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Hespeler, October 11, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Harvest Thanksgiving
Isaiah 25:1-9, Psalm 23, Philippians 4:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14

Don’t you just love it when you are reading a passage in the Bible, and you come across a name that you just can’t figure out how to pronounce? No, am I the only one who is thankful when he sees a verse like this one we read today: “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal Syzygus, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel.”

Why do I love verses like that so much? Is it because I like to torment the worship assistants who read the Bible passages on Sunday morning? Of course not! Well, okay, yes, but only a little bit.

Real People

No, the real reason I appreciate these names is that they remind us that these letters were written to real people. We often read these scriptures as texts that are there to communicate big and universal truths that we are supposed to take and apply to every situation.

Now, I am not saying, of course, that you can’t find universal theological truths in these passages. They are certainly there. But when Paul wrote these words, his goal was not to write theology. He was writing to real people – people like Euodia, Syntyche and Syzygus – and giving them real advice to help them with their real struggles.

The passage we read this morning has much to say to us today. It is fitting that we read it on this Thanksgiving Sunday. And I want to reflect on the universal theological truths that it has to teach us about giving thanks.

But before we turn to those ideas, I wanted to remind us that that was not why Paul wrote them. He wrote them for Euodia, Syntyche and Syzygus. Remember them, because we are going to come back to them before we are done here today.

Why Is Thanksgiving Important?

Why is Thanksgiving important? I am not just asking why it is important that we have this holiday at harvest time when we get together with loved ones and enjoy the bounty of what the land has produced and talk about how blessed we are. I mean, a table laden with turkey, stuffing and all the fixings is justification enough for that alone.

But I’m asking why we put such importance on people being thankful. I can think of a couple of reasons that might be part of the answer, but I don’t think they are reasons enough alone.

Drilled into Us

For one thing, most of us have had the importance of being thankful drilled into us since childhood. We were given lessons, sometimes painful lessons, about the importance of expressing thanks under all kinds of situations.

And I’m sure you remember those lessons. How your parents told you that it was important for you to say thank you to your aunt when she gave you a gift, even if you didn’t appreciate that gift in the least. I remember being obliged by my mother to write a thank-you note for every single gift that I had received for Christmas or for my birthday. I remember how much that felt like an insurmountable task even if it was just a question of writing a few sentences on a few cards to maybe less than five people!

Social Skill

But the importance of it was instilled in us. And I think we understand why that was such an important lesson to receive. So much so that, when we had our own opportunity to raise a child, we did our best to pass that lesson on. But why is it seen as such an important lesson? Why do we teach children to say thank you, even if sometimes they don’t feel particularly thankful?

We do it because we know that people who express thanks make a better impression. They come across as grounded and trustworthy. They are the kind of people that people want to deal with. Learning to be thankful is, in other words, a social skill that will serve you well as you make your way in the world.

And I do not quarrel with that at all. I agree that learning to express gratitude is a positive and useful social skill and that the more we all use it, the better society will be. But is that why we teach that giving thanks is important in the church? No, that is not the reason.

Vance and Zelenskyy

There is another reason why people assume that saying thank you is important. Do you remember the scene over a year ago when Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, had a famous meeting with the American President in the Oval Office?

At one point, the Vice President, J.D. Vance, said this to him: “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.”

That was a statement about the importance of saying thanks, but the reason for saying it there was not really about social skills or about building a more respectful society. It is clearly not about that because, of course, Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians have not hesitated to express gratitude to any supportive nation.

Managing Powerful People

No, Vance was concerned about Zelenskyy saying thank you for another reason. It was about power and how we treat people who have it. There are people who have the power to do things for you or give things to you, but you have to treat them right.

Such people tend to be somewhat self-centred or narcissistic, and so you have to use things like praise, flattery and lots and lots of gratitude. We all know people who are like this. We have all learned to treat them accordingly whenever we need them to do something for us. And Vance was simply doing the courtesy of informing Zelenskyy how the administration he represented needed to be treated.

So, there is another, different reason why it can be important that people learn to be thankful. It is a useful tool for manipulating powerful or influential people. But is that why we teach that it is important to be thankful in the church?

Managing God

In the life of the church, we are dealing, after all, with the most powerful being imaginable. We believe that God can do anything we ask or desire. And we have all learned how to speak to powerful people. Is it a surprise that we should speak to God in the same way?

Anyone analyzing our prayers and worship and noticing how we make a point of praising God and thanking God for just about everything might conclude that we are doing what Vance wanted Zelenskyy to do: buttering God up so God will give us what we want. In fact, many people who are part of the church may think that is exactly what we are doing.

Humans have historically treated their gods like that. They saw it as transactional. You gave your god a sacrifice, a promise or praise, and you could expect that in return, your god would make your crops grow or give you a child or whatever else you wanted, after which, of course, you had to make a point of thanking your god so that they didn’t take it away.

Does God Need Our Thanks?

But is that why we praise and thank the God we have come to know through Jesus Christ? Is our God a selfish and narcissistic being that we need to manipulate in that way? Maybe some people think that. Maybe you think that sometimes, but the answer is no.

God doesn’t need our praise and thanksgiving to be persuaded to do things for us. God doesn’t love us or want to give us good things because we have said or done the right thing. The Bible reminds us again and again that God’s love and care for us comes despite our sins and failures.

What’s more, the God we meet through Jesus clearly doesn’t need our praise or thanksgiving. God is no narcissist; narcissists are people who are trying to compensate for deep self-doubts. God is not on a power trip; God has more power than we can imagine. To treat God as someone that we can manipulate with cringing gratitude is to misrepresent God. It is creating a false idol, worshipping a God who does not exist.

Euodia and Syntyche

So, if we don’t teach gratitude as a social skill, and we don’t use it as a way of manipulating God, why do we put so much emphasis on giving thanks in the church? Why have we gone so far as to create a festival for it? Well, that brings us back to our good friends Euodia and Syntyche, as well as the loyal Syzygus.

When Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche were in a bad place. They were obviously leaders in the church, but they were at odds with each other. It is easy to see that this was making them miserable. And so, Paul asks Syzygus to help these women change their perspective.

People Who Have Been Richly Blessed

The name Syzygus means companion or partner, someone who accompanies you on your journey, and Paul clearly wants Syzygus to join these women on a journey to a new way of seeing things.

But let us also take note of the names of these two women. Euodia means “prosper on the way,” and Syntyche means “good fortune.” I think we are meant to understand these are women who have been blessed in extraordinary ways.

They have received so much, but they don’t see that, do they? They have been arguing with each other. They have only been focusing on the negative and made themselves miserable.

And we all know people like that, don’t we? We know people who have received much good fortune and prosperity, but because they can only see the negatives, they have become sour and bitter. And Syzygus is given the difficult job of helping two people like that change their moods!

Rejoice!

But don’t worry, Paul doesn’t just leave him there. He goes on to give Syzygus exactly the information he needs to change the perspective of these two women. He writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

Now, that is admittedly somewhat troubling advice. Even though he repeats it twice, it is not really advice that is easy to follow. People generally cannot make themselves joyful just because someone tells them to rejoice.

Turning Anxieties into Prayers

But Paul isn’t finished. He goes on to explain how Euodia and Syntyche can change their thought patterns and how Syzygus can help them. He doesn’t just say, for example, “do not be anxious,” he offers the antidote to anxiety, which is learning to “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Turning your anxieties into prayers, supplication and thanksgiving allows you to let go of the things that weigh you down. You recognize that you do not have to carry them alone, that they are not your responsibility and that you can offer up what is not under your control to God.

Changing Thought Patterns

And then Paul continues with this challenge to reprogram your thought patterns: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think aboutthese things.”

Rather than focussing on the negative, as I am sure that Euodia and Syntyche were doing, we can focus on the positive. There is much that is positive to be found. Let our thoughts focus on these things and you will be amazed at how it changes your perspective.

So, to return to our opening question, why do we encourage people to practice thankfulness in the church? It is not because we want to teach a social skill or shape society. It is not because we think we can manipulate God with our thanks.

It is for our sake. It helps us focus on the positive, the Euodia and the Syntyche of our lives. It changes how we look at the problems we have to face. That is what Paul wanted Euodia and Syntyche to realize, and it is what he wants you to realize too. It is what he wanted Syzygus to help these women to see, and he wants you to help others see it too.

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Hespeler, October 04, 2026 © Scott McAndless – World Communion

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20, Psalm 118:19-29, Philippians 3:4b-14, Matthew 21:33-46

T

he stones had been cut and shaped at the quarry. They were then loaded onto carts that had been specially built to carry the extraordinary weight and hauled by teams of oxen to the building site. As they arrived, they were unloaded by teams of burly slaves and left in piles.

It was the job of some of the labourers to look through the stones and sort them by size and shape, as certain stones would be needed for various parts of the structure.

Reject Pile

But there was one stone that they didn’t know what to do with. It had no faults or cracks, but it was neither perfectly square nor rectangular. It had an odd trapezoidal shape, and it didn’t seem like it would fit in anywhere.

They didn’t have a lot of time to consider. There were so many stones to sort and so little time to get the work done. So, they simply put the stone on the reject pile and moved on. And there the stone sat as the work on the great temple got underway.

The cornerstone was laid, and the expert builders went to work laying out the stones in perfect lines. They built without mortar because mortar does not last forever. Only the force of gravity would hold this structure together. The seams between stones would have to be just right. The distribution of weight would have to be perfect, for this was a building that was meant to stand until the end of time.

 The Life Paul Had Built

As Paul of Tarsus, also known as Saul, looked at the life he had built, he felt as if he had built it right. He had started with the right foundation, his identity as an Israelite. This had been marked into his very flesh by circumcision on the eighth day of his life. He knew where he had come from, tracing his family to the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Hebrew through and through.

But he knew it wasn’t enough for him to rely on his ethnic identity. He had embraced the covenant that God had made with his people entirely by vowing to live his whole life according to the law. That led him to become a Pharisee, part of the religious party that carefully studied the law of Moses and showed people that it was possible to follow it in very practical ways.

The Followers of Jesus

In fact, he committed himself so completely to following the Law that, when he heard of a group of people who had a different understanding of how to follow it, he devoted himself to eradicating their way of life from the earth.

They were followers of a teacher from Galilee named Jesus, a man who had been crucified by the Romans. They were obviously deluded fools because they claimed to have seen the man alive even after his death. But Paul knew that this man had taught things that did not fit with what he understood about the Law, so there couldn’t be any truth in that.

Jesus was unusual, a misfit, and so Paul did his best to make sure that the man and his ways were expelled, forgotten, and thrown on the reject pile of history. He became a zealous persecutor of all those who dared to follow in the way of Jesus.

Something Missing?

As Paul looked at his life, he saw that he had built it well with strong lines and firm foundations. Every part of his life was perfectly proportioned. The seams between his convictions and his actions were just right. And the distribution of priorities was perfect. When he held the law up against the life that he was living, he could look at it and declare that it was perfectly righteous.

And yet, deep inside, he felt as if something was missing. He could not say this to anyone, but he seemed to lack one thing that could tie the various parts of his life together and give it all meaning.

The Arch

The temple walls rose steadily. As the labourers laid each stone, the master masons came around with a simple plumb line, a lead weight on the end of a string, to check that each line was perfectly righteous.

But as the walls rose, they came to the place where they would have to join two sections across from each other to form a gate. The temple was not being built for the sake of God; it was for the people. They needed to be able to come and go – to step out of their ordinary lives and into the nearer presence of God.

And so, once the walls had risen above the head of the tallest man, they began to lay stones leaning outward across the void. These stones, because they were not laid flat, were not stable like the others. They had to build wooden scaffolding across the gate to support them, for otherwise they would all come crashing down. And the further out they built, the more unstable the entire structure became. Gravity, that force that was supposed to make the building firm, had now become their enemy!

A Building Crisis

There finally came the point when all the stones that could be laid without crushing the scaffolding were in place. The manual labourers were at a loss. The whole structure now seemed to be so unstable that they were afraid to even come near.

They called out to the master masons in their fear, and they came over. As soon as they saw the problem, they knew exactly what to do. They described to the labourers a stone that should have come from the quarry. It would have had an odd shape, not square but more of a trapezoid.

Finding the Rejected Stone

As they described it, one of the labourers remembered the stone they had not known what to do with and had left on the reject pile. They quickly went to the pile and, after a fair bit of searching (for a great deal of refuse had been cast there in the meantime) they found it and brought it back.

The master masons told them exactly where they had to place it on the very centre of the arch. As they put it in place, all the instability disappeared in a moment. The force of gravity that had threatened to destroy all their work a moment before now pulled all of the stones together so tightly that it was clear that this arch would stand forever. And it was all thanks to that one odd stone from the reject pile.

Building Over the Void

Paul felt as if there was some force in his life that, like gravity, was dragging him downwards. It didn’t make any sense; he felt as if he had built his life around all of the right priorities.

The problem was that he felt increasingly uncomfortable with persecuting the followers of the way. Yes, he still thought that they were living out the Law wrongly, but there was no question they were good people who were living lives of compassion and care. He didn’t want to admit it, but he increasingly felt that they didn’t deserve to be so abused.

Doubling Down

But, as people often do, he attempted to drown out the objections of his conscience by becoming even more extreme in his abuse. He “went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1-2)

As he headed down the road to Damascus, he kept telling himself that he was only doing what needed to be done. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that the structure of his life was off balance and that, at any moment, everything might come crashing down all around him.

Finding Jesus

When the risen Jesus, the very person whose memory he had been trying to eradicate, appeared to Paul, he told himself that he must reject him. How many times had he said that this man was the origin of everything that was wrong with the world? But somehow, he couldn’t do it. He fell to his knees in wonder and in awe.

And suddenly, at that very moment, everything just kind of clicked into place. When he had rejected this Jesus, it had felt as if everything in his life was about to fall apart. But now he realized that, if he allowed Jesus to have a place in his life, everything could make sense.

But not only did it bring meaning to his life, but it also opened up new possibilities – new doorways and entrance arches, you might say. For if Jesus could appear to the man who persecuted his followers, what else was possible? Maybe, Paul thought, a way could be opened for even Gentiles to be justified outside the Law.

The Story of the Stone

The master masons who planned the temple had always known that an oddly shaped capstone would be needed to hold the whole building together. But they didn’t explain those kinds of things to the common labourers who were supposed to just do what they were told without needing to understand it.

So, when the labourers expressed their surprise at how a stone that they had thrown in the reject pile had come to be placed in such an exalted position, the masons did not contradict them. The story of the rejected stone became a tale that was repeated to every worshipper who came to the temple.

Soon it came to be considered an essential part of the tour. Visitors who came to Jerusalem insisted that they could not leave without having someone point out to them the stone that the builders rejected.

Processional Psalm

In fact, it became so famous that, when one of the Levite musicians wrote a processional Psalm to mark a special festival, he included this verse to be sung as the procession passed under the arch:

“Open to me the gates of the Temple; I will go in and give thanks to the Lord!

This is the gate of the Lord; only the righteous can come in.

I praise you, Lord, because you heard me, because you have given me victory.

The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.

This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!”

And once a reference to the stone had made it into the scriptures, well, talk about it increased all the more. Before long, the stone that the builders had rejected became a symbol for the Messiah, the one whom God would choose, even if he was rejected by others, to bring hope and salvation to the whole nation – to bind them together as the capstone bound the arch on the temple together.

The Most Important Stone

And so, Paul of Tarsus realized that the stone that he had rejected because it didn’t fit with his preconceptions of the world or of God, the stone that he had cast on the garbage pile because he thought it was useless to the life that he had built, was actually the stone that he needed the most. And the more he allowed that stone to bind his life together and give meaning to it, the more he found that the other parts of his life that had seemed so important began to fade away, to seem like garbage by comparison.

Jesus and the Stone

One day, near the end, when he was in Jerusalem, Jesus gestured towards the stone in the temple arch, and he said, “Haven’t you ever read what the Scriptures say? ‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all. This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!’”

He said it as a challenge to you and to me to move Jesus from the reject pile – that place where you put all the things that don’t matter, that don’t really influence or change you – to put him in that position where he has the power to pull your life together and begin to transform the world. Paul put Jesus in that position in his life, and it really did change the world. I expect no less from you when you do the same.

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Hespeler, September 27, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32, Psalm 25:1-9, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32

The Apostle Paul loved the people in the church in Philippi. Even though he was in prison when he wrote to them, and it was probably dangerous to do so, they supported him freely. The joy that he takes in them comes across on every page of this letter.

But for Paul, something was still missing. The church in Philippi was not united. They were disagreeing and arguing with one another. Perhaps they even had differences over their support for Paul.

And so, in his letter, he entreats them saying, “make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

And I do not think that Paul is speaking only for himself here, nor is he just speaking to the situation in Philippi. This is also Jesus Christ’s priority for the church. It is Jesus’ priority for us.

What Jesus Delights in

Jesus takes delight in many things in the life of our congregation. Jesus loves it when we worship with full hearts. Jesus loves our joyful music. And when he sees us doing what we can to feed the hungry, to offer clothing to those who do not have enough, Jesus is ecstatic. When we welcome people as they are, when we listen to their problems to connect them to people who can help them find solutions, it warms Jesus’ heart.

But Jesus never stops looking for that one more thing that would make all of his joy in us complete. He wants us to be united, to share the same mind and the same love and be in perfect accord.

Completing Jesus’ Joy

That is more important to Jesus than that we be seen as successful as a church, or that our pews be full, or that we meet our budget. Just us being united in one mind is enough to bring to Jesus utter and complete joy.

And surely you all want that, don’t you? Just think, you have the power to give to Jesus a joy that is complete in every way. How could you not want to do that?

But there is one problem, isn’t there? We are all different. We all have different concerns, different worries, opinions and priorities. How can we put all of that aside to create that one-mindedness that will complete Jesus’ joy?

Practical Advice

Well, fortunately the Apostle Paul doesn’t leave us hanging on that account. He tells us how we can do that seemingly impossible thing. He starts with some real practical advice. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit,” he writes, “but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.”

And that is all really good. But I know, and I imagine that you also know, that that is often easier said than done. There are times when, for example, I act in selfish ways or in ways that are only concerned with my own ambition, but I am not always aware of it when I do that. It can also often be very easy to confuse my own interests with the interests of someone else. We are just human after all, and we make those kinds of mistakes all the time.

Same-Mindedness

So, Paul gives us the tool that will allow us to find that same-mindedness. And it is a tool that is available to all of us as followers of Christ. “Let the same mind be in you that wasin Christ Jesus,” he says.

That makes a certain kind of sense, doesn’t it? If we can all manage to let the mind of Christ enter into us, well, then we will all automatically have the same mind, won’t we?

The Mind of Christ

That just leaves one niggling little question. How do we get the mind of Christ into us? It can’t be a question of intellect. We can’t all get as smart as Jesus because he surely has depths of knowledge and understanding that none of us can attain.

But don’t worry, Paul is not done. He goes on to tell us exactly what he means by the mind of Christ. The passage that follows is truly remarkable because most biblical scholars agree that Paul didn’t write it. He seems to be quoting something to them that they have heard before. It is probably a hymn or song that they sing as part of the life of their church.

Ancient Hymn

The Letter to the Philippians was probably written sometime around 60 ad, maybe thirty years after Jesus’ resurrection. But this hymn that Paul quotes is older than that. It has been around long enough to be well known and familiar to everyone. So it might have been written much closer to the time of Jesus.

It could be older than all of the Gospels, older than most of the Letters of Paul. It might even be one of the first things that anybody ever wrote down about Jesus. That is quite something to consider!

And I would, in fact, encourage you to take some time to consider this extraordinary passage. Meditate on it. It will reveal to you aspects of the person of Jesus that probably never occurred to you before.

The Story of the Christ

It is a hymn that celebrates the story of the Christ, but not the story as we usually tell it. There is nothing about a birth in a manger or a ministry in Galilee. It is rather the story of the cosmic Christ. It begins with Jesus being in the presence of God and having the very form of God. Apparently, for Jesus, equality with God is something that is within his grasp.

But having all of that, Jesus simply gives it up. Rather than seizing all of the rights of divinity, as he could, he lets go of it. He empties himself. It is literally the same word you would use for pouring water out of a cup or emptying a bucket. Jesus then takes on a new form, a human form. But not just human, specifically the form of a human who is a slave.

The Twist

And then, of course, comes the big twist in the story of Jesus. Having become a slave, he is exalted and given a name that is higher than any other name in all of creation, a name so exalted that, at the sound of it, every being on earth, in heaven and under the earth will spontaneously bow down.

And why is Jesus given such an exalted title? Is it because of that whole part about him starting out in the very form of God? Is it his divinity that provokes such a reaction?

No, not at all. It is rather his extreme humility, service and obedience that cause God to exalt him. And Paul adds the point, probably the only words in this hymn that he added himself, that this service and obedience were so extreme that they included Jesus’ death on a cross.

Paul doesn’t tell us what the mind of Christ is. Instead, he points us to this extraordinary poem about the story of Jesus. And I believe that right here you will find directions for how you can have the mind of Christ in you.

Original Nature

The poem starts with a statement of the original nature of Christ. “He existed in the form of God.” And for you, having the mind of Christ has to begin with an understanding of your true nature. And no, you are not in the form of God. That is something unique about Christ. But I’ll tell you what you are.

You are created in the image of God. That is something common to all humanity. You are also beloved of God. You are someone for whose sake Jesus was willing to suffer death, even death on a cross. You are someone chosen, redeemed and saved by God through Jesus Christ. All of that has been given to you, not because you deserve it, but because you are willing to put your trust in Jesus and what he has done for you.

Having the mind of Christ begins by making that the foundation of your identity and self-worth. There are many other things about you that make you special and unique, and God loves all you accomplish through them. But knowing that this is the foundation of your self-worth means that you cannot think more highly of yourself than the others in your church who have the same foundation of their worth.

Not Grasping

So, you start by knowing who you are in Christ. The next step to obtaining the mind of Christ is to choose, like Jesus, not to grasp that worth, but to be willing to set it aside. Empty yourself of it. That does not mean that you forget your true worth, of course. Jesus never forgot where he came from. But it does mean that you choose, like him, to devote that worth to service and obedience.

Jesus taught us again and again that we attain our greatest power through service. “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,” he said, “and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave.” (Matthew 20:26-27) And I realize that choosing to serve does not always come easy. Not all of us are equipped to serve in every way, and it may take some discernment to find a place where you can serve. But when you do, Paul’s promise is that you will find that the mind of Christ forming in you.

Choosing Service

How many in this church have found that place where they fit in, whether it be in offering food to the hungry, or leading in worship, serving as an elder or deacon, or in so many other ways? I have seen how you have deepened in your faith and grown in compassion as you have done these things. This is the mind of Christ growing in you.

Exaltation

So, you develop the mind of Christ in yourself by knowing who you are and choosing to put who you are to work in acts of service. But there is one more verse in the hymn that we need to cover. For, even as Jesus was exalted and given a name that is above every other name, we are given a share in that exaltation.

And yes, part of that is that have the hope and expectation that after we die, we will be raised up to a new life in an existence far beyond our present understanding or imagination. That hope sustains us even through the darkest times of this life. And knowing that hope is a part of having the mind of Christ.

Owning the Name

But remember always that this exaltation is not just for another life. For in this world, we claim the exalted title of Christ. That is what we mean when we call ourselves Christians. Owning that name and being able to carry it in this world is something we should cherish always. We have a share in that name that is exalted above every other name in heaven, on earth and under the earth.

And sure, not everyone we meet will recognize the importance of that name. But we know, don’t we? And that knowledge contributes to us having the mind of Christ.

So, when you understand what Paul means by having the mind of Christ, you realize that it is something we can attain in this world. So long as you know the foundation of your worth, so long as you embrace the role of service for which the Holy Spirit has equipped you, and so long as you hold onto the hope and power that is in the exalted name of Jesus the Christ, the mind of Christ will be found in you.

So, hold onto those truths, my friends. For, if we can do so, we will be of the same mind. And won’t you love to know that, in so doing, you will make the joy of Christ Jesus (and Paul) complete.

Closing for fall cleaning and changeover to warmer clothing, etc.

You are invited!

Watch sermon video here:

https://youtu.be/2sjn7dEGDLc

Hespeler, September 20, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45, Philippians 1:21-30, Matthew 20:1-16

About a year ago, the Chief Executive Officer of Vineyard Incorporated decided to make a big move to boost profits. He utilized Artificial Intelligence models to automate many of the processes that kept his business running.

He put an AI agent in charge of his supply chain, managing the intricate system that made sure that everything that he needed to produce his product arrived just in time. He put AI agents in charge of answering his phones and responding to all questions and orders. He had another AI agent running the production fields, managing cultivation, fertilization and monitoring for pests and ripeness.

Generative AI was also put to work creating advertisements and a social media strategy, flooding the internet with posts.

Low Labour Costs

The CEO congratulated himself that these initiatives allowed him to lower his payroll drastically. He went down to the labour market and hired just a few people to prompt the AI and to take the blame for any mistakes that it made. He promised to pay them one denarius, which seemed far too much for what he was asking them to do, but he recognized that he needed to keep at least a skeleton crew on hand.

Now, it was the nature of Vineyard Incorporated’s business that its earnings all came at once. For most of the year, there was just the constant cost of keeping the operation running, but the crucial harvest season was when all the profits came in to cover the costs and make a big fat bonus out of the rest.

Big Savings

The CEO watched with glee throughout the year as the numbers came in. Costs were down across the board, which meant that when the profits finally came in, the bonus would be huge. He could hardly wait!

For example, the cost of the advertising they were creating was down 80% because there was no need to pay graphic artists or creative directors. What did it matter that it all looked like AI slop and there was nothing to set it apart from advertising that every other company was doing? It was so cheap that they could put it everywhere.

And so it all went until the long-anticipated earnings season came. As soon as the AI sensors indicated the grapes were ready to harvest, the CEO ordered someone to push the button to get the harvesting equipment ready.

Problems

That was when the CEO realized that his reliance on AI might have created some problems. It turned out that people weren’t engaged by advertisement that was just AI slop. The CEO realized that he would have to reduce prices in order to engage his customer base.

And then, the customer service AI hallucinated an offer for a product that didn’t exist, resulting in the need to process numerous refunds. And it turned out that the monitoring AI had also failed to properly detect an infestation of a particularly troublesome pest – something that the old, experienced hands would have picked up on right away.

That was not even the worst problem that was surfacing. The AI company that had sold him the agents in the first place realized he was utterly dependent on them for his entire operation. They jacked up their prices and threatened to walk away with all his operational data if he did not pay.

Last Minute Hiring

So it was that, at the last minute, the CEO realized that the only thing that would save his earnings season was if he went and hired a labour force that could deal with all of the problems that were coming to light. In fact, he might just end up hiring more people than he would have in an ordinary season before all of his cost-saving initiatives.

He went to the labour marketplace, but it was very difficult to find people who were willing to work for him and clean up the big mess. The only workers he could find were temporary foreign workers who had been brought in for the season.

The good news was that these workers worked very hard for low pay. The bad news was that the temporary agency that managed and obtained them charged fees that were so high that it cost as much for one of them to work for the season as it would have cost to hire an ordinary worker for the whole year.

He Thinks He Did a Good Job

In the end, the CEO had to explain the whole debacle to his board. And so, he went in and told them what a good manager he was. He explained that he had made bold moves by cutting the cost of labour and that, even though profits were down over the whole season, his discipline of the workforce would surely bear long-term fruit. The entire board laughed at his very bad pun.

After that, they decided to use the money that they had received from the recent government tariff refunds to fund a huge stock buyback to boost their stock price. They ended the quarter with big bonuses all around.

Meanwhile, back in the vineyard, the few workers who remained after all the temporary workers had left looked around at the ragged vines. Expert hands were needed to prune and prepare them for the next season, and they knew that they had lost such expertise. It looked like next year’s harvest would be even more dismal.

Traditional Interpretation

The traditional interpretation of Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, as you may know, is to see it as an allegory.

The owner of the vineyard is seen as God. The workers who start at the beginning of the day are seen as the Jews, who have a long-term relationship with God through the Law. The workers who come later in the day are the Gentiles who come to faith in God through Jesus later.

This is, to be clear, a perfectly valid way to read the parable. I do not doubt that the early church read it that way. They used this parable to work through the issues they had regarding feelings of resentment between Jews and Gentiles within the church regarding the keeping of the law. That may even be the main reason why Matthew included this parable in his Gospel.

More Than One Interpretation

But the powerful thing about the parables of Jesus is that they are never meant to be read just one way. And the people who heard Jesus tell it the first time wouldn’t have been thinking about the tensions between Jews and Gentiles that wouldn’t surface for several decades.

Instead, they would have heard a story that would have sounded pretty familiar to them – a story about labourers and the people who employed them. In fact, many of them would have been such labourers who had come straight from working in the fields to listen to Jesus tell this story. They had only just been paid the usual rate of one denarius a day for their work.

Because of that other, commonly accepted allegorical interpretation of this parable, there are people who would say that this parable is not allowed to be a commentary on capitalism or on the relationship between workers and owners. But I say that, if you are telling the Bible what it is and is not allowed to mean, you are probably interpreting it wrong.

So, I have always been willing to see this parable as having something to say about economic issues and how they affect our lives here and now, and not just about what happens after we die.

Shifts in Attitude

Our world has shifted enormously over the last few decades. Back in the 50s and 60s, it was taken for granted by most that workers, those who did the labour and contributed their time, energy and talents to production, made a worthwhile contribution to what was produced and should be compensated accordingly.

But since then, we have been steadily fed the message that actually those who contribute capital and investment or have ownership are the most important part of production and that they should realize the greater part of the profits.

Now, of course, it is not one or the other. Many enterprises could not exist or grow without investors. They should expect a return. But it is a question of balance, and we have seen that balance shift away from labour and toward capital in terms of who deserves to get more.

Questions We Need to Consider

With all that going on, Jesus’ parable seems to raise the kinds of questions we need to be thinking about today. How much is labour worth? How much should the vineyard owner be able to profit from the labour of the workers?

And Jesus throws an interesting twist into the story. The workers do everything right. As often happens, the people on the shop floor are the ones who have a real sense of how the work needs to get done.

It is the owner who makes a huge mistake in Jesus’ parable. He wants to save money and doesn’t hire enough people to get the work done before the grapes go bad. He has to race desperately back to the market several times to hire more workers and ends up paying more workers for the full day than he should have had to.

He Thinks He’s Good

And the owner in Jesus’ parable also doesn’t even see what a bad manager he is. This is often masked in our translations. When the owner tries to explain why he had to spend so much on his workers, he says (in our translations), “Or are you envious because I am generous?”

But that is not what it says in the original Greek. It actually says, “is your eye evil because I am good?” That is right; he is actually boasting that he is so good at his job that everyone is jealous of him.

That makes no sense when you realize that he has actually completely botched the entire harvest operation, and so perhaps that is why translators offer the other translation.

But though it doesn’t make any sense, doesn’t what he says remind you of so many executives who totally destroy the profitability of the companies that they are running? They run the place into the ground, everyone gets laid off and yet somehow, they end up getting a nice big bonus, a golden parachute and are soon put in charge of another company. No wonder they think they are so good at their jobs! The boast, “is your eye evil because I am good?” really does seem like the kind of thing that they would say.

Continually Fresh Interpretations

So, the parable can and absolutely should be applied to the various struggles we deal with in our society around labour, profit and enterprise. I have preached on this parable myself many times before and made that very point.

Every time I come back to it, I see something new – not because the parable has changed but because our society has changed. These days it is the coming of Artificial Intelligence that is eroding the power of the workers and emboldening the wealthiest, but that is just another weapon in a war that has been raging for a long time.

Your Application

This is the point in the sermon where I usually tell you what to do with all of this. I like, whenever possible, to give you a nice and well-defined action that you can take with you and live out the Gospel in the coming week.

But Jesus didn’t usually tell parables to get people to take specific actions. He told them to challenge people to change the way that they thought. He wanted to give people new perspectives on God and on the world.

Let the Story Challenge Your Perspective

So, I'm not going to give you a specific action or even a specific interpretation of this passage today. What I want you to do with it is what I think Jesus intended you to do. Take the story with you. Chew on it over this coming week.

Put yourself in the position of the worker. You are forced to sit in the marketplace and hope that someone might hire you for the day and even pay you enough to live. But you know that you are ultimately at the owner’s mercy.

Put yourself in the position of the owner who discovered late in the day that he actually did need the labour of the workers more than he thought and that they were actually worth their pay.

But most of all, let this story of Jesus challenge the comfortable assumptions you make every day about who really contributes to society and who doesn’t, who takes and who gives, who deserves a return for what they have put in and who doesn’t.

Jesus told these parables for exactly that reason. When people listened to these stories and let them challenge the assumptions that they carried with them, that was when they discovered the true nature of the kingdom of God.

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Hespeler, September 13, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 14:19-31, Exodus 15:1b-11, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:21-35

Pharaoh was enraged. Here he was, the greatest ruler on the face of the earth. He was everybody’s favourite Pharaoh – his advisors told him that all the time.

And yes, it was true that the media were putting out polls that said that regular Egyptians were turning against him, that he was the least popular Pharaoh in history, but that was all obviously all fake news.

People were just upset by all of the recent plagues. Frogs and locusts, boils and hail have a way of souring everybody’s mood. But nobody should blame Pharaoh for any of that. As he had told them, all of that was the fault of his predecessors who had neglected the monuments of Egypt for so long, or something like that.

Troublesome Hebrews

Besides, he had been busy with the foolish demands of the Hebrews who were asking for permission to travel into the desert for three days to have some festival for their God.

He kept reminding the slaves that they were being ungrateful. After all, they had been treating Egypt so unfairly for generations – sitting by pots of meat and eating their fill of bread without even paying for any of it!

So, after one of the latest plagues, he told them he had had enough and he was cutting them off. He didn’t need anything that they produced, and Egypt would be better off without them.

Negotiation Tactic

It was, of course, a negotiating tactic – the art of the deal. He expected them to cave and offer to do even more labour for smaller rations of bread and meat.

But then they went and walked away from the negotiating table. Actually, they walked away from the country altogether! They went into the desert and, over three days later, there was no sign of them returning.

It was quickly becoming clear to everybody that Egypt did need them. In fact, the slaves were vital to Egypt’s ongoing prosperity. They supplied everything from energy to food.

So Pharaoh summoned his chariots, the most advanced fighting force on the face of the earth, and headed out after them. The army easily found their trail and followed it to the shores of the Red Sea.

That was a sore point too. Hadn’t Pharaoh himself decreed just the other week that the body of water should henceforth be called the Sea of Egypt! And yet people defiantly continued to call it what it had been called for centuries.

The Night Before

And there, by the shores of the Sea of Reeds – I mean, the Sea of Egypt – they finally caught up with them. The Hebrews looked so pathetic, huddled up against the shores of the sea. It was late in the day when they found them, and the weather was odd. An unusual wind was blowing strongly and steadily out of the East and between the Egyptian chariots and the fleeing Hebrews was a strange and disorienting cloud. So Pharaoh decided to stand down his troops and let them rest until morning.

Attack!

As the morning sun rose behind the wind that still blew out of the East, the cloud finally dissipated. Pharaoh looked up and saw that the Hebrews were actually trying to flee across the seabed where the waters had retreated before the wind. What fools! The soggy ground would only slow them down. His charioteers would sweep them away.

Pharaoh shouted for the cavalry to attack. He laughed aloud as his team took off at a gallop. This was going to be so easy; it would almost be fun. But, just as he thought that, he noticed that there was something wrong with his chariot. The muck of the sea bottom was clogging the wheels so that they turned with difficulty.

Egypt as Symbol of Empire

Throughout the Bible, Egypt and its various rulers seem to stand in for the worst examples of empire. Even when the biblical authors are actually concerned with the evils of empires such as Babylon, Persia or Alexander of Macedon, they tell stories of Egypt and how bad Pharaoh was. These stories help them to understand the actions and motivations of these other powerful empires.

And it seems to me that we might need to draw on some of that wisdom today. Like it or not, we seem to be living in a moment in time that is all about authoritarian leaders trying to build empires.

Rise of Authoritarians

I am not picking on any particular authoritarian here. Everywhere you look these days, you seem to see strongmen who are trying to seize land to build up their empires.

It could be President Xi in China putting down protests in Tibet while planning an invasion of Taiwan. It could be Vladimir Putin seeking to rebuild the old Russian Empire by invading Ukraine or Benjamin Netanyahu bombing and seeking to seize territory in Lebanon and Gaza.

And of course, there is another guy who has already taken control of the country of Venezuela and has set his sights on such far-flung bits of geography as Cuba, Greenland and the Strait of Hormuz. He also won’t stop talking about making Alberta or perhaps the whole of Canada into his 51^st state.

The Lure of Empire

And I realize that your automatic response to some or all of these empire builders is to reject them, maybe even hate them. But let’s stop for a moment and try to understand why we are seeing so much of this kind of activity today.

We are living in uncertain times. Things are changing at a disorienting pace and in some disturbing directions. Artificial Intelligence is upsetting, maybe even destroying, the labour market. Huge technology companies are taking control of every aspect of our lives and all of our information. Debts have grown to previously unthinkable levels.

Understandable

In many ways, it is not surprising that people are latching onto various authoritarian leaders in these times. They are promising a return to normalcy through strength. And, when it turns out that they cannot actually bring about a return to normalcy, these authoritarian leaders naturally turn to conquest as a way of protecting their power.

It has always worked like that – a tale as old as time. It is how the Pharaoh came to power in Egypt and how it has worked ever since.

So let us not be angry at those who, in uncertain times, turn to such leaders. Our anger at them won’t change anything. But the question we need to ask as believers is: where is God? What is God doing to bring justice to the world in such times?

A Story for Trying Times

When the people of Israel despaired throughout their history as they suffered at the hands of various empires, they kept coming back to this story. The story of the battle of the Red Sea was what convinced them that their God would save them. It gave them hope in the face of trying times. That’s why they kept telling it.

The battle of the Red Sea was not a battle that the Hebrews won by superior weaponry or tactics. They were at a tactical disadvantage in every way you can imagine. They were just running away and doing it on foot. The Egyptian chariotry was the most advanced military force that the world had ever seen and would ever see for many centuries. It should have annihilated them. But the Hebrews won.

A Strange Kind of Victory

And sure, you can say that God won the battle for them. But God didn’t do that by making them stronger or better fighters. God didn’t allow them to defeat the Egyptians on Egyptian terms. Instead, what did God do? God clogged the chariot wheels. God turned the Egyptian advantage into their downfall.

And I believe that that is God’s favourite approach. God loves to use the very things that the powerful put their trust in, the very things that they think make them invincible, to bring about their defeat.

Ukraine

We are seeing that very thing playing out in our world right now. When, for example, Russia invaded Ukraine over four years ago, the consensus everywhere was that Ukraine could not resist them. Russia had all the advantages with their conventional military resources, equipment and population. But things didn’t quite work out that way.

The chariot wheels got clogged. That happened literally when whole convoys were unable to advance through the Ukrainian mud in the initial assault. But it happened even more so as Ukraine transformed warfare itself by developing drone technology that was relatively cheap to fly but crushingly expensive to defend against. Russia’s strength became its weakness as its resource base and economy have been targeted.

Iran

The shorter-term Iran war has played out in similar terms. Iran is outmatched in almost every way. It doesn’t have the military or equipment to defend itself against the largest and best-funded military force that the world has ever seen. And yet, it hasn’t been crushed. Using relatively inexpensive drones and other weapons, it is holding its own and requiring the Americans to spend many resources with little to show for it.

Nothing Good

And of course, none of this is good. It is terrible to see so many lives being sacrificed and so much destruction playing out. I take no pleasure in it; neither does God. I recognize that the Russian soldiers who are dying in Ukraine are victims of empire just as much as the Ukrainians are.

But the principle at work is this: If you are going to build empires with chariots, God is going to clog those chariot wheels. If you think you are going to make yourself safe by funding enormous militaries, by invading and bombing girls’ schools and civilian infrastructure, God will turn your strength and your callous disregard for life against you.

And sure, we might wish for God to act differently. We’d prefer it if God just took Pharaoh out before he decided to enslave the world. But, for whatever reason, the world doesn’t work like that. Maybe God has something for us to learn from seeing how those chariot wheels get clogged.

Personal Application

There is a lesson in this for you in your personal life. How many of us try to build a sense of safety and security for ourselves through dominance? You think that if you control everything around you and make people behave as you like, you will have a good life.

To the extent that you do that, you are deploying your chariots. If you do that, sooner or later something will come along to clog the wheels. And when that happens, you will have a choice. You might choose to double down and assert more control. That will put you into a downward spiral of more loss of control, more clogged wheels. You will be dealing with anger and resistance.

Or, when the chariot wheels of your life are getting clogged, you can make another choice. You can choose to let go of control, embrace the stories that other people in your life are living through and give them the freedom to be their own people on the other side of the Red Sea. None of that may sound easy, but it might be exactly the new thing that God is calling you to do.

Finding Hope in Difficult Times

So, apply this in your personal life. Watch for where in your life the chariot wheels are getting clogged. Be ready to ask why and to find other ways to move forward in your life than by blowing people away with your chariotry.

And, if you ever become discouraged when you see the powerful of this world deploying their chariots, if you see empires on the move, sweeping all away before them, and the tech lords and oligarchs of this world are seeking to take control of all of our data and our political systems, and people start renaming lakes on a whim just because they can, watch out for the mud that will absolutely start clogging the chariot wheels of those who build empires. God just loves to clog those wheels.