Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, may we have ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of your Kingdom brought to us in the teachings and acts of love of Jesus, your Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.
I must be honest, I’ve never really thought long and hard about weeds. I recently read somewhere that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place. There is actually some truth in that as the term "weed" has no botanical significance, because a plant that is a weed in one context, is not a weed when growing in a situation where it is wanted. So, something like a dandelion, which is generally considered to be a weed, can become a thing of beauty when a young child has picked a bunch of them and proudly presented them to their mommy as a floral bouquet. And I highly doubt that old Misses So and So, a member of a parish I served years ago, considered dandelions to be weeds as she harvested them so she could brew her dandelion wine. Oh how she loved that wine. She served it to me once when I visited her one time later in the afternoon. Subsequent visits were always earlier in the day.
Well, I thought about weeds this past week – not to the point of distraction, mind you – just enough, because todays Gospel reading is a parable about a bunch of weeds that showed up in a field of wheat.
The Wikipedia article about weeds begins stating, “A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals. Plants with characteristics that make them hazardous, aesthetically unappealing, difficult to control in managed environments, or otherwise unwanted in farm land, orchards, gardens, lawns, parks, recreational spaces, residential and industrial areas, may all be considered weeds. The concept of weeds is particularly significant in agriculture, where the presence of weeds in fields used to grow crops may cause major losses in yields.”
And that brings me to the situation Jesus presented in the parable we have read today.
After explaining the parable of the seed that fell on different types of ground, the parable we read last Sunday, Matthew’s Jesus again employed an agricultural setting for this parable concerning weeds sown and growing among a wheat crop. The scenario in today’s parable’s is, at least in one small way, similar to that of the previous parable in that it involves a sower sowing seed. As with the previous parable, the seed experiences difficulties. This time, the difficulty is not the type of ground on which the seed fell, but that a second type of seed, seed that produced an unwanted weed, was sown amid the good wheat seed.
The Greek word for this bad weed is “zizanion” (dziz-an'-ee-on) which is a very particular type of weed that looks just like wheat while it is growing. You can hardly tell the difference. It looks like wheat, it appears like wheat but it is not wheat. It fools you. It seems that the difference between darnel and real wheat is evident only when the plants mature and the ears appear. The ears of the real wheat are heavy and will droop, while the ears of the darnel stand up straight.
That explains why the weeds were not spotted by the workers earlier. They were noticed only when the grain began to appear and by then the root systems had intertwined. And so the wise land owner told the workers to let the two remain together until harvest time because if the weeds were pulled up, the wheat would also be uprooted. “Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
Just like the Parable of the Sower that we read last week, today’s parable of the weeds among the wheat comes complete with an allegorical explanation. Do recall that out of all the parables of Jesus recorded in the gospels, these are the only two that have an explanation. In both cases, the author of the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus himself provided the allegorical explanations in private to the disciples. And in both cases, the allegorical explanations provided tell us, in the clearest of terms, what almost every element of the parable represents.
The allegorical interpretation that we have heard today asserts that: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” (Matthew 13:37-39). Note that in this explanation, Jesus does not say whom the slaves represent but, to go out on a limb of speculation, perhaps they represent the disciples, or anyone who hears this parable and its interpretation.
Matthew then has Jesus go on to reveal a glorious future that emerges from the detailed allegorical explanation. “Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
I’ve got to be honest, for me today’s text loses a lot of its pizzazz when it comes to the ‘explanation.’ I have trouble reconciling the parable and the explanation. Like we saw last week with the Parable of the Sower, the explanation of this parable runs in a somewhat different direction than the parable itself.
I mentioned last Sunday that since the work on parables by the German biblical scholar and exegete Adolf Jülicher (26 January 1857 – 2 August 1938) nullified the centuries long habit of seeking deep hidden truths buried in the parables by imposing elaborate and fanciful allegorical interpretations on them, the understanding that a parable has only one basic point has dominated Christian scholarly discussion and understanding of the parables of Jesus.
Yet, the explanations of the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat, found only in the Gospel attributed to Matthew, treat those parables as allegories, claiming there are several points to the story rather than one simple point.
That has led many Biblical scholars to think that the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat are indeed genuine words of Jesus but the allegorical explanations of the two parables are the creation of the early church. One commentator summed it up nicely, saying “To glance behind the text for a moment … I would suspect that the ‘explanations’ are more a matter of the gospel writers’ reflection on Jesus’ way of speaking than Jesus’ reflection on his own way of speaking.”
With that in mind, the parable we have before us today, the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat, seems to talk mainly about the difficulty of separating good from evil in this world. That would be a point that is consistent with Jesus’ teaching - that it is difficult, if not downright impossible, for you and me to accurately judge another person’s motives and actions. However, we must remember that the community the author of Matthew was writing for was probably struggling with the fact that because of their belief that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, they had been driven out of the synagogues and likely were facing strong opposition and even persecution. In the face of such a reality, it is quite likely they were struggling, needing encouragement and hope. Therefore, it seems that, at a time when the people of The Way (the original term used by followers of Jesus before the term "Christian" was adopted) were in direct conflict with the accepted beliefs, teaching and practices of orthodox Judaism, this parable was interpreted in such a way as to support an “us” against “them” mentality: the followers of Jesus were the “wheat” that would one day be harvested and gathered into God’s barns, while their enemies were the “weeds” that would one day be gathered up and burned.
So, where does all this leave us?
It is important that we note that Jesus introduced the parable we have read today with a statement of comparison; “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to …” (Do come on back next Sunday because we’re going to hear five sorter parables all with the same words of introduction.) Jesus was comparing the situation narrated in each parable to the Kingdom of God and the reality of the world. Today, the introduction directs us to think about the agricultural situation as providing insight into the workings of God’s kingdom among human beings.
To me, the message is simple - lest we think we have it all figured out how to judge good from evil, moral from immoral, right from wrong, virtuous from unvirtuous, righteous from unrighteous, we need to think again. We are not here to weed out all those who we deem to be on the wrong side – those who don’t think like we think, act like we act, look like we look or believe what we believe. Labeling such others as children of the devil does not align with our recognizing all people as bearing the image of God.
This parable cautions us that it is not for us to presume to know, let alone determine, final outcomes. That would be God’s job and God will sort it all out in God’s time and in God’s way. In the meanwhile, this parable reminds us that we need to resist ripping up everything we decide is a weed - for in doing so we may uproot the wheat as well. This parable calls us to leave the weeding to the angels. If we can do that, we will be able to heed the vision Jesus offers now of all of us growing alongside each other and we will be free to get on with the mission Jesus has given us, the mission of proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, or as it was expressed in the Parable of the Sower we read last Sunday, to get on scattering seeds of love, grace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, welcome, embrace and inclusion with reckless abandon, flinging as much seed of God’s Kingdom as possibly, as far and wide as possible, – trusting in God’s future and leaving that future in God’s hands.
19 July 2026 - Canon Ric’s Sermon
Loving God, we offer to you that which is here spoken, heard and thought. Accept, we pray, that which is worthy of you and in the abundance of your grace, forgive that which is unworthy. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Once upon a time, when I was in my second year of theological studies, Heather and I lived next door to a fellow who was a self-declared born again Christian. One day he came to our front door holding a beautiful leather-bound book that he could not wait to show me – it was as if he so wanted to make a good impression on me, the not-yet-but-soon-to-be Pastor.
He excitedly opened the book and began to show me how extraordinarily fantastic it was because it gave a full, expansive, in-depth, indisputable and decisive explanation of each and every parable Jesus ever told. “Isn’t this wonderful”, he declared as he showed me how each and every detail of each and every parable was given a thorough allegorical interpretation. And he eagerly explained that each interpretation not only revealed but fully explained the secret meaning and the absolute truth about God and Jesus that, though hidden, were symbolically present in every parable.
Clearly, someone had put a great deal of creative effort into producing such a definitive resource, a resource that explained absolutely everything and removed all doubt about what the parables of Jesus meant. It was quite the book.
Well, as it turns out, we have such an allegorical interpretation of a parable in the gospel passage assigned for today. It is one of two such parable interpretations in the Gospels – both of which appear only in the Gospel we ascribe to Matthew. Out of the dozens of parables of Jesus recorded in all of the New Testament (depending on which “authority” you hitch your wagon to there are anywhere from 33 to 60 of them), the only two parables that come with an explanation of their meaning are the Parable of the Sower, which we have just read, and the Parable of the Weeds, which we’re going to read next Sunday.
As the early Jesus Movement evolved into the Church and became increasingly institutional and as the return of Jesus the Christ became less and less immanent, the practice of seeking to reveal the secret, hidden teachings of Jesus locked within the stories he told by creating elaborate allegorical explanations grew and became the dominant and accepted method of understanding his parables.
One stunning example of such allegorical interpretation is that of the early Christian theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine of Hippo who lived from 354 CE to 430 CE. Augustine’s creative imagination uncovered all sorts of exquisite, though complicated and puzzling, hidden meaning in the parables. The most famous of his innovative interpretations is his elaborate allegorical explanation of one of my all-time favorite parables, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Here is what Augustine said the parable was all about:
the man going down the road was Adam leaving the city of heavenly peace
therefore, Jerusalem, in that the man was going down from there, was the heavenly city of peace from whose blessedness Adam fell
Jericho was the moon and signified our mortality, because the moon is born, waxes, wanes and dies
the robbers who beat the man were the Devil and his angels
the stripping of the man (remember, that’s Adam) was the stripping away of his immortality
the beating of the man (still Adam) was to encourage the man to sin (and here Augustine understood Adam to represent all humanity hence, the beating of the man was leading all humanity into sin)
leaving the man (still Adam) half dead – well, this one is a bit strained – Augustine said that in so far as man can understand and know God, he lives, but in so far as he is wasted and oppressed by sin, he is dead – he is, therefore, called half-dead
the Priest and the Levite symbolize the Law of Israel and the Prophets of Israel, which, in turn, symbolize the Old Testament, which could profit nothing for salvation
of course, the Samaritan is Jesus Christ
the binding of the man’s wounds by the Samaritan is the restraint of sin
the oil is the comfort of good hope
the wine is an exhortation to work with a fervent spirit
the Samaritans beast is the Body of Christ
the man set upon the beast indicated belief in the Incarnation of the Christ
the Inn is the Church
the morrow (when the Samaritan would return) signified the time after the resurrection of the Lord
the two denarii the Samaritan gave to the Innkeeper could be either the two precepts of love, that is loving God and loving neighbor OR the promise of this life and the life which is to come
and finally, the Innkeeper was the Apostle Paul
Completely lost in Augustine’s elaborate deconstruction of this parable is the context in which Jesus told it. Completely ignored are the original question the lawyer asked to test Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” and the secondary question the lawyers asked to justify himself, “Who is my neighbor?” which, of course, is the question the parable was intended to address. Completely overlooked is Jesus’ brilliant and confrontational twisting of things, how Jesus flipped the question from “Who is my neighbor?” to “Who proved to be a neighbor?” And most significantly, Jesus’ exhortation to “Go and do likewise” is completely unheeded.
This form of allegorical interpretation of the parables of Jesus, or dare I say this inclination to impose our theology onto the teachings of Jesus, of trying to make the words of Jesus say what we want them to say, dominated Christianity until the late 1800’s when the German biblical scholar and exegete Adolf Jülicher (26 January 1857 – 2 August 1938) broke this centuries long habit, arguing that each parable may have only one point of comparison between the story and what it represented. Jülicher made a strong distinction between parable and allegory and claimed that a true allegory was a literary style that Jesus was not aware of and did not use. Consequently, all specific allegorical interpretations of the parables, whether by the author of the book my neighbor once showed me, by early Church Fathers like Augustine or in the gospels themselves, must have come from sources other than the lips of the historical Jesus. Since Jülicher, this understanding that parables are not allegorical, that they are not filled with hidden symbolic meaning needing fanciful interpretation has dominated Christian scholarly discussion of the parables.
And so then, what do we make of the Parable of the Sower that we have heard today?
Well, before we go on I have a confession to make. I rant a lot. Hard to believe, I know, but ask Heather. She’ll confirm that I rant about all sorts of things - in fact, one of my favorite lines is, “Another indication of the moral decline of our society!”
In our contemporary world we hear daily of all manner of hard, rocky and thorny things. Ongoing conflict, terrorism, violence and unspeakable atrocities occur on the global platform. Closer to home, each day we hear about another shooting or stabbing, a fatal accident on our roads, another home invasion, brutal robbery, random act of violence or hate motivated attack. Impaired and distracted driving is an ongoing concern. Political corruption seems almost commonplace. People steal, cheat, lie, deceive, commit fraud, harm children, abuse their spouse and spit on the sidewalk.
My, oh my, I sure can find a lot to rant about! Some of the pathways of our society have been compacted hard as concrete, pounded down by violence and hatred and prejudice and greed. Some of the ground of our society is rocky, filled with shards of broken glass and discarded items that came with built in obsolescence and people we toss aside because they don’t think like we think, act like we act, look like we look or believe what we believe. Some of the ground of our society is filled with thorns such as those ne’er-do-wells who live life with a highly developed sense of self-entitlement, people who want something for nothing, people who expect to have others pay their way for them, people who take at the expense of others, people who refuse to accept the consequences of their action.
Indeed, a whole bunch of the ground of our society is not fit for planting.
So, what then are we to make of this Parable of the Sower? What does Jesus have to say to us in this parable?
Well, that all depends on whether we impose on it all the elaborate hidden meanings of our fanciful allegorical interpretations or whether we have ears to hear, as Jesus put it.
We must remember that Jesus told this parable following some significant conflict with the Pharisees and following a demand that he give some sign, some proof of the truth of what he said and taught. It was a volatile time in the life of Jesus, in the life of his ministry and in the life of those who followed him, listened to him and dared to repeat his words. It was a questionable, precarious time of doubt and uncertainty for that ragtag community of beloved outcast, sinners, fishermen, tax collectors and miss-fits who followed Jesus. What was going to happen? Where was it all going? I can hear the disciples saying, “Nothing is going as we thought it would Jesus! Your message isn’t getting through. We believed that your message about the Kingdom of God was going to take over the whole world…..but look! It seems hopeless. This is not why I left everything to follow you! Man oh man, has God ever let us down!” It was indeed a precarious moment for that ragtag group of Jesus followers.
But then Jesus said to them, “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen...other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain…..” thirtyfold, sixtyfold, one hundredfold.
“What was that, Jesus? Other seeds? Good soil? Grain?”
Allegorical interpretation of this parable, or any parable for that matter, does not get to the truth Jesus sought to share! This parable isn’t a parable about agriculture or farming practices, though it uses an agricultural image. The point of the story isn’t how foolish the sower was because he so carelessly threw the seed all over the place. Actually, the farmer was farming as farmers farmed at that time in the land of the Holy One – it is called broadcast seeding. Copious amounts of seed was flung freely and yes, some landed on unhospitable soil - that was to be expected and it was not thought to be a waste of labour or seed. Some seed always fell on good soil. Jesus knew that! And the parable is not about what kind of soil you are or what kind of soil I am. It is not a code book to determine what kind of soil your neighbor is so that you can put them in the appropriate category of either “with us” or “agin us”.
Jesus said that even though we are surrounded by unsuitable, weary, fallow and hostile ground there is also good soil from which will come waves of grain. If Jülicher is right, the one point of this parable is the hope, expectancy and confidence of the sower. This is a parable of hope and Jesus is filled with joyful confidence - he is confident in God’s future - the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled.
Rather than cast condemning eyes on our world, wondering where all the good Christians moved off to and why we have to exist alongside all these ne’er-do-wells, the parable of the sower calls us, calls me, to trust that we are not, that I am not, the Lord of the harvest - the state of our society, the state of the soil of society, is not ours, is not mine, to fret about let alone control.
Rather than split hairs of theological principle, rather than stress over members lost, rather than rant over the condition of the world we live in (as I am wont to do), rather than seeking to discover the next thing that indicates the moral decline of our society, the parable of the sower calls us to sow seeds of love and grace and mercy and compassion and forgiveness and tolerance and welcome and embrace and inclusion with reckless abandon, broadcasting those seeds over all the ground that surrounds us - not worrying about where the seed will fall but concerned only with flinging as much seed as possible as far as possible with joyful expectation and with trust and confidence in God’s future.
Maybe this doesn't sound so much like the way society encourages and expects us to behave, not the way the marketplace does business … but it sure does sound faithful.
12 July 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
Let’s pray. Gracious and loving God, as we hear your truth may we live your truth and boldly share the good news of your Kingdom. We pray in the name of Jesus, your anointed one and our Lord. Amen.
At the end of today’s passage from the Gospel we attribute to Matthew we heard Jesus say to the crowds,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Those words of Jesus are so very well know across Christian denominations. They are beloved by many. For some they may even come close to being sacred words – after all, as those of you who are long-time Anglicans like me will recall, the first sentence found its way into the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Book of Common Prayer. Certainly they seem to be words of comfort that bring us the assurance of a kind and gentle Jesus, a soft Jesus and maybe even a meek and mild Jesus - the kind of Jesus described in the words of one of the thousands of hymns penned by the prolific eighteenth century hymn writer Charles Wesley. Here are Mr. Wesley’s words:
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child;
Pity my simplicity, suffer me to come to Thee.
Lamb of God, I look to Thee, thou shalt my example be;
Thou art gentle, meek, and mild, thou wast once a little child.
Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb, in Thy gracious hands I am;
Make me, Saviour, what Thou art, live Thyself within my heart.
Removed from their Gospel context, these words of Jesus,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
… may well lead us to think that Jesus is demure, benign, placid, perhaps even submissive; and though he is but the gentle lamb, he nonetheless holds us and shields us from all the weariness, worries, anxieties and nasty realities of our human lives. Wouldn’t it be lovely if, the moment we confessed our faith in Jesus the Lamb of God, all our worries vanished, our financial concerns evaporated, our hurts were healed, rifts were mended, differences were resolved, complications were ironed smooth and our health issues ceased to be? As Eliza Doolittle sings in the musical My Fair Lady “Wouldn't it be loverly, loverly, loverly?”
However, the truth is, that is not the reality of Jesus or of our faith. We all know that bad things happen to good people. We all face times when we are weary or when we are carrying heavy burdens. To think that Jesus is promising us a lifetime hall pass from the realities of being human seems somewhat illogical and contrary to lived experience. It is, actually, beyond the scope of my wildest imagination to think that these words of Jesus from the end of the eleventh chapter of the Gospel ascribed to Matthew are promising us a life without difficulty or hardship.
So, let’s take a closer look at these words that appear only in the Gospel ascribed to Matthew.
If we would like to truly understand these words we need to look at them not in isolation but in the context in which they were spoken. Prior to Jesus speaking these words is the well-known story of when John the Baptist was in prison and he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was, indeed, the Messiah. Jesus replied simply by telling John’s disciples to go and tell John what they had heard Jesus say and seen Jesus do. According to the author of the Gospel of Matthew, the exact words Jesus said were,
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5)
Having said that to the disciples of John, Jesus began to talk to the crowds that were around him. Please note, his words to the crowd were neither meek nor mild. Quite the contrary, they were stern and harsh, perhaps even critical and reprimanding. Speaking to the crowds who had flooded out to see John, Jesus said,
“What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ (Matthew 11:7-10)
He continued by ranting and blustering about how all the prophets before John had been treated and that John might even be the expected Elijah. His stern and chastising words continued with the accusation that the people had not listened to John, though they had rushed out into the desert to hear him and now, they were not listening to him either. Then, awe yes, then Jesus spoke some dramatically chiding words, words we did hear in today’s Gospel reading,
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Matthew 11:18-19)
I have to say, to this point in the text I see nothing of a meek and mild, gentle little lamb. But let me go on.
Jesus was not yet done – he had more to say. There are five verses, verses we skipped over today, that recount what are perhaps the most incriminating words Jesus spoke that day so long ago. The narrator of the Gospel of Matthew states that Jesus,
“began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent.” (Matthew 11:20)
And those words of reproach were nothing short of damning words - the tirade of Jesus went on,
‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’ (Matthew 11:21-24)
Wow! Wow!
But then ….. then Jesus shifted gears. He became prayerful, saying,
‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” (Matthew 11:25-26)
There is no doubt that Jesus was often critical of the religious elite of his time. Indeed, he was more than unsympathetic toward them; he was often disparaging and disapproving of them. They wearied Jesus and Jesus accused them of wearying people, laying upon them the heavy burden of their particular interpretation and practice of the Law with its numerous restrictions and demands. In the eyes of Jesus, the ritual observations demanded by the religious authorities ignored human need. They imposed the letter of the Law but neglected the spirit of the Law.
Jesus saw that the people were burdened and weighed down by all the legalistic do’s and don’ts imposed on them by the religious authorities. The religious elite saw themselves as those who sat in Moses’ seat, that is, they claimed the authority of Moses as their own. They saw themselves as the sole and definitive interpreters and teachers (and might I add, enforcers) of the Law of Moses. Those who fell under Mosaic Law were yoked to Moses and, by extension, they were yoked to the heavy burdens imposed on them by the religious authorities of the time.
It is from those religious authorities, those religious elite, the ones who were, at least in their own eyes, the wise and intelligent ones, that the truth of the Kingdom of God was hidden not because Jesus refused to share it with them but because of their own determined adherence to, demand for and dependence on the religious legalism they themselves had created.
It was in the midst of and despite that oppressive religious reality that Jesus proclaimed that the truth of the kingdom of God would be revealed to infants and it is at that moment that the prayer of Jesus turned to invitation,
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
It is not that Jesus is inviting us into a dewy-eyed, uncomplicated, warm and fuzzy life of ease; following Jesus does not transport us into an alternate reality that is free of the ups and downs, complications, blind sides and all the other inevitabilities of our human existence. Truth be told, truly following Jesus is not always the easiest thing to do. But life yoked to Jesus rather than life yoked to the heavy burden imposed by religious legalism, is life lived in the Kingdom of the God of all creation. The “easy” yoke of Jesus is freedom from the artificial and oppressive burdens of religious institutions created by human minds and it is the invitation to participate with Jesus in the mission of God in this world. We will find rest for our souls when we are yoked to the one in whom God’s Kingdom of justice and mercy and love and compassion and welcome and embrace is breaking into this world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
5 July 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon
28 June 2026 - guest celebrant Reverend Steve Smith’s sermon
Let me begin with a story about Jared and his dad who were playing a game of catch one afternoon, when Jared asked, “Dad, is there a God?”
Joe had a helpless feeling because he didn’t know the answer. And while a number of trite answers raced through his mind in the end he opted for honesty, “I don’t know, Jared,” he replied.
Yet Joe’s agnosticism failed to stifle his son’s curiosity. So Jared continued, “If there is a God, how would you know him?”
“I really have no idea, Jared. I only went to church a couple of times when I was a kid, so I don’t know a lot about those kinds of things.”
Jared seemed deep in thought for a few minutes, then suddenly, he headed for the house. “I’ll be right, back,” he yelled over his shoulder. “I have to get something.” Jared soon returned with a helium filled balloon fresh from a birthday party along with a pen and an index card.
“Jared, what in the world are you doing?” Joe asked.
“I’m going to send a message to God via airmail,” the boy earnestly replied.
Before Joe could protest, Jared started writing on the index card, “Dear God, if you are real and if you are there, send people who know you to Dad and me.”
Joe kept his mouth shut, not wanting to dampen his son’s enthusiasm. But he thought — this is silly — as he helped Jared fasten the card to the balloon’s string. But even still, he added a silent petition; God, I hope you’re watching.
After Jared let go of the balloon, father and son stood with their faces to the sky and watched it sail away.
Two days later, Joe and Jared pulled into a free car wash at the mall that a church was holding as part of their outreach into the community. “How much?” Joe asked as he neared the line of buckets, sponges and hoses.
“It’s free,” the man told him. “No strings attached.”
“Really!” Joe exclaimed. He was intrigued by getting something for nothing. “But why are you doing this?”
“We just want to show you God’s love in a practical way.”
And so it was as if that simple statement opened a hidden door to Joe’s heart. The look on his face was incredible, “Wait a minute,” he practically shouted. “Are you guys Christians?”
“Yeah, we’re Christians,” the man replied.
“Are you the kind of Christians who believe in God?”
The man couldn’t help but smile, “Yes, we’re that kind of Christians.”
After directing a big grin at Jared, Joe proceeded to tell the story of releasing the helium balloon with its message only days earlier. “I guess you’re the answer to one of the strangest prayers God’s ever received,” Joe said.
In our gospel this morning Jesus speaks of the practicality of living the Christian life.
Christianity and our relationship with God is personal, but it is not meant to be private. Our life with God is a life that is designed to touch others in practical ways.
So this morning I want us to look at 3 principles of how to share Jesus in Practical Ways
PRINCIPLE number 1. DO a small thing to show the main thing of God’s love at work.
So here’s a “What would you do challenge?”
You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An older woman who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car.
You could pick up the older woman, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first;
Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to repay him.
However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.
But how about saying: “I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. And I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman or man of my dreams.”
Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."
Jesus challenges his disciples and us in today’s gospel and in other places to do the small thing to show God’s love at work.
In Matthew 10, it is giving a cup of cold water. In John 13, the night before he dies, he washes his disciples feet and then challenges them to love others.
Again in John, he says: Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.
Do the small thing to show the main thing of God’s love at work. We never fully know what small act of kindness will touch and transform a life.
I liked this true story.
John Bowes, chairman of the parent company of Wham-O—the maker of Frisbees — once sent thousands of the plastic flying discs to an orphanage in Angola, Africa. He thought the children there would enjoy playing with them.
Several months later, a representative of the company visited the orphanage. One of the nuns thanked him for the wonderful “plates” that his company had sent them. She told him the children were eating off the Frisbees, carrying water with them, and even catching fish with them. When the representative explained how the Frisbees were intended to be used, the nun was even more delighted that the children would also be able to enjoy them as toys.
You never fully know how a life will be touched by a small act of kindness, but God does.
Jesus once gave us a hint of the impact that doing the small thing to show the main thing of God’s love at work when he said:
When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.” “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.”
The second principle of how to share Jesus is to understand that simple acts DONE with great love will change the world.
Jesus puts it this way this morning, I can guarantee this truth: Whoever gives any of my humble followers a cup of cold water because that person is my disciple will certainly never lose his reward.
God’s desire is to use you and me with simple acts done with great love to change our world.
In the Middle East the peace process is way off-track. Palestinians carry out suicide bombings, and the Israeli military seeks to destroy Gaza, and the temperature seems to continue to rise.
Jesus was once asked what it meant to love one’s neighbour. The person asking the question figured he was already doing this, so he was hoping to look good in front of others. Instead Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. If he were speaking to a Jewish audience in Israel today, it would be the parable of the Good Palestinian. A man traveling along the road is mugged, robbed, and left for dead. Two fellow Jews eventually pass by, but cross to the other side. One who goes by is a priest, the other is a Levite, you would expect them to stop. Instead it is a Samaritan — the Jews #1 enemy — who stops and cares for this man, bandages him up, gets him a hotel room to recover, then Jesus asks his questioner this question, ” Of these three men, who do you think was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by robbers?”The man said, “The one who was kind enough to help him.” Jesus told him, “Go and imitate his example!”
Israel and Palestine’s hope for peace will require that kind of love. Simple acts done with great love will change the world.
God’s simple act of Christ’s death offers to change our world, and invites us to reach out and to change the world of others by sharing His love in practical ways.
My principle number 3 is: We need to realize our “service power” is not based on who I am, but who JESUS is THROUGH me.
But I don’t want any of us to get caught up in the guilt of not doing enough to show that love, or feeling horrible at how inadequate our love might seem.
I think the challenge is that we often try to love under our own power, but we forget that the power to share Jesus in practical ways comes from Christ.
Paul knew this, even when imprisoned, he knew and experienced the power of Christ at work, that’s why he tells the Philippians and us “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Salvation and life with God is not by my power, but by what Christ has done.
This is a story about a Sunday School teacher who asked her class, "If I sold my house and my car, and had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into Heaven?" NO"! the children all answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into Heaven"? Again, the answer was "NO"!
The teacher continued, “Well then how can I get to Heaven?" In the back of the room, a 5 yr. old boy shouted out, "You gotta be dead"!
We get into heaven not by what we do, but by what Christ has done for us. The power of the life we live in love towards God and others flows out of God working in our hearts.
Jesus on the night before he dies prays for this to happen in our lives when he prays, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me”
Nike commercials challenge us to “Just do it!”
Sharing Jesus in practical ways with a cup of cold water, with a meal, with words of prayer, a listening ear, a ride to the doctor and in so many other ways is a call to — just do it. Yet we need to always remember why we just do it.
Our actions flow out of the realization that Jesus did it. He died for us. He gives us life eternal. He empowers us with His presence.
He challenges us to live out our purpose not only in the big moments of life, but in all of its little ones as well, even a cup of cold water given in his name.
I believe that when we do the small thing we show the main thing of God’s love at work.
I also know that we understand simple acts done with great love will change the world. And that we realize our service power is not based on who I am, but who Jesus is through me.
And I really believe that those simple acts done in love — that often seem so small — yet when you reflect on it you realize that God really is at work through them.
And that it is then that you discover the great life of sharing Jesus in small practical ways.
Amen.
Loving God, may only your truth be spoken and only your truth be heard. This we pray in the name of Jesus, your anointed one, the Christ and our Lord. Amen.
Today’s reading from the Gospel we attribute to Matthew picks up from where we left of last Sunday. Recall that Jesus was out and about proclaiming the very same message that John the Baptizer had proclaimed, that the Kingdom of God was at hand. The author of the Gospel told us that Jesus saw that the crowds, the common, every day, hardworking folks he cared so much about, were harassed and helpless. The author likened those people to sheep without a shepherd. Jesus himself likened those shepherd-less sheep to a bountiful harvest – a metaphor for people ripe and ready to hear the good news of the Kingdom of God. But alas, in that there were so many in need of hearing the good news, or, following through with the metaphor, in that the harvest was so great, more harvesters, that is more proclaimers of the good news, were needed. So Jesus asked his disciples to ask God to raise up more people to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God.
In an ironic twist – twelve of the disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, were chosen by Jesus to become those proclaimers of the good news. And in that moment those twelve were no longer just disciples, that is, students of Jesus, they were now also Apostles, those being sent with a message – in this case, the message that the Kingdom of God was at hand, that the power and presence of God was alive.
But before Jesus sent out those twelve, he gave them a send-off speech. The first part of that speech, which we heard last Sunday, included some specific instructions about where they were to go, what they could and could not take with them and how they were supposed to act.
That was the easy part. Jesus went on to tell the twelve no-longer-just-disciples-but-now-Apostles that he was sending them out like sheep among the wolves and that they should be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves. I would think that such an ominous statement most certainly would have made the twelve sit up and take notice.
You’re going to be like sheep among wolves – probably not the most encouraging first line for a motivational speech. And it only got worse from there. This send-off speech of Jesus went on to tell the twelve, in grave detail, about all the trials and tribulations that awaited them and named aloud the hardships they should expect to face. Then, in the latter half of his send-off speech, that part we have heard today, Jesus continued to describe worst case scenarios. To say that he was warning the twelve that the world was not always going to be warm and welcoming is quite possibly the greatest, the quintessential, understatement! Jesus spoke hard, frightening words. The twelve were about to head out on a collision course with the powers of this world. Sheep among wolves, novice message bearers being sent into the world where powerful forces worked against good and healing and hope and opposed embrace and restoration and liberation. The words of reassurance and calls to resist fear that Jesus wove into his speech seem nothing more than cold comfort in light of the radical kind of commitment he was asking for.
Yes, there is a great deal that is frightening in the words before us now. There is very little comfortable or easy about them. I must say, these are not verses that I would ever use to try and attract people to follow Jesus or become Christian. They are hard words. But we must remember that the largely Jewish community of Jesus followers Matthew was writing to lived in times hostile to the Jesus movement. They would have known from personal experience the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. In all likelihood some would have found the cost too high and so may have disavowed Jesus, turning back to ways that were safer. But those who remained true would have known the reality of being a vulnerable minority in a hostile culture. And so, the author of the Gospel of Matthew brought together many of the primary teachings of Jesus about the stark reality of discipleship into this section of his Gospel into which he wove words of reassurance and encouragement – the most important element of which was the assurance of divine love conveyed in the affirmations that in the eyes of God we are of more value than many sparrows and that God knows each and every hair on our heads. It seems to me that Matthew was encouraging his readers to hold firm to their new faith - not denying the problems they would face but assuring them of the blessings experienced in Kingdom living and affirming God’s abundant love for them.
We may understand all this, but my guess is that we do not necessarily relate to it. We know that early members of the Jesus movement such as the community of Jesus followers Matthew was writing for – who only later came to be called Christians – were not only ridiculed but persecuted. We know that St. Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus before he was knocked off his horse, was a zealous Jewish Pharisee who violently persecuted members of the early Jesus movement. But such things came to an end when, about 315 AD, Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome from 306 to 337 AD, issued the Edict of Milan which decriminalized Christian practice and declared that Christianity was the official religion of the Empire. Thus the persecution of Christians ended.
Most certainly, since the fourth century, in some parts of the world, Christians have continued to face persecution. Just not in our Western world. For the most part, Western Christianity has enjoyed the luxury of supremacy, privilege and influence. That luxury removed the urgency we find in today’s Gospel passage. That luxury opened Christianity to the temptation of comfortable routine if not complacency in which the Gospel and its radical call to discipleship were watered-down.
We should not water-down the Gospel and its call to discipleship.
Jesus laid the mission before the twelve - they were to go into the world and make known all that they had heard, to uncover things that the world may well prefer keep hidden and to proclaim a message that the world would try to silence. And it was not going to be piece of cake. It would not be a walk in the park.
The thing of it is that though Christianity in the Western world has enjoyed the luxury of supremacy, privilege and influence since the fourth century, the times they are a-changin’, as the great twentieth century philosopher Bob Dylan put it. The times they are a-changin’.
Even though Christianity has and is experiencing growth in other global regions, we in the Western world (including North America and Europe) now live in what is called a post-Christian world. Over recent decades there has been a cultural shift where Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion or the primary moral compass of society. Christendom is dying, if not already dead and society has moved to distance itself from the Gospel.
Increasingly we live in a culture not unlike the one that surrounded Matthew and the Jesus followers for whom the Gospel of Matthew was written. Though we may not be facing hostility as did the pre-Christian Jesus Movement, we do face apathy, disinterest and consequently, increasing irrelevance. In the last five or six decades Christianity has transitioned from being the “default” societal culture to a counter-culture or minority voice. No longer can we assume that people have any acquaintance at all with the Bible, the teachings of Jesus or Christian values.
However, an article published by The Gospel Coalition in July, 2021 stated, “While it’s true that the traditional institutions and forms of religion do not have the same influence they once did, it is likewise true that contemporary culture in the West is inarguably, even aggressively, religious.” Ah ha, the harvest is plentiful.
Perhaps then, the words from the Gospel attributed to Matthew that we have read today are relevant, even essential for us today. We post-Christendom Jesus followers are in a very similar boat as those pre-Christendom Jesus followers – living in a culture that is not at all shaped by the teachings and values of Jesus which are the bedrock of Christianity. And like the twelve who courageously went out as lambs among the wolves to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, so too are we to go into the world, follow Jesus to the margins of society and be the love of the Christ in all situations of life. We too are called to be Apostles, sent into the world to share the good news of God’s Kingdom by the way we live and move and have our being - to borrow the words of the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:28). For in a world that seems to be increasingly estranged from God, living the Gospel is the most powerful proclamation of the presence of God that we can make.
And as we go into the world may we do so in the sure knowledge that we are loved by God. Amen.
Sunday 21 June 2026 - Canon Ric’s sermon