Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship for this 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, which lands on June 29, 2025.
The bulletin for this service can be found here. In it, you’ll find the order and words of worship as well as the full sermon. All the words that you need to know will also appear on your screen, and the sermon is included on this page under the video.
If you’d like to enhance your worship experience, you are invited to have a candle or two in your space, lit at the beginning of the service and extinguished near the end after the sending hymn. You are also welcome to participate in communion by having something small to eat and drink prepared. Further instruction will be given at the appropriate time.
May God’s Spirit guide you into all truth and peace, now and forever!
May your Word, O God, always reveal to us your will for our lives, that we might lean on the power of your Spirit to heed, to follow, and to serve, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
Uh, what? Did we get that right? Did Jesus’ disciples just ask him if they should destroy a whole city because they didn’t feel welcomed? Did they really just suggest mass destruction because they were rejected? Can they even hear themselves right now?
Command fire from heaven to consume those they don’t like… what in the power-tripping madness even is this? Just have destruction rain down on those they don’t like? Obliterate those that don’t agree with them? Just smite entire people groups willy nilly?
It just sounds like such a ridiculous thing to ask or say or even think. It’s so absurd that it almost sounds like satire.
I don’t remember the disciples ever getting such authority to command anything like this let alone death and destruction, but I would imagine that authority probably should be taken away from them. I mean it’s like giving nuclear codes to a grade schooler. To use and abuse this kind of power to fit your own agenda is not just irresponsible, it is unethical, cowardly, and honestly it’s just petty.
And at the same time… it’s eerily relatable.
I mean come on, let’s be honest. How many times do we fantasize about exacting revenge on those who hurt us? How often do we feel like we know how to better run relationships, communities, and even countries? Don’t we ever assert our worldviews as the only “right” way of living that everyone else should get on board with? We might not have the power or authority to call rain down from heaven, but we sure know what it feels like to want to burn bridges. Or people.
When I was a kid, I was given this electronic toy that produced a variety of different war sound effects, which was a pretty advanced for toy from the 80s. This thing had like a whole four different sounds, like rapid gun fire, missiles being shot at their targets, and two different types of explosions. I assumed that this toy was to help up my game while I played with my GI Joes, but I later learned that you’re actually supposed to mount this device in your car dashboard, so you can release the tension and stress of your road rage by pretending to blow the other person up.
Like, really?
I mean, I guess that’s better than actually pulling out a high-powered assault rifle that was legally obtained in a country very close to us and committing an anger-fuelled homicide, but still. Why was this even a thing? Why did the inventor of this toy think that pretending to declare war on someone who cut us off without signalling is better than yelling out a few choice words and throwing up some all-too-familiar hand gestures? Are we that Neanderthal that we have to resort to violence to solve our problems? Is destruction and death the only way we can deal with our disagreements and anger? Is militaristic might and having the biggest gun the only measure we have of power in our society?
To be honest, it really seems like it, doesn’t it? It’s not just personal, but it’s systemic. Like the nations of the world like to talk about peace, but when push comes to shove it’s the threat of war and throwing your nuclear weight around that really gives you a seat at the table. It’s like might makes right. And we can shake our heads at these world leaders and tyrant war mongers all we want, but I’m not sure how different we are from them. Again, we don’t have the power or authority to start wars or rain fire down from heaven, but like that 80s toy proves, road rage is a real thing. Cancel culture like we talked about last week is also real and something that we’ve fostered and adopted as normal. We so easily fall into harming, hurting, and even hating others.
This is our reality. Not just now but at least since the beginning of time as we read in our scriptures how the people wanted to violently rid the other cultures, the other powers, the other religions. And so it seems safe to assume that this is what we always will be…
…unless.
Unless we are taught a new way. Unless we are shown how to differently see our disagreements, each other, and the world. Unless we are given… I don’t know… a spirit of some kind that will lead us, guide us, and change us to get off the violent and destructive paths of the world and learn to walk in the ways of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
I mean look at how Jesus reacts to the absurd request from his disciples. He doesn’t even consider it. He doesn’t have staff meetings and in-depth discussions weighing the pros and cons. He doesn’t go on some angry tirade on social media or craft a PR campaign to justify a holy firebombing.
No, he rebukes them. Puts them in their place. He stops them in their tracks and reminds them that we aren’t called to that life. We don’t follow a Messiah of militaristic might. We don’t serve a God that is about retribution… but we have a God that cares about redemption, reconciliation, and restoration.
But then those justifications might come pouring in. That city they wanted to destroy still rejected Jesus, didn’t they? There needs to be consequences for such insolence. They need to be taught a lesson in manners. So really, they deserve what’s coming to them. Or so we might say.
Because I don’t think they rejected as much as they just didn’t understand. See the text is clear that Jesus’ eyes were set on Jerusalem. He was moving toward humility, toward sacrifice, toward death. Death that will lead to healing and peace, but still death. That kind of thing would be hard for these foreigners to get. Heck it was hard for the disciples to get. And honestly, it isn’t that easy for us either.
It isn’t easy for us to put down our thirst for vengeance. It isn’t easy for us to let go of our instinct to retaliate. It isn’t easy for us to stop justifying our anger with spiritual language. And it’s even harder for us to instead choose mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Mercy not because we’re weak, but because we’re strong enough to let go. Grace not because we condone wrongdoing but because we believe that none are beyond God’s love. Forgiveness not because they deserve it, but because we’ve been forgiven first.
Still, it isn’t easy. It seems like we continually fall back to the ways that we’ve always lived, how the world around us has taught us. It’s like we can’t ever get it right. The disciples certainly didn’t. And all those that Jesus calls to follow him in the last part of our gospel reading don’t either.
I mean yeah, their requests to say goodbye and attend funerals are legit, and Jesus isn’t telling anyone to not care about those who mean a lot to us. But what Jesus is saying is that there will always be something that will pull us away from following, there will always be distractions that take our eyes off him, there will always be reasons to stay angry and in control of our own destinies, rendering us unfit and unworthy of the kingdom of God.
But Jesus calls us anyway.
In spite of our violent tendencies, our inability to get it, our innate separation from God, he calls us. He loves us. And Jesus gifts us with the Spirit that empowers us to love back and convicts us to live in community.
Again, this doesn’t mean that we’ll get it perfect all the time, because we will likely fail more often than not. It doesn’t mean that we’ll always get it and can live in the way that God intends for us, because you know something triggering will happen and we’ll fall back to the old ways. It doesn’t mean that we won’t ever want to rain fire from heaven on those who just annoy the heck out of us, because we often need to pretend that our rage is righteous and justify our weaponizing of our faith against those we don’t like.
But it does mean that even in our shortcomings, our identity as God’s people won’t change. Even in our failures and misunderstandings, God will continue to love us and welcome us into community. Even in our tendency to anger quickly, be distracted easily, and focus on the totally wrong thing, God will call us to follow.
Follow the truth, follow peace, follow and live in this divine love that is extended to us all.
So in this season after Pentecost, may we see and recognise how we are strengthened by the Spirit to follow Christ: not as destroyers, but as disciples; not as judges, but as servants; not as agents of wrath, but as children of a merciful God. Thanks be to God. Amen.