Nevertheless they persisted…
 
There are at least three important models for faith in this week’s stories. In Matthew there is, of course, Jesus who listens, learns, and changes. Our tradition may find these to be unfamiliar actions for Jesus, but this kind of relational generosity should be no surprise, even if his initial response to the Canaanite woman leaves much to be desired.
 
There’s the woman. Persistent. Tenacious. Humble. Powerful. Full of faith! Her commitment to seek help for those who are powerless to do so themselves puts us on notice for what we are both called to do and capable of doing. To our astonishment, the woman chooses engagement, persistence, and non-violence. Her family is saved, and even Jesus is changed.
 
Joseph should raise our level of astonishment even further. His jealous brothers turned on him. Their cruelty was monstrous, even murderous were it not for Reuben’s intervention (Genesis 37:21). We could imagine Joseph, drawing on his considerable political and personal power, leaning into his desire for revenge in the seemingly endless human cycle of rivalry, retaliation, and regret. Joseph chooses forgiveness. And, for the moment and for the sake of the generations of Israel and Egypt alike, peace reigns.
 
Do you believe the same could be true in our time?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 45:1-15 † Psalm 133 † Romans 11:1-5, 29-32 † Matthew 15:21-28
 
About the Art: Watanabe, Sadao, 1913-1996. Woman of Canaan, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57538 [retrieved August 6, 2023]. Original source: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/woman-canaan-26809.

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
~Romans 10:15b
 
[Jesus] said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.
~Matthew 14:29
 
How beautiful are the feet of those who carry good news… Sit with that for a moment.
 
That there is good news to bring is worth remembering, isn’t it? Sometimes we can get weighted down by cares and concerns that fill our packs. Dead weight, you might say. When you’re making a long hike, the trick is to not bring more than you need—to pack the essentials and little more. There are plenty of distractions to slow you down. You don’t need to add to them. There’s already enough to pull us under without adding more.
 
Peter seems to know a little something about that.
 
What is the good news, as Jesus lays it out, as the scriptures announce it in their various forms? Who is affected by it and how? How would you articulate it to someone genuinely wanting to know? Attending the question might help to lighten that pack of what slows us down.
 
We welcome to worship Rev. Scott Lumsden this Sunday—a familiar and welcome face for many of us. Scott is the Co-Executive Presbyter for Seattle Presbytery…and a hiking buddy of Scott Anderson’s. You just may hear a story or two from the trail along with some good news!
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 † Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b † Romans 10:5-15 † Matthew 14:22-33
 
About the Art: Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 1859-1937. Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/55904 [retrieved August 5, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner,_The_Disciples_See_Christ_Walking_on_the_Water,_c._1907.jpg. 

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.
~Genesis 32:29
 
…he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
~Matthew 14:14
 
What goes around comes around. Until it doesn’t. There’s something unexpected going on with the God who occupies this week’s stories. Perhaps the better term is apocalyptic—an inbreaking of something new, something counter to what typically comes around.
 
Consider Jacob—this heel-grabber, this wrestler, this opportunist who has burned bridges wherever he has gone. On the eve of a meeting with his brother who, last he knew, wanted to kill him, Jacob is no doubt terrified. And he is wrestling with some demons—or maybe with God. Jacob doesn’t win, but he doesn’t exactly lose either. He should be annihilated. Instead he leaves limping and blessed with a new name.
 
The familiar story of the feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14) happens on the heels an all-too-familiar cycle of rivalry, retaliation, and regret. Herod loses his head about the threat John the Baptist poses to his administration, but it is John who makes the literal sacrifice in Herod’s rule of terror and intimidation. Jesus retreats to “a deserted place” to try to make sense of it all. But the crowds who follow clamoring for some hope make privacy impossible.
 
We can imagine the fear and anxiety we might feel, and the need for a break for Jesus. The disciples are little help. They see nothing but scarcity. Rather than retaliate for the impossible situation he is presented with, Jesus makes a different kind of sacrifice. Compassion. He blesses what little resources are evident. He calls the disciples to action. And there is enough. There is more than enough. The economy of God is again demonstrated to be one of plenty, one that breaks out of destructive cycles and introduces a generous future of possibility and newness.
 
Scarcity is a learned behavior. So too is the generosity of non-retaliation, compassion, and non-violence and the abundance it can produce. Which sounds better to you? Which are you learning? Which are you choosing?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 32:22-31 † Psalm 17:1-7, 15 † Romans 9:1-5 † Matthew 14:13-21
 
About the Art: Moyers, Mike. Israel, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57141 [retrieved July 20, 2026]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.

In our end is our beginning;
in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing;
in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.
~In the Bulb There is a Flower,
Natalie Sleeth, 1986
 
Telling the difference between what we consider good and evil is sometimes no simple thing. Consider the characters that inhabit today’s readings. Laban tricking the trickster Jacob in Genesis. In Matthew, a thief and a merchant. Fish both desired and rejected. Yeast in a batch that is properly without leaven. A weed masquerading as a plant that is intentionally sown in a field. Shady, subversive, corrupting, confounding stories all, yet Jesus offers them up, and, along with the disciples we are so confident: “Yes, we understand.”
 
Do we?
 
Here is a counter-cultural good word. Wisdom is fleeting, although it is there in abundance for the harvest, found in unexpected and surprising places. Like baptism, it takes a lifetime to achieve. It takes ears to hear, eyes to see. Perhaps that is why it is so valuable! Humility is a beginning, to be sure. Navigating amidst masquerading either/or realities so familiar in our current kingdoms is harder than we might think, and yet, it may be the way to this kindom we both long for and proclaim. Poking around the edges of Jacob and Rachel and Leah’s stories we discover just how important this is. And perhaps around our own stories as well. The poking, the prodding, the searching, the sorting. Is there a pearl of great price waiting to be found?
 
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. There’s food for thought! Open yourself up to the Love from which nothing can separate us. Listen for that Spirit of truth. Be transformed. Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 29:15-28 † Psalm 105:1-11, 45b † Romans 8:26-39 † Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
 
About the Art: Egger-Lienz, Albin, 1868-1926. Sower and the Devil, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55000 [retrieved July 1, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egger-Lienz_-_S%C3%A4hmann_und_Teufel.jpg.

And [Jacob] dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
~Genesis 28:12
 
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 
~Matthew 13:24-25
 
These ancient stories! How they hold us with tales of lives twisting, turning, unfolding, growing. Herein lie stories of calling, of promise, of purpose, of blessing. It turns out they are not simply tales. They speak to our own lives and to the twists and turns, the unfolding and growing, the mixed metaphors of our spiritual lives, and most astonishing of all, to the deep roots that nourish us—even us!—in nurturing love.
 
We welcome Rev. Daniel Wolpert to worship this Sunday. Dan, a healer and student of the spiritual life, worked as a research scientist, psychologist, spiritual director, farmer, teacher, and construction worker before earning his Masters of Divinity degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS). Over the past forty years he has taught in the fields of psychology and spiritual formation, led retreats, and delivered talks in such settings as the Art of Spiritual Direction Program at SFTS, the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project, Luther Seminary, and the 5-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation. His most recent book is Looking Inward, Living Outward: The Spiritual Practice of Social Transformation.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 28:10-19a † Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 † Romans 8:12-25 † Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
 
About the Art: Wheat and Weeds. Photo taken at the Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing Retreat Center. Dan Wolpert.

“Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path,… Other seeds fell on rocky ground, … Other seeds fell among thorns, … Other seeds fell on good soil …. Let anyone with ears listen!”…
~Matthew 13:3-9 (excerpts)
 
This familiar parable of the sower and the seeds falls right in the heart of the summer growing season. Knee-high corn and its lessons of well-being and maturation are tilled together with the story of Jacob the heel-grabber and his hungry brother Esau.
 
The long season of Ordinary Time provides us with ample opportunities to reap wisdom and understanding from these ancient stories and parables that speak through time to humanity of humanity.
 
Let anyone with ears listen!
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 25:19-34 † Psalm 119:105-112 † Romans 8:1-11 † Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
 
About the Art: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. The Sower III (version 2), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58327 [retrieved June 30, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_The_sower_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am [nonviolent] and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is [kind], and my burden is light.
​~Matthew 11:29-30
 
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
~George Saunders
 
One of the central images for Christian discipleship is that of the yoke Jesus invites his followers to willingly take on. This is, of course, typically understood as an image of burden. But it is the contrast of this burden, traditionally translated as “easy” but, perhaps better as “kind,” to the burdens of other cultural expectations that Jesus seems to be emphasizing here. There is no such thing as an unburdened life. The question is what kind of burdens will we take on. For some lead to life.
 
The novelist and teacher George Saunders had something of a viral moment when, speaking to the 2013 graduate class of Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, he made a distinction between being kind and being nice. There’s something here that connects closely to the invitation of Jesus to put on his yoke.
 
And it speaks to not only the nature of the Christian life, but the leadership into which we are invited within the church. Apropos to be sure, on a day we welcome new leaders we have called into our ministry.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings:  Zechariah 9:9-12  † Psalm 145 † Romans 7:15-25a † Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
 
About the Art: William Cumming. Worker Lifting a Rock, 1940. Personal photo. Seattle Art Museum, March 2026.
 
About the Artist: Largely self-taught Cumming came into the orbit of other depression-era artists while employed by the WPA. Inspired by Kenneth Callahan, Cumming applied the broad forms and clear delineation of Mexican mural painting to his pictures of workers. Highly skilled as a draftsman, Cumming specialized in capturing the human body in motion; his work-life vignettes are dynamic renditions of the physical effort, daily drudgery, and economic challenges of labor in Depression-era Seattle. Here, he captures the toil of clearing the rough terrain around the Puget Sound to make room for development. A broad-shouldered rock picker braces himself as he prepares to move a massive boulder, and a second, larger rock awaits the grueling cycle of excavation (adapted from accompanying commentary at the Seattle Art Museum, March 2026).

…and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
~Matthew 10:42
 
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
~Thomas Jefferson
 
People in power are too comfortable with other people’s deaths.
~William Barber
 
This Sunday morning finds us encountering what the biblical scholar Phyllis Trible called a text of terror. The story of the Binding of Isaac is one that has captured generations of scholars and faithful ones alike in their attempts to engage this text and what it and our long tradition of faith says of our human predicament and the God we seek to understand and follow.
 
The dangers of a literal reading are exposed in such an uncompromising, challenging space of testing. And yet, if we have the courage not to turn away, we might be rewarded with a deeper and more robust notion of the faith we seek and the God who not only tests, but abides and saves.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 22:1-14 † Psalm 13 † Romans 6:12-23 † Matthew 10:40-42
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Abraham's Sacrifice, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58481 [retrieved June 23, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
~Genesis 21:14
 
Hagar’s experience of being expelled from the security of Sarah’s tent to the  uncertainty and vulnerability of the wilderness exposes something deeply troubling in our shared human experience. Her story highlights the universal reality of conflict, suffering and injustice that we both experience in our own lives and, if honest with ourselves, are sometimes complicit in causing in the lives of others, especially those who seem to stand in the way of our own security and those whom society pushes to the margins.
 
Her story also compels us to wrestle with why God seemingly permits such injustices to occur. Likewise, Jesus does not promise his disciples safety from the unjust oppressive systems in which they find themselves but rather calls them to wield a sword of truth in confronting systemic injustices that will inevitably cause fractures but ultimately lead to freedom. Though we are not protected from conflict, we are protected by God in those wilderness places of our lives. Just as God opens Hagar’s eyes to see the provision of a hidden well, so too we are provided God’s living water that sustains life and empowers us to participate in God’s redemptive work in the world.
 
We welcome Rev. Erin McArdel to worship today.  Erin serves as the Palliative Care and Hospice Chaplain at the Seattle VA Medical Center in Seattle and is a colleague of our old friend, Linda Conyers. She strives to balance her chaplaincy ministry with her very important call as mother of 3 school aged boys. She and her husband are raising their family in Maple Valley. When not ushering kids around or at the bedside of seriously ill veterans, it is likely Erin is outside enjoying the beauty of God's creation!
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 21:8-21 † Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 † Romans 6:1b-11 † Matthew 10:24-39
 
About the Art: Hagar in the Desert, from WikiArt. https://www.wikiart.org/en/marc-chagall/hagar-in-the-desert-1960 [retrieved June 8, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravenna_Basilica_of_San_Vitale_mosaic2.jpg.

…and Sara your wife will have a son! Now Sara was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. And Avraham and Sara were old, advanced in days, the way of women had ceased for Sara. Sara laughed within herself, saying: After I have become worn, is there to be pleasure for me? And my lord is old!
~Genesis 18:10-12
Schocken Bible
 
Sara laughs. Twice, actually. She laughs again a few chapters later and, we presume, nine months later when Isaac, the Son of Laughter is born and an impossible promise is fulfilled.
 
What do we make of this laughter? How did it sound? What stories were carried in the amusement of this aged new mother? She has waited so long, endured so many tragedies and offenses, and even failed herself. And yet here she is confronted with such a remarkable hope for something more that has always been a part of her. And now, when her life should be over, it begins.
 
We can imagine all this in her laugh. Her laugh is our laugh. Her laugh has everything to do with what it means to be human—limited by nature, yet drawn to a mystery, a goodness, a sense of possibility and transcendence that finds its way through the ashes of our lives and somehow outshines our best and biggest hopes.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 18:1-15 (21:1-7) † Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 † Romans 5:1-8 † Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
 
About the Art: Sarah and Abraham Offer Hospitality to the Visitors, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56993 [retrieved June 13, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravenna_Basilica_of_San_Vitale_mosaic2.jpg.