Year A Proper 5 2026 WEDNESDAY, 10 June 2026
St George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg, VA
“JUMP!”
Collect: O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Genesis 12:1-9 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; 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 him 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 to call not the righteous but sinners.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue 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 hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 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 is 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 throughout that district.
Friends, one of the hardest and most important lessons of a life of faith is letting go of the idea that we have to prove anything to God. God knows us through and through, and loves us anyway. God loves us despite our bad selves. And in that love, God calls us to faith. Yes, you, and you, and you, and you. And me, too. The call of God is to each and every one of us, and that call is unique to us as our retina or our fingerprint.
God called Abram, and in that calling he became Abraham. Abram means “exalted father,” and he became Abraham “father of a multitude." While God may not be calling you to be the founder of many nations and major world religions, God is calling you to faith, both in God and God’s call. All of us are asked to take that step, to step out in faith.
I told this story a few Sundays ago, so if you heard it on Pentecost, please forgive me. But it is such a good one, and fits this idea so well. A story is told of a house fire at night and a child is trapped on the second floor. He makes it to a window and hears the voice of his father from the ground below. “Jump, son, I’ll catch you!” He says it firmly but filled with nothing but assuring love, praying the son will jump. The son wants to obey, but with the smoke and dark he cries out, “But I can’t see you!” The father responds, “Don’t worry, I can see you. Jump!” And he did. That is Faith, my friends. Abram was asked to take the leap of faith. Matthew was asked to take it, too. The leader of the synagogue had NOTHING to lose, and took it. The hemorrhaging woman was the same. And we are in the same boat. Each and every one of us.
Is this God with all the promises faithful to keep them? Are our lives better with God or without God? Will we take those leaps of faith when we hear that voice calling us to “Jump!”
I have been a professional minister for almost 39 years. (I started young.) And I still have to step out on faith repeatedly. Faith in my personal life. Faith in my professional life. Faith in my interior life. God tinkers with all of us. If we let God come into our lives, it is not just a weekend visit. A quick little holiday with the Almighty which ends with a brunch and hugs on the porch. When God moves in, as we allow it, God moves the furniture. God digs through the closets. God rearranges our schedules and our priorities. God changes things, and through that, God changes us.
That is why I bother to pray. I have found rarely that my prayers change things for me. But what I have found is that my prayer changes me for things. I am not the same person once I have truly and honestly prayed. I am not the same person when I have stepped out in faith. And God has been in the mix and in on the process the whole time. It is humbling, and exciting, and scary, and beautiful. All that and more.
You may be here today struggling to grab Jesus’ hem. You may have had something or someone you love die. You may be in a situation that is slowly killing your soul. I invite you, wherever you are, whatever you are facing, to get still and quiet. And if you can, I believe you will hear that loving voice calling out, “Jump!” Amen
