Hi everyone,

Welcome to worship on this June 14, 2026, for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost!

The bulletin can be found here. You can use it to follow along with the service or simply use the words that will appear on your screen. The sermon is included in both the bulletin as well as on this page below the video.

To enhance your online worship experience, you are invited to have a candle in your space, lit for the majority of the service and extinguished near the end when the altar candles are extinguished after the sending hymn. You are also welcome to participate in communion if you are comfortable, by having something small to eat and drink prepared for the appropriate time of the service. Further instructions will be given then.

May God’s welcoming love fill you with confidence and hope in God’s promises and blessing!

By your Spirit, O God, may we hear your voice, see your face, and feel you present with us, leading and guiding us, and lifting us up into your kingdom, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

So it was my buddy’s birthday earlier this week, and I sent him a very usual and typical “happy birthday” text message.  I said, and I quote, “Happy Birthday, buddy. I hope you’re well.”  Apparently, such a buddy is he that I even call him that.  Then within minutes, he responds with a very usual and typical, “Thank you, I’m doing ok, how about you?”  And I answered with, “been alright.  Insanely busy with stuff, and spending too much money lol.” 

We carried on with a few pleasantries before we had to stop, but then for reasons unbeknownst to me, I wondered when this particular friend and I had last messaged each other.  It felt like a while, but I wasn’t sure.  So I scrolled up a bit, past that day’s conversation, and found that we had some messages back and forth from roughly a year ago.  You know, on his last birthday.  That conversation started with, “Hey Happy Birthday bro! I hope you have a great day!” (apparently, he’s more than just a buddy, but he’s also a bro).  He replies with, “Thank you, how have you been”…

And then in the not so very surprising climax of this story, I answered with, and again I quote, “been alright.  Life has been busy (and expensive lol)”

It’s the same exact conversation a full year apart!!

What has happened to be that I could be such a boring and predictable conversationalist? I mean, there were no plot twists.  There were no surprise cameos.  There weren’t even any exciting explosions or anything.  But it was just the same old formula of being too busy to chat any more frequently than once a year. 

And I guess that’s the point of me telling you all this.  No doubt we’re busy.  Everyone is and knows this.  So why did I feel the need to tell him that?  Why did I almost auto-respond to the simple question of “how are you” to that effect?  Why did I have to iterate and re-iterate this at least 2 years in a row and maybe even more?

Is this what life has become?  Maybe it’s an “adulting” thing, but doesn’t it seem like being busy is sort of like a badge of honour now?  Is this what society drills into us, that our value is tied to our productivity, our importance is correlated to how little rest we get, and our identity is defined by the length of our to-do lists?

It seems like it, doesn’t it?  And judging by these two separate but same exact conversations I had with my friend, and probably countless more like it that I’ve had with others, it is pretty clear that I, and perhaps you, have fallen for it.  It’s like we think, “I’m busy so I matter” or “I work hard because I’m trusted and responsible” or “I am productive because I’m not lazy, and because I’m not lazy, I am honourable, moral, and loved.”  Ok maybe that last one is a bit extreme, but you know what I mean.

And honestly, passages like today’s gospel lesson don’t help much at all.  Jesus calls his disciples by name and gives them this hefty work order of tasks and tells them to expect nothing in return.  He empowers them to do the things he does.  He fills them with the Spirit and tells them to go, do, and serve.  No wonder we might moralize our busyness, it’s like we’re commanded in scripture to be busy.

In the book entitled “Laziness Does Not Exist,” author Devon Price describes how this stigma against laziness traces back to the Puritans of the 1500s-ish.  Price says that the mentality of “being busy = good” came from a theology where God calls us to do, and to do a lot, and the more we do, the more called we are and thus better regarded in God’s kingdom.  With that in mind, it stands to reason that the more we do, the more favour we gain.  And the more favour we gain, the more saved we might be.

Now, I’m heavily paraphrasing here, but isn’t that sort of our mentality now?  Sure, we can cognitively say that we’re saved by grace and not by works, but don’t we have a problem with accepting gifts in general that we didn’t earn, and don’t we have the urge to “pay back” favours, and don’t we feel like we “owe” those who are gracious with us?  So it makes sense that we perhaps subconsciously will want to earn our salvation, as though faith has become this transaction where the payment is our blood, sweat, and tears.  And well, yeah, we might think, isn’t that what Jesus did?  Didn’t he literally work himself to death? 

Well, not exactly.  See today’s gospel passage starts with Jesus doing the things, yes, but he looked out at the insurmountable needs of the people, and he asked for help.  He supplemented his work with the community.  He had compassion, for others of course, but also for himself.

See, Jesus calls his disciples to not do everything instead of him, but to work alongside him as a team.

And I think that is where we often lose sight of to where and to what we are called.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I often find myself thinking the “if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself” thing when I see the tasks I have ahead of me.  I often don’t ask for help or lean on others for support as I often feel like I should be strong enough to endure whatever it is I have alone.  I often take way too much ownership on things that I really don’t need to and is perhaps even detrimental that I do.  And through it all, I feel like I’m living up to the name that God has given me.

I don’t think I’m alone on this.  How many of us take on this “lone ranger” attitude?  How many of us will do the things ourselves because we assume anyone else will mess it up?  How many of us have felt overwhelmed at some point because our unending to-do lists have gotten the better of us?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with hard work, or getting things done, or even being productive.  But I think the problem comes when we equate these things with how good we are, how loved we are, and even how Christian we are.

And in that, we might forget that Jesus didn’t do it alone.  Jesus called at least 12 people to help him with the work.  Jesus is the head of a body with many parts, not a department of one that consists of only me.

So you see, that is what we are called to.  Not to that department of one, not to be a lone ranger, not to be so busy that we can only answer the “how are you” question with announcing just how busy we are.  But we are called to be in this body of Christ.  We are called to be in community with others, all with different gifts and talents and abilities to collaborate, work together, and support each other with.  We are called to, like Jesus, have compassion.  Compassion for others in need, yes, but also compassion for our overworked selves. 

And I know, this sounds kind of weird when I am almost weekly asking for volunteers to help out with the different things that go on around here.  It doesn’t seem to jive with the words we often use like “service” and “mission.”  It might not sit well with us in general as we are almost uncomfortable with ourselves if we aren’t complaining about how busy we are.

But the thing is, when we get to that point, we might miss the gifts that God gives.  The gifts of community, relationship, and support.  We might miss the blessings of compassion, empathy, and love.  We might miss the grace that God had moved heaven and earth for us to have.

Again, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be working hard and should just leave the heavy lifting to someone else.  But what I am saying is that, hard work isn’t demanded of us, our productivity doesn’t define us, what we do will not, can not, and won’t ever be able to save us.

That’s by God’s grace alone, no matter what the world tells us.

So instead, we are called to be liberated from the pressures that the world puts on us.  This doesn’t give us a permission to procrastinate, but permission to care for yourself as you care for others.  This isn’t telling us not to be productive and get things done, but that our productivity doesn’t equal our faith and getting things done doesn’t change our identity in God’s eyes as God’s own children.  This isn’t demanding us to label anyone or ourselves as lazy if we aren’t bone-crushingly busy, but it is inviting us to see God’s compassion, to accept God’s grace, and to know God’s love for us and all people for all time.

So in this season after Pentecost, may we be motivated by compassion, empowered by salvation, and strengthened by grace to not just do but be, not just work but love, not just be busy but live.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.