Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost—October 18, 2026

Prayer of the Day
Sovereign God, raise your throne in our hearts. Created by you, let us live in your image; created for you, let us act for your glory; redeemed by you, let us give you what is yours, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22
15 The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.

“Towards a sermon—commentary and reflections” Matthew is clear what the debate is not about. Also what it is about. Two factions, (the pro-government-when it suits us Herodians and the anti-empire-make deals to keep-the wolves- at bay Pharisees)usually at odds find common cause conspiring to publicly discredit Jesus by setting up a double bind, designed to trap him in his own words. Spoiler, the critics shuffle away, nonplussed because Jesus not only ‘threads the needle’ he reframes the entire conversation.

Flipping the ‘presenting question’ brings us closer to the core issues Jesus wants to talk about. Is it legal to NOT pay taxes? Mind you, an empire that never takes no for an answer wouldn’t take lightly any delinquency on paying taxes and tribute.

In effect, Jesus asks his interlocutors, “What’s in your wallet?”. The denarius coin bears the emperor’s likeness and his title. For the religiously inclined whose tradition forbids graven images and titles ascribing god-qualities to a conquering emperor, having Roman coins jingling in the change purse might create a tad of dissonance.

How long do you suppose Jesus paused while his critics inspected the coins they carried before he asked them to describe the denarius? In the same position, we might let the moment soak in a bit, right?

“So it’s Caesar’s likeness and title on this coin you carry?” The coin represents more than the metal from which its forged. To one degree or another, the coin’s message is that the empire owns its subjects.

Our own money buys us our daily food and shelter…money is like the passport that helps us participate in society. The currency we hold affords a bit of freedom; at least freedom to make some little choices like selecting Kraft Dinner over the generic store brand. If you have enough toonies to rub together you get to choose the neighbourhood you live in, the vehicle you drive, and in some cases to elect to have medical care overseas because of the lack of availability here.

Tempted as we might be to throw popcorn at Jesus’ opponents and to boo from the cheap seats, we might want to check our wallets and our gut at the same time…. Carrying the Roman coin, whether or not you like the empire is how you survive. Distasteful as the regime is, we can’t escape getting some of its stink on us. In short, you gotta pay to play.

Paying to play means we more or less accept the legitimacy of those who’ve set up the game. Our participation plunges us into some deeper questions like legality versus moral legitimacy. In some places slavery is legal. Racial Segregation, Sharia law, honour killings, public executions, and toting around your private arsenal of assault weapons is legal in places too. Pretty sure most of us would say any of these government sanctioned activities is morally bankrupt.

‘What’s in the wallet’ brings uncomfortable questions—to what degree do we participate in the empire and still keep our own moral integrity and live the tenets of our faith? How are we complicit with the empire because we go along to get along? How often do we comply because resisting bears too high a price tag?

Matthew’s community, like Jesus’ disciples and critics, had to wrestle with these questions. Jesus words about rendering to Caesar aren’t just a ploy. Nor does Jesus say that the emperor gets his cut and Jesus takes his—even Steven.

We don’t get off scot-free either. Maybe it’s good for trade that the waters near the arctic are becoming more navigable as ice melts. At what cost to the planet? Maybe the price of fossil fuel will decrease again. How does creation pay the tab? When resources dry up, how does that affect those who are already barely getting by?

What is the rendering to Caesar all about then? Maybe its the recognition that we’re in the world, but we don’t have to be of it, as Jesus says. Rendering to God means that the empire doesn’t get to dictate the tune we dance to in our moral, religious and ethical lives. God does. And Jesus spells out the tune and tempo where those who mourn are comforted, those who show mercy find mercy, those who wage peace are dubbed God’s children. Jesus’ final parable, which we will consider in a month or so also drives home the point that how we care for the ‘least of these’ reflects how we as community buy into to all Jesus is about.

How do Jesus’ mandates to love inform how we live in a day to day world where Caesar mints the coins and calls the shots? Maybe the Herodians and the Pharisees have something to teach us—we can take a minute on a regular basis and look at the denarius coin (or its equivalent) and reflect on who we are and whose we are.

bsc October 2026

**SPECIAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING – SUNDAY,OCTOBER 25th (after the service) FURTHER DETAILS IN THIS WEEK’S WORSHIP GUIDE**

Attendance this date -> 13 Last year -> 23

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Gospel and Sermon Transcript

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Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost-October 11 Thanksgiving Day October 12

Prayer of the Day
Almighty God our Father, your generous goodness comes to us new every day. By the work of your Spirit lead us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Commentary:
Professor Eric Barreto from Princeton University warns us about breezing through Gospel readings thinking we know them by saying, “If Jesus’ words never strike me as strange, if Jesus words never cause me a sense of unrest, if Jesus words never trouble me, then I can be sure of one thing: I can be sure I am missing something important”.(He often says this and it appears in material from Working Preacher, from Luther Seminary in Minnesota).

Why does Jesus call out people who just did what he told them to do: show themselves to the priests so they can be reintegrated into community? Why does Luke (and also Jesus) make a big deal that the one who does praise God is a Samaritan—a foreigner. And finally what is significant about the illness affecting these ten people living on the margins between Samaria and Galilee?

Outsiders: We might get purchase on two of our questions by reviewing ancient protocols for quarantine for people with skin diseases. These customs and protocols are recorded in the books of Leviticus and Numbers in the Hebrew scriptures (The Old Testament). The next item of information is a bit grisly, so beware….many skin diseases literally were decomposition leaving people to look like they were dead or dying (zombie films might come to mind). It’s as if “death comes calling”. Strict rules and laws surrounded the way dead creatures were to be handled.

To avoid contagion, those with such necrotic (tissue dying) diseases were quarantined and required to tear their clothes, and wear their hair loose (for women this would be particularly troubling given social customs about hair being worn gathered and covered). Should any unaffected person approach, those with infections were required to call out “unclean! unclean!” An ‘insider’ becomes an outcast for as long as the physical disease persists.

Even following recovery, those who had been infected were to have a priest inspect wounds and skin. Then a 7 day probationary period began so sufferers would be monitored for a relapse. Therefore, becoming an insider again might be a tenuous proposition. Given these long standing customs then….

Jesus approaches ten people with infection, isolated from family and community and suffering physically and emotionally— and looking like ‘death warmed over’. The legal and acceptable thing to do would be to avoid these ten people “like the plague”. Jesus “goes there” and the scandal begins!

And one of them was a Samaritan! The enmity between the Jewish people and Samaritans was centuries old. Alarming that a “foreigner”, a Samaritan would languish among his sworn enemies and now fellow sufferers.

Jesus heals ten people without discriminating between ethnic origins. Why would Jesus make a point then of saying the one who returned to praise God was a foreigner?

Being from literally another place is to be dis-placed. Perhaps this person is even more isolated than the other nine because he lacks extended family or a home to which he hopes to return. The “foreigner” suffering a skin disease is about as outside as an outsider can get. Once healed his response causes Jesus to remark about its oddity.

Luke makes a point of lifting up the times Samaritans flout the norms of society and wind up upholding higher values. For instance, Dr. Barreto notes in an article from Working Preacher that when the Samaritan helps someone who had been mugged the victim faces a fate in which a familiar enemy might well be the rescuer. Here the Samaritan returns not to say thanks, but to praise God. Sociologists Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh note that in peasant culture social equals didn’t thank each other. Instead they repaid in kind somehow. So for nine people, not saying thank you to Jesus is standard practice. So is going to show themselves to the priests for re-integration into community, For most, this would be a satisfying end to the story.

But that Samaritan….who doesn’t have a priest to inspect his skin or readmit him to community does something scandalous and very public. He acknowledges that there is no way he could EVER repay the gift he’s received. He returns to Jesus and loudly praises God who in many respects gives him back his life! The Samaritan’s public giving thanks to God also signifies that he has everything he needs now to put his life back together.

Things to ponder:

about disconnection In what ways might you identify with any of the ten people Jesus heals? What times in your life have you felt especially ‘cut off’ or displaced? Where did you experience connection when we all were isolated and quarantined when the COVID virus was most virulent and contagious?

At what point during the Covid crisis did you feel safe enough to begin reconnecting with people and resuming accustomed routines?

about belonging In what ways might you particularly identify with the Samaritan? Have you ever been the “foreigner”—not from here or totally belonging? What did that experience teach you?

about gifts large and small What gifts do you recognize as ones you would never be able to repay? Communities gather to praise God. What does such gathering mean in terms of God’s bringing life where there was death?

Where do I fit? Where do we go from here?

When you’re unsure how to contribute, or your congregation keeps circling the same questions about its future, Mapping the Sacred offers a way to discern a meaningful next step.

For you, it helps you recognise what gives you life and how your gifts can contribute.

For your community, it helps people listen together, discern a shared direction and focus their energy.

You don’t need identical spiritual Paths to move forward together.

Join us Saturday, October 24 for the Niagara Area Gathering. Explore your own spirituality, participate in communal discernment and identify possibilities to bring back to your congregation.

🧭Place: Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church
31 Agar Dr. St. Catharines, ON L2M 7X5
(905) 934-2434
📅 Date: Saturday, October 24 (Please RSVP by Sunday, October 18th)
🕙 Time: 10:00–3:00
💝 Cost: Freewill offering

Rev. Dr. Kevin G. Powel

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost October 4, 2026

Commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi Season of Creation ends

Prayer of the Day
Beloved God, from you come all things that are good. Lead us by the inspiration of your Spirit to know those things that are right, and by your merciful guidance, help us to do them, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46
[Jesus said:] 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37 Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

As Sunday approaches….

Sometimes preparing a sermon reminds me of looking at the rings of a tree and this week is certainly such an occasion. The outer ring: Jesus is in mid-dispute with religious leadership over questions of authority and also because of his critique that there is some mis-use and abuse within his religious tradition. I emphasize (as does the Gospel of Matthew) that Jesus’ intention is to fulfill the core of his faith tradition not do away with it. The story Jesus tells contains a nearly verbatim quote from the prophet Isaiah, a word picture that gives us a sense of how Jesus goes about integrating the traditions of his faith with his mission and purpose in his earthly life. The parable’s grisly end foreshadow’s Jesus’ fate.

The next rings inward: For the community receiving Matthew’s Gospel (some forty years after Jesus lived, died, rose again and ascended to heaven) questions of ‘bearing fruit’ in a time when their Temple was destroyed and the community fragmented was a vital question of the day; far from speculative or theoretical. Proclaiming Jesus risen and ascended is to say that as bad as the thieving and plundering are, they can’t eradicate Jesus’ love or God’s love.

Today’s connection to the commemoration of St. Francis and the conclusion of the Season of Creation (observed in the ELCIC, and the Anglican Church in Canada)

Preacher and teacher of preachers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Sharp of Yale Divinity school points to poignant contrast in the parable between the vineyard owner who lovingly plants and tends and protects the vineyard and those who plunder it. I think it’s no stretch to liken the parable’s vineyard to creation itself. How God lovingly creates and some people (and regimes) plunder and kill! The examples of plunder might well lead to pointing out that the planet is made sick from pollution and exploitation.

The vineyard might be a word picture of the kingdom of God as well—the Beatitudes and the sermon on the Mount followed by parable after parable open our imagination to the sort of world and existence God desires for us.

The prayer of St. Francis uses creation imagery too—and I detect a subversive tone to the prayer with lines such as “Where there is hate, we sow love”. Remember the parable where an enemy sneaks into a field to plant weeds. St. Francis upends the parable (for me anyway) by composing a prayer in which seeds of peace, reconciliation, and love are planted in fields that have been plundered. A quote often attributed to St. Francis is, “Always preach the Gospel. If necessary use words.”. So our action of planting might be words or it might be acts of kindness or even courage.

Transcript of Gospel and Message

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Attendance this date -> 21   –  Last year -> 16

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Transcript of Gospel and Sermon

Worship Guide

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST September 20, 2026

Prayer of the Day
Almighty and eternal God, you show perpetual lovingkindness to us your servants. Because we cannot rely on our own abilities, grant us your merciful judgment, and train us to embody the generosity of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“Good stuff that doesn’t always find its way into a sermon”

Recently we’ve been offering some reflections or insights that are helpful yet not always connected to “where the sermon is going” on a particular week. Today’s parable of the householder contains nuggets that might not get smelted into the homily yet are good to pay attention to. What’s life in God’s commonwealth (kingdom) like? We start with day labourers. Social science experts point to the system of honour and shame as having a feature where people are approached and asked to work rather than someone of “lower station” approaching someone in a higher social class to ask for work (Malina and Rohrbaugh Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels: 2003 Fortress Press, Minneapolis).

Day labourers were people without land, or homes with extended families. Day labourers were at the bottom of the social ladder. Now consider those day labourers who wait all day to be recruited to work—lower than low! It’s important to note here that there’s no evidence the eleventh hour workers are lazy—but for some reason they aren’t the first chosen—age? disability? not from ‘around here’? unskilled? The crux of the parable is how the householder treats the labourers. Social norms are adhered to when the householder approaches groups of people and they agree on terms for the workday. Seems fair.

The scandal of the parable comes when EVERYBODY gets equal treatment at the end of the day regardless of when they were recruited and how long they worked. Even day labourers know the system has tilted in some weird way. I think a fruitful spot to dwell and preach upon is that the realm of God puts everyone on equal footing—all are created in God’s image and are worthy of dignity and deserve a share of God’s abundance to meet their daily needs. For me, “heaven on earth” would be such provision for everyone without the grumbling from those who think they deserve better or more than their neighbour.

The householder asks those grumbling (the word choice is intentional and harks to Israel’s children wandering in the desert, grumbling when water or food aren’t plentiful) if “their eye is evil” because of his generosity.

The evil eye… Many cultures recognize the human gaze as potentially greedy— they eye as a window to the soul evidently takes in the world as much as it expresses one’s state of being. So ogling over shiny objects leads to desire and if the evil eye has its way, we scheme to take what is not ours and keep it for ourselves. Entire social and theological points of view are built around the idea that human suffering comes from the greed and scheming we do to get what others have (a google search of Girardism and memetic theory will lead to a lifetime of reading).

Pitfalls in interpreting the parable: Way back, preachers and teachers used to tell us the rich tend to “spiritualize the material in life” and the poor tend to “materialize the spiritual in life”. It’s not simple as that, really but for us to regard the parable as an allegory or as only a metaphor for God’s goodness leads to ignoring those who hunger and lack what they need for daily living.

Further down the path of misinterpretation is actual heresy (false teaching)—Some preachers even now have somehow gotten it into their noggins that Jesus came to replace Judaism with another religion or church. Wrong. Jesus did say he came to bring abundant life and his teaching is often a corrective designed to bring love and humanity back into religion (which we humans often turn into some form of self justification and control over others). The misinterpretation also seems to define the kingdom of God in ways outside of Jesus’ parables or sermons.

Things I’m thinking about Squeamishness and some snarky rhetoric pops up whenever we talk about reparations for people harmed or about housing for everyone. The political landscape is charged with such emotion about how resources are to be distributed. Some would say less fortunate folk are just looking for a handout. Others (I among them if you’re wondering) find the inequitable distribution of the world’s resources more problematic. Even now as artificial intelligence becomes prominent how many are asking questions beyond its inherent benefits or flaws; questions like who ‘gets’ to control and decide how this new technology will be allocated and used and for whose long term benefit? I think the parable gives us a glimpse into the common good (and our frequent impulse to object to it when ‘the last become first’).

The Worship Guide