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The M3 - Monday Morning Mail

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - August 30, 2026 

Big Small Wonder

(Slides)

The stories we tell ourselves matter. The mental health industry lives by this principle. Mental health practitioners help us in part to straighten out the stories we tell ourselves. The question becomes are you telling yourself the most important story—the story of everything in the Bible!

In the Old Testament reading for today, Jeremiah is stuck telling himself the same old human story: the people are rebellious, they have gone after the other gods, Israel is gone, I am the only faithful one left! The image I showed was one of Jeremiah staring blankly off somewhere. He is old. He is looks taggered. The wall behind him reveals important Biblical terms that are barely discernible, suggesting that the Word of God containing the story of God’s people was once relevant to the people but no more. Jeremiah prophesies doom and gloom because the story has gotten so bad, if he only looks at Israel and Judah. Thank the Lord chapters 31 and 34 eventually come and anchor the book in what God is up to, accomplishing his story!

I then showed an image of an older woman, gray hair, her face in her hands. I said that the image comes from an article that describes depression happens to all kinds of people—even elderly, Asian women! I indicated that the image has been us or maybe is us. Some of us may have struggled with clinical depression and all of us have been depressed at times. The human story overwhelms us—our human story. We have dreams that have collapsed or evaporated, expectations that went in the opposite direction, physical struggles that we never expected, families that disappoint or anger us. We know our human story. We’d rather not look at it!

“Receive the sign of the holy cross both upon your ☩ forehead and upon your ☩ heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.” These words from The Sacrament of Baptism mean everything to you and me. They put you into God’s Story, not just your own. They forever link you to the redeeming work of Jesus’ death on the cross and the new-life hope that comes from his resurrection. They assure you that you are not alone, for they make you a part of His Body, His Church. Your baptism forever makes you a part of God’s salvation story. It’s a Big Small Wonder! Jeremiah reminds us of this when he writes, “…for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts (16)” and “I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless” (21).