บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ 16th Sunday After Pentecost 2026

will of your Abba who is in the heavens that one of these little ones should be lost. 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.240 This is the gospel of the Lord. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:29.840 Amen. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.600 Please be seated, friends. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:32.960 Good morning. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:38.960 It's nice to see y'all the blue, the blue crew up here, and the blue in the choir. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:40.720 It's really lovely for me. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:50.720 So last week I was not here and I was over at guest preaching at The Good Shepherd, and as I was there, I knew that the reading from this morning was coming up. 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:55.200 And I was looking, it's of course they have a bunch of icons and different things about Good Shepherd. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:56.399 That's the name of their church. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:01.679 And I thought, isn't it nice that we're gonna get to talk about Christ the Good Shepherd? 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:04.639 Am I the only one that finds it super comforting? 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:11.679 Ah, we all come with stained glass with Jesus with a little lamb on his shoulders, and I I love it. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:12.799 I find it really comforting. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:20.799 But here's the thing, is like there is a there's a version of it in Luke, and that's the one that that I really like. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:31.840 You know, it talks about the good shepherd, the the shepherd who loses a sheep, and then the shepherd searches until the sheep is found, and then there's rejoicing and brings it back. 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:38.399 And so as I sat down to read this version, I was like, oh, that's actually not what it says. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:51.919 It's like remember, folks, that each gospel has its own context, and even though there are similar stories in the different synoptic gospels and in John, they're they're sort of couched in a very particular way. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:15:03.679 For the Gospel of Matthew, it's in the 18th chapter, and it's when Jesus is responding to a very specific question that is being asked of him of the disciples. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:12.799 In fact, most of 18, if not probably all of 18, is just Jesus in in some way responding to a question that the disciples offer him. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.519 And it's a question that I think is really important. 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:19.679 In fact, it's a question that we all ask ourselves. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.879 It's a question that I think is underneath a lot of our decision making and the way that we move in the community. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:32.159 Now, I will tell you that it is definitely not a question that we ask in polite company. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.240 Anyone know what that question is? 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.000 Who matters most? 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:42.399 Thanks, Mike! Somebody heard the eight o'clock sermon. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.320 That question is who matters most? 00:15:50.720 --> 00:16:04.639 The disciples say who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, but I translate it to who matters most, and we know that this is a question that we all answer in our communities, in our nation, and in our families. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.799 Whose opinion gets 51% of the vote? 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.080 Who changes the energy of the room when they walk into it? 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:32.639 Whose emotional state, whether it be their anger, or their sadness, or their anxiety, their depression, takes precedence over everybody else's emotional state. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:36.159 Who matters most? 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:42.480 When they're gone, who gets noticed? 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:49.279 And so the disciples ask Jesus, what does it mean to be great? 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.519 Like, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.480 And Jesus responds interestingly. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:12.400 We all love our kids, don't we? 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:22.720 We love our kids so much that many of us, I would say, probably have a good portion of their identity wrapped up in how well their kids do. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.119 I can't be the only one. 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:33.039 How much they like me, how successful they are. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:37.279 So of course I think, Jesus, grab the kid. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:40.640 It's the vulnerable cutie that we want to have, you know, yay. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:42.319 But here's the thing, y'all. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:47.440 Like, Jesus was not trying to subsidize our sort of idolatry of children. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:56.480 Jesus is taking a person in a society that has no rights or privileges. 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:01.599 That as far as the society goes, I mean, the families love their children. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:05.119 Don't get me wrong, but society didn't care about the kids. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:06.079 They were expendable. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:07.599 A lot of them died when they were young. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:09.519 Like they they couldn't produce anything. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.119 They were basically, there was no rights or protections for them. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:18.799 Like, it's it's the kind of a thing that you can just disregard and move past, right? 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:23.920 He takes the thing that society says has no value and he puts it in the midst of him. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:30.079 And that's what he uses as his object lesson to answer the question about who is the greatest? 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:32.720 What does it mean to be great in the kingdom of heaven? 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:42.079 And then the piece that we get to today is he says, be careful not to despise one of these little ones, is the translation. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:46.079 And then he tells the version of the lost sheep or the good shepherd. 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:55.119 Now, what's interesting is that the word

despise, cataphronio, in the Greek, it's not hatred, right? 00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:59.599 It's like it's like disgust and contempt. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.559 I mean, hatred burns hot, y'all. 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.880 I mean, if if I have hatred or anger towards you, I mean I'm I'm moving towards you. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:08.319 Like, that burns hot. 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:12.559 Like this this word burns cold. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:13.759 I guess it doesn't burn cold. 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:15.039 It's cold. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:20.559 It says I can just completely step over you if you were on the street and disregard you. 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:31.359 And he says, be careful not of the ones in your life and the people that you have decided are no longer worth your time or your energy. 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:32.960 And then he does this interesting thing. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:37.680 He says, because they have angels in the court of God who look upon God's face. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.559 Basically says, because heaven probably takes them way more seriously than you do. 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:46.160 And then he tells you this interesting story, right? 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.319 This parable of the sheep. 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:51.279 I told you it's different than the Luke. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:20:01.440 He says the sheep doesn't say that the shepherd lost the sheep. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:04.240 It says that a sheep wandered. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.119 The sheep wandered away. 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:15.839 And then it says that the shepherd went after her, and it says the shepherd doesn't the shepherd finds them. 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:19.279 There's sort of like this conditional on there, which is interesting. 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:21.279 Like these big differences, right? 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:24.880 I started thinking about like the wandering. 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.200 I was wondering, like, why did the sheep wander? 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:41.920 My first image was like a cartoon I had when I was a kid where there was this cute little lamb and a butterfly catered, and it was like prancing after the butterfly, and it was like and maybe it just carelessly fell away. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.480 There's no malice or harm. 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.960 I wondered, maybe there was like some bully sheep. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.319 And he like made it feel unsafe. 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:02.400 And it like said, hey, we're all going over here, and then it went somewhere else, and then it was just lost. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.960 And maybe the sheep was just mad at the shepherd. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:12.240 Maybe the shepherd gave all the good treats to another sheep, and so it thought, forget this! I'm gonna go out on my own and I'm gonna get my own treats. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:14.000 I don't need this flock. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:19.599 And then I wondered, maybe it was just tired. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.279

Maybe it didn't sleep well for a couple of weeks or something. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.000 It was worried about the state of the world. 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:32.000 And then like every day it just walked a little slower than everybody else until eventually it looked up and saw. 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:36.880 I don't know why the sheep wandered, y'all. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.160 I just know that the sheep was in the wilderness. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.160 Boy, do I know what it feels like to be in the wilderness. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.279 Wandered away, and I have no idea how I even got there. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:53.599 Sometimes I do. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.400 And that's when I read the psalm, Psalm 13. 00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:12.400 I'm not particularly in love with the Translation we get, if you want to open up your prayer books, you can look at the other one because like four times right at the beginning, the psalmist cries out, How long, O Lord, I'm in the wilderness, I'm by myself. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:13.759 Where are you? 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:16.079 How long? 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.759 I thought I know what that feels like. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.200 How long am I gonna have to feel this pain? 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:27.119 How long am I enemies gonna prevail against me? 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:31.839 How long am I gonna have to wait to get some type of beauty and blessing in my life? 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:33.680 How long, Lord? 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:38.799 Sure, I've wandered, but here I am all alone, and I'm wondering where you are. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.480 How long must I wait? 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:44.559 Do you even care? 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:49.039 That is called a cry of lament. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:52.160 How long? 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:59.599 And Jesus, I think, is trying to remind us what the psalmist says. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:06.160 If you look at the end of that psalm, is that the psalmist says, but I will trust that you are who you say you are. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:11.279 Just because I feel like I'm abandoned doesn't mean that I'm abandoned. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:14.559 And that's what Jesus says. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.880 Jesus says that God is like the shepherd who notices. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.559 See, I think my first thought was the miracle is that they found the sheep. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:27.359 You know? 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:28.640 That is a miracle. 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:31.119 But but even before that, I think there's another miracle. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:34.720 I think the miracle is that God noticed. 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:36.079 The shepherd noticed. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:37.359 Like, I don't know about y'all. 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.279 I mean, I'm kind of a perfectionist, but 99% is pretty damn good. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:44.400 Isn't it? 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.519 I mean, I get to 99, I'm like, ugh, 9 out of 100, that's pretty good. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:51.519 I get to 90, I'm like, it's pretty good. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.960 But apparently, it's not good enough for God. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.440 God gets to 99 and says, somebody is missing. 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:06.079 And it's in God's nature to go look. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.440 I started thinking about, man, wouldn't that be interesting as a church? 00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:19.839 I mean, the church isn't going to be the place that we don't fail. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:20.720 You're going to fail. 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:21.839 I'm going to fail. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:26.319 The church is not going to be the place where we don't wander. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:27.839 We're going to wander. 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:32.000 The church isn't going to be the place where we don't argue. 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:33.680 We're going to argue. 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:40.559 But can the church be the place where somebody doesn't disappear unnoticed? 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:49.839 Is it possible to live our life and be people who don't let people disappear unnoticed? 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:58.000 You know, I'm not I'm not talking about like not coming to church. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.759 I mean, I'm not saying, like, hey, we should go out and we should start calling and checking on people. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:06.720 Well, I noticed that you weren't there on Sunday, so uh I think you need to explain yourself to me. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.039 Listen, y'all are adults. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:10.640 You're all adults. 00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:16.240 If you're not here on a Sunday, you don't owe me any explanations about how you decided to spend your adult time. 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.519 You pay taxes. 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:19.759 You don't owe me anything. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:28.480 But we could be sitting in this pew every single Sunday and be wandered off into the wilderness crying out, How long, O Lord? 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:33.519 We could feel like we've been cut out and isolated. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:42.480 Perhaps we're the sheep that made a series of small choices every single day over the course of a long time, and now we're sitting in the wilderness. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:47.519 Wondering if we're worthy of God's love. 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:50.720 Because here's the thing, y'all. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.279 Like, like when I imagine this in my head, I imagine it like a video game. 00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:02.880 So, like coming from the top, I'm looking down and I'm like, oh, there's the shepherd, and there's the sheep, and oh, he's just gonna go find the sheep. 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:07.680 But like, if you're the sheep, you have no idea that the shepherd is looking for you. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:13.039 What you might get a hundred feet, a hundred yards, a line of sight. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:15.759 You don't know that the shepherd is out there looking. 00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:24.559 But in our

epistle today, it says Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:32.240 Like, essentially, there is nothing that we can do that will exempt us for God searching for us as we wander. 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:43.359 So I wonder what the invitation is in the story today. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:46.559 Like, what is the thing that Jesus is trying to tell us, right? 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:51.680 Because, you know, it can't be that you gotta be good sheep or bad sheep. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:52.559 You know? 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:56.160 It's not like there's righteous sheep and there's the one unrighteous sheep. 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:59.119 There's obedient sheep and there's the disobedient sheep. 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:01.440 Friends, there's just sheep. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:03.680 It's just sheep. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.480 And we're the sheep, we're all of them. 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:19.519 Because sometimes we are out in the wilderness and we feel like we've wandered and we're all alone, and then nobody cares, and we're crying out, and sometimes we're on the mountain with the other 98 and we're feeling pretty darn good about ourselves. 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:21.759 We're both. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:30.319 And I think the invitation is to recognize that there's nobody so high that they're beyond wandering. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:34.880 And there's nobody so low that they're beyond being sought. 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:50.319 And so if we're in that place right now and we're the sheep, what does it mean to cry out? 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:52.079 Don't fall into despair. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:55.359 Oh Lord, have mercy, don't fall into despair. 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:04.559 I think Jesus is saying, don't fall into the trap of believing that tomorrow can't be different from today. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.559 Maybe I should just stop there. 00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:17.920 Don't fall into that trap, y'all. 00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:20.559 Cry out. 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:27.279 Cry out, cry out in this place, cry out to somebody, cry out, Lord, how long? 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:28.880 Lament. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.480 Just because you feel abandoned doesn't mean that you are. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.519 Cry out. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:35.680 Ask for help. 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.119 Say that you're wandering, say that you're alone, say that you feel unloved. 00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:40.160 Cry out. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000 Because the shepherd is looking. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.119 The shepherd is looking. 00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:56.240 God's love has a direction, and that direction is toward you and me. 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:04.480 And if you're in the 99, if you're in the 99, if you're feeling pretty good, right? 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:13.440 You know, friends, I'm saying sometimes, sometimes faithfulness looks like hallelujah, and sometimes faithfulness looks like how long, oh Lord? 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:19.759 And if you're in that 99 and you're feeling like it's hallelujah, then maybe the call is to notice. 00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.039 Have you ever had somebody notice you? 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:33.440 I mean, you know who I want to be when I'm older is that I I want to be somebody that people say, you know, when I'm with Sean, I feel like there's nobody else in the room. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:35.839 Boy, that's the man I want to be. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:39.039 I'm not that man right now. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:42.160 I want people to feel noticed. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:46.960 So if you're in the 99, maybe just notice. 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:50.000 Did somebody wander physically, emotionally, spiritually? 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.039 Are they feeling alone? 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:53.519 Are they feeling in the wilderness? 00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:57.039 Are they feeling cut off and unloved? 00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:01.519 And if so, can you move towards them? 00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:04.720 And what does that look like? 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:11.599 I mean, is there somebody in your life that you've decided you can just disregard? 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:14.799 It's not worth the energy, it's not worth the time. 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:24.000 And can we have the courage to join God because God is moving towards that person always? 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:33.680 So, friends, I I guess what I'm saying overall is that we're all sheep. 00:30:34.880 --> 00:30:35.920 We're all sheep. 00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:39.440 And God is the good shepherd. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:42.960 And and God's love moves towards us. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:46.400 And I think Jesus is.