Scripture Readings: Isaiah 11:1–10 | Psalm 72 | Romans 15:4–13 | ​Matthew 3:1–12

“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” (Matthew 3:1-2).
 
A lot of people are talking about peace these days… probably because it’s one of those things that so many of us are longing for, while so few know how to practice it.  
 
In the headlines, we hear all about the seemingly endless negotiations and politicking at work between nations striving for peace… but where the ‘peace process’ often looks a lot like a bunch of bullies pressuring the vulnerable until they give in to unjust demands… and powerful leaders boasting and posturing to make themselves seem great while others pay the price…  suffering and struggling to put back the pieces of their broken lives.
 
But it’s not just world-leaders who have a hard time practicing peace. It’s a problem for lots of us… in our own communities, and relationships, and even within our own hearts and minds. So many of us are searching for a path to peace… but it still seems to elude us.

And the problem just might be that we keep on searching for peace on our own terms. Imagining that we humans are the best judges of what needs to be done to put things right… either in the wider world or inside of us.
 
I mean, our commercial economy runs on this assumption, and tries to sell us this message, insisting that ‘If I only buy this new produce… or take up this special offer… or share in this once in a lifetime experience… then I’d finally be at peace.’ And yet, these products and programs which can seem so promising… still leave us longing for more. And how much of our conversations about politics… about the shape of our common life, boils down to something like ‘If they would only do this… or concede to that… then we would all be at peace.’ And yet, most of these paths that seem so obvious to us don’t seem to pan out in practice.
 
But thankfully, the second Sunday of Advent which we celebrate today calls us to look for peace elsewhere… to turn around and instead of pursuing peace on our own terms, to find it by coming face to face with the Prince of Peace Himself. 

Someone whose whole life’s work was to prepare the way for and point us towards this Prince of Peace is the man our Gospel passage this morning introduces us to: John the Baptist… a prophetic messenger sent from the Living God to call His people to repent… to turn around… seeking not only forgiveness but also a new way forward… starting over again as God’s people devoted to doing His good will. 
 
And despite being someone who was not at all afraid to rock the boat and disturb the peace of his neighbours, John’s message seems to have been pretty well received! And that may have been because John’s challenge actually rang true. Many of John’s fellow Jews were well aware that things were not exactly going well. Their people were living under the thumb of a powerful and violent Empire… whose leaders proclaimed themselves to be the great bringers of peace… but who did so primarily by silencing all opposition with the edge of a sword, or publicly displaying their ultimate power by hanging trouble makers on a cross. In other words, violence and the threat of death were the Roman tools for clearing the way for the paths of peace. Not unlike some places today.

But in addition to the dangers posed by the Romans, there were also concerns that the leaders of John’s own people were not really trustworthy either. After all, King Herod’s whole dynasty were little more than puppets of the Caesars in Rome. And the High Priests and their backers, the Sadducees, were largely preoccupied with maintaining their own positions and power as those in charge of the Temple, and were seen by many as completely compromised and corrupt.
 
And then there were more grass roots, but deeply influential movements like the Pharisees, who offered their own solutions… confidently offering their own specific interpretations of the Laws of Moses, the Commandments, spending their time disputing and despising those who didn’t go along with them, or who somehow didn’t measure up. 
 
And so, recognizing how deeply divided and broken their communities and their lives had become, crowds of God’s people from all around Judea were open to a better way forward… and they came to be baptized by John… to begin again… placing their hope in the mercy and promises of the Living God spoken of by the prophets… by responding to John’s message about turning around… repenting of their old ways, and sins… and pursuing faithfulness instead. 
 
And as we heard today, John had some harsh words for those who were not sincere in pursuing this new start, singling out large groups of both the Sadducees and the Pharisees… both the Temple elites and the popular pietists… who came to him seeking baptism… accusing them of hypocrisy, and calling them both a “brood of vipers”… a biting allusion to Genesis Chapter 3:15, where God says to the snake in the garden after the Fall:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
 
This conflict between the descendants of the snake and the descendants of the Woman… that is, those who were devoted to the ways of darkness and sin, and those who were truly faithful to God… would go on until one offspring of Eve, the Messiah… the Chosen One, would crush the snake’s head for good… setting all things right at last… bringing about the ending of God’s enemies once and for all, and establish His peace forever. 
 
And as we heard, John himself was full of anticipation about this coming Messiah, eagerly awaiting and preparing the way for the One who would come to baptize people with the Holy Spirit, and with fire… finally burning away all that’s wrong with the world, and rescuing all those who remained true. “Even now”, John says in Matthew 3:10, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 
 
And John was right… the Messiah was coming to completely sort out our world, and to burn away all of the evil at work in it… but not in the ways that John himself seems to have imagined. And so even God’s faithful messenger, dedicated to calling God’s people to repent and return to Him, would himself have to be turned around… to let go of his own ideas about what God was up to, and what the path to God’s peace actually looks like in practice. 
 
And this is a good reminder for you and I: just because we may have been faithfully trying to follow God and walk in His holy ways for some time now… it doesn’t mean that we are the ones who have all the answers… or that we already understand the whole story of what the Living God is up to. 
 
The Sadducees, the Pharisees, John the Baptist, and even Jesus’ own disciples were in need of a whole a lot of turning around… and we will too, I’m sure. 
 
And often, it can seem like our ways of seeking peace… for our world, our country, our communities, our families, and even ourselves… run completely counter to what we know of God’s ways. And in those times, we must make a choice: Will we keep going our own way, or turn around and take God’s way instead?
 
This is not just a choice we make at the start of our journey as Christians… before our baptism, or confirmation… or whenever we first decide to place our faith in Jesus. It is a choice we Christians must make every day… and maybe many times a day. The choice to pursue God’s path of peace every step of the way, all the way to the end. 
 
And Advent points us forward to the arrival of the One who is the true Prince of Peace: Jesus, God’s Son… the One who reveals God’s good ways to us, and who will return to set our world right once and for all… judging the nations with truth and righteousness… sorting through every lie and act of evil… and exposing all of the corruption that rots and erodes the life of His beloved creation. 
 
Jesus is the One spoken of in our first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah 11:2-5,
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
 
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.”
 
Jesus came to baptize us with the Spirit of God and with fire… but not quite as John and others had envisioned. Not as an instrument of terror and destruction… as One bent on wreaking revenge against sinners, but rather, as One determined and devoted to refining us… purifying us… burning away all that keeps us from sharing in His holy life and the path of peace… and while we were still sinners reconciling us to God and one another… making peace for us… by shedding His own blood. 
 
Jesus turned the world’s program for seeking peace on its head… not demanding reparations or concessions from those who have been violently overthrown… but paying the price Himself for all of our world’s spiritual and moral bankruptcies. In self-giving love, Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God gave up His life at the cross… suffering and dying for us, and in our place, all to bring us God’s peace:
 
Exposing our failures… but by forgiving them. 
Challenging all our lies… by showing us the truth. 
Bringing our divisions to an end, not through violence, but by embracing us all… conquering God’s real enemies… the devil, the powers of sin, and the seemingly invincible threat of violence and death itself by innocently enduring their full force, dying and rising again for us… breaking the chains of fear and shame forever, and setting us free to move forward together. 
 
At the cross, Jesus reveals the heartbeat and the power of God’s peace as His holy love in practice. And He shows us that the only true path of peace is the commitment to letting His holy love play out in all our relationships. This path doesn’t deny that there are still those who seek to use violence and power and the fear of death to get their own way… but the cross and resurrection of Jesus reveals that these ways don’t stand a chance against the victory of God! And one day, the Risen Lord Himself will sit down and sort out all that’s been done, calling everyone to account for the course of their lives, and answering to Him for what’s been done.
 
But as we await that day, we must actively resist the impulse to look on others as enemies to dismiss or destroy… remembering that the path of peace that Jesus Himself leads us on is the path of reconciliation… bringing those who were formerly foes together into God’s one family.
 
Remember Isaiah’s vision of God’s ultimate peace project, in Chapter 11:6-10, how those who were once completely at odds with one another will one day be completely at peace:
 
“The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”
 
And this is much more than noble poetry… this is the story of the Church… the community of those who have received the Spirit of Christ, and have been baptized into His new life.
 
In our second reading today from Romans Chapter 15, we heard the Apostle Paul speaking to a deeply divided Church, made up of both Jewish and Gentile Christians, reminding them of the unity and peace they have with God and one another through their faith in the Messiah, Jesus… overcoming almost impossible social and historical obstacles to create this brand new community dedicated to practicing Christ’s peace together, here on earth. 
 
And in Romans 15:5-7, he says to them, and to you and I today:
 
“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
 
With this high calling in mind: What are the ways that Jesus our Messiah is calling us to practice His peace today? What divisions are we to seek to overcome? What prejudices or preoccupations are we to set aside, and even what pains are we called to endure in order to share His holy love with those around us? Those whom God commands us to love, and whom Jesus Christ gave His own life to save?
 
This second Sunday of Advent calls us to ask these kinds of questions, and to place our hope, not in our own ability to answer them, but in Christ’s own power and peace at work in us through His Holy Spirit. So, as we await His coming again to set our world right, and establish His unending peace, in the words of St. Paul: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:4-13). Amen.

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 2:1–5 | Psalm 122 | Romans 13:11–14 | ​Matthew 24:36–44

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Matthew 24:44)
 
Do you have any favourite holiday traditions? Practices that help you feel well prepared for this special season?
 
Maybe it’s putting up lights, or decorating a Christmas tree. Maybe it’s baking some tasty treats, or putting on a festive album or playlist. Maybe it’s getting together with friends and relations, and taking time to reconnect.
 
One tradition that I absolutely cherished as a child was counting down the days to Christmas with our family’s special Advent calendar: sort of a woven banner, with the numbers one through twenty four marked on either side, and a little white-bearded Nisse, a Nordic gnome-figure, tied to a safety pin that we’d move along every morning… marking our slow but exciting progress towards the big Christmas celebrations.
 
When I moved out, I took this Advent calendar with me, and now it’s my daughter’s turn to excitedly mark our family’s progress as Christmas Day grows ever closer.
​
There’s something exciting about these kinds of countdowns… of watching the gap between the present and a much anticipated date steadily growing smaller before our eyes… keeping us well aware that the moment we’ve been waiting for really is on it’s way, and reminding us to do whatever we need to do to get ready for it.  
 
Today, Advent calendars remain a well known and popular holiday practice, even among those without a sense of the specifically Christian nature of the season of Advent… that is, not just as a countdown to Christmas, but as a time of intentional preparation and anticipation of the return of Christ, no longer as a child in a manger, but as the King of glory, and the Saviour of our world.
 
But as our Gospel passage today reminds us, there is no clear countdown for Christ’s return. As much as we might really want to be in the know, only the Father knows the time or date of His Son’s final arrival.
And so, during the first week of Advent, we are invited to reflect on the nature of our Christian Hope, which calls us to get ready… especially when we don’t know when this hope will be realized. 

Of course, when facing any kind of uncertainty or open-endedness, it can be very tempting at times to try to find something more tangible to hold onto, and to place our hopes in. And as the Church has waited quite a while for Christ’s return… two thousand years and counting… it can be easy for us to forget where our true foundation lies, and start building our confidence upon other things… things that might seem solid enough to offer us assurance and security, but in the end they will not endure.
 
These false hopes come in all sorts of forms and disguises, but I’d like to mention just a few today.
 
The first false hope I want to look at in brief is a hope based on our shared human history and abilities… a hope that can be caught up in both our visions of pursuing progress… of leaving the past behind for a supposed better and brighter tomorrow… and it also shows up in our desires to pump the breaks and conserve our old ways of doing things.
 
Whether we’re eager to change things up, or keep things calm and steady… whether we’re more invested in what is possible or in preserving what is familiar… in both cases if our main focus and our confidence is anchored to what we are up to… what we are able to achieve, or defend, or uphold, or strive for… then we have really placed our hope in ourselves… in our own methods, and mechanisms… losing sight of the fact that the Good News calls us to look for hope beyond ourselves… and to find it in the face of Jesus Christ the Lord.
 
Now I’m not saying that we can do nothing good… that all our attempts to bring about positive change, or to preserve what is precious are not important, or even necessary. But what I am saying is that all our efforts can only get us so far. That despite everything we humans do to bring about a new utopia, or try to retrace our steps to Paradise… in the end, we cannot rescue ourselves… but the Good News is we know Someone who can!
 
And while we wait for Him, we can be actively trying to live as those who are shaped by His Good News… walking in the ways He taught us… trusting in His Spirit to guard and guide us… putting His self-giving love into practice… all while recognizing that our world’s fate does not rest in our hands, but in His. And He will not fail us! 

Now there is another false hope we should take at least a few moments to mention: the false hope of escape… of seeking simply to flee from this world and avoid all its heavy concerns.
 
This false hope has been pretty common at times among Christians… especially in some circles where ideas about Christ’s return are framed as God’s abandonment of His creation… scooping up a select few who then get to avoid times of deep tribulation… while the rest of the world’s left to burn.
 
But even those who do not hold to this explicitly escapist understanding of the fate of Christians can still end up acting as though what matters most… what God really wants for all His faithful children is that we are able to avoid anything uncomfortable. That we get through life as smoothly as possible. Or that, when things get rough, we should just give up waiting around to get out of here… that our only hope lies in counting down the days until we can fly away and leave all this mess behind us.
 
I know that this way of thinking can seem to offer some solace to those who are enduring a great deal of pain, and who are approaching the limits of their own endurance, in body, mind, or spirit. But the hope that the Scriptures offer us is not like the hope of an inmate, counting down the days until the end of their sentence. It’s more like the hope of someone who knows their rescuer is on His way. The hope, not of avoiding or retreating from the brokenness and pain of earthly life, but the hope of being led through it to receive new life on the other side… sharing in Christ’s sufferings, so we might also share in His glory.
 
To put it another way, if our hope is simply centred on escaping… we quickly become completely preoccupied with ourselves, and become oblivious to the needs of our neighbours, neglecting the work of the Kingdom that God has called us to do here and now.
  
This kind of escapist hope runs counter to the whole story of Jesus Himself, who was tempted in Gethsemane to avoid the agony of the cross, but instead of fleeing, or refusing to go through with it, He remained faithful to the end… facing death head on for us first before then rising again in glory to reign at God’s right hand. 
 
And this is where we come to the heart of the matter, to the true nature of our Christian Hope: that is, Jesus Himself… God’s Son, who for us and for our salvation, suffered and died and rose again… placing all of His hope in His Heavenly Father’s unending love and resurrecting power… and through His own faithfulness, Jesus shattered the chains of our failures, and the fear of death, finally bringing God’s New Creation into view, where sorrow and pain will be no more.
 
And now Jesus invite us to place our hope in Him to see us through… calling us to remain steadfastly His… ready and waiting for the arrival of our Saviour King, even if He takes another two thousand years. 
 
Because of the Good News of Jesus Christ… His death, His resurrection, and His promise to come again… we can have the confidence… the hope we need to get ready while we wait.
 
Ready to do his will here on earth, laying aside the works of darkness, and putting on the armour of light, as St. Paul puts it (Romans 13:12-13), diligently seeking to do what’s right, not from a sense that it’s all resting on our shoulders, but out of deep devotion to the ways of our Saviour King, confident that as we trust in and follow Jesus, His Holy Spirit will be at work in us to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine.
 
And the Good News of Jesus calls us to be ready to bare witness to this hope we have been given… not to retreat from the brokenness of our world, but to share what we know of the life-giving love of God with all those around us. So that, as the prophet Isaiah tells us,
“Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths’” (Isaiah 2:3).
 
And even though the Good News invites us also to be ready to suffer for the sake of our great Saviour King, we know that anything we go through now cannot compare with the glory that awaits His faithful ones. That all our trials and sufferings, though very real, will one day come to an end, and be replaced once and for all with sharing in the unending joys of God’s New Creation. 
 
And so, as we spend the next few weeks of Advent getting ready together and waiting for the arrival of Jesus our Saviour King, may the Holy Spirit of God fill our hearts with a true and lasting hope. A hope that empowers us to walk in Jesus’ ways every day… to reach out with compassion and grace to those around us, sharing the Good News of God’s love with our broken and hurting world… and to remain steadfast even when we face great pain and suffering, confident that Christ will come again… that even though we may not be able to count down the exact days, one by one, we know that the time of “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;  the night is far gone, the day is near.” (Romans 13:11-12).  Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 23:1–6 | Psalm 46 | Colossians 1:11–20 | ​Luke 23:33–43

“Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:42-43).
 
If you could create your own custom head of government, what would they be like? What kinds of qualities do you think are essential for those who are chosen to rule?
 
Is a good leader someone who has the power and the wisdom to get things done? Is it someone who cares, and seeks to protect and provide for their people? Is it someone who is not afraid to confront the evil at work in our world… who’s willing to sort out injustices, and put wrongdoers in their proper place?
 
We could go on and on. But the question remains: What’s our kind of King or Queen?
 
With Christians around the world, this morning we celebrate Christ the King Sunday… proclaiming that Jesus Christ the Risen Lord really is the ruler of all Creation… coming together to bow before Him, to lift Him up in our hearts and in our lives… to receive the gifts of His Good Kingdom, and to seek to serve Him faithfully not just today, but throughout our lives. To offer Him our full allegiance, and following Him into God’s New Life.
 
We celebrate Christ the King, knowing full well that there are still plenty of unfit rulers in positions of great influence and power in our world. And that this sad reality is nothing new.
 
For instance, in our first Scripture reading this morning from the Prophet Jeremiah, we heard that God has some harsh words for the many unfaithful shepherds… the unfaithful rulers of His people, who misused their power to take advantage of those they were supposed to be serving, and who paved the way for their whole nation to abandon the Lord’s holy ways, and to embrace instead the path of wickedness that was leading them straight into Exile.
 
Jeremiah 23:1-2, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord.”
 
That’s a frightening message. But alongside these words of correction and discipline, the Lord did not leave His wayward people… His sheep without hope. Jeremiah 23:5, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
 
These words harken back to God’s covenant with King David, a sacred promise the LORD had made that one of David’s descendants would reign forever as His Messiah… God’s chosen anointed King. And although by Jeremiah’s time the line of David had seemed to turn into one wicked king after another, the prophet speaks of a future hope arising like a new branch sprouting up from the roots of an old tree that’s been felled. God renews His promises to His people that despite all their failures, a righteous ruler will arise from among them who will be wise, and bring about true justice, and set things right once and for all.
 
And this Chosen One from the line of David… God’s Messiah, is our great Saviour King Jesus Christ, whose eternal Kingdom and goodly reign we celebrate today. He is the One who came to rescue the lost sheep… who rules all Creation with wisdom, justice, and righteousness… and who calls us to take part in the work of His Kingdom here and now.
 
But as we celebrate the rule of Christ as God’s great King, this day also calls us to slow down and reflect upon the kind of King that Jesus really is… what His Kingdom actually looks like… and what it means for you and I to share in it today.
 
And as is so often the case when we are trying to get a sense of our bearings: where we begin really matters. And sadly, when it comes to thinking about God’s great King, and His Kingdom, we’re often tempted to begin with our own ideas and expectations about what makes a King good or not… holding fast to our own preconceived images that we then want Jesus to conform to… which more often than not fully aligns with our own desires and values.

In other words, we want Jesus to be our kind of King.

And when we think about effective and excellent kings and queens and leaders throughout history, what comes to mind? Those who managed to go from success to success, and victory to victory… getting a lot of good things done by not letting anything or anyone stand in their way? 
 
Do we think about those rulers who were able to keep their followers happy and safe from harm? Those who were able to bring about prosperity and a stable status quo?
 
Do we think about those who were bold enough and strong enough to confront and overcome their enemies by force? Those who could raise armies, and rally their people around important causes?
 
For better or worse, these are the kinds of things that our society looks for when it comes to those who might lead us. We want our leaders to be winners… those who can keep us on top of the world.
 
But in so many ways Jesus embodies the exact opposite of all this… completely defying our expectations about what a good King should be and do.

Looking at Jesus, we see that the path to glory doesn’t come as a string of successes… it actually lies first in facing great humility, and even experiencing defeat. We see Him enduring many serious temptations, trials, and incredible suffering, staying true to the very end, at the cost of His own life. We see Jesus embracing the shame and curse of the cross for us all, entrusting His fate not to the opinions of others, seeking their approval… but instead, we see Him look to His own Father in Heaven who alone has the final word over everyone’s fate.
 
And looking at Jesus, we see that the path towards justice is not a matter of handing out retribution and wreaking vengeance… rather it looks like Him pleading on behalf of His enemies for their forgiveness. Betrayed, beaten down, and brutally abused, Jesus stood strong against hatred and fear, and with a love that cannot be captured in words, as He hung from the cross in agony… He prayed for His persecutors… longing for them to be set free, and transformed by the great embrace of the Living God… as His wayward but still beloved children.  
 
And looking at Jesus , we see that, even though His love for us is beyond doubt… the path to our prosperity and peace does not mean calling us away from all danger… but to face our own challenges along with Him … to expect to experience all sorts of pains and losses… and to prepare to pick up our own crosses and join Him… losing our lives for His sake, and with Him finding the fullness of God’s New Life now and forever.
 
Instead of beginning with our own ideas about what makes a great King… Christians are called to start off with looking closely and consistently at Jesus Himself… with the One who is Himself the very image of the Living God… perfectly reflecting God’s own goodness, and wisdom, and justice, and righteousness… even though He will end up challenging our preconceptions about what kind of King, and what kind of Kingdom our world really needs.
 
After all, Jesus is not our kind of King. But that’s a good thing! Because He’s God’s kind of King… the only One qualified and able to lead us into God’s everlasting life. 
 
As we heard in our reading from Colossians Chapter 1:15-16, Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.”
 
And Jesus is the only One with the power to lay down His life… broken for us all at the cross… in order to put our broken world back together again… and to bring us back into full fellowship with our Heavenly Father through His blood shed on our behalf. 
 
Colossians 1:19-20, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
 
And this same Jesus asks us to set aside our own ideas of greatness, and glory, and instead calls us to embrace the ways of God’s self-giving love… offering us far more than mere momentary happiness, but rather an eternal joy… and asking us not to simply serve our own temporary interest, but to take part in His everlasting Kingdom.
 
The Good News is Jesus is not our kind of King. He is God’s kind of King. And the question for you and I today then becomes: will we seek to be His kind of servants? 
 
The Gospel of Luke leads us to ask ourselves this question again and again at the foot of the cross… where all of our choices and stories are finally summed up in the responses of those two criminals crucified by Jesus’ side. One looked at Jesus, sharing in their agony, and saw only another failed would-be leader. The other looked at the same Jesus, hanging by his side, and saw in Him God’s Saviour King.
 
Which one of these two do we want to be?
 
We can demand that Christ conform to our expectations… and rescue us on our own terms, but end up rejecting the salvation that He brings to us through the agony of the cross.
 
Or we can reach out to Him in faith… and even in our times of deepest distress, choose to place our hope in Him alone… To receive Him, not as we want Him to be, but as He is: the crucified and Risen Saviour King of all Creation, who said to the one who still suffered but trusted in Him: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
 
So today, this Christ the King Sunday, and every day until He returns in glory, this is our choice: will we deny Him in our words and deeds, and turn our backs on His saving love? Or will we open our hearts and our lives up to Him, and own Him as our Saviour King? Amen.

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 65:17–25 | Isaiah 12 | 2 Thessalonians 3:6–13 | ​Luke 21:5–19

“When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’” (Luke 21:5-6).
 
How do we handle being told that the things we see as really important will not last?
 
Of course, on one level, we know this hard reality already. We understand that we live in a world where everything one day comes to an end. And yet, when this hard reality suddenly hits home… when we’re confronted by a sudden loss, or drastic change… or find ourselves facing a gradual decline that’s growing more and more difficult to ignore… it can be really unsettling, and leave us feeling uncertain of how to keep going… how to put one foot in front of the other, especially when we’re not sure in the long run where we can place our confidence and hope.

So then, faced with the hard reality that everything around us, even the best of things, will come to an end… what are we to do? How are we supposed to live each day when in the end, not one stone will be left upon another?

The Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, is not about trying to bypass or ignore this hard reality we’re all facing… but it does offer us the kind of hope that can help us face the end head-on, and not give up along the way. And so, our Scripture readings today all invite us to contemplate both how we think about ‘the end’, and also how we can faithfully respond to it here and now.
 
Our first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah Chapter 65 gives us a powerful vision of God’s good intentions for our world, reminding us that the end we are moving towards is not the conclusion of His Creation, but rather its salvation! Its perfect transformation and deliverance from the brokenness and bondage to divisions and decay we see around us, drawing us towards the completion and blessed destination the Living God has always had in mind. Isaiah speaks of God’s people no longer oppressed by their enemies… or having lives tragically cut short… but experiencing the blessings of things like extra-long lives, and an enduring peace.
 
What the prophet Isaiah is pointing us to here is God’s New Creation. Not ‘new’ as in His ‘Plan B’, or ‘Attempt Number 2’… but as the great rescue of God’s beloved world… a rescue beyond all hope… a rescue akin to a cosmic resurrection! Just like Jesus was crucified but came back from the dead even more alive than before, the end that God has in store for our world is this kind of miraculous new beginning… a new start where things are set right once and for all… and they remain that way forever.
 
This is the kind of hope that the Gospel gives to us: that no matter how broken and fragile things may seem right now, God Himself has promised that in the end He really will make all things new. And we can trust Him to do this because of what His Son Jesus Christ has already done for us, and for our world: Dying for us. Rising again for us. And one day returning for us. Our confidence as Christians comes, not from what we can do… but from what God Himself has done, and will do to see us through.
 
And so, we can say that the Christian life is about staying true to Him in the meantime. It’s about faithfully following Him… trusting that Jesus our Saviour King is leading us to this good end… this blessed destination the Living God has in store for those who believe and walk in His ways.

But what does it actually mean to faithfully follow Jesus? How do we rightly respond to this hope we have received as we await Christ’s return and God’s good end?
 
Well, in our second reading today, from St. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, we know one thing that faithful Christians are supposed to avoid: that is, being idle. Sitting around and expecting others to pick up all the slack just doesn’t cut it in God’s family, where the idea is that everyone looks for ways to bless and build up the Church community… loving and lifting each other up, in body, mind, and spirit.
 
But in Thessalonica, it seems that some Christians were losing sight of this vision of mutual support and effort. And given the fact that, from St. Paul’s letters to them, it seems that they were fairly concerned about and anticipating the end and Christ’s return, perhaps some of their tendency towards idleness came from expecting things to end right away. Sort of like saying: ‘What’s the point of working hard on anything… even on basic things when the end is just around the corner? Why invest our time and energy when the work we do won’t last that much longer?’

Now there may have been lots of other reasons they were being idle, but I know from personal experience how hard it can be to stay motivated if I think that what I’m doing won’t last long. And I know that some Christians, in thinking about ‘the end’ approaching, kind of give up on lots of good things they still can do, and lose interest in their important roles to play in the Church, and in the world.
 
But St. Paul reminds us that, regardless of when the end will come… our own end, or the end of this present age… that we all still have a calling, and work to keep doing…  and that faithfulness doesn’t mean just sitting around and waiting, while expecting others to support us while we still have the strength to contribute to the common good. St. Paul reminds us that devotion means not growing weary of doing what is right. And so faithfully following Jesus towards the good end that God has in store is not about passively waiting around… but about doing something.
 
And this is where we turn at last to our Gospel reading, and to what our Lord Jesus Christ says to those who questioned Him about the coming of the end.
 
The end… of the Temple at least.

Because that is after all the context of of this whole conversation! Remember, this whole speech in Luke Chapter 21, which goes on well passed the portion we read today, starts off with those nearby praising the Temple in Jerusalem, and Jesus predicting it’s doom. A prediction that came true just a few decades after His own death and resurrection.
 
The first Temple of the Living God, built by King Solomon many centuries earlier, had already been destroyed when the armies of Babylon had sacked the Holy city, and carried off what was left of God’s covenant people Israel into Exile. When they eventually returned, they rebuilt the Temple… much less grand perhaps, but still holy and central to their faith. And several generations later, King Herod the Great would expand this ‘Second Temple’ and make it the architectural marvel it was in Christ’s days.
 
And the Temple was far more than an impressive building… it represented God’s concrete connection to His people… standing at the centre of their special relationship, and bridging the gap between heaven and earth. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, we’re told that the people who were admiring the Temple, and asking Christ about the timing of it’s fall were actually His own disciples. And like many faithful Jews in their day, they were anticipating the hopeful, good end that Isaiah had pointed to… and they were expecting God’s Messiah to come and make things right at last, and they had been following Jesus expecting Him to be the One to bring this all about… to bring about God’s New Creation.
 
But if that was Jesus’ plan… why would the Holy Temple of God have to fall again at all? If the Saviour King had come at last, shouldn’t His victory be just around the corner? Why was Jesus talking about what could only be described as a disaster falling on His people? Why would the Living God allow such a horrible thing to happen, and such a good thing come to an end?
 
These are the kinds of questions that many of us can find ourselves asking, when we, like the first disciples seek to faithfully follow Jesus Christ the Saviour King. We can start off trusting that God is working through Jesus to bring about our salvation… but then we end up facing some deep pain, or grief, or loss… and the ending of things we had come to cherish. And we’re shaken. We’re not sure how to make sense of it all… or even how to keep going.
 
And when we turn to Jesus, we find that He doesn’t wave His hand and take all our pain and confusion away… but He does meet us right here in the midst of our uncertainty, and suffering, and He faces the end along with us… and He invites us to take His nail-pierced hand and trust Him as He leads us through all of these endings one step at a time.
 
Our Gospel passage today speaks about the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem, many centuries ago. But it also speaks to us all as we face our own endings. And just as Jesus guided the first disciples through their days of uncertainty, our Lord is with us too. And He has has some important things to say to us as He leads us to the good end God has prepared for us. Turning now to our Gospel passage, and reflecting on how He is leading us to God’s good end even today… Jesus offers His followers three ‘don’ts’ and a ‘do’.
 
The first don’t He says is “Don’t be deceived and go after other misleading voices.” Luke 21:8 “And [Jesus] said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.’” There have been many false teachers over the years, claiming to speak for and serve, and even to be Jesus our Lord. And the best way to avoid their influence is to make sure we know the real thing! To make sure we really know Jesus, that we can recognize His voice, and what His ways look like, drawing near to Him day by day so that we won’t be easily swayed by imposters.  
 
The first ‘don’t’ is don’t be deceived. The next one is pretty hard these days: ‘don’t be afraid when everything’s falling apart.’ Luke 21:9-11, “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’  Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”
 
Now I don’t know about you, but all of those things seem pretty scary to me. Nations at war, earthquakes and famines… plagues and heavenly signs. These are truly traumatic events.  

And our Lord knows that. He knows that there’s lots of things we face in life that really are terrifying. But He also knows that letting our fears capture our hearts, and minds, and bodies will keep us from the good work we have before us, and pressing onward to the good end He has for us. Fear keeps our world trapped in cycles of violence and oppression. Fear keeps us from loving and serving our neighbours. Fear keeps us focussed on our own security, instead of what is right, and good, and true. And so, even though we are faced with things that frighten us, Jesus asks us to trust and lean on Him instead.
 
And this leads us to the third ‘don’t’: ‘Don’t even prepare our own defense, but trust Jesus to give us what we need to stay true to Him.’ Luke 21:12-15, “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”
 
Warning now of persecution, Jesus tells His followers that we have important work to do: telling the world the truth about the Good News, even if we’re speaking to those who oppose us. But this doesn’t look like frantically trying to figure out the right words, or method, or how to maintain a sense of control. It means being open to Christ’s Spirit working in us and through us to say and do far more than we can ask or imagine.
 
As we face, maybe not intense persecution, but whatever our own challenges may be when we are put on the spot, and feel that there’s too much at stake, Jesus is inviting us to trust Him not to abandon us, but to be right there beside us, giving us what we need to stay true to Him, to the end.
 
Which leads us finally, to the ‘do’. The three ‘don’ts’ were: don’t be deceived, don’t be terrified, and don’t even prepare our own defense. What we are to do, is to endure. To hold on and carry on to the very end. Luke 21:16-19, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Jesus warns us that His followers will often face rejection, sometimes even by those closest to us… just like Jesus Himself was rejected by His own people, and was put to death by those that He loved. And if we will follow Him, it won’t always be easy. But it will be worth it because He alone can lead us into the life of God’s New Creation, and His saving love will never fail. And so He calls us, as hard as it will be at times, to endure with Him to the end. And even if, like Him that means we must lay down our lives, we know that, like Him, we will be raised again by His love.
 
We’ve covered a lot of ground this morning in our reflections about the end… whether we’re talking about the end of this present age, or the many ends we will face in our lives. But whatever end may be on our hearts this morning, may we all find hope as we hold onto the Good News we have been given to us in Jesus Christ. The Good News that our destination is God’s New Creation, which we are invited to actively work towards together, and not just wait around for.
 
And may the Holy Spirit help us not to be deceived and let others draw us away from our Saviour’s side, or be overcome with fear when things get rough. Instead, may the Spirit help us not to frantically obsess about having everything figured out, but to stay true… and to endure, trusting that Jesus our Risen Saviour King will see us through to the end. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Micah 4:1-5 | Psalm 46 | Romans 12:9-21 | Matthew 5:1-16

“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.” (Romans 12:17-18).
 
This Tuesday, November 11, Canadians all across our country will take time to gather together to commemorate Remembrance Day… a day set aside to honour and give thanks for those who have served in the armed forces… and especially honouring the memory of those who served in the devastating World Wars of the last Century.
 
And today, as we gather here in St. Luke’s Church, with the stories and sacrifices of our veterans in mind… we do so, not to glorify war, but to give sincere thanks for those who placed their own lives in great danger to defend others… facing incredible hardships and fears, for the sake of a better future for us all. And we also gather to pray that the day will soon come when all wars will cease, and our whole world will come to know the ways of peace.
 
We remember these brave men and women, and their service and sacrifice out of gratitude, but also for another important reason: in order to inspire us to find a better way forward… together. To find a way in our days to avoid the horrors of war, and to instead strive for a lasting… and just… and life-giving peace.
 
We take time to remember because it is all too easy for us to forget… to forget the incredible costs that others have paid to secure our freedom. To forget that, despite the growing messages of hate and prejudice, and contempt that seem to be spreading… we humans do not need to turn against each other… or embrace violence to resolve our conflicts… and that even those who oppose us still remain our fellow human beings, worthy of our respect… and that, even when we must actively stand against them… and even if we must at times take up arms against them… we can still see everyone as our brothers and sisters who bear with us God’s own sacred image.
 
The Christian story found in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, invites us again and again to remember… in order to find a better way forward together. It calls us to remember that our Creator, the Living God loves this world, and loves all those who live in it. It calls us to remember that from the moment we humans began to mess things up, God has been at work to mend our war torn world, working with everyday people like us to bring about life… and justice… and peace… not through the sword, but through the power of mercy… through the lives of  everyday people led by His Spirit, and moved by faith and courage and love to put their own lives on the line for the sake of their neighbours, walking together with integrity, and generosity, and hope… and willing to stand up against injustice and evil, even if it means laying down their own lives.
 
And the Scriptures remind us that at the centre of this story is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ… God’s own Son who came to lay His own life down at the cross… enduring there for us all incredible suffering, and what seemed like nothing more than a complete defeat… giving up His life as the one sacrifice that saves this world that God loves… and then rising again from the dead to share the gift of God’s forgiveness, freedom, and new life for all who trust in Him.
 
In our Gospel Reading today, we heard Jesus’ own words, telling us about a better way forward… not through violence, or oppression, or seeking our own glory, or revenge… but through doing good… and staying true… and pursuing peace every day… and in all that we do. Reminding us that faithfulness, and courage, and love are the way to bring about a better and blessed future for our world.
 
Listen again to His words, and imagine the impact that living in the light of this hope can have:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:3-12).
 
Notice that Jesus says again and again: “For they will…” calling us to remember that there is a future beyond our present pain and the challenging circumstances before us… and to trust that staying faithful to God’s good ways will be worth it! That it is worthwhile to fight against our selfishness, and hate, and the prejudices that threaten to tear us and our communities apart. And even if we can’t see all those blessings right here and now, to trust that this really is the best way forward… for us all.
 
Christians like me are called to remember and to give thanks for Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, and for our world. When we forget this, we can easily get caught up in all the sad divisions, and hateful wars tearing our world apart. But when we do remember Jesus, and all He’s done… we see at work in Him the courage and faithfulness and love that it takes to strive for a better way forward together with all of our neighbours… and we are invited and inspired to join in the work of God to bring healing, and peace where it’s needed most.
 
And for those of us who are not followers of Jesus, but who are also longing for a better way forward… we can all remember that there are real alternatives to all the hatred, and prejudice, and self-centredness around us today… and we can all commit to striving for a better way forward, not just for us, but for us everyone. We can all believe that we don’t need to be held captive to hatred, and fear, and our sad divisions. And we can all find the courage to stand up for what is right, and even take risks to bring it about.
 
So today, as we remember all those who inspire us to do our part for the sake of a better world, may we remember that the way to win this blessed victory is through courage and faithfulness and love… not just when it is easy, but when it matters most… which is every day. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 | Psalm 149 | Ephesians 1:11-23 | Luke 6:20-31

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31).
 
What does it mean to be a saint?
 
Today, we’re celebrating the Feast of All Saints, taking time together to remember our many brothers and sisters in Christ’s family who have paved the way before us… both in the holy lives they have led, serving and striving for God’s good Kingdom here on earth… and also going on before us into death, and who are now at rest in the loving arms of the Living God… those who have finished their labours, and who now await with us Christ’s final return and the glories of His New Creation.
 
And on days like today, I think it’s good for us not simply to remember all of those well-known saints and their stories… people like St. Luke, our patron saint… or St. Peter and all of the others from the pages of Scripture… or our brothers and sisters from the early days of the Church… people like St. Augustine, St. Macrina, or St. Patrick… although their stories are certainly interesting and inspiring, and we should probably look into learning more about them… but to take time to remember what it really means to be a saint… not only as an abstract ideal, but as a reality in our own lives.
 
Does being a saint simply mean having a high set of moral standards? Or virtues like patience… hospitality… and self-control? Does being a saint mean performing some sort of amazing feat or miracle? Does it mean living a life completely set apart from the mundane rhythms of everyday existence, holed up in a monastery and hidden from the troubles faced by our world?
 
Those are the kinds of things that comes to mind when many of us think about saints. And yes, things like high virtues, and miracles, and monasteries have their place in the stories of many Christian saints. But at its root, the idea of sainthood is not about being some sort of superhuman… but about us regular humans who have been set apart in order to take part in God’s great embrace of His broken world.
 
In other words, being a saint is basically about being swept up into the Good News, the story of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord… set apart, not by our own moral achievements, or extra spiritual efforts, but by receiving and giving ourselves to the holy love of the Living God at work in and through us… the work of the Holy Spirit making us more and more like Jesus… not just someday, but right here and now.
 
In a very real sense, sainthood isn’t reserved for some sort of spiritual elite… the exceptionally gifted or pious. No, sainthood is the Christian vision for the whole Church… for everyone who has embraced Jesus Christ as the Risen Lord, and placed their faith in Him.
 
Being a saint is about belonging to Jesus. Believing in His name, listening to His voice, and walking in His ways. And every single one of us is invited to share in that reality.
 
But being a saint isn’t easy! Being made more and more like Jesus… right here and right now… is certainly not what comes naturally to us. And more often than not, being a saint will mean facing deep pain, and frustration, and rejection. We know that swimming against the current takes a lot of determination and strength, but standing up for and staying true to the Gospel day in and day out takes even more.
 
But while being a saint may not be easy, it is far better… both for us, and for those around us in the world… embodying a way of being that is in line with the purposes of our Creator… reflecting His goodness and self-giving love as a clear challenge and alternative to the way of hatred and fear and self-centeredness that we humans so easily get swept into. And so, rather than leaving us adrift to fight and devour each other like beasts, we are called to cling to Jesus, and through Him share in God’s own blessed life, and become a living sign, set apart to invite everyone to share in this blessed life too.
 
This challenging but blessed calling is reflected in Jesus’ own words to us this morning from the Gospel of Luke Chapter 6, where our Lord spells out just how counter-intuitive God’s ways can be… breaking down our old assumptions about what matters most… about how to get ahead, or treat those that we can’t stand… asking us to trust, not simply in our instincts, or even in the standards set by society… but in the holy love of God… in the forgiveness and grace that we have received at the cross, and the hope we have been given by the empty tomb that it is Christ’s Kingdom alone that will endure for all eternity.
 
And so, if it’s Him that we’re trusting in… if it’s the Risen Lord’s story we’re being swept into… if it’s Jesus’ New Life we’re clinging to, and it’s His holy ways that we’re seeking to walk in… then even when we’re poor, and hungry, and full of grief, we can still receive the blessings of belonging to our all-loving Father in Heaven, and look forward to more than just a change of circumstance… but the arrival of Christ’s Kingdom here on earth.
 
And we can respond to all of the fear and hatred and injustices thrown our way, not by throwing it back, by responding in kind… but by doing good to those who hate us… blessing those who curse us… and praying for those who abuse us. Not treating others as enemies, or objects to be used, or as obstacles to my plans… but treating them the way that I want to be treated… as someone with worth, and in need of healing… offering them the welcome, and grace, and love that I want to receive… even if they will never end up doing the same for me.
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And we can do this, not as a way to show off our own moral uprightness, but as an act of humble trust in Jesus Christ, who didn’t just talk about living this way… He did it all and more… laying His own life down at the cross to embrace a world of rebels and sinners with God’s great holy love… shedding His blood to wash away our sins… letting His body be broken to make saints even out of His enemies… and rising again to share His new and unending life with all who trust in Him.
 
Being a saint is about being swept up into the story of Jesus Christ, our world’s Risen Saviour King… clinging to Him in faith, and embracing His holy ways and love so that they become our own. And as we do so, God’s Holy Spirit will work in and through us in very surprising ways… sometimes in the dramatic or miraculous… more often than not in the simply, everyday actions and choices we make that reflect His holy love… so that bit by bit our whole lives become signs sharing the story of God’s saving love for our broken world.
 
So as we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, we are all invited to take our place among their ranks: to cling to Jesus in faith, and get swept up into His blessed story… to treat all those around us with the same compassion and self-giving love that Christ has extended to us… and to face times of suffering with patience and an enduring hope, longing and praying together for the day when Jesus Christ our Saviour King will return to set all things right, and to reign here on earth with all His saints forever. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 14:7–10, 19–22 | Psalm 84 | 2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18 | Luke 18:9–14

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13).
 
In this passage from the Gospel of St. Luke we heard another parable of Jesus, a story about two people who draw near to the holy Temple of God: a Pharisee and a tax collector.
 
This parable, even though it might seem simple, has a pretty pointed message for us today… confronting and correcting those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.”
 
This seems to be a very serious problem for us these days. Not just those of us here in this room, of course. I mean it’s a problem for our whole society. We’re currently living in a world where finding fault with others seems to have become a whole way of life: where we can’t really admit our own mistakes and failures without running the risk of being cancelled, or worse… and we’re constantly being bombarded with hard-hearted messages intent on demonizing anyone who disagrees with us.

So many today are frightened, and angry, and constantly looking for someone else to shame and blame. And it can be so tempting when we feel like this… when we feel insecure and anxious… to focus on the faults and missteps of others… comparing ourselves to them to make ourselves feel more significant or secure… convinced that we alone are on the right track… and hoping that all our own shortcomings will somehow be forgotten.
 
I believe that this parable speaks powerfully to us today in our deeply divided world. And through this simple but profound story, I believe Jesus the Risen Lord is inviting us to let go of the dangerous impulse to look at others with contempt. Even if we never express these self-righteous feelings out loud… even if our pride and contempt remains a secret between myself and the Almighty… our Saviour knows that contempt is a deadly poison that erodes our ability to truly live God’s way… to love the Living God with all that we are, and to love all our neighbours as ourselves. 
  
Like many of Jesus’ parables, this story holds up two contrasting examples. First of all, we’re introduced to a Pharisee… someone that would have been seen in those days as a model person of faith: morally upright, diligent, and deeply concerned with discerning and doing what is right.
 
And then we have the tax collector… someone who would have been seen as a traitor to their own community. Tax collectors in those days were despised and hated not only because they served the interests of the Emperor in Rome, collecting the money that would be used to pay for the soldiers occupying their land… but also because they would cut their own paychecks by charging their neighbours extra… a massive opportunity for corruption and exploitation that many of them made use of.
 
So when we first look at these two very different people from the outside, it might seem pretty obvious who’s on the right path. Everything that the Pharisee was up to would be recognized as upright and good. And everything that the tax collector stood for would be suspect, and seen as deeply compromised.

And for this parable to have its intended effect, we need to ask ourselves this question: Who do we think fits into these categories in our own lives today?
 
In other words, who do we think is more or less getting things right? And who are we convinced is getting it completely wrong? What are the ‘obvious’ moral opposites at work in our hearts and minds?
 
We can easily make this a conversation about politics. Or global tensions. Or even religion. And all those things matter. But what about our interpersonal relationships? The tensions that exist within the communities we are actively a part of? Our families? Our workplaces? Our neighbourhoods? And so on.
 
Who are you and I most tempted to look down on with contempt? Who do we think we are better than? These are the dangerous and divisive assumptions that Christ’s parable draws into the light.
 
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’
 
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14).
 
Notice that Jesus doesn’t take issue with the Pharisee’s actions. And He doesn’t commend or excuse all the tax collector does either. But what He does do is bring to light the deadly pride and contempt of the one, and highlight the humble plea for forgiveness by the other.
 
And for Jesus, it really seems to matter how we hold others in our hearts… the way we see, and understand, and relate to our neighbours… especially the ones we have real problems with… and when we look down on others with contempt, and spend our time comparing ourselves to them, we’re actively fighting against the work of God both inside and all around us… preventing us from truly living God’s way, and letting His holy love rule in our lives.
 
But in Jesus, we see another way. In Him, we see God’s way being lived out right before our eyes. Instead of looking down on our divided and compromised world in contempt, Jesus humbled Himself, and came alongside sinners and drew near to those on the completely wrong track. And instead of scolding us, or patronizing us to make Himself seem superior, Jesus bound Himself to us, sharing our daily life, witnessing our heartbreaks and brokenness first-hand… all in order to turn us around, guiding us all back together into the Living God’s loving arms.
 
And Jesus humbled Himself to the extreme, sharing in the fate of us sinners… whether our sins are easily recognizable to those around us, or not… Jesus joined Himself to us to set us free from all of it! To save us from sin’s tyranny, and in God’s great mercy to bring us true forgiveness, and the New Life that comes from being welcomed into God’s family… not because we deserve it, but because of what Jesus has done for us all.
 
At the cross, Jesus took the terrible place of us sinners. And as He rose again from the dead, He paved the new way into God’s presence… so that, whether we started off near or far, we can share in His fellowship together and forever.
 
In the light of the cross and the empty tomb… the light of the Gospel, there is no room for contempt or pride… just for humility, and thankfulness, and deep compassion offered to one another, and all those around us. Because it’s here that we find Jesus holding all of us in His heart… inviting us to extend the great mercy and love of God that we have received with everyone else. And we simply cannot love someone when we lift ourselves up, and choose to hold them in contempt.

And so, instead of looking down on others… especially those we completely disagree with, and are tempted to dismiss or despise… one simple way forward is for us to pray for them. Not to pray against them… like, that they would smarten up, and become more like us in this or that way. Rather, let us pray for God’s mercy on them, remembering just how much we constantly need that mercy too! That it is only by the mercy of God, graciously offered to us all in Jesus Christ His Son, that any of us are able to be made right with God, and walk in His holy ways.
 
In a moment, we’re going to join together in praying something called the Great Litany… an extended and extensive prayer to help us take time to practice this humble stance before God, and for our world together.
 
During this time of prayer, we might find it helpful to envision ourselves as the tax collector of our story… not coming to God with our lists of accomplishments, but with a keen desire for His mercy… both for ourselves, and for our broken world… and for those that we are finding it the most challenging to hold with mercy today.
 
We’ll be moving through the prayers slowly. Try not to rush over them in your mind. And when you find yourself distracted, simply return your attention to God, and join in again. First, let us say together the Apostle’s Creed, and then let us say together the Great Litany (this can be found in our Morning Prayer service this week).
​

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 31:27–34 | Psalm 119:97–104 | 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 | ​Luke 18:1–8

“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” (Luke 18:1).
 
It’s not always easy to trust those in charge, is it?
 
Even in the best of times… when we’re faced with big challenges and tense situations, it can be tempting to question how those in places of authority are making their decisions. But when we find ourselves in communities that are deeply divided… and when our leaders start to act in ways that lead us to believe they really don’t have our concerns or best interests at heart… trust naturally becomes that much harder for us to exercise.
 
And of course, some of this mistrust is definitely warranted. Both ancient and recent history is full of stories where people have said and done all sorts of things to get into positions of power. But then, as the old saying goes: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In many ways, the questions of who we will trust are foundational for our lives, and it actively shapes how we will choose to engage with those living around us, and the actions we feel we must take.

As a recent example, just yesterday millions of Americans took part in the ‘No Kings’ protests… peaceful gatherings in cities across their country geared to give voice to the grave concerns many of their citizens now have about the current direction of the government of the United States… coming together in droves to declare their shared distrust for those wielding power.
 
While I know many Canadians may share their concerns, and would support their movement… it’s kind of strange for us given the fact that we actually do have a king. And yet, despite our different approaches to government, we Canadians still expect our leaders to act with integrity, justice, and mercy, or to be held accountable when they don’t. That’s not to say we don’t have our own issues around trusting our elected, appointed, and anointed leaders, and we too have to work hard to find ways to build both trust and trustworthiness into our own society.
 
In another recent example of how serious and divisive the lack of trust can be, a major divide between Anglicans around the world was announced this past week. On Thursday, leaders within the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON for short, a movement that involves a very large portion of the Anglican Communion, have declared that they are no longer in communion with, and reject the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England, no longer having faith in their leadership.
 
Serious tensions within the worldwide Anglican Communion are not new, and in recent decades there have been several serious disagreements, and disputes among different groups on matters of theology, the interpretation of Scripture, and what it means to be faithful to God’s ways today. And now, as the leaders of GAFCON no longer trust in the leadership of Canterbury, they are officially braking off ties and severing the bonds of fellowship between us.  
 
This news deeply grieves my heart… and I pray for a way forward for us all to move towards true reconciliation… however remote it may seem at the moment, and however long it may take… and I hope that you all will do the same.
 
And I know that a lot of people are grieving that the Christian Church and the nations of the world are so deeply divided, and that mutual trust and trustworthiness seems to be so hard to find and hold onto these days.
 
And so, I think it’s very timely that our Gospel reading today presents us with a clear invitation to practice trust… specifically, to place our trust in the Living God, our Heavenly Father to do what is right in our lives and in our world… and then do our best to act accordingly. 
 
Our passage today is a parable… a short story meant to drive home a particular point… involving two people at the very opposite ends of the power spectrum: on the one hand we have a judge, and in the other we have a widow.
 
Now in the context of this story, judges are kind of like government officials: representatives of a higher authority, and responsible for upholding justice for the sake of their communities.
 
But in this story, Jesus points out a big problem: this judge is an unjust judge. Jesus says that this judge “neither feared God nor had respect for people.” (Luke 18:2). In other words, they were unmoved by any sense of accountability… and instead of feeling duty-bound to do what is right, they just wanted to do… what they wanted to do. They are a prime example of someone entrusted with power, but who is not at all trustworthy to use it.
 
And on the other hand, we have this widow… this person with next to no power of her own, and who was now in a very vulnerable situation… counted among those who had lost a large part of their social network, and support system.
 
Sadly, our world knows a lot about this kind of scenario… powerful people who couldn’t care less about the plights of those who find themselves living on the margins.
 
But even so, we’re told that this widow does something important: she persists in pursuing justice. She keeps on petitioning the judge over and over… apparently not held back by their own seemingly powerless position… and eventually the unjust judge gives in!

Not because they care about justice, or the widow’s case… but just so that she’ll leave him alone. It’s purely an act of self interest for him. But for the widow, it’s a real win.
 
Against all odds, her persistence and perseverance pays off, and her cries for justice were finally answered. Case closed. And we can safely move on, knowing that all we need to do to get what we want is to not give up… right?
 
Well, that’s not really what St. Luke tells us this parable is about. It’s not about you and I getting what we want. And it’s not even about the power of patience and persistence. This is a parable about learning to trust God… about our “need to pray always and not to lose heart.” (Luke 18:1).
 
In fact, were in danger of misunderstanding the whole thing if we think the point of the story is that we need to lobby God relentlessly so He will step in and do something for us… as if the only way to ensure we get His attention and concern is through pestering him. 
 
No, this parable is far more concerned with helping us come to believe that our prayers and concerns matter to God… and that we can trust Him… even when He seems to be silent… relying on Him even when we’re really tempted to lose heart.
 
And the crucial point that makes this all clear… the premise that often gets missed when we hear this story… is that the Living God is NOTHING LIKE the unjust judge! 
 
This is a story of contrasts! Of highlighting how much more trustworthy our Heavenly Father is… and inviting us to lean on His great mercy, and compassion, and justice, and holy, life-changing love… practicing persistence in prayer… in the way we engage every single day with our true Saviour King.
 
In this short story, Jesus makes the case that if persistent engagement is worthwhile even with a human judge who is completely untrustworthy… HOW MUCH MORE is it worthwhile when dealing with the Living God, who unlike so many of us really can be trusted to do what is right?
 
And this story also asks us to explore the very nature of what it means to trust… challenging some of the popular assumptions we might have, and offering us another way forward.  
 
First of all, it shows us that trust… that faith is not abdication… just sitting back and doing nothing, while hoping it will all work out. The widow certainly doesn’t do nothing… she keeps getting up and doing something very difficult. Her faith pushes her to take action, and not to give up just because it gets hard.
 
Second of all, this parable can help us to see that trust… that faith is not meant to be a form of manipulation… some sort of influence, or magic we can make use of to make others, or the universe, or even God give us what we want just because we believe it enough… or pester Him enough. Despite his annoyance, the unjust judge is not forced into answering the widows petitions… he chooses to act in ways that are completely consistent with his own interests and character… that is, he acts out of his own selfishness and deep desire to be left alone.
 
So then, if faith and trust are not about abdication or manipulation, what are they about? What does faith look like?
It looks like a life of persistent engagement… an ongoing relationship that actively relies upon the other to be trustworthy… that is, to do what is right. It means even when things don’t go the way that we had hoped or expected… even when we’re hit hard by life’s big challenges… even when it seems like the one we’re trying to trust is not listening… we still do not give up… because we trust that despite it all they truly care about us, and that in the end, they will not let us down.
 
That’s what faith looks like. That’s what Jesus is inviting us to practice… not abdication, or manipulation, but a commitment to persistent engagement with the Living God… seeking to grow closer to Him, and to understand more and more of His holy ways… and to not give up when things get really hard, and we face times of deep discouragement… leaning on the hope we have received, and the sustaining power of His love.
 
I know that it seems like so many things are flying off the rails in our world right now. It seemed that way on Good Friday too… and yet we know that Easter Sunday came all the same. 

And the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord calls us not to give up on the Living God! It invites us to trust Him to do what is right, to trust in His steadfast love right to the end. And for our part, it calls us to persistently engage with Him through prayer, and learning together to walk in the ways He has taught us. 
 
We can trust God for so many good reasons… too many to list right now. But the most important reason we can trust God is because He has already shown us His heart… His deepest desires and plans… His whole agenda for us and our world… revealing it once and for all time in the life, and death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
In Jesus, we see that God did not come among us to be served but to serve! To restore and transform our broken lives, our broken fellowship, and our broken world.
 
And He came not to play favourites or pick sides… but seeking out and welcoming in the lost… inviting everyone to come to Him and find rest… especially all of us who are weary and heavy laden.
 
And He came, not out of selfish ambitions, but in complete self-giving love… laying down His life to spare and to save the very ones who betrayed Him, and hated Him… turning His enemies into beloved brothers and sisters, not through coercion or fear, but through the  shedding of His own blood, enduring the cross and rising again for them… for us… and for us all.
 
We can trust God persistently, engaging with Him even when it’s hard and we’re tempted to give up and lose heart because in Jesus, we have come face to face with God’s unfailing grace, and steadfast love.
 
And so, when this God who loves us and gave His life for us calls us to trust Him, and follow Him, will we?
 
When He calls us to not give up praying for, and seeking, and working towards justice, and mercy, and real reconciliation…
 
When He invites us to come to Him with all of our burdens and heavy hearts… with our frustrations and anger, and with our cries for help…

When He challenges our selfishness and calls us out for being complacent about the plight of those suffering around us… will we respond as those who believe that everything He does flows from His great love for us all?
 
A love far more powerful than any ruler or authority or movement… a love far more enduring than our deepest divisions… and far more persistent than our deepest griefs and pain… the same love that conquered death itself when Jesus our Lord rose again from the grave… and which is now able to work within us through the gift of His Holy Spirit.
 
So, like the widow in the parable: may we never give up on God and lose heart. May God’s own Spirit empower us to pray always because we trust in the Good News of Jesus Christ our Saviour King… that in Him we have come to know that the Living God truly loves us and our world, and that in the end, He really will do what is right. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7 | Psalm 66 | 2 Timothy 2:8–15 | ​Luke 17:11–19

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).
 
There’s lots of things that we can be grateful for today.
 
Yes, there are still many ways that our world is broken… that we need real healing, and help, and hope… for ourselves and our loved ones… and also as a whole… as the worldwide human family.
 
But all the difficulties and troubles that we face don’t need to make us forget all of the good things that we have been given, and all the wonderful blessings that we’ve received.
 
What can you and I be thankful for today?

How about the beauty of an autumn day here in New Brunswick? What about the chance to gather with friends and neighbours? Maybe even sharing a delicious meal?

What about something as simple as our next breath? The gift of another day? A moment of stillness and peace?

On that note, what about the hopeful signs this week of a ceasefire in Gaza, and at least a pause in the terrible hostilities that have turned so many lives upside down?
 
There really are many things that we can be grateful for today. But what then? What do we do with that feeling?
How do we tend to express our gratefulness?
 
Thinking about those times when someone in our lives has been really gracious with us, do we tend to take some kind of concrete action… taking time to say a heartfelt thanks… to write a card… or maybe even offer them a small gift of appreciation? Or do we tend to simply let the moment and feelings pass us by?
 
Now I have to confess that I’m not the best at expressing gratefulness. It’s not that I don’t feel thankful in the moment when people are kind and gracious to me. I really do. But I’ve noticed that I seem to struggled with how to show it more… with turning my inward experience into an outward expression of thanks… that is, with how to practice a life of gratitude… and not just settle for feeling it.
 
Maybe you’re like me in this respect, and expressing gratitude doesn’t come all that easily. And if that’s the case, then that’s great! Because God’s word has some good things to say to us this morning to help us grow even more. And in our Gospel reading today, we are all being called to consider the important role that gratefulness plays both in our faith… and in our daily lives.
 
As we heard just a few moments ago, Jesus was once approached by a group of ten lepers… begging Him from a distance to have mercy upon them… to bring them some hope, and help… and perhaps most of all, some healing.
 
Back in those days, all sorts of different skin diseases were called leprosy, but without access to the kinds of more or less precise medical diagnoses that we are accustomed to, everyone with these kinds of skin diseases went through the same treatment plan: that is, after a time of examination by a priest, if they determined that the symptoms fit the criteria, then the patient would become an outcast, unable to live near others in order to avoid spreading the illness.

Here’s what the book of Leviticus Chapter 13:45-46 says must be done when this dreaded diagnosis was made.
 “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’  He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
 
Now I know that our medical system may not be perfect, but I think we’ve just found yet another thing to be thankful for. I mean, this made sense at that time as a way to preserve the health of the whole community in the face of an unknown illness… but I’m really glad that we have very different kinds of treatment plans these days.
 
But the instructions from Leviticus Chapter 13 about leprosy sheds some light on why Jesus sends these ten people to visit the priests, and that’s because the priests were the ones responsible for determining if someone was leprous or not. Unless a priest officially signed off on someone’s recovery, they would be considered unclean forever. And so, Jesus sends the ten lepers to go see the official experts to get their clean bill of health certified.
 
But notice the order of events here: Jesus tells the group to visit the priests before they are healed! No miracle took place before all ten of them first choose to take Jesus at His word… trusting Him and doing what He said. They only experienced His healing power on the way… once they had already put their trust into action.
 
This in itself is a remarkable story, especially as there was no known cure for leprosy. And so, when Jesus heals them, He gave them a truly life-changing gift. A chance to return to their families… and friends… to begin life again instead of facing unending days of isolation and pain. 
 
So it’s really no surprise then that they just rush ahead to see the priests, as Jesus told them to… so they could get the green light to return to their loved ones, and the lives that they had to put on hold as soon as possible.
 
Which makes it all the more amazing that one of the healed men stops before seeing the priests. He puts the return to his old life on hold for a moment, and takes the time to return to Jesus and to give thanks to God for all that He has done for him.

And it’s even more amazing when we hear that this lone one who returns is an outsider. A Samaritan, the distant and estranged relatives of the Judeans, who traced their lineage back to the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel, and who were often looked down upon by their Jewish neighbours as corrupt and heretical… completely cut off from the true traditions and teachings of God… and distanced from His holy ways. And yet, it’s only the Samaritan who actually comes back… drawing near to Jesus to give thanks.
 
At this point, we see that this is the real focus of this story: the disparity between the nine who were healed and then went on their way, and the one outsider who returned and drew near with a heart full of thanks and praise.
 
And the implications of this story seem to be that the one who returned showed signs of a depth of faith that the others did not. The other nine missed something in their miraculous healing experience that made expressing their gratitude directly to Jesus somehow less important. 
 
Now of course, they probably deeply appreciated it! It was a life changing event that they must have remembered for the rest of their lives. I mean, how could they not? And yet, they still quickly went back to their old lives… missing out on the opportunity they had just been given to express their gratitude up close and personally to God by drawing close to their Saviour, His Son.
 
And yes, all ten were healed. All ten received a new lease on life. All ten experienced God’s mercy and grace. But only the grateful Samaritan the outsider was told: “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19).
 
This story invites us to think about the deep connections between our faith in God and gratitude… about how the two of them are intertwined… supporting and nurturing one another.
 
It is our faith that keeps the gifts of God in focus… reminding us, again and again, of all that the Living God has done for us and our world. How in self-giving love, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to rescue us and set our broken world free, laying down His life at the cross to cleans us all from our sins, and from everything that keeps us cut off from God and one another.

When the reality of this… of our faith sinks in… when we are able to receive into our hearts and minds and lives what God has so graciously given to us… it inspires a response. It lights a fire of gratefulness inside us… a fire that can then begin to grow stronger.
 
And we can choose not to act on it… and let this positive feeling this fire slowly fade away without expressing it. Or we can choose to do something with it… to find some way to let this fire shine… to communicate our thanks, and try and embody the gratefulness that we feel… drawing us even closer to the Lord by offering Him more of our hearts and our minds and our daily lives.
 
As Christians, we believe that we have already received so much good from the hands of God! Jesus our Saviour King has already reached into our lives and brought God’s healing, and help, and hope to us in so many ways. 
 
We have received the gift of Creation itself… all the beauty and blessings that exist all around us. A world full of wonderful sights, and sounds, and sensations, and smells… and great foods to savour.

In Christ, we have received the great gift of salvation… of God’s mercy and forgiveness… and freedom from our fears and shame. And the renewed life, the reconciliation Jesus achieved for us at the cross… turning our lives around by sharing His New Life with us, once and for all. 
 
And we have received the gift of this new worldwide family of fellow believers… brothers and sisters to share all our joys and our struggles with… a family made up of all sorts of strange, and inspiring, and wonderful outsiders… learning together how to live and love God’s way, and how to share God’s love with, and lift up those around us. 
 
And last but not least, we have received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit at work inside and among us… to draw us deeper and deeper into God’s fellowship, remaking us in the image of Jesus, our great Saviour King… and equipping us to do God’s will in our world… especially when it seems the most broken and in need of His healing, help, and hope. 

What would be the best way to say thanks to God? How can we not only receive these great gifts, but respond in a way that shows that we are thankful for all God has done?
 
Well, we can start by following the example of the thankful Samaritan, and take time to intentionally draw close to Jesus, and bring our thanks directly to Him! We do this intentionally in our worship… in our words of prayer, and praise… lifting up our voices and hearts to the Lord… especially when we gather to celebrate Eucharist together around Christ’s Table in remembrance of Him.
 
But as important as our Sunday gatherings are, worship is not limited to them, or to our private times of prayer. Every day, everywhere, and in everything that we do, we can worship the Lord and express our gratitude to Him… drawing near by offering Him our hearts and minds and actions… with lives being shaped by the Good News of Jesus, and committing to walking in His good ways.
 
In our second reading today, St. Paul commends St. Timothy and those in his community not to simply go about their lives heedless of God’s grace, bickering over words… but to live as those bound by love to their Lord.
 
He tells Timothy to take his faith in Jesus Christ seriously… to explore it, to invest in understanding it, and in putting this Good News into practice. 
 
He says to him, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). And although we are not all called like Timothy to be the leader of a Christian Church (although some of us here might be!), we can all heed St. Paul’s words as a way to give thanks to God: to set aside time to regularly draw near to His Son, Jesus… alone, and with others… in order  to do our best to learn His good ways, and to diligently serve the work of His good Kingdom.
 
So then, whenever we receive something good… and whenever we notice the many blessings around us… which are even there to be found in the midst of truly difficult times… it is an invitation for us to pause… to take a moment, and to draw near to Jesus our Saviour in faith, and to offer Him again our hearts and minds and daily lives as a gift of love and thankfulness. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Habakkuk 1:1–4, 2:1–4 | Psalm 137 | 2 Timothy 1:1–14 | ​Luke 17:5–10

“Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” (2 Timothy 1:13-14).
 
Have you ever stepped into a group conversation part way through, and thought to yourself: “What in the world are these people talking about?”
 
I’ve had my fair share of those moments. Sometimes it can lead to a good round of laughter. Other times, it leads to a much more serious conversation. But either way, if we really want to know what’s going on, we need to at least be given a sense of the rest of the conversation. Otherwise, we’ll just be left in our confusion and misinformation.
 
And so today, if after hearing our Gospel passage from Luke Chapter 17, you’re feeling a little bit confused… and unsure how we go from Christ’s disciples asking for more faith, to an image of trees being thrown into the sea, and then straight to the image of slaves dutifully waiting tables for their master… there’s a good reason for that.

It’s because our Church’s lectionary… the three year cyclical schedule that guides our Scripture readings each Sunday… has only given us the second half of a longer conversation about God’s great concern for righteousness… keeping ourselves and those around us on the right path … alongside our need… our obligation to practice forgiveness.
 
So before we go any further, let’s hear the first half of the conversation. Luke 17:1-4, “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!  It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” 

How many of us would have been perfectly happy not to have heard the first half of this conversation? This is a pretty forceful message about truth-telling and forgiveness! Jesus is not messing around with us here. He says clearly that forgiveness is not an option for us… it’s the expectation.

There are lots of people today, even those who claim to be Christians, who find this message about forgiveness not simply challenging, (which it absolutely is!), but who reject it as completely unreasonable… impossible… and out of line with the times we’re living in.
  
Many today, including those who claim to be Christians, seem to think that forgiveness is a sign of weakness and gullibility… and that practicing it foolishly lets wrongdoers off the hook, and even risks ruining our society.
 
And people have lots of reasons why they want to reject the way of forgiveness. Many of us have been deeply hurt by others, and we understandably want to see something serious done about it in order to set things right again.
 
Others see forgiveness as an unwelcome obstacle to their preferred path of retribution and rage… which can often be channeled and stirred up in others to provide themselves with a powerful political platform. For these folks, the way forward is about seeking revenge, and the destruction of those who have sinned against us… bringing hatred to life in their hearts, and even their actions… akin to the violent imagery expressed in Psalm 137, the ancient prayer of grief and anguish that we just read together… a prayer laying bare before the LORD the depths of a people’s despair who have just had their whole world smashed to pieces.
 
Tragically, there are so many people today who have also had their whole world smashed to pieces. And the pain and anguish of all this evil and injustice is weighing so many of us down. It’s truly heartbreaking. And we do need to do something serious about it all.
 
And so, as we try to keep moving forward, a choice always lies before us about which path to follow: the path of forgiveness, or the path of vengeance.
 
There’s nothing new about this choice, and it’s what our Gospel reading today is about: Christ’s challenging call to reject the path of vengeance, and instead to follow Him in seeking both truth and forgiveness.
 
“Be on your guard!” Jesus says to us, “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”
 
Christ’s people are called to be a community of forgiveness. Able to both call each other out when we mess up, but just as importantly, to extend real forgiveness again and again. It’s not a vision of ideal, perfect people looking down on those around them. It’s a vision of flawed and broken people learning together how to stay together! How to move forward towards righteousness, and justice, and beauty, and truth… even when we fail each other… learning both how to be accountable, and how to be merciful.
 
But Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness is by no means weak or lenient. It’s incredibly challenging! Which is why His first disciples thought it was well beyond their own abilities, crying out in response: ‘Give us more faith!’ In other words, ‘we don’t believe we can actually do this!’
 
Is that how we feel this morning? If so, we’re in good company. And thankfully, our Lord has some words for us.
In response to the disciples’ request for more faith, Jesus tells them that it’s not about the amount of faith we have… even a tiny amount, the size of a mustard seed would be enough. What we need more of is a willingness to use the faith we have! To choose to trust God’s ways and walk in them… to obey Him… to do what is necessary for the sake of God’s Kingdom, and God’s world!
 
A little faith, when put into practice, can have monumental results… because it’s God Himself who works in and through us to do what is impossible for us on our own. We don’t need more faith in ourselves… we need to trust in Jesus, and do what He says.
 
This is what the whole image of slaves hard at work is about. Once again, slavery was a common practice across the ancient world, and Jesus draws upon it as a familiar image, not to approve of it as a practice, but to illustrate a point about people simply doing what is expected of them.
 
In short, Jesus tells His disciples, back then and today, that there is nothing exceptional about having to practice forgiveness. As a follower of Christ, it’s simply what is expected of us, even if it’s very hard. After a long day of work, an ancient slave would still be required to serve their master, and not expect any special thanks or recognition as a result. And in the same way, even though the way of forgiveness is hard work, and it will at times challenge us to our core… it’s not an option we get to avoid. It’s the only option for us. Or in Christ’s words, it’s simply ‘what we ought to have done.’
 
Forgiveness is so essential to what God’s Kingdom is about, and what God’s up to in our world, that if we think we can still follow Him without practicing it as a given, we’re completely out to lunch. It really is foundational for the people of God. And so, may our prayer request be: ‘Lord, help us to trust You, and help us live out our faith by following Your holy ways!’
 
But if we just stop there, we’re missing something essential about the whole message of forgiveness. Alongside of forgiveness, there is the real need to seek and speak the truth.
 
Jesus commands us not just to forgive, but to let others know when they have wronged us. Not out of a desire to get even or condemn them, but to help both them and us… to acknowledge the sad truth that something has been broken that now needs to be repaired and put back together… inviting those who have wronged us to turn around and help set things right.
 
This too takes courage, but telling the truth about what has been done to us opens up new possibilities for healing, and restoration. When forgiveness is partnered with truth, it’s not about ignoring or enabling evil at work in our world. It’s the only way to overcome it. 
 
This past Tuesday, we Canadians marked the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, solemnly acknowledging the many harms done against our First Nations, Metis, and Innuit neighbours, often in the name of God… and committing to turning around, making amends, and seeking to move forward together with humility and respect.
 
This journey of repentance, healing, and restoration is far from over. Like in all of our relationships, once trust and fellowship are broken, they take time and effort in order to mend. It is challenging work, but there are no alternatives if we are to move forward together.
 
And before Canada began this journey of Truth and Reconciliation, other nations around the world had been hard at work paving the way for us. The South African Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, was a key figure in his own country’s process of Truth and Reconciliation, seeking to help bring about healing and peace after the oppression and evils of apartheid came to an end. He had this to say in an article from 2004 called Truth and Reconciliation:
 
“Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.” 

He goes on to say, “…retribution wounds and divides us from one another. Only restoration can heal us and make us whole. And only forgiveness enables us to restore trust and compassion to our relationships. If peace is our goal, there can be no future without forgiveness.”[1]
 
I highly recommend reading the whole article, which you can find online for free. In it, he touches on lots of important aspects of forgiveness that we will not be able to cover together this morning, and he does so taking very seriously both the evil still at work in our world, and the hope that Christ Jesus offers us for healing and a way forward.
 
Jesus Christ our Lord not only commands us to forgive, He chose to forgive us, and to take on everything that goes with it. He refused to ignore the evil at work in and through us all, but instead of seeking our condemnation and destruction, He bore our sins and failures on His own shoulders… and shed His blood for our forgiveness at the cross… and opened up the way for our restoration through His death and resurrection.
 
And when we see Jesus at the cross, we know for sure that it was not easy for Him to forgive! And yet, He still chose to forgive us out of love… love for us all, and for His Heavenly Father… embodying God’s own heart as the true and faithful Son. 
 
The cross exposes the truth of our sin for all to see. It reminds us, that despite all the posturing and finger pointing going on, there is none righteous… no not one. But at the same time, the cross reveals the Living God’s holy love for sinners like us. This love and the forgiveness that springs from it are central to our faith as Christians. And what we have received from Jesus Christ our Lord, we are now called to give. 
 
For Christians today, expected as we are to walk in Christ’s holy ways… forgiveness is not an option. It is the foundation of our life, and the only way forward for our whole world. If we say that we believe in Jesus, one key way to show it is to keep moving towards forgiveness… trusting that the One to whom all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hid...  will do what is right to put our world back together in justice, mercy, and truth… and that He is capable of cleansing all of our hearts to make room for His perfect love.
 
With all this in mind, I’ll close now with the same words from St. Paul that I read to begin this sermon: “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” Amen.


[1] Desmond Tutu, Forgiveness (Online Article found here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/truth_and_reconciliation).

Scripture Readings: Amos 6:1a, 4–7 | Psalm 146 | 1 Timothy 6:6–19 | ​Luke 16:19–31

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31).
 
So, we’re still here.
You may have heard some rumblings and rumours that ‘the Rapture’ was supposed to happen this past week. Apparently, lots of people were swept up in the belief that the world was about to end. Or rather, that all Christians were about to be taken up into heaven, and a great season of destruction for everyone else was about to begin.
 
But obviously it didn’t happen.
 
And as a side note: if you want to know more about what the Bible does and does not say about the final fate of the world, you’re once again invited to come to our Bible Study on the book of Revelation (starting up again this Tuesday, at 3:30PM. But spoiler alert: ‘The Rapture’ doesn’t factor into it!).
 
Anyway, all this speculation about the end of the world raises some interesting questions. One of which is:
 
What would you do if you believed… absolutely believed… that you only had one day left to live?
 
Would you empty you bank account, and throw a big party? Would you buy a ticket and fly somewhere warm? Would you spend it quietly contemplating what comes next? Or frantically finishing that book you always intended to read? How would you invest your limited time left on this earth?
 
I’m sure we’d all have different answers to this question. But one thing that I think we all have in common is that what we do with our lives, however long or short a time we may have left, reveals what we really value, and what we believe to be true. And our Scripture readings today call us to consider how our own lives line up with what we claim we believe… and they also invite us to spend our days seeking what matters most.
 
But before we turn to the Bible, there’s a very different point of view I think we should spend a moment exploring:
an ancient school of philosophy known as Epicureanism.
 
Epicureanism was a popular Greek worldview that developed in the three centuries before Christ’s birth, and it basically taught that the gods are not really concerned with what goes on in the world. They believed there was no afterlife to be worried about, so the best way to spend your life was to just go about your business pursuing pleasure, and avoiding pain. They’d say things like “Eat, drink, and be merry while you can… while it lasts… for soon we die, and it’s all over.” 
 
And lots of people continue to live this way today, whether or not they know much about ancient Greek philosophy. It’s an idea that has worked its way deep into our Western culture, and it can be kind of hard to root out at times. 
But what happens if there is more to the story? What happens if everything we have, and are, and invest ourselves in isn’t just for this life but has lasting effects and implications?

In that case, what should we do with our resources, and opportunities, and time? What should we be taking part in and pursuing?
 
Our Scripture readings today points us to an un-surprising answer… and that is: Love!
 
But the word ‘love’ might not be what first comes to mind when we hear today’s Gospel passage, and the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus.
 
One of the big challenges with today’s parable is that we can be easily tempted to try and pick it apart, searching for clues to satisfy our own curiosity, and construct our own messages from it… instead of listening closely to the message that Jesus Himself is seeking to convey through it.
 
So, we need to slow down and ask ourselves, first of all: what does the purpose of this parable seem to be? Where does this story as a whole try to take us? How does it fit into the larger story of Scripture? And what clues do we have about the ways these words would have been understood in their day?

And while there is much we can say about today’s Gospel passage, one thing many scholars note is that this parable does not appear to be intended to give us a snapshot into what happens after death. It’s doing something different. That is, it’s using a very familiar kind of story in the ancient world… common tales of drastic role reversals after death… used to challenge and inspire their listeners to do something with their time on earth here and now.
 
So then, what is the parable… and what is Jesus calling us to do here and now?
 
The story focusses on the fate of two completely different individuals: an unnamed rich man, and a beggar named Lazarus.
 
We hear how the uncaring rich man lives a life of ease and pleasure, an Epicurean’s dream, while Lazarus, like Job at his lowest, lies in the dirt all alone… apart from the dogs. But then, they both die, and the rich man loses everything and faces great torment, while poor Lazarus finally finds the comfort and relief that he was denied in life.
 
Refused any peace for himself, the rich man eventually begs Father Abraham to send Lazarus back to the land of the living to warn his five brothers. But Abraham says that is not necessary. Luke 16:29-31, “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
 
The twist and the power of this parable lies in this last line: apparently, we don’t need another dramatic sign or revelation… we need our hearts to be opened… to believe and to do what has already been made known to us!  
 
After all, ‘belief’ in the biblical sense is not just about knowing… passively holding information in our brains, and agreeing that it is objectively true. No, belief in the biblical sense is about having our whole lives… our bodies, minds, and souls, aligned and activated by the truth that we’re holding onto.
 
For an Epicurean, this would look like seeking only to enjoy life… or at least, to avoid as much suffering and pain as possible. The point of life from this point of view is to make the most of our days for ourselves! And that’s just what the rich man did. He lived for himself, and ignored the sufferings of Lazarus on his doorstep.
 
But in contrast, God has long made known what He wants for us here and now through Moses and the Prophets: to love Him wholeheartedly, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. If we choose not to believe and act on this when Moses and the prophets told us to, our hard hearts won’t be changed even if somebody rises from the dead.
 
This parable served as a word of warning to those who opposed Jesus in His day, many of whom claimed to be deeply devoted to God, yet really served their own interests, and neglected their neighbours in need. In these words, our Lord was foreshadowing His own death and rising again, revealing that their current lack of faith in Him was a reflection of their disconnection from God’s own heart, a disconnection that could persist even after He rose again. And this warning was not just for them: it applies to us too.

We Christians claim to believe that someone has indeed risen from the dead, fulfilling the great rescue mission of God foretold long ago by Moses and the prophets.
 
We claim to believe that Jesus Christ, God’s holy Son came among us, and became one of us… humble and poor, suffering for our sakes… and that He gave up His life at the cross to share the riches of God’s abundant life with our bankrupt world.
 
We claim to believe in God’s goodness, and compassion, and saving love offered to us all in Jesus, who calls us now to take part in and share His goodness, compassion, and love with those on our doorsteps.
 
But do our lives line up with our claims? Do our actions day by day point to this reality? Are we spending our precious time on this earth pursuing what God calls true life? Or are we content to seek our own enjoyment, and avoid our own pain, while those on our doorsteps suffer?
 
The point of the parable is to confront us with the truth that we do not have ignorance as an excuse. We already know what God wants from us: to act with godly compassion, and goodness, and love right here and now!
 
This is the life that is really life, as St. Paul puts it in our second reading today from first Timothy… not simply living for ourselves, and our own pleasure, but living each day in the light of God’s great mercy and love.
 
And notice that this life of love doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the good things we have received. But we are called to practice contentment, and gratitude… to keep in mind where these good things really come from, and to remember how they are intended to be used.
 
1 Timothy 6:17-19, “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”
 
We are still here.
And with the time we still have, however long or short that might be, we are invited to invest ourselves fully in the life that truly is life: living faith, growing love, sharing hope that we have received in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
What we do in this life really matters. And Jesus our Saviour King is calling us to make the most of our time to pursue and to practice His life of love… empowered by His holy Spirit to reflect His goodness, compassion, and care to those all around us, and turning from our old self-centred ways to share in the abundant life offered to all who gather around His table in faith.
 
I’ll close now with St. Paul’s words to his fellow believer, St. Timothy. May we all be inspired to spend our days walking in this way:
 
1 Timothy 6:11-12, “But as for you… pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Amen.
​

Scripture Readings: Amos 8:4–7 | Psalm 113 | 1 Timothy 2:1–7 | ​Luke 16:1–13

“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:13).
 
Working more than one job at a time is not always easy. For some people, it’s a painful necessity. For others it can be a real joy. But even then, it comes with a lot of unique challenges.
 
As many of you know, since 2018, I’ve had the privilege of serving simultaneously in two very different ministry contexts: first off as an ordained minister in a parish church… initially as a deacon at St. Paul’s Rothesay, just down the road, and now here at St. Luke’s as Priest-in-Charge… while also serving as the School Chaplain at Rothesay Netherwood School.
 
And truthfully, I have really loved this two-part ministry, even though it does require some serious juggling of schedules and obligations at times. Over the years, I have tried to learn how to strike the right balance, and to serve each community well. But at times, I can still feel like I’m being pulled in different directions.

And yet, thankfully, even though I am responsible to different leaders, and serve in different capacities in these two very different contexts, I’m always trying to do so on behalf of the same Lord. The work I do here at St. Luke’s and there at the school, I am doing for the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and for the sake of His good work in the world, and in this neighbourhood.
 
These days, lots of people have to juggle all sorts of competing obligations and responsibilities… like having to work multiple jobs… providing care for young people, or aging parents… or volunteering their time and energy to keep the important parts of our wider community up and running. Life today often means being asked to hold several things in tension in order to meet our own needs, as well as the needs of those who depend on us.
 
And our Scripture readings today, especially our Gospel reading, speak directly to this tension… this experience of being pulled in multiple directions. But in His words to us, Jesus uses a much more intense image than that of simple employment, or everyday obligations.

He uses the image of a slave… one whose life is no longer their own, but who in a very real way belongs to and serves somebody else.  
 
We looked at slavery in the context of the Bible a few weeks ago, and how this oppressive practice was widespread across the ancient world, and simply taken for granted. And so while we rightly recoil at the idea of slavery today, especially in the light of the Good News of Christ, it was an everyday reality that many in Jesus’ day would be very familiar with.
 
In this passage, Jesus uses this image of a slave being unable to faithfully serve two different masters in order to drive home the point of the need for clear and singular devotion to God and His ways above all else.
 
There’s nothing about this claim that’s surprising or new for God’s people, of course. Right from the start, this idea of wholehearted devotion marked Israel’s relationship to the Living God. It was the anchor point and foundation for their whole sense of identity as God’s chosen people.
 
For instance, in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, we hear the words of the Shema, which faithful Israelites have recited for thousands of years as a central statement of faith: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” And we know that this commandment was central to Jesus’ own devotion and teachings… claiming it as the first and greatest commandment… alongside the commandment to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
 
For God’s people, clear and wholehearted devotion to God was already a given. And yet, sometimes we still seem to be a bit unclear about what wholehearted devotion to God really looks like… about what it means to really serve His interests in everything we do.
 
And so Jesus puts one common challenge to our devotion to God right out in the open: because, despite our claims of faithfulness to God alone, many of us His people still tend to live as though money is our real master.
 
Now of course, money can be a great asset, and it can accomplish a lot of good in our world. In a famous 18th Century sermon, called The Use of Money, John Wesley preached that: “in the present state of mankind, [money] is an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked: It gives to the traveller and the stranger [some]where to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless. We maybe a defence for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death!”[1]
 
But as good as money can be, we also know that it can contribute to incredible harm as well.
 
It causes harm when we’re willing to set all other concerns… like justice, compassion, and integrity… to the side, because, as the saying goes “It’s the economy, stupid.” It causes harm when we buy into the idea that it’s “money that makes the world go ‘round”, turning a blind eye when corporations exploit their workers, and manipulate their customers to boost their bottom line. It causes harm when the leaders of the nations of the world turn on each other, and even their own people… wielding taxes, and lawsuits, and sanctions… not for the sake of the common good, but as a weapon to get what they want, and as tool of oppression to try and get rid of any resistance.
 
Money is a powerful force and temptation to many, and it has been that way for a really long time.
 
In our first reading today, we heard the words of the prophet Amos, warning those in his day (and in our day) who serve money that God is watching closely.
 
Amos 8:4-7,
“Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
 
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.”
 
Instead of expressing devotion to the Living God, and acting with compassion towards their neighbours in need, these people were just preoccupied with their own profits and business. But as Amos reminds us, the LORD will not ignore the harm that gets done for the sake of money. And God will not forget the deeds of those who misuse their wealth… oppressing the poor and the powerless in order to get their own way.
 
Which is all the more reason for us to pray, not just for wisdom and an upright spirit ourselves… but also for all of the leaders of the world… those who have access to wealth, and those with the power to control its use, through laws, and policies, and programs. We should be praying that they will make wise and just decisions that don’t just serve their own interests, but the greater good of our world. And when those prayers seem unlikely to be answered, that’s all the more reason to keep on praying!
 
In truth, our world doesn’t really seem to know how to manage money faithfully. Some know how to get a hold of a lot of it, others know how to spend a whole lot of it. But it’s another thing entirely to be faithful with it. 
 
At the start of our Gospel passage today, we heard Jesus tell His disciples a parable to challenge their old ways of thinking, and help them understand wealth from the perspective of God’s good Kingdom.
 
In the parable, a master finds out his manager has been mishandling his money. So he calls him to account, and gives him notice of termination. Understandably, the manager starts to panic, realizing the danger he’s now in.

Luke 16:3-4, “Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’”

His solution: make some friends real quick! Realizing it’s in his best interest to make some (hopefully grateful) connections who might take care of him in the future, he does what comes naturally: he keeps on mis-managing his master’s money! He cancels some of the debts of his master’s customers, cooking the books to get on their good side. And when the master finds out about it, it turns out he’s actually impressed by the quick-thinking of this ex-manager.
 
What’s the point of this story?
 
Well, for starters, Jesus is certainly not endorsing shady business practices. And we’re not being given license to commit fraud if we find ourselves in troubled times. And the bemused “master” isn’t meant to stand for God, condoning dishonesty if it’s at least done cleverly.
 
This parable offers us an example of how even those who are completely unconcerned with God and His holy ways, can still come to realize that serving money won’t save them in the end… and when push comes to shove, they will be forced to reprioritize.

In the course of the parable, the bad manager is no longer concerned with making money, but with making friends. Even from a purely worldly perspective, there’s something profound in this. I mean, material goods are simply not as important as having people who love you and who will stick by your side when things get really rough.
 
But Jesus’ parable goes on to make an even bigger point. Luke 16:9, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
 
By calling it “dishonest wealth”, Jesus is taking money down off of the pedestal, and putting it into perspective. It’s not to be worshipped or served, but used faithfully.
  
Simply put, money makes a horrible master, and devoting ourselves to it ruins lives, rather than saving them. Instead of mastering us, it needs to be put into the service of something far greater.
 
Luke 16:10-13, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
 
This entire passage, the parable and the points made afterwards, are a call to faithfulness with all that we have, not just our money, but certainly including it. And rather than being the purpose and goal of our lives, wealth is meant to serve God and God’s good Kingdom! Too extend His holy love, and His mercy, and compassion, and justice.. and beauty… and joy.
 
Whatever amount we may have, we are to learn to use it wisely and faithfully… acting as good managers who are concerned with stewarding what really belongs to God, and knowing that He’s not that concerned with profit margins, or compound interest or dividends… but with the good of His world… with people… with ALL people that they might come to know and receive His mercy and grace, and saving love… and flourish in His resurrection life.

As St. Paul says in our second reading, God our Saviour “desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:4–6).
 
In wholehearted and clear devotion to the will of His Heavenly Father, and for the sake of us all, Jesus Himself paid the complete price to set us free once and for all at the cross. And He now shares the abundant riches of the Living God with all who believe… the riches of forgiveness… fellowship… and freedom for eternity.
 
And now God calls us to be good managers of all the treasures that we have been entrusted with: first and foremost, with the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, and all He has done to rescue and ransom our messed up world.
 
But we have also been entrusted with friends… with the fellowship of the saints… the company of forgiven sinners… rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, slave and free… all welcomed equally to sit side by side at His good table.
​
And we have been entrusted with the treasures of time, and our talents, and yes, even our money… to be used faithfully to lift up and share God’s love with those around us… not simply for our own sake, but for their sake… and the for the sake of the One who gave His life at the cross to save us all.
 
We cannot serve two masters. But in the midst of our world, with all of its competing priorities, Jesus Christ our Saviour calls us to practice clear and wholehearted devotion to His good Kingdom, for the good of all.
 
So may all that we do, and have been entrusted with, help us to share His holy love and New Life with our neighbours, our friends, our loved ones, and with one another. Amen.


[1] John Wesley, Paragraph 2 in “Sermon 50 – The Use of Money” The Sermons of John Wesley. (Wesley Center Online: https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-50-the-use-of-money/).

Scripture Readings: Numbers 21:4–9 | Psalm 78:1–2, 34–38 | 1 Corinthians 1:18–24 | John 3:13–17

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
 
Do you ever find yourself wondering “How did our world get into this crazy situation? Who led us into this mess? And how can things be set right again?”
 
There’s certainly no denying that things are not great in a lot of places right now. Our world is facing a whole host of complicated and serious threats. And understandably, a lot of people are worried about it… and are pushing for some sort of straightforward solution… a remedy for all these troubles that they can comfortably wrap their heads around… that makes sense to us.
 
Unfortunately, both history and current events reminds us that one of humanity’s go-to solutions for dealing with tough times is to turn on each other… to use violence, intimidation, and shame… attacking others, especially those we see as different, to try and make ourselves feel more powerful and secure.  
 
In contrast, and despite how some keep trying to co-opt and corrupt the Christian faith to serve this agenda… the Good News of Jesus turns this way of dealing with times of trouble completely on its head. And our Scripture readings this morning remind us that, instead of turning against others when things get tough… the Living God has given us somewhere surprising to turn to lead us into life.
 
Our Gospel reading today includes one of the most familiar passages in the Bible… John 3:16. In many ways, this verse has come to be understood as a short summary of the whole Christian faith… the key to understanding and wrapping our heads around what the Good News is all about.
 
But this beautiful, well-beloved passage doesn’t simply stand alone: it comes to us in the context of another story from Israel’s ancient past… a short, strange, and confusing story about God’s people bringing suffering onto themselves… and God giving them the strangest remedy in order to save them.
 
In our first reading today, from the Book of Numbers… Israel was nearing the end of their wilderness wanderings. They had been set free from slavery in Egypt, had been invited into a sacred covenant relationship with the Living God, and were now on their way to the Promised Land. Now that simplified version of the story is true, but the whole story is much less straightforward, and much more messy.
 
Instead of being a direct journey from slavery into paradise, God’s people consistently got themselves into trouble along the way: they complain against both God and Moses whenever they face trouble, despite everything the LORD had done for them… they break God’s sacred covenant almost immediately with the whole Golden Calf debacle at Mt. Sinai… and when they first reach the borders of the Promised Land, they flat out refuse to go in… afraid to face the powerful enemies ahead, despite God’s own presence with them. And so, for forty years, they have been forced to wander about in the wilderness… waiting until the old guard who doubted God died out, and the next generation was given their chance to faithfully follow the LORD.
 
But once again, when Israel finds themselves in trouble… in a difficult situation where they are being challenged to place their trust in God… they prove their unfaithfulness… and just like their parents, they grumble and complain against the LORD, calling His character and intentions into question.
 
Numbers 21:5, “The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
 
How did they get in this mess? Was it because God and Moses had it out for them? That’s what they seemed to think. But no, this was a mess of their own making.  
 
After all, God had originally intended for His people to be in the Promised Land by now! They were struggling because of the people’s own fear, and lack of faith, and their repeated refusal to trust the LORD… even after the many years that he already provided for and sustained them in that empty and wasted land.
 
Their real problem wasn’t a lack of food and water. Their real problem was that they would not trust God. Despite all He had done, they did not believe that He really cared about them… that He could provide them with what they needed. Despite their oath to be faithful to God at Mt. Sinai, and to follow His ways… when push came to shove, they were no different at heart than their unfaithful forefathers.
 
And so, God sends them even more trouble… a serious and straightforward consequence for their rebellious spirit: poisonous snakes enter their camp, and cause the people great suffering and even death.
 
But even though they had called this sad fate on themselves, once again the LORD proves that He is not the uncaring, unmerciful monster they imagine Him to be. God hears their cries, and in response to Moses’ prayers of intercession, the LORD provides a way for His ungrateful, unfaithful people to be spared the death they had earned for themselves.
 
Numbers 5:8-9, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’  So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”
 
Now, I don’t think this is the kind of remedy that you or I would have come up with. Am I right? It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. How does looking at a bronze snake counteract the effects of toxic venom? It seems like complete foolishness.
 
And yet, this was the way that the LORD opened up to spare the lives of His people: they were invited to look upon an image depicting the source of their suffering… and be healed. Or they could refuse to look at the bronze snake… the image of the source of their torment… and die. They were being confronted with the consequences of their unfaithfulness, and given a choice to trust in God’s remedy… or not.
 
They had led themselves there, and had gotten themselves into this mess… and were now reaping the rewards of their own unfaithfulness. But rather than have them make excuses, or even make amends… the LORD simply tells them to look… look at an image of a snake on a pole… and to trust that, even if they can’t yet understand how… this act of faith in God would truly lead them into life.
 
Of course, the ideas of images and snakes have a lot of weight in the story of the Bible, going way back to the earliest chapters of Genesis.
 
There we’re told that human beings were created to be God’s own living images… to represent Him within Creation, and to embody His goodness and holy love.
 
But after the humans were deceived by the serpent to rebel against God’s good rule, humanity’s ability to reflect God’s image became deeply distorted, and humans turned on each other, filling God’s good world with violence, fear, and shame.
 
And so in time, God rescued Israel and set them apart to be His chosen, covenant people… to faithfully follow His holy ways, and begin to reflect His goodness and holy love again… recapturing a clearer sense of God’s image, so that the other nations could draw near as well and find life.
 
But now, rather than embodying and reflecting God’s image, they too had become more and more like the snake… the devious enemy of humanity that worked to undermine our trust in the LORD… leading us to our deaths by cutting us off from the Living God, and from one another.
 
So when the bronze snake was lifted up, in a way they were witnessing their own distorted image… their sinful state was being held up and exposed. And yet, this painful confrontation with their own guilt was not the path to condemnation, it was the means of receiving the gracious gift of God’s great mercy and salvation!
 
Like the snake, they had deserved death. But God gives them life instead!
 
How much of our world’s ways of dealing with evil and sin rests on the denial that we’re also a part of the problem? We seem to easily turn to using violence, fear, and shame… locating evil and sin in those others, and seek to eradicate it by punishing them… but we don’t dare to look to closely at the image of the snake in our own hearts.

But the Good News is, despite the mess we have all made of this world… the LORD still seeks to save us. And as we heard in our Gospel reading today, Jesus draws on this strange story of a snake on a stick to shed light on His own story… and to show us the significance of the strange path of salvation that His own death opens up for us all.
 
John 3:14-16, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
 
Just as the snake was lifted up on a pole, Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God… the true image of the Living God, was lifted up on the cross… so that all those bound to sin and death… that is, our entire world… might look to Him in faith, and find in Him God’s gift of eternal life.
 
This is the remedy that we believers have received, and this is the hope that we have to share with our world. This is the way God has offered to us in our sufferings to lead us all into life. We may think it strange, or even foolish at times, and we may not completely understand it all. We may even be tempted to grumble about it, and long for the resources and supposed answers being lifted up by those around us.
 
But the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord calls us to look at the cross, again and again, and remember that this is the way that God’s saving love has forever broken the power of death, and set us free from sin.
 
The world looks to the cross and expects to see a sinner… someone condemned to a violent, terrifying, and shame-filled death. But when we look at the cross with eyes of faith, in the place of the sinner we see God’s own sinless Son taking our place… and turning death into life… fear into freedom… and shame into eternal glory.
 
Looking at the cross, we now see Jesus’ new life offered to us freely as a gift… a gift that requires us to own up to our own share of the blame for our broken world… to look straight at the fate we have earned for ourselves… but find there the gracious gift of God given to us all. Not just to us, and those like us, but also to those we see as enemies.
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The cross of Jesus Christ is our remedy, and the heart of our Christian response to the brokenness of our world. For it is there that God’s holy love has been poured out to save everyone… and to transform us into the kinds of people who reflect God’s goodness and holy love in all that we do.
 
So as we witness, and wade into the messiness and brokenness of our world today, let us continue to look to the cross and see there the rescuing love of Jesus, our world’s only Saviour. And let us draw near to Christ’s table in faith, and receive from Him the remedy of God's love that will not only bring us life, but which will bring life to everyone who will believe. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15–20 | Psalm 1 | Philemon 1–21 | ​Luke 14:25–33

Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27).
 
There was a time, back when Christianity’s place in society was simply taken for granted, that being a Christian was often equated with simply being a ‘good citizen’… an upstanding spouse, a decent parent, a trustworthy employee, and so on. In this light, spiritual practices like prayer and Church attendance served not so much to draw us closer to God and His good ways, as to uphold the status quo of society, and encourage us to stand against anything that might challenge our familiar institutions and time-honoured ways of life.
 
As widespread as that point of view may have been at times, I think this position is pretty hard to square with the words we just heard from Jesus Christ our Lord. Far from championing cherished and traditional family roles and bonds, Jesus tells us that if we want to follow Him, we need to hate our own fathers, mothers, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, and even our own lives!
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These strong words don’t fit so easily into our frameworks… the ways that we’re used to living our lives. And that’s kind of the point. But rather than quickly dismissing them, or finding some clever excuses for ignoring them, everyone who is serious about following Jesus needs to take these words to heart… and to try to honestly understand what it is our Lord is saying to us.
 
And these words directly challenge the notion that Jesus Christ is offering us a kind of spiritual blessing to add to and compliment our otherwise ordinary lives. No, He’s calling for a complete reorganization of even our deepest priorities, and a reframing of all our relationships… to God, to others, and even to ourselves.
 
To follow Jesus is to, in many ways, abandon our claims to the status quo… to our old ways of life… and instead we’re to let everything about us be reframed and transformed in the light of Christ and His cross. 
 
And we are given an excellent example of this reframing and transformation in action in our second reading this morning, and the story of St. Paul, his fellow Christian Philemon… and Philemon’s runaway slave named Onesimus.  
 
The devastating legacy of slavery, and the bravery and stories of those who oppose it deserves a lot more time and attention than I can give them this morning. That said, I hope that our readings from Scripture today, and our reflections on the implications of the Good News of Jesus Christ will help us to see how we are called to become agents of God’s freedom and New Life in our own contexts.
 
In the first century… and indeed for most of human history, slavery was simply taken for granted as the way that societies work. It was a time-honoured tradition… a venerable institution, going back thousands of years. I can’t remember where I heard this analogy, but someone once compared it to the way we now think of the electricity grid. The forced labour of our fellow human beings was the engine that made almost everything run, and in the Roman world that the Early Church lived in, it would have been basically impossible to imagine a working society that ran without it. 
 
Modern-day critics sometimes point out that the Bible does not explicitly focus on calling an end to slavery, and that Church leaders like St. Paul seemed not to have been bothered that much by this dehumanizing practice.
 
And yet, the reality of the cross of Christ, which clearly consumed the attention of the Apostles and the Early Church, completely undercuts and deconstructs the common lies and assumptions that made slavery possible, and this eventually led Christians to become brave leaders in the great abolitionist movements… and it continues to lead many Christians today to work hard to bring real freedom and lasting peace to oppressed people all over the world.
 
But as I said, back in St. Paul’s day, slavery was everywhere, and it could happen to people for all sorts of reasons. You could become a slave by being kidnapped, or captured after a battle… or as punishment for committing a crime. You could be born into slavery. You could end up in so much dept that you’d be forced to sell yourself as a slave in order to survive.
 
Some slave owners were much worse than others. And some jobs that slaves were forced to do were much worse than others. But one thing that all slaves had in common was that they were considered to be of lower status and value than free people. There was no sense of equality, or human rights. At the end of the day, slaves were not seen as people… but as objects to be used for the benefit of someone else.  
 
Who does that remind us of today? Who is being seen and treated as if they didn’t matter? As if their hopes, and fears, and freedom were not worth worrying about?
 
Victims of modern slavery, and human trafficking?  Migrant workers, refugees, and immigrants seeking a better life, but often finding suspicions, resentments, and lack of opportunities instead? What about those labeled as outcasts and sinners in our day? Or those without homes, living rough in our cities and chased out of our neighbourhoods? Those seeking relief in addictive substances and practices that seem to offer a brief reprieve from their pain, but actually capture and hold their lives hostage instead?
 
Who do we find it easy to see as being of lower status? Not really worth caring much about?
 
The ancient institution of slavery worked by dividing humanity up like this… pushing down untold numbers of people, and forcing them to spend their lives serving those that society deemed ‘worthy’. And most people simply took this for granted as the best way to operate.  
 
But the cross of Jesus Christ changes all that, and it challenges this time-honoured, traditional story… the familiar reality we tend to live by even now… exposing the lies that allow us to keep on denigrating and dehumanizing one another, and opening up God’s New Life, even in the midst of this broken world. 
 
In our reading today, we heard most of a letter from St. Paul the Apostle written to a fellow Christian named Philemon, focussing on the future of someone named Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave. At the time, St. Paul was also someone who had lost his freedom… being imprisoned because of his work sharing the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord across the Empire.  

In the letter, St. Paul subtly puts pressure on Philemon by working out the implications of the cross… the Good News of Jesus… to do something unexpected. He doesn’t insist that Philemon simply sets Onesimus free. But neither does he simply go along with the obvious and legal thing to do, which would have been to return the freed slave to their owner. Neither of these two options would have changed or challenged the story… just how the characters were interacting within it.
 
After all, any slave-owner could choose to grant their slave freedom. It may not have been all that common, but it would have been a normal part of that slavery system. But what St. Paul does do challenges Philemon, and all of us, in an even bigger way… he reframes their complicated and messy relationship in the light of the cross, and the Good News of what Jesus accomplished there for all of us.
 
What happens is, St. Paul plans to send Onesimus back to Philemon so they can be reconciled… so he could be welcomed back not as an object to be used, but as a beloved brother… as someone Philemon was now bound to care for and love. Someone to forgive and be forgiven by. As an equal. As someone who shares in God’s own image, and who now, through Jesus, shares in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 
 
St. Paul did not focus on offering arguments against slavery as an institution… but he was operating within a whole new and very different story! The story of God’s transforming, and redeeming love in Jesus Christ… a love which completely undermines the divisive power of slavery, and which ultimately leads us into God’s freedom and New Life. 
 
After all, even God did not simply wave His hand and condemn all of the broken systems and institutions that we humans have set up over the years from a safe distance. No, in Jesus He chose to step into them Himself, and set about shattering the lies that keep things like slavery running from the inside. 
 
Jesus came among us as one of low status… born in obscurity on the frontiers of the Empire. He chose to spend His time with the outcasts, the poor, and the powerless… not to show them how to fix themselves by fitting in and getting rich… but rather, He shared God’s love and New Life with them exactly where they were… welcoming them, whatever their current circumstances into God’s fellowship… challenging them to follow Him above all else, and transforming them into a new family in God’s good Kingdom. 
 
And when our Lord offered up His life, it was not in the romantic, glorious ways that honoured heroes seek… a noble and dignified end. No, Jesus gave Himself to death the way that troublesome slaves were dealt with: robbed of all dignity… his agony and shame displayed for everyone around to jeer at. Jesus was not just killed, He was denigrated and dehumanized at the cross for us. He took the place of the lowest of the low… in order to raise us up. 
 
And this is where the miracle… the Good News of the cross truly comes to light! For even though we humans tried to dehumanize Jesus, the way that so many people throughout history have been dehumanized, by completely sharing in the shame of the powerless and the lowly… Jesus shattered the bonds that keep us all bound.
 
God raised Jesus again from the dead, overturning our conceited and false conviction… lifting Him up to share in the glory and honour and majesty of the Most High. 
 
And through faith in Him, Jesus now shares with us His own glory, honour, and the freedom of the New Life of God. He joined Himself to us in our slavery to sin and death, and now He’s set us free to share in God’s family… not just in Heaven some day, but beginning right now… in our lives and relationships that are already being reframed by God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord… reshaping everything about us by His Holy Spirit at work within us. 
 
Our old family ties, our claims of status, and culture, and identity are all being called into question by the cross of Jesus. None of them truly define who we are anymore, or deserve our fullest devotion. Instead, we are now to learn how to live alongside and with others… and love others… not based on shared blood, or social status… but based on the gracious gift of God’s saving love, freely offered to us and to all through Jesus Christ our Risen Lord. 
 
Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27).
 
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be defined… to have our lives completely reframed by the Good News of what He has done for us all at the cross: Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free… we all belong to Him, and we belong together.
 
If we would rather hold onto our old sense of self based on our world’s divisive categories, then we can choose to do that. We can choose to keep on living as though these other connections and bonds are what really give us life.
 
But if we choose that path, we will be unable to take part in the New Life that God has opened up for us through Jesus His Son. The New Life where all are equally welcomed, and challenged, and changed, and set free to share in God’s love forever. 
 
Paul called Philemon to embrace and welcome home his old runaway slave as a brother… completely changing, and reframing their relationship from the inside out. 
 
And Jesus calls all who follow Him to know that it will come at a real cost: the cost of letting go of our old ways,  and categories, and allegiances… ways of relating to those around us… even those closest to us… in order to have our own lives and relationships reframed in the light of God’s saving love at the cross, and the Good News of Christ’s resurrection. 
 
So today, may we count the cost of saying yes yet again to Jesus, and still come forward in faith to receive, and to live out the New Life that He offers us and our world. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Proverbs 25:6–7 | Psalm 112 | Hebrews 13:1–8, 15–16 | ​Luke 14:1, 7–14

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:1-2).
 
What comes to mind when you hear the word hospitality?
 
Do any examples or experiences of giving, or receiving hospitality stand out to you?
 
Once, when I was much younger, my family and I spent Christmas with a family of complete strangers. My younger brother had been in the hospital in Winnipeg for several months, as he struggled to recover from some serious, life-threatening complications that occurred after going through major surgery. During those months, my Mom had stayed with my brother in Winnipeg, while my Dad watched my older brother and I back at home. As you can imagine, it was an intense time for us all.  
 
As Christmas drew near, my Dad took us back so we could all be together for what could have been our last Christmas as a family. So many of our usual holiday traditions were set aside, but at least we could be together.
It’s funny how even some of those cherished things we seem to treasure the most can become pretty easy to let go of when we realize that something else matters so much more.
 
Anyway, during her stay in Winnipeg, my Mom had come to know some of my brother’s doctors, and one of them invited our family to join them for Christmas dinner… and it looked nothing like any Christmas I had experienced before.
 
Their large family was from another county, and had very different Christmas traditions and food… liked baked fish instead of a turkey… and yet they graciously and happily opened up their home… and their lives to us, a bunch of strangers… making space for us to find some comfort and friendship around their table. We had nothing to offer them in return, and they were not looking for a reward. They simply welcomed us as we were, and helped us know in that difficult time that we were not alone.
 
At its heart, this is what hospitality is: recognizing the needs of others… and making room to meet those needs. Some of the people we meet will need things like food, or shelter, or medical care. Others need things like friendship, opportunities to grow, and community. We all have needs, and we all have ways we can practice hospitality towards others… not seeking anything for ourselves, but simply seeking the good of those around us.
 
And one of the most common ways that we humans offer hospitality is around a table: shared meals can break down many walls, and open up our hearts as well. Here at St. Luke’s, I love that we share food and fellowship every week after the service. It’s a great habit for a community to form: making time and space… and food to share with one another, and with anyone who may happen to come to our door... offered as a gift of service and love to one another.
 
But sadly, there are times when we can forget just how important true hospitality is… and instead of being intentional about opening up space in our hearts and lives for others… we can start to focus merely on meeting our own desires, or how to use others to get what we want.
 
And we can see signs of this selfishness at work in our Gospel passage this morning, as Jesus our Lord is invited to share a meal with some prominent Pharisees.
 
We know that Jesus shared meals with all sorts of people… with devout and respectable folks, like these Pharisees, and more often with outcasts, tax-collectors, and sinners… the sort of people with scary and sketchy reputations. Jesus was open to everyone. That said, sometimes these shared meals could become a bit tense… and that’s what happened in our passage today. We’re told that his hosts were “watching him closely”… and as it turns out, Jesus was watching them too.
 
And He notices that the rest of the guests were preoccupied with choosing the best seats at the table… the places of honour for themselves. This would be a common way someone could try to build up their prestige among their peers… to gain a bit of public recognition and status as an important person. Rather than making time and space to be open to one another… to affirm the worth of those around them, and draw closer together in fellowship, Jesus could see that they were distracted by this drive for recognition and status… seeking honour for themselves, but undermining their shared community.
 
And so Jesus, echoing the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, points out that this self-seeking attitude is actually self-defeating.
 
Luke 14:7-11, “When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
These words are of course much more than some practical advice about saving face when picking a seat at a party. Jesus is highlighting a pattern of life that actively counteracts the self-centred tendencies that we humans of all sorts keep giving into. From Cain killing his brother Abel out of jealousy, to many of the headlines we see in the news day after day, history is full of stories of people seeking their own glory at the expense of others. But Jesus shows us the blessed alternative: that the true path to glory is humility. Not being fixated on our own status, but being open and responsive to those around us.
 
This is the vision for the people of God offered to us in our second reading this morning, from the Letter to the Hebrews: Love one another. Share in each other’s sufferings. Protect each other’s honour. Place our confidence, not in things like money and status, but in God’s promise to be with us always. This kind of humility… one built on the foundation of faith in God’s enduring love for us, sets us free from the need to fight for recognition, and sets us free to be more at peace with ourselves… and open to those around us. When we can trust that God truly loves us, all sense of competition for attention starts to get set aside, and we begin to share in real community… able to care for and make real room for one another, and strangers of all sorts.  

Which leads us to the second part of our Gospel passage, where Jesus tells His host (and all of us too!) that when throwing a party, we’re not to simply invite our friends and neighbours, and those who can repay us in some way. We are to invite those most in need of our hospitality and fellowship to our tables: those who are struggling in mind, in body, and in spirit. Those who are neglected by the rest of their neighbours. Those who have no status or honour, and nothing to offer us. That is who Jesus calls us to welcome in, and make room for in our lives and at our table.
 
And we are to do this because this is exactly what the Living God has already done for us! God has welcomed us all in, despite all of our baggage, and brokenness. God has made room for us in His heart and at His table, even though we could never hope to repay Him. God has opened His arms wide to embrace us into His family.
 
When we had nothing at all to offer Him, God lifted us up by His love. And this is more than mere poetry. It is the Good News, the message of Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus, the exalted Son of God, did not worry about His own status and honour, but deliberately took the lowest seat… not simply when He ate and drank with sinners… but throughout His entire incarnate life.

He entered fully into our frail humanity, uniting Himself to us completely: born of Mary, among the poor and lowly to share in our humble state. He set aside and resisted many opportunities to lift Himself up, choosing instead to stay true to the ways of His Heavenly Father, and extend God’s compassion and mercy to all, especially those on the margins. And knowing full well what it would cost Him, Jesus laid down His life at the cross to open up the way for sinners like us to be forgiven, and invited to share in the New Life of God through the power of His resurrection.
 
Jesus humbled Himself completely to offer us God’s hospitality. And He now calls us to humbly join Him in sharing this gift with those around us. What He has done, we can never repay. But we can be changed by it, and through His Spirit at work in us, we can become the tangible ways His hospitality reaches out into our world.
 
So then, how do we go about making room for others in our hearts and lives? What might we need to set aside, or start up in order to care for those God brings to our doors?
 
In our services here at St. Luke’s, how can we be more intentional about making room for those who are new, and those who are… not new… so we can all receive God’s loving welcome together?
 
In our wider communities, how can we be more open to our neighbours, and genuinely responsive to their needs, even if they never dream of darkening our doors?
 
And in the Church… how can we worship, and work alongside, and have real fellowship with our brothers and sisters from other parishes in ways that don’t lead to competition or posturing, but genuine communion?
 
The humble hospitality of Jesus is a calling to live out our faith… to put it into practice… trusting that if we make room for others, and provide for them, then God will take notice, and He will take care of our needs… not necessarily in the same way, but with a much more enduring effect.
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And it is a calling to grow in love… not to prioritize our own agendas and status, but to focus on the good of all.
 
And it is a calling to actively share our hope… to extend real help and fellowship to those around us… counteracting the isolation, and loneliness, and despair at work in our world today, and welcoming all those we meet into the blessed New Life of Jesus.
 
God has offered us all the gift of His humble, heavenly hospitality. And He has welcomed us all to come and share in His fellowship at the table of Jesus His Son. May we fully receive this generous gift of love today. And may God’s Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds and lives, so that we can sincerely share His saving welcome with our world. Amen.