June 21, 2026 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from June 21, 2026
READINGS
First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-13
7 O Lord, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out;
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering:
“Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
“Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me like a terrifying warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12 O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous;
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
Second Reading: Romans 6:1b-11
1b Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39
[Jesus said to the twelve:] 24 “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
SERMON—Pastor Dan Peterson
Grace to you, and peace, from God, the Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
As you can see, there is good reason for why I chose today not to preach on the Gospel Reading, especially, given the irony of what it says, if that’s the correct word, about fathers on Father’s Day!
Over the last few weeks, instead, I have been focusing on finding one line or phrase for you to remember when it comes to each of the sermons I preached. Accordingly, on Holy Trinity Sunday, we talked about how the Trinity is the Christian way of saying that God is love. Over the next couple of Sundays, we’ve talked about the freedom we have by God’s grace to ask questions.
Today, I want to talk about the need to be seen, and what it means when Paul talks about the invitation in Christ for “newness of life.”
What difference does it make? This is a question I find myself asking when it comes to the Christian faith. What difference does it make in my life, and in yours? Does it make us more compassionate? Does it make us more empathetic, more generous, more patient, more kind? Does it increasingly turn us away from ourselves and toward our neighbor, especially our neighbor in need? More broadly, through us, does it make the world, however modestly, a better place? Does it advance, what we pray for each week in the Lord’s Prayer, that God’s kingdom on earth will be manifest? What difference does our faith make?
Now when it comes to the question of what difference our faith should make in our lives as followers of Jesus, one of the best answers in the New Testament comes from Romans 6, our Second Reading for today. Romans, as you know, was a letter written by the Apostle Paul, the most widely read, or at least heard, author in the history of Western civilization. This was the Apostle Paul’s magnum opus, written sometime during the late 60s, just as the Emperor Nero was stepping up to power. In it we find what one architect of the Protestant Reformation calls “an entire compendium, or summary, of the Christian religion.”
We’ll come back to Romans 6 in a minute, and how the Apostle Paul answers the question of what difference our faith, more specifically our baptism, should make in our lives, but first I want to talk about something tangentially-related: Motorcycles.
Yesterday, I was driving south on 15th Avenue to Lower Queen Anne. Mine was the first car stopped at a red light waiting to go left on Mercer Street. Some of you know that intersection, going south on 15th Avenue, attempting to make a left onto Mercer Street to get to Lower Queen Anne. While I was waiting, I noticed coming toward me, a large group, maybe 50 or so motorcycles. Most of them I could tell were young men, and here’s the thing: as they passed, they made a LOT of noise. A number of them did wheelies. Some, and I’ve never ever seen this before, headed straight toward my car, and then veered to my left, right at the last minute. Have others had this experience here in Seattle? A few of you?
I was stunned. I’ve never seen, like I said, anything like that before, but what I could see on their faces were smiles, laughter. It was, as you can imagine, a bit jolting, not to mention, somewhat perplexing.
A couple hours later, now seated in a comfortable coffee shop, I saw the same group of young men ride by on their motorcycles. Again, I saw the same reckless stunts and behaviors. I heard the same laughter. Now, however, I had the luxury of pondering why. What motivated this group of men, not only to break the law (they ran multiple red lights), but also to put their lives at risk by showing off? Well, I suspect some, if not most of you, will agree: these young men were seeking attention. They wanted to be seen, and this was the best way—perhaps, for some of them the only way—they knew how. It’s interesting; we live in a culture where “being seen” has become the dominant aspiration in life, especially among younger people. For decades, classic childhood dream jobs included everything from being a teacher to a firefighter, from being an astronaut to an athlete.
In recent years, however, digitally-driven entertainment careers have skyrocketed in popularity. Children now want to be YouTubers; they want to be streamers; they want to be content creators; they want to be influencers. They want to be seen, and that’s because of what they see.
Indeed, I submit, like the motorcycle gang I mentioned, they want to be seen so much so, that for some it becomes the very reason for their being, the very purpose of their life. Being seen, it would seem, is for some, all that matters.
Of course, being seen isn’t bad in itself. Recognition at pivotal points in our lives can be healing and affirming. It has been my honor over the years, including over the last few weeks, to recognize, for example, two graduates from high school in our congregation. That kind of thing is normal, and should happen. There’s nothing wrong with that. Those are moments we should celebrate.
But the aspiration in our culture to be seen, thanks again, in large part, to social or digital media, and the implication that being seen means being fulfilled, calls to mind something the writers of Scripture universally condemn. What? You might ask? You guessed it: idolatry. Which brings us back to the Apostle Paul.
For Paul, the single most important difference the Christian faith makes in our lives is that it frees us from the power of sin, so that “we might walk,” as he says in verse 4 of our reading today, “in newness of life.” Let me repeat that. The most important difference the Christian faith makes in our lives is that it frees us from the power of sin, so that “we might walk,” as he says in verse 4 of our reading today, “in newness of life.”
This newness of life, this freedom, is not simply something that awaits us after we die, it’s available to us here and now. Paul writes, “We know that our old self was crucified with Jesus, that is in baptism, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”
As you can see, or in this case hear, “sin” for Paul is not simply wrongful behavior, it is not simply missing the mark, as it is in the Old Testament. “Sin” for Paul is a cosmic enslaving power that compels us to live in bondage to idols, to live for things and abstractions that promise what they can never deliver, namely fulfillment.
Dying with Christ, in turn, means we are dying to the power that motivates us to worship idols. And being raised to newness of life in Christ means being freed from their power over us—and that includes, at least in its extremes, the need to be seen. The need for recognition, the need for status, the need for a legacy.
Finding newness of life is experiencing freedom that comes when these idols that once had power over us lose their grip. This is the point I want you to take with you this morning. It’s letting go of the need to be seen, being freed, in the process, to live fully, no longer simply for oneself, but for God and neighbor—as God intended in the first creation, and in the new creation of Jesus Christ.
So, what does this freedom from sin actually look like in real life? It’s when a church musician composes music, not for the sake of name recognition, but to glorify God in praise and thanksgiving. That’s freedom from the idol of needing to be seen.
It’s when a parent—and I’ve seen this over and over again among the families at Queen Anne Lutheran—raises a child, not to outperform other kids at school, and thus draw attention to themselves, but to be a good person who treats others with kindness. That’s freedom from the idol of needing to be seen.
It’s driving around Seattle on your motorcycle, just for the sake of the ride. That’s freedom from the idol of needing to be seen. And I have to say, in this horde of motorcyclists that I saw coming toward me that that afternoon yesterday: I watched as all of them went by, and some of them came really close to hitting my car; I was mildly terrified, everyone was doing wheelies; they ran a red light, as I said. But at the end of the pack was this little guy on what looked like a tricycle with big, huge wheels about three feet off the ground. He was just having a good time, just the little caboose following the train of madmen that was going past me on 15th Avenue, all of whom, except I imagine, but him, needed to be seen.
So, what difference does the Christian faith make in your life and mine? Well, hopefully, by practicing or rehearsing the life to which we’re called during worship, in the sharing of the peace, in the offering by the word of God, we sing and hear, by the grace we receive in holy communion, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are indeed kinder, more compassionate, more generous, and more mindful of the needs of others.
A few of you have heard me say this before. Several years back, shortly before my mom died, she confided in me that she was more proud of me as a pastor than she was when I was a professor. “Why?” I asked. “Because,” she said, “You’re nicer.” That’s the faith making a difference in the life of a Christian.
Yet for Paul, it’s something even more basic. The Christian faith should make a difference in our lives by setting us free, free from the various idols that vie for power and control over us. This freedom may take years to acquire, but the newness of life it brings is worth it.
From what idol, then, or need, do you wish to be freed this morning? Ask God to free you, trusting that in Christ, the process, going all the way back to your baptism, has begun. Let go in Christ, and walk with me in newness of life.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.