September 6, 2026 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from September 6, 2026
READINGS
First Reading: Ezekiel 33:7-11
7 So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
10 Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have said: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” 11 Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Second Reading: Romans 13:8-14
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
SERMON— Guest Pastor Doug Stensby
You do know why you should never let a Norwegian go to lunch? It takes too long to retrain them afterwards, when they come back.
It’s been 10 years. I’m going to need a whole lot of training, I think; I’m not sure where to stand, and all of those things; I’m trying to struggle to find my way into my pocket to turn the mic on and off and those things—but we’ll get along just fine. It is so good to be back. It’s just a delight to be here, and there are so many wonderful things that I remember about being here, a long time ago. It is a real treat. Thank you for offering me the opportunity to come.
Well, if you’ve been around church stuff much, you might know that Matthew 18 has become sort of a code word. It is, in fact, the only reference to Scripture that is found in the constitutions of our church, and it refers precisely to this. It’s found in the chapter on “Discipline” in the constitutions. I should know this. One of the last things that I did as I was literally trying to get out the door at the end of June, way back there in 2016, was trying to put together the final draft to present to you for a Constitution that was in need of some updating. After 10 years, I hope it’s not the same as it was then. But you know how that goes.
These are the things that we need, and everybody sort of understands the basic wisdom in this: If you have a disagreement, try and work it out as best you can. If you need a little help, go with someone else. If it needs a little more work than that, find someone else. And finally, it gets to a point that, you may be at that point, where it’s just time to say, you know, it’s been good, but it may be time for us to find different ways to live.
This happens in church all the time. People go off and find a different congregation. What we would hope is that this is never an issue of “who gets to win the argument.” It always needs to be who gets to win each other back.
Jesus says this: “If a member listens to you, you have regained that one.” Paul reminds us that we do participate in a “ministry of reconciliation,” that in the same way as God has reckoned the world to Himself, God also calls us to reckon ourselves to one another.
Now I will say, these are things that are not easy to do. When I came back here to Seattle in in 2001, it was because things didn’t go well at my previous congregation. As a matter of fact, I was firmly convinced that they had wronged us incredibly, and I could tell stories that would make your hair fall out. I’m not sure if that’s the explanation or not, but who knows? And for years, as I was going from interim to interim, I would find myself in my car yelling and screaming at these people, at the injustice of what they had done to us. I’m just glad that 2004 Subaru was not bugged, because I would be completely embarrassed. And I should be.
And then I realized at some point… it took me a while: You know what they were saying about me? Not a thing! They were probably saying, “Yeah, there was that couple that was here, weren’t they?” They had probably forgotten me a long time. This is when you sort of let them live rent-free in your head, and I was allowing it to take place, because in this case, I was not letting it go. I was hanging onto it.
Now this is an interesting line here. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
That’s found in two other places in the Gospels. The first time is in Matthew 16, so just a little bit before for this, when Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” and Peter comes up with the classic answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And at that point, Jesus gives to him a commission. “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
It’s also found again, interestingly enough, in the 20th chapter of John. Now John doesn’t have that same conversation that the other Gospel writers do, but on the evening of that resurrection day, Jesus appears to the disciples as they were gathered in that upper room, and he came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” And after this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Now this is sort of a commission of its own kind, for the congregation of the faithful, that in waiting their 50 days would find themselves baptized in the Spirit and sent out into the world, and they have been given this authority and responsibility as well.
But it’s interesting in this place, in the 18th chapter; now, that same promise has been narrowed specifically to this kind of a situation, between brothers and sisters. Can we hang on to the things that are important, and let go of the things that aren’t?
And God will support us in in this work. For God calls us to be a community together.
Now it’s interesting that at one point I thought, “You know, I’m going to sort of look at this in the broader range, because you say “Matthew 18” and your mind instantly goes to this text. But what’s in the rest of the chapter? And I might be sort of stretching it a little bit, but it seems that the entire chapter has to deal with “how is the Church going to live together?” And it speaks of respect for everyone. Jesus calls a little child to stand in the midst of them and says, “This is the greatest in the kingdom of God.”
It speaks of forgiveness. It speaks of that kind of work that we need to do together. Now I mention that because this is a special day. Your congregation is now just grown by one, and Indigo is just as cute as he can be—isn’t he? I mean, unless you splash a little cold water on him, he’s just happy to sit there and look around. It’s just a real treat.
But we all know where this is going to go. You can tell this kid is a sinner, just like the rest of us; and it’s not going to be long that, soon after he masters the mama and the dada, he’ll get to that other word that every kid knows, which is “no.”
He’s now a part of this community, this communion of faith, which in this case will certainly expand beyond the doors of this this building. We are one in Christ, wherever that is, but we have the responsibility to teach Him what it is to live together.
So I had this grand scheme that I was going to do a Bible study or a sermon series on the entire 18th chapter of Matthew, and it was going to be great—and all of a sudden, COVID descended. But I still remember the things that I learned in that.
It was interesting, because a congregation that I served was really incredible. They were wonderful. They had long pastorates where they spoke lovingly of their pastors, and it was a great place. I loved being there—as I seem to love every place that I’ve gone—but, but they are certainly a wonderful place.
But about every 12, 13, 14, years, something would come up, and there would be a big fight, and some people would leave the congregation, or they’d stomp off because they didn’t get their way, or whatever it is, and the pastor would invariably leave in one way or another. And they’d start all over again, and they’d be back to their wonderful, loving selves.
It seems that we need to practice these things. It looked like they just forgot how to do this! After 10 or 12 years, you just forget what you’re supposed to be doing here! These are the things that need to be lived out, day after day after day. Indeed, as Luther explains the meaning of baptism, he reminds us that it’s not just that it’s done one time on a particular day in a particular font, but that it is lived out day after day, as the old person within us—that one that wants to say “no,” that one that wants to hang on to every grievance and gripe that we have, that one that wants to just rise up in rebellion against anyone who looks at us the wrong way—is put to death and drowned.
And that out of that water rises a new person, to live in righteousness and holiness and purity before God.
Now I’m not so sure. It looks like there’s still some work to be done among us. I’m pretty sure how that goes. But it’s interesting, that the work of baptism is indeed a lifelong thing. Yesterday, I had the privilege of joining with some friends of mine. You know one of them. I was a classmate, in seminary, of Karen Bates. Karen Bates has a congregation that’s just about five miles west of where I live, and her brother, of course, is Kevin Bates at Magnolia. And certainly, I wanted to be there for this because this was the memorial service of their mother.
I just got a text as I was getting in the car that my next-door neighbor, whose dad was just placed in hospice a couple of days ago, also is now in the arms of Jesus.
There’s something about the promise of baptism that we carry with us each and every day, that God is at work within us to give us the hope that we need; the comfort and grace, particularly in difficult times; the joy and the forgiveness that allows us to get along with one another when sometimes we really don’t even know if we want to—but that’s what happens here.
As we hang on to the things that are important, if they are bound there in our hearts and in our minds, God will hang on to them as well.
And the things that need to be let go, they too will pass away. And so we celebrate both the beginning of life and the end of life that holds together the promise of this miraculous thing that is found in such simple terms as water, but it is the promise that God gives, that sustains us.
Now, congratulations! You get to start the process all over again! You will come together as a congregation, as a committee first of course, and you will debate and deliberate and think and dream and pray and do all kinds of wonderful things. And I can assure you, as often as I’ve watched this, it works. And you, as a congregation, will continue to sustain and support them with your prayers and encouragement.
But at some point, you’re going to have to call a pastor, and they, too, are not going to be perfect. None of us is; and you know that well. But you also know how to be good, and gracious, and forgiving, and loving—not just to those inside the building, but also to those on the outside, and now you know how to do that as well. So that when Indigo grows up, and he returns here from time to time to visit with friends and family, he will be warmly welcomed in as well.
This is important stuff, and it always comes with the promise of God: that where two or three agree on anything in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
Amen.