Sunday attendance today 13 – last year 14
Sermon 🔉 (audio only)
Transcript of Gospel and Sermon (Pdf text format)
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
October 19, 2025 Prayer of the Day
O Lord God, tireless guardian of your people, you are always ready to hear our cries. Teach us to rely day and night on your care. Inspire us to seek your enduring justice for all this suffering world, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Reflections: Exhortations to pray might feel too burdensome when the prayers just don’t come. Retired U.S. Bishop H. George Anderson recalls his experience of being widowed and sitting in the congregation, too sad and worn down to pray. He told editors of the Lutheran Magazine that he drew strength from the prayers of others and for a long while he found solace sitting among people praying when he could not.
For millennia monastic communities would pray into the night and in the early hours believing these prayers supported the world. Those praying trusted that their prayers sustained nursing mothers comforting fussy babies, calmed anxious souls for whom sleep would not come, comforted those who were dying and protected night workers seeing to public safety and the common good.
Sometimes just knowing others are praying does a weary soul good. Studies like one conducted decades ago by the journal of Spirituality and Health suggest that patients who knew someone was praying for them fared better during hospitalizations and surgeries.
So if you’re praying, remember others who simply can’t. If you feel you’ve lost heart and can’t pray, may you find comfort knowing others are praying in your stead and for your sake—the scripture says God’s Spirit prays for us when our words fail.
Long ago, I asked a devout person about the pattern she followed praying especially because she was homebound. Gwen prayed the Lord’s Prayer every morning again at noon and finally as she prepared to sleep. I can’t imagine gentle Gwendolyn being vexing in her consistent prayers like the woman in the parable… who if you read the literal translation…. was giving the unrighteous judge a black eye with all of her appeals for justice.
What would happen if faith communities prayed the Lord’s Prayer with Gwen’s consistency and the widow’s urgency? Might we be the ones changed somehow? What might happen to us as we discover the Lord’s Prayer is truly anti-empire?
How might our worldview shift when we pray with the widow’s insistence that God enables us to live under God’s governance, that God for provides daily bread and helps in our relationships and that God alone can truly deliver us from evil?
To lose heart is to lose hope; we pray the loss isn’t permanent! May prayer kindle hope…hope that is said to have two daughters; anger at injustice and inhumanity and courage to be just and humane. May communities that embody and share hope continue to be the answered prayer for the rest of us. Amen.
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost October 12, 2025
Prayer of the Day Almighty and most merciful God, your bountiful goodness fills all creation. Keep us safe from all that may hurt us, that, whole and well in body and spirit, we may with grateful hearts accomplish all that you would have us do, 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.
Reflections: ” If Jesus’ words never strike me as strange, if Jesus’ words never cause me some sense of unrest, if Jesus’ words never trouble me, then I can be sure of one thing: I can be sure that I am missing something important. Professor Eric Baretto, Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ, US
True as these words are for me, I am merely repeating a more eloquent statement of my experience offered by Professor Eric Baretto from Princeton Seminary in the U.S. Words that churn up things for us include…
a region between, as in the margins or a border land
lepers—-even St. Francis was creeped out by leprosy before his spiritual awakening
Samaritan—-
and finally, Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
We find Jesus walking among people exiled because of a skin condition thought to be contagious—they have been deported to a border place neither here nor there and consigned to a life belonging nowhere. In this land for nobody, God shows up and heals everyone—including a Samaritan which means this one is doubly outcast. And Jesus marvels at his faith even calling him a foreigner. Takes one to know one.
Jesus’ history was as a refugee fleeing Herod’s infanticide. Jesus’ ancestral tradition harks to prophets reminding the returned exiles to extend hospitality to those now displaced. Jesus’s heritage to the time of Moses insists we remember our own wilderness wandering and displacement and that we exercise empathy toward the outsider.
On a Thanksgiving weekend, if you’re looking for things to be thankful for, consider rejoicing that God shows up in the no-where places and brings healing to those living on the margins. Rejoice that God’s table, as Jesus demonstrates in this nowhere land is one that extends both in size and in breadth of those invited to it.
If you’re looking for a grateful response, consider committing what some purported Christians denounce as sinful; lean into empathy for those who are displaced, shut out or marginalized for any reason. Yes, exercise that sinful empathy and if I might riff on Luther’s words, when you do, ‘sin boldly’ and believe more boldly still in God’s scandalous forays into the margins where God heals and embraces indiscriminately and lavishly. Thanks be to God.
October 9, 2025
Urgent call to prayer as peace nears in Gaza
Dear Beloved Members of God’s Family in the ELCIC,
Just two days ago, we wrote in commemoration of the second anniversary of the war between Israel and Hamas. Today, our hearts are filled with hope at the news that the beginnings of a peace deal have been reached. We implore you to pray with us now that this fragile window for peace will hold and become the foundation for a lasting, just peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.
Since Hamas’ mass killing and kidnapping of Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed through imposed starvation and indiscriminate attacks, including on hospitals, schools, shelters and places of worship. Prior to the October 7 attack, decades of violence and oppression have shaped the lives of all Palestinians — who have been denied basic rights, including self-determination — and of all Israelis.
Our prayer today, as it has been for many years, is for all Palestinians and Israelis to experience the fulness of peace, safety and dignity that we believe God desires for them.
Please join us in prayer that peace would take effect immediately, with all captives released, and that humanitarian access would be immediate and unhindered so the mercy of Christ can reach all those in critical need.
Please pray with us:
God of peace,
We can barely comprehend the pain and sorrow experienced by so many in Israel and Palestine these last two years. We receive this news of potential peace with broken and hopeful hearts, and we turn to you, source of hope and comfort. Strengthen the resolve of world leaders to make peace and end violence. Comfort all who grieve and answer the prayers of those longing for the sound of bombs to stop. Make straight the way for life-saving aid and healing from trauma to reach all those whose lives have been shattered by this war. Bring compassion and understanding to all, and stir in hearts a commitment to lasting peace.
Amen.
Screenshot
Worship attendance today ->14, last year ->11
Sermon 🔈 (audio only)
Transcript of Gospel and Sermon (Pdf text format)
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
St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada 
Love it Rona. Thanks On Sat, Mar 7, 2026, 11:20 a.m. St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church,