Third Sunday after Pentecost — June 14, 2026

What this episode covers

Immanuel Lutheran Church Third Sunday after Pentecost — June 14, 2026 On the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered the morning after a night of severe storms — and walked into a sanctuary transformed for the opening of Rainforest Falls Vacation Bible School. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Romans 5:6–15 with a searching question: who is worth your whole life? The answer Paul gives is staggering — while we were still weak, ungodly, even enemies of God, Christ died for us. It is the heart of what this congregation confesses every week — Jesus Brings Life. Meet Him Here. Third Sunday after Pentecost — Worship Broadcast at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri (9:00 AM summer service). The Third Sunday after Pentecost: Who Is Worth Your Whole Life? “Who is worth your whole life?” Pastor Ramstad opened with that question, drawing on Paul’s words: “One will scarcely die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die” (Romans 5:7). We can imagine laying down our lives for the people we love most, or for a great cause — freedom, family, faith. But Paul presses the question further. How righteous would a person have to be before you would die for them? How good? And then he turns the whole question on its head: it is not about how worthy we are. It is about Jesus. The chancel and baptismal font at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri — where the baptized are joined to Christ’s death and raised to new life (Romans 6). Look at how Paul describes our actual condition. Not righteous. Not good. We were weak — not the strong, talented, strategic people God might have chosen, but, as Deuteronomy says, the fewest and the least. We were ungodly. We were enemies of God, standing under His wrath, for our sin rightly brings His judgment. And we were sinners — the Greek tense pointing not to an occasional stumble but to a continuous state, sin clinging to us like a disease. That is the unflattering portrait Romans 5 paints of every one of us. And yet — “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” This is the turn that makes this passage so beloved. Not when we had cleaned ourselves up. Not once we had proven our worth. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus took our place at the cross, and now when the Father, seated as Judge, looks upon our sin, He sees instead His Son — the shed blood, the steadfast love, the perfection that covers you and me. As Pastor Ramstad put it: Jesus thinks you are worth fighting for. Jesus thinks you are worth dying for. And He did. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Scripture Readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost The lectionary appointed for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6, Series A) sets God’s claim upon His people beside the love that redeems them. The Old Testament Reading from Exodus 19:2–8a finds Israel at Sinai, where the Lord declares, “You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples … a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Epistle from Romans 5:6–15 is the day’s sermon text — Christ dying for the ungodly, and the free gift of grace that abounds for many through “that one man, Jesus Christ.” And the Holy Gospel from Matthew 9:35–10:20 shows Jesus moved with compassion for the crowds, declaring the harvest plentiful and the laborers few, and sending out the Twelve with His own authority to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Harvest Is Plentiful: Sent as Laborers Into His Field If Romans 5 shows us our condition and our rescue, the Gospel shows us where that rescue leads. Paul reaches all the way back to Genesis: as sin and death came into the world through one man, Adam, so grace and life come through one man, Jesus Christ — Adam a “type of the one who was to come.” The same Lord who reconciled enemies into s