"The Currency of the Kingdom of God" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 18, 2026
Scripture Readings:  Isaiah 45:1-7 and Matthew 22:15-22

After taking a break for Thanksgiving last weekend, our Bible reading today bring us right back to the last week of Jesus’s life. Jesus has entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey accompanied by people waving branches, spreading out their cloaks on the road ahead of him, and crying out to him, “Hosanna! Save us!”

And right away, Jesus starts poking the bear – doing and saying things that are going to provoke the people with the power, the temple officials.  He flips over the tables in the temple, the dwelling place of God, accusing the money-changers of turning a house of prayer into a den of robbers.  He restored the sight of people who were blind, and strengthened the legs of people who were lame, right there in the temple, in the place where he had no official authority.  He told some very pointed parables that accused the actual authorities of not truly knowing God.  And it’s still only Monday!

The authorities then have their chance to have a go at Jesus, and the reading that we heard today is the first of a series of trick questions that they are going to be asking him, trying to get him to say something blasphemous – trying to get him to say something that will allow them to officially arrest him.

I can almost picture this scene playing out in a movie.  A group approaches Jesus and they start to flatter him, buttering him up, and then at the very end comes the catch.  “Tell us then, what you think.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

So here is where the catch lies.  The people who are questioning him are two groups who would normally not have anything to do with each other.  The Pharisees were intent on holding up the Law, the Torah.  To them, the idea of owing anything to a foreign dictator was blasphemous. You paid your tithes to the temple, and that was it.  But to the other half of his questioners, the Herodians, the answer was, of course you have to pay your taxes.  The Herodians were those who supported King Herod, the puppet king representing the Roman Emperor, and law and order and taxes were at the core of their beliefs.

So no matter which way Jesus answers their question, he is going to piss off one group or the other.  Say that it’s lawful to pay taxes and the Pharisees are going to be upset and accuse him of heresy.  Say that it’s not lawful to pay taxes, and the Herodians are going to be upset and accuse him of treason.  Heresy or treason.  Jesus is in a no-win situation.

Until he gives an answer that doesn’t satisfy either group, but also doesn’t give them anything to accuse him on either.  We have this well-known scene where Jesus asks for a coin, points out the image of the Emperor on the coin, and says, “Give to the emperor the things that belong to the emperor, and give to God the things that belong to God.”

In other years when we’ve read this story, I’ve pointed out that ultimately everything belongs to God.  God is the creator of all, and reigns over all of creation.  Even the emperor is created in God’s image and belongs to God – on that coin, the people are looking at an image of the image of God.  Our God is the King who reigns over other kings, the Lord who rules over other Lords.

So in one sense, Jesus is giving a very orthodox answer.  Since everything ultimately belongs to God, we must give everything back to God.  But I want to take this story one step deeper and ask, what is the coinage of the kingdom of God?  Because I really don’t think that a coin with an image of the Emperor is what is going to buy our way into heaven.

I apologize to our treasurers and our church stewards, because I’m about to talk about money in a way that isn’t helpful to church budgets.  But I really don’t think that we are able to buy favour with God through our Loonies and Toonies.  Jesus tells all sorts of parables that point out that material wealth isn’t what counts in God’s eyes; in fact, he warns us not to store up treasure on earth but rather treasure in heaven.  But that brings us back to the question – what is the currency of heaven?  How can we store up treasure in the kingdom of heaven if we don’t even know what coins are used there?

But I think that maybe Jesus has told us.  What has his ministry been about?  It’s been about healing people.  It’s been about lifting up the people who were downtrodden by society.  It’s been about feeding hungry crowds.  It’s been about pushing back against oppressive authorities.  It’s been about building community where people share with one another and care for one another.  These are the things that matter in the kingdom of God.

So we can give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s – we can give all the gold and silver coins to the emperor because these things don’t matter in God’s sight.  What matters to God is that we are doing justice, and loving kindness, and walking humbly on this earth.  I will concede to our treasurers and church stewards that sometimes these things require money, so I’m not going to advocate for cutting out the offering.  But ultimately, it is what we do with the resources entrusted to us that matter.  It is about using our resources – our time, our talents, and yes, our treasure, to be agents of healing and justice and love and mercy and goodness.

And may it be so.  Amen.

 

A Roman coin bearing the image of Tiberius Augustus,
Roman Emperor from 14-37 CE.
Image used with permission.

 

"From Gratitude to Generosity" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 11, 2026 – Thanksgiving Weekend
Scripture Readings:  Deuteronomy 8:7-18 and Luke 17:11-19

Happy Thanksgiving!  This is a weekend that comes around every year and it gives us an opportunity to pause, and notice, and say thank you.  This is a weekend when many of us will be gathering with friends or family or chosen family to share a meal.  As the different generations run around, we have a chance to make memories; and if we aren’t part of a big gathering this year, it is a weekend when many of us look back on the memories that we carry of meals shared.

And as we break bread together – and turkey – and squash – and potatoes – and pie – in many Thanksgiving gatherings there will be an intentional space to pause and name the things we are grateful for. Grateful for the food.  Grateful for the company.  Grateful for the beautiful October day.

And I, like many of us, have been thinking this week about gratitude, and what gratitude actually is.  Because I think that gratitude is more than just a feeling.  Yes, it is something that we can feel – gratitude is a combination of love and joy and maybe just a bit of yearning as well.  But rather that just a feeling that comes and goes, I think that true gratitude changes us.  We are transformed by gratitude, in the very best possible way.  Once we’ve experienced gratitude, we experience the world differently; we approach the world differently.

And while the story from the gospel of Luke is obviously a story about gratitude – ten lepers are healed, but only one of them comes back to Jesus to say thank you – I think that the reading we heard from Deuteronomy is also about gratitude.

Some of you have heard me say this before, but I love the book of Deuteronomy! (Well, maybe not the parts that talk about stoning people or keeping slaves, but the overall message of Deuteronomy is a powerful one, all about thresholds and hope for the future.) If you remember the story of the Old Testament, you will remember that the Ancient Israelite people had been slaves in Egypt; but then God appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded, “Let my people go,” then Moses parted the waters of the sea so that the people could cross over to safety.  After that, the people spent 40 years wandering through the desert wilderness, dependent on God to guide them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, dependent on God to feed them (manna and quail, anyone?), and dependent on God to provide water in the desert, water that miraculously flowed from a stone.

Deuteronomy is set at the end of those 40 years, as the people are about to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land.  It is a threshold moment as the people are about to leave behind the hardship of the desert to enter a land flowing with milk and honey. The reading that we heard this morning begins by speaking of the abundance that the people are about to encounter:  wheat, barley, fig trees, and pomegranates; springs and underground waters; bread in abundance.  And God is worried that the people are going to forget the lessons that they have learned in their 40 years of wandering.

You see, in the desert, they had to depend on God for everything and there was an immediacy to their dependence; but when they encounter abundance, there is a risk that they will forget that God is still the giver of all good things.  And God reminds the people to continue to give thanks to God as the giver of all good things even when the fiery pillar fades, even when water can be drawn from wells rather than trickling down the face of a rock, even when dry flakey manna is replaced by fresh vegetables and recognizable grains.  God is still the giver of all good things, even when God is less visible in the giving.

And so for us, whether we are in a desert period of life or a “promised land” period of life, God is the giver of all good things; and when we recognize this and give thanks to God, then we are freed to live our lives without fear of running out.  Even in the wilderness, the manna was refreshed every day; and in the Promised Land, there was food and water for everyone.

A couple of years ago, I spent a week in Ottawa with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, advocating to Members of Parliament of all political colours to maintain and increase Canada’s foreign aid spending on sustainable agriculture around the world.  There was one MP meeting that I was in, along with two other volunteers, and in this one I was taking the lead.  I began by explaining the work of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and ended by saying, “Our vision is a world where nobody is hungry.”  The Member of Parliament we were meeting with jumped in and said, “I believe that this world is possible,” and we replied with, “So do we – that’s why we’re here!”  Out of gratitude for our abundance, our country should be able to share with others who have less.

God is a God of abundance, and I truly believe that God dreams of a world where nobody is hungry.  God fed the people in the desert, and God provided for the people in the Promised Land; and God instructed them to remember to give thanks at all times and in all places.

Recognizing God’s abundance, and then pausing to give thanks, frees us from fear of running out, frees us from fear of scarcity.  Gratitude then frees us to be generous towards others, living our lives with open hearts and open hands, sharing with others out of our abundance, because we know that God is the source of our abundance.

Gratitude is more than a feeling – gratitude transforms us towards generosity.  And this is where I’ll put in a plug for our Thanksgiving / Giving Thanks gratitude activity. The details are on the insert in the bulletin, and will be appearing on Facebook in 10 minutes or so.  Each day for the next week, there is a gratitude prompt, a suggested donation, and a prayer, as we let our gratitude transform us towards generosity.

For God is a God of abundance, not just today, but God’s abundance will persist even when the leaves have all fallen and the pumpkin pies are just a memory.  God’s abundance will persist even when the river freezes and the gardens are hidden under a blanket of snow.  God’s abundance will persist when the leaves unfurl and seeds are sown.  Because God’s abundance is never confined to a weekend or a season but is for every season; and our gratitude is never confined to a weekend but is something that we can live 12 months of the year.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
(Don’t forget to save room for dessert!)
Photo:  K. Jones, Thanksgiving Dinner 2021

"Wait, What Did You Just Say?!?!" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 4 – Worldwide Communion Sunday
Scripture Reading:  Matthew 21:33-46

Some of you know that I have many favourite stories from scripture, so you may be surprised to hear that the passage we heard today is NOT one of them.  I really don’t like this story that Jesus is telling; and I especially don’t like reading it on Worldwide Communion Sunday.  How can we reconcile a story that is essentially kicking some of the workers out of the vineyard, alongside a table of abundance where there is a seat for everyone?  How do we reconcile a story where Jesus explicitly says, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you” with a feast where everyone is welcome at the table?

So it’s fair to say that I struggled with the scripture reading this week!  And I’m not sure that I came to any fully satisfactory conclusions either.

Last week, I mentioned that most of our readings from late September through to the end of November this year are going to be coming from the last week of Jesus’s life.  At this point in the story, it’s the day after Palm Sunday, and only 3 days before Jesus is going to be arrested, 4 days before he is going to be crucified.

Not only are tensions high because Jesus has been doing and saying some things that have challenged the authorities, but tensions are also high because the city of Jerusalem has probably 3 times as many people as usual due to the Passover celebration so streets are crowded, and Roman soldiers would have been especially alert to any sign of disturbance.

And Jesus doesn’t lay low either.  In the last week of his life, he confronts the religious authorities – they ask him questions to try and trip him up, and Jesus tells some very pointed parables – like the one we heard this morning – that aren’t designed to comfort his listeners but to make them uncomfortable.

But what do we make of that statement, “the kingdom of God will be taken from you”?  I will say that this verse has been interpreted in very harmful ways in the past, with people interpreting it as Jesus saying that Jewish people have been kicked out of God’s favour.  But since Jesus himself was Jewish, as was the author of the gospel, as were the first readers of the gospel, that is definitely not what Jesus was saying.

So what might he have meant?  I really struggle with this verse.

When I look back to the parable that precedes this statement, I asked myself, what did the workers in the vineyard do wrong?  They decided that they were in charge.  They weren’t going to honour the owner of the vineyard, and eventually they killed the child of the vineyard owner.

This parable follows immediately after the parable we read last week, and last week I mentioned that one of the keys to understanding Jesus’s parables is that you can usually equate whoever has power in the story with God.  So in this parable, God would be the owner of the vineyard.

So then the next question becomes, how, in the world outside of the parable, do we disrespect the owner of the vineyard, try to take over, and maybe even kill the messengers and children of the owner?

Those of you who don’t like it when I get lower-case-p political, this is your cue to tune out for the next couple of minutes.  But I think that we can see this across time and across space.  The actions of the workers in the vineyard is a pattern that we can see repeated again and again.  People with power try to interpret God’s message to suit their own ends; and people who speak truth to power, who try to point the way back to God, the owner of the vineyard, don’t usually meet a good end.

A historic example might come from Central America in the 80s – various countries were using the church and church teachings to oppress people who were poor, and Archbishop Romero was one of many liberation theologians who tried to turn the church and their country back to an understanding of God always being on the side of anyone who is poor and oppressed; and Archbishop Romero was one among many who were killed for bringing this message.

But I also see this happening in the world today.  The rise of Christian Nationalism in so many places around the world screams to me corrupt workers in the vineyard – people wanting power, taking God’s beautiful message and twisting it to favour themselves and people who think and believe like them.  And in some places, the parallels between Christian Nationalism and Jesus’s parable are even more striking, as God’s beloved children are detained, arrested, sent to detention centres, tortured, and even killed.

I really don’t like this parable that Jesus tells, but I have to admit that I see this parable playing out in the world around me.

But that brings us to Jesus’s concluding statement – the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people that produce the fruits of the kingdom.

Do I believe that God chooses to remove Their grace from someone?  No – that doesn’t fit with my understanding of a God who is endlessly and unconditionally loving and forgiving.  But do I think that there are some people who choose to remove themselves from God’s presence?  Maybe.  When we gather at the table in a couple of minutes, the invitation is an invitation to everyone – no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter how you pray, no matter who or how you love, no matter the language you speak or the colour of your skin, there is a place at the table for you and this invitation is for you.  And I wonder if there might be some people out there who wouldn’t be comfortable sitting at such a diverse and expansive table as this.  I wonder if there might be some people who would choose to remove themselves from the table rather than be asked to sit next to “that person,” whoever "that person" might be.

It’s still not an easy parable that Jesus tells, but I think that it is one that calls us to honour God and God’s vision for the world.  Don’t be like the workers in the vineyard, thinking that we have sole ownership over God’s message, bringing harm to God’s beloved children.  And there is always a place at the table for you.  Thanks be to God!

 

"Jesus in the Wine Press"
Used with Permission 

"Powerful and Empowering" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 27, 2026 – 18^th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture:  Matthew 21:23-32

Most of you know that I’ve gone back to school this year – don’t worry, it is a programme that is designed to be done while we continue to work full-time! – and I’ve started my next course which I’ll be taking online between now and December.  The course is called “Theology and Power” with a subtitle that talks about Political Theology, so I wasn’t surprised back at the beginning of the week when I read the story from the gospel of Matthew that we just heard, the thing that jumped out at me was the question from the chief priests and elders in the temple:  “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Because authority is really about power.  When you have authority, you have power; and when you have power, you have the ability to make things happen.

It’s a really interesting dynamic at play here, when you look at this story through the lens of power.  The people who are asking Jesus this question – the chief priests and elders in the temple in Jerusalem – are in a position where they have more authority than anyone else around.  They are the ones who get to decide what is OK and what isn’t for all of the Jewish people whether they live in Jerusalem or not.  They have the power to control the actions of all of the people as the people try to live their lives as faithfully as possible.  They also had the authority to determine who they would share their power with, who they would give power to.

But they don’t have ultimate authority, because the land, at that time, was part of the Roman Empire, and the emperor in Rome had the final say.  The emperor had set up a puppet king, in the person of Herod, and there was also a governor appointed to rule the land on behalf of the emperor – that would be Pontius Pilate.  And those chief priests and temple authorities – they knew that if they did anything to go against Rome, they wouldn’t just lose their authority, they would also lose their lives.

So in terms of power and authority, these chief priests and temple elders were walking a fine line of having and not having power.

And along comes Jesus.   They ask him, by what authority are you doing these things?  These things would refer to preaching to crowds of thousands of people, healing people who had been cast out from their communities, flipping over the tables of the currency exchangers in the temple, maybe they’d even heard about Jesus walking on water and calming the storm.

Here is someone who seems to have even more authority than the chief priests and temple leaders; someone with more power than them.  I imagine that they were worried at this point in time.  “What if Rome hears about this?  What will happen to us if we haven’t been able to get everyone to toe the line?”  Or maybe even, “do we have less power in the world now, because this itinerant preacher from the backwater of Galilee has more?”

And so they confront Jesus and ask him:  “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

I’ll also add a note here to say that this is going to be the dynamic for most of our readings between now and the end of November when we move into the season of Advent.  In the timeline of the gospel of Matthew, we are now in the last week of Jesus’s life.  This story comes almost right after Jesus entered Jerusalem in the parade that we remember every year on Palm Sunday.  Tensions are high.  The streets of Jerusalem are crowded, as is the temple, as people have come from around the known world to celebrate the festival of Passover.  Over the next couple of months, we’re going to be reading stories that are situated between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, and the tension of this setting spills into the stories that we will be reading.  Authorities are questioning Jesus; and Jesus tells some very pointed, provocative parables in response.

Getting back to that question of authority – we know what the answer is.  Jesus’s authority comes from God.  It is implied that his questioners also know the answer to their question, but they are reluctant to say so.  If they admit the truth, they will be admitting that they have less authority and power than they would like to have; but if they lie and say that his authority comes from humans, the crowds are likely to react in a negative way.

The ironic thing is, that their power comes from God as well.  If we understand God to be the Creator and Source of All, then God is the source of all power.  One of those challenging theological questions is, if God is good, and if God is powerful, then why do so many awful things happen in the world.  One way that you can answer this question is that it is because God chooses to share Their power.  God doesn’t hoard power, micromanaging everything that happens on earth, but God empowers us, even though we are merely human.  That whole thing about free will and all.

So the chief priests and temple leaders only have authority and power because God shared it with them.  We might go one step further and say that the emperor off in Rome, only had power because God gave him power; and even though the emperor might think that Herod and Pilate had power because he, the emperor, chose to give them power, God is ultimately the source of all power and authority.

Which brings us to you and to me.  We’re not Jesus.  We’re not the Roman emperor.  We’re not even the chief priests and temple authorities.  We’re just us.  What gives us any authority at all to talk about God, and to act on behalf of God in the world?

I know that this is a question that I have wrestled with – for 13 years now since I began discerning a call to ministry; for 15 years since I began the Licenced Lay Worship Leader course; for 21 years since I was first invited to preach.  That day, 21 years ago, when I was first invited to preach, my immediate reaction was to blurt out “No!  I don’t have any training or authority to preach or teach about God!”  And a little bit of that sense still remains.  When I or anyone else steps into the pulpit, we are handling holy things, things of God, and what right do any of us, as mere mortals, have to speak of or handle the holy?

But then I remember that all of us do have that authority because we are beloved children of God.  God empowers all of Their children to speak of God and of God’s love.  God empowers us to share in the bread and wine of communion and the waters of baptism because we are all God’s beloved children.  God loves you, and God wants to you feel empowered to share this love with the world.

And if we try to pretend that we don’t have this authority… well, later in November we are going to be reading the parable of the Talents, and when one of the slaves hid his talent in a hole in the ground and refused to make use of it… let me just say that things didn’t end too well for him.

But we do have authority, and we need to decide how we are going to use our power.  And the answer, at least for me, comes down to love.  God empowers us to love the world and God wants us to share the message of that amazing love with the world.  You’ve probably heard me say it before, but let me say it again:  God loves you more deeply than you could ever know or even imagine; and God is equipping and empowering you to love the world!  Thanks be to God.

 

 "Empowerment Sculpture - Lincoln, UK"
Used with Permission

"God Isn't Fair" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 20, 2026 – 17^th Sunday After Pentecost
Scripture Readings:  Jonah 3:10-4:11, Matthew 20:1-16

I have two sisters, which means that growing up, I developed a very strong sense of fairness.  One of my favourite stories to tell is that my mother would occasionally bring home cinnamon buns as a treat for us to share.  Whoever divided the cinnamon buns got the last pick of her share, so you’d better believe me that you were very careful to make it fair if you were the one dividing them up.  Rulers were usually involved!  Each of us would get precisely and mathematically one third.

And so reading the story that Jesus told today through the lens of fairness, I’m quick to join the chorus of the workers who had been working out in the sun all day:  “That’s not fair!”  And I can almost hear the voice of my father in the voice of Jesus or the voice of the landowner in the parable, “Well, life’s not fair.”

If you, like me, have a keen sense of fairness, then this parable of Jesus probably rubs you the wrong way.  Surely the workers who worked out in the heat of the day for a full 12-hour shift should receive 12 times the salary as the workers who only came along and worked for the last hour, as the sun was almost setting.

And when I realize that I’m reading the parable this way, I realize how deeply a capitalist mindset has me entrapped.  Maybe it is capitalism, and not fairness, that says that hard work is rewarded, and the workers who were willing to work 12 hours should, of course, be ahead in life, compared with the workers who only worked a single hour.  And the owner of the land who hired the workers – why he must have worked extra hard to be in the position that he’s in now.

But that capitalist mindset misses so much of the nuance, and I wonder if maybe that is what Jesus is trying to point out to us.  I rather suspect that the landowner didn’t work extra hard in order to be able to afford so much land, and in order to be able to pay so many people to work for him.  I rather suspect that he inherited the land from his father, who inherited the land from his father, who inherited the land from his father, and so on.

And what about the question of why some workers still hadn’t been hired at 5pm while others had been working since sunrise?  Capitalism might tell us that they must be lazy, they must have still been sleeping while the go-getters were already out in the marketplace looking for work.  But what if those 5pm hires had been overlooked earlier in the day because they have a disability?  Or what if they had been overlooked because they were immigrants?  Or what if they had been overlooked because they were queer, because they were trans, because their family led an untraditional lifestyle?

The thing about the salary that was negotiated – a denarius – is that it is enough to live on – enough to buy your daily bread – but it isn’t enough to be able to save any for a rainy day.  Those workers who weren’t hired at sunrise, they were probably starting to worry about what was going to happen if they didn’t work that day.  And when they were hired part-way through the day, they probably assumed that they were going to receive a partial salary and were trying to figure out how they were going to make the budget work – maybe pay the rent to keep a roof over their family’s head, but the children were going to have to go to be hungry again tonight.

But doesn’t every human being deserve the dignity of a roof overhead and food in their belly?  The landowner recognizes this, and pays every worker, whether they had worked a full day or only the last hour, enough to keep the wolves at bay for another day.  And to me, this is a deeper level of fairness.  This is a fairness that says “not what you have earned, but what you need.”

Now it could be, as Jesus told this parable, that he was making a commentary on the economic practices of his time and place… and maybe our time and place too, where so many people don’t have enough to get from one day to the next.  And that is probably part of Jesus's message.  But the thing about parables is that they are never just simple stories.  And when Jesus tells parables, he is usually trying to teach us something about God, and about God’s kingdom.

One good rule of thumb for interpreting Jesus’s parables is that you can usually look for the person in the story who has the most power, and with that person, Jesus is trying to depict God.  And in this parable, the person with the power is the landowner.  And Jesus is trying to paint us a picture of a God who is not fair, but who is generous far beyond fairness.  We don’t need to work to earn God’s love, we don’t have to earn God’s grace – it is given to us freely as we need it.

I think that this connection is made even more clear in the story from Jonah, and I love how cleverly the lectionary pairs these two stories together.  This happens after the famous part of Jonah’s story.  Most people associate Jonah with the whale, but you might remember that Jonah ended up in the belly of the whale because he was running away from God, because God had told him that he was to go to the city of Nineveh and tell the people to change their hearts and lives and turn back to God.  And Jonah was so convinced of the utter depravity of the people of Nineveh that he was afraid to go there, so he ran away.  After escaping the whale, he realized that he was going to have to go there after all, and he reluctantly carried God’s message to the people of Nineveh.  And to his surprise, the people listened and turned back to God.  And to his even greater surprise, God forgave the people of Nineveh for their evil ways.  And today, we get the end of Jonah’s story, where he essentially throws a temper tantrum over God’s generosity, God’s grace, and God’s love.

The thing about God’s grace is that if we accept that God loves everybody, that everybody also includes people that we might, in our heart of hearts, wish were outside of God’s grace.  We’re not going to name names here, but I rather suspect that most of us carry a couple of names in our heart about whom we think:  “Surely God can’t forgive that person.”  But God’s love is for everyone.

If we approach the parable that Jesus tells from the perspective of the workers hired in the morning, we might start to think that God loves us especially, 12 times as much as those people over there.  But if we approach the parable from the perspective of the workers who were only hired at the very end of the day, our response is more likely one of awe at a God who could be so generous and gracious as to love us too.

For God loves you – as I often say, God loves you more deeply than you could ever know or even imagine.

(At Westfield United Church, at this point in the sermon I went off-script and added the following.)

Some of you may have seen the post I made in our Westfield United Facebook group this week, telling you about a church in Hamilton that voted last Sunday to become Affirming, and the post that they made went viral in all the wrong ways.  They have received literally thousands of hateful comments.  And in my post, I invited you to go and share some love and encouragement with them, and I know that some of you did.

I also left them two comments – one under my own account, and one as Two Rivers Pastoral Charge.  And this morning as I was waiting for the ferry – it was a very long wait this morning – I opened up Facebook on my phone and saw that my Two Rivers Pastoral Charge comment had received some replies.  I had written:  “Congratulations on taking this step! God's love is limitless, unconditional, and for EVERYONE!” followed by a row of rainbow hearts; and someone literally commented underneath:  “God’s love is 100% conditional.”

What?!?!  That’s not the God that I know.  That’s not what Jesus is telling us in this parable.  God’s love and God’s grace does not depend on anything that we do or don’t do.  We don’t need to earn God’s love.

(Back to the regularly scheduled sermon.)

To quote author Phillip Yancy, “Grace means that nothing could ever make God love you more; and grace means that nothing could ever make God love you less.”

You don’t need to work 12 hours out in the blazing sun to earn God’s love.  God already loves you!  You are God’s precious child… and so is everyone else.   Thanks be to God!

 

Image:  The Late-Arriving Workers (JESUS MAFA)
Used with permission.

"Dream Dreams that are Bigger" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 13, 2026 – Church Picnic
Scripture Reading:  John 14:12-16, 25-31
Dr. Seuss Connection:  Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

This year, we are having a Seussian Summer – each week during the Story for All Ages, we will be reading a different Dr. Seuss book, then pairing it with scripture to see what wisdom we might find within its pages.

 

The book, Oh! The Places You’ll Go! is often given as a gift to graduating students – especially to students who are graduating from high school or from university as they prepare for their next major step in life.  It is a book that offers both deep encouragement – you’ll get there, I know that you will! – as well as a dose of reality – it isn’t going to be easy, every step of the way.

It is a great book to read at the transition points in life – transitioning from high school to college or university, or transitioning from higher education to proper grown-up life.

And this point in time, our September church picnic, is a bit of a mini-transition point in the life of our church.  The summer is always a more relaxed pace around the church, a bit of a sabbath time for many of our groups and committees.  But September is when we tend to jump back in with both feet, jumping back into the business of being the church.  Even though the new year won’t begin on the calendar until January, and even though the new year won’t begin in the church calendar until Advent, the beginning of September always feels like a new year, a fresh start, a new beginning.  So this is a transition point for us as the church, as well as for all of the students and new graduates out there.

And I think that much of the wisdom of this book holds true for us too.  Oh!  The places we could go, as the church!  Oh!  The things that we could do as the church!  We are only limited by our ability to imagine, our ability to dream, our ability to say “yes” to wherever the Holy Spirit is leading us.

What might us back from this?  Maybe sometimes it is fear – fear of something new, or fear of the work that it might take us to get there. Dr. Seuss points out to us that the path isn’t always easy.

Maybe sometimes it is nostalgia for the way that things were.  But the thing about the past is that it has passed.  We can’t go back to the way that things were, but if we get trapped in cycles of longing to recreate the past, then we’ll never get to experience the beautiful future.

And I thought that Dr. Seuss had another very insightful moment in the book, when our character gets stuck in the waiting room – waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone else to do something, waiting for… anything.  But if we, as the church, are only ever waiting for something to happen, rather than reaching out and grasping our future with both hands, then nothing will ever happen.

But I deeply believe, with every fibre of our being, that God isn’t done with us yet, that God has a future for us, and that this future is going to be new and beautiful and exciting.  Oh! The places we’ll go as we dance with the Spirit.

For the Holy Spirit is our dance partner all the way!  We aren’t on this journey alone.  The scripture passage that Rose read for us today comes from the very end of Jesus’s life – we’re in Maundy Thursday at this point, and after Jesus finishes talking to his disciples, they are going to go out to the garden and Jesus is going to be arrested.

But even on his last night alive, Jesus promises his disciples that he isn’t going to leave them alone.  They are going to have an Advocate, a helper, the Holy Spirit.  And through the Holy Spirit, the church is going to be able to do far more than Jesus, just one person, could do in his short life.

Dear Church, you can do this!
I know that it’s true!
The Spirit is with you
in all that you do!
Dream dreams that are bigger
than ever before;
Imagine a future,
and then dream some more!
Oh! the places you’ll go!
Oh! the things you will do!
The Spirit is with you,
She makes all things new!
Let’s dance with the Spirit;
our future – embrace;
leap in with all gladness;
our fears – let’s erase.
Dear Church – you can do this!
It’s plain, and it’s clear!
God’s love, it will guide us,
for God’s always near.

"We Speak for (And Care For) the Trees" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 6, 2026 – Feast of Creation
Scripture Readings:  Psalm 104:10-25 and Revelation 21:1-5
Dr. Seuss Connection:  The Lorax

This year, we are having a Seussian Summer – each week during the Story for All Ages, we will be reading a different Dr. Seuss book, then paring it with scripture to see what wisdom we might find within its pages.

 

This summer, there have been some weeks when I have acknowledged that the Dr. Seuss book we were reading was new to me – that it hadn’t been part of my childhood repertoire.  But that’s not the case with The Lorax.  This book was very much a part of my growing up.

In fact, this book was one of the major influences in my youngest sister choosing to become an environmental engineer – she now spends her professional life speaking for the trees, and for the animals, and for the birds, as she coordinates the clean-ups that are required when corporations make a mess.

When I messaged her earlier this week to confirm that my memory was correct, and that The Lorax had been one of her major influences, she replied with a quote that has followed her through the decades:

“UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”

In planning out the summer, I chose to read The Lorax today, on the first Sunday in September, because earlier this year the Consultation on the Common Text, the international and ecumenical body that is in charge of the lectionary readings that we follow through most of the year, they named the Sunday on or following September 1 as the Feast of Creation, sometimes called the Festival of Creation in Christ.

This didn’t happen overnight.  The Feast of Creation is a day that has been recognized by the Eastern Orthodox church since the 8^th Century, and the Orthodox leaders have been advocating for other churches and denominations to recognize the day since 1989.  The first Sunday in September, 2026, comes at the end of decades of advocacy.

When we celebrate creation, we are worshipping the God who created everything that we can see and everything we cannot see.  We celebrate the ways that creation can reveal the image of the Creator.  The diversity of the Truffula trees and Bar-ba-loots and Swomee-Swans, and Humming Fish reveal to us a Creator who is endlessly creative and imaginative, and who celebrates diversity.  The immensity of mountains reveals a Creator who is bigger than we can imagine.  The fury of a thunderstorm or a good nor’easter reveals a Creator who is more powerful than we sometimes like to think about.  The hardness of rocks reveals strength; the busyness of an ant colony reveals continual activity; the flow of the river reveals cleansing; the abundance of trees and plants reveals a living God, who lives again after every winter.

There is so much that creation can reveal to us about the Creator of All, and yet the message of the bible and the message of the Lorax doesn’t end there.  Both the bible and the Lorax call all of us to tend to creation and care for creation.  If we lose the riotous diversity of Creation, then our image of the Creator will lessen.

But more than that, if we harm creation, then we are harming our relationship with the Creator.  If we say that we can cut down all the trees and build a factory to make Thneeds (because why else were the trees placed there if not to make Thneeds) then what are we saying about the Creator of those trees?

It is a difficult conundrum to be in, because we know that we are not able to tread the earth so lightly so as not to cause any harm at all to other parts of creation.  We are trapped in systems that exploit creation for human benefit, and we can see how the earth is groaning under the pressure.  We humans – and I’m speaking about humans on a global scale – we urgently need to find our place within the interconnected community of creation, and find a way to be in true community with the rest of creation.  Because I honestly don’t know how much longer our planet will tolerate the current stress.

But we aren’t left without hope.  There is always hope.  Both the Lorax and the bible offer us hope.

We heard part of Psalm 104 this morning – a psalm that celebrates the goodness of God’s creation and the goodness of God the Creator of All.  But we also read from almost the very end of the bible, from the end of the book of Revelation.  And God promises to renew the earth and the heavens.  Even when we humans mess up so badly that it seems beyond repair, nothing is beyond God’s ability to restore.  The resurrection of Jesus at Easter is just a foreshadowing of the resurrection that is part of God’s very nature.

And The Lorax also holds the promise of resurrection.  Even when all of the trees are gone and the animals and birds and fish have abandoned the place, and the landscape looks more like a wasteland than anything else, there is still hope.  A Truffula seed remains, and with people willing to tend and care for it, a Truffula forest can return, and provide a home for all of the creatures.

For God is Creator
         Creator of all!
God’s heart will be broken
         to hear a tree fall.
But we are God’s people,
         who care for the earth,
we will tend and keep it
         and nurture re-birth.
For we can be people
         who care a whole lot,
and things WILL get better,
         it’s NOT a long shot!
God’s Spirit will guide us,
         and show us the way,
to be God’s good stewards.
All this, we do pray.
Amen.