06/14/2026
Today's offering...
14 June 2026, the Third Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 18:1-15; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:25-10:23
The Rev. Dr. Jason Haddox, Vicar
Trinity Episcopal Church, Lawrenceburg Indiana
We begin with a story of awe and wonder;
of surprise visitors and unexpected good news, too wonderful to believe.
An epiphany (God shows up) and an Annunciation (Something is about to happen, get ready!)
“Honored sir, you grace our camp by stopping here.”
In the reading from Genesis, Father Abraham is demonstrating the highest level of Middle Eastern hospitality to strangers and travelers, offering them shade and shelter and food and refreshment in a desert land where water was hard to find and Red Roof Inns were not even imagined. That these are more than just ordinary visitors is revealed over the course of the encounter (How do they know Sarah’s name?) but the principal impression of the scene is the energy with which Abraham makes extravagant preparations for these unexpected guests. “A little water, a morsel of bread” indeed! “Quick, kill the fatted calf; knead the dough to make bread, get the cheese out, run, hurry, make haste!”
Only after the strangers have eaten and rested and Abraham has made certain of their wellbeing, does the story move forward into the promise of a child for this elderly couple. Sarah laughs to herself, overhearing the conversation from inside the tent. “Are you kidding me? Hah!”
That child will be named Isaac—“He who laughs.” A child of laughter—at first sarcastic, maybe even bitter—turned to joy and astonishment. “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”
We will hear further of Sarah, and Abraham, and Isaac in the weeks ahead, so come back for more!
In a similar manner, we rejoin our walk with Jesus and the disciples in Matthew’s gospel this morning, as they are out and about in the world. Earlier in the story, Jesus has published his spiritual and incarnational agenda, the Sermon on the Mount, all three chapters of it. After which, he goes about healing sick people, and casting out dark spirits, and raising the dead! Word is getting around. Jesus is gathering followers, disciples, as he travels through the towns and villages and countryside of Judea, proclaiming to everyone that “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Because the author of Matthew is a good Jewish writer, they have used the phrase “kingdom of heaven” to avoid the potential impiety of saying “the kingdom of GOD” as it appears in the other Gospels.
In his travels Jesus meets lots and lots of people. Many of them are struggling: physically, spiritually, economically, emotionally. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
And we might think, Oh, Jesus the Good Shepherd is going to step in and take care of all these harassed and helpless people.
But that’s not what he does. Not directly.
Instead, what does he do?
He turns to the disciples, his students, and says to them:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
And then commissions twelve of them to do exactly what he has been doing all this time:
“He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness… ‘Proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.’” He puts all of that into their hands, as his apostles—which means “one who is sent, a messenger.” He gives them his tools and resources and says “Okay, go! You’ve seen how to do this, now it’s your turn.”
This is not a terribly promising group of people. Peter is not the brightest candle on the cake; James and John are famously short-fused and hot-tempered; Judas is “the betrayer” and the writer identifies him as such—and yet these are the ones Jesus calls to be his inner circle. He chooses them, and uses them, sometimes (perhaps most of the time) in spite of themselves. To this scruffy misfit cluster of humanity, Jesus hands over his mission. “You all now, go: tell the good news of God’s coming, and bring healing and wholeness and life and liberation to the people of God.”
It gives me hope—that God can make use of a very modest handful of people to do amazing things. Well, that’s what God does, isn’t it? A few dinner rolls and a couple of sardines becomes enough food for thousands; a handful of flour and a few teaspoons of olive oil keeps a household and their unexpected guest alive for weeks until the rains come; one tiny seed in the ground becomes an enormous shrub that takes over the whole garden and provides shelter and food for all the critters…Jesus and the prophets tell us these stories of God’s abundance and generosity over and over.
Jesus sends the apostles out, only to the house of Israel—for now. For most of Matthew’s gospel, the work of Jesus’ ministry is limited to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus is warning them (and will continue to do so) that this ministry is not always easy, or comfortable, or even safe, by the standards of ordinary daily life. There will be troubles and struggles for those who choose to follow the Way of Christ. But that call, that sending, that Way, is nevertheless a beautiful and holy and life-giving thing. And there are hints and gestures throughout Matthew’s gospel, that this ministry is directed to an even wider audience, and we will come across those as we make our way through the gospel over the next months.
We hear of that wider scope this morning in the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans. One thing to keep in mind: the letters of Paul (including the one to the Romans) predate the writing of the gospels as we know them. So this is an early statement about God’s intention for humanity.
And it is this: that the good news of redemption, of Christ’s saving life, death, and resurrection is for us, the Gentiles, the outsiders, as well. The faithfulness of Christ our Lord is God’s “roadmap” leading to grace and liberation and salvation for everyone.
“While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Before we ever existed; before we ever drew our first breath; before ever we thought of needing help or reconciliation or restoration of right relationships, God in Christ has handled all of that. For the deserving and the undeserving; for the devout and the scornful; for the wise and the foolish and everyone in between; for every one in every place in every time.
A story of amazing love, so extraordinary as to be almost unbelievable. And yet, in it God shows up for the world, and we receive that good news as an invitation to be shared. Something wondrous has happened—and who else needs to know about it?
I wonder…
