The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 14:22-33 - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
August 9, 2026 – Matthew 14:22-33 In January 2007, The Washington Post conducted an experiment. They hired Joshua Bell, one of the world’s renowned violinists, to stand in a Washington, D.C. Metro station during the morning rush hour and play his violin. Now, Bell wasn’t an ordinary street musician. In the Metro, he played demanding classical pieces on a Stradivarius violin worth millions of dollars. For about 43 minutes, 1,097 people passed by Bell. Seven people stopped for at least a minute. 27 people gave money. During the 43 minutes, Bell collected $32.17 from those who walked by him. Only one person of 1,097 recognized who he was. Something remarkable was happening right in front of people, and most simply hurried past. Now it wasn’t that the commuters were bad people or that they didn’t care. They were going to work. They had trains to catch. They had places they needed to be. They simply weren’t expecting extraordinary beauty to be there in the Metro station. This...