09/05/2026
Readings for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost/September 6, 2026
Ezekiel 33:7-9:
“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Romans 13:1-10:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
P: This is the Word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God.
Matthew 18:1-20:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[a] it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin![b] For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[f] in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to You, O Christ.
Message for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost/September 6, 2026
Text: Matthew 18:1-20 Theme: Don’t just turn them loose!”
Grace, mercy and peace I bring to you from our risen and ascended Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’m going to do something that I don’t like to do. What is it? I don’t like to start a sermon on a negative note, unless of course I’m reminding you that we are all sinners (and I do that each week, but maybe not right at the beginning). But what is it that you aren’t going to want to hear? That today more and more Christians are walking away from the faith. Millions are leaving their churches. And some sociologists have even given these folks a label. They call them “nones”. That means that they don’t connect with any denomination, any religion, or any congregation. A recent study by the Pew Research Center that was made public says that the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Christian has gone down by about one-third in the past 50 years. Another part of the study says that about one-third of our young people, who grew up in the church, leave the church before they reach the age of 30. And the numbers and information as a part of other statistics don’t give us much hope moving forward. Do you see why I don’t like to start that way?
And, as we think about those numbers for a minute, we also need to remember another thing. And it’s a very important thing. What? That these are more than just some plain old numbers to shrug our shoulders at! These are real people. And guess what? Some of them are people that you and I care deeply about and love. And we should take what they are doing and try to help them turn things around. It’s very possible that you know someone who has left the Christian faith for some other religion or just stepped away from the Christian church or maybe decided to stay away from religion all together. Maybe it’s a son or daughter. Maybe it’s a brother or sister. Maybe it’s a grandchild. Or maybe it’s a niece or nephew. Maybe it’s a friend or neighbor. It might have been someone whom you used to see in worship and coffee hour on a regular basis (before we went to our summer hours and before). Or they might have drifted away and now we never see them (or at least that’s the way it seems).
The question for us this morning is: “How do we respond to that?” What is our response to our family members, friends and brothers and sister in Christ who have drifted away? But even more important is, “What is God’s response to these folks who are wandering?
One thing that we can do is just let these folks go on wandering on their own. It’s easy to turn our backs on those folks and let them go about their business as people who appear to be lost. We can stop contacting them and what that does is stop encouraging them to come back to Jesus and His church. In a conversation that I had with another minister, he told me that he wasn’t spending very much time with the wayward folks because it was taking way too much of his time. Instead, he was spending a bigger part of his time focusing on the folks that were new to the Christian faith. But is that really what our God wants us to do? I don’t think so! And I want you to know that it’s easy for me to change my focus to that same line of thinking, especially in my weaker moments. But know this; all the prayer requests that go out from my computer, go to all our folks that we have email addresses for. And we have another email list for folks that get my weekly message. (And yes they are seeing this one too, that is, if they don’t delete it.) And let’s not forget that Gayla posts our readings and the message on our page each Saturday afternoon. (And we do get some responses, some comments, about that! Trust me! I haven’t turned my back on anyone affiliated with this church unless, of course, they have asked me to or they have joined another church.
In our Gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus warns that believers can wander from the faith. He tells a story about a sheep that wanders away from the flock (vs. 12-14). He uses this picture for a person that wanders away from the faith. Jesus tells us that such a person is in peril of perishing eternally.
You know, there’s a doctrine out there, circulating through some of the Christian churches that claim, “once saved, always saved.” What that teaching teaches is that someone who is a Christian can never fall away from the faith. And Jesus says that in Scripture, “no one can sn**ch them out of my Father’s hand.” But while the second part of that claim is true it’s the first part that we, as Lutherans, don’t agree with. Why? Because we look at it as being biblically incorrect. Our lesson from Matthew tells us that Jesus did not teach “once saved, always saved.” Instead, He warned against the very real danger of what is called “apostasy.” That means that there is the very real danger of one falling away from a saving faith. And everyone, and I mean everyone, has the possibility of that happening to them. That possibility is rightrin here (your heart) because of the sin that entered the world through Adam and Eve!
Although we don’t agree with the doctrine of “once saved, always saved,” there is a reverse doctrine that is just as bad. We might not say it out loud but it’s there. And what is it? The false thinking “that once lost, always lost.” If we focus on that false doctrine, it abandons any wandering sheep to a lost condition. And we don’t want that to happen, even if it’s happening to an enemy.
Unfortunately, you and I sometimes take on that attitude toward lost brothers and sisters who seem to have put some distance between themselves and their brothers and sister in Christ. Sometimes you and I fail to seek them out because we don’t want to seem pushy and also that we might be told to mind our own business! What was it that Cain said back to the Lord? “Am I my brother’s keeper?” We insist that it’s not any of our business to seek these folks out. And in this country, what you believe, at least from a religious perspective, is very likely private and personal. So, we tend to step away and not get involved. We don’t want to get into what could end up being an unpleasant discussion. And so, we dismiss those who seem to be wandering from the church and surrender them to a lost condition.
In neglecting to reach out to our wayward folks, what we are actually doing is showing them that we don’t care. That’s really the bottom line here. Remember that in our lesson, in verse 10, the Savior says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones.” Oh and in using the term “little ones” Jesus doesn’t limit what He is saying to just children. Instead He refers to all of God’s children, of any age, who are spiritually dependent and who need care. By letting our brothers and sisters roam around in unbelief, by not caring for them, we are showing a lack of concern for them and actually sinning against God. What did we hear Margaret read in our Old Testament lesson? “If you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 33:8). Do we want that to happen?
But our God doesn’t hold on to the thought or idea that “once lost, always lost” idea. No! Not at all! You see, our God is focused on the commitment to seek and save the lost! Jesus stresses that in our Gospel lesson, “it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (v. 14). Unlike us, and fortunately for us, our God does not have a mind that says, “once lost, always lost.”
In our Gospel lesson the Savior gives us a picture that shows the seeking and saving work of God. He compares His Father to a shepherd who goes after just one stray sheep that has gone astray. And in verse 13, when the Shepherd finds the lost sheep, “he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.” Folks, God seeks people when they are lost and He celebrates when they are restored to Him. While some might think, “once lost, always lost,” our God rejoices as the forgiving father that He is, and as was in the parable of the prodigal son, ‘This my son . . . who was lost, and now is found” (Luke 15:24).
God did not and will not abandon the sinners that are found here on earth! In His Son, He came to seek and save us, folks that at times wander away from Him and can be on our way to eternal destruction. In the Old Testament, Isaiah wrote this, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). God used really tough discipline, or some might say “tough love” to bring sinners back into His fold. But He didn’t use that as judgement against us. No, what He did was use it for us. He placed our sins on His Son’s shoulders, on the shoulders of the one person that didn’t deserve it. He put them on His Son, the one who willingly received the punishment in our place. And that sacrifice is not just for us but also for the wandering and the weak at heart. Jesus was rejected so that we might be received back into the flock.
As the Son of God reached out and saved us, now it’s time for you and me to reach out to others, both new Christians and also wandering ones. We have been commissioned to seek out the lost! And we should be filled with joy that our good and gracious God has sought us out, in spite of our sin, and rescued us from eternal death. And now, you and I can join God in reaching out to fellow believers who are slipping away just like wandering sheep.
After Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep, He encourages us that “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (v. 15).
Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs, retired from the Concordia Seminary, says in relation to that verse: “Jesus has in mind a situation where one who has been a fellow disciple now seems to be in peril of no longer being a brother. He is in danger of losing all faith and salvation.”
Having a conversation that involves this might turn into an uncomfortable situation. It might even turn into a confrontation of sorts. It may involve, like I said before, “tough love.” But there is nothing wrong with doing what we are called to do, that is, showing concern for our fellow Christian as they seem to be falling away. In fact, if we choose not to do that, we are doing a disservice to this brother or sister. What we are called to do is reach out to them in compassion and love, just like Jesus did to those He came in contact with. The goal of such a discussion, as Jesus says, is to gain back the brother, to get him or her back from a lost condition.
But understand this; you and I are not alone in this effort. Jesus is right with us. It’s a process that has with it some urgency because we never know, from one moment to the next, what might be in our path. So, this process begins with a personal and private talk, “between you and him alone.” If he continues on in sin, then other members of the congregation are brought in to help. And then if the voices of the group are brushed off, then the whole congregation will be brought in on the matter and the offending person is asked to leave. That’s what the church calls “excommunication.” (And I have never been involved to that extent!) But even if the action of excommunication is used know this one thing; The goal through that whole process is that the lost be restored to faith in Jesus and the fellowship of the church.
Folks, we do not think about the attitude of “once lost, always lost” regarding our brothers or sisters. Instead, we reach out to them, we seek them, even as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has sought us out and rescued us from the devil’s grasp, which is as deadly as it comes!
Jesus committed Himself to seek and save us. And you and I are commissioned, by Him, to reach out to our brothers and sisters who seem to have fallen astray. And as you do that, know that the example you have to follow comes from your one true Savior, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace and love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and bless you always. Amen.
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