Scripture Readings: Isaiah 25:1–9 | Psalm 23 | Philippians 4:1–9 | Matthew 22:1–14

​“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:6-8).
 
What are you grateful for?
 
As we know, this weekend we here in Canada are celebrating Thanksgiving… a holiday where many people across our country will gather together with friends and family for a time of food, and fellowship, and to remind each other to give thanks… to reflect on the many good things we have received, and then express our gratitude.
 
When I think about Thanksgiving, I often think back to my childhood, and how blessed I was to have a lot of extended family all living in one city… which meant that instead of just one great big family meal, with great food and a chance to hang out and have fun with my cousins… I would have two of these get-togethers! One with my grandparents on my Mom’s side, and the other with my grandparents on my Dad’s side.
 
It was awesome… especially because as a kid, I didn’t have to cook all that food, or clean up all those dishes. But as I grew up, and started to notice all the hard work and effort that went into hosting these meals, my appreciation for my family members who opened up their homes, and their tables to us all grew much greater. And looking back now as an adult, I am so thankful for all the love that was shared in those moments together, and for the memories of belonging that I can now treasure.
 
While Thanksgiving isn’t specifically a Christian or religious holiday, our Scripture readings today also invite us, through the imagery of feasts and fellowship, to respond to the gracious and generous work of God in our world with thankful hearts… reminding us of the incredible… incomparable gifts that He has offered to us through His Son… and inviting us to join in the joyful celebration around His holy Table.
 
In our first reading today from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we’re given a grand picture of God’s salvation… rescuing His people from their oppressors, and restoring them to a state of prosperity and peace. But interestingly, as much as the prophet is offering a word of hope to Israel, God’s covenant children, this vision of God’s deliverance goes much further than we might have expected. Rather than singling out Israel, and excluding their Gentile neighbours, we’re told that the LORD sets a feast for all peoples. Even more impressive than my childhood Thanksgivings, there would be no need for more than one feast… some gathered here and some over there. No, we’re told the LORD God would play host for a feast set for all peoples in one place.
 
Isaiah 25:6-8,
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.”
 
Let’s take a moment to work through these powerful words together. First of all, we’re told that the Lord of hosts would hold one feast in one singular place… one holy mountain… that is, Mount Zion… Jerusalem… the city of Judah, where King David reigned, and where the Holy Temple stood. This is essentially a claim of singularity… of oneness… of unity. One location where the joy and peace and deliverance of God may be found.
 
But this singularity… this oneness is immediately extended to include all peoples… it’s not an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ event, but an invitation to gather together… for the scattered nations to be reunited… to experience not division but unity… fellowship… communion… coming together to share God’s blessed feast with those who were once seen as enemies.
 
And what does God offer to all the peoples gathered together on His mountain? The best banquet ever! A celebration fit for heaven! The best food and wine that Paradise can produce.

But beyond that joyful meal, we’re told that God was also going to take something away from all peoples… the dark shroud of death God will Himself “swallow up forever”… wiping the tears from all faces… and taking away the disgrace from His people from all the earth!
 
On God’s one mountain, blessings and joyful life are freely offered to all, while the power of death and disgrace are taken away. What a powerful picture of God’s saving work in the world the prophet gives to us: a vision of humanity made whole. This is what Isaiah tells us God is working for… this is the hope we are invited to share… to receive, and respond to with gratitude.
 
As we look around at our deeply divided world, it’s hard sometimes to imagine all peoples gathered together in peace and celebration… sharing in complete fellowship, without fear or past disgraces getting in the way. And left to ourselves, I don’t think we’ll ever get there. But thanks be to God, we’re not left to ourselves! God has come among us in Jesus Christ His Son, to bring about this vision of His great banquet feast… offering the hope of God’s New Life to all peoples as a gracious gift.

But what will we do with that gift? With that hopeful offer and gracious invitation? How will you and I and all peoples respond to God’s work and promise to make us whole?
 
This question is at the heart of our passage today from the Gospel of Matthew, and the parable… the pointed story of the Wedding Feast that Jesus our Lord lays out before us.
 
Jesus begins by saying that “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” (Matthew 22:2). Just to avoid confusion, it might help to know that the terms “kingdom of heaven” and “kingdom of God” mean the same thing. Scholars think that Matthew prefers the term “kingdom of heaven” to avoid overusing the word “God”, but both refer to the reign and rule of the Living God, both now and in the age to come… and here on earth, as well as in heaven. This is not merely a story about who gets into ‘Paradise’ one day and who is kept out. It’s a story about how we are all invited to participate in what God is up to, now and forever.
 
And this parable is told in the context of an ongoing and growing conflict between Jesus and the leaders of Jerusalem… the chief priests in charge of the Holy Temple, and the popular religious influencers of their day, the group known as the Pharisees. In this context, we can see that Jesus is offering this parable as a clear warning to some who assumed that they were securely in God’s good books, and that there were plenty of other people that God wanted nothing to do with. But this story is also an invitation… an invitation to us all to rightly receive this incredible, gracious gift that has been offered to all… recognizing its great worth, and giving thanks with our whole lives.
 
As we heard, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king giving a wedding banquet for his son. And he sends out his slaves with invitations offered to honoured guests… but they all refuse to come. But the king persists, “Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.” (Matthew 22:4-6).
 
These first honoured guests treated the king’s gracious invitation as if it was nothing special… not worth their time, and even worthy of ridicule… with some even turning on the king’s messengers… and facing his fierce wrath as a result.
 
But instead of cancelling the party because the first guests refused the invitation, Jesus says that the king opens up the invitation for all. He says to his servants, “Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’  Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22:9-10). Come one, come all! The doors are wide open, the table is set! Come and join in the party! The good and the bad, the high and the low, the near and far… all are able to share in the king’s gracious feast. What an incredible invitation! This amazing offer of generous hospitality. The king’s son’s wedding must be celebrated, and all peoples are welcomed to join the party!
 
But then comes another twist: one guest arrives without wedding clothes… and when the king sees this, he has the guest kicked outside “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 22:13). This is a biblical image of exclusion and judgement… of not sharing in the beautiful vision of Isaiah’s mountaintop feast… of God’s salvation offered to all people.
 
But why was the guest kicked out? What was his great offense? It seems to me that the underdressed guest was guilty of basically the same thing the first guests were… the ones who refused the kings gracious invitation: Both the first guests and the underdressed guest had treated the king’s invitation as if it was nothing special… as if it was not worth their time or effort… they had said ‘no’ to the king’s party in their hearts.
 
Sure, he might go for the meal. I mean, you gotta eat somewhere, right? But he hadn’t really opened his heart to this significant celebration, or responded to the event with the appropriate kinds of action. In short, he was not excluded because of external garments… but because he had no regard for what the party was actually all about.
 
So this parable begins and ends with two sides of the same coin… two ways in which we can miss out on God’s great party: by looking at the incredibly gracious, and life-changing gift that He offers us… and thinking nothing of it. Refusing to come at all, or coming while treating the invitation and the gift as if it was insignificant.
 
This warning should give us all pause, and call us to consider how we too might be in danger of excluding ourselves from God’s great feast… refusing to share in the life of His good Kingdom, either by simply avoiding it, or by treating it with distain… as if the invitation to come share in His joy and fellowship, and new life was not really worth our time or reverent attention.
 
But alongside this warning, let us also remember that the point of this parable is to invite us all to come to God’s feast… to share in His great celebration, opened and offered to all peoples… good and bad, high and low, near or far… calling us to respond, not carelessly or casually, but with our whole hearts… eagerly saying ‘yes’ to the gracious gift that God longs for us all to receive through Jesus Christ His Son.
​
In Christ, God has brought to fulfillment the beautiful vision of Isaiah’s feast for all peoples… but He did so by offering up His own life on our behalf: rejected by both Jew and Gentile alike… beaten and hung on a cross just outside the Holy City of Jerusalem, brought to where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus bore all our sins and disgrace on His innocent shoulders… and He faced the full wrath death for us, once and for all.
 
And in so doing, Jesus broke the dark power of sin and death, in order to set us free from it. And in rising again from the grave on Easter morning, Jesus makes us whole again… sharing God’s forgiveness, and new life with us as a gracious gift to be received through faith… and drawing us together into one, united, worldwide family… sharing in His fellowship forever.
 
And so, this morning, as we respond together to Christ’s own invitation to draw near in faith to His Table… and to receive from Him there God’s new life as the precious, world-changing gift that it is…
 
Let us give thanks with grateful hearts for all that our Risen Saviour has done… for us and for all peoples. Let us turn our whole hearts to Him in sincere love and worship… open to all that He has in mind for us, now, and in days to come.
 
Let us set our hopes not on our own earthy interests, but in the fulfillment of His heavenly kingdom… and let us extend the gift of God’s love with all those around us, and share with them the Good News of His Risen Son, so that they too may ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ for themselves, and hear His own gracious voice calling them to draw near, and share in God’s blessed feast forever. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 5:1–7 | Psalm 80 | Philippians 3:4b–14 | Matthew 21:33–46
​
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:7-8).
 
Do you have a favorite Saint? Someone from the life and history of the Church that you are especially drawn to?
 
Of course, there’s St. Luke the Evangelist… our Patron Saint. And there’s Saint John the Baptist, the namesake for the city just down the road. And then there’s St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day it happens to be today.
 
St. Francis has a fascinating story… one that we could spend all morning exploring together. For instance, our opening Hymn today, All Creatures of Our God & King was inspired by a poem he wrote, called the Canticle of the Sun. But for a very brief sketch of his story, here’s a short excerpt about him from the Anglican book called For All The Saints:

“Today we celebrate Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian whose greatest honour was to be known as ‘il Poverello’, “the little poor one of Christ.”
 
He grew up in a very wealthy family and seemed to have not a care in the world until he was twenty years old, when a chance encounter with a leper left him appalled by his own uselessness.
 
Soon afterwards he heard Jesus speaking to him from a painting of the crucifixion over the altar of a local church. He threw away his wardrobe and renounced his father’s wealth in order to care for the poor and the crippled.
 
In 1208 he heard the commission which the risen Lord gave to his apostles, “Go, make all nations my disciples,” and knew that it was also addressed to him. Francis began to train his followers for the task of making Jesus truly known and loved among the ordinary people of Italy. Out of this movement developed the Order of the Lesser Brethren, commonly called the Franciscans.”[1]
 
Can you imagine following in Francis’ footsteps? Not necessarily literally… I mean, if any of us suddenly threw off all our clothes and marched out of St. Luke’s, renouncing all our worldly possessions… it’d be pretty shocking. But then again, I guess it would have been pretty shocking back then in his day too.

Giving up all that wealth, and status, and power would have been outrageous to his family and friends. But by doing so, Francis gained the freedom to serve Christ and the poor in a profound and deeply moving way… inspiring generations of Christians to dedicate their lives to this kind of service.  
 
On the other hand, can you imagine what would have happened if St. Francis had refused to give up everything for the sake of Christ? What would have happened if he had instead clung to his possessions and position, and power… if he had been more concerned with his own plans and priorities, and turned his back on Christ’s calling to serve the poor? What would his legacy have been?
 
Who knows? But because he did what he did, and gave up everything to follow Jesus Christ’s call on his life, St. Francis was drawn into God’s great work of mercy and compassion for our lost and hurting world… embodying God’s self-giving love in ways that still inspire many today.

And in our Scripture readings this morning, we are not only invited to cling to Christ Jesus above all else… we are also warned about the high costs that come from refusing to heed God’s warnings, and let go of whatever we need to.

In our first reading today, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard the Song of the Vineyard… a poetic word-picture of the Living God cultivating His covenant people with great love and care to help them grow more and more like Him: walking in His just and holy ways, and graciously caring for one another. But instead, God finds that His people’s ways are full of bloodshed, and greed, and evil. They had turned away from their Saviour, and had embraced their own crooked priorities and plans.
 
And so, through the prophet Isaiah, God warns His wayward people that they were headed for disaster. If they didn’t change their ways, instead of prospering they’d risk losing everything. Which is exactly what happens down the road, when God’s people are carried away into Exile… with only a small remnant of Israel ever returning to the Promised Land.
 
Notice that through it all, God greatly loves His people… and He longs for them to be filled with His life, and to flourish, and produce good fruit… but because they clung to their crooked ways, and turned their back on their Saviour, they ended up losing it all.

Turning now to our Gospel reading, we hear Jesus repeat the same basic song, with a slightly different tune. He draws on the image of Isaiah’s vineyard, but instead of focusing on the sins of God’s people as a whole… Christ instead singles out the leaders of the people… the chief priests, and Pharisees… those used to wielding great influence, status, and authority among the people… and who were determined to cling to their positions and power… seeing Jesus and His ministry as a terrible threat that needed to be dealt with.
 
In the parable, those trusted with tending the vineyard prove to be greedy, envious, and unfaithful to the rightful owner… oppressing all those sent to correct them, and in the end killing the owner’s Son. And through this parable, Jesus was shining a light on the crooked ways of those who were opposing Him… those claiming to be serving the Living God, and guiding God’s people, but who were much more concerned with their own agendas. And Jesus even predicts that they would conspire to have Him killed in order to protect their own influence and positions… warning them that rather than preserving their power, this course of action will end up costing them everything.

And sure enough, that’s exactly what ended up happening. Despite all their efforts to protect their own interests by having Jesus killed, the chief priests and Pharisees would soon see their entire world torn from their hands and shattered. Within a generation, Roman soldiers… the very same forces that they had used to have Jesus killed… descended in wrath upon the Holy City. Jerusalem was put to the sword… its people scattered or slain, and the Holy Temple of the Living God was utterly destroyed.
 
Rejecting God’s warning, and clinging to their own ways brought them, not prosperity, but ruin. But imagine what could have happened if they had been willing to listen instead, and let go of their need to be in control? To let go of their desires to wield influence and power over God’s people? What would have happened if they were to give up everything to follow God’s will alone?
 
We’ll never know. But there was of course One faithful Son who was willing to give up everything and follow God’s will, no matter how high the cost. There was One who surrendered Himself to be brutally beaten, and humiliated, stripped bare of all worldly possessions, and hung to die for all the world to see. Rejected by His own, by the very ones He came to save, Jesus gave up everything at the cross.
 
And in an act of love that has completely rocked and reshaped our world, God raised His faithful Son again from the dead… shattering the chains of death and sharing with us God’s New Life. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus provides what we all really need… not prestige, or influence, or wealth, or worldly power… but forgiveness of our sins… and reconciliation with God and with one another. And a new community… a new worldwide family to belong to… brothers and sisters together in Christ… and a new Spirit filling us with God’s own life, and making us more and more like Him… empowering us to walk in His holy ways, and to share His holy love with all those around us… a love that can completely transform our lives, and lead us in unexpected directions.

We already heard about how St. Francis’ life was transformed by an encounter with the love of Christ. But long before Francis, St. Paul’s life was turned around in a pretty surprising way as well… going from a persecutor of the Church to devoting his life to sharing the Good News of Jesus with the world.

And in our second reading today from his Letter to the Philippians, we heard St. Paul put into words what it looks like to cling to Christ above all else. Philippians 3:4-9,
 
“If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
 
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”
 
St. Paul knew how to cling to Christ, and how to let go of whatever got in the way of following His Saviour and Lord… knowing that whatever the cost may be, the gains of remaining faithful to God’s Son would be far greater.

And with all this in mind… with the inspiring examples of folks like St. Francis and St. Paul before us… of those willing to say yes to Christ Jesus’ calling on their lives, no matter the cost… and with the warnings from the prophet Isaiah, and from the lips of our Lord Himself in our ears… warnings about the high cost of ignoring God’s ways and pursuing our own selfish desires… let us ask the Spirit of God to open our hearts and our ears to hear His voice, and to follow wherever He will lead us.
 
Let us be willing to set aside our own priorities and plans in order to share in God’s great work of mercy and compassion in our little corner of the world… serving the needs of our neighbours… especially those easily overlooked.  Let us turn away from all those temptations that trip us up and draw us further away from our Saviour’s side. And let us remember that the gains of faithfully serving our Saviour and Lord far outweigh whatever it may cost us… placing our hope not in our present circumstances, but in the promise of sharing in Christ’s resurrection life.
 
I’ll close now with the collect for the Feast of St. Francis:
Grant us, Almighty God, after the example of your holy servant Francis, to do what you would have us do, and always to desire what is pleasing in your sight, that cleansed by your love, enlightened by your truth, and kindled with the fire of your Holy Spirit, we may follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son and make our way to you, O God most High; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


[1] For All The Saints: Prayers and Readings for Saints’ Days (Toronto, ON: ABC Publishing, 2007), 298.

Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 | Psalm 25 | Philippians 2:1–13 | Matthew 21:23–32

“Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13).
 
As some of you know, St. Luke’s has been a pretty busy place this weekend. Yesterday two couples were married here, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and it was a true joy and a blessing to help both these families to take this sacred step in their lives together.  
 
With weddings on my mind, this week I found myself thinking back to my own wedding sixteen years ago. It was a small but lovely gathering: just our parents, grandparents, siblings, and a few close friends… gathered by the lakeside at a cabin built by my grandfather… starting our new life together with simplicity and beauty… and informality. Lots of informality.
 
For instance, just as the ceremony concluded, right before our dads fired up the barbeques to feed us all, one of our relatives shouted out these words:  “You didn’t say obey!”

And they were right. In times gone by, and in some communities today, the vows made by men and women might be a bit different… with women being asked to commit to obeying their husbands. But that just wasn’t and isn’t the nature of our relationship. We both intentionally made the same vows to one another… committing to each other equally, and to supporting each other without distinction. And the Anglican marriage ceremonies found in both the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Alternative Services follow this same logic: asking husbands and wives to make their wedding vows as equals. As true partners in their new life of love together.
 
Now of course in our lives there is a time and a place to obey… and there are certain relationships and situations where it is not only necessary but also good to bend both our wills and our knees to another… swallowing our pride, and setting aside our own ambitions and plans, and following someone else’s will. 
 
The trouble is, we also know that there have been all sorts of instances where this impulse to obey has been abused… where would-be leaders have used their authority and influence to disastrous effect… causing great evil through acts of deception, manipulation, and intimidation… and leading whole communities down the path to ruin… both their own, and also the ruin of those around them.
 
Perhaps as a result of these abuses of authority, many have embraced a pretty strong sense of independence… of anti-authority… an unwillingness to obey anyone but themselves. This proud and defiant vision of life might best be expressed by William Earnest Henley’s poem Invictus:
  
“Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.
 
In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.
 
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.
 
It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.”
 
These words tap into and fuel the almost intoxicating desire in us to call the shots… to resist any outside influence, and be our own master and captain… making it an appealing philosophy for many today. But while this vision may sometimes serve to protect us from some abuses of power… it also has real limits and blind spots… as many a proud captain has run their ships aground, or gone down to the deeps in a wreck… losing their own life and all those aboard, by not being willing to bend or bow. 
 
And so this morning our Scripture readings call us to reconsider our own resistance to obedience… specifically in our relationship to our Lord, the Living God. 

In our reading today from the Gospel of St. Matthew, we are told of an encounter between Jesus, and the religious authorities in Jerusalem who were resisting His growing influence.
 
Matthew21:23, “When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’”
 
This wasn’t an idle question… it was a challenge. The chief priests and elders saw themselves as the only legitimate leaders of God’s people. Who was this upstart… upsetting their ways of doing things, and teaching things contrary to their own messages? What official credentials did Jesus have? None. What training or education, or lineage? None. And yet, the people were embracing Him… following Him… placing their hope in Him… and their own influence and authority was being shaken to its core. But instead of listening to Jesus’ voice, and hearing God’s Good News with an open heart, they chose to dig in their heels, put up their dukes, and try to put this wandering upstart in His place.
 
But instead of playing their game, and justifying Himself by their standards… Jesus responds to their challenge by bringing up their response to the ministry… the teachings and actions of someone else: John the Baptist.
 
Like Jesus, John was an outsider to the established halls of power… and John lacked formal legitimacy too. Though his father Zechariah was a priest, John didn’t serve God and God’s people in the Temple, but out in the wilderness. Proclaiming a message of radical repentance and renewed faithfulness to the Living God… calling out the compromises, and loopholes and work-arounds that his people had used to do their own wills instead of God’s… bidding one and all to bend their stiff-necks, and bow their proud knees, not to him, but to the LORD.
 
But even though John’s ministry rang true with the message of Israel’s prophets… calling God’s people to repent and turn back to the LORD, the chief priests and elders hadn’t listened to John’s words of warning, showing themselves to be unwilling to change course. They claimed to be faithful to God, and obedient to His will, but were walking in the opposite direction. 

Of course, this story invites you and I to ask ourselves: Are we like those would-be leaders? Have we grown comfortable with the idea that we already know what’s what, and have no need to be corrected? Are we resistant to the teachings of Christ, and the prophets, preferring our own ways to the ways of God? Is our first instinct to push back and challenge any perceived threat to our own sense of mastery and control?
 
In our passage today, Jesus points the chief priests and elders to John… not to shame them, but to offer them another chance to repent. He responded to their challenge by shining a spotlight on their hypocrisy to give them another opportunity to turn around… to change their course, and submit to God’s ways at last… but they refused to do so.
 
And so, Jesus refused to respond to their questions in turn. Which sends us all an important message: when we persist in our unbelief, and resist the opportunities we’re given to turn around… we shouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get the answers we’re looking for.
 
But Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the two sons. Matthew 21:28-31, “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” The answer’s pretty obvious. It doesn’t matter what we say if we’re not really willing to obey. 
 
This parable is a pointed word… a challenge to those religious leaders back in Jerusalem all those years ago… and to you and I today… calling us out when we claim to be God’s faithful, obedient children, yet ignore what He’s clearly called us to do. We can say all the right things, but if we don’t actually do what God calls us to… we’re out of line with our Lord.
 
But at the same time, this parable is a reminder that it’s never too late to turn around! That if we’ve failed to live God’s way, we can still repent and seek to obey His voice.  As scandalous as it must have seemed to those chief priests and elders, and maybe even you and I… Jesus reminds us that many outsiders… those who’ve gone far down the wrong roads, and who at first had refused to walk in God’s ways have truly turned around, and with His help have become faithful members of God’s good Kingdom. And this invitation is open to us all! It’s never too late to turn around. 
 
And that’s because God really does love us… He cares for us even when we walked away from Him, and sought to serve as our own master and lord, disobeying His life-giving ways. As we heard in our first reading from the book of the prophet Ezekiel 18:31-32, God says to His people: “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.” God is always offering us the chance to turn back to Him. And He knows that obeying Him is actually what will lead us to life, even if it also comes with a high cost. 
 
Like the cost of our pride… inviting us to embrace the way of humility. Or the cost of our anger… inviting us to pursue the way of forgiveness. Or the cost of our comfort… inviting us to be willing to face rejection, loss, suffering… and even death for His sake. Holding on to Him above all else.

But the Good News is, God doesn’t ask us to do all this alone, and He has already paid these high costs of obedience for our sake… taking up our cause while we were still sinners, by taking on Himself our sorry state.
 
This is what we heard in our second reading today from the letter to the Philippians, a profound depiction of how Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God fully obeyed the will of His Eternal Father, in order to come to the rescue and raise up humanity into God’s glorious New Life.
 
Philippians 2:5-11, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
 
Though the path of obedience to God’s great love for us sinners led Jesus Christ to the cross for our sake… it also led through death to the resurrection, and the joys of an eternity at God’s right hand as our Saviour, and the King of all creation. Obedience to God’s ways won’t always be easy, but it is always worth it in the end.
 
And Jesus invites us to follow Him today … to bend our heads, and our hearts, and our knees to Him, not through deception, or manipulation, or intimidation, but out of true reverence and gratitude, and as a response to His gift of love poured out for us all at the cross.
 
And having been offered this great love, Christ invites us to walk the path of God’s love along with Him. To embrace the way of faith and obedience to the Father’s will… to have the same mind and heart that He does towards one another.
As St. Paul put it, to “[d]o nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility [to] regard others as better than [ourselves]. Let each of [us] look not to [our] own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4).
 
This is where obedience to God leads us: to love. To love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. And Jesus our Lord has already led the way, inviting us to join Him on this journey even deeper into God’s love. 
 
Let us then not only say yes to God’s love with our lips, but with our lives. Let us place our hope and our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, who laid down His life for us all at the cross, and rose again to sit at the Father’s right hand, and to share God’s life with God’s world. 
​
And with the help of His Holy Spirit at work in us, let us obey the voice and the way of our Saviour, living each day as those who are faithful to the love of God in all that we do. Amen. 
​

Scripture Readings: Jonah 3:10–4:11 | Psalm 145 | Philippians 1:21–30 | ​Matthew 20:1–16

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15).
 
If there’s one good thing that’s coming from the trade war taking place right now between the USA and Canada… I think it’s that there’s a clear light being shone on two very different ways of pursuing prosperity. On the one hand, there are those working with a ‘zero-sum’ vision of the world, where for one side to prosper, another must suffer… it’s ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ all the time, and we only succeed when we’re focussed on lifting ourselves up, and holding down everyone else.
 
But on the other hand, there are those who are working with a ‘win-win’ vision of the world… where both sides prosper by working together… by setting aside pure self-centredness, and pursuing the common good together.  
 
These two visions are set before us: ‘zero-sum’ and ‘win-win’… the way of self-focussed ambition, or the way of service… loyalty… and neighbourly love. And whichever vision we embrace we know it will have huge implications both for ourselves and for all those around us.

Now we’re not here this morning to listen to amateur political theory, but to turn our attention… our ears and hearts and lives to the Living God: to worship Him, to hear His voice in the Scriptures, to receive His grace, and to be moved by His Holy Spirit to do His will in His world. No political theory has the power to save us. For that, we turn to our Saviour, Jesus the Risen Lord. We look to Him to guide us, and to provide what we need to live as God’s faithful people today.  
 
But as we turn our attentions to the Scriptures this morning, it seems like a similar spotlight is being shone on certain unhelpful visions of how we think the world, and God’s good Kingdom should work… challenging us to reimagine the dynamics of prosperity and reward when it comes to God’s Kingdom… and how God’s grace and incredible generosity are to reshape how we relate to those around us.

Let’s turn first to our Old Testament reading, where we heard the challenging conclusion of the Book of Jonah… a book that begins with the prophet being sent by God to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, proclaiming to them that God’s judgement was about to fall.

Jonah 1:1-2, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”
 
But famously, Jonah doesn’t go to Nineveh, but runs the other way… which leads to the whole ordeal with the giant fish, where God graciously gives Jonah a second chance. Eventually, Jonah makes it to Nineveh, but it becomes pretty clear that he really hasn’t had a change of heart. He does the bare minimum to deliver God’s message of warning to the people of Nineveh.
 
And that’s because Jonah remains 100 percent against the Assyrians. He doesn’t want them to repent… he wants them to burn! After all, the people of Nineveh were the dreadful enemies of God’s people Israel… they were the powerful Empire right on their doorstep, eager to swallow up smaller nations like Israel, and wreak terrible violence and destruction on all who might stand in their way. These were the big bad-guys in Jonah’s books… and in the eyes of all his countrymen. Which is what makes what happens next one of the greatest scandals in the Scriptures.
 
Nineveh repents! The capital city of the terrible Assyrian Empire turns their hearts and lives around and seek God’s mercy… which God then graciously gives. God spares the city, and this infuriates the prophet. Listen to his response.
 
Jonah 3:10-4:3, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
 
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
 
Jonah says he knows what God is like… too gracious and merciful… too full of steadfast love… and it makes him sick. How could God let them off the hook? How could God be gracious and generous in mercy towards His people’s enemies? For Jonah, it’s ‘zero-sum’… it’s ‘us’ or ‘them’… God’s people can only prosper if the Assyrians are ended.

But God sees things very differently. And God’s grace and generosity are far bigger than Jonah can imagine. After trying to get through to His furious unfaithful prophet with an object lesson involving a short-lived plant, God spells out just how different His way of seeing things is.
 
Jonah 4:11, “…should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” For God, it was never about one side winning, and another losing… it was about rescuing everyone… turning the wicked away from their destructive, and self-destructive ways, so that the whole world might be better off. God’s grace and generous mercy was more concerned with saving the lost then with dishing out punishment.
 
And this is where the Book of Jonah ends, with this challenge to share God’s vision of mercy and grace for all… and this is where we as God’s people today find ourselves being challenged too. We too are called to be reshaped and guided by God’s own generous and gracious heart… even towards those we don’t like… seeking and praying for their restoration and reconciliation rather than hoping for revenge. If the God we serve truly is “gracious… and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing”… then this is the kind of heart and way of life that He wants all His children to have as well.
 
Turning now to our Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 20, we hear another challenging passage: the parable of the workers in the vineyard. And what we find here is a puzzling picture… field workers being paid in ways that seem to be completely unfair… at least, from a certain point of view. Does Jesus not care about the plight of workers? Is this some sort of proto-socialism? What’s going on here?
 
As we dig into this passage, we need to remember that this is a parable… a story that drives home a specific point… and that the point is primarily about helping us to understand something important about God’s Kingdom. It might have wider implications, but these are all secondary.
 
This parable works by focussing on and contrasting two very different groups at opposite ends of the spectrum: the first, and the last. Let’s look closer at them both.
 
The first were chosen from the start to work in the landowner’s vineyard. At the crack of dawn, their labours began, and they bore the brunt of what needed to be done. Who knows why they were chosen first? Were they better workers? Did they seem more impressive? No idea. The text doesn’t say. But they were chosen first, and they did their work without complaint, looking forward to their reward: a full days wages.
 
We know that after this first group, there were plenty of other workers hired throughout the day… apparently, there was a whole lot of work to do. And eventually, with the workday nearly over, the landowner hires those passed over by everyone else… those who were left after several draft pics, so to speak. Why weren’t they hired before? Who knows? No reason is given apart from the fact that no one wanted to hire them. And these last ones head into the field, and join in what was left of the day’s work, contributing the least.  

And once again, we’re met with a scandal: in the story Jesus tells, those who came last end up receiving the same reward as those who were chosen first... those who worked the longest were paid the same as those who worked the least. Not by paying the first ones less, but by significantly overpaying those who came last!
 
If their hourly rates were compared side-by-side, the differences would be shocking… and that’s precisely the point. In this parable, Jesus is challenging the ways we are quick to compare ourselves to others… counting up who has it better off, instead of trusting in the generosity and grace of the Living God to give us all what we need, and even to give us far more than we actually deserve.
 
In the parable, the first group complains: “‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:12-16).
 
The landowner’s profound generosity and grace are the point, and they undermine the whole ‘zero-sum’ way of seeing the world. He is willing to give more to some who he thinks need it without withholding the reward promised to others. No one is given less than what they were working for… but all walked away with what they needed.
 
This is how Christ Jesus wants us to think about His Kingdom… not as some sort of competition where we work to get ahead of others, and earn more rewards than those around us. It’s an invitation to share in the good work of God’s saving love, labouring with Him so that all can share in its blessings, no longer motivated by mere self-centred ambitions, but by the generosity and grace of God.  
 
Our world tries to divide us up all the time into those who seem to deserve the best, and those who don’t, encouraging us to be driven by our fears of not having enough… and our prejudices… and our impulses to rise up by holding others down.

But God’s generosity and grace challenge all this… He’s not interested in ranking us, or rating us… but in rescuing us all! And nowhere is this more apparent than at the cross, where Jesus Christ gave up His life for both the first, and the last… dying equally for us all… Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free… old and young… intelligent and simple… poor and rich… righteous and unrighteous… and every other division our world can dream up! There’s no room for our ‘zero-sum’ games at the foot of the cross… no miserly self-centredness can cast a shadow over the gracious, generous self-giving love God has offered to us all equally through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
So when we’re tempted to turn inwards, and turn our hearts against our neighbours… whomever they might be… and when we’re inclined to compare ourselves to others, and complain that we’re not being given what we deserve… let us remember that God’s generosity and grace is far greater than we can imagine! Let us remember that His saving love is not a limited resource that we have to fight over… in Jesus Christ, it’s offered freely to us all!

​And let us remember, that we have been chosen… we have been called to join with Jesus in His labours to share God’s saving love with our world… with all those around us… trusting Him to guide us, and give us what we need… so we can all share in the blessed life of His good Kingdom… which is what I call ‘win-win’. Amen. 

​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, & Sermon this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Genesis 50:15–21 | Psalm 103:1-13 | Romans 14:1–12 | ​Matthew 18:21–35

“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’  Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.’” (Matthew 18:21-22).
 
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
 
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
 
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
 
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
 
I believe this famous poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost masterfully brings to mind that heart-wrenching dilemma that we all have faced at one point or another: that crisis… that choice between two diverging roads… two options, two paths that wind on before us… and the necessity of leaving one of them untaken.
 
Life is full of these divergent roads. Alternatives that both seem enticing, and have there appeal… and which, when chosen will make “all the difference” when it comes to the direction our lives will take, and the kinds of people we are becoming.
 
And this morning, our Scripture passages present us with a similar dilemma… a choice between two paths… two roads that diverge… and knowing full well where both these paths lead, we’re called to take the one less travelled: leaving the path of revenge behind, and taking the road towards forgiveness. 
 
Revenge and forgiveness. Two incompatible options and visions for how to make things right that have gone wrong. One leads us into the deepening cycles of retaliation, as we demand payback of greater or lesser degree for every injury incurred. And the other, though costly and even painful at times, calling us to say ‘no’ to our egos… this path offers us a real chance to repair the ruptures that threaten to tear apart our relationships. 
 
Forgiveness and revenge. Both visions for how best to respond to being wronged have their own appeal, and compelling reasons for embracing them. But in the end, we must choose one or the other path. And Christ Jesus our Lord is very clear which of the two paths His followers must take, and which one we must leave untaken.
 
Last Sunday we spent some time reflecting on Christ’s instructions in Matthew 18:15-20 for how Christians are to deal with conflicts arising within the Church community: habits that train us to become a people of both love and truth, and steps to take as we to try to restore broken trust and fellowship when we have cause harm to one another. In these instructions, Jesus runs through what to do if a fellow Christian has wronged you, but refuses to make amends: moving from private to more public conversations, and eventually to setting up some pretty strong boundaries.
 
And right after hearing Jesus lay out how to navigate conflict with Christians who refuse to repent, St. Peter asks a pretty logical question: what are the limits of Christian forgiveness?
 
Matthew 18:21-22, “Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”
 
Seventy-seven times!
 
St. Peter probably though he was being pretty generous with seven… the sacred number of completeness. Surely after seven times of sinning, and enough is enough.

But no. Instead, Jesus expands the horizons and limits of forgiveness proposed by Peter to the Nth degree… and His answer calls to mind and turns on its head an obscure and ancient story from the book of Genesis. 
 
In Genesis Chapter 4, we’re briefly introduced to a man named Lamech, a descendant of Cain, the first murderer in the Bible. Now even though Cain had done something truly horrible, murdering his brother Abel, in God’s great mercy, the Lord set a clear limit on Cain’s punishment… promising that anyone who killed Cain as he wandered in Exile would receive seven times vengeance in return (Genesis 4:15). God stepped in to try and protect the life of someone who was guilty of an incredibly serious crime… seeking to interrupt potential cycles of violence before they had a chance to start.
 
But then, just a few generations later, Cain’s descendent Lamech boasts of his own power, and turns the threat of revenge into a tool of intimidation. In Genesis 4:23, this is what Lamech proclaims:
“I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
 
Did you catch that number?
Seventy-sevenfold. Seventy-seven times.
On the first pages of the Bible, as the human story is spiraling out of control towards violence and bloodshed, Lamech has embraced the road that leads towards limitless revenge… escalating violence used as a tool to intimidate and dominate others.
 
And sadly, we know that Lamech was far from the last to take this dark road, as over and over again we humans have dealt with our conflicts by seeking to crush anyone who causes us harm. Over and over again, our world has embraced the way of violence and revenge without limits, to the point that many today believe that revenge is really the only choice… the only path that we have.  
 
But that’s not true. There is another choice… another path than demanding payback, and punishment for those who do us wrong. And this much less-travelled road diverges sharply away from the path of Lamech, with all its boasting and bloodshed… taking his seventy-seven times threat of revenge and turning it on its head into a vision of complete forgiveness.
 
How often must I forgive? Jesus says to us: ‘Not seven times, but… seventy-seven times.” 
 
Not literally, of course. That is, Christ is not suggesting that we keep track and tally up every times that we forgive one another, and that once we get to the seventy-eighth time, we’re then free to give up on forgiveness. No, saying we must forgive seventy-seven times is a way of pushing us to the distant horizons of our imaginations… inviting us to explore an entirely different vision of forgiveness… not as a limited resource, that can eventually be exhausted… but as our default way of life… as a deep commitment to one another… a new reality that shapes all of our interactions… and that makes all the difference. 
 
And to drive this home, Jesus goes on to tell us a parable that seeks to ground our calling to extend forgiveness on the strong foundation of the mercy and grace of the Living God. 

As we heard, in the parable, a man’s unimaginable debt is forgiven… he’s set free from it forever. But then, he goes and finds someone who owes him, and refuses to be moved to extend mercy, demanding payback instead. The story is framed to emphasize the utter ungratefulness of the man whose life was unchanged by the great mercy shown to him, stubbornly choosing the road of revenge instead of extending even a small fraction of the forgiveness that he himself had received. And in the end, because he refused to embrace the way of forgiveness, the man forfeits his own pardon, having turned his back on the very path that would have led him to life.
 
This story speaks to us all today too… reminding us of our own great need for forgiveness, and that God’s mercy and grace towards us calls us to carry on down the same road, and to then learn to respond in kind. To commit to being receptive to repentance of others, and to offer them the same gift that we have received freely from the Risen Lord. 
 
Christ Jesus commands us to forgive one another as a response to the Good News that in Him we truly have been offered God’s full forgiveness. To believe the Good News that the just judge of all heaven and earth has mercifully offered us all a full pardon, not because we’re so worthy, but because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done for us! And now, the Holy Spirit has been given to us in Jesus’ name, in order to transform our hearts and minds and lives, so that we can begin to be like Him too… to be shaped and guided by God’s great compassion, and patience, and grace… walking in His ways down the road that leads to the New Life of holy love… the road of forgiveness.

For Christians, the choice of forgiving others begins at the foot of the cross. That’s where we see most clearly God’s great love offered to us all while we were still sinners, cleansing us of our sins and setting us free by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are given a new vision of how God’s world actually works… undermining the case and the apparent necessity of revenge and retribution with the sure promise that God’s New Life and saving love is far greater than even our worst mistakes and failures.   
 
Having chosen to believe in this Good News… to place our faith in Jesus Christ, and to follow His ways down this road, we find that the forgiveness we extend to others becomes a way of sharing in God’s New Life here and now… of practicing the habits of His Kingdom by letting go of our desires to judge and condemn those who have hurt us. Not ignoring the wrongs done… but choosing to release those who hurt us from our claims for payback, and instead trusting the Living God, the truly just Judge, to one day sort everything out in His great wisdom and truth, and to bring about the healing of all hurts. 
​
So when we find ourselves at a fork in the road, forced to choose how we’ll respond to someone who has wronged us, let us take the road less-travelled… the road of forgiveness that flows straight from the Good News of Jesus Christ, who has both tread this path before us, and has promised to walk it with us as well. And when it’s a real struggle, let’s pray… inviting the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts, and to help us keep moving towards forgiveness, and to reshape our desires for revenge and payback into a deep hunger for true reconciliation… trusting that this is where God’s saving love is leading us... and leave the road of revenge untaken. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 33:7–11 | Psalm 119:33–40 | Romans 13:8–14 | Matthew 18:15–20
​
“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…” (Romans 13:11-12).
 
This week marks the ending of another Summer vacation here in New Brunswick… as teachers and students alike pivot from a season of rest and recreation, and return to the busy routines and daily rhythms that go hand in hand with learning and growth. It’s an exciting time of the year, and a challenging one as well. And for myself, one of the hardest parts about heading back to school… is having to start getting up early again… readjusting my sleeping habits, so I get the rest I need, and am ready for all that the day has in store.
 
Habits are such an important part of our lives. The regular rhythms and practices we engage in, whether intentionally or not, really do shape us, and help make us who we are, for better or for worse. And we know choosing to form good habits isn’t always easy… they require real effort and commitment at times… saying no to what may come naturally, in order to nurture and make room for a new and hopefully better experience of life.
 
When I think of good habits, my mind usually goes to things like waking up early, or eating healthier, or getting regular exercise… you know, the choices and practices that individuals perform to try to improve their own lives. But the truth is communities have habits too… regular routines and practices shared by whole groups of people that shape and train the way they interact with one another, and the world around them. Sometimes these community habits can be really great… and sometimes they can lead to all sorts of trouble… especially when we’re dealing with the more challenging aspects of life, like clashes and conflicts.  
 
Even the most easy-going of us know that we can’t always avoid conflicts in this life. And yet, a lot of us struggle when it comes to working through these kinds of issues, especially when it involves confronting those who we believe have wronged us.
 
I mean, how do we actually deal with the conflicts that arise within our communities? What kinds of healthy habits and practices can help guide us through these mirky waters?
 
The all-to-common obsession with being ‘right’ and proving others ‘wrong’ so often only divides us. But then again, simply turning a blind eye to wrongs done, and offering easy acceptance without truth leads us straight to corruption… covering up and allowing misdeeds to continue, all while pretending that everything’s fine when it’s not. 
 
Neither of these two options seem ideal. And as Christians, we know that the Living God calls us to be a community of both truth and love… embodying both honesty and a welcoming embrace, not just one or the other. So then, as a Christian community here at St. Luke’s, we need to seek out and cultivate the kinds of shared habits and practices that can help us deal with the conflicts and sins that might otherwise divide us… practices that shape our hearts and our minds to respond to one another and those around us in the light of the Gospel.

In our Gospel reading today, from Matthew Chapter 18, we heard Jesus Christ our Lord lay down some basic teachings and instructions for His people… practices for His community to help us deal with our conflicts. Specifically, the conflicts that arise when we Christians sin against each other. 
 
Notice that this scenario is not about what happens when we have differing opinions, or everyday disagreements. Those happen all the time, and even though it might make some of us uncomfortable, it’s certainly not a sin to rock the boat. No, this is about the deep disruptions that take place in our relationships when real wrongs have been done, and we step over the line. When we say or do things that wound one another… whether we meant to or not.  
 
When someone sins against us… when we’ve been wronged in some way, it can be really tempting to respond in kind… to lash out at them in return, and try to get back at them somehow… or at the least, to simply walk away.  
 
Those seem like pretty natural responses, but in our Gospel reading today, Christ offers us another way forward… one that is committed to seeking justice and truth, as well as extending grace and love… practices and habits that help guide us along the path of reconciliation.
 
It seems important to note here, that the whole process that follows is one of relational restoration and reconciliation, which is not a substitute for actions like criminal investigations if something illegal has transpired. If the wrong that has been done requires this kind of response, report what has happened to the police right away. Down the road, reconciliation may some day be possible, but for your own safety and the safety of others, it’s necessary first to involve the police, and to stop more crimes from occurring.
 
That said, on the path of reconciliation that our Lord Jesus Christ is leading us down, He tells us that the first step is not to cut off those who hurt us, or try to make them pay… it’s to tell them the truth… to take the risk of letting them know the real impact of their actions.

Matthew 18:15, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.” Honestly, so many rifts and damaged relationships could have been put right early on simply by talking it out. By one person being willing to share their pain, and by the other truly listening. Even so, sometimes the rift isn’t so easily solved. And Jesus makes no promises that even an honest and earnest appeal between Christians will lead to a quick or painless resolution. Telling the truth is a first step towards making peace… and sometimes more steps are needed.
 
The second step involves widening the circle, and inviting others into the conversation. Not to gang up on anyone, or gossip about them, but to continue to seek resolution and restoration, which sometimes takes wise mediation.
 
Matthew 18:16, “But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”
 
Someone once pointed out how this step also helps provide safety for those who have been harmed… that if someone has done something that wrongs us, and has not sought to make amends after being confronted, we shouldn’t have to be alone with them again. Once again, the goal is still to heal the relationship, but this step recognizes that there’s a real need to clarify what has taken place, and to protect everyone involved.
 
This leads us to the third step: involving the rest of the community… because the community has already been affected! It’s no longer a private matter when a family is fighting. All the members suffer when these bonds are pulled apart. But if this doesn’t work, the next and final step soon follows: establishing new and firmer boundaries.

Matthew 18:17, “If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In other words, by closing their heart, and their mind, and their ears to the whole Church community, the offender has already chosen to cut themselves off from their Christian brothers and sisters. This is serious business.  
 
But remember, all of these steps were taken, not to punish them, or to condemn them… but to restore their full communion. This whole truth-telling process, these practices of restoration are all in the service of love. Of bringing together those torn apart, and finding a way forward together again. 
 
In our second reading today, from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, we heard the Apostle reflect upon the central place that love plays in the life of the Church community: Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”
 
Remember that St. Paul wrote this letter to a deeply divided community… one where it was hard to love one another. In the early Church, Jewish and Gentile Christians were frequently clashing over how best to follow the way of Jesus, and live together as God’s children. Due to their very different religious, social, and cultural habits, these new Christians were struggling to get along, and had lots of potential not only for serious misunderstandings, but also for old habits and prejudices to spring up… leading to serious sins that could easily undermine their fellowship, like quarrelling, jealousy, and pride. 
 
Looking around at our world today, our own wider communities are facing their own serious challenges, and divisions. We could think of the tense trade relations driving a wedge between the countries of North America, or the rifts evident in Canadian politics, with Alberta and Quebec threatening to go their own way.
 
And tragically, we could also think about all the divisions within the Church… the factions within the Body of Christ, and conflicts cutting us off from our brothers and sisters around the world, down the street, or across the aisle.
 
Our world is divided by conflict a lot. But as Christians, as disciples of Jesus Christ we are invited to embody a different way to deal with the things that try to divides us… a way that flows from the Gospel itself.
 
We are invited into a sacred mystery… to trust the promise that whenever and wherever we are gathered together, Jesus Christ the Risen Son of God is right there with us. Not as a mere spectator, but actively working within and through us by His Holy Spirit to share God’s reconciling love with our deeply divided world.
 
And the Church community… not so much the building, or the institution, but the people of Christ Jesus gathered together in love and fellowship… we are the concrete sign of the Creator’s reconciliation at work in our world. We are His new family, forged from many diverse peoples, coming together with all of our differences, to share in the New Life of Christ… made possible because of the cross, where God mercifully deals with all of our sins… and because of the resurrection of Christ, assuring us of God’s grace and forgiveness offered to all in Jesus’ name. 
 
Yes, life shared with other Christians is not always easy. It requires commitment to the truth, and to righteousness, and the willingness to give and receive forgiveness. It asks us to take on habits and practices that reshape us and train us to respond God’s way when we’re faced with conflicts and challenges that threaten to divide us.
 
This New Life calls us to practice telling the truth… about our faith, and about our failures. We do this each week when we recite the Creeds, making a habit of affirming the great story of God… and when we offer our Confession together… owning up to the story of our own struggles to be true to the Good News.
 
And we are not only called to tell the truth, but to practice turning around and walking a new way… that is, to repentance. Discovering the kind of life that the Good News found in the Creeds points us to… the Good News that, for us and for our salvation, despite all our faults and failures, Jesus took on flesh and dwelt with us… and die for us… and rose again… and that because of Him, we can believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting!
 
Because of what Jesus Christ has done for us all, we are now called to seek real reconciliation… to practice forgiveness, and practice being forgiven when we need it too. Receiving the gift of a true pardon from God, and recognizing that God has given this gift to others too… inviting us as a community to live out that reality.
 
Reciting the Creeds, and offering our Confession week by week… our whole liturgy is not just  some odd rituals we go through for the sake of tradition… these are sacred habits of heart and mind… shaping and training our thoughts and our lives… drawing us together with equal footing before the cross of Jesus, to receive the gift of New Life from the merciful hand of our Risen Lord… so we can then show our divided world by our willingness to work with each other, and challenge one another, and forgive one another… and to really love one another, what God’s New Life really looks like in practice. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 15:15–21 | Psalm 26:1–8 | Romans 12:9–21 | Matthew 16:21–28

“But [Jesus] turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:23).
 
Well, this past week was certainly a challenging one when it comes to the partnership and trade-relations between our country and the United States. As I’m sure you’ve heard, after a long and tense period of difficult negotiations to try to deal with the threat of new tariffs on Canadian goods, at the final hour the Canadian delegation walked away from the deal that the American administration wanted us to sign. We said ‘no’ to the deal… which has now led to a new ‘trade war’, and increased the anxiety and the economic uncertainty of plenty of folks on either side of the Border.
 
Now I’m not going to get into all the back and forth that has unfolded since this all went down. I’m not an expert on politics, or economics… and I certainly can’t predict the future and how this will all play out… other than to say that it seems likely that there will be a high cost for the strong stance that our Government has taken.
 
But some things are worth paying a high cost for… and some bargains are not at all worth the paper they’re printed on. However these trade and relationship issues between our two countries play out in the days and weeks and months to come, we have at least been called to remember that even if it’s hard… even if it hurts… sometimes the best response that we can give is a very clear rejection… taking a principled stance, and offering a very straightforward No!
 
That’s the response that St. Peter received from Jesus in our Gospel passage this morning: a definitive ‘No!’ to Peter’s proposal, and to the plans… the vision of God’s Kingdom that Peter, and no doubt many of Jesus’ disciples back then and today, was working with. 
 
But what was so wrong about St. Peter’s offer? I mean, did his suggestion warrant such a provocative and ‘nasty’ response? “Get behind me, Satan!” That’s harsh! Hadn’t Peter just shown his faith and loyalty to Jesus’ agenda by proclaiming that He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, which we heard last week? Why the abrupt outburst? Couldn’t Christ have just resolved their private differences in a more civilized manner?

As we heard, this strong response comes after St. Peter privately says ‘no’ to Jesus… specifically when Jesus let them in on an important secret: that hard times were soon coming… that He would soon be heading to Jerusalem to face rejection, suffering, and death… and yet somehow rise again.
 
Now I’m not sure how you or I would have responded to this news, but St. Peter certainly was not on board. So he pulls Jesus aside, and tries to change His mind: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22). You can’t suffer… You’re the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, remember? You’ve got more important things to do! Like rescuing us from Rome, and setting up God’s good  Kingdom… right?’
 
From St. Peter’s perspective, Jesus was being completely unreasonable. Suffering and dying makes no sense at all if you’re trying to establish a kingdom. But to understand Jesus’ forceful response, we need to remember that this confrontation doesn’t just arise out of nowhere. It has a context, and arises from a bigger story.

Much like the background to the break-down of trade talks last weekend, in St. Matthew’s Gospel these questions around the nature of God’s Kingdom have been building for a while. And so, in this crucial moment where conflicting visions collide, things come to a dramatic head, and call for a choice to be made about how to move forward. 
 
Last Sunday, we looked at St. Peter’s confession in the verses right before our text today… and we explored the story told by all of the names that occurred in those verses, recognizing in them a bit of a theme: The claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah… the Son of Man and Son of Yahweh… the Living God… sent here to save us in all sorts of ways… including from the power of people like Caesar and his cronies… from the beastly nations that have crushed God’s people for so long. St. Matthew wants us to see that the coming of Jesus is the way God will vindicate and raise up His faithful ones. 
 
Jesus Himself affirmed this vision both of Himself, and His mission… but He also knew that it would be far more cosmic and costly than His disciples could ever imagine. Jesus knew that there was an even bigger foe to fight than the Romans, and all those other beastly empires out there: the struggle was against the gates of Hades, the place of the dead… the personification of death itself, which He said cannot and will not prevail against the rock of the Gospel… the Good News that God’s saving love is far stronger than the grave. 
 
But then Jesus goes on: Death might not prevail in the end… but it still must be faced with all it’s fury. This would not be an easy road… carrying a high cost for God’s Messiah, which he tried to explain to those closest to Him. Matthew 16:21, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
 
Far from easily cruising into God’s good Kingdom, as the Messiah, the Son of God and Son of Man, Jesus had knowingly come to suffer… to be rejected by His own people, and to die. Only then, would He rise again. He had not come to bypass the beastly powers, but to call them out and confront them… not to step in and painlessly bring an end to the power of death… but to endure its dreadful wrath to the full… overcoming it not by force, but by the faithful power of the Living God to make all things new.  
 
Through the power of Resurrection! Breaking the force and the influence, and the terror of the grave once and for all, and changing it from an apparently unstoppable force into a defeated foe, able to still cause pain and to intimidate, but never to prevail… to spread fear, but to no longer bind us. In short, Christ’s Resurrection is death’s end. It is the grave’s disarmament and defeat.
 
And now, because of the Resurrection, the worst weapon of every Caesar in our world is shown to be nothing special… their claims to wield the ultimate power to destroy and dominate others is just an illusion… revealing their own impotence… their ‘lame-duck status’ in the light of God’s eternal Kingdom… and that can give us courage.

Jesus came to confront and to overcome death by bearing it with and for us… to save us from its dreadful power… and pave the way for us to share in His own resurrection life… free from the fear of death’s dark shadow forever. 

But saying yes to this mission meant saying yes to the path of suffering. Saying yes to the terrible cost of confronting death on our behalf… of taking up our cause, and taking on His own shoulders the consequences of our sins… carrying that heavy burden for us all on the cross. This is why Jesus came, and this is why He had to say ‘no’ to St. Peter in such strong terms. There could be no ambiguity here. Jesus knew exactly what must be done, and He was determined not to give in. 
 
Because even if St. Peter meant well, his answer was a stumbling block… a temptation to just skip the cross… to skip all the suffering… the very same deal the devil once offered Jesus in the wilderness: to be given rule over all the kingdoms of the earth no cross necessary… by bowing down to worship Satan. To give in to the pressure from St. Peter to say ‘no’ to the cross would mean saying ‘yes’ to saving Himself…but it would mean saying ‘no’ to us and to our salvation… to the high cost that He was willing to pay to set us all free. It would mean saying ‘no’ to God’s saving love. 
 
But thanks be to God, Jesus would not say ‘no’ to saving us, or our world. And so, He bluntly and publicly says ‘no’ to His mixed-up disciple… making clear to everyone that St. Peter’s answer is not just misguided, it’s a temptation straight from the enemy… the temptation to avoid personal pain… to save ourselves… instead of living out the self-giving love of God. 
 
Matthew 16:24-27, “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.” 
 
Jesus calls Peter, and the other disciples, and you and I here today to join Him on this road to God’s Kingdom. To say ‘no’ to ourselves… to deny, to reject the impulse to simply prioritize avoiding pain, or seeking to bypass the high cost of faithfulness… and He calls us instead to say ‘yes’ to Him… to pick up our crosses and follow Him. To walk in His ways, and listen to His voice. To do what is right, even when we’re afraid. Even when we know that it will hurt… trusting in His saving love to guide us, to sustain us… and someday to raise us up with Him forever. 
 
Jesus doesn’t invite us on this road because He wants us to suffer. Suffering of one kind or another is just a fact of life in our broken world. He does so because He knows that the path to the cross… the way of embracing God’s saving love for us and our world… even with the high cost, is well worth it! He knows God’s way, even when it puts us at odds with the world is the surprising pathway to life! Life as it is meant to be lived: the life of love shared with all of our neighbours… of seeking, not just our own wellbeing, but the good of all… the life of generosity, and patience, of truthfulness and faithfulness… of self-control, and peace, and joy… the life of the Holy Spirit.  
 
The life of God’s love that will endure forever… that the fear of death can no longer trouble. Allowing our grief to begin to give way to the hope of reunion. Our pain to give way to the power of God’s New Creation. Our fears to give way to embracing the mercy and grace and love of God that says ‘yes’ to us all in Jesus Christ. 
 
Jesus says ‘no’ to St. Peter, and invites us all to say ‘no’ to ourselves, and to follow Him… because He loves us… and longs to lead us into the blessed life of God His resurrection makes possible… not only in eternity, but reshaping us and our world even now. 
 
I’ll close now by returning to our second reading today, from St. Paul the Apostle, who knew very well the high cost of following Jesus the Messiah, but said ‘yes’ anyway, and saw in Him the way to true life. May his words guide us this week as we seek to follow the way of Christ together, and by the mercies and grace of God, may our broken world be shaped by them as well.
 
Romans 12:9-21, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
 
 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Amen.

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 51:1–6 | Psalm 138 | Romans 12:1–8 | ​Matthew 16:13–20

“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16).
 
I think we often forget just how important names are.

Not just because they help us connect with one another… which is true. I mean, when we know each other’s names, we have a kind of basic connection… a basis for the building up of our relationships and friendships… of getting to know someone else, and sharing our lives with them too.
 
That’s all true. But knowing names is also important for another reason: they connect us to our wider stories… to the people and places and events that are much bigger than us… the stories that shape our communities, our imaginations… our hopes and dreams. Simply saying a name can bring to mind not only personal memories, but meaning… claims about what is important… what is of lasting value… and is worth holding onto… and what best to walk away from.
 
There are names I could mention this morning that I’m sure would make some of you smile… calling to mind beloved places or people, and all the ways they have blessed us: their dedication, and faithfulness… their kindness, and their love. And I know there are some names that I could say, that would make many of us shake our heads, and bring to mind far less pleasant thoughts… reminding us that the story of our world is far from straightforward, and not always easy to navigate. 
 
In our Gospel passage today, in this short but important moment in St. Matthew’s account of the Good News of Jesus Christ, we’re presented with a whole lot of names… some that might be somewhat familiar, and others less so. And if we’re not careful, we might easily just skip over them without a second thought… assuming that we know what they mean without bothering to slow down and consider their role in the wider story. 
 
But I believe that these names all have a story to tell us this morning… calling to mind both the big themes of the Bible, and also many of the ups and downs of our world today… if we can take the time to listen to them.

So this morning, I’m inviting us all to take a few moments to reflect on all the names that Matthew 16:13-20 shares with us, and the stories they tell us. At first, they might seem a bit scattered, but as we hold them side by side, we might start to see something that is both challenging, and deeply hopeful and beautiful… something we can truly call Good News for our world today.
 
And let’s start off with the most important name: with the name of Jesus. 
 
The name Jesus has the same root and meaning as the name Joshua: Yehoshua, which means ‘God saves’. Not just ‘any’ god… specifically the God revealed in the Holy Scriptures… the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… the One Moses came to know as Yahweh… ‘the One who Is’… the Living God who led Israel out from their oppression and slavery in Egypt, to share in His gracious new life. 

This God saves. That is what Jesus means, and that is what Jesus’ life is all about: from first to last, His story is about the God and Creator of all coming to the rescue of His people, and His beloved world.

But what do His people and His world need rescuing from? Well, lots of things, as it turns out… but the next name in our passage has something to say about all this: the name of the city of Caesarea Philippi.
 
Caesarea Philippi was a city built and named to honour Caesar… the Roman Emperor… the proud ruler who claimed to be the epitome of all political power, and whose armies enforced his will by the sword, and the promise of swift retribution to all who stood in Rome’s way. The ‘Philippi’ part comes from the local patron of the city, Philip… one of King Herod’s successors, who wanted to get in Caesar’s good books, and raise his own profile in the process.
 
Right now, the name Caesarea Philippi reminds us that all throughout human history, back then, and today, there have been those who lay claim to power and authority through violence, vanity, and pride… and those who are happy to adore and enable them… demanding the worship and allegiance of the world, and oppressing all those who stand in their way. And this leads us to the next name… or title, I guess: that is, ‘the Son of Man’. 

The Son of Man is the main title that Jesus uses in the Gospels when He’s referring to Himself… which means that it’s probably an important part of the way that He wants to be known. 
 
On first glance, it’s a claim of vulnerability… and humility… reminder of mortality… another way of saying human… a son of humanity, taken from the earth, and to the earth one day to return. But there’s more going on with this title, and it has a long history of its own.
 
It’s used in the Old Testament prophets, pretty frequently in the book of Ezekiel… but especially in the book of Daniel this phrase takes on great significance. 
 
In brief, in Daniel Chapter 7, Daniel has a dream… a vision of great monstrous, violent beasts who rise up in pride and oppress God’s people… But then, the beasts are overturned… facing God’s divine judgment while a figure called the “Son of Man” is vindicated, and raised up to God’s right hand to rule with Him. 
 
Later on, Daniel is told that the dream is actually about a series of violent, beastly empires rising up and crushing God’s “Holy Ones”, the “saints”… those who stayed faithful to Him despite the pressures and persecution and violence brought down on them by the nations of the earth.  And these faithful ones are personified by this figure called the “Son of Man”. 
 
It’s a vision calling for faithfulness for God’s people when the whole world seems to be turned against them. A reminder that, even if we lose everything… even our lives, God will ultimately vindicate, rescue, and redeem His faithful ones. 
 
But notice that by using this title to refer to Himself, Jesus is identifying Himself with this personification of God’s whole holy human community… connecting His own story with all those who faithfully suffer at the hands of the world, only to be raised up by God in the end. 
 
OK, I know that’s a lot… but there’s still a lot more to go. Here’s a recap of what we’ve already covered: the name of Jesus reminds us that God saves… but human rulers like Caesar and their violent, power-obsessed empires make the opposite claim: that any who stand in their way will be crushed and utterly destroyed. But the name ‘Son of Man’ from Daniel’s vision lumps these proud human rulers like Caesar in with the beasts, destined to face God’s just judgement… and even though these brutal empires might oppress God’s faithful ones for a time, in the end they’ll be overthrown, and God’s faithful ones will be vindicated. 
 
Let’s move on to the next bundle of names… those of three faithful prophets: John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah. Three examples of people who remained true under pressure, and played their own part in God’s great rescue mission.
 
Starting with John, whose name means ‘God is gracious’, we’re reminded of Jesus’ eccentric cousin who was called to prepare the way for Christ’s coming by calling everyone to repent… to turn around and start again, seeking to become God’s holy ones, not just in name but in reality… in action… in lives shaped by true godliness. 
 
And what happened to John? He was arrested and put to death by Herod, Israel’s compromised king who was a puppet of Rome… beheaded for speaking the truth publicly about Herod’s sins. John, this holy servant of God, was put to death by those in power for remaining faithful. Just like in Daniel’s vision, those with worldly power do what they can to crush those who dare to challenge their ways with the truth. 
 
Next we have Elijah whose name means “My God is Yahweh”… a great name for a prophet well known for calling Israel to repent, and return to the Lord instead of serving the other gods of their neighbouring nations. Elijah took part in a dramatic and pyrotechnic display of Yahweh’s divine power, but shortly thereafter he fled into the wilderness when Israel’s compromised leaders pushed back and threatened to hunt him down and take his life.
 
And then there’s Jeremiah, a prophet of God in the days leading up to Israel’s Exile in Babylon. His name means: “Yahweh will raise up”, or “Yahweh will loosen”, but his own story is also pretty bleak. He spoke truth to God’s people about the grim future that awaited them for rebelling against God’s holy ways, warning them that the grave consequences of breaking the covenant for generations was about to come down on Jerusalem. 
 
As you can imagine, this wasn’t exactly a popular message. It got him in all sorts of trouble with his neighbours… persecuted by the authorities, and put in prison for being true to God’s message. Like John the Baptist, Jeremiah called out for his people to repent and surrender to God’s just judgment, instead of offering them the false hope and the easy answers they wanted to hear. 
 
These three names: John, Elijah, and Jeremiah are vivid examples of God’s “holy ones” being crushed by the world for remaining faithful to the Lord. But notice: they were crushed, not by foreign nations… but by their own rulers and neighbours. This reminds us that even those who call themselves God’s faithful people can become like the beasts in Daniel’s vision… crushing those who call into question their legitimacy, or threaten their way of doing things. But remember the point of this vision: the beasts will all be put in their place, and those who suffer for God’s sake will be raised up in the end. 

Next we have the names that come in response to Jesus’ question put to His disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” To which Simon Peter responds: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16). 
 
First, lets look at the name “Messiah”, or “Christ” in Greek… a name that means “Anointed One”… referring to the sacred ritual of pouring oil on one’s head, to mark them as set apart to be empowered by God’s own Spirit for God’s own purposes. Israel’s kings were anointed. So too were the High Priests, God’s holy representatives set apart to stand before the Lord in place of their whole community, and interceding for them. 
 
In Jesus’ day, both the kingship and the high priesthood were seen by many as deeply compromised… in bed with Roman claims of authority, and unable to stand strong against their brutal power. But even so, hopes were high that God’s true Messiah would soon come… one who could stay true to the Lord, and restore His people once and for all… throwing off Rome’s influence, and finally vindicating God’s longsuffering people. 
 
And as we heard, Peter links Jesus with this Messianic hope: and much more as well.
 
He goes on to call Jesus another name: the “Son of the Living God”. In the Old Testament, Israel as a people were sometimes called “God’s Son”. And later on, this name is linked to the promise Yahweh makes with King David, that one of David’s descendants shall remain on his throne forever, and be called God’s Son. In 2 Samuel 7:12-14, God says to David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”
 
The name ‘Son of the Living God’ is a claim of direct connection to the divine Creator of all, Israel’s covenant Lord, and His coming Kingdom. It was a strong claim to make about his Master being the long-awaited Messiah, but Peter words were more true than he knew… because Jesus really is God’s Son… more than just a chosen mortal, but the eternal Son of God taking on flesh and dwelling among us… so that we can say: in Jesus of Nazareth, God Himself truly has come among us to save us. 
 
Backtracking a bit, let’s take a quick look at the names given here to St. Peter: Simon son of Jonah.
Simon is connected to the word for “listening”… “hearing”… being open and attentive to what is being shared. A posture of faithful attention. 
 
But the name Jonah, which means “dove”, calls to mind that infamous and disobedient prophet… you know, the one with the big fish… who was far more concerned with condemning the powerful Gentile nations than with being true to God’s will, and playing a part in helping his enemies to listen to God’s message, and repent. 
 
And then there’s the name Peter… “stone” or “rock”… a solid foundation on which to build. The rock being Peter’s confession: that Jesus really is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Everything about God’s Kingdom… about the Christian life and faith is built on this reality. This Good News. And apart from this truth, it all falls apart. 
But what are the actual aims of this Kingdom? What is Jesus really up to? Has Simon Peter been listening? Does he and the other disciples really know the direction that this story is headed? Where Jesus is leading them?
 
We’ll be exploring all of this a lot more next Sunday as we continue reading Matthew Chapter 16.
 
But before we end, there’s one last name we need to address that gives us a glimpse of what comes next: the name of Hades.
 
In the ancient world, this name refers to the place of the dead… and it calls to mind the apparently unstoppable power of Death itself… a power put to use by the beastly kingdoms like Rome, and all other violent empires our world has come to know… even those claiming to be righteous, yet mercilessly crushing those who challenge them. The power that still holds so much of the world in terror, and kept under its thumb. 
 
This very power of death, Jesus tells us, cannot prevail against the Good News of who Jesus is, and what He has come to do. The “gates of Hades will not prevail against” God’s faithful people who remain true to the Good News.
 
And as we’ll here next week, this is where St. Matthew’s story is headed: towards the confrontation of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God and Son of Man, against the powers of Death, which all the would-be Caesars in the world have armed themselves with… and the surprising way that He defeats death… by dying for us all at the cross, and rising again to save us. 
 
Will we be listening and open to the solid rock of this Good News in our daily life this week? Will we believe, and confess in our words and actions that Jesus Himself really is the hope for our world, and be open to the new and beautiful possibilities that this Good News creates? Not just for the future, but for our communities even now? Turning around our lives and our relationships with all our neighbours by the power and saving love of God? 
 
Of course, we know it won’t always be easy. Like John, Elijah, and Jeremiah’s stories all remind us: living God’s way in a world that worships brute power and violence often comes with a cost. Yet even so, we can take heart, and hold onto hope when we remember God’s promises in Jesus Christ, His Son and our Saviour, to raise up His faithful ones, and in the end to set our whole world aright. Amen.