Worship and Devotions

Third Sunday After Pentecost

Sunday June 29, 2025

We have no good apart from God. That makes Jesus’ call to follow him an invitation to freedom. This is freedom to revel in the Spirit’s fruit: love, joy, peace, and patience. This is freedom to not be imprisoned by anything that would keep us from the fullness of the life God has given us. This is the path of life.

Music

Spirit, Open My Heart

Spirit, Open My Heart | More Voices 79

Prayer of the Day

Sovereign God, ruler of all hearts, you call us to obey you, and you favour us with true freedom. Keep us faithful to the ways of your Son, that, leaving behind all that hinders us, we may steadfastly follow your paths, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Music

Hope Of The World

Hope of the World - ELW/ACS 1085

Readings

1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Semicontinuous Readings - 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25

GOSPEL - Luke 9:51-62

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus is unwavering in his commitment to his mission in Jerusalem and will not be swayed by pettiness. In a series of striking cases in point, he calls his disciples to a similar single-mindedness.

⁵¹ When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³ but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” ⁵⁵ But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶ Then they went on to another village. ⁵⁷ As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ⁵⁹ To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” ⁶² Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Praise to you, O Christ.

Music

The Son Of God, Our Christ

The Son Of God, Our Christ - Elw 584

Sermon

Bishop Carla Blakley, Eastern Synod

At a recent dinner party—and we host them often—someone leaned over their plate and asked, "So, Carla, what’s the sermon this week?" It's a common question. My neighbours are proud of their unofficial role as sermon consultants. I’ve come home more than once with scribbled notes on napkins, scraps of paper, or the back of a wine label—holy brainstorming over dessert.

This time, I told them I was working on a passage for later in June: Luke 9. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He sends messengers ahead to a Samaritan village, but the villagers refuse to welcome him. His disciples are furious. "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?"

And around that table, something happened. Every single person started telling stories of rejection.

Stories of not being welcomed.

Stories of being shut out of a relationship.

Of losing a job.

Of being excluded at school or at work.

Of being judged for the colour of their skin, or who they love, or simply for showing up where someone thought they didn’t belong.

And I bet you have a story too. We all do.

These are hard stories. They don’t leave us. They leave us raw. And if we’re honest, we sometimes want the same thing the disciples wanted: fire. God’s wrath. Cosmic payback.

I remember when I was in grade 12. I made an appointment with my Lutheran pastor—not ELCIC—and proudly told him I wanted to be a pastor.

He laughed. Not a chuckle—a belly laugh.

His wife, who was also the church secretary, stopped the Gestetner machine and stared. "We don’t ordain girls," he said. "What were you thinking, Carla?"

That hurt. Deeply. In that moment, if I could’ve called down fire, I might have.

Back at the dinner party, I wasn’t the only one. My friends wanted a superhero to swoop in and set things right—to punish the people who told them, "You don’t belong." "You are not welcome here."

But Jesus’ response in Luke is striking: He rebukes his disciples. Not just because they’re being violent, but because they’re still thinking like the world thinks. Their framework is vengeance and power.

His is peace and grace.

And it’s hard to make that shift.

I’ve been reading a book by Adam Grant called Think Again. It’s one of those rare books that makes you pause. I’d read a paragraph, put it down, and sit in silence. That’s the point of the book: to rethink. To examine not just what we believe, but how we think.

He writes, "If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom."

That line lingers.

He challenges us to question our assumptions, to embrace being wrong, and to cultivate intellectual humility.

Not to defend our beliefs out of fear. Not to attack others to prove we’re right. But to become learners again. Curious. Humble. Willing to be wrong.

And it struck me: this isn’t foreign to the gospel. It’s embedded in it.

Luke says, "Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem."

He knew where he was going. He knew it would cost him.

Along the way, people come forward, wanting to follow him—but they hesitate.

"Let me bury my father."

"Let me say goodbye to my family."

Reasonable requests. And Jesus replies with urgency:

"No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Now, Jesus isn’t saying family is bad, or that grieving is wrong.

He’s saying: there’s something bigger happening. Something that requires us to hold our beliefs loosely, our identity lightly, and our future openly.

Because faith—real faith—is not about clinging to what we’ve always known.

It’s about being ready to rethink, again and again, in the light of love, justice, and truth.

Jesus rebukes the disciples because they want to fit him into their old assumptions.

But discipleship is not about having it all figured out.

It’s about confusion, discomfort, and unlearning.

And this, friends, is holy.

Doubt is not the enemy of faith.

Rigidity is.

Jesus doesn’t offer us certainty. He offers us a path. A path that asks us to grow. To shift. To be wrong. And still be loved.

What Jesus is challenging is not just our personal comfort. He’s challenging the social norms that decide who is in and who is out. Who is worthy of love. Who gets to belong.

We live in a time when many are rethinking the church. And that’s not a crisis. That’s an opportunity.

How to go outside the church doors and be community, to open the church to all and neighbours.

LGBTQIA+ siblings asking: Can I be fully seen here?

Survivors of spiritual trauma asking: Can I ever trust religion again?

Young adults asking: Does this institution reflect Jesus or something else entirely?

To follow Jesus today is to stand with those questions—not against them.

Rethinking is not betrayal. Rethinking is devotion.

Rethinking who God is in light of science, history, and experience? Holy.

Rethinking what Scripture says about women, queer people, race, and power? Holy.

Rethinking our past complicity in systems of exclusion? Painful—but holy.

So maybe this week, instead of praying for fire, we pray for clarity.

Not the clarity of certainty—but the clarity that comes from love.

And maybe we hear Jesus again, saying not, "Be right," but "Follow me."

You may be rethinking everything right now.

Good.

Jesus walks with people on the road—not the ones who have it all figured out, but the ones who are willing to walk, and wonder.

Amen.

Prayers of Intercession

Drawn into the embrace of the holy Trinity, we lift our prayers for the wholeness of the church, the world, and all creation.

A brief silence.

Guide your church, O God and its leaders, both lay and ordained.

Anoint us for service and make us messengers of your peace. Emboldened by the witness of Christians throughout history, send us to proclaim your reign come near. God of grace, hear our prayer.

Protect this world, O God. Watch over fields and fruit trees, foxes and birds, the pleasant land beneath us and the sun and moon above. Keep us mindful of the rich inheritance you have given us in the natural world. God of grace, hear our prayer.

Counsel our leaders, O God. Make them steadfast in seeking justice and unable to be shaken as they pursue peace. Lead them by your Spirit to listen and respond to the people they govern. God of grace, hear our prayer.

We pray for the nations. Pave a way to justice, drown the forces of oppression, bring peace on earth. Give leaders the will to turn from war and violence especially Israel, and Hamas, Palestine, Gaza, and Iran, Russia and Ukraine, India and Pakistan, and all of the Middle East. When people must flee their homes, guide them to safety. God of grace, hear our prayer.

Set free this assembly, O God. Grow your Spirit’s fruits within us and within our congregation’s ministries. Set our faces always on you, that we might live in the freedom to which you have called us. God of grace, hear our prayer.

Here other intercessions may be offered.

Embrace all your saints, O God. We thank you for the faithful departed. Let us rejoice that you do not abandon us to the grave but lead us on the path of life. God of grace, hear our prayer.

Gather all our prayers in your mercy, O God, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

Amen.

Music

Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation

Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation

O Master, Let Me Walk With You

O Master, Let Me Walk with You - ELW 818