11 October 2026 - Canon Ric’s Thanksgiving Sermon
Let us pray. Loving God, in creation you breathed your Spirit into us and into this world. May your eternal truth always be in our hearts and may our hearts always be filled with thanksgiving. Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Today we have heard a wonderful and quite well-known story that is found only in the Gospel attributed to Luke. It is a story about an encounter between Jesus and a group of ostracized and marginalized people, ten people actually, shunned by normal society because they suffered some form of skin aliment. And because of their visible physical disease, those ten people were labeled as unclean and being unclean they were marginalized, forced to live on the fringes, the outer edges of society. They were shunned, unwelcome, outcast, reviled, scorned, maligned and even feared. Should they come near anyone who was not diseased they were to keep their distance and yell out a warning “Unclean, unclean!”
On one level, this is a story of restoration. From a distance the ten outcasts, referred to as lepers, called out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy!” “Master, help us!” It is interesting to note that the ten marginalized people called out together, they spoke with one voice; they were community, marginalized community yes but community nonetheless. Note also the movement of the story at this point: Jesus didn’t go to them, he said “Go!” to them - “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” There is good reason for that. Jesus sent the lepers to the priests to follow the Mosaic Law found in Leviticus 14, which required a priest to officially inspect and declare a healed person clean so they could return to normal life. And so Jesus sent them to the priests knowing that they would be made clean before they got to the priests.
And so it was. As the ten went, Luke tells us, the ten were indeed cleansed, they were made clean. The Greek translated as “made clean” implies nothing more than that they were cured of their disease and being free of disease meant they were no longer unclean. Cleansed simply means cured. Now, I don’t profess to understand miracle. In truth I am not certain miracles are meant to be understood, only received and so I won’t presume to try to explain the “how” of this moment. All I know is what the author of this Gospel tells us which is that when the ten lepers obeyed Jesus and went, the disease left them, they were made clean. That meant that once the priests saw them and declared them to be free of the disease, they would no longer be marginalized and would no longer need to live in the shadows of society.
After the healing of all ten lepers, the focus narrows to just one of the ten. We are not told anything more about the nine. My guess is that the first thing they did was exclaim, “Holy moly, what just happened!” Then, after they were declared clean by the priests, I imagine they head straight for home by the most direct route possible without even stopping at Tim Hortons. Freed from their afflictions, their marginalized community was shattered and they headed for the communities of family and friends from which they had been cast out!
Nine ex-lepers made a bee-line for home - but one turned back. Luke tells us that one of the ten was different, one of the ten realized that there was more going on than just the physical cleansing. Luke tells us that the one saw that they had not just been made clean, they had been “healed”. In Greek “healed” (iaomai) is a different word than the word for “cleansed” (katharizō). This one, the one who turned back, was not just made clean, this one was healed. This one realized the deeper and more profound reality of being physically free of disease - this one understood the emotional and spiritual reality of being not just cleansed but healed and in seeing this fullness and recognizing from whence the healing had come, this one, filled with praise to God, went searching for Jesus.
And when this one caught up to Jesus, he poured out his thankfulness at the feet of Jesus. And in that moment, that moment of praise and thanksgiving that ex-leper went from being made clean to being healed to being made whole. The ex-lepers faith brought about a new way of being. No wonder that one praised God with a loud voice and lay at the feet of Jesus, giving Jesus thanks.
We should note that the verb for “thanks” used in this passage is eucharisteō which is the same word used when Jesus gave thanks to God for the bread and cup at the last supper (Luke 22:17 & 19). It is the Greek word that is the basis for our word Eucharist.
This is our national Thanksgiving weekend and in this great land of ours there are all sorts of annual Thanksgiving traditions: many will get together with family and friends and there will be food and drink, laughter and good cheer. Perhaps some will take a moment to share what they are thankful for. Others might take a nice long leisurely walk or drive in the country to admire the beautiful autumn leaves. And the sports fans will hit the couch to watch a game of some sort on TV.
I wonder though, in what is an increasingly secular society, how many folks across this great country of ours will pause to give thanks to God, the source of all things, as did that one ex-leper so many years ago.
My father was a philatelist, a stamp collector and he got me into collecting stamps too, though quite modestly and only for a short while when I was young. Though it was quite some time ago, I vividly remember a 1963 Canadian five cent stamp commemorating explorer Sir Martin Frobisher’s 16th. Century voyages to the eastern Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. At that time, I had no idea that that stamp had any relevance to our Canadian Thanksgiving.
Of course, we all know the United States story of the first Thanksgiving. In that story, the "First Thanksgiving" was a three-day long harvest celebration in the autumn of 1621 shared by the Plymouth colonists and about 90 people of the Wampanoag tribal nation in what is now present-day Massachusetts. It was not a religious "thanksgiving" service, but a secular harvest festival to celebrate the colonists' first successful crop after losing half their population the previous winter.
The Canadian version is a little different. As the story has it, in 1578, (that’s forty three years before the Plymouth colonists had their harvest thanksgiving meal) Frobisher’s third expedition to the Canadian Artic was perilous. It was in late August or early September that year, on Baffin Island, that the expedition’s chaplain, the Reverend Robert Wolfall, an Anglican priest by the way, celebrated a Communion service on ground that is now part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. History records that Mr. Wolfall preached a godly sermon encouraging everyone on that expedition to be thankful to God, despite the ordeals and obstacles they had encountered.
Remembering that the Greek word eucharisteō, which means to give thanks or be thankful, is the basis for our word Eucharist, I should like to suggest that that particular Communion service celebrated by the Reverend Robert Wolfall, that holy meal that we call the Eucharist, was the first Canadian Thanksgiving Day celebrated with a simple meal of bread and wine - the body and blood of the Christ.
Once again we have exceptional cause and opportunity to give thanks to God; to give thanks that God has called each of us to this place to continue the rich heritage of this community of faith, to give thanks that God has called each of us to be the hands and heart of Jesus in our time; to give thanks for the opportunities that arise from the challenges we are facing at this moment in time; to give thanks for the future of God’s church as we faithfully move into the future into which God is calling us and as we faithfully lay down a solid foundation for those who will be called to this place in the years to come.
So this Thanksgiving Sunday morning, may we, in the same spirit as they did that first Canadian Thanksgiving on Baffin Island so many years ago, gather in hope and faith to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, giving thanks to God, who is and was and always shall be the source of all things.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Gratitude is the acknowledgement that all we are and all we have is a gift from God. And because it is a gift, it is not ours to hoard or exploit, but to be respected and shared. As Toronto-based theologian and social justice activist Mary Jo Leddy puts it, gratitude “awakens the imagination to another way of being, to another kind of economy, the great economy of grace in which each person is of infinite value and worth.”
4 October 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
Gracious God, may only your truth be spoken and only your truth be heard. We ask this in the name of your Christ and our Lord, Jesus. Amen.
Jesus said, “Listen to another parable.” I doubt Jesus would have put that much emphasis on the word “another” but, there is no doubt, he did like to use parables, those special stories that turn the values and expectations of this world upside down, to get his message across.
Today’s parable, which in my favorite Bible is called The Parable of the Wicked Tenants, highlights a landowner who planted a vineyard, built a fence around it, even dug a wine press and erected a watchtower. It was quite the set up. He then leased the operation to tenants.
The plot is intense and at first blush I would have to say that the parable is not only unpleasant it is outright horrifying: it is filled with nasty bits that I have a great deal of difficulty thinking a gentle Jesus meek and mild would ever have conceived of let alone allowed to fall off his lip. This parable has greed, shameless dishonesty, extreme violence (even to the point of murder)and delusional thinking all of which lead to the chief priests and elders of the people, those whom Jesus was in dialogue with, to speculate there would be vengeful and violent retaliation. I can’t help but wonder how Jesus’ pronouncements about generosity, honesty, non-violence, being a neighbour, thinking as God would think and realizing that vengeance is in God’s hands not ours, can be harmonized with the tone of this parable.
On the surface, this is indeed one shocking parable but yet, it is a parable that is included in all three of the Synoptic Gospels. While the versions of this parable found in the Gospels attributed to Mark and Luke are a little less severe and vary in some of the details than the one in Matthew, all three culminate with the son of the landowner being killed and the prediction, on the part of the chief priests and elders of the people, that the landowner will kill the tenants, called wretches in Matthew’s version, then find other tenants to take the place of the wicked tenants, other tenants who will farm the vineyard and at harvest time, give the appropriate portion of the produce to the landowner.
Some folks see this parable as an allegory or extended metaphor, that is, a story in which each of the elements, whether a person, a thing or an event, has a hidden or symbolic meaning. In seeing this parable in this way, through an allegorical lens, the landowner is understood to be God, the vineyard represents the nation of Israel, the tenants are the people of Israel or possibly more specifically the religious leaders of Israel, the servants sent by the landowner are the prophets, the son of the landowner is, of course Jesus and the new tenants are most likely members of the group of Jesus followers known as The Way, the new Christian community or as we like to call it, the church, although some scholars find other meanings for the new tenants.
Proponents of an allegorical understanding assert that once we understand the code, the hidden meaning of the parable will become clear: God established a covenant with the people of Israel (planted a vineyard), God sent the prophets (the servants) whom the tenants (the religious authorities of Israel) killed, so God sent his Son (Jesus) whom the tenants (again, the religious authorities of Israel) killed which resulted in God putting the original tenants to death (pronounced judgment upon Israel and the religious authorities of Israel which, from Matthew’s perspective late in the first century, probably implied the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., which took place several years prior to the writing of this Gospel) and finally, God leased the vineyard to new tenants (the followers of Jesus and therefore, ultimately, the church) who will “give him (that is God) the fruit in its season”.
It should be noted that allegorical interpretation has, for some, a troublesome reputation due to historical misuse and many people, myself included, tend to avoid it as much as possible or at least, approach it with some caution. We need to resist the temptation to push the allegorical approach too far lest we find ourselves following a path that leads to a partial, distorted or perhaps predetermined understanding of what Jesus was trying to say. Seeking to impose a special meaning on each and every element in the parable, such as the fence, the wine press or the watchtower, which some people are wont to do, may lead us to an understanding that was not the one Jesus intended.
However, with this particular parable I do think that there is insight into the intentions of Jesus to be had by way of an allegorical approach. Though each of the three versions of the parable identify different religious leaders, in Mark it is the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders, in Luke it is the teachers of the law and the chief priests while in Matthew it is the chief priests and the Pharisees, it seems fairly clear that this parable is indeed accusing them. In fact, each version states that these religious leaders of the time of Jesus knew that he was speaking about them. Matthew clearly states that when the chief priests and Pharisees heard this parable they “realized that he [Jesus] was speaking about them.” And it seems that what Jesus was saying to them was that they had come up short: God had favoured them with the blessings of the Kingdom but they had not honoured God as they ought - they had failed to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom as they should have done. It was indeed a strong indictment that Jesus made against the religious leaders of the time and it is no wonder they wanted to find some way to silence him because of it.
I think the message of Jesus contained in this parable is that being favoured and blessed with the gifts of the Kingdom of God is not about personal privilege and benefit. Rather, participation in God’s Kingdom calls for outcomes worthy of that favour and blessing. We are to use that which God has given us for the furthering of God’s Kingdom. It is about what we give not about what we can get. It is about how we love not about how we are loved or admired. It is about how we serve others, as Jesus served, not about seeking to have our wants indulged by others. It is about the blessings we bestow on others not about the blessings we can get for ourselves. It is about our actions, how we live our lives in the reality of our earthly existence not just about what we profess or say.
Being children of the Kingdom of God and faithful followers of Jesus, the one who proclaimed Kingdom living so abundantly, is not always an easy thing to do. So often the ways of the world draw us away from the ways of God, as was the case with Peter, dear St. Peter, when Jesus accused him of thinking as humans think rather than as God thinks. We can be easily sidetracked from the true intentions of the divine and we, like the religious leaders who felt the sting of Jesus’ accusing parable, find ourselves “confident in the flesh” as St. Paul put it rather than filled with the righteousness that comes from God.
As the people of the Kingdom of God we are called to produce fruits worthy of the Kingdom of God. We are called to a living and active faith that puts what we say we believe into concrete action in harmony with the teaching and example of Jesus. John Dominic Crossan, New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity and professor emeritus at DePaul University, claimed that Jesus didn’t just announce to his audience that God’s kingdom was present, he announced that it is only present if and when it is accepted, entered into, and taken upon oneself. And though from our human point of view that may not seem an easy thing to do, I am convinced that should we allow our wills to be aligned with the divine will, if we accepted, entered into, and take upon ourselves the values of the Kingdom of God, our gracious and loving God will give us the grace and power to faithfully tend the vineyard and share abundantly the fruits thereof.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
27 September 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
Gracious God, may only your truth be spoken and only your truth be heard. In the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Believe it or not, that question was discussed at length way back in the first century by a guy named Plutarch, a Greek historian, essayist and philosopher. Plutarch addressed the question “Which was first, the bird or the egg?” as a philosophical matter in his essay "The Symposiacs" (Book II, Question III), referring to it as a “perplexed question” and “the plague of the inquisitive”. We might be less inclined to put such effort into contemplating this matter, thinking it to be insignificant or immaterial or categorizing it as a catch 22 or a paradox or an anomaly or as something that is only used metaphorically.
Yet, based on evolutionary biology, our friend Mr. Google does provide an in-depth scientific answer to the question. Mr. Google maintains that who knows how many millions of years ago, two near-chickens or, to be more sciency, two proto-chickens mated and an egg was laid. However, during that process a tiny change happened in their DNA due to mutations. As a result, the baby inside that egg had new DNA, making it the very first true, modern day, chicken to be hatched. Hence, Mr. Google asserts, the egg came first. However, on Wikipedia there is another scientific argument, something about a protein that causes the hard shell on a chicken egg. I’ll spare you the full argument and skip to the conclusion that asserts it was actually the chicken that came first.
Ultimately all of this has gotten us nowhere other than back to the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
My guess is that most of us think of this question as just plain silly or frivolous or perhaps absurd, nothing more than a big waste of time … and brain cells - if we think of it at all. Yes, on one level such a question might be fun to ponder, however, in the long run, it is not earth shattering or life changing. And so, when it comes to the chicken or the egg question, I going to go with the answer that popped up in a scene in the 2019 English language Polish spy film The Coldest Game. In that film the main character is Joshua Mansky (played by Bill Pullman). Joshua, an alcoholic former American chess champion, unwillingly gets involved in a Cold War confrontation between nuclear superpowers. Anyway, at one point in the film the chicken and egg question came up and Joshua’s answer to that question was that it all depends on whether you’re talking about breakfast or dinner.
Now, with that aside and out of my head, I imagine that most of us still think that such questions are just inane, erroneous or pointless and so should to be regarded with some degree of suspicion, apprehension or scepticism and subsequently tossed aside.
However, such questions still crop up every now and then. Here’s another - an oldie but goodie: "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" That reminds me of a law that is or was or may never have been on the books in the northern prairies somewhere. Apparently there was a law that stated that if a train and a car arrive at an unprotected level crossing at the same time, neither may proceed until the other has passed. (The existence of such a law may well be more folklore than reality, but it is amusing!)
Such a question has even shown up in the field of theology - but be warned, as is often the case with theological conversation, this one is a little more convoluted (and by convoluted I mean longwinded!!). This one actually isn’t just one question, it’s a series of questions. Ready? Buckle up and play along. Feel free to shout out your answer. Here we go.
First question: “Can God do anything?”
I think most people of faith would answer, “Yes, of course God can do anything.”
Next question: “If God can do anything, can God make a rock?”
“Don’t be silly”, comes the reply. “Of course God can make a rock.”
And the questioning continues: “If God can make a rock, can God make a really big rock?”
And the answer is, “Yes, God can make a really big rock.”
“Can God make a ginormous rock?”
“Yes!” comes the plaintive even exasperated answer.
Then at long last we come to the final question - a zinger and real hum-dinger. Remember, we have already agreed that God can do anything. Here it is. Are you ready?
“If God can God make a rock, a really big rock, a ginormous rock, can God make a rock so big that even God can’t lift it?” No matter how we answer, if indeed we are brave enough or silly enough to try, we trap ourselves; we paint ourselves into the proverbial corner, we find ourselves between a ginormous rock and a very hard place indeed.
Just to add to the silliness, here’s a couple of other questions, variations on the theme if you will. One, “Can God create a triangle whose angles do not add up to 180 degrees?” and two, "Can God create a prison so secure that God cannot escape from it?” For us, such questions may be nothing more than entertaining word games that we categorize as playful but ultimately unimportant, trifling and easily dismissed. At some point, acknowledging that the question itself is the problem, we move on.
But … such was not the case for the chief priests and the elders of the people that we heard about about in the story we just read from the Gospel attributed to Matthew, a story that seems to have been really important to the early Jesus following communities because it is also found in the Gospels attributed to Mark and Luke. That’s the big Synoptic Gospel trifecta.
In today’s story we heard that the chief priests and the elders confronted Jesus in the temple and asked him who had given him the authority to do and say all the things he was doing and saying. In true rabbinical fashion, Jesus answered their question with a question of his own but the question that Jesus asked was anything but an amusing or entertaining mind game. It was not a frivolous twisting of words. It could not easily be dismissed.
Jesus asked, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”
At first blush the deeply profound nature of Jesus’ question may be lost on us because, over the course of the history of the Christian Church, John has come to be seen chiefly in the role of the one who came before, the one who’s role was simply to prepare the way for one greater than he, that is, specifically for the Christ of God. However, a careful reading of the Gospels does reveal that John was more than just an eccentric backwater small-fry whose only purpose was to be the opening act for the real cause célèbre. John was a significant prophet in his own right. John spoke with divine authority calling people to confess their sins, to repent and be baptized. Why? Because the Kingdom of God was at hand. Yes, according to his own words, John was laying a divine foundation for one who would be more powerful than he himself was but he also proclaimed a powerful divine message. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, a very popular prophet who drew people from Jerusalem and all Judea as well as the entire region along the Jordan into a deeper and richer relationship with God.
Jesus knew that and it is important that we too recognize the fullness of the ministry of John the Baptizer when we hear the question Jesus asked the chief priests and the elders of the people when they challenged him in the temple. “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” he asked. Having in our minds the full prophetic nature of the ministry of John and how popular he was among the people helps us to grasp the depth of the problem the chief priests and elders of the people were faced with and the very delicate and precarious position they found themselves to be in. And the debate they had among themselves enables us to see the magnitude of the corner in which they themselves knew they were in. Oh yes, they were most certainly between a ginormous rock and a very hard place
Matthew tells us that the chief priests and the elders argued among themselves about the particularly awkward and difficult situation Jesus had caused for them. “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” They were in a very sticky wicket. They were as unable to answer Jesus’ question as we are unable to say whether God can create a rock that even God cannot lift. And so all they could say was, “We do not know.” And in that they could not answer the question Jesus asked them, Jesus would not answer the question they had asked him!
But that is not the end of this encounter. Jesus did not ask his challengers this question just to avoid having to answer their question about the source of his authority.
This is a moment in which Jesus not only pointed directly at the inability of the religious leaders of the time to see the righteousness of God but also highlighted their refusal to allow their hearts and minds to be changed even though they had come face to face with God’s righteousness in the person of John the Baptizer. They were trapped by their own powerlessness to accept that God is not stagnant and that God cannot be put in a box – as they had tried to do. Rather, God moves and is creative even beyond the approved limitations and restraints of the orthodox religious practices that the chief priests and elders, along with other religious leaders past and present, so steadfastly, uncritically and robotically undertake to preserve and enforce.
God’s winds of change are always blowing. God’s righteousness is revealed in new and wonderful ways each and every day, even beyond the walls of the temple in the time of Jesus and now, even beyond the walls of the capital “C” Church as we know it. This encounter between Jesus and some of the religious leaders of his time calls us to be bold and brave and urges us to see and believe that the righteousness of God is not constrained by our human understanding nor limited by any human authority. The Spirit of God is moving and through the years the voice of Jesus calls us not only to see the righteousness of God but to allow God’s righteousness to change us, to transform our hearts and minds and flow through us. And in doing so, in allowing God’s righteousness to change us, transform our hearts and minds and flow through us, we become active participants in God’s Kingdom and in God’s future into which God is longingly and lovingly drawing us.
20 September 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we offer to you that which is here spoken, heard and thought. Accept that which is worthy of you and through your abundant grace, forgive that which is unworthy. This we pray in the name of Jesus, your Christ and our Lord. Amen.
“For the kingdom of God is like …” or as the author of the Gospel attributed to Matthew prefers to put it, “For the kingdom of heaven is like …
Weather it is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, how often we hear Jesus say these words. I know I have mentioned it before but it bears repeating; the main, central, crucial, fundamental and foundational teaching of Jesus was about the kingdom of God and what living as a member of the kingdom of God and living out the values of the kingdom of God should be like. For me, it means that when we hear Jesus say those words, “the kingdom of God is like …” we should sit up, take notice and paying special attention to the words that follow because, without fail, they will reveal some truth that we, as followers of Jesus and children of the kingdom of God, must understand, embrace and ultimately, show forth in the way we live our lives. Sometimes the truth in Jesus’ words is quickly realized, easily taken hold of and exhibited in the way we engage others in our daily living. Other times, a little more effort is required and we should ask God for help in discerning the truth Jesus is conveying to all those who hear his words.
For me, the parable that we have read today the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, another parable of Jesus that is found only in the Gospel attributed to Matthew, is one that can easily be read in a way that will lead us in the wrong direction.
If we look at the parable in one way, we may ask if it is talking about ingratitude and greed. If we focus only on the words of protest spoken by the laborers who were hired first thing in the day, those who had, “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” we might well think ingratitude and greed are the focus of the story. At the end of the day, when each worker, regardless of when they began to work, received the same amount of money, those workers hired early in the morning thought they would and should get paid more than the amount they had agreed on. And we should note that the amount they had agreed on was the usual daily wage. However, when the landowner paid that same agreed amount even to the other workers who had not “borne the burdens of the day and the scorching heat” – well, they were put out. They wanted more – after all, why should those who were hired at nine o’clock and at noon and at three and five get paid the same as them?
Or, if we approach this parable from another angle, we may think it is about a landowner who has a distorted morality or a warped sense of humour, a landowner gets a degree of weird pleasure in messing with and upsetting people. “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you”, he said with a maniacal grin, asserting that he can do whatever he wants without regard to how those hired early in the morning might feel.
And then there are those last few words about the last being first and the first being last. Was Jesus really suggest that inequality or some other form of discrimination, unfairness or injustice are part and parcel of the kingdom of God?
Any of these pathways are easily entered into and walked along but, when followed, I think we end up far from the truth of the kingdom of God that Jesus was trying to express.
However, if we approach this parable seeking to discover the justice, equality, equity, inclusion and welcome of the kingdom, we may just come face to face with the truth Jesus is trying to convey.
In reading this passage time and again not only this past week but over the years, the words that stand out for me are the words the landowner spoke to those laborers who were hired and sent to the vineyard later in the day, those who were part of the second, third, fourth and fifth wave of workers. In his agreement with them about what they would be paid the landowner simply said, “I will pay you whatever is right”; no specific amount was mentioned, only whatever would be right.
The Greek word for “right” in the phrase, “I will pay you whatever is right” said by Jesus in this parable is “dikaios”. In its narrow sense “dikaios” can mean what you and I might immediately think and understand it to mean - nothing more and nothing less than “rendering to each their due.” In the context of this parable that would mean that if a labourer worked six hours they would get paid for six hours but if they worked only two hours, they would get paid only for two hours. However, if we limit our understanding of “dikaios” to this narrow sense of the word, I fear we end up in a bit of a quandary because by human understanding those hired second, third, fourth and fifth were certainly not due a full day’s wage – which is what we are told happened. In the narrow understanding of the word “dikaios” those hired later in the day should receive a pro-rated wage according to the percentage of the day they had actually worked in the vineyard. Only those hired first, those hired early in the morning, those who had worked the full day, those who had, “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat”, were actually due a full day’s wage. And so, those hired first grumbled against the landowner because they thought that each worker should be paid only according to the hours they actually worked.
But the word “dikaios” has a deeper, richer meaning, a meaning that reflects the character and values of the kingdom of God. And in that Jesus himself prefaced this parable saying, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, … ” it is important that we take a good hard look; we should most certainly sit up, pay close attention and take notice.
In the phrase, “I will pay you whatever is right” said by Jesus in this parable, the word “dikaios” has a weightier meaning. In this parable doing what is right indicates a way of seeing, thinking, feeling, and acting that is wholly conformed to the will of God, as much as is humanly possible. In my understanding, that is the deeper, richer meaning of the landowner’s affirmation that he would do what is right. And as we heard last week, it is never wrong to do the right thing.
This parable, as do all the parables, shows us and teaches us that things in the kingdom of God challenge the way we human beings normally look at things. Some call it the great reversal of kingdom living but I would rather use the word alternative than reversal – this parable and indeed all the parables and all the teachings of Jesus show us an alternative, a divine alternative to our human way of seeing, thinking, feeling, and acting, an alternative that calls us to see, think, feel and act as does God, at least so far as is humanly possible. I am reminded of the words of Jesus that we heard just three weeks ago, words Jesus said to Peter, “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on earthly things.” (Matthew 16:23) Even St. Paul emphasised this kingdom alternative in his letter to the church in Colossae saying, “Set you mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
In the actions of the landowner in this parable today we see reflected the ways of God: in the kingdom, all are equally valued and loved by God; God does not pro-rate God’s gifts.
Some time ago I saw a frig magnet with a saying that read “God loves everybody … but I’m God’s favorite.” My bet is you could probably find it on a bumper sticker if you wanted to. Though that might be a cute little witticism, it is certainly rooted in human understanding not in divine understanding. In the kingdom there are no favorites, no teacher’s pets, no members preferred over others: God attaches the same value and gives the same unconditional love to each and every one of us regardless if we are the first in or the last to walk through the door.
And one final thought: it is interesting to me that this parable that we have read today come immediately after yet another exchange between Jesus and Peter. Just a few short verses before these that we have read today Peter, dear St. Peter, speaking apparently on behalf of all the disciples, said to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Now maybe I might be reading too much into this but in reply I hear Jesus say to Peter that he and the other disciples will receive all the blessings of the kingdom of God … but so will everyone else who follows Jesus, everyone who’s seeing, thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, bewildering the world around by doing the right thing, as the landowner in the parable today bewildered, I’m sure, all the labourers he had hired to work in his vineyard that day.
13 September 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
Let’s pray. Gracious and loving God, as we hear your truth may we live your truth. We pray in the name of your anointed one, our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Have you seen the 2015 comedy/drama movie “The Intern”? It received mixed reviews from critics but I certainly enjoyed it. It stars Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, and Rene Russo. De Niro’s character is a 70 year old retired executive named Ben Whittaker who applies to a senior citizen intern program. It seems that retirement had become too boring for him. In one scene, the old dog (that’s De Niro) is trying to learn a new trick – he is trying to figure out the art of Facebook. With help from the young founder and CEO of the company in which he is an intern, Jules by name (played by Hathaway), Ben Whittaker is able to complete his Facebook status. Now, the reason I’m mentioning this is that one of the Facebook status information sections Ben was willing to complete while setting up his account was to include his “Favorite Quote”. The quote he chose as his favorite came from the writings of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more popularly known by the pen name Mark Twain: the quote was "It is never wrong to do the right thing."
"It is never wrong to do the right thing." I do enjoy phrases like that, pithy little phrases, jaunty little phrases - phrases like:
Ø “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” Or;
Ø “I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not too sure.” Or;
Ø “I can resist everything except temptation.” Or;
Ø “I’ve got nothing to do and all day to do it.”
And you know, "It is never wrong to do the right thing." is a good one to my way of thinking: I like the wrong / right word play "It is never wrong … to do the right thing." And to boot, the moral message in the phrase is pretty darn good.
A quick search of Mr. Google reveals that Mark Twain is not the only, nor even the first, person of note to coin a phrase about doing the right thing.
Ø going way back, Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor from 161 to 180 Marcus Aurelius reportedly said, “Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honoured.”
And more recently (well at least in the last two hundred years or so) others have said similar things. Case in point:
Ø C. S. Lewis said; “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching”
Ø and here’s an earlier variation of Lewis’ words from American author and philosopher Aldo Leopold, who said; “Ethical behaviour is doing the right thing when no one else is watching – even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”
Ø even Oprah Winfrey got in on this line of thought about doing the right thing saying, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not”
Ø then there’s French writer Victor Hugo who stated, “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.”
Ø actor Michael J. Fox is also on the list, having said, “Do the right thing and then do the next right thing, and that will lead you to the next right thing after that.”
Ø And American management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker picked up the core idea of the all this and fine-tuned it to his area of expertize saying, “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.”
Ø Mahatma Gandhi also expounded on this idea saying, “It is the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing …”
Ø and finally, Martin Luther King Jr. brings us back very close to the Mark Twain quote we started with his words, “The time is always right to do the right thing.”
Indeed, “The time is always right to do the right thing.” … "It is never wrong to do the right thing." Even Jesus knew that - and well over a century before Marcus Aurelius moralized on the subject!
The Gospel passage for today begins with Peter, dear St. Peter, asking Jesus about forgiving another person. “How many times should I forgive”, Peter asked, “even as many as seven?” Perhaps Peter specified the number seven because in biblical times seven was a number often used to express the ideas of completion, perfection and holiness. Regardless, it seems as if Peter wanted to quantify forgiveness. He wanted a specific number.
But Jesus would have no part of that and he quickly rebutted Peter’s idea saying, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Now, Jesus’ answer also seems to be very specific as if he too is quantifying forgiveness. But we shouldn’t get too literal here - Jesus was not suggesting that we create a large leger sheet on which we can keep track of offences and the exact number of our magnanimous moments of gracious forgiveness. You see, the Greek translated as “seventy-seven times” in the New Revised Standard Version of the bible, which is the version we use in our worship, more likely should be translated as “seventy times seven times” as the Revised Standard and King James versions of the bible, the father and grandfather version of the New Revised Standard Version respectively, accurately have it. Well, quick math here, seventy time seven is four hundred ninety and four hundred ninety is a lot more forgiving than just seventy-seven times and a whole wack more than seven times! There is a big difference in those numbers. But don’t despair because, in truth, Jesus didn’t actually mean either seventy-seven or seven times seventy. He wasn’t actually giving Peter a specific number. Jesus was not quantifying forgiveness.
Rather, Jesus wanted his followers, both then and now, to get in the habit of forgiving and do it so much that it becomes second nature. Jesus was pointing to a manner of behaving, to a way of living. He was conveying a message of abundant forgiveness - as God forgives so too are we to forgive. Jesus was saying that our forgiveness should be complete and unlimited, that we should forgive countless times - to infinity and beyond (to borrow Buzz Lightyear's famous catchphrase). Or as St. Paul reminded the Jesus followers in Ephesus, we are to forgive one another [readily and freely] as God in the Christ has forgiven us. (see Ephesians 4:32)
Kingdom forgiveness is not about quantity; rather, it is a quality of being which is rooted in the heart of our faith and so Jesus tells us to forgive from our hearts without being fixed on or limited by a specific number, checklist, or scorecard as Peter was doing. Ultimately, to forgive in the Kingdom of God means to refuse to let anything alienate us from one another, from ourselves and from God.
To emphasize his point and amplify his message Jesus told the parable we have heard today. It is a parable that is found only in the Gospel attributed to Matthew. In my favorite Bible, this little thing, the story is called The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. The Readers Digest version of the parable is that a servant (in this passage “servant” is a more accurate translation of the Greek than “slave” – once again, the Revised Standard and King James versions had it right but for some reason it got changed in the New Revised Standard Version). Anyway, a servant owed his master, a king, a whole wack of money - oh boy, here we go with more math: the servant owed the king 10,000 talents and one talent equaled six thousand denarii and one denarii was one days wages … so,… the servant owed an amount equal to sixty million days wages. That is a ridiculous sum, way beyond comprehension, so much so that the only thing that makes any sense is that Jesus was exaggerating on purpose just to make a point about the vastness of the king’s forgiveness. Anyway, the servant couldn’t pay what he owed and appealed to his master for some time to repay. The master had compassion and he forgave the debt.
"It is never wrong to do the right thing."
But that’s not the end of it; the parable goes on. Once forgiven, the servant who owed that outlandish sum of money to his master came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a rather modest sum in comparison - just one hundred denarii, one hundred days wages. “Pay me what you owe!” demanded the servant whose massive debt had just been forgiven by the king. But his fellow servant, the one who owed so much less, couldn’t pay the debt and likewise pleaded for time to do so. However, the recently forgiven servant showed no mercy and had his fellow servant thrown into debtors’ prison.
"It is never right ... to do the wrong thing."
There may be a lot of other lessons to be learned from today’s parable but I certainly think a teaching about doing the right thing is on the list. The master did the right thing, the forgiven servant did not, something the master made very clear when he said to the servant whose debt he had forgiven but who had not forgiven the debt owed to him, “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” Again, the words of St. Paul fit the bill, forgive one another [readily and freely] as God in the Christ has forgiven you.
As God’s people, as children of the Kingdom of God, we are to do the right thing. Truth be told, out there in the secular world we may often find it hard work to do the right thing, to do the Kingdom of God thing. It is, after all, quite counter-cultural. However, we have received God’s love, freely and unconditionally given by the creator to each and every one of us. Should we not then live out that love in our lives and manifest that love in all we say and do? As we read in St. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome two weeks ago, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21 - NRSV) or as the Message translation words it, “Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”
As followers of Jesus we are to do the right thing, to do that which is rooted in and reflective of the Kingdom of God, even if the rest of the world says that doing the wrong thing is alright.
And that brings me back to Mark Twain and another of his quotes about doing the right thing: Mr. Twain also said, “Always do the right thing. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
You know, I think Mr. Twain knew what he was talking about. A couple of weeks ago I was out for breakfast with some friends. When the server brought our bills, mine was incorrect - the large glass of orange juice that I had so enjoyed was not on my bill. When I pointed out the omission to the server my friends were gratified - but the server … well, she was astonished - she even made a comment about my honesty expressing her surprise that I would mention it. Even in little matters, "It is never wrong to do the right thing."
As people of the Kingdom of God we are called to be astonishing, bewildering the world around us by doing the right thing, the Kingdom of God thing, even if … no, let me say especially when, the world thinks that doing the wrong thing is okay.
The parable we have heard today invites us to do what is right - without reservation or limitation. Once again, St. Paul got it - hear his words found in his letter to the followers of Jesus who lived in Galatia, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right!” (Galatians 6:9). So be it.