July 29, 2026

When I was planning and putting together the sermons for the month of August, I found myself coming up with titles followed by an exclamation point…! In the gospel lectionary readings from Matthew, things are happening in a big way! Jesus feeds… 5,000! Peter walks on water! To a Syrophoenician woman, Jesus says… what!?! Peter understands who Jesus is! And then Peter fails miserably regarding what will happen to Jesus!

How is our faith exclamatory? How do we shout our faith out loud? In our current culture, it seems as though our loudest voices are reserved for and shouted against… them! Maybe I should broaden the faith question to include all of life. What in our lives do we exclaim? Do we begin our days with, “O, what a beautiful morning!” and end our days with a wholehearted, “Thank you!”?

In her novel Gilead, Marilynne Robinson writes, “There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient.” Are any of those numerous reasons worthy to be followed by an exclamation point? The book of Psalms ends with five exclamatory Psalms. This little group of songs are called the “Hallelujah Psalms.” Each begins with “Praise the Lord!” The last Psalm (150) ends with trumpets, tambourines, dancing, strings, pipes, and clanging and clashing cymbals!

What an ending!

Rev. Eric