Messiah Lutheran Church

Second Sunday after Pentecost

June 7, 2026

Light, Warmth and Watering

The weeks of summer coincide with the beginning of the Pentecost season. Summer brings sunny warmth, growing crops, and the promise of harvest: images of the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity in our lives, the church, and the world. Hosea speaks of God’s presence as the dawn, as a gentle shower, as light. In our life together as a community of faith, what needs light, warmth, and watering to grow and flourish? How might we be attentive to others’ needs to receive this nourishment through God’s words of life and holy supper?

Though Jesus was a devout Jew who practiced his faith, he was criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners—the religiously nonobservant. Jesus criticizes the self-righteous and reminds us that mercy is to be at the heart of our religious practices. God continues to be made known in those on the margins of society, like Matthew the tax collector and the hemorrhaging woman. As we gather each Lord’s day we receive the healing that makes us well and sends us forth to be signs of God’s mercy for the world.

Comments from the Cloud of Witnesses

Today the readings point to the mystery of holiness as a mystery of life-giving and love-sharing power. Such power begins and ends with life and love shared. This mystery is one the disciples of Christ are invited into, for he gives over his power to heal, to enlighten, and to love. That ideal of Christ’s power, the power to care, to share, and to heal, has not been the power that humans have used through history. Power over others rather than power for others has been more typical, from personal relationships to those of more global proportions. Today we are called to receive again the power that is given to all disciples. This day we are called to be co-creators with Christ of a world where Christ’s power continues to heal, to affirm, to encourage, to empower others. In giving his gift of reconciliation, we receive more of that gift, for Christ’s table assures those who believe that they shall share his power to proclaim and manifest God’s kingdom.

—Shawn Madigan, CSJ

[Shawn Madigan, CSJ, in Homilies for the Christian People, 112-113.]