Pastoral Message
(for members and friends of)
Geeseytown and Newry Lutheran Churches
4th Sunday after Pentecost
June 28, 2020
We begin by remembering:
Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me
welcomes the one who sent me. (Matthew 10:40)
Let us pray:
O God, you direct our lives by your grace, and your words of justice
and mercy reshape the world. Mold us into a people who welcome your
word and serve one another, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
Scripture: Romans 6:12-23 & Matthew 10:40-42
Thoughts from the Pastor:
Our gospel lesson teaches us that we can be a blessing to others.
We can show these blessings by being hospitable to others. Being
hospitable to others begins with God’s love for us and the Holy Spirit within
our hearts. And through the Holy Spirit we can show others the love of God
that we have received through the faith we have in Jesus Christ.
As I think about being hospitable to others, it is important that we
remember as a hospitable believer in Jesus Christ, we are really a host
helping people. God is our host because God is our creator and everyones
creator. Not everyone will reject our hospitality. Some will welcome us and
receive blessings through our hospitality; after all, we are the ambassadors
of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God? And Jesus will make sure we are
rewarded for what we do.
When people receive us and our hospitality, they are experiencing a
welcome from Jesus, for we are His representatives. We can show people
hospitable acts in many ways, but when we offer and do these acts, we are
also showing the grace and love that we have received from God. It begins
with trusting in Jesus Christ, which is an act of the will based on the
knowledge we have of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Through that
knowledge we have in Jesus, we learn about the grace and love He has
given us which makes us alive to God.
As I turn to Romans 6:12-23, the Apostle Paul is teaching us to not let
sin exercise dominion in your moral bodies, to make you obey their
passions. Sin and death have no control over Jesus Christ, and we are “in
Christ” so sin and death have no control over us. We can see this as we
begin our worship services with our confession and forgiveness. We
confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We admit
our sin and ask Jesus to have mercy on us, to forgive us, renew us and
lead us. When we confess our sin to Jesus, we can then delight in Jesus’
will and walk in his ways being hospitable to others. Yes, it is Jesus’ will for
our lives and ministries that we reach out and help others as His host
showing people His love and grace through us.
What we are doing through confession and forgiveness is yielding
ourselves to God because of His grace. The Apostle Paul has proved that
we are not saved by the law and that we do not live under the law. The fact
that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ does not give us
an excuse to sin, but it does give us a reason to obey Him. When you
reach out as a host to others helping them in many ways, you are doing
what Jesus wants us to do walking in his ways. Hospitality was started by
God in Genesis 17 where God was a host to Abram through a covenant.
Later in Genesis 18 God shows favor as a host to Abraham and Sarah
promising them a son. We always need to remember when we show others
hospitality as a host, we are doing God’s will and we are blessed to be part
of it.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Henry