The following lectionary notes are offered as sermon starters for pastors and other preachers/teachers who base their weekly proclamation on the progression of the lectionary through the church year.

Two presumptions guide these notes: First, you have done or will do further exegetical work on the texts, and second, you understand that "stewardship" means what God's people do to fulfill the whole purpose of God in the world.

Rev. Lee Griess
Assistant to the Bishop and
Shared Stewardship Staff
Nebraska Synod, ELCA

June 29 - 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 10:40-42

A substitute Sunday school teacher couldn’t open the combination lock on the supply cabinet. So she went to the pastor for help. The pastor went with her to the supply room. He took the lock in his hands and started turning the dial. After the first two numbers, he got a puzzled look on his face, stopped turning the dial and serenely looked heavenward. Slowly he began moving his lips silently and turned the dial to the last number and the lock fell open. The teacher gasped, “Wow! That was something. I’m totally in awe of your faith, Pastor.” “Ah, it’s nothing really” the pastor replied. “The combination’s written on a piece of tape on the ceiling.”

Don’t you wish all of life’s problems were as simple as that? They are not, but one thing is certain, God’s grace is here to fill us and God’s love will never abandon us. Toady’s Gospel story tells us that being faithful stewards and responding to God’s goodness is as simple as offering a cup of water to the person who is thirsty, bringing bread to the hungry, asking not, how much do I have to put in the offering plate? But rather, what is a God-honoring, God-glorifying response to the God who blesses me so abundantly? It’s as simple as reading the numbers on the ceiling, and begins the same way, by lifting our hearts and faces to God in prayer.