Weekly Sermon: 03-22-2026 - Mindful Mission

The Holy Gospel according to John. Read to you.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified,

and God has been glorified in him.

If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,

and will glorify him at once.

Little children, I am with you only a little longer.

You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you,

where I am going, you cannot come.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved

you, you also should love one another.

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

When we lived in St. Louis, my husband, Dan, a Presbyterian pastor,

had a church member who loved to talk about the mission of his old church back

in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Rick had a southern accent, and he loved to tell stories.

So Rick told Dan that their previous church was a dying downtown church.

It was full of old folks, and everyone expected that the church would close

its doors after more of its elderly members passed on.

The Women's Association and this church got together regularly for Bible study,

and they thought, what we need is some babies.

So they looked around their circle and realized that no one was getting a message

like Sarah in the Bible to have a baby in their 80s or 90s.

And so they decided that the plan had to be to pray for babies.

But then they looked at their nursery and realized that no parent was going

to put their baby in a nursery that was as old and decrepit as theirs with dust bunnies for toys.

If they wanted their prayer for babies, to be answered, they had better get to work.

This Lent, as we count down to Easter, we are focusing on following the way

of Jesus, which we call discipleship.

The midweek videos and devotional book are about your personal devotional life.

The class after worship, which everyone is welcome to, whether you've been to

any of them or not, and we're talking about purpose and personal calling today,

is about developing your life as a disciple.

And in worship here, we're focusing on how we live together as a discipleship

community and that we are better together so we can become the strongest,

most loving, healthiest church and community possible.

And my prayer and hope in doing this is that we become a safe place to return

to for those who have been hurt by the church as we continue to move forward

in the mission that God calls us to.

So today, and it doesn't matter if you haven't heard any of the other sermons,

of course, you can listen to them on our podcast or on YouTube.

But today we are talking about mindful mission, that one of our commitments

or behaviors as a community together is to support the mission of our congregation together.

But I think it's easy to forget that our prayers are empty without a willingness to act.

That our vision and our hopes for the future are hollow without concrete steps to fulfill them.

That our financial gifts to the

church are ineffective without energy and skills to put them to good use.

That our regular attendance at church, which is wonderful, also needs to be

expanded by inviting someone new to join us.

We can come here and pray and worship and give and envision a great future,

and that's all well and good and wonderful and necessary.

But I think that the church of previous generations have taught us that all of that is enough.

And I'm so sorry that that's what we were taught and that that's what is how I was raised.

Because I don't think that that is what the Bible says ultimately about the

life of faithful disciples or faithful communities of Christians.

Because when it is physically possible, our prayers need to be backed by behavior.

Our vision needs to be supported with sweat equity.

Our generosity is most effective when it is accompanied by investments of our time and our talent.

Our resilience, our flexibility, our willingness to try something new.

Our worship is pleasing to God when it motivates not just behavior here, but action in the world.

When what we do in here is consistent with what we do out there.

Our passage from Micah cuts through all of this very clearly.

In ancient times as today, people want their worship and their offerings to

make themselves right and pleasing before God.

But the prophet rejects Israel's extravagant worship.

And instead, Micah says, no more sacrifices, no more extensive rituals and festivals and worship.

Instead, what matters is how you live every single day.

Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.

Faithfulness and supporting God's mission is not about impressing God with our goodness.

Oh my gosh, how many hours of my life have I spent trying to impress God with

my goodness? And God is like, yeah, nope.

Yeah, how many days have I spent my life totally missing the mark?

The sin of a perfectionist. God is not impressed with our extravagant worship,

but rather, it's about reflecting and embodying God's love, God's goodness out in the world.

It's about how we live our daily life, not how we do it, but how we allow God

to work through us, treating others fairly,

offering the steadfast loving kindness to others that God has shown to us,

not that I somehow manufacture because I'm trying to be good.

Asking God to accompany us daily humbly as the created, as the creature,

not the creator, not the one who's manufacturing the goodness.

Always remembering that we are the petitioner, not the one in charge.

Has anybody ever been in my office and you see on the bookshelf,

there's a printout that said, God is in control,

taped to the bookshelf so that when I'm sitting in my chair and I work at the

table, not at the desk, It's right in front of me all the time.

God is in control, not Linda.

God is looking for a matchup between our worship in here and our behavior out there.

And Jesus takes the message of Micah and simplifies it down to one word.

What is it?

Love, right? Isn't that what the gospel reading is all about? One word, love.

That's it. If Jesus were to sum up the gospel in one word, if we could sum up

the New Testament in one word, love.

Jesus is facing the cross. He has just washed the disciples' feet.

He has revealed that one of them will betray him. And now he gives them a new commandment.

Love one another as I have loved you.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. And why?

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples.

Everything comes down to love. and why love is missional have you ever like

it's right there love is missional by this everyone will know,

that you are my disciples. When we embody Jesus' love for each other,

everyone else in the world can come to know Jesus because they see it in us.

For us as disciples, then, Jesus' love is not private. It's supposed to be spread.

I didn't think about this, but like fig jam.

Like lights, right? Like lights in a football stadium. One person turns on their

phone and it spreads to the whole stadium.

Have you had that experience? I've watched it on TV.

Jesus' love is outreach, right? It's public witness every day,

in every way, by every Christian, in every situation, in every job,

in every time, in every place.

Jesus' love is shareable, a light to the world. It's our job to share it,

shine it, be it, glow it, grow it all the time, every day.

Supporting the mission of St. Luke's, the mission of Jesus in the world.

It's not an institutional administrative thing.

The job of only the evangelism team or the social media team.

It's deeply spiritual and visible and personal.

Pray, give, invite, embody, live Christ-like lives, reflecting love in our daily

lives, sharing Jesus by how we show up.

This is discipleship, summed up in one word, love.

So what does it mean to be mindful in mission, supporting together what God

is doing right now in our church and leading us into the near future and beyond.

Number one, pray intentionally about things that you will back up with action.

Pray for what you're willing to work for. We want to grow with more families. We have the room.

We have the pray ground. We have the family activities center.

We have Luke's Learners. We have a preschool.

We want to grow with more families. And so when you're praying for that,

also volunteer in Luke's Learners once every six weeks. Everyone can do once every six weeks.

When you pray for new members, then please tell the ushers you will be a pew

partner for somebody new to help them through the service and with a bulletin

and where to stand for communion and where to throw away their cup.

Awesome. Isn't that fun? To

be a guide for new members or tell me that you'll be a new member sponsor.

So we are back doors to the church closes and the front door remains open.

And we don't want people to leave as soon as they join. They need a friend. They need a sponsor.

Number two, give generously as participation in our mission.

You know, we just don't need, nobody needs to give out of guilt or negative

feelings because we're invested. Invest in the work.

Invest in this awesome community. Invest in these cute little kids. Aren't they smart?

They are so smart. Every week they have all these awesome answers.

Who is this? It's Jesus. Who does God love? Everybody. They know that God loves

everybody. They know who Jesus is.

Invest in these beautiful children. Invest in our food outreach.

Invest in our breakfast. We had a brand new person come to the breakfast this

week, and they were like, why are you doing this?

Why are you giving away 160 free burritos twice a month, right?

It's because our community is our neighborhood.

We believe that our community needs mission and service. It's because we love you.

It's because we love God. It's because we love our community.

Why do we do the breakfast? It can be summed up in one word.

Love, thank you, love, right?

Invest and give because of love, because we love Jesus, because we love each

other, because we love the future that God has in store for us,

because God has blessed us with so many things.

Another way that you can love is go to Google and give St. Luke's a positive

review and that will send more people looking for love to St.

Luke's Lutheran Church on Beltline Road in Richardson.

Invite someone to join you. This is a key for growth.

Someone is waiting to be asked. Most people are willing to go to church if someone invites them.

It's the best hospitality there is to love someone enough to invite them into

community, to give them a spiritual lifeline.

Think of it as hospitality. It's about them. It's not about you.

Try inviting them to an activity first. Kudos to Arlene Baikner,

who brought a friend to the quilters day yesterday. We had Bible study,

we had lunch, they did quilting.

Kathy loved it. She was so glad Arlene invited her to an event.

Invite someone to serve at the breakfast, invite someone to come to Yardbirds,

invite someone to the Easter breakfast, to a potluck.

And then lastly, continue to live in a way that is visibly different.

Discipleship is something that people can see.

There is something different about you and the way you show up.

Kindness, humility, justice is what Micah talks about.

Jesus sums it all up in one word, love.

When we lived in Kansas City, Dan and I went to an interfaith prayer breakfast.

And Rabbi Zedek was a speaker, and he told this story.

He was walking out of the synagogue after worship behind a family.

The son of this family was in elementary school, and he asked his parents,

didn't Rabbi Zedek say that God lives inside of us?

And the parents said, yes, that's what he said today.

And didn't Rabbi Zedek also say that God is bigger than us?

And the parents said, yes, the rabbi also said that.

And the child said, well, if God is inside of us and God is bigger than us,

shouldn't God show through?

Being a disciple who embodies Jesus, kindness, humility, justice,

and love means that God shows through.

So raise your hand if you're willing to be the kind of church together that

lets God show through and be a church of love. Yes.

So remember the story I started with of the congregation in Fort Mill,

South Carolina, that not only prayed for babies, but got to work.

The women not only convinced the church to pray for babies, that got them to refurbish the nursery.

And then they hired a skilled nursery attendant.

They took action to get ready for God to answer their prayers.

Guess what happened?

Babies, exactly. Babies happened. God answered their prayer.

About a year after they started this whole process, babies started showing up.

And after two years, they had two dozen babies and their families,

which came to church with the babies.

And the church didn't close. Praise God.

Prayer with action. They did, however, understand that God answers prayers and

blesses mission when they are accompanied by our faithful and our trusting actions.

God's going to answer our prayers, especially when we prepare for God's answers by getting ready.

So imagine St. Luke's, not just the church where you attend,

but a community that continues to radiate Christ as boldly as our murals down

the hallway shine at night with the lights on.

Have you driven by St. Luke's at night with the lights on to see the murals?

The police require we keep the hallway lights on. That's why we painted murals there.

It's a ginormous billboard for the community that is lit up every night.

Have you driven by at night?

Yes. Oh, man. Okay. That is your job. Your mission, should you choose to accept

it, is to drive down Bell Line Road after dark and look at your church's murals.

What does that say to the community?

Love. Everyone is welcome.

Imagine St. Luke's where people are praying for each other and our mission and

acting on those prayers inside these walls and outside in all of our daily lives,

living our faith so out loud that God shows through.

As we live this way, people will continue to come because love is visible.

Faith is tangible. Community is real.

How exciting that St. Luke's mission continues this week with your prayer,

with your act of kindness, with your generosity, with your invitation.

All of those moments embodying love this week bring us one step closer to becoming

all of whom God is calling us to be because we are better together as we all embody God's love.

Now let the church say amen.

Fill forth into the world to serve God with gladness. Be of good courage.

Hold fast to what is good.

Render to no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted.

Support the weak. Help the afflicted. Honor all people. share the love of Jesus

and rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit, changing lives as disciples who

love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God, and we will.