Preaching and Teaching from St. John Ev. Lutheran Church (Sherman Center), Random Lake, Wisconsin

READING

Matthew 9:14–26 (NKJV)

14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” 19 So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

20 And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. 21 For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” 22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

23 When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, 24 He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. 25 But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went out into all that land.

READING

Isaiah 23:6–14 (NKJV)

6 Cross over to Tarshish;

Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!

7 Is this your joyous city,

Whose antiquity is from ancient days,

Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?

8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,

Whose merchants are princes,

Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

9 The Lord of hosts has purposed it,

To bring to dishonor the pride of all glory,

To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

10 Overflow through your land like the River,

O daughter of Tarshish;

There is no more strength.

11 He stretched out His hand over the sea,

He shook the kingdoms;

The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan

To destroy its strongholds.

12 And He said, “You will rejoice no more,

O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.

Arise, cross over to Cyprus;

There also you will have no rest.”

13 Behold, the land of the Chaldeans,

This people which was not;

Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert.

They set up its towers,

They raised up its palaces,

And brought it to ruin.

14 Wail, you ships of Tarshish!

For your strength is laid waste.

Matthew 9:9–13 (NKJV)

9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

The First Commandment is not chiefly about the gods we refuse to build, but about the trust of the heart: whatever it clings to in the day of trouble is its god. Jerusalem clung to its walls and its waters and never looked to the Maker, and when God called it to mourning it answered with a feast and the creed of the hopeless — eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. To such hardened impenitence the Law can only speak its terror: no atonement, even to death. Yet atonement is precisely the word the Gospel speaks, for the Maker we would not look to was numbered among the slain outside the wall, and His blood purges the sin no ox or sheep could cover. So the fatalist’s table is overturned at the altar, where we eat and drink not because tomorrow we die but because He died that we might live.

A fig tree in full leaf promises fruit and has none. Jesus curses it, then walks into a temple just as green — crowded, busy, alive to the eye — and finds the same thing: a house of prayer turned into a market, all show and no figs. James names it a third time: a church that seats the rich man in the good place and the poor man at the footstool. Leaves without fruit. Dead faith — the kind the demons have, who believe and tremble.

But the cure is not "grow your figs or be cursed too" — that is only the curse again. The Lord of glory is hanged on a tree and made a curse in the barren tree's place. He becomes the poor man in the filthy clothes so the poor man can be seated in glory; He becomes Himself the new house of prayer for all nations, where the outsider is welcomed and fed and never sent to the footstool. Living faith receives Him — and the figs follow, not to be saved, but because the tree is finally alive.

Texts: Mark 11:11–23 and James 2:1–9. Preached at St. John Ev. Lutheran Church and School, Sherman Center — Random Lake, Wisconsin.

June 22, 2026

June 23, 2026

The religious men accused Jesus—“This Man receives sinners and eats with them”—and He took it up as His glory, answering with the lost sheep and the lost coin. The affliction that sweeps through your life is not a club driving you out but a broom sweeping you home: His pursuit, not your punishment. He lights the lamp of His Word, finds the worn coin that still bears His image, lays the sheep on His own shoulders rejoicing, and carries you to the rail. You came in a lost coin; you go out treasure in the King’s own hand.

June 22, 2026

June 21, 2026

June 20, 2026