Wear Love - A Sermon for Sunday July 6 2026
First Reading: Colossians 3:12-15
A reading from Colossians.
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord[f] has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ[g] rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm: Psalm 145:8-14 - Spoken Responsively By Whole Verse
8 The Lord is gracious and full | of compassion,
slow to anger and abounding in | steadfast love.
9 Lord, you are | good to all,
and your compassion is over | all your works.
10 All your works shall praise | you, O Lord,
and your faithful | ones shall bless you.
11 They shall tell of the glory | of your kingdom
and speak | of your power,
12 that all people may know | of your power
and the glorious splendor | of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your dominion endures through- | out all ages.
You, Lord, are faithful in all your words, and loving in | all your works.
14 The Lord upholds all | those who fall
and lifts up those who | are bowed down.
Second Reading: Romans 7:15-25a
A reading from Romans.
Life captive to sin is a catch-22 existence in which we know good but do not do it and do things we know to be wrong. Through Jesus Christ, God has set us free from such a futile existence.
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25a Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation O God, We Call (ACS 1075) (X2)
The assembly stands to welcome the gospel.
O God, we call, O God, we call,
from deep inside we yearn,
from deep inside we yearn,
from deep inside we yearn for you.
Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The holy gospel according to St. Matthew the 11th chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus chides people who find fault with both his ministry and that of John the Baptist. He thanks God that wisdom and intelligence are not needed to receive what God has to offer.
[Jesus spoke to the crowd saying:] 16 “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
18 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon
The assembly is seated.
It was good to be away at Camp Kuriakos.
The theme for this year is “Wear Love.”
We talked about wearing kindness and compassion
humility and meekness,
calmness,
steadfastness
and forgiveness.
The clothing that we choose to wear
reveals something about ourselves.
what skin is shown and what is hidden,
logos and brand names and styles
it all says something.
As followers of Jesus,
we are invited to wear a different kind of clothing.
We are invited to wear love.
To put on kindness and compassion,
to put on humility and meekness,
to be steadfast amidst trials,
calm in the face of adversity,
to be eager and ready to forgive.
The question I asked again and again
both to the young people of our province,
and to the seniors enjoying prime time camp:
How do we move forward
in the face of disappointments?
I used this walking stick while at camp,
and I was thankful for the people
who complimented me on it.
But as beautiful of a walking stick as it is,
I told the group - I am very disappointed in it.
You may know that my wife and I
purchased my childhood home back in 2020.
My mom had died,
my dad had met someone special
and was to be married again.
News came about that I was considering a call
here to Advent Lutheran Church,
back to Calgary,
and my dad showed a great kindness to my family,
and gave us an early inheritance
that allowed us to purchase my childhood home.
Well, we moved in, November 2020,
right in the heat of the pandemic,
and we wanted to make this home ours.
We wanted to plant roots, so to speak,
and so we planted a tree in the back yard.
It was a beautiful weeping birch,
and we found the right spot in the yard,
so it would grow tall and wide
offering shade to our home and yard.
I was very disappointed
late summer, early fall last year,
our tree died.
We had named him Groot,
after the Guardians of the Galaxy hero,
and the powerful tree
that represented our hopes and dreams
for our new home and our family,
Dead.
This was a symbol of what we had been given
and what we’ve worked so hard for.
Dead.
It is hard to move forward
when something you’ve built
seems to be crumbling.
How do you move forward
when facing disappointments?
There’s a saying attributed to Martin Luther,
Even if I knew that tomorrow
the world would fall to pieces
today I’ll plant my apple tree
It’s a way of saying
let God be God
and let me be me.
God knows the future,
I don’t.
How can I possibly know the world would fall to pieces?
Amidst disappointments,
challenges,
burdens,
heavy burdens
We live our baptism.
We put on love.
We take out the farm tool,
the yoke,
and we hook up with Jesus,
The yoke has some weight,
Jesus helps us with our load,
and we take on faith, we take on mercy,
kindness, compassion,
forgiveness, humility
and join Jesus’ mission.
You could say that the cross of Christ
was the greatest disappointment ever.
On the road to Emmaus,
the two apostles talk with Jesus,
not knowing it is Jesus with them.
They told Jesus their pain and sorrow:
We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
How do we move forward amidst disappointments?
Trust in the God who made you.
you are not a mistake,
you are fearfully and wonderfully made,
knit together lovingly in your mother’s womb.
God knows you inside and out,
and you are chosen.
I talked to the group about compassion.
Compassion is life changing,
compassion is the secret to life, to happiness.
We are called to live our faith in loving service,
to put others ahead of ourselves.
But you cannot pour out water from an empty jug.
Sympathy - I feel sorry for you.
we might send a sympathy card at a death.
Sympathy is good.
only gets so far.
Empathy is the next step,
taking on the emotion of the other,
the feeling of the other for ourselves.
Walk a mile in her shoes,
so to speak,
to understand what the other’s experience
might mean for me.
But with empathy we get stuck,
focusing on one’s suffering,
and those emotions can weigh us down.
Compassion takes the next step.
compassion means to suffer with,
compassion moves from sympathy,
to empathy,
to seeking to do something to alleviate the suffering.
Compassion listens to the other,
to really understand their suffering.
Compassion can be holding a hand,
joining in prayer
baking a casserole.
Compassion doesn’t cost much,
there’s a warm glow that follows,
insight into the other follows,
love for the other follows.
When people speak up and say they are suffering,
we ought to listen.
In public discourse,
with all the so-called polarizing topics of the day,
how to move forward
with continued calls to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,
with growing racism in our city,
particularly anti-brown racism
and growing anti-semitism,
with 2SLGBTQIA+ people reporting
ongoing bullying
and difficulty receiving gender affirming care,
How do we moved forward
while people in our society,
people in our congregation - are suffering?
Put on compassion,
listen to the cries of those suffering,
imagine how that might feel for myself
to be considered less than human,
and then we can put on the garment of compassion,
and seek to alleviate the suffering.
Compassion will lead us forward.
And maybe we too can have some compassion for ourselves,
Jesus says love your neighbour as yourself,
that means you’ve gotta love yourself,
because you are worth loving,
God sure says so.
How do we move forward amidst disappointments?
when the thing we’ve built seems crumbling,
when we search for new life
and are surrounded by death,
when the roots we’ve planted
are no longer secure?
Wear love.
put on the garment of kindness and compassion,
both for you yourself,
and your neighbour.
Wear humility,
take up the right amount of space.
Some of us take up too much space
and use cutting words to make me bigger
using cutting words to make the other
seem smaller,
and some of us don’t take up enough space,
and need to stand up a bit.
Be the you that God made you to be
and is making you to be.
Put on the yoke of Jesus.
Now, I have to clarify,
the yoke is not the yellow part of the egg,
we are talking the farm tool.
This is not about egg on your face,
allow Christ to help carry your load,
and you’ll find that with that yoke connected to you,
you might find yourself joining Jesus
joining God’s work.
How do we move forward when faced with disappointment-
forgive. Just forgive.
Let it go Elsa.
It is not my tree’s fault.
Groot was just standing around.
Flapping in the wind.
It’s not the trees fault he got infested and died.
And you know what it’s not mine either.
I took good care of Groot.
And even if it was my fault - I forgive me.
This cannot hold me back any longer.
How can you move forward in hope and happiness
if you won’t forgive yourself?
Because of forgiveness,
I can move forward.
Because you are filled with God’s Spirit,
you can speak the truth about the present
This is the same Holy Spirit that was in the beginning with God,
the Spirit who hovered over the waters,
creating order and beauty out of chaos,
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead,
that Spirit is in you,
bringing order and beauty
amidst the chaos of your life.
Because of compassion,
I can understand myself and those who have hurt me
You, dear child of God,
are made in the image of our triune God,
you are beautiful,
fearfully and wonderfully made
knit together in your mother’s womb.
You are of immeasurable worth in God’s eyes,
and by faith,
we can put on Jesus glasses
and view the world and others
like Jesus does -
I can look at you and any and see God’s face.
Because of humility,
I can take up the right amount of space
i can be me, not more than me,
and definitely not less than me,
and celebrate others being themselves
I can remain steadfast in the challenges
because God is with me
How can you move forward when you’ve faced
disappointment?
when the thing you’ve built
comes crumbling down,
when it feels like all your effort is for nothing,
when conflict and challenge arise,
How can you move forward?
Wear love.
wear love.
