Radical, Completely Transformational Hope

Well, it's graduation time, isn't it? Who here has been to a graduation or a promotion or a moving up day recently? (Show of hands) This time of year can be a knotted ball of sorrow for leaving the past behind, nostalgia for the ways things were, anticipation of futures mapped out but not yet trod, relief for just getting past the finish line or regret for not quite making it there. It's a complicated time, this graduation season that we're in. And as I read today's gospel, I couldn't help but hear a commencement speech of sorts in it. (Maybe I'm just a little too steeped in graduations right now ...) I was curious so I looked up what are the elements of a commencement speech. Carnegie Mellon University instructs its commencement speakers to: 1) Speak with a clarity of purpose, 2) Speak to multiple audiences, 3) Tell a story, 4) Use a distinctive tone, 5) Be authentic, and 6) Look forwards and backwards¹. I think our gospel story pretty much does all those things, doesn't it?

The first lines of our gospel today let us know that Jesus has been on a greatest hits tour, going "about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness" (Matt 9:35). And in his travels, Jesus witnesses the disarray and despair of the people who have been neglected by their leaders. He realizes then that he needs help. That he can't do this healing of the world work alone. So he "graduates" his twelve closest disciples to apostleship and gives them the power to heal, too.

And I think it's notable who these chosen few are. Did you notice that only some of the apostles are given qualifiers after their names? Andrew, John, and the Jameses are named in relation to their families. Ok, that's fine. But Matthew is identified as "the tax collector", Simon is "the Cananaean" or zealot, and Judas is "the one who betrayed [Jesus]". It's a ragtag band of brothers, isn't it? I mean Peter will deny Jesus three times in his hour of greatest need and Judas turns him over to be executed. Meanwhile, Matthew the tax collector cozied up to the Roman Empire while Simon the zealot revolted against it. And, since we have a reading from Paul today, let's include him. He was a self-proclaimed violent Christian persecutor and Roman citizen before his conversion. These are the people whom Jesus delegates miraculous healing powers to and sends out to share the good news of God's abundant love, especially for the dispossessed, which under Roman occupation was 99% of the population. These men are not saints yet. (Or in Judas's case not a villain yet either). Right now, they are an unexpected team whose hope for a world where justice through compassion, healing through love, and peace through nonviolence is so strong that it compels them to leave everything behind and follow the Messiah. It's a hope that likely surpassed their own understanding of what's possible and was so much bigger than worldly conflicts between them.

This notion of hope is a big one. Especially during graduation season. One of my favorite quotes on the topic comes from a fellow named Matthew (not the gospel writer). I first saw it posted on Deacon Bonnie's door when I served at Central Lutheran in Portland. Then I heard it quoted by Episcopal Bishop Kym Lucas in her commencement speech at Wake Forest University in 2023². She said, "People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spiders' webs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles and the grit of cobblestone in her hair. And she just spat out a tooth as she got back up and went for another go." This is the kind of hope that Jesus commissions his apostles to spread today. It's a gritty hope, one that requires them to look squarely into the eyes of those suffering from the worst this world can throw at them and then do something about it. This hope is not just a dream for a more tolerable world. It's a radical, completely transformational hope that camps in the wilderness like Moses, never giving up, never staying down, not even when murdered on a cross.

And this gutsy hope also beckons the apostles to surrender control, doesn't it? And it requires them to leave their wallets at home, to trust the stranger, and willingly enter into situations where they will be persecuted. Now, I don't know about you, but when I feel afraid, I do the complete opposite of what Jesus is telling his apostles to do. When the world feels out of control, I tend to clamp down financially, become skeptical of the stranger, and steer clear of places where I feel threatened. I turn inside a little. So I, for one, think it's interesting that the apostles' call to heal cannot be realized unless they do that which rejects that inclination to turn inward. Unless they trust completely in God and their neighbor, allowing the unflinching hope of Jesus to guide their way.

I think that our call to heal is the same. We may not be granted miraculous healing powers to "cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, [or] cast out demons" (Matt. 10: 8) but, as Paul told us in our second reading, we do have hope "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). And I think the gospel today tells us that the gritty hope of Jesus mandates that we willingly walk into places of deep suffering, knowing that we have been equipped by the Spirit to heal as we are able. We can't retreat inward, tightening our grasp on the ways of this world, if we hope to heal it. It just doesn't work. Jesus makes that clear today. And we don't need to be perfect to be commissioned to heal this world. Jesus never asks us to be what we are not in order to be his follower. He just asks for a radical hope. One that compels us to go out into the world, witness suffering, offer compassion, and walk boldly alongside those who are persecuted.

I recently heard a radio report about a prison in Oklahoma that has partnered with the Oklahoma Monarch Society where unused prison property is being transformed by inmates into pollinator habitat³. Then, while researching that venture, I stumbled across the Sustainability in Prisons Project, a partnership program between Evergreen State College and Washington Department of Corrections⁴ that offers 162 sustainability-related programs in 11Washington prisons. Of special note are the programs that teach and nurture beekeeping and butterfly hatching. This photo, which is-a few years old, is from a prison in Walla Walla and, to me, exemplifies the kind of hope in today's gospel⁵. Alex Littlebear, the guy pictured, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He talks about raising butterflies as a stress relief and his co-worker, Joshua Vance who was also convicted of murder and was serving a 30-year sentence, tells about how caring for the butterflies helps him realize there is still beauty in the world. And then there's this apiary garden, created and managed by the Stafford Creek Bee Club comprised of inmates from Stafford Creek Corrections Center on the Washington Coast. In a tribute to one member who recently died, it was written, "Corey loved working with bees and would often say after a class that working with bees made him feel like for a moment that he wasn't in prison. This is a phrase often heard from [other beekeeping inmates] along with 'this was the best day ever"'\ And on a lighter note, we have Miss Efemmera Gendera and Miss Thespis D Light who lead "Drag Me Outside" nature hikes around the Portland area. The two drag queens, who are also a field biologist and park ranger, say "We want people to feel like they are welcome in the outdoors regardless of what society has decided they can or cannot do        I'm working on building the world I want to live in."⁷

In these prison projects and the drag hike, I glimpse the gritty hope and transformational healing that Jesus is calling us to. The prisoners and drag queens heal creation and creation heals them through a kind of reciprocal tender care that comes from intimacy, from a common vulnerability, from a surrender of control in service to the other. Like many of those first apostles, the inmates' and drag queens' worldly identities are formed by their relationships to the systems of oppression in which they are steeped. But, also like those first apostles, they've been gifted mysterious healing powers that break through worldly expectations of how the world should work. Of who is a healer. They embody a hope that defiantly refuses to be squashed, that has been flogged and dragged and has gotten back up for another go.

Those twelve disciples "graduated" to apostleship, not because they were better than anyone else, but because Jesus saw that the hunger for the hope of God's kin-dom was bigger than he could meet alone. He recognized the healing potential of a ragtag group of humans whose only qualifications for Jesus's commission was their faith and their willingness to step into the gritty unknowing that comes from the pain Pr. Michelle spoke about last week. As you move through this week, I encourage you to ponder where you see that suffering and hunger for hope in your own sphere of influence and then walk towards it. Engage with it. Look it squarely in the eye and see its pain. Look around and see who is there with you in that space - you might be surprised at who's on the team. And maybe those miraculous healing powers that Jesus talks about will show up in ways you didn't expect and don't understand. The hope of Christ may show up with "dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles and the grit of cobblestone in her hair" ready to go for another round. And she just might be dressed in drag.

Thanks be to God.

 Radical Completely Transformational Hope

¹ Carnegie Mellon University. "How to Write a Commencement Speech." Cmu.edu. Accessed Junes, www.https:/ /www.cmu.edu/ student-affairs/celd/leadership-development/how-to-write-a-commencement-spe ach.pdf.

² Commencement News Archive. "2023: Baccalaureate Speaker Bishop Kym Lucas," May 15, 2023. https:/ / commencement.news.wfu.edu/2020s/c2023/ 2023-baccalaureate-speaker-bishop-kym-lucas/.

³ Bennett-Steele, Chloe. "In Oklahoma, Unused Land at Prisons Becomes a Pollinator's Paradise." NPR,

June 2, 2026.

https:/ /www.npr.org/2026/ 06/ 02/nx-s1-5831502/in-oklahoma-unused-land-at-prisons-becomes-a-pollinators-paradise.

⁴ Sustainability in Prisons Project. "Programs." Accessed June 5, 2026. https:/ / sustainabilityinprisons.org/spp-programs-in-wa/.

⁵ Richardson, Tyler, and Tri-City Herald. "Prison Inmates Raise Butterflies." Columbia Gorge News, September 24, 2013.

https:/ /www.columbiagorgenews.com/thedalleschronicle/news/prison-inmates-raise-butterflies/article_ 162edao9-d4bb-51b6-bab2-b85ob3845ab7.html.

⁶ Graves, Martina. "SCCC Facility of the Year Nomination." Washington State Beekeepers Association, January 26, 2024. https://wasba.org/sccc-facility-of-the-year-nomination/

⁷ Wood, Lisa. "These Portland Trail Guides Build Community through Science, Education and Whimsy-in Drag." OPB, June 14, 2026.

https:/  /www.opb.org/  article/2026/  06/14/portland-oregon-outdoors-hiking-group-drag-performance/.