We Gather to be Fed and Sent - 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
August 30, 2026
Our Old Testament lesson from the
prophet Jeremiah and our Gospel lesson from Matthew share a common theme. In both passages, God is challenging an
otherwise faithful follower because that follower’s actions and attitudes have
diverged from God’s will and God’s way. In
the case of Jeremiah, God has commanded him to deliver a very painful
message to God’s chosen people. They’ve
been unfaithful to God, and so devastating consequences are on the way. It’s a hard message for Jeremiah to hear, but
an even harder one for him to have to proclaim to his own people; so hard that
Jeremiah complains aloud, saying, “I wish I’d never been born!” But God, ever patient, offers forgiveness to
the rebellious prophet, and Jeremiah eventually resumes his holy yet dreadfully
difficult work of proclaiming God’s Word, even the parts that cause his heart
to ache.
In Matthew’s Gospel, it’s Peter who
opens his mouth only to insert his foot. You’ll recall from last week that Peter rightly proclaimed that Jesus is
the Messiah. But when Jesus clarified that
this would entail suffering and death, Peter went bananas and began lecturing Jesus
on how a Messiah is really supposed to act. It was a classic First Commandment violation:
Peter was substituting his judgment of right and wrong for that of
God. Peter too would receive ample
opportunity for repentance and reform.
These two lessons invite us to
reflect upon our own lives. Have there been
times when, just like Jeremiah, you’ve struggled against something God has
called you to do? I certainly have. And have there been moments in your life
when, just like Peter, you were convinced you knew better than Jesus? I’ve had plenty of those times as well. I suspect you have too. That strategy never works very well, does it? Each day is filled with choices. Our old sinful selves want to go in one
direction, and yet we know God has a very different pathway in mind for
us. But discerning, finding, and
following that pathway is often puzzling. We find ourselves asking a very fundamental question. As a Christian, how does God want me to
live?
Now, before we go any further, I
want to be explicit that we are saved by grace and grace alone. There is nothing any of us can do to
earn our salvation. Even our faith in
Christ is ultimately a gift of the Spirit. You simply can’t work your way to heaven. If you don’t believe me, ask the thief on the
cross who, solely by the grace of God, entered paradise alongside Jesus despite a lifetime of sin.1
So let’s be
clear: this question of how God wants us to live isn’t about works
righteousness. It’s about living a
fulfilling life. Think of it this
way. You can get a membership to a local
gym and be entitled to a host of wonderful benefits. But if you never go to the gym, what good is
that gym doing you? Now I know that’s a
very imperfect analogy to salvation, but because we so worry about turning our
faith into a mere work, we talk very little about what it means to live a
Christian life, and that’s a shame. We
need to be able to say, on the one hand, that we are saved by grace,
while simultaneously acknowledging that grace should transform us in some way,
and stir us to live a new life, the life God intended. That sounds joyful to me! But what does that kind of life look like?
Well, let’s begin our inquiry with
the first verse of today’s psalm: “Lord, I have lived with integrity.” What a beautiful statement. What is integrity? Often we reduce it to mere morality. But it’s bigger than that. Integrity is about wholeness. Think of a wall in your home. Without integrity, it becomes structurally
unsound. Maybe there are holes that mice
infest. Maybe the beams are rotting and
the floor will give way or the roof will collapse. To have integrity is to be complete. Whole. Even holy.
So now let’s move beyond theory and
get concrete. What does a Christian life
of integrity look like? We could
spend all year unpacking that, and certainly everyone’s situation will vary to
some degree. But I’ll offer you a simple
formula that’s easily adaptable to your circumstances and already
familiar to you. 20 years ago this year,
shortly after Pastor Lynn became Senior Pastor, Grace adopted a motto to
summarize our work as a congregation: Gather, Feed, Send. All these years later, we continue to use
that three-word phrase in nearly all our communications, including the cover of
the bulletin you have in your hands. It
has stood the test of time because it faithfully and succinctly communicates
what God has called us to be and do as Grace Lutheran Church.
But this three-word slogan isn’t
confined to the work of our congregation. It’s also a very helpful way for us to think about our individual lives
as Christians. We each gather so
we can be fed and sent. Whenever you wonder how Jesus is calling and inviting you to live as his
follower, think of that. We gather so we can be fed and sent.
Let’s unpack that. Gather means that followers of Jesus regularly come together for worship. It’s the most
basic way of giving thanks to God and of acknowledging God’s supremacy. Maybe some Sundays you’re tired or just not
in the mood. Believe me, I
understand. But obedience is a virtue. And on any given Sunday, there’s someone here whose faith and hope is being strengthened just because you are
here. So, a Christian life of integrity
begins with regular church attendance. We gather.
Secondly, as we gather, we are fed. Only here do we receive the essentials
we need to feed our souls and persevere in this life. We hear God’s Word. We receive the assurance of God’s love
and forgiveness after we rebel like Jeremiah or sin like Peter. And we are strengthened through the
sacraments of baptism and communion and the rich, eternal promises of salvation
they contain. The most visible parts of
our worship space all pertain to this feeding work: our pulpit, altar, and
font. Look, I treasure our livestream
broadcast ministry and all the great good it has done, but for those who are
physically able to be with us, you’ll never get the same spiritual nourishment
through a screen that you get here in person. To have a Christian life of integrity, we
need to be fed.
Third, we are sent. Being a Christian isn’t something we do for
just an hour on Sunday. It’s our
constant way of life. I think about that
when I look at those clear windows in the back of our sanctuary. They remind us that, having been fed, God
sends us into the world, because a Christian life is lived not only for our own sake but for the sake of others. As I’ve
said before, we bear Christ so we can share Christ. We do that in the way we treat others, in our
advocacy for a more just world, and in how we spend our time. Believe me, here at Grace we can always use
more hands. The work of being sent also
involves our money. That might
not be something you want to hear, but giving is a fundamental act of
discipleship, and it’s my prayer that we develop a deeper commitment to sacrificial
giving so we can support the many crucial ministries that emanate from this place.
There’s so much more I could say
about a Christian life of integrity if we had more time. If you want to dig in more deeply, a good
place to start is the list of responsibilities detailed in our baptismal
liturgy. They’re in your hymnal in two
places: pages 228 and 236. And if the
Spirit is now making you restless, urging you to deepen your walk with Jesus,
come see me. We can discern together
what that might involve.
Because friends, Jesus says to each
of us the very same thing he said to the disciples in today’s Gospel. “Deny yourself. Take up your cross, and follow me.” But how? Gather to be fed and sent. Amen.
© 2026 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Citations
1 Luke 23:39-43.
Sermon
Text: Psalm 26:1, Jeremiah 15, and the Gospel
Gospel Text: Matthew 16: 21-28
21 From that time on, [after Peter confessed
that Jesus was the Messiah,] Jesus began to show his disciples that he
must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. 22 And
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord!
This must never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to
Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting
your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
24 Then Jesus told his
disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their
life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find
it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole
world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to
come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone
for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some
standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom.”
BACK