantly satisfied, to be constantly entertained, to fill every down moment, to never be hungry at all, this leads not to the good life but self-destruction. If we are constantly distracted, we can never pray, if we are never hungry, we can never serve. Fasting decenters our desires so that our expectations and goals can be filled with God and our neighbor.

When you finish a fast — a 24-hour fast, a 48-hour fast — you may be weary, and you find rest with Jesus. When you are in the midst of grief, you're weary, and you can find rest in Jesus. To name yourself weary is not to name a failure, but to admit a reality — and an opportunity to come and put on a different yoke. You're already carrying a burden. Let's switch it up.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.