Category: Minister

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/YhLxMd6LKSs

Hespeler, January 25, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1, 4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23

Last week, as you know, I came to you with some pretty stunning news. Somehow, and amazingly, the Apostle Paul had reached out to us down through the centuries and, together with a guy named Sosthenes, had sent us a card to celebrate our first anniversary.

I know you were all as blown away by that as I was. I thought that it was just going to be a one-time event. I mean, surely Paul wouldn’t employ his time-travelling Post Office to write to us again, would he?

Well, I’m sure you know the answer to that question because we all read it together this morning, didn’t we? We continued to read through Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, and you surely noticed how directly it was addressed to us where we are today, starting the second year of our journey as a congregation together.

Problems Addressed

After his opening words of celebration for how far they have come together and encouragement for the future, Paul turns, in our reading this morning, to some of the problems and struggles that still lie before him. And he begins with the one that troubles him most – the trouble they are having being united.

A woman in the congregation, no doubt a local leader whom he greatly respects, has sent messengers to him, he says. “For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters,” he writes.

The problem, you see, is that certain things set them apart from one another. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it seems as if they all came from different churches. “What I mean,” Paul says, “is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’”

Belonging

Note the wording there. It is all about where they belong and to whom they belong. Belonging is one of the most essential building blocks of your identity. You primarily know who you are because you know where you belong.

Belonging is all about the places where you feel at home. It is about the people you feel like you can be yourself with. It is also about those things that you care about enough to support and defend.

That is why, whenever people talk about their identity, they speak of things like their family, their hometown, their nationality and the people they spend time with. And if a church is a strong and healthy community, people typically find a key part of their identity in their church.

Where They Find Their Identity

But these folks in Corinth, Paul tells us, are finding their identity in something other than their church. They speak of different teachers who were there at different times – Paul, Apollos and Cephas – and finding their identity in them. Now, all of these teachers, including Paul, had been there in the past. They made a big impression for a while, and then they moved on.

So, when these believers speak of “belonging” to these teachers, what they are essentially saying is that they find their Christian identity in those past eras.

In addition, some of them are saying that they belong to Christ. And that may be an attempt on their part to ground their identity in an ongoing reality as Christ continued to be with the church. But the fact that the people saying this are creating yet another faction within the church rather than bringing everyone together indicates that they are not living that identity out in helpful ways.

Quarrelling

Now, there are some ways in which I do not recognize us and our situation in this part of Paul’s letter. He speaks about people quarrelling in the church and says that this is so disturbing that Chloe has gone out of her way to bring it to his attention. Well, I am glad to say that I have not seen any of that sort of quarrel in our congregation.

Do we disagree sometimes or see things from different points of view? Absolutely. And that kind of disagreement is normal and healthy. It would actually be a bad sign if we didn’t have any of that. But where we have disagreed, we have been committed to working those matters out peaceably and in a spirit of harmony.

So, Paul wouldn’t chew us out for quarrelling. But he would be concerned about how we see ourselves and our belonging in the church. I am sure that he would appeal to us by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of us be in agreement and that there be no divisions among us, but that we be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.

Our Belonging

So, ask yourself how you think of your belonging in the church. Because of our amalgamation, I know that it can be easy to fall into the thinking of ourselves in those terms – I belonged to Knox, I belonged to St. Andrew’s. Even more important, it is tempting to think of others in those terms – they belonged to St. Andrew’s, or they belonged to Knox.

We may also struggle to acknowledge newcomers – those who have come in the last year or so. If they don’t have that connection of belonging to the past, we may not be sure how they can belong.

I realize, of course, that that history is important and knowing where we belonged can help us understand how we react to things now. But belonging that is primarily anchored in past realities is not going to help us to embrace the identity that God is giving to us now.

And it is at this point that I think it is fitting to throw in a now famous quote from a world leader: “Nostalgia is not a strategy.” That may certainly be true in global politics right now, but it is always been true of the church.

Baptism

So, our belonging is an important part of our identity that Paul is drawing our attention to today. Immediately after discussing belonging, Paul appears to change the subject and begin talking about baptism.

“I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,” he writes, “so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.” And I know that it’s a little bit funny that he then immediately corrects himself and admits that he did also baptize the household of Stephanas. Then ultimately, he confesses that he doesn’t really remember who he baptized.

But the question is, why does that even matter? What does that have to do with their issues around identity? Well, it turns out, a whole lot. We might miss this because, as you know, it is a common practice in the Presbyterian Church to baptize people as infants. As a result of that, I imagine, many of you here today don’t actually remember your baptisms.

Key Moments in Your Life

That was not the case for the church in Corinth. It was a new church, which meant that, for the great majority of them (except perhaps of some infants in the household of Stephanas), the memories of their baptisms were very fresh. They had chosen for themselves to be baptized, and it marked a very significant turning point in their lives. And those kinds of life changing experiences are generally pivotal for somebody’s sense of identity.

We, as modern Christians in the Presbyterian tradition, may not have had that particular experience in the church. But we have had other similar experiences. The church has been given a great privilege in our society to be associated with so many life-changing moments.

Think of all the experiences you have had that transformed your life that were associated with the church. Your profession of faith, your wedding, the baptism of your children, the funeral of a loved one. Perhaps a clergy person or chaplain was there with you when someone you loved passed away. There is no denying how life-changing such experiences can be, and many of them happened for us within the church.

In addition, you probably have had moments, however fleeting, in the life of the church when you felt the closer presence of God or when some deep truth finally made sense to you. There have been moments of profound joy and of deep sorrow. There have been times when someone was there for you when you needed it most.

Those are all experiences that can set or change the course of our lives. As such, they really do make us who we are. And I know that many of you have had those experiences in church. I have too. And I know that they are essential to your identity.

Why Paul Is Glad Not to Baptize Them

So why, then, does Paul say that he is glad to have not been there for such pivotal moments in the lives of the people in Corinth? Is he trying to downplay the importance of such moments for their sense of identity? Of course not.

Rather, he is saying that such experiences are so important that you cannot tie them to a particular place or person. They transcend the particular circumstances that you were in when you had them. And so, you need to set them free from being tied to particular places and people.

God is not limited to particular places or people. That experience you had of God in the church or that particular commitment you made or that feeling you expressed was a gift that God gave to you to transform you. You carry that experience or that commitment with you wherever you may go.

Your baptism was not effective because it was performed by Paul. The quality of your marriage is not guaranteed because it happened in this church or that church. You did not receive comfort for your grief because of where you mourned.

All of those things changed your life because God was there for you in that moment and because God has not abandoned you since and never will. That is why Paul declares, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.”

The Letter to Us Continues

So, it turns out that it is not just the opening passage of this letter that we read last week that has been written for our church today. As we continue into the opening chapter, I can hear Paul speaking to us across the centuries. He is encouraging us to think in constructive ways about our identity.

We do not forget, of course, where we have found belonging in the past. And we certainly do not let go of those significant moments where God has been there for us and that have set the course of our lives. But I believe that God is today encouraging us to ground our identity in something new.

May God truly bind us together in Christ today. Let us find our belonging in the people whom God has given us right now. And let us never stop expecting that Christ will invite us to new experiences of God’s presence. Christ will place before us new opportunities to choose to follow in God’s path.

We are God’s people. That is our identity. Other things may come and go. We do not need to fear that we have lost ourselves so long as we remember that.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/Q0Ag0xTGTYw

Hespeler, January 18, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Anniversary Sunday
Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 40:1-11, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42 (see also Acts 18:1-17)

One year ago, as you all know, we embarked on a strange new journey together. We took two Presbyterian congregations with different histories and different self-understandings, and we brought them together. And I know that there are two ways of looking at what we did.

Sameness or Change

One way to look at it is as an exercise in sameness. We can see it as one congregation that has just continued to do what it has always done and to be what it has always been, with the addition of some new people on one hand. And on the other, a congregation continuing to do and be what it has always done and been in a new place with some other people.

But the other way to look at it is as an exercise in change – to see it as the two former congregations ceasing to exist as they were to become a new thing together.

The reality, of course, is that it is a bit of a mix of both of those things. We obviously have not given up on all of our old traditions and ministries over the past year. In many ways, we have been doing our best to maintain and even enhance some of them. We have also not yet let go of some old identity markers such as names and structures.

Leading with Change

There is a lot of comfort in keeping things the same as much as possible. And, as the old proverb goes, we don’t really want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We don’t want to let go of what was working and what was vital to our churches.

Nevertheless, I don’t think it is helpful to understand what we did last year as an exercise in sameness. The change we have engaged in has to be more important than any continuity that we have brought along with us.

For as much as we may have loved how we were as separate congregations before a year ago, the reality is that what we were doing was not working as well as it once did. The reality is that the church is going to have to change if it is going to remain relevant and meaningful in the future.

That is why we must see this as an opportunity, given to us by God, to reinvent ourselves. It’s why we called what happened last year a marriage. That is why we call today our first anniversary.

Paul in Corinth

And that is what makes our reading this morning from the First Letter to the Corinthians so meaningful. The church in Corinth was a church that had been founded by the Apostle Paul. He just showed up one day preaching Jesus to them. A number of people responded and formed a church together.

And then Paul left, moving on to his next project. But the new church in Corinth had some problems after he left. And so, some time later, Paul heard about their struggles, and he sent them a card – this First Letter to the Corinthians – to help them sort some of this stuff out.

Now, we don’t actually know how long after he had left that Paul wrote this letter, but I’m just going to say that it was exactly one year later. I’m going to say that he sent it for their first anniversary because, you know what, I think that what Paul wrote to them may be exactly what we need to hear today.

Paul and Sosthenes

For example, let me start with the opening line of the letter. Actually, I have already misrepresented it to you because I said it was a letter from Paul to the church, but it was not. The letter actually starts by identifying the writers: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes.”

So actually, it isn’t a card from Paul; it is a card from Paul and Sosthenes. And we might say, “So what?” We don’t know who Sosthenes was, and he is not even mentioned again in the letter. Well, we might not know who he was, but the Corinthians did. And the naming of this man at the top of this letter spoke volumes to them about how they had come to be a new church together.

Acts 18

Sosthenes’ story is told in the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Acts. There we are told that, when Paul first came to Corinth, he actually caused them a fair bit of trouble. He showed up in the synagogue and started preaching about Jesus.

Now, the Synagogue in Corinth had many Jews in it. But they also had several Gentiles who weren’t considered acceptable by the Jews, but they hung around because they found the Jewish idea of God intriguing. They also offered generous financial support.

Well, when Paul came along, he preached that even Gentiles could be acceptable to God because of Jesus. Not surprisingly, the Gentiles in the synagogue found that message very interesting. They began to leave the synagogue because of Paul. And they took their money with them.

Turmoil in the Synagogue

And do you know what the best way is to upset any religious institution? You disrupt their revenue stream! The synagogue erupted into anger and violence. Then Paul left and set up a new Jesus club in the home of a Gentile believer named Titius Justus that was right next door to the synagogue.

Things got worse for the synagogue when Crispus, a Jew and the elected leader of the synagogue, also left to join the movement next door.

That is when Sosthenes came into the story. He was elected the new synagogue leader. And he obviously tried to calm things down. He tried to find ways for the synagogue to peacefully coexist with their new neighbours. His success was limited, but Paul’s little club grew over the next six months.

Roman Tribunal

But eventually, some of the Jews who really hated Paul couldn’t take it any longer. They got organized and kidnapped Paul as if he were a Venezuelan dictator and dragged him before the local Roman tribunal, accusing him of violating Jewish law and tradition.

And what did the Roman official do? He did not care one bit about Jewish matters! He just told them to work it out among themselves. But, when Sosthenes stepped forward once again to try and do that, everyone started to beat him up while the official looked on and didn’t stop them.

And yes, that is often what happens. We attack those who try to make peace because they show up the intolerance that is in us. As a result, when Paul left town, apparently so did Sosthenes. I mean, would you stick around after they treated you like that?

Why Does Sosthenes Sign?

But now, on what I’ve decided is their first anniversary, Paul sends this anniversary card to the church. What does it mean to them, do you suppose, when he asks Sosthenes to sign the card too?

Well, it certainly reminds them of just how chaotic and troubling their origin was. And maybe that is his intent. And I do believe that there is some wisdom in that for us. On this, our first anniversary, perhaps we too should give some thought about our own origins.

Our amalgamation was not, I am glad to say, marred by any violence. It was quite the opposite and felt very harmonious in the congregation. But it was also not ideal in some ways. It was rather rushed and there were some external authorities – some Roman officials and synagogue leaders – who I know caused people some grief and sparked some anger.

I think that Paul is writing us today to remind us of some of that turmoil. But he is doing it in a very particular way. He is drawing our attention to Sosthenes.

Paul Reminds Us

In Corinth, Sosthenes was someone who, for a time at least, was an opponent of the new church. He was part of the group of people who tried to resist Paul by lodging a formal complaint before the tribunal. He also suffered because of his resistance.

So, what is Sosthenes’ signature on the card saying? It is Paul’s way of reminding them of how far they have come since their tumultuous beginnings. He is letting them know that Sosthenes, the one-time resister, is now a fellow believer, part of the church and is a companion to Paul.

What is the anniversary card from Paul and Sosthenes saying to us today? It is reminding us of how far we have come together. It is reminding us that we have been able to put aside so much that distinguished us from each other in the past to become one together.

We are Sosthenes

We are all Sosthenes today. We may have had our doubts and our struggles. There were conflicting emotions that we brought into this thing and concern about the work that would be involved, but we marvel today at how far God has brought us. And we thank God for where God has called us to be.

Now, none of that means that we are done or that we don’t have struggles ahead of us. There is still a lot of work to be done. We need to work at embracing our new identity. I think that we still have not quite got our minds around the notion that we are no longer a church whose ministry is defined by one location. We have work to do on the best long-term use of our property in Preston. There is a whole lot of change that still needs to be processed.

Prepared for the Future

But Paul is writing to us about that as well. Remember that the reason why Paul wrote this card to the Corinthians was that he knew that they were facing some difficult challenges. So, what he writes to them is very significant.

“You are not lacking in any gift,” he writes to them, “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Given all the trouble that the Corinthian church was having, this is quite a statement for Paul to make. But he really means it. God has given to them all the gifts that they need and will give them all the strengths that they need to meet the challenges that are ahead.

And, if Paul could say that to the troubled Corinthians, how much more would he say it to us? And how true it is of us? How much have seen it in the last year?

Gifts

That word, “gifts,” is a key word in the New Testament. It doesn’t mean what we usually mean when we use the word. It is not talking about material gifts, but things that are much more valuable. These are the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to individuals.

These gifts include various abilities, talents and traits that God uses to build up the church. In this very letter, Paul will speak of gifts such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, powerful deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) But this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, and there are many other ways that the Spirit equips individual believers.

And have we ever seen that in the past year! So many of you have stepped forward to share your gifts and abilities. We have discovered depths of talents and traits in so many of you, and you have contributed so much towards building this church over the past year.

Treasures to Discover

But Paul here reminds us that there are so many other treasures that are yet to be discovered. He reminds us of God’s promise to the church that God will provide what we need when we need it through the people that God calls to be part of our church. This is the promise that we must trust in. This is what we must remind ourselves of whenever we feel discouraged by all that still needs to be done or by how long change seems to be taking.

On our anniversary today, therefore, Paul and Sosthenes are sending us a beautiful card. The words inside are a blessing upon all of us. “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Watch Sermon Video Here:

https://youtu.be/yykiCWR_Bjw

Hespeler, January 11, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Baptism of the Lord, First Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17

If you read through the Bible from beginning to end. You will come to a moment when you turn a very significant page. You have just finished the prophecies of Malachi, and you flip over and there you see it, the first page of the New Testament.

And the very important job of opening the New Testament has been given to the Gospel of Matthew. This is not because it was the first book written. Many of the letters and at least one of the other gospels were written first.

But the church decided that Matthew had to come first so that it could be the one to introduce the all-important new main character of the Bible: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had been prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament. But in the New, Matthew gets to finally bring this central character on stage. And Matthew absolutely rises to this task.

Matthew So Far

Over the past few weeks, we have read together the entire text of the Gospel of Matthew up to the passage we read this morning. And if you have followed along, you have already learned so much that is so important about this Jesus.

You have learned from his genealogy that he is descended from a line of kings and so is the rightful heir of the kingdom of Israel. You have learned that he was born of a virgin and that his birth means that God is with us.

You have also learned that he was recognized as king and honoured by foreign Magi, but that he was feared by the ruler of his own people, who attempted to kill him as a child. You learned that he was a refugee in Egypt who then found asylum in Nazareth of Galilee.

Main Character Hasn’t Done Anything Yet

Those are all vital things to know about Jesus. They are central to the Christian understanding of him. But I want you to note something. We have learned all of this without Jesus actually appearing in the story.

And that makes what happens in this passage we read this morning so important. In this passage, Jesus finally emerges onto the scene. After hearing all these things about Jesus, we finally meet the man. We have his first action and, even more important, his first words.

First Words

And you should always pay close attention to the first words of a new character. In fact, I believe that Matthew is such an extraordinary writer that he goes out of his way to pack everything we need to know about Jesus into Jesus’ very first line.

So, what is the first thing that Jesus does in the Bible? “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” So, Jesus’ first act is to choose to be baptized by John.

And right there, actually, we have a problem. In fact, of all of the things that Jesus ever did, this first act proved to be one of the most controversial for the church.

Problems With the Baptism

Surely you can see the problems with this. For one thing, Jesus being baptized by John suggests that he is John’s disciple. And if Jesus was the disciple, well, then John was the master. In other words, John was somehow greater than Jesus, at least for a time.

In addition, John declared that his baptism was for the forgiveness of sin. So, Jesus being baptized suggests that he had sin that needed forgiving.

Well, the early church had major problems with both of those ideas. And so, they had a deep discomfort with this first act of Jesus, even though they could not deny that it had happened.

Problem Addressed

And we can see that discomfort in this passage we read this morning, can’t we? When John the Baptist says to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” he is not just speaking for himself. He is speaking for the gospel writer and also for many other believers who have struggled with this incident.

But all of that controversy is merely setting the stage for the main event in this passage: Jesus’ first words. How will he diffuse all of the tension surrounding his first act? Well, despite all the buildup, Jesus doesn’t disappoint.

“But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” And let’s focus on that very important answer and what it means.

The Simple Response

First of all, these words diffuse the problems surrounding Jesus’ baptism by John. Jesus essentially agrees with John (and Matthew and most Christian theology) that he doesn’t need to be baptized by John. He is clearly not subservient to John, and he has done nothing that needs forgiveness.

That is the most basic meaning of what Jesus says. In the Good News Bible, which Jean read for us this morning and which tries to keep the language as simple as possible, this verse is translated as, “Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires.”

And that is the essential meaning of Jesus’ reply. He is saying that he is simply checking off a box on his to-do list. He is like a student who takes a required course, not because he expects to learn anything from the professor, but simply because the course is required to get the degree. He is an actor who is simply following a script.

So yes, on a basic level, Jesus is saying, “Okay, John, you know I don’t need this, and I know I don’t need this, but we’re going to do it anyway because the boss says so.”

The Complex Response

But as I said, the Good News Translation does go for the simplest and most straightforward interpretation. But the fact remains that Matthew did not write it quite as simply as that. In fact, the words that he chooses are not the words that you would normally choose to say such a thing, and that is surely not something that happened by accident.

Matthew is packing a bunch of keywords into this line, and he is doing it on purpose so that we, the readers, can understand exactly why it is that Jesus has shown up on the scene at this moment. So, let’s break down this line and try to understand what it is telling us about who Jesus is.

Let It Be So

Jesus doesn’t start by saying, “Let’s get this over with,” or “Let’s fulfill the expectation.” He says, “Let it be so now.” This is central to Matthew’s entire project of writing this Gospel. He is letting us know that his story is not just about a bunch of things that were done and said so many years ago. He is telling us that every act of Jesus may have happened in a particular moment, but the “now” of Jesus’ actions was always connected to his being.

His baptism, in other words, is not just a one-time event. It is about Jesus’ very being. It is about him inhabiting the whole of humanity, including what it means to be a disciple and in need of forgiveness. Yes, Jesus may not have sinned, but he chose to enter completely into the human condition.

Fulfilling

Jesus goes on to say, “for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” And that word, fulfill, is a key word for the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is the one who constantly tells us that Jesus spent all his time going around fulfiFlling things.

And what Jesus usually fulfills, as far as Matthew is concerned, is prophecy. Again and again, he tells us that this happened or Jesus did that in order to fulfill some Old Testament prophecy, which he then goes on to quote. Only Matthew does this, and he does it all the time.

 And, since he usually says it in relation to some prophecy, it might be easy to assume that all he means is that somebody predicted something and then Jesus went and did that thing. But this verse makes it clear that it is a little bit more complicated than that.

The word he uses literally means to fill something up, like when you fill a cup with wine or a swimming pool with water. So, what Matthew is literally saying is that Jesus was going around and filling up holes and vessels.

Prophets and Prophecies

Old Testament prophets were not generally in the business of making predictions. Their task was to speak the Word of the Lord to people in their own time. But that kind of speech created holes – gaps between what God required and what the people actually did. When prophets did speak of the future, it was to outline the consequences that came from those gaps.

What Matthew is saying, therefore, when he says that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, is that Jesus filled up that gap. Jesus, with his words, his acts and his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, filled up all of those holes that were between us and God. Jesus bridged the gap between God’s expectations and our abilities.

Fulfilling Righteousness

But, of course, in this verse, Jesus isn’t talking about fulfilling some prophecy. He is fulfilling something else: righteousness. On one level, that is a way of saying, “I need to do the right thing,” but it also means so much more than that.

Righteousness is the key thing that God seeks from humanity. God wants us to live in the right ways. The word also refers to justice. So when God asks for righteousness, it also means that God is requiring us to act justly, to create justice in the world and to destroy all systems that treat people unjustly or unfairly. God’s request for righteousness is a big ask.

The Gaps We Leave

And the problem is that we don’t manage to live up to that requirement. We fall into greed and oppression. We participate in systems that treat people unfairly. We misjudge, act cruelly, and sometimes we just fail to do the right thing.

Oh, we try. Some of us try very hard, but we are always going to fall short somewhere. There are gaps between what God requires and what we can do. There are even gaps between our best intentions and what we actually manage to do.

So, what is Jesus saying when he says that it is proper for him to fulfill righteousness? He is saying that he has come to fill those gaps between what God requires and what we can do. Jesus has come to make us acceptable before God despite those shortcomings.

Jesus Fills the Gaps

And here Jesus is saying specifically that being baptized by John is filling that gap. John’s baptism, as I said, was for repentance and the forgiveness of sin. But Jesus and John have apparently already agreed that Jesus requires neither repentance nor forgiveness.

And so, Jesus is declaring that he will do it anyway in order to enter fully into the human condition that made us require such things. The forgiveness obtained from his baptism doesn’t go to him, therefore, because he doesn’t need it. It is obtained for the sake of others – for the sake of you and me.

First Words Matter

But remember what I said about the importance of these being Jesus’ first words in the entire New Testament. This means that this is not just about Jesus’ baptism. Matthew has gone out of his way to make these first words of Jesus communicate to us that this is what the entire life and work of Jesus will be about.

Everything that Jesus will do, therefore, all of his words and his deeds, will be about fulfilling God’s call for righteousness and justice for our sake. In these opening words, we have the whole message of the Gospel.

We have fallen short. We have left that gap between God’s requirements and our shortcomings.

But Jesus has come to fill those gaps with his obedience, his grace and his unmatched demonstration of the love of God. Hallelujah, and thanks be to God for such love made real before our eyes.

It is all there, right in the first line. Not bad for an introduction to a pivotal character.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/IBi_m33JyQc

Hespeler, January 4, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Second Sunday after Christmas Day
Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147:12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18

In the beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the heavens may have been in order, but the earth was in complete chaos, as seen in the tumultuous waters of the deep. But worst of all, worse even than the chaos, was the darkness.

Darkness covered the face of the whole earth. It penetrated every corner. It filled the living soul of the earth. And as God considered the task of creating, a wind from God, which is the Spirit that proceeds from God, was brooding over the face of the waters like a mother bird broods over an egg before life springs forth from it.

The First Word

But before life was possible, before the work of creation could truly begin, God knew one thing was necessary. And so, God spoke just one Word. The Word that God said was “Light.” God spoke the Word as a command, calling it into being. And so light became.

Now, I know that people have long puzzled over that Word light as the first act of the creator. They have noticed, and rightly so, that God doesn’t get around to creating the sun, the moon and the stars until the fourth day of creation.

We know that all of the light that we experience, even the light that humans generate, has its ultimate source in those heavenly bodies. And so, we sensibly ask, where was the light coming from for those first three days?

Limiting the Darkness

The truth is that the light that God spoke into being on the first day was more essential than what comes from those created things. The light that God spoke was spoken into being to counter the darkness that would overwhelm the earth.

The purpose of this first Word was therefore to restrain the darkness. God used it to set the boundaries of the darkness. It was limited to the night, while the light was given free rein over the day. For if the darkness were not confined to its appropriate place, it would constantly drag the earth back down into the chaos which slowly destroys all life and hope.

Necessary to Creation

That is why “light” had to be the first Word. It was the Word that made the whole creation possible. And the light that came from it was God’s constant companion in that work. And, as God spoke humanity into being, that first Word was there and ready to fill them with life, which was the light of all humankind.

But when God finished all of that great work of creation and declared that it was good and instituted rest for God and all God’s people, the darkness was still there, abiding within its limits, at least for the moment.

The Darkness of Empire

The people that God had created developed and grew. They invented agriculture and cities. And in an attempt to flourish, they gave power to certain people so that they could impose order and keep the primeval chaos and darkness at bay.

And the darkness that had waited saw its moment. It entered into the hearts of a few who found power and wealth in these new systems. They became kings and emperors who used the surplus that the labour of others created to amass ever more to themselves.

In the valley of the Nile River, one powerful ruler, a Pharaoh, used his power to turn whole peoples into slaves to serve his whims. And the slaves suffered in the darkness of their bonds.

A Word of Defiance

But God saw this growing darkness and once again spoke to set a limit on it. He spoke a Word of defiance into the heart of a man named Moses, who demanded liberty for his people and would not back down until they were free. And God became the God of those former slaves.

But God knew that those slaves had internalized the darkness during their long years of oppression. God knew that they could easily fall back into the ways of darkness. They would seek to exploit their neighbours and steal the fruit of their labours as Pharaoh had done unto them.

And so, God gathered this new people at a place called Sinai and spoke to them the Word of light. God taught them to live in harmony and share the resources of their land in ways that would benefit everyone.

Darkness in the Promised Land

The people of God entered into a land of their own, and there they sought to live out the Word of light that they had been given. But it was a constant struggle. The darkness had not given up its fight, and it kept creeping back into the hearts of the people.

The darkness took the Word of life that had been given on Sinai and twisted it so that, instead of giving life and spreading light, it became a list of rules for people to follow. And it also became a weapon that you could employ to condemn those who didn’t follow those rules in the way that you thought they should.

And so, community and neighbourliness began to break down in the land. They turned to the dark ways of greed. They made slaves of their fellow humans, just as they had once been enslaved. And they told themselves that it was okay, that God wouldn’t mind if they just burned a few sacrifices to keep God contented.

Prophets

But God did not desire their sacrifices; God wanted the people to live in the light and do deeds of light. So, God called prophets one by one and spoke the Word of light into their souls and sent them out to speak the Word to the people. They challenged the people and called them back into the light.

But still, the people drifted so easily into the ways of darkness. They resisted the message of the prophets. Some of them they even expelled and killed. For others, they twisted their messages and used them separate and divide the people. Still, the darkness found its way.

A Written Word

New and better ways of speaking the Word into the world were needed. One solution that God considered was to commission (or shall we say inspire) a written text. After all, modern people think of a book as the perfect way to proclaim a Word so that it cannot be corrupted or misused.

We think this way because, ever since the invention of the printing press, it has been possible to make texts in nearly limitless quantities that are virtually identical to each other. Such perfect copies suggest to us that the message in them is incorruptible and will always remain the same.

Limitations of a Written Word

But God knows the limitations of the printed Word. God understands how the meaning of words changes over time and how something written in one historical context can take on a radically different meaning in another.

So, while God knew that the written Word would play an important role in speaking the Word to the whole world, it could not serve as the ultimate speaking of the Word.

God knew with perfect foresight that the darkness would find ways to take even the precious Word of Scripture and twist it so that people would use it to justify such terrible things as slavery, oppression and the neglect of the poor and the strangers.

God Confers with Godself

And so, God began to think to Godself. “We continue to speak the Word into this world that we have made,” God said. (And please don’t ask me to explain why God’s pronouns are we/us in the Bible. At this point, thousands of books have been written on that question, and we don’t have the time to explore the answer here.)

“We continue to speak the Word into the darkness of this world,” God said. “And for moments, there are flashes of brilliance, and it seems as if the darkness has been defeated.

“But then it keeps happening. The darkness manages to grasp the Word that we have spoken and finds ways to lead people to doubt its meaning or twist the Word that has been given to serve its own dark purposes.

A Living Word

“We need to find a way to speak the Word so that the darkness cannot corrupt it. We need a Word that can speak to changing circumstances and can respond to new attacks as they arise. We need a Word that understands the challenges of living in the real world and yet can still persevere in the face of the darkness.

“What we need, therefore, is a living Word. It would not be a Word of sterile and unchangeable rules, but a Word that could encourage the practice of love in all situations.

“Even more important, it would have to be a Word made flesh – a Word that could speak into the messiness of human flesh. It would be able to understand the weakness, the needs and the limits of human flesh and how it can be tempted towards the darkness.

“And yet, how could that be? How could the Word be alive and entirely human while still retaining that constant connection with us? And that was when the divine Creator knew what had to happen – what had always had to happen.

The Word Made Flesh

And so, the Word that had been there from the beginning, that Word that had not only been a partner with God in all creation but that had made creation possible, the Word that had been woven into all of the commandments and that had spoken through the Prophets, became flesh.

This Word had not only always been with God and God’s companion in all works. The Word had always been the expression of God. God’s speech had always been the effective expression of the whole being of God, so the Word was God.

Light and Life Come into Being

And so the Word came into being in a man. And this man was life. And he brought light to all people. For the Word had always been “let there be light.”

And so, the terms the original battle – the battle before all battles – were changed. For the Word that had become flesh did not just set limits on the darkness and restrict it to the night. What came into beingin him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overtake it. The darkness could never overtake it.

A Treatise on Genesis

The Gospel of John does something truly extraordinary in its prologue. There is nothing quite like it in all ancient literature. John, as he writes it, is pulling together elements from everywhere. He is intentionally pulling in elements from the creation story in the Book of Genesis, where God calls all things into being by merely speaking a Word.

But he is not writing a treatise on the Genesis creation story.

A Philosophical Word

He is also drawing from Greek Philosophy. We see it in the word that he repeats over and over again – the word Word. He is writing in Greek, so he uses the Greek word logos (λόγος).

And that word that he uses is not just the common Greek word for a word. It is the name of a concept that was central to all Greek philosophy and knowledge. The logos was behind all logic and reason. In fact, all knowledge was considered to be a kind of logos. Biology was the logos of life. Theology was the logos of the gods, and so on.

So, all throughout this passage, John is commenting on a key concept of Greek philosophy, but he is not writing a philosophical treatise on the logos.

A Story

No, John is writing a story. And it is the story of the meaning of all history. It is the story of light and darkness, and a Word that ensures the victory of the light and the defeat of the darkness.

Human beings understand the world by telling stories. It is what we have always done. We gather together the various things we have experienced of the world, and we make it all make sense by tying it together into a narrative.

The point of such stories is not that they are historically accurate or factual. A good story is simply one that makes all of those truths about the world make sense together. And that is the kind of story that John is telling in this passage. He masterfully makes sense of the whole sweep of human history by narratively relating it to this idea of the Word.

So, remember the story of the Word. Carry it with you. And when the darkness threatens to overwhelm you, remember this story. For the Word that was there at the beginning of all things is the Word that became human for you. It is still the Word that God wants to speak into your heart.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/st0A82Ax2pY

Hespeler, December 28, 2025 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday after Christmas Day
Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148, Hebrews 2:10-18, Matthew 2:13-23

King Herod was convinced that he was the greatest king who had ever ruled over the people of Israel. But he had been king for over thirty years now, and there was no way around the fact that he was getting older. He was already in his late seventies. Where had the time gone?

And he was starting to show his age. He was retaining fluids, he fell asleep in meetings, and his mind was just not as sharp as it used to be. At least, that’s what some people were saying. There were reports about it all over social media (by which I mean people talking to other people in social interactions).

Herod insisted that all of this was fake news. He was particularly upset that everyone was talking about such things rather than how great he was and how wonderful all his accomplishments were. This was not right. He had to do something to Make Herod Great Again®.

Truth^®

And so, Herod decided to employ his own private social media system to get his Truth® out. He had his slaves print out his thoughts on little slips of parchment. And then he sent them out in the hands of his servants to proclaim to the populace.

There were, to be honest, thousands upon thousands of these posts. Sometimes Herod would be up all night dictating them. But they were all thought to be lost to history. But recently, a few of these long-lost texts were discovered in a trash heap at Herod’s palace at Masada. And these texts have given us an incredible insight into the twisted mind of an ancient authoritarian.

Building Projects

Take this text for example:

“The people of Judea have never had such a hard-working king as me, your favourite king. I have so many building projects going on all over the place. I’ve built up the city of Caesarea Maritima with a HUGE new harbour. The kind of harbour that they’ve wanted to build for over 150 YEARS. I’m building the Herodium, the best palace/tomb combo anywhere in the world. And I’m finally fixing up the temple of that WOKE LOSER, King Solomon. It was in such sad shape. Everyone was saying it. But MY temple will have the biggest stones that anyone has ever seen. And yet, does anyone appreciate all that I do? The priests just complain about some wall that I demolished without getting the proper permits. I AM THE KING, I DON’T NEED PERMITS.”

Strange Visitors

Yes, the collected posts of King Herod the Great contained a great deal of similar material, so I won’t become repetitive by reading it all. But, in the years just before his death, Herod’s posts definitely took a more, let us say, paranoid turn. Take this post, for example:

“Some very important men showed up in Jerusalem today. They call themselves Magi. I hear they are dressed like you wouldn't believe and they have camels and tremendous gifts of GOLD and some other stuff. I am sure that they have heard about how great Herod is and all that he has accomplished. Probably have come to give me a PEACE PRIZE or something like that. That just goes to show that these Magi are pretty wise. Going in to bless them with my presence now.”

Magi Hoax

However, this original text was quickly followed up with another:

“It turns out that these so-called Magi are not quite so wise as everyone says. They came into my throne rooms and started spouting some wild HOAX about a king of the Jews being born – a king, mind you, who has nothing to do with Herod or his family. They have obviously been influenced by my many TREASONOUS enemies here in Judea. Going now to consult with my Department of the Law about who we can prosecute for this TERRIBLE CRIME against my kingdom.”

Lawyers Are in on It

But it seems that that meeting with the experts in the Law did not quite go as expected for only shortly afterwards Herod posted this:

“Well, it seems that even my Department of the Law has fallen victim to Herod Derangement Syndrome or HDS. They too have fallen for the Magi Hoax of a new king being born. In fact, they tell me that there is a prophecy about just such a thing happening. They say that this new king is supposed to come from Bethlehem, which is a very weak city – barely even a town – and yet they say a ruler would come from it. Anyways, as soon as I heard that, I knew that somebody was starting a new hoax, the Bethlehem hoax I call it. But Herod is too smart for these people. So I go into these Magi, these wise guys, and I tell them that they should go down to Bethlehem and report back to me on what they find. That’s why they call me GENIUS. I get them to do all the work of searching and then I can take care of this hoax and kill it in the cradle, as they say.”

Failure to Return

Sometime afterwards, the posts indicate that Herod felt disappointed by the Magi:

“Can you believe these so-called ‘Wise Men?’ They are a total DISGRACE! I told them, very clearly, “Go find the child and COME BACK.” Simple! But they GHOSTED me. Lied! They took their gold, oh, their beautiful gold, and ran off like cowards. Very disloyal. Very FAKE. They were supposed to help me ‘worship’ the child, but instead I hear that they listened to a DREAM. A dream! Not even a real person! Total setup. Deep state nonsense.”

Anger at the Magi

And then, well, I am sad to say that the posts take a very dark turn as Herod rages in his sense of betrayal:

“The FAKE MAGI betrayed me. Said they’d return with info on the so-called “King of the Jews.” Very dishonest. But Herod cannot just forget about this. Their fake story about a child born in Bethlehem, some kind of Messiah, is a dangerous idea and a threat to national security! We can’t allow radical elements to destabilize Judea. I’ve made this kingdom the hottest country in the world, made the Temple GREAT AGAIN — and now this? A baby uprising? I am consulting with my Secretary of War about taking STRONG action to protect the kingdom. No threats to the throne. No Magi-backed “kings.” We will RESTORE ORDER and CRUSH the chaos.”

Anger at the Children

But soon, Herod seemed to forget about the Magi. Perhaps they somehow managed to leave the country without him knowing. That is when he turned his attention to a new and unexpected foe:

“A lot of people don’t realize this, but the children of Bethlehem are a danger to our kingdom. I'm talking about the ones who are 2 years old or less. They bring absolutely nothing to this kingdom. In fact, they are little better than garbage. And, because they live in Bethlehem, they are probably victims of the woke idea that someone from there could be born a king. Something definitely needs to be done about this whole situation. And only the HEROD ADMINISTRATION has the courage to do what needs to be done to protect our great kingdom. Please stay tuned and thank you for your attention to this matter.

Innermost Thoughts

As you have probably picked up, there is no secret cache of lost posts made by Herod the Great that has been unearthed in Israel or Palestine. I made up all of it. But wouldn’t it be something to have some of that kind of information?

We live in a modern age of social media, which means that anyone, if they choose to do so, can share their innermost thoughts with the whole world. And some celebrities and some leaders do actually choose to do that. I suspect that some others don’t choose to reveal those innermost thoughts, but they do have a way of coming through their posts, whether they want it or not.

But with ancient people, you don’t get those deep insights. We don’t get them with a fascinating character like Herod the Great. We have to figure out what he was thinking and what was motivating him by reflecting on what he did.

The Slaughter at Bethlehem

And it is all that harder when it is difficult to know what he did. His slaughter of the children in Bethlehem is an example. We have good historical sources on Herod’s life and career, and there are good accounts of the atrocities that he did commit. But none of them mention an attack on Bethlehem. In fact, the archeological record indicates that hardly anyone was living there at the time.

So it is hard to prove that Herod committed that crime. But everything we know about the man indicates that he was quite capable of doing exactly that kind of thing. He never hesitated to wipe out anyone who stood in his way, and that not only included children, it included his own children.

So wouldn’t you like to know what makes someone do something like that? That’s why I wish we had this kind of post for Herod. And I suspect that, if we did, we would discover a man who might have seemed powerful and decisive on the outside, but on the inside was deeply insecure.

Those who have the power that enables them to lash out against anyone they choose and choose to use that power are afraid. They are afraid that, if they show a bit of weakness, someone will exploit that weakness. Most of all, they are afraid that, if they lose the power that they have, they won’t be anything anymore.

A Scared, Dangerous Child

I have no doubt, therefore, that, if we got that look into the psyche of Herod the Great, we would find a scared looking child staring out at us. A dangerous child to be sure, but a child none-the-less.

We seem to be cursed to live in a moment when authoritarian leaders like Herod are on the rise. This is something that is happening all over the world right now and it is disturbing. I hope that you might find a little understanding of what might have been going on in Herod’s mind helpful in such a moment.

Authoritarians Don’t Get the Final Word

But there is another reason why I focus on Herod at such a time. That is because the disturbing slaughter of children in Bethlehem is not the final word on him. The king that the Magi were searching for, the king that Herod so feared, did come. He had no more power to prevent that than if he had been trying to prevent an incoming tide.

You see, the tyrants, they don’t just feel weak on the inside. They are weak on the outside and their power is an illusion. God is taking history somewhere, and it is not towards the twisted goals of the powers of this dark world. That is the message of Christmas, and it flies in the face of all the tyrants of this world.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/V0xug7t0bBY

Hespeler, December 24, 2024 © Scott McAndless – Christmas Eve
Matthew 1:18-25

I am pretty sure that, if the writer of the Gospel of Matthew had to summarize the entire message of his work with just one word, it would be the word that he introduces in his opening chapter.

It is a word that he pulls from the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah and, knowing that his audience does not speak Hebrew, takes the trouble to translate for them. That word, of course, is Emmanuel and, as Matthew so helpfully tells us, it means “God is with us.”

Sometimes, though, I think we may think that this word is just about what is happening in this particular passage. That is, it is only about the strange, miraculous conception of Jesus.

After all, Matthew tells us that Mary became pregnant through the action of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy about a virgin conceiving. And the child in that prophecy is given the name Emmanuel.

But that Emmanuel idea is not just about how Jesus was conceived. It is, for Matthew, the essential meaning behind Jesus’ entire life and behind Matthew’s story of that life.

That is why Matthew doesn’t just open his Gospel by saying that the birth of this baby means that God is with us. He also ends his Gospel by giving, as Jesus’ final words, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The entire book is about how God is and always will be with us in Christ Jesus.

For the story of Jesus’ Nativity is not about the mechanics of one particular child’s conception. Matthew isn't trying to explain how it happened or how the DNA of this man, Jesus, could possibly be both human and divine at the same time. If you try to understand that, you will never make logic or sense of it. (And believe me, Christians have been trying to make sense of it for two thousand years.)

Instead, he is inviting us to experience that presence of God with us in Jesus. As the Gospel progresses, we will meet people who are sick, disabled, struggling with poverty or social exclusion among a host of other issues. And at every point, we are meant to ask, what if God were present for that person in that moment? And, in the wonders, the healings, the affirmations that Jesus offers to those people, we are to see an answer to that question.

So, one thing that Matthew is telling you in this opening passage is that no matter what you may be struggling with this Christmastime, God wants to meet you where you are in Christ Jesus.

Jesus came into the world – became human just like us – so that God can understand what it is like to carry the pain that you carry in your body or in your soul. God became human so that God may know what that anxiety or fear that cripples you is really like. Jesus came so that God might know your frustration when you can’t make ends meet or when you feel completely frazzled by all you have to do.

So, Emmanuel, first and foremost, is meant to bring you comfort and joy as it lets you know that, no matter what you are facing, you are not alone.

Emmanuel is also a challenge to all of us – a challenge to see and know that presence. We all know how hard that can be when you are caught up in your worries, fears and troubles. That is why Matthew constantly reminds us that we need to have faith. It means that, as we learn to trust that presence of God with us in our troubles, we will be able to experience it more and more along with the healing, hope and renewal that comes with that trust.

But this Gospel also brings out a surprising meaning of Emmanuel as you read it through. Matthew is the only writer who includes one particular parable of Jesus; it is the parable that Jesus ends by saying, “for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” (Matthew 24:42-43)

I mean, this comes out of nowhere. All of a sudden, we discover that one of the ways that God continues to be with us to this very day is in the faces and the outstretched hands of the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the poorly clothed, the sick and of the people we write off as criminals!

These are the people we do our best to ignore as we pass them by in the street. These are the people that we post nasty things about on the internet and that we are afraid of. Yet Jesus is telling us that he is constantly trying to reveal the presence of God to us through them.

And I know this is a shocking thing to hear from a Christian preacher, but I think Jesus is right about that. I have experienced it myself, and I know that some of you have as well. When you get involved in offering food or clothing or your loving presence to people who are struggling, you will have undeniable experiences of the presence of God. There will be moments when you see Jesus in that person across from you.

So, that is what Matthew tells us that Christmas is about. It is not just about some miraculous birth that took place two thousand years ago. It is about how we continue to experience Emmanuel in our daily lives, and how that changes everything.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/zALRHiOXILQ

Hespeler, December 21, 2025 © Scott McAndless – 4^th Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25

 love the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, but there is one thing about it that I always want to keep in mind. There is not just one Christmas story. We have two stories of the nativity in the Bible. One is told in the Gospel of Matthew and the other in the Gospel of Luke.

Those are the only accounts we have. And both Gospels tell rich and deeply meaningful stories. But they are different stories concerned with very different details.

Forcing Two Stories Together

Luke has angels, a manger, shepherds and a Roman census. Matthew has dreams, a star, magi and an angry Jewish king. Luke only focuses on Mary and her decisions, while Matthew focuses only on what Joseph does.

But every year, what do we do? We take those two different stories, and we smoosh them together. We somehow manage to get everyone in the same place at the same time. We get the angels, shepherds, the star and the magi all at the manger. We harmonize the two different stories.

And I get that we are sentimental about that harmonized tale. If you tell the story without any magi at the manger, people will go ballistic, even though Matthew insists that they were not there and that they visited the family in a house that they owned. If you set up a manger scene without a star shining down, you will get the same complaints even though Luke says nothing about any star.

Respecting the Writers

My problem with this is not that the confusion gets in the way of figuring out what actually happened when Jesus was born. I am quite content to admit that we may never know exactly how that went down.

What bothers me is how little respect this shows to the original gospel writers. When we twist and distort Matthew’s Nativity story to make sure that it doesn’t contradict Luke’s, we end up robbing Matthew’s original tale of everything that made it so special. And when we twist Luke’s story to make it fit with Matthew’s, we end up robbing Luke’s story.

When you reduce everything to the lowest common denominator, you end up with a story that is merely common. And Gospel stories are supposed to be anything but common.

Joseph’s Life in Bethlehem

For example, if you read Matthew’s Nativity story closely, it becomes obvious that Joseph is living in Bethlehem at the beginning. He has a house there, a house where the Magi visit him, Mary and Jesus. According to Matthew, Jesus only ends up growing up in Nazareth because Joseph chooses to hide out there after King Herod attempts to kill the child and they return from Egypt.

That is central to the whole story in Matthew, and yet it contradicts what the Gospel of Luke says about the family being from Nazareth and how they were only passing through Bethlehem when the baby was born because of the census.

We have long tended to smooth out that contradiction. We do that by just ignoring the clear indications that Matthew gives of Joseph’s deep roots in Bethlehem. We skip over Matthew’s portrayal of Joseph as a leading citizen, descended directly from a line of kings, whose comfortable life is torn apart first by scandal and then by the persecution of a mad king.

But that is a great story. It deserves to be told all on its own. So, I’m going to tell it to you.

The Engagement

Joseph remembered the day when his engagement was announced. Everywhere he walked throughout the town of Bethlehem, people would bow deeply and congratulate him.

Mary, the woman chosen for him by his parents, belonged to the other leading family in the district. The marriage would form an alliance that would guarantee the prominence and prosperity of the family for a long time to come. Their future was assured.

Some of his well-wishers even spoke of the exalted lineage of his family. They boldly spoke of how a favourable marriage like this could even lead to a restoration of the ancient privileges of the House of David – a revival of the glories of the old kingdom as an earthly power.

Joseph smiled and received their well-wishes with grace. He remembered wondering what this Mary was like. Was she pretty? Was she smart? His parents had assured him she was wealthy and chaste – that was what had mattered to them.

But Joseph found that many other things suddenly mattered a great deal because he felt as if his life was just beginning. He was excited and anxious about what might come next.

Scandal

The day when the news about Mary’s pregnancy spread throughout town was quite different. There was apparently no question whatsoever about her condition.

People had speculated wildly that something was wrong for a few weeks as she had remained hidden in her father’s house. But she had apparently finally emerged, and speculation was replaced by certainty. She was going to have a child.

This day, as Joseph circulated the town, there were no smiles and certainly no congratulations. Instead, people looked away as he approached and pretended not to see him so that they didn’t have to speak to him.

Joseph went through a full gamut of emotions that day. He had bursts of denial, anger, bargaining and depression.

Joseph’s Responsibilities

But the worst part of all of it was the knowledge that this was not just about how he felt. He had responsibilities. He knew that the reputation, standing and the very future of his ancient family were on the line. He had the obligation to preserve their name and to ensure that their lineage remained pure and undefiled.

So, it seemed clear what he had to do. For the sake of his family, he had to set aside this woman. And he really should do it publicly, too. He needed to denounce her in front of the whole community, which would lead to the elders condemning her to be stoned and her family compensating his family.

But something inside him wouldn’t let him do that. He feared it was a weakness in him, that he could not lead his family into the next generation. But it was not weakness that was moving him; it was compassion.

He thought, perhaps, that he could set her aside quietly. That would be a kind of compromise that would save his family some shame and yet save her from public scorn. But even that option, he could not help but feel bad about.

And so it was a distraught young Joseph who fell into a restless sleep that night. Perhaps, in his dreams, he would be able to find the direction he lacked in the waking world.

Two Years Later

And then came the night, a couple of years later. Joseph, instructed by his dream, had gone through with the marriage. He and Mary became husband and wife. And a few short months later, her child was born.

He and Mary were happy together, and, perhaps in spite of himself, Joseph adored the little boy. But what he had gained in a new and happy home, Joseph had certainly lost in terms of social standing.

His family would barely speak to him, and not to Mary at all. People he had long considered friends would cross the street when they saw him approaching. All day long, as he carried out his business, he would see the people whispering to each other as they glanced his way.

His family was still prosperous and important, but now their standing seemed so fragile.

Strange Visitors

But on this day, everything had come to a head in his mind. Strange visitors had come by the house. They had come from far away, from Persia. They had brought gifts for the child and declared that he was born to be a king. This was something that they had discovered by searching the stars using their arcane arts.

That had been gratifying in itself. Joseph had long felt that there was something truly extraordinary about the young boy, Jesus, and it was nice to have that confirmed.

But when the wise visitors mentioned having stopped off to seek directions from King Herod in Jerusalem, Joseph didn’t necessarily know why, but he suddenly felt a deep dread within him. Something felt very wrong!

He went to bed that night full of worry and fear that he didn’t understand. The dream that came to him made sense of what he was feeling and filled him with a firm conviction as to what he needed to do next.

Alexandria

After that, Joseph had fled to Egypt with Mary and the boy. He had attempted to warn others, but his diminished standing in Bethlehem did not incline anyone, not even his family, to listen to his dream-fueled ravings.

So, they had gone alone to Egypt and waited there among the Jewish community. Joseph could no longer rely on his family property to sustain them, so he was forced to find work wherever he could.

Fortunately, Alexandria, the second largest city in the Empire, was growing in those days, and there was a lot of construction taking place. They were so desperate for labourers that, when a random Judean who could barely speak the local language showed up looking for work, nobody asked any questions.

Joseph learned a great deal about basic carpentry and stonework on the worksites of Egypt. But still he longed for Bethlehem and the life he had known there, even if it seemed as if Bethlehem had little use for him anymore.

The Return

When the news spread through the diaspora community that Herod the Great had finally died, Joseph felt as if the time to return had come. Within a week, he had packed up his growing family, and they were on the highway back towards Judea.

When they were about halfway home, they heard the news that, apparently, Herod’s kingdom had been divided up among his sons. Archelaus had been given the territory of Judea, Herod Antipas had been given Galilee to the north, and others had been given more far-flung territories.

Change of Plans

Joseph had a now-familiar sense of unease. How wise was it for him to return to Bethlehem, where his name was well known, when a son of Herod ruled over the territory? Surely Archelaus would discover him in no time at all; he only needed to ask the first passerby.

But what should he do? He didn’t know. Throughout this seemingly endless ordeal, Joseph had despaired like this repeatedly. But each time, he had found wisdom to know what to do as he slept.

The wisdom that came to Joseph in his dreams this time allowed him to look at the problem from a whole different angle.

What if he didn’t return to Bethlehem? What if, instead, he went to a place where nobody knew his family? He could still live among his own people and raise his children as Jews if he lived instead in the territory of another son of Herod.

They could live in Herod Antipas’ territory of Galilee, where Jews also had large settlements. But no one there would know, nor would they reveal, the illustrious heritage of his family.

Choosing Nazareth

This outside-the-box solution was only confirmed for him the next day when he spoke to fellow travelers – construction workers he had come to know in Alexandria – who were on their way to the area around Sepphoris in Galilee. There, Herod Antipas had established his new capital city. There would be plenty of work for carpenters and stone workers for some time to come.

And so, Mary and Joseph turned aside and travelled north. Eventually, they found a village only a day’s journey from the capital to settle – a village called Nazareth.

Joseph’s Losses

Matthew tells a very different story of the nativity of Jesus than Luke does. One thing that really strikes me about his story, when I let it stand alone and stripped of all the elements that have become connected to it by osmosis from Luke’s story, is the price that Joseph must pay.

When Mary and her unexpected child come into Joseph’s life, he loses a great deal. He loses the status and honour that meant so much in that society, becoming a pariah in his own town.

Then he loses the very place that had given him his identity, fleeing his hometown in a desperate escape that no one else can understand or believe. He loses his ancestral land, which, in that agricultural society, was the only foundation of wealth and security.

Joseph Didn’t Regret

He finally must start all over again as a stranger and outsider in a new place where no one knows him. These are all huge losses that we can scarcely understand because we do not know how important such things were to people in that time and place.

But somehow, I suspect that Matthew wants us to understand that Joseph regretted none of it. He knew that he was being given the chance to finally be part of something that brought hope, life and new possibilities. He was given a new family and identity that meant the world to him. He did not mind the cost.

 I only hope and pray that we could be as courageous as Joseph as we make our own choices to stand with those who are looked down upon by society. And at this Christmas time, let us count the blessings that we have received from the choices that we have made, as I’m sure that Joseph counted his.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/-EChpW88kzw

Hespeler, December 7, 2025 – Second Sunday of Advent, Communion
Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 1:1-6

I am hardly the first person to notice this, but in his genealogy of Jesus, the author of the Gospel of Matthew includes the names of four women apart from the name of Mary, Jesus’ mother.

This unusual inclusion has raised many questions down through the centuries. Why would he mention any women? It was not normal to do so in ancient genealogies.

Why These Women?

We also have to ask why he names those women in particular? There are a few things that they have in common. They all appear to be foreigners. Tamar and Rahab were Canaanites. Ruth was a Moabite. And Bathsheba was married to a Hittite.

They also seem to all have had somewhat questionable sexual histories. Tamar and Rahab acted as prostitutes. Ruth seduced Boaz on the threshing floor. And Bathsheba was famously raped by David.

Given all of this, many have reflected down through the years on what Matthew is trying to say by including these specific women in his genealogy. And many of those reflections have brought out some of the deeper theological meanings of this Gospel.

Matthew the Storyteller

But Matthew was not just a theologian. He was also a master storyteller. So, I was thinking that maybe he didn’t just name these women to make theological points. Maybe he is going out of his way to bring them in as characters.

By opening his Gospel with a genealogy, Matthew summons all of these ancestors of Jesus to witness the story he is about to tell. They are not there as silent witnesses or theological signifiers. They are part of the story. And, with that in mind, what did these four women have to bring to the story that we are being told?

Ancestral Witnesses

Well, here are some things to think about. They are all mothers. What’s more, they are all mothers who became mothers under somewhat murky circumstances. They had to struggle to have their children, and they had to deal with disapproval by others for their struggle. They also each saved their nation in their own ways.

And yes, I think that that means that they have a great deal to say to the story that begins the gospel of Matthew, the story of a man named Joseph, who is struggling to know what to do when he finds out that the woman he is engaged to is already pregnant.

So, here’s a question for you. What would these ancestral witnesses say to Joseph in his troubled sleep as he considers what to do about Mary?

Tamar

“Dear Joseph, I am your great, great… I think maybe forty times great-grandmother Tamar. And I know you are feeling somewhat torn over the marriage that your parents have arranged with this young woman, Mary, especially since you’ve heard the rumours that she is already expecting a child that you know you had nothing to do with.

“Well, I know a few things about that whole situation, because I was in it. I had been married off to the son of Judah, Er. But Er died, and so I was given to his brother Onan. But Onan did not want to do the right thing and give me a child who would claim his brother’s inheritance, so he died too for his disobedience.

“So, there I was – a widow twice over. And did my father-in-law Judah take care of me? No, he didn’t. As far as he was concerned, I was responsible for the death of two of his sons already. He was afraid of me – afraid to give me his last remaining son for fear that he would die too.

“So, he sent me to my father’s home and left me destitute. For who would marry a woman suspected of causing the death of two husbands?

Tamar Saved the Nation

“It was bad enough that Judah had abandoned me, but he also abandoned something else – his responsibility to assure a future for his family. Because he was afraid of doing the right thing for me, he was risking the entire inheritance of his family.

“So, I had to step in to save not just myself, but to save the entire tribe (and ultimately the nation) of Judah. And yes, the way I did that was questionable to say the least. I disguised myself as a prostitute, and I did get a child off of my own father-in-law.

“And that is how I ended up in a position much like your Mary’s. I had been put into an impossible position. But I acted decisively and not just to save myself – to save the nation that would eventually come to be. I saved the future that you are now living in.

“And in the end, my father-in-law Judah had to admit that I was in the right and that he was in the wrong. So, Joseph, I guess I’m just saying that you need to look past a situation that appears bad or shameful. Don’t judge someone’s action without taking time to understand the person behind it.

Rahab

The spirit of Tamar departed from Joseph’s troubled sleep, but soon another ancestor came to speak to him. Rahab had never been a woman who had hesitated to share her feelings, and she didn’t hold back with Joseph now.

“I hear you are worried about shame, o my great, great, great, great, great, great… grandson,” she began. “Well, let me tell you something about shame. My family and I had been rejected by the people of Jericho, my city. We had been left to live in the worst place – in a house built into the great walls.

“We had lost any social supports, and so I was given no choice. If I were to be able to support my family, I would have to enter into the world’s oldest profession, which meant, of course, that I would became even more rejected and maligned.

“But I never gave up. I dreamed of a better life for my children and even to set up a rope-making operation so that they could have a respectable job.

The Power of Shame

“But the shame heaped upon us affected all of us. That’s why I know the power of shame. And it is not a good power. Far from keeping me in line, it made me rebellious. When an opportunity came to betray my city, I didn’t really hesitate.

“Oh, Joseph, shame is so very damaging. It destroys relationships and even whole cities. It never really makes anything better. You’d better think twice before you join in the chorus that would pile shame on the head of poor Mary and her child.

Ruth

After Rahab had departed, her granddaughter-in-law Ruth arrived. (Although, of course, it is possible that the Gospel of Matthew skipped a few generations, and she was a more distant descendant than that.)

“Joseph,” she began without hesitation, “it is Ruth. And as your ancestor and the great- grandmother of King David, there are a few things I think you need to know about Mary and her situation.”

Having No Support

“She is all alone now. Because of this scandal that has come up around her and this questionable pregnancy, she doesn’t really have anyone to turn to. I know exactly what that is like.

“When Naomi and I came back from Moab with both of our husbands dead and no children, we only had each other. And, yes, that woman meant the world to me. I loved her as I loved my own life, but the rules of our society were that women were not allowed to support one another.

“Joseph, I know that you’re thinking that to send Mary away quietly is the right and decent thing to do because at least it will not subject her to public scorn. However, you need to understand the world of isolation you would be sending her into.

A Helper

“Naomi and I were at our worst. We were teetering on the edge of starvation, and I had to go gleaning in the fields at harvest time – a situation where women like me were often attacked.

“We almost didn’t make it, but someone helped us. And yes, I did kind of have to go and find Boaz and he took a little bit of persuading. But he became our redeemer. And, with his help, Naomi and I and he and our son became a family together.

“But it almost didn’t happen; if no one had helped us, it wouldn’t have happened. And if it hadn’t happened, there would have been no king David, no nation of Judah, and there would not have been you lying here trying to figure out what to do about Mary. Just think about that, Joseph.

Bathsheba

There was one more visitor who came to disturb Joseph’s sleep and prepare his mind for the angelic announcement that was on its way. Her name was Bathsheba.

Now, here was an ancestor of Joseph that everyone had underestimated. Even the Gospel writer thought little enough of her that he didn’t even name her – just referred to her by her husband’s name, Uriah.

But Bathsheba had a few thoughts about that, and she didn’t hesitate to share them with Joseph.

A Survivor

“Everyone thought of me as a helpless woman,” she declared, “but I am a survivor. When David spied upon me while I was bathing in my husband’s home, when he used his high position to invade my private space, I was helpless.

“When he summoned me, I had no choice but to go to him. When he directed me into his bedchamber, I could not resist him. But I survived the devastation of that night.

“And then, when I fell pregnant, David did not care about me. He only cared about himself and his position.

David’s Failures

“In his efforts to escape accountability for his actions, he did terrible things. His destructive impulses not only fell upon poor Uriah, who had only acted with honour, but also sowed a spirit of destruction that would continue to warp David’s family and children for the rest of his life.

“The death of our firstborn child shortly after his birth, David made even that all about himself. It was all about his grief, his loss. It was as if he didn’t even realize that I had also lost a child.

“But through it all, I survived. I navigated all of the intrigues of a family that was more dysfunctional than you can imagine! And somehow, I managed to teach my second son, Solomon, to be wise enough to rise above it all.

Bathsheba Saves the Nation

“And then, when David was so old and addled that it seemed inevitable that the entire kingdom would explode into anarchy and chaos, I was ready to act again. This time, it wasn’t just about my own survival but the survival of the Kingdom of Israel itself.

“I could see it so clearly. As soon as everyone realized that David was no longer the man he had once been, a civil war would erupt, and it would destroy everything that David had built. And so I moved quickly. With the help of Nathan, I persuaded David to fulfill an old promise. He let go of his power and placed my Solomon on the throne.

“I did that – me. Not too bad for someone whom everyone had written off as a helpless woman that they could use however they wished. Never underestimate the power of a survivor. And I’ve seen this Mary of yours, Joseph; she is a survivor.

Ready for the Angel Visitor

And so, Joseph slept on. Each of his ancestors had brought a little bit of wisdom for him to consider. And that was why, when his final visitor, an angel from the heavenly court, came to bring him a message, he was prepared to receive it. He realized that he had underestimated the strength and courage that was in this woman, Mary. It turned out that she was indeed full of surprises.

Never Discount Anyone

The Gospel of Matthew says that the visit of an angel to Joseph in his dream was what persuaded him not to put Mary aside. But I can’t help but think Matthew is suggesting that Joseph could have found some strength and wisdom to create a new possibility from his extraordinary female ancestors as well.

Certainly, they, together with Mary, ought to teach all of us never to discount anyone, least of all a woman, because their circumstances have put them into what looks like a bad place.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/pvou1fAWNNA

Hespeler, November 30, 2025 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44

The verse we read from the Gospel of Matthew this morning has caused no end of trouble for the church over the years. I’m speaking, of course, about the verse where Jesus says, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

I’m not talking about the trouble that that has caused for our Trinitarian Theology. If we confess that the God we worship is one God revealed in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – we can’t help but wonder how one of those “persons,” the Father, can know something the another, “the Son” doesn’t.

That problem has generated endless discussion among Christians over the centuries, but I don’t think that is the biggest problem we have with this verse.

The Return of Christ

It is a reference, of course, to the second coming of Christ, which is the promise that human history is moving towards some great conclusion where God will finally intervene.

Humanity has, collectively speaking, made a bit of a mess of this world. That seems clear enough.

You may speak about spiraling violence made more destructive by ever more powerful weapons. You can talk about environmental devastation and the destruction of animal habitat. Or you can take note of the economic forces that push millions into an existence of unrelenting poverty, while the wealthy few hoard the abundance of this world.

These and other problems have made people of faith long for God to intervene and finally set things right since ancient times.

Positive and Negative

This can definitely be seen as a very positive thing. Just a couple of weeks ago, we read a beautiful image from the Prophet Isaiah of God creating a new world that is a joy and delight for all – a world where people actually get to enjoy the work of their own hands.

But there is no question that there is also a dark side to it. We see that in this very passage we read this morning. It is also an extraordinarily destructive event where those who are opposed to God’s rule are wiped out, like in the story of Noah’s ark. The destruction is also described as indiscriminate. With two in the field, one taken, and the other spared, two women grinding grain, one taken, and the other left.

Ambivalence Towards the Future

So there is a promise and a threat as we look towards the future. And that is, I think, a perfect reflection on how we actually feel living in the world these days.

As we look forward, we certainly hope that God is at work creating a better world. But, at the same time, how can we help but be worried that the road from here to there will be terrible and filled with horror, destruction and violence? The future, as has always been the case, is a place that provokes in us very contradictory feelings.

An Announcement

And given all that we cannot help but feel as we contemplate the future, what would you think if I came in here this morning, stood before the church and made an announcement?

“Hey everybody, I know that you are all worried about the state of the world, but I have good news for you. Jesus is coming back. I have studied all of these obscure Bible passages and made these intricate calculations, and I know exactly when he will arrive. He will be here on Sunday December 14, at 11:00 a.m. local time.

“Now, it is true that, between now and then, things are going to be very dark. There will be wars and rumours of wars and terrible signs all over the earth. But don’t worry. So long as you all do exactly what I say between now and then, you will be okay, and you will be received in God’s kingdom.

“Unfortunately, I can’t say as much for the people of that other church down the road!”

Am I Crazy?

What would you think if I came in and said something like that? I know you would probably not accept what I said. You would conclude that I am either mistaken, lying or going crazy. And I am kind of glad that that would be your response. That demonstrates that you are smart, that you are capable of critical thinking.

But can we say that everyone would respond to all preachers who said something like that in the same way as you smart folks? No, we cannot. We know for a fact they won’t. Certain preachers, with the right amount of charisma and speaking to the right audience and using the best media can definitely get people to believe them.

Joshua Mhlakela

It has happened repeatedly throughout history. You may recall that it happened again just a couple of months ago. South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela prophesied that Jesus would take true believers to heaven before a global tribulation on September 23^rd and 24^th of this year. Many of people believed him.

His message went viral on TikTok, with videos amassing millions of views. It was amazing how many people believed him and acted according to what he said. Some even continued to believe him when that date came and went without Jesus’ arrival.

That’s right. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you if you didn’t hear, but the world didn’t end on September 24. And then Mhlekela revised his date, admitting only that he had made a mistake by using the Gregorian Calendar instead of the Julian Calendar. And some even continued to believe and follow him then.

Jesus then also failed to show up on the new date, October 6-7. I’m not sure what Mhlekela said next because people stopped listening.

Not Getting Personally Sucked in

Now, I know that we might be tempted to laugh at people who fall for this kind of message. It makes us feel superior to think that we would never get sucked into this kind of prophecy.

It is good to inoculate ourselves personally against being taken in by this kind of thing, of course. We can do that by reminding ourselves that people have been predicting the end of the world and the coming of Christ for a couple of millennia now.

There must have been literally millions of date predictions that have come and gone at this point, and every single one of them has failed. At this point, it certainly does take someone with a very big ego to think, “Hey, they were all wrong, but I am the one who finally got it right.”

Damaged Caused

However the danger of these predictions extends beyond the individuals who fall for the message. They can do a lot of more generalized damage. In particular, they can give a lot of power to those who make them.

There is no question that fortunes have been made and empires and religions have been built around such predictions. Churches such as the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s  Witnesses got their start and built huge followings based on predictions that they were able to exploit.

In both of those cases, when the dates of their predicted ends came and went without anything happening, they adapted and changed so that the modern expressions of those faiths are quite different. But the initial leaders of the movements leveraged those predictions to become extremely powerful. In their pursuit of wealth and power, they caused significant damage to many who believed them.

Fear of the Future

The future is frightening. It is full of something that we naturally fear: the unknown. And fear is a powerful emotion, as anyone knows who has ever dealt with a phobia.

If you have a deep-seated fear like a fear of heights, or flying, or spiders, your logical and rational mind can be absolutely no help to you. Your rational mind may know very well that that railing is secure, that cars are much more dangerous than airplanes and that the vast majority of spiders are actually beneficial. None of that does not help you one tiny little bit when you find yourself face to face with something that terrifies you.

Well, to a certain extent, I think we are all naturally futurephobic. So, when somebody with a little bit of charisma comes along and promises to make the unknowable known, our response may not be entirely rational. Our emotions may take control of the situation.

So, it is not all that surprising that people do respond irrationally when someone comes along offering a clear path through future events.

Exploitation of the Fear

And people have been exploiting that human tendency since forever by offering clear predictions of what is to come and when. It doesn’t even matter whether their vision of what is coming is positive or negative. Anything that can give a sense of certitude will always seem less scary.

And Jesus understood that about us. He understood how vulnerable the fear of the future can make us. And Jesus abhors the very idea that anyone should use fear to attempt to control us. Jesus came to show us perfect love and, as the apostle wrote, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18

That is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” It is not that Jesus cannot know about future events. It is certainly not that he isn’t in the Father and the Father isn’t in him. (John 14:11) It is more like he chooses not to know.

Jesus Does Not Exploit Our Fear

It is his way of saying that he will not use the fear of the unknown to manipulate or exploit his people. And if Jesus won’t do it, neither should any of us.

But this is not just a rebuke to those who would set dates and use them to feed their own power. I believe it is a general rebuke to any church or any organization that tries to use fear to keep its people in line.

And that is a rebuke that falls very broadly. Fear is a tool that Christianity has employed again and again throughout its history. We have used the fear of hell and damnation, the fear of expulsion from the community, and even at times the fear of physical punishment to keep our people in line. We have used it to make people fear having the wrong thoughts as well as engaging in incorrect behaviour.

But just as Jesus refused to wrest control of what happens next from God, the church must refuse to take control over people’s salvation, thoughts and actions unto itself.

Letting Go of Control

Let us learn to say, “We don’t control who will be saved, that is only in the gracious hands of God.” Let us learn to say, “Our doctrines do not define for all time who God is; God defies all human definitions!” Let us add these and other understandings to the teaching that “the knowledge of the future is in God’s gracious hands alone.”

What I mean when I say that this verse in the Gospel has caused no end of trouble for the church over the years is that it will be tough to let go of what has been the church’s most effective tool. Fear works. It can motivate people like few other things can.

However, the history of people making predictions about the date of Christ’s return reveals that such motivation will inevitably lead us to a dark place sooner or later.

Facing the Future with Confidence

I know that many of you, as you look around at the state of the world today, find that there are many reasons to fear what may be coming at us. I understand that fear; I often feel it too. All I’m going to say is that I am not going to try and make you feel better by telling you how it is all going to go and when the end will come.

Such an answer might make you feel better in the short term, but I don’t believe that either of us will find that helpful in the long term.

Instead, I will seek to encourage you by telling you that the future is unknown, but that it is in the hands of God. And the God who holds that future is the “Father” revealed to us in Christ, who is compassionate, forgiving and full of grace.

Believing that, I promise you, will free us all up to build new possibilities for the future that defy all of the troubling signs that are in the world today.

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/s-6x2o0sYz4

Hespeler, November 23, 2025 © Scott McAndless – Reign of Christ
Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 46, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-43

There is something strange that caught my eye in our reading this morning from the Gospel of Luke. It is a familiar enough passage – one that we have all read many times before. It is Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus. And as he is nailed to the cross, Jesus is repeatedly mocked, but he is mocked for one thing in particular.

King and Messiah

The Jewish leaders mock him for claiming to be Messiah. Messiah is a word that means “anointed one.” And it was historically a word that Jews used to describe the king or some other person that God had appointed to lead or save the nation.

The Roman soldiers who are carrying out the execution don’t understand the subtleties of Jewish concepts, so they just mock Jesus for claiming to be the King of the Jews, which means about the same thing. And the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, agrees because he has ordered that a mocking charge be posted above Jesus’ head on the cross: “This is the King of the Jews.”

But that is not all. Even the criminal who has been crucified beside Jesus also mocks him with the same Jewish jibe that he has claimed to be the Messiah. Meanwhile, the one on the other side (perhaps because he is a Gentile) joins the Romans in assuming that Jesus has claimed to be a king. But he accepts this claim and assumes that Jesus is about to come into his own kingdom.

It is not surprising, of course, that all of these people have heard the rumour that Jesus has made such a claim. That particular idea about him seems to have spread widely.

Assumption About Kingship

So, I get that they want to make fun of Jesus for claiming to be a king. What is somewhat odd, however, is that they all make the same assumption about what that means. They all know what makes a king a king. They know what a king or a Messiah’s first job is. And their reason for thinking that Jesus is a failure is that he had not done that one thing.

So, what is that one thing? What has Jesus failed to do? Has he failed to establish an effective bureaucracy? Is the problem that he has not managed to pass any legislation? Has there been some public relations gaffe?

No, it is none of that. They know he is not a good king because he has failed at the number one priority of a ruler. He has not saved himself.

Priorities of Leaders

And it made me wonder. Is that really true? Is that what leaders are supposed to prioritize? Are they supposed to make sure to cover their own… back first and everything else comes after that?

So, I looked around at what leaders do today. And guess what, it turns out that the Jewish leaders, the Romans and the first criminal were right. The evidence is clear. The first job of a leader is to save themselves.

We see it in Ottawa these days. Our country is led by a minority government at the moment. And minority governments can fall at just about any moment, and the people in charge could cease to be leaders.

Primary Motivation

That’s why it seems as if everything the government does these days is motivated by one of two things. Either the government wants to avoid an election that they might not win, or it wants to make sure that any election it goes into will create a majority, which will mean that their position is safe for a long time.

And it seems to me that everything they do – every budget and piece of legislation is undertaken with that calculus. Sure, they hope that these things might do good for the country. Maybe some of it even does. But all of that takes a back seat to the number one priority – to save their own skin.

Across All Parties

I do not say this as a particular criticism of the ruling party. I know that any other party in the same position would do the same thing. It is how the system works. It is set up so that all who aspire to be leaders will always seek to save themselves first. And the justification often goes like this: if we are not in charge, we can’t save the country. So, we have to save ourselves first; everything else comes after that.

As is often the case, much of this is seen even more starkly in the United States right now. You may wonder sometimes why Republicans these days do not challenge their own president, even when they do not agree with his policies. So many of them have been so controversial that they cannot simply agree with all of them.

The reason they don’t challenge him is because they know that if he wishes to, he can remove them from power by backing someone else against them in a primary election. They know that their first priority is to save their own jobs.

And the opposition party is no different. Every move they make seems to be calculated to save their own seats in Congress first.

Mockers Seem to Be Right

So, I guess what I am saying is that, if we look at leadership and how it works in our world to this very day, the critics and mockers in our Gospel reading this morning are absolutely right. Jesus is a failure as king. He has proven it by failing to save himself.

And if we are going to buy into the way leadership works in our world, it seems that we need to join in the mockery. Let’s point our fingers and laugh at Jesus, the worst king ever!

Claiming Christ as King

Ah, but I know that you haven’t come here to mock Jesus today. In fact, you are here on the day known as Christ the King Sunday – the day when the church has, for centuries, gathered to celebrate the kingship of Christ and to pray for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

Perhaps, if we want to claim Christ as our king, it is time for us to embrace a new understanding of what it means to be a leader.

Learning from Jesus

I realize that our political leadership is not listening in today. Our renewed understanding of leadership may not change what happens in the parliaments, congresses and legislatures of the world today, but perhaps if we start following the example of Jesus in our lives and in our churches, something new could spread from there.

So what can we learn from Jesus in this passage that may give us a new perspective on leadership today? What traits do we see in him that may help us to understand how his failure to save himself is the essence of true leadership?

Forgiveness

Well, the first thing that stands out to me as I read this story is this. His immediate response, even as he is crucified, is to say “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” instead of concentrating on saving himself.

Now, the very idea of forgiving your opponents – especially when they are in the process of attacking you – is something that seems unthinkable to modern leaders. Instead, we see the opposite. Your critics attack you, what do you do? You double down. If your political enemies make some mistake or gaffe, you are absolutely going to capitalize on that.

You will mock them relentlessly, but you will never ever forgive them. But Jesus does. What does that teach us? It teaches us that resentment and holding on to grievances against your political enemies does have power. But it is mostly a power to prevent true leadership.

How Lack of Forgiveness Affects Us

In fact, it tends to mean that we get stuck. The fact that so much of our politics today is bogged down in endless studies and negotiations and produces so little change for the better, probably has a great deal to do with how hard our leaders cling to their grievances and enmities.

But the power that Jesus unleashes here – the power of forgiveness – always opens up new possibilities. Here, on the cross, Jesus creates a whole new reality with the forgiveness of his enemies. It is the new reality of the kingdom of God; it will transform the world.

I would encourage you to embrace this power of forgiveness. As you let go of whatever resentments you have been carrying, you may find yourself becoming unstuck. You may find yourself set free to embrace change and new beginnings. That is the kind of leadership that Jesus demonstrates to us on the cross.

Service

Beyond forgiving his enemies, Jesus does something else that is supremely unleaderlike. He serves. Far from saving himself, he literally sacrifices himself before their eyes. That is something that we see rarely in a leader in our age.

We’ve already discussed how leaders seek to save themselves first. But let’s pause for a moment to consider why they seek to save themselves. It is often not the reason that they tell themselves – that they have to remain in charge in order to do the good that no one else will do.

Knowing Our Worth

Usually, the reason has much more to do with the fact that they begin to associate their worth and their identity with the power that they wield. To let go of it is to let go of everything that makes them them. So, they refuse to let go.

But Jesus can do that because he knows his worth. He knows who he is better than anyone who has ever lived. That is precisely why he can give himself up when the time comes.

And that is true strength. Those who cling to their power or position because they need it to feel right about themselves are the ones who are displaying a deep weakness.

The strength that Jesus shows in this is something that all of us can tap into. For we have an identity that no one can take away from us. We are children of God, and we have worth that we carry with us precisely because of what Jesus has done for us in this very scene.

That is why you don’t need power or position to matter. And ironically enough, that is the very thing that can make you a good leader. We need the kind of leaders who are confident enough in themselves to put the good of the people or of the church or the institution first, before their desire to keep their position.

Confidence in the Future

And finally, the thing that makes Jesus the kind of king we need is that he can look to the future with hope and confidence. When the criminal on one side of him is the only one to defend Jesus against his mockers, and declares that he has done nothing wrong, he turns to Jesus with a request: “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.”

And Jesus doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t get caught up in the questions that might weigh us down. He doesn’t seek to define the kingdom and when it will come. He doesn’t worry about that even though he himself has said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.” Mark 13:32

None of those details worry Jesus because he knows the future is firmly in God’s hands. He doesn’t need to control it or even understand it personally. So he can reply to the man, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

True leaders don’t need to control everything and everyone to feel secure. They know the power that is found in placing trust – trust in God and trust in others. We need leaders like that.

Jesus, King of This World

Jesus is the king who brings us to the reality of the kingdom of God. It is not just an otherworldly reality like the one that the criminal on the cross went to that very day. The kingship of Jesus is meant to teach us all how leadership can better work in this world.

I hope that we can all take his lessons of forgiveness, self-sacrifice and hope to heart. If we can embrace that sort of leadership, it can really be the start of new possibilities for our church and far beyond our walls.