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

Worship attendance today ->14,  last year ->11

Sermon 🔈 (audio only)

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon (Pdf text format)

Worship Guide

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost-October 5, 2025

Prayer of the Day Benevolent, merciful God: When we are empty, fill us. When we are weak in faith, strengthen us. When we are cold in love, warm us, that with fervour we may love our neighbours and serve them for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
7 “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? 8 Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’ ”

Reflections: In the mid 1980’s late night tv aired a program featuring muscle-bound, bombastic gym rats performing feats of physical strength they attributed to the Holy Spirit. These spandex swaddled members of the Power-Team appeared powered more by steroids than spirit and they reduced faith to parlour tricks as part of their late night schtick for their form of religion.

Living in a time a friend of mine used to call ‘global weirding’, requires wonder working faith of a different variety if we are to have any hope of…well… anything.

Martin Luther reminds us that faith is a relationship rather than a ‘thing’ we carry in our pockets and purses—or cross body bags if you like.

Union Presbyterian Seminary professor John T Carroll’s words about the faith we need feel like balm and smelling salts all in one. Professor Carroll writes in Working Preacher that

”We need faith that, despite the evidence of sight and sound, what we do matters; that we can make a difference for good; that God isn’t done with this world just yet. Perhaps the key is not the size of faith but its tenacity and durability (see also Luke 18:8b). We might do well to join the apostles’ plea for more robust faith, and add to it a resolve to embody our faith in persistent, courageous action.

How does such faith connect to Jesus’s parable about the slave—a parable almost too difficult to read or hear because the very idea of one person owning another is repugnant for its inhumanity?

Again Professor Carroll’s insight is inspiring and instructive. Who among us would serve our servants? Jesus, that’s who. To quote the professor, “Jesus’ followers are to emulate that model, rather than conform to the usual quest for superior position and power (22:24–27). Persons and communities of faith are called to obedience of a different kind, serving the One who alone is sovereign.”

Disciples like Francis of Assisi—whom the church commemorates this week— renounced his wealth by literally stripping down and giving his clothing back to his merchant father. Francis chose poverty and even celebrated it and he devoted his life to care for the poor and for creation—how’s that for uprooting mulberry trees and chucking them into the drink?

Years ago our denomination communicated our shared mission with the words “in service to others”. Church is the rare institution not in it for themselves but for the sake of those who aren’t even part of it. Or at least that’s what we’re supposed to be. Imagine all the good Jesus’ followers could bring to the world empowered by a durable and tenacious faith the size of a mustard seed. Jesus’s words can be accurately translated as “if you had such faith….and you do….”. With such faith we the church could do such wondrous things like persistently and courageously loving all our neighbours. Amen

Attendance today >16 – last year >15

Sermon 🔊 (audio only)

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon (PDF text format)

Worship Guide

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 28, 2025

Prayer of the Day
O God, rich in mercy, you look with compassion on this troubled world. Feed us with your grace, and grant us the treasure that comes only from you, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 16:19-31 [Jesus said:] 19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 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.’ ”

REFLECTIONS: Granted, the setting for ‘act two’ of the parable is the afterlife. The point of this parable is very much about this life considering that it follows Jesus’ loan shark story. Jesus tells these stories to his followers so they reflect on their relationship with ‘stuff’.

The impoverished Lazarus is the only person in a parable who has a name—and it translates as “God helps”. For this poor Lazarus ONLY God helps.

Rich dude is too preoccupied keeping Party Central lubricated and fed to even SEE Lazarus suffering right there at his gate. God sees. God knows. God helps. Hereafter, Lazarus’ suffering is relieved as he rests in the bosom of Abraham, father of us all.

Hereafter, rich and terminally obtuse dude languishes in torment.

He begs Abraham to enlist Lazarus as errand boy to bring him respite. Get the irony? The law and prophets call on rich boy and us to relieve the suffering of others or at least not to make it any worse.

Ever the wheeler dealer, rich dude asks Abraham to conscript Lazarus to be a Marley’s ghost messenger to warn his siblings. No sale.

Where does that leave us?

What if Professor Barbara Rossing is right that we are the siblings of the rich guy? “We are those five siblings of the rich man. We who are still alive have been warned about our urgent situation, the parable makes clear. We have Moses and the prophets; we have the scriptures; we have the manna lessons of God’s economy, about God’s care for the poor and hungry. We even have someone who has risen from the dead. The question is: Will we — the five sisters and brothers — see? Will we heed the warning, before it is too late?”

Some studies suggest that the richest among us are the least generous and often the poorest among us are the most generous. Images of starving children in Gaza break our hearts— We watch people in town load up repurposed shopping carts with trash bags stuffed with all their earthly possessions and wonder how we might help. So I know we see the suffering at our gates.

Our churches give your contributions to the Hope Centre and Port Cares. Individuals give generously to international relief agencies like CLWR. Our bishops advocate to government leaders on behalf of the poor. There are instances where we’ve have shown kindness to people sleeping at our gates…or doorstep. Our actions are in keeping with tradition of the children of Israel heeding calls for generosity and compassion. Our generosity comes from Jesus’ example and preaching to remember the poor.

Yet, Greed remains voracious and poverty relentless. So maybe our warning comes new every day. As Jesus would say, if we have ears let us hear. If we have love and compassion let us live that out. Maybe our kindness and push for justice now are little echoes or hints about the grand and glorious feast in the kingdom in the hereafter.

Or as professor Rossing puts it,

-In Luke’s wonderful imagery, Abraham’s bosom awaits to enfold us in loving arms now and after our death. (Source: Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, St. Paul MN, US)

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

Sermon 🔉 (audio only)

Transcript of Gospel and Sermon (PDF text format)

Worship Guide

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!