August 23 ~ Who do you say that I am?

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Sermon by Pastor Nelson

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 23, 2026

Turtle Island

True North, Strong and Free

Isaiah 22:15-23, Psalm 138

Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20

I will begin by making two confessions, which is always good for the soul. I started writing this sermon on June 4, 2026.

There are several versions of the lectionary. The one I am following today uses lessons from Isaiah and from Romans that are different than the ones you will find in your ‘Evangelical Lutheran Worship’ [cranberry] book.  Somebody much smarter than me made the set of the three-year lectionary - others keep fine-tuning it, and here we are. Ideally the Old Testament lesson compliments the Gospel and the second lesson adds some theology and the psalm compliments them all.

Looking at today’s Gospel lesson, it would be interesting to know why this congregation was named St. Peter’s?  I would think it was a staunch Lutheran who would have said, “We are going to name it St. Peter’s and then defend the meaning of Matthew 16:18 (part of our Gospel lesson today), versus the Roman Catholic meaning.” In the same vein, the location today on Sparks St. is great, and yet just like the name, I am sure the location also gives you some problems.

I hope you forgive an old guy who was given new life a few months ago, for digressing. So let us get back to the lessons for today. Are you old enough so that when you hear the ‘William Tell Overture’, you think of the Lone Ranger? Likewise, can you not listen to Matthew 16:18 and think of the Roman Catholic Church saying Matthew 16:18 says, “Peter was the first bishop of the Church.”  Even good Roman Catholic scholars will admit that this is a poor proof text for the papacy. By they/we using it as a papacy proof text they/we miss the real message. Have I got your attention? Now if you think I am anti Roman, two of my favourite gurus were Bishop Remi De Roo and Fr. Roger Karban Sad to say, they are now both dead.  The main problem is that we take today’s Gospel lesson out of its original context of a first century Jewish/Christian community and put it into our 21st century ideas. [Sadly something we often do with Scripture.] Remember, the writer of Matthew, as well as all the early writers of the Bible, thought/believed that Jesus would return very shortly in the ‘Parousia’; that is “Jesus would return shortly and we would hopefully all be in God’s Kingdom.”  Add the word ‘Rapture’ to that idea and it still sells lots of books. For Matthew and other such writers, they did not worry about setting up a ‘Church.’ The writers realized this former Galilean carpenter was more than just one more Jewish prophet in a long line of Jewish prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah.

I would think if we were honest, Many of us today would have similar thoughts. The Gospel of Matthew writes, Peter said, “You are the Christ, [the Messiah], the Son of the living God.” The one who we believe to be our earliest Christian author, Paul said in our second lesson. Once Jesus’ disciples discovered the uniqueness of this carpenter, they could only stand in awe of Jesus.  You see God seemed to have done things through Jesus that no person of faith could have anticipated. Paul said, “how unsearchable are Jesus’ judgements and how inscrutable are his ways.” Paul was telling the Romans that no one could have predicted what happened in Jesus’ lifetime and seemed still to be happening with the risen Jesus.  But in fact, we only have to look at our first lesson to see that the Jewish people had already felt God had worked through other people. Just look at our first lesson from Isaiah. The prophet presumes it was God and not just politics that had replaced Shebna with Eliakim. For the Hebrew people, God never hesitated to get involved in everyday Jewish life. Thus, the writer of Matthew was convinced that the same divine involvement carried over into his day and age, especially through Jesus and those who followed him. Thus, Peter’s ‘faith’ in Jesus was transformed into the rock for our faith even today. The faith, that Peter the fisherman had in God, is the “rock” on which our Church should still be operating under. As Lutherans we still should thank Martin for trying to bring this biblical faith back into our way of thinking. But the struggle continues. Jesus’ promise was/is that if we fall back on our faith in God, the forces of evil will never prevail.  Peter, just like us, did not fulfill his promises immediately or flawlessly. Peter continued to dispute Jesus’ predictions about suffering, And he also wanted to put limits on forgiveness. Peter begged and argued with the other disciples. The writers of both Matthew and Mark probably summed up Peter’s discipleship with the sentence, “Peter followed at a distance.”

Mark 14:54, Matthew 26:58. Now being “good” Lutherans does not mean we come down hard on Peter. You see, for Peter to have been following Jesus even at a “distance,” Would have meant Peter was continually risking his life. Peter had said Jesus was the Christ and he/Peter would strive to live that commitment for the rest of his life.  When Jesus responded to Peter’s words with, ‘How blessed you are, Peter!” “You could not have figured this out on your own.”, Jesus recognized, ”It takes a village to raise a believer.” Too often we have thought ‘this faith thing’ was personal. If you were to read the lesson for the semicontinuous reading for today, my least favourite, you would find it took five women to help deliver Moses at his birth, and then they had to hide Moses because the ruler wanted to kill him.  Yes, we often give credit to someone like a Moses or Peter but we fail to recognize the number of people who help us in our faith. I personally will never forget Viola Ness, a Sunday school teacher, and Pastor Peter Onstad - both at Grace Lutheran, Erskine, MN. Peter, like us, did not figure out this idea of Jesus by himself, and he could not have lived it by himself. Peter’s religious heritage, his relationship with Jesus, his praying, his companionship with the other disciples – All these people and experiences were included in God’s revelation to him/Peter. All of them enabled Peter to keep growing into the commitment he had professed.

All of the above and much more is what we need in order to continue to have faith in someone beyond ourselves. So we get back to Ron’s favourite word, ‘Metanoia’, Peter did not have the wisdom or the strength to believe in God, Peter had metanoia. That is, Peter was willing to change and learn, Peter was willing to cultivate an even-larger vision.  Peter was able to grow into his commitment. That ability, that willingness/metanoia to change, is what becomes the rock of our faith. Peter’s faith allowed him to weep for betraying Jesus.

When I was ordained into the Church we were told we were to be “the keepers of the keys of the Kingdom”.  The ‘keys’ are the keys for forgiveness. Matthew 16:19. The ‘keys’ are the authority of the word of God to forgive sins. We heard it in our first lesson, and we heard it in the Gospel. All of today’s lessons and the words “Do this in memory of me,” that we hear at communion, are said to shake us up.  Today we find ourselves called to answer Jesus’ question for ourselves. We do not need to figure it out alone, we do not need to live it alone. God’s revelation comes through a community, a village, a congregation, through the word and sacrament. This is the awesome faith we have.  Incidentally, the word for “Church” occurs many times in the epistles but it only occurs here and in Matthew 18:17 in the gospels. Look around you and see things being bound and others being loosened. Where do you see freedom and liberation emerging, Even in small and seemingly insignificant ways?  How does this community fight the forces of death that seek to engulf us? In every thoughtful gesture; in every supportive word; in every prophetic denunciation of injustice; in every meal cooked; in every day of work, we might just catch in this community, a glimpse of the power Jesus promised in our Gospel today.  Lives will speak louder and more truthfully, and more effectively than words. On this rock we shall not build a prison nation, a nation where millions of children are homeless and hungry. On this rock we shall not build churches where the poor and women are oppressed.  Yes, if we do it right, in all that happens here, we might just find the answer to that awe-inspiring question, “Who do you say that I am?”.  On this rock, let us build congregations that demonstrate belief in a living, and speaking God; a God of freedom and not of oppression; a God of justice, love, and peace.

But you see on that day, Peter’s mind was not on a new testament Messiah who would be arrested, tortured and killed. Instead, Peter saw Jesus as a political, exclusive Messiah, one who would put an end to the Roman occupation and fully establish the glory of God’s people.  Even though that was a clear misunderstanding, Is that not what we would all want? For me it is like good news. Despite all the information I have access to today, I still do not truly comprehend who God is. Though I surely will fall short of any declaration about God that will do God justice, God patiently continues to uplift me - as long as I sincerely continue to seek more of the nature of God.  In my life as a believer, I hear God say, who do you say that I am? And as incomplete and tainted as it is, I hear God say, you did not come up with an answer on your own. You are just one rock in my living Church or, as Grundtvig said a few years ago in his hymn “Built on a Rock.” [652 In our red book.]  “This is the ‘rock’ the Church shall stand on, even when the steeples are falling.”

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God

And its righteousness,

And all these things shall be

Added unto you.

Ask and it shall be given unto you,

Seek and you shall find,

Knock and the door shall be

Opened unto you.

Alleluia,

Alleluia.

[W & p 122]

Amen.

August 16 ~ What comes from the heart, can breath God's justice into the world.

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Sermon by Bishop Halmarson

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8

Psalm 67

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Matthew 15:10-28

Gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our strength and redeemer.

Today the ELCIC Sermon Series brings us the reflections of two staff members of our own Eastern Synod.

The Rev. Katherine Gohm provides the second part of our sermon today. She serves as an Assistant to the Bishop in the Eastern Synod. She works with Youth and Young Adult Ministry, and as a Congregational Liaison, and Program Facilitator for By Living Waters Ministry School, a program of Martin Luther University College in Waterloo. Katherine serves as a Council member of the Lutheran World Federation and is vice-president of the North America region.

The first part of the sermon is provided by Rafael Rodriquez, Director of Public Policy, Eastern Synod. Katherine and Rafael are mother and son.

Rafael Rodriguez writes,

Chapter 15 of the gospel of Matthew opens with a pivotal question from the Pharisees to Jesus: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” It is important to contextualize this in the fuller context of the gospel. Jesus has performed miracles: feeding the five thousand, walking on water, and healing the sick. Yet the Pharisees question his authority and his faith on the basis of allowing his disciples to eat without cleaning their hands first. We can see in the verses immediately preceding our reading today that this breeds a harsh rebuke from Jesus, with him stating:

⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

⁸ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

⁹ in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

We can feel Jesus’ frustration building here, a frustration that seems to carry through all the way to verse 26 of our gospel reading. Jesus goes on to emphasize his point against the Pharisees by saying “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.” This statement seems clear enough, yet upon conversation with his disciples the response he receives from Peter is one of confusion. “Explain this parable to us.” It hardly even seems a parable, more so a truism. Here again we see the frustration of Jesus. “Are you also still without understanding?” It’s almost as though Jesus is asking “what are you not getting here?”

This past Wednesday, August 12th, marked International Youth Day. It is in this context that something dawned on me. It had never occurred to me before in all my thinking of and interpretation of Jesus: he’s really quite young here. If the historical record of Jesus is accurate, he would have been somewhere between his mid-twenties to early thirties at the time of this scene. That puts Jesus in a context where I can reimagine and relate to his words far more deeply than if I hold them up as solely the divine teachings of an older man. In many ways I empathize deeply with this young, frustrated Jesus. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been speaking or even arguing with older peers, teachers, my own mother, and having the thought of “what’s not clicking for you here? Are you also still without understanding?”

More broadly, I think I can speak with a relative amount of certainty that this is largely the feeling of youth worldwide. We have grown up in an incredibly turbulent time. Large-scale, long-lasting wars have become entrenched and normalized again, the climate aches and groans under the weight of centuries of industrialism and exploitation, economic opportunity seems to escape us at every turn as youth unemployment grows steadily across the globe. Children, young workers, and students have been banging at the doors of power for decades now. Whether it be the Youth Climate Movement founded over two decades ago, the student encampments that popped up on university campuses in opposition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, or the millions of Indian youth who have banded under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party, taking on the insult of the word. We have been screaming “Are you also still without understanding? Don’t you see what’s flowing from your heart and how it is defiling the world in its entirety?” I think a young, frustrated Jesus would feel right at home in any of these spaces.

For far too long, these cries have fallen on hardened hearts. What has come from the hearts of our older, adult, leaders? What has come from following the traditions of the past? What we are witnessing now is increased funding for weapons of war and destruction, billions in government subsidies for oil and gas pipelines, the gutting of social systems in favour of corporate welfare and greed.

If what comes from the heart is what defiles, as Jesus teaches, it must also be true that what comes from the heart can breathe God’s justice into the world. We may live to see this, when we can open our own hearts to the youth. In the words of Indian author Arundhati Roy, writing in regards to the aforementioned Cockroach Janata Party and their solidarity protests against corruption in their country: “The young have given us a gift. It is up to us all, every one of us to make what they have done matter.”

Rafael’s mother, Katherine Gohm writes,

And so, this religious debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on what defiles is an interfamilial argument; differing viewpoints on what defiles. It’s a debate, however, that cannot stay there. Religious faith and understanding are to be lived out, in the world, through daily encounters. The scene shifts in Matthew’s gospel today, but the topic stays the same. The meeting between Jesus and his disciples with the Canaanite woman in the area of Tyre and Sidon is where, pardon my use of fossil fuel product imagery, the rubber hits the road. A mother’s desperate plea to find healing for her child is where Jesus’ own teaching about defilement, about what comes from the heart, must be lived out.

As preacher Barbara Brown Taylor writes in a sermon on this same text, all the talk about clean and unclean, about what defiles, is really talk about barriers and lines drawn. The gospel hands them to us: it is a woman who approaches Jesus, a Canaanite, a common ancestor “othered” through occupation and force, a pagan worshiper of Baal and other gods, an outsider, separated through ethnicity and religious practice.

We hear her desperate plea: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.” What she receives is silence. Yet her anguished words keep ringing out - so much so that the disciples are irritated by her and want her sent away. But she keeps shouting into that barren space, out of love for her child. This mother, this Canaanite woman, is the conclusion of Jesus’ debate with the Pharisees.

In this scene shift are we getting the same frustrated Jesus? Because only when Jesus’ disciples say something to him does he respond - not to the woman’s desperation - but rather to lecture her on his mission: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Her sad plight does not seem to be enough to move him. Recognizing who he is, this insistent mother kneels before him, praying, pleading. Then, we hear some of the harshest words that leave Jesus’ mouth: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Not only does he not respond to her desperate appeal; he insults her while remaining untouched by her circumstance. Children, that is the Israelites, are to get the food, to be included in the community of God. Dogs, this woman and her kind, are not meant to fed and are excluded from the community of God.

It’s hard to understand this Jesus. I would prefer this encounter between Jesus and the woman to be a literary device by Matthew; tension which drives the narrative forward. That way, Jesus’ reputation, in my eyes, would remain intact: that is, his response to people was always compassionate and inclusive, as I’ve both preached and proclaimed.

But what if Jesus is frustrated? What if we consider that a very human Jesus also struggles with who is in and who is out, with barriers erected and drawn lines?

The Canaanite woman keeps pushing. She takes on the insult (much like the students in the Cockroach Janata Party) and says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” More than a smart comeback, she is saying, “I know who you are and I believe in what you can do.”

Jesus hears. He hears her faith. With her unrelenting urging, Matthew tells us that Jesus steps beyond the traditions of his religious understanding and moves across seemingly barren spaces to encounter her and her need.

With this year’s International Youth Day theme, Different Contexts, Common Aspirations, I cannot help but think about the youth and young people in our church and across the globe. Are we listening to their pleas? Do we understand what it means for them to be young today? Do we trust our younger selves and remember what we dreamed of and hoped for? Do our encounters across generations open our hearts to what they dream and hope for? Or are we too caught up in lines drawn, barriers erected, to invite young people fully into our shared life together? To incorporate their experiences, wisdom, and understanding into our common life - both in and outside of the church. Perhaps the rubber of our faith hasn’t always hit the road of the gospel. Perhaps we have not let ourselves be shaped by the encounter.

Pastor Nancy Kelly wrote a book entitled Here be Wonders: The Gospel’s Pulse in Unsettled Times. To paraphrase her story called “The Laneway”, she writes about a shared laneway in Kitchener that existed behind St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and the neighbouring high school, Kitchener Collegiate Institute, or KCI. The shared laneway mapped out encounters between the people who found themselves there: “congregation members, students, hospital visitors and community groups like AA.”

In the story, Kelly writes about a student, angry because the taxi Pastor Kelly was in was taking up space in the laneway. The student shouted insults at her and the taxi driver, then flicked a cigarette butt at them. Someone must have witnessed the interaction. A few days later a letter arrived at the church written by the KCI Student Council addressed to Pastor Nancy and St. Mark’s. They had written an apology on behalf of the school and the student body, saying how much they appreciated the relationship they had with the church. Their apology was accepted. Kelly writes that the church “thanked the high school for teaching the church something about forgiveness and mending damaged bridges.” She writes further, “Contested and congested spaces, rough spots in hearts, in communities and in the world are places for bridges, built, broken and mended.”

This is the gift of healing wherever and whenever hearts are opened to listen and understand.

Mother and son have gifted us with their insights into this scripture, a challenging snapshot of Jesus’ ministry in conflict with religious authorities, in confrontation with a foreign woman. And their own dialogue reminds us that age and experience and family relationship give each person their unique perspective on life. No one has an exclusive claim on truth or understanding. Our society, and indeed our church in this congregation, the ELCIC and the Lutheran World Federation, benefits when we open our ears and hearts to viewpoints different from our own. And when we listen with love, especially to those most different from us, hearts can be changed, and we can join in pursuing the good that Jesus does, bringing healing, hope and justice to broken and divided world. For, as Rafael wrote:

“If what comes from the heart is what defiles, as Jesus teaches, it must also be true that what comes from the heart can breathe God’s justice into the world.”

May God make it so. Amen.

August 9 ~ Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.

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A recording of Bishop Halmarson's sermon

Sermon by Bishop Halmarson

1 Kings 19:9-18  

Psalm 85:8-13  

Romans 10:5-15  

Matthew 14:22-33  

Today the ELCIC Sermon Series brings us to Winnipeg and the Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod. MNO Synod is known for its strong emphasis on youth and young adult ministry. Bishop Jason Zinko has been serving the MNO Synod as bishop for just over 8 years and served congregations in Brandon and Winnipeg prior to his election. He is a strong believer in congregations understanding their purpose so that they can follow God more effectively in ministry. Bishop Jason is a graduate of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon and recently completed an MA in Executive Leadership from Royal Roads University. His wife and 8-year-old son are a constant joy. The photo you see is Bishop Jason at Luther Village camp, a ministry of MNO synod located on Dogtooth Lake east of Kenora, Ontario.

Here, in his own words, is a reflection on the gospel text for today.

“Hi everyone. I am Bishop Jason Zinko, serving the Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod of the ELCIC – sharing the lands of Treaties 1, 2, 3, 5, and the Robinson Superior Treaty.

I would imagine that most of you here know this story. You have probably heard it many times before. And even if you haven’t heard the story or you’re not sure of the details, I’m sure that you’re familiar with the fact that Jesus walked on water. This is, after all, one of Jesus’ more well-known miracles.

But as we hear this story again today, I wonder what stood out for you. I wonder if your imagination was drawn to the fact that Jesus sent the disciples on ahead of him. Or maybe it was the stormy seas and the disciples afraid in the boat. I can imagine that some of you zeroed in on Peter stepping out of the boat at Jesus’ command. And some of you may have connected with Peter sinking and crying out for help. Some of you will no doubt understand the anxiety and doubt that blankets the whole story. And others would have seen God’s grace revealed in this story.

In the work that I do, I am generally working with congregations – with groups and systems. And, I usually work with those groups during periods of anxiety and unhealth. So, the version of this story that often comes to me is the one that focuses on the disciples being in a boat out to sea, taking on water, and needing saving. And just between you and me, it’s not usually saving that they want – it’s a return to happier times that happened yesterday.

I can empathize with that story. And I can relate.

But I don’t think that’s the story that Matthew is telling.

This story, in the end, is not about anxiety, fear, failure, or doubt. This is a story about faith and grace.

This gospel reading comes right on the heels of last week’s story of Jesus feeding the 5000. In fact, it comes ‘immediately’ after the crowds have finished eating and the leftovers have been gathered. Jesus hadn’t even been allowed to mourn the death of John the Baptist yet, and so after the crowds leave and the disciples are sent on their way, he takes some time alone with God on the mountain.

Then the scene switches over to the disciples. They are tired after fighting the wind and waves all night. They think they see a ghost and are frightened. When Peter does take a chance that he can walk on water, he ends up almost sinking before being pulled out of the water and back onto the boat.

Our normal read of this is to say, “Well, Peter sank because he doubted. If he just didn’t doubt, he would have been fine.”

Maybe that’s true. Maybe, if Peter had kept his eyes on Jesus and believed beyond all doubt that his faith would allow him to do the impossible, this story would have ended differently. And there are some religious traditions that would say that if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we’ll never sink again.

But there’s a problem with that message. The problem is, basically, that it’s a load of you-know-what.

I can’t think of a single person who has ever had total, unwavering faith in the face of all obstacles and challenges. I have never heard of anyone with such a strong faith that doubt never crept into their minds through any storm.

Think about the metaphorical storms that we face. We are scared, anxious, and insecure about a lot of things. We worry about kids and grandkids, friends, significant others, finances, health, politics, work, and on and on. We worry about if we will be accepted for who we are, if we have the courage to speak up when needed, and about the world around us.

Those worries can toss us around like we’re adrift at sea. And no matter how often we try to leave it in God’s hands, we can’t help but be distracted and try to take care of all those things on our own. I mean really, there is no shortage of things that we can worry about. And to hear “oh just keep your eyes on Jesus and everything will be OK” doesn’t help matters. In fact, I think that it might just make us feel worse. Because then we would have to worry about being a bad disciple on top of everything else.

To me, reading the story this way takes away from the gospel, and turns the story into plain old advice. Don’t get me wrong; it is good advice. We should keep our eyes on Jesus. But to leave it at that robs the story of the gospel that lies at the heart of it.

I would say that to hear the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – in this reading, we need to forget about Peter for a minute and look at what Jesus is doing. Jesus was the one that went to the disciples. Jesus was the one willing to prove (again) who he was. Jesus was the one who reached out and caught Peter in his most desperate time.

As fellow imperfect disciples, we need that Jesus. We need that good news that no matter what storms we face, Jesus will be there to catch us. We need to know that not even an ocean can separate Jesus from his disciples. We need to know that despite our imperfections, we are perfect and loved in the eyes of Christ, and we are worth being grabbed before slipping under.

The life of faith is not perfect. Even the disciples who traveled with Jesus saw death, injustice, and brokenness. They saw fear and doubt. Jesus didn’t magically make that go away. But through it all, Jesus was still there to help and to heal, to guide and to teach, to love and to forgive.

We too, see death, injustice, and brokenness. More often these days we hear about groups being marginalized. We hear about leaders fostering conflict and polarizing the people they lead. We hear about record-breaking profits while large portions of our country suffer and struggle to pay for life necessities. It is understandable that being bounced around in seas like those, we too will have our moments of doubt, anger, and fear.

But that is the life of faith. It is not about being perfect and completely unwavering, no matter what. The life of faith is one in which we know we will not be perfect, but where we know enough to realize that we need God’s saving grace in Jesus.

We will fail as disciples. Of that, I am sure. But I am even more sure that Jesus will reach out to catch us in our doubt and fear and failure. It doesn’t matter our size, shape, colour, expression, experience, or station. Jesus will continue to call us, continue to hold us up, and continue to lead us on. That is the faith and grace that we can rely on.

There’s one last thing that’s worth mentioning.

This wasn’t the end of the story for the disciples.

Jesus continued to call and lead his disciples into ministry in the world. Despite their imperfections, Jesus goes on with his disciples to heal people, eat with those on the margins, restore people, witness Christ’s Transfiguration, and continue in ministry after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

And Jesus continues to call us into that work as his disciples. Despite our flaws, our moments of doubt, and our imperfections, Jesus calls us to be with the marginalized, to feed the hungry, to bring comfort, to bring healing, and to live out and share the promise of life and grace that we have come to know through the gospel.

I pray that you and you congregations will have the courage to hear Jesus’ call, to risk getting out of the boat, and to know when we need Jesus’ help to carry us and move us forward.”

As I read Bishop Jason’s reflections, I thought of the many things that worry me, the times in my own life when I had no hope except to count on the gospel of grace and love. Jesus is faithful. And his faith in us leads us to be the kind of Christians who follow him into the hard places where we help to create the kind of world God intends, one of justice, peace, kindness and abundant life for all. Our congregations exemplify discipleship that is faith active in love in the many ways we engage with the communities around us. We do our best, depending always on the grace of God through Jesus to make our best enough.

May God make it so. Amen