August 16, 2026 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from August 16, 2026
SERMON WITH READINGS — Pastor Dan Peterson
“Seven Discoveries”
Grace to you this morning, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
Some of you may recognize this style: when I first came here back in 2016, I would occasionally preach at the later service from the floor instead of the pulpit, so that we could be eye to eye and talk about what pops up in the Word. Well, this morning I want to talk about “Seven Discoveries.” Only in my case it’ll be six—as you notice in your worship bulletin, there is a seventh space, and that will be if you wish to fill it out for yourself. (I’ll explain momentarily.)
Let me start, however, by saying this: I love to learn. If you know anything about me over these past 10 years, two years, two weeks, it’s that I love to learn. I love, also, to have my presuppositions challenged, my assumptions—and the reason for that is, I believe it helps widen my perspective. My favorite parts of ministry have included, among other things, this process of discovery.
Each week, sometimes with anguish, I prepare a message for you that typically involves a considerable amount of research. You show up here, and out of my respect for your time, I need to show up here in a way that reflects a respect for the time that you’re taking to be here with me this morning, and the text itself.
So, from my point of view, out of respect for each of you as members, friends, or visitors today, it is imperative that I do my work—and in the process, I often find that I discover things that, in some cases, challenge my assumptions or my presuppositions. Now, today I’m talking about “discovery,” which is to say, things I notice in the text that I hadn’t seen before, things the text actually says, versus, say, popular opinion or even, in some cases, theological tradition. I had a wonderful Biblical Studies professor in graduate school who used to say, “Show me the text.”
“Show me the text. What does the text actually say?”
Following that method, I’ve found innumerable things in the Bible that astound me and challenge my assumptions. Now that my call is coming to an end, I want to share with you, not countless examples of this, but just six: six passages that, over the course of preaching here these last 10 years, I will never read the same again, because of the research I did to prepare for a sermon, or for a forum, or in some cases the book that I wrote.
At the end of this, I want to invite you to participate. This is interactive, which is to say, there is a space in your bulletin for you not only to identify the six discoveries that I’ve made, but for you to identify a discovery or something you’ve learned about a passage in the Bible over the course of our time together.
Why seven? Well, seven, as you know, is the number of completion. It’s God’s number. It takes God six days to build a world, but it’s only on the seventh day that that world is perfected. And so, in many ways, you will “perfect” the world I’ve tried to create these past 10 years…
***
Note: What follows is a summary of the Six Discoveries Pastor Dan covered in his sermon.
You are invited to ponder the discoveries lying in the passages noted below!
… Now there are many other passages, as I said in the beginning, in the Bible that I will never read the same after preaching here and teaching forums at Queen Anne Lutheran for this last decade. But now at least you’ve heard six of them.
From 2 Corinthians 2:14-17
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: 16 to the one group a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is qualified for these things? 17 For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many, but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.
Instead of talk about “having been” saved, we are being saved.
From Acts 9:36
36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.
Instead of talk about exclusively male disciples, we meet a female disciple in the Book of Acts.
From 1 Kings 3:5-14
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9 Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”
Instead of talking about the impossibility of prayer, we are taught by King Solomon that prayer is indeed possible, but that we should pray not for things, but rather a mindset, a disposition: wisdom.
From 2 Timothy 2:8
8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—
that is my gospel.
and Romans 10:5-10
5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim), 9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation.
We learn that the core message, at least as it’s repeated in the Book of Romans
and in Second Timothy, is not simply one about Jesus dying for our sins.
It’s about Him being raised to new life, because death, not hell, is the enemy of God, and nothing can separate us from such love.
From Psalm 103:13-14
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.
We’ve learned about how God has compassion for us, not simply because we’ve done something wrong; but because all of us, you and I—and I hate to break this to you—are mortal. God knows we are dust.
From Matthew 15:21-28, today’s Gospel
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.
And finally, we got to see a human portrait of Jesus. This is the Messiah who not only weeps, as we see in John 11; this is a Messiah capable of changing his mind, of being enlightened by a woman on the edges of Palestine, who is among the doubly-oppressed, as a woman and a Canaanite. Jesus changes his mind, and the woman becomes the site of Divine disclosure.
***
Now I want to know what you think. What’s a discovery or insight you’ve had over these past months, years, whatever about the Bible that you may not read the same going forward? I want you to write that down for number seven. One thing—and if you don’t have something in mind, then that’s fine too. What I’d like to do now is invite you to complete the story by filling in something if you can, and then, if you wish, by joining me or at least on your way out from service this morning, sharing one thing you’ve learned over the course of our life together.
Let’s pray.
Kind and loving God, we give you thanks for the fellowship and life together that we share here at Queen Anne Lutheran Church, and I give you thanks for all the people gathered here this morning—whether visiting, relatively new, longtime member, or somewhere in between—we ask that you keep our eyes open and invite us to do as Jesus did, by being open to other points of view and by willing to let our assumptions be challenged when we read the scriptures themselves; that the text, ultimately, is the site of your disclosure to us. Be with us in our journey forward as we embark in new adventures and new chapters, and remind us constantly that it is always good to learn, and that seven discoveries are perfect.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.