Sunday, June 7, 2026
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Second Sunday after Pentecost
Readings
watch this service online

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For the children’s message, I showed the kids a sampling of “pet-shaming” memes and asked them if their pets ever did silly things like this. And we talked about how the people who make these memes aren’t really mad at their pets. They love them and understand that they’re just doing what animals do.

We talked about how we as humans also sometimes do things that drive other people crazy or that don’t reflect very well on us. I made a few “Pastor-Day-shaming” signs for myself to illustrate the point:

“I have full conversations with my cats. Regularly. Out loud.”
“I have managed to kill more than one cactus through neglect.”
“I cannot leave a craft store empty-handed.”
“I love cheese almost as much as I love Jesus.”

I also made a sign for Matthew the tax collector in our gospel reading: “I give my people’s money to the Romans. I take more money than I’m supposed to and I keep it for myself.” We talked about why people disliked tax collectors so much and why they were offended by the idea of anybody being nice to them.

But Jesus is kind to them. He chooses to sit and eat with them and spend time with them. He does this not because he thinks they’re the people who most deserve to get to hang out with him, but because they’re the people who need it most. He likens himself to a doctor, coming to care for the people who are sick, not the ones who are already healthy.

Jesus treats them with love because that’s just who Jesus is. And Jesus loves us the same way, no matter what we do.

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I have to confess that patience is really not one of my virtues. The Holy Spirit certainly likes to test my patience on a regular basis, no matter how many times I test negative. One place this lack of patience particularly tends to manifest itself is whenever I’m driving. I often have very limited patience with other drivers on the road (it doesn’t help that I’m also often running late 😬). I get very judgy about how people drive, and about the various “sins” I see them committing.

Strangely enough, this is not an uncommon trait among clergy. A lot of other pastors I know drive with a lead foot and a fair amount of aggression. I suspect this is probably how we deal with some of our frustration and anxiety. We’re expected to be so nice all the time; the anonymity of driving gives us a chance to let off some steam. (For some unknown reason, for me this usually manifests as a lot of cursing in Spanish. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅)

It’s an easy thing to do behind the wheel. When you’re driving, it’s easy to forget that you’re dealing with other people. You’re not looking at people’s faces; you’re just seeing vehicles moving and reacting. So that means I’m not seeing, for example, that the slow-moving car I’m stuck behind is being driven by an elderly woman whose vision isn’t what it used to be, or that the vehicle that just cut in front of me is being driven by a nervous refugee kid who’s learning to drive for the first time. We just see the exterior – not the stories, not the faces, not the people underneath.

Continue reading “Sermon: Mercy, Not Sacrifice” →