St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada

Sunday attendance today ->16 – last year ->24

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Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 21, 2025

Prayer of the Day
God among us, we gather in the name of your Son to learn love for one another. Keep our feet from evil paths. Turn our minds to your wisdom and our hearts to the grace revealed in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Luke 16:1-13
1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 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. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 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.

10 “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. 11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 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.”

Reflections— Once upon a time there was a loan shark whose enforcer started skimming from his boss. He gets caught. Gets sacked. Vinnie’s a quick thinker, see so he goes to the debtors and doesn’t let on he’s been sacked, see. Vinnie decides he needs these people, so he makes like his boss sent him with an attractive lower interest offer on their debts. Badda-bing, badda boom, it works! It works so good that the even loan shark is impressed. Not that Vinnie gets his job back…..

That little story is in essence the one Jesus tells….In Moses’ day and in Jesus’ day there were cultural and religious objections to charging interest; especially to poorer people. These folk knew the stories about rigged games like the one the prophet Amos railed on about some 800 years before Jesus tells the loan shark story. They likely had personal history in which so-called rent capitalism a scheme that reduced indebted small time farmers to sharecroppers and eventually to slaves working their own land to pay off unpayable debts.

Remember who’s telling the story here and bear in mind we’re hearing it in Luke’s Gospel; you know the one where Jesus’ mother sings about tyrants being toppled and the poor receiving good things while the rich are sent away empty? You know Mary’s boy telling people to stop building bigger barns and to sell their baubles and toys and give the proceeds to the poor? Sometimes people of faith take the hint.

Once upon a time, a church in the U.S. (it turns out that multiple churches did this) got fed up with payday loan companies charging their neighbours 400 percent interest. Know what the church did? They raised money and paid off the pay day lenders to stop the interest racking up and to give folk a fresh start. Guess what? The payday loan companies didn’t like it because even though repayment money came in, money that ultra compounded interest money didn’t anymore.

It should bother us that the nice cashier at Walmart makes about 29,000 US while their CEP took home 27.4 million. Journalist Julia Conley does the math for us that’s a 930 to one gap! The barista at Starbucks needs to work for 6,000 years to earn the same pay their CEO took home in 2024.

Again the church weighs in….Pope Leo writes in the Catholic outlet Crux that “CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving… it’s [now] 600 times more than the average workers are receiving,”

“Yesterday, the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world: What does that mean and what’s that about?” he added. “If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.” Pope Leo must have heard Jesus say we can’t serve God and the money scheme at the same time. Thank God some are listening!

Sunday attendance ->13 – last year ->14

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Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost September  14, 2025

Prayer  of the Day

O God, overflowing with mercy and compassion, you lead back to yourself all those who go astray. Preserve your people in your loving care, that we may reject whatever is contrary to you and may follow all things that sustain our life in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

The Gospel – Luke:15:1-10

1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Reflections: The grumbling is justified. Jesus publicly befriends people who have colluded with the empire that has occupied their homeland. Jesus invites sinners to dinner— sinners might mean about anything from being a misfit to someone who has brought shame to the community somehow. In light of this week’s troubling news about white nationalists demonstrating at the Brock Monument, one might wonder if Jesus would invite them to dinner too. What about people who believe that the US Civil rights act was a mistake and that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a bad person? What about the man arrested for gunning down Charlie Kirk….who not incidentally publicly declared his opposition to civil rights for people of colour and who spoke ill of Dr. King.

It’s hard to believe that Jesus was naive in his actions or even in the stories he tells to defend them…Parables, after all are meant to trip us up—Fun fact the world scandal comes from an older word than means something that trips us up.

Sometimes God’s mercy is scandalous. We might be happy for the woman who turns the house upside down to find a lost coin. Does she turn around and spend the coin for the party she throws to celebrate the finding if it? Who would actually abandon 99 sheep to their own devices and toddle off to search for one that went AWOL?

The coin nor the sheep get lost on purpose. They don’t come to their senses and try to find their way back either.

The heart of these stories is in the joy of finding—and true to Luke’s Gospel, the stories end with a party. God’s perspective over the lost being found is joyous and maybe in the abstract we think we’re rejoicing too.

One of my classmates used to say the kingdom of God is like a party—Yeah, Dave, but sometimes I have trouble with the guest list. Sometimes I’m like Jonah who objects to God’s mercy toward those who have caused harm. Sometimes, I scratch my head at the prophet Hosea who keeps taking back his unfaithful spouse. Thepsalmist says “surely Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”. How nice for the psalmist or for you and me maybe. But what about God’s goodness and mercy when it pursues the tax collector, and the sinner (however you define it). As the preacher and teacher Fred Craddock used to say, sometimes God’s mercy looks a lot like condoning when you view it from a distance. If repentance is about a totally revamped perspective and a way of life to go with it, maybe God would rejoice when grumblers like me finally come around.

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Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 7, 2025

Prayer of the Day
Direct us, O Lord God, in all our doings with your continual help, that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name; and finally, by your mercy, bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
25 Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Reflections: There’s a preacher known for addressing tough topics in his sermons by saying “if you can’t say ‘amen’, say ‘ouch’. Today is an “ouch day”.

The great paradox at play requires us to take Jesus’ words with utmost seriousness without taking these particular words literally. Plenty of churches justify their true hate, violence and oppression in religious garb and language. Such folk are happy to take a passage like this one literally—and to lose its meaning in the process.

Let’s clear the decks with four sweeping motions to separate what Jesus is and isn’t saying:
First: Jesus’ whole life was resistance against ‘hate’. Remember his instruction to love our enemies?
Second: Jesus isn’t calling us to reject family. Remember his last words as he was tortured to death? He asks John his disciple and Mary his mother to look after each other as family.
Third: A word Jesus uses that means “to regard less” or to relegate. The word “misteu-ow” was mistranslated into the word “hate”.
Fourth: The major arc of Luke’s Gospel traces Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and into the hands of a coalition of imperial and religious authorities who want to end him. As the crowds are captivated by their ideal of him and by their hopes of all he will do for them, Jesus speaks forcefully about who he is and what he’s about. To follow Jesus doesn’t entail the religious equivalent of a red carpet gala—it means confronting systems of power and social conditions that contradict God’s vision of wholeness and Shalom for everyone.

With the decks cleared somewhat we’re still faced with highly uncomfortable and inconvenient truths about what it means to follow Jesus—the speed bump Jesus tosses out comes in the form of parables about people biting off more than they can chew.

Most interpreters of scripture view the Gospels as instruction and inspiration for faith communities—these days we might says these are words for the whole church to hear.

For instance, when we say we welcome people do we mean it? One Lutheran church in North Minneapolis says right in their website that they do. They’ve kept the major aspects of our worship forms and then taken risks within it. Their website invites all to participate and makes physical and social accommodation for those with special needs.

When we say we share the same reverence for creation that Jesus does, are we ready for that? How seriously do we take the carbon footprint our church buildings and even our make? How many trees do we need felled for our convenient bulletins? How much are we willing to give to programs like the Friends of Creation that seeks to help finance the reversing of climate damage in Chad?

What does it cost us to follow Jesus by working for justice and peace? We get dismissed as ‘woke’ when we object to hateful rhetoric directed at our LGBTQ siblings and our siblings from other countries or races. We might lose friends and when we advocate for just economic conditions for everyone.

The truth is we’re a lot like the first disciples, writing cheques with out mouths that our bodies can’t cash. The Good News is that the arduous path Jesus calls us to doesn’t dead-end at futility. Along the way, we discover our higher selves and that our lives wrapped up in the loving intentions God has held for us all along—the restoration and healing of all things.

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Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost August 31, 2025

Prayer of the Day
O God, you resist those who are proud and give grace to those who are humble. Give us the humility of your Son, that we may embody the generosity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Luke 14:1, 7-14 1
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, 9 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. 10 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 honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

REFLECTIONS: Long ago in a high school far away, “jock rock” established, reflected and enforced the school’s social hierarchy. Varsity athletes, cheerleaders, and social scene “A” listers with their respective plus-ones, sat on the rock nearest the nexus of several hallways that formed a central court. Jock rock was actually a brick bench that extended the length of one hallway and demonstrated social mobility as new kids and JV athletes proved themselves worthy of moving farther up the rock. Suburban legends about transgressors of Jock Rock protocol receiving lengthy tours of the inside of a student locker dictated far more than any student handbook or Mr. D’s annual beginning of the year harangue about proper conduct. As an aside, it is tragic that fifty years later kids at West High School routinely rehearse active shooter drills and evacuation procedures when a bomb threat is phoned in. Alas, there is nothing new under the sun. Long ago at a Passover supper, guests side eye Jesus to size him up. He can’t help but to notice, and then point out the jockeying for position at the head table.

Far beyond Jesus going ‘Emily postal’ about seating charts, He seeks to subvert a social order that is shaped like a pyramid. He critiques our tendency toward building hierarchies and using ‘quid pro quo’ in hopes of improving our spot.

Alas, pyramids are old news…Pastor Daniel Erlander’s illustrations of pyramid shaped —slave holding societies— like ancient Egypt—depict those he calls the “big deals” perched on top of the pyramid, weight bearing down and squashing the poorest underneath….Now as then, the poorest suffer the most in natural disasters, climate change and economic crises. Pretty. Much. Every. Time.

God’s good news embeds itself in old news and in pyramid schemes. Slaves are liberated from Egypt. —Jesus’ mother sings of the poor being cared for and tyrants being toppled. And Jesus lives a life dedicated to God’s shalom displacing pyramids and oppressive empires.

Good News even as recent as last month came as Lutherans and Anglicans held a zoom service for their first combined celebration of Emancipation Sunday. Bishop Ali Tote from Alberta spoke at that service about all people gaining a place at the table not as wait staff or even as the ‘main course’ but as equals.

In the most recent edition of Canada Lutheran, Bishop Susan Johnson reflects on her 18 year ministry—she says ours has become a more outward looking church….inviting people to the table.

Biblical Commentator E Trey Clark, at Fuller Seminary in the US puts it thus: “Jesus invites us to live in an entirely different world within this world—a world called the kingdom of God. “ (Working Preacher).

For in God’s rule, pyramid schemes are defeated and transformed into a life where everyone has a place at the table and where they are wrapped in God’s embrace. Amen.