The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
July 26, 2026 – Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 Have you ever looked back over your life and realized that the most important thing wasn't hidden because it was far away? It was hidden because it looked too ordinary. The teacher who believed in you. The neighbor who prayed for you. The quiet invitation you received to come to church. The conversation you almost skipped. Looking back, you realize God had been at work long before you recognized it. The kingdom hadn't suddenly arrived. It had been there all along. Dorothy Lange was a photographer who, in 1936, took a month-long trip documenting migratory farm labor during the Great Depression. While traveling through California, she came upon a pea-pickers’ camp. She drove past the camp, but something made her turn around. Inside the camp, she found thousands of people living in poverty. Dorothy was drawn to a makeshift tent where she found a tired woman with her children. Over the next ten minutes, she took seven pictures of the 32-...