Weekly Sermon: 06-07-2026

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection

station, and he said to him, Follow me. And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and

were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher

eat with tax collectors and sinners?

But when he heard this, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician,

but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners.

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt

before him saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

And Jesus got up and followed him with his disciples.

Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for 12 years

came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak.

For she was saying to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.

Then Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter,

your faith has made you well.

And the woman was made well from that moment.

When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd

making a commotion, he said, Go away, for the girl's not dead, but sleeping.

And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside,

he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

And the report of this spread through all of that district.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

You may be seated.

So yesterday was the annual Pride Parade and Festival in Dallas.

And if you don't know, Pride is a day where LGBTQ people and allies from all

over come together and celebrate who we are.

And remember, everything is taken to create a world where people can live more

safely and freely as themselves.

And we at St. Luke's took a group ourselves and we had a lot of fun there.

But every year, pride feels a little bit different to me.

Some years, I find myself rolling my eyes at all the rainbow capitalism,

all the companies trying to sell me something, because obviously I need more, I guess.

But then there are other years like this year where pride takes on a little deeper meaning.

Because we live in a world that can be combative and exclusionary towards LGBTQ

people. And for a few hours on that day, pride offers an alternative for that.

It becomes a place where people can be, where they don't have to explain or defend themselves.

And they can exist without fear of judgment.

And as I was reflecting on this yesterday, I found myself thinking how powerful

it is to have spaces where people know they belong.

Because throughout history, one of the things that we as humans have done very

well is decide who belongs and who doesn't.

Sometimes there are physical restrictions, but other times it's cultural and

social restrictions as well.

And we know the obvious barriers. There are laws and arguments currently being

debated about where a person can and can't be, whether it's bathrooms,

sports teams, health facilities, jobs and leadership.

But there are other barriers too, rhetorical barriers and cultural barriers

that remind you that you are another.

And navigating that world means that you have to assess every situation and

every space that you are occupying and wondering whether or not you are safe in that moment.

But this isn't only an LGBTQ experience. Human beings have found ways to do

this throughout history.

Women have historically been kept from leadership positions,

from voting and owning property. Many here still remember that.

People with black and brown skin in this country have had to navigate laws built

on segregation and still face systematic oppressions today.

And differently abled people have had to move through a world that was never

designed with their needs in mind.

But where these questions have been most persistent and probably the most painful

has been the universal church.

Because the questions the church has wrestled with throughout history,

who can come to the table, who can lead, who can marry, and who can belong,

have too often been met with resistance.

And answered with exclusion.

And those barriers don't just keep people from participating in church life.

They are real attempts to place barriers between people and God and between

human beings in the healing presence of Christ.

And it is into this question today between people and God and the barriers that

are placed between them that I think today's scripture speaks to.

And the story I want to touch on today is from the scripture is just three verses long.

And in this story, we meet a woman who doesn't have a name in the text.

It simply calls her a woman.

And she has been suffering from bleeding for 12 years.

And in the religious and cultural world that she lived in, that meant far more

than anything just physical.

And the pain that comes with it. But the purity codes in Leviticus meant that

her condition created real barriers in her life.

Barriers to worship, barriers to community, and to full participation in the life of her people.

But I want to be careful here as well, because it's easy to misread all this.

These rules weren't intentionally cruel. They were part of how them at the time

organized their common life.

But what can be true of any

human community including our own today is that sometimes the systems that we

create well not always cruel in nature can become systems that exclude and for

this woman that is exactly what is happening and for 12 years her body is the

reason she doesn't fully belong.

And then while living in those barriers she hears that

jesus is nearby matthew tells

us she comes up behind him and touches the fringe of his garment and that is

it just the fringe she doesn't announce it to anybody or she doesn't go to a

priest and gets declared clean which was the custom of the time,

she just decides to move towards Jesus and reaches out in a desperate act of faith.

And then Jesus turns towards her and he doesn't create, uh, he doesn't create distance from her.

He doesn't correct her. He simply looks at her and says, take heart, daughter,

Daughter Take heart Daughter,

For 12 years The world had defined her by her condition Set her apart and excluded

her But while the rest of the world Looked at her by her condition Jesus comes

and defines her by relationship.

To him, she isn't something to be managed or an impurity to be avoided.

She is somebody worthy of belonging and love.

She is a daughter of God and she is beloved and she is family.

And that's the gospel and the good news to her.

The berries that have been named for her, that kept her from full participation

in the spiritual and communal life of her people, Jesus dismantles them in a single breath.

Because that is who Jesus is and that is what Jesus does.

He moves through every barrier that we can construct between ourselves and others,

between people and God, and he acts and moves through those barriers anyways.

And it is only after she has been told that she belongs that she is given a

name, daughter, that she has her identity restored that Matthew tells us that she is healed.

And in the scripture, the woman is not alone. Because right before her story,

Jesus sits at a dinner table with tax collectors.

People whose profession made them social and religious outcasts.

And the Pharisees want to know why. Why would you eat with these people, these heathens?

Why would you eat with them? And Jesus says, I came not for the healthy,

but for the sick, not for the righteous, for the sinners.

He includes them and brings them in and sits at their table.

And then just after our woman named daughter's story, a young girl dies and

she should be set aside and agreed for.

But Jesus goes to her anyways and she lives.

Because not even the barrier of death can keep God from us.

Today's scripture names three people, all with different kinds of barriers,

social, religious, and even death itself.

And Jesus tears through all of them and turns towards these people.

And this raises a question for us. If this is who Jesus is and this is what

he does, what does it mean for the church that bears his name?

And I think it should make us stop and ask the question, what barriers keep

people from believing they belong in God's presence?

And how can we respond in such a way that destroys those barriers so that people

can know that they can go to God.

We are already doing some of these things here at St. Luke's and you heard from

our co-president Michelle about some of the ways that we are doing this as a synod.

We pride ourselves on being a place that welcomes all people who come through

our doors and this is amazing and we allow no barriers here at St.

Luke's to keep people from meeting God.

We do this through allowing full participation in the life of the church,

and regardless of their identity or their history.

And we allow people to come to the table,

which is so big in the life of the church because so many tables today are exclusive.

And these things matter a lot for people in the margin society wanting to meet

with God, and we should continue to do these things.

But also let us remember that this is an ongoing dialogue, because we may fully

never know what barriers someone may be carrying with them when they enter into our doors.

So be in constant conversation with ourselves

and others and make sure that we are continually asking questions

and making whatever changes we need to just

so that we can assure that we are living into our commitment to love serve and

welcome all and we should take joy and in this working conversation because

just like the woman in our story those on the margins live with barriers in their life.

And whether those barriers that were created for them are because they're race,

gender, sexuality, sickness, or perceived ableness.

Remember that these barriers come with scars. And sometimes it takes a little

time to break those down.

So if we can continue to do the work and continue to have those conversations,

whether it's in our committees, in our councils, in our ministries,

and in our classes so that we can continue this growth path.

And one practical way I may offer is that in October, the All Welcome team are

inviting everyone to join us for the Center of Peace Conference in Dallas.

It's a gathering of affirming churches from all over the Metroplex.

And it's a great opportunity to learn from others and continue this dialogue.

There's a flyer for it out there on the bulletin board, and everyone's welcome to join.

Regardless if you are LGBTQ, IA+, a loved one, there's somebody who is,

or an ally who wants to walk with those who are marginalized.

And you can talk with Pastor Linda and I about the costs, or if you need to

find out more information.

But this work of tearing down barriers between people and God doesn't just stop

while we're inside these walls.

Because another way that we can live out this message is to bring God's healing

into other spaces that you occupy.

Whether that's your workplace, your neighborhood, or your kids' school.

Any place you occupy outside of this building, Monday through Saturday.

Day we should be asking ourselves and those we

converse with every day about who

is being kept from living a full life in this space and

what barriers exist here and what

power do we have to help tear down those barriers

because we might not always be able to change

a law or rewrite policy but we as people

can be the place that makes a colleague feel safe enough

to be themselves around we can

be the neighbor who makes someone feel like

they belong on our streets and we can

be the parent who changes the culture in a school hallway just by showing up

because that is being jesus that is doing the healing work in our world and

this is how the daughter's story continues by what we do in the church building,

by what we do in the spaces that we occupy outside of this building.

And we get to be the ones who channels our story today and turns to them and says that they belong.

And the last thing I think this

passage teaches us is for those on the margins, whether they are sick,

And they feel like the world is ignoring them, whether they are differently

abled, whether they're LGBTQ of a non-white race or whatever it is,

that this message today is don't stop reaching for God.

For 12 years, this woman named Daughter by Jesus had every reason to stay home

and live within the limitations set on her and to believe that this was permanent.

But she reached out anyways, and Jesus never turns her away.

So if you're sitting here today and you spent years carrying messages that you

don't belong in God's presence, if you've been told that your body identity,

your past, your questions or your doubt puts you out of reach of grace,

know that Jesus is not standing at a distance waiting for you to get yourself

together before you approach him.

And he is not requiring you to be declared clean before he will turn towards you.

The word that he has for you is that you are a daughter, you are a son,

and that you are beloved, and that God is listening to your prayers today.

And you are always welcome in God's house and always welcome to the table.

So church, I urge you to remember we do all this because God's kingdom is not

a world where only certain bodies matter or belonging is something to be earned.

It is a world where every person knows that they are beloved and the church

gets to be the place where that dream starts to become real.

And that is what we mean when we say we exist to love, serve, and welcome all.

It is not a slogan, but a promise. A promise that when somebody walks through

our doors carrying 12 years, weeks, days, or a lifetime of barriers or shame

that was given to them by the world,

they will find community that

turns towards them the way Jesus turns towards the woman in our story.

And I think that's really beautiful. And as we continue that work here,

God's hope is that our work becomes infectious to those around us and our community

and the world starts to reflect God's kingdom a little more itself.

So let's view that church. Let's continue to grow and become that kind of church

who helps everyone around us hear that word for themselves, that they belong

and they are beloved by God.

Yonah, wounded in goodness of God's creation.

O the needy, and the Lord, the water of the day, and the fire of the God,

and the land to reach beside you, and the balance of the body,

and the glory of God's one.

Honor the nations, share this, watch out for the sake of your neighbor's re-generations,

the holy peace, and you both serve as one of all. Thank you, God.

If you were inspired by this week's.