Matthew 9:35 – 10:8
Sunday, June 14, 2026
3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
whose compassion endures forever.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin to God.
Silence is kept for reflection.
Compassionate God,
we confess to you all our sins.
Our burden is heavy, and we cannot free ourselves.
In your mercy, call us back to you.
Your yoke is easy and your burden is light.
Restore us to dwell in your peace.
In Christ’s name we pray,
Amen.
Jesus says, “Come to me,
all you who are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.”
In the name of God,
Father, ☩ Son, and Holy Spirit,
your sins are forgiven.
Rest in God’s love.
Amen.
Gathering Hymn: All People that on Earth Do Dwell – ELW 883
Prayer of the Day
God of compassion, you have opened the way for us and brought us to yourself. Pour your love into our hearts, that, overflowing with joy, we may freely share the blessings of your realm and faithfully proclaim the good news of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
First Reading: Exodus 19:2-8a
2The Israelites journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses went, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8a The people all answered as one, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
Word of God. Word of Life.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm: 100
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come into God’s presence with a song.
3 Know that the Lord is God, our maker to whom we belong;
we are God’s people and the sheep of God’s pasture.
4 Enter the gates of the Lord with thanksgiving and the courts with praise;
give thanks and bless God’s holy name.
5 Good indeed is the Lord, whose steadfast love is everlasting,
whose faithfulness endures from age to age.
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Word of God. Word of Life.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia. The kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Alleluia. (Mark 1:15)
The Holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you O Lord
Gospel: Matthew 9:35—10:8
35 Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
The gospel of the Lord
Praise to you O Christ
Look at this painting…this is Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters…painted in 1565.
- Notice the details: men and women bent low in the fields…
- Scythes flashing…bundles of grain piled high.
- Some are cutting…some are gathering…some are stretched out in the shade…
- Too weary to keep going in the midday sun…it’s hot…backbreaking work.
- And it takes many hands…harvest is never a solo job…it is communal…exhausting…urgent.
Now shift forward three centuries to Winslow Homer’s The Veteran in a New Field…painted in 1865…just after the Civil War.
- A lone soldier…jacket cast aside…swings his scythe through a wide field of wheat.
- He has traded one battlefield for another.
- The war may be over…but the work of harvest is its own battle…
- Requiring strength…endurance and long hours.
- The crop will not wait…it must be brought in.
Well…that harvest looks very different today.
- In Bruegel’s world…it took entire villages.
- In Homer’s world…it took the unrelenting swing of a scythe.
- But if you drive through Kansas or Nebraska today…you will see massive John Deere combines…
- Sweeping across 350 or more acres in a 12-hour day…
- With the driver sitting in an air-conditioned cabin!
- What once required dozens of workers over many days now takes a single operator in a machine the size of a house.
- The Lord be with you…
The methods have changed…but the truth has not.
- The harvest is always urgent.
- The crop will not wait forever.
- And when Jesus looked out at the crowds described in today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel…
- He saw a harvest…vast…ripe…ready.
- The harvest is plentiful…he said…but the laborers are few.
Matthew tells us that when Jesus looked at the crowds…he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless…like sheep without a shepherd.
- This is where the harvest begins.
- It does not start with numbers or strategies.
- It starts with Jesus’ eyes and Jesus’ heart.
- He looks at people: tired…confused…wandering…and he aches for them.
- His love for the people requires that he ask for more laborers.
- We live in a time when the compassion…of Jesus… is desperately needed.
- Loneliness is at epidemic levels.
- So many around us are harassed and helpless…unsure where to turn for guidance…love or hope.
Jesus is looking at a harvest so vast it could never be gathered by just one person.
- The harvest is plentiful…he says.
- That’s the good news…the surprising news.
- The challenge is not the size of the harvest.
- The challenge is the scarcity of workers.
And this is important to hear: the harvest is not some future event.
- It’s not a distant hope.
- Jesus does not say: The harvest will be plentiful someday.
- He says: The harvest is plentiful…right now.
- The only question is whether the workers will be moved with compassion.
- Can the church amass a labor force that matches the need?
And here’s the thing: When Jesus does send workers…he does not start with the highly trained or the spiritually elite.
- He calls 12 men…ordinary men…flawed men…
- Men whose names we still know because of the mission entrusted to them.
- Matthew lists them…look at this group.
- Simon Peter was impulsive…bold one moment and cowardly the next…quick to speak and quick to stumble.
- His brother Andrew was quiet…introverted…often in the background.
- James and John…the sons of Zebedee…earned the nickname…sons of thunder…hot-tempered…ambitious…ready to call down fire on their enemies.
Then there is Philip…who would later struggle to grasp Jesus’ identity…
- And Bartholomew…often identified with Nathanael…skeptical…asking whether anything good could come out of Nazareth.
- Thomas carried doubts and questions…and was the one who insisted on touching the risen Lord’s wounds before he could believe.
Matthew…the tax collector…had collaborated with Rome…profiting from his own people’s oppression…he was despised by his neighbors.
- Then there’s Simon the Zealot…a man from a radical nationalist movement sworn to overthrow Rome by violence.
- Imagine those two trying to share a meal: a tax collector for Rome and a revolutionary against Rome!
There was also James…the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus…one about whom the Gospels tell us little…
- Almost anonymous…a reminder that many disciples…both men and women…served then…
- As they do today…in quiet faithfulness without recognition.
- And finally…Judas Iscariot…who would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
If we were forming a gang of revolutionaries to go to the uttermost parts of the earth…
- And turn the world upside down…this is not the cadre we would have picked.
- These are not the Green Berets or Navy Seals.
- These are fishermen…hotheads…skeptics…collaborators…revolutionaries…quiet unknowns and a traitor.
- Not one rabbi. Not one scholar. Not one political insider.
- By every human measure…this group was an even more fragile…dodgy and unlikely group…than was the U.S. hockey team that beat the Russians at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
- Who would have guessed that this crew would be immortalized more than fifteen hundred years later with statues that crown the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica…
- The largest basilica in the world…and certainly the most revered.
And yet these are the workers Jesus sends into the harvest.
- Because the harvest does not depend on perfect people.
- It depends on empowered people…energized by the Spirit of God!
The sacred and beating heart of Jesus was not interested in rolling out a plan for institutional growth.
- He was moved by mercy for the harassed and helpless.
- Pope Francis once said: Jesus’ compassion is not a vague feeling…but a force that brings healing…life and hope.
- Compassion means to suffer with.
- When compassion stirs in us…it is often God’s way of nudging us into action.
- That stirring…that nudging…that ache in your gut…that tug on your heart…
- That is often the Spirit’s way of saying:
- These are part of the harvest…go to them.
So how do we respond?
- The fields around us…our neighborhoods…our workplaces…our families…are ripe.
- We can respond by saying…in the words of a well-known hymn:
- Here I am…Lord / Is it I…Lord? / I have heard You calling in the night / I will go…Lord / If You lead me / I will hold Your people in my heart.
A hundred years ago…it took weeks to bring in 300 acres of wheat.
- Today…with massive machines…it takes a day.
- Either way…the harvest will not wait.
- The field is ready…the harvest is plentiful…the workers are few.
- And compassion is the combine that brings in the crop.
Hymn of the Day: Here I Am, Lord – ELW 574
Prayers of Intercession
Gathered together by the Holy Spirit, let us pray for the church and the needs of the world.
A brief silence.
God of freedom, you ransomed Israel from slavery to be a holy people. As we observe Juneteenth this coming week, free us also to be a people who proclaim your liberating love. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God of creation, you call all the earth to make a joyful noise to you. Let us join the chorus of the natural world in proclaiming your glory. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God of the nations, you sent Jesus as peace for all of humankind. Bring an end to war and conflict, bring hope to places devastated by destruction (especially), and sustain those who advocate for peace. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God of grace, you pour hope and love into our hearts in times of shame and doubt. Protect those experiencing housing insecurity. Uplift anyone struggling with hopelessness, illness, or other worries especially: John & Lisa Mountain, Judy & Terry Vernon, David & Carol Beazley, Margaret Miller, Shirley Treichler, Hope Garrett, Chad Rudzik, Stacey Bryant, Pam Hendry, John Shaffer, James Johnson, Scott Boyd, Gloria Miller, Jules Follett, Julia, David Stangle, Mike Stonecypher, June Morris, Doris Ross, Susie Franks, Eileen Wolff, Charles Travers, Karen Pauly, Chloe Johnson, Karen Liniewicz. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God of all, you call your children to serve in a plentiful harvest. Give us the wisdom to know how best to serve our local community and our neighbors. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Here other intercessions may be offered.
God of faith, we give thanks for the saints who earnestly seek you. Guide us as we seek to follow those who have led your church. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Trusting you receive all our prayers, we commend our spoken and unspoken prayers to you, O God, through Jesus our Savior.
Amen.
Pray with me:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Blessing
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer,
☩ one God,
bless, heal, and hold you
today and always.
Amen.
Sending Hymn: I Love to Tell the Story – ELW 661
Dismissal
Heaven has come near. Go, share the good news!
Thanks be to God.