The Story for the
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sept 20, 2020

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Matthew 20:1-16

Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 

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Something to Do

Two conversations

Imagine two dinner tables. The first belongs to the family of one of the labourers who worked all day. The second belongs to the family of one of the labourers who was only hired in the evening. Imagine the conversations that happen around those two tables. You could even write it down or act it out.

Enough is enough

The other reading we are going to hear this Sunday is from the story of the Exodus and is another story about the way that God provides enough for what we we need. (Read it here.) Both stories also caution us about the human inclination to always want more – more than we need; more than other people; more, more, more.

During the Season of Creation, we are invited to think more carefully about the ways our behaviours impact the rest of the world. How might you reduce the amount you take from creation in order to ensure there is enough for all life to thrive?

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Something to Wonder

But it’s not fair!

Anyone who has spent time with more than one small child at a time will be familiar with the cry: “But it’s not fair!”. For that matter, anyone who is honest about their own hearts will be familiar with it and I think it is the idea at the root of the labourers’ complaint.

What does the idea of “fairness” mean to you? How do you react when you see something that feels unfair?

In what ways does Jesus challenge the idea of fairness? How do you feel about that?

Locating Yourself in the Story

With which group of labourers do you most identify? How does that influence the way you hear this story? How does that impact the way you think about the kingdom of heaven?

Try to identify with a different group of labourers. How does the story change? What do you see in the world around you when you look at it through these new eyes?

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Something to Learn

Food Waste

One consequence of taking more than we need is waste. According to a 2017 study conducted by the National Zero Waste Council, Canadians throw out almost 2.2 million tonnes of edible food every year. Learn more about the study and ways to reduce your food waste with Love Food Hate Waste Canada.

Universal Basic Income?

Jesus was not describing a universal basic income (UBI). For starters, any one who didn’t get hired at all didn’t get paid and the landowner wasn’t just setting a minimum but also a maximum. However, UBI is one proposal of a way to ensure everyone has enough. Like all solutions to complicated problems, however, it is not perfect and it might not be the right answer.

Learn more and reach your own conclusions. Here’s a few places to start:

Possibilities and Prospects: The Debate over Guaranteed Basic Income, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 2009 and written by Margot Young (a self-described skeptic) and James Mulvale (a self-described proponent).

Basic Income: Some Policy Options for Canada, published by the Basic Income Network Canada in 2019 and written by Sheila Regular and (Ascension’s own) Chandra Pasma.

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Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

The Story for the
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sept 13, 2020

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Matthew 18:21-35

Then Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.

When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” 

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Something to Do

Forgive…

Is there anyone you are reluctant to forgive? Or someone you truly want to forgive but simply can’t? Spend some time in prayer for that person and for your relationship. You don’t have to ask God to make you friends – just ask God to bring you the grace of forgiveness and commend that person into God’s care.

And be forgiven

Is there anything you feel guilty about? Spend time in prayer asking God to forgive you so that you can be set free from that burden and turn your energy towards living in God’s ways.

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Something to Wonder

How many times…

Peter’s desire for clarity is understandable. Our world is full of largely arbitrary numbers intended to provide reasonable guidelines to situations with no clear boundaries. For example, nothing magical happens on your 18th birthday to suddenly render you an adult but we need a clear boundary for when to start treating you like one.

Jesus’ answer, like so many of Jesus’ answers, is that the question is wrong footed. Forgiveness is not about counting or keeping score. Forgiveness is about an abundance of grace, spilling over from God so that we might share it with others. The numbers in the parable emphasize the fundamental uncountability of God’s forgiveness: 10,000 (The Greek word is actually myriad) talents represents an impossibly huge amount, akin to “a gazillion”…or to “seventy times seven”, and then contrasts that to the relatively insignificant amount of grace being asked of the slave. Surely, having been forgiven the world, the slave can extend some mercy to their fellow?

The story, fundamentally, is about how we respond to God’s forgiveness, not about how we trigger it.

How do you respond to God’s forgiveness?

The Dangers of Forgiveness

This passage, and others like it, have been used to control people living in abusive and oppressive situations and to enable the ongoing evil behaviour of those in power over them. How do we hold both truths together: we are called to a radical form of forgiveness AND we are called to lives of dignity as persons created in the image of God? What is the difference between forgiveness and permission? Between forgiveness and reconciliation? Is it possible to forgive without forgetting?

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Something to Learn

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a set of practices that seeks to disrupt the simple pattern of finding guilt and assigning punishment. Ideally, it finds a way to balance forgiveness with justice in a way that allows people – both offenders and offended – to move forward.

Reconciliation through Restorative Justice
This short video describes a restorative justice practice in the context of a First Nations Healing Circle.

The Little Book of Restorative Justice

by Howard Zehr with Ali Gohar provides a very accessible introduction to the theories and philosophies that underly restorative justice.

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Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

The Story for the
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sept 6, 2020

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Exodus 12:1-14

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.

Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. 

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Something to Do

Liberating Creation

The story of God’s liberation of Israel reveals a truth about God that Jesus constantly tried to teach: God stands with the weak and oppressed and will set them free. What if this does not only apply to oppressed people but to all of creation, currently bound by unjust and unsustainable human practices?

Join Kairos’ 30 Days of Action for Climate Justice and join in God’s liberating work.

This is how you shall eat it

I’m not going to suggest you actually eat a meal standing up with your coat on and your bag packed as I don’t want to make light of what is happening in this story. People are preparing to escape a dangerous place, waiting for the sign that it is time to run. Their meal is hurried and anxious and they are scared.

This is not just a story for millions of people. If you have the good fortune to live in safety, how might you help those who do not? Money, political pressure, prayer, time – all are needed to protect refugees, people living with domestic violence, political prisoners, and others.

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Something to Wonder

No plague shall strike you

This foundational story of God as the faithful deliverer of Israel includes God as the vengeful punisher of Egypt. How does that make you feel?

Does the one require the other? Why or why not?

Where are you in this story?

We tend the read the Bible by positioning ourselves with the Israelites in the Old Testament or with Jesus and the disciples in the Gospels. In what ways are you, like the Israelites, in need of liberation?

It is also wise to consider how we might be aligned with the other people in the stories. In what ways are you aligned with Egypt?

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Something to Learn

This month shall mark for you the beginning of months

According to Jewish teaching, this is the first mitzvoh (religious obligation or commandment) given by God to Israel. Read more about Jewish understandings of the calendar and the practice of Kiddush Levana, the Sanctification of the New Moon.

Sanctifying Time by Tali Loewenthal
“The task of the Jewish people is to sanctify and transform existence, making it into a realm for the indwelling of the Divine”

A Matter of Time by Rabbi Naftali Reich
“Why this particular mitzvah? Would it not have been more appropriate perhaps to initiate the Jewish people with a mitzvah that represents transcendent spiritual concepts?”

Make Your Days Count by Rabbi Yisroel Ciner
“We count the days of the week to remember the Sabbath. The creation. We count the months to remember the exodus. The re-creation. “

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Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

The Story for the
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 30, 2020

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Romans 12:9-21

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

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Something to Do

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil…

and the list goes on. Choose one of Paul’s instructions and really focus on it this week. How can you fully accomplish it in your day-to-day life?

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Pick any big problem in the world – climate change or income inequality or racism or social isolation…any big problem. Do one specific, concrete good thing to work towards overcoming it. It doesn’t have to be a big thing or a hard thing – just a thing you can do that helps you refuse to let the world be overcome by evil.

What did you do?

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Something to Wonder

So. Many. Words.

Read the passage again, slowly, perhaps outloud. It is full of powerful words: honour; zeal; persevere; bless; weep; haughty; peaceably.

Do any of the words in the passage make you uncomfortable? Why?

Which words do you particularly like? Why?

Leave room for the wrath of God

We don’t talk a lot about the wrath of God, preferring instead to focus on God’s mercy. Is mercy possible, though, in the absence of judgement?

How do you understand God’s role as judge? Does the idea that God gets angry make sense to you? Why or why not?

Are you satisfied letting God handle your vengeance or do you want to take such matters into your own hands?

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Something to Learn

Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Paul’s letter to the church in Rome is his last and longest letter. It is also the only letter we have which he wrote to a community he had never met in person. He sent the letter ahead of himself to serve as something of an introduction – quite the introduction, indeed!

These two short articles offer fascinating insights into what might have been going on in the Christian community in Rome at the time.

“Earliest Days of the Roman Christian Church” by Sam O’Neal

“Something About the Book of Romans that will Help You Really “Get” It” by Kenneth Berding, Talbot School of Theology

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Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

The Story for the
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 23, 2020

prepared by the Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Romans 12:1-8

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

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Something to Do

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God

Your body, alive and vibrant, is holy and acceptable to God. Do something to enjoy it:

• move it in a way that feels good;
• rest it in a way that feels good;
• use it to touch things that feel good, smell things that smell good, eat things that taste good.

Use it to do God’s work:

• create something beautiful
• tend God’s earth
• care for another person

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Your mind is also a gift from God, to be treasured and placed at God’s service. Do something to enjoy it:

• read or write a poem
• watch a documentary (check out the free catalogue at nfb.ca)
• do a logic puzzle (free and available for all ages)

Use it to do God’s work:

• create something beautiful
• plan a strategy to implement something you have learned
• write a letter to a politician about something you care about

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Something to Wonder

Do not think more highly of yourself that you ought – but do not think less of yourself either!

Paul tells the Christians in Rome that each of them has gifts needed by the community – and no one has all the gifts needed by the community. The challenge, then, is to discern and embrace your true gifts. Take a look at the list of gifts identified in this week’s passage. Where do you see yourself? How would you describe your gift? How do you make use of them?

good, acceptable, perfect

“what is good, acceptable, and perfect” – this is the test Paul describes for discerning the will of God. What do these words mean to you? How do you know what is “good, acceptable, and perfect”? Have you experienced making a choice and then discovering the outcome was (or was not) “good, acceptable, and perfect”?

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Something to Learn

Spiritual Gifts Inventory

This is not the only letter in which Paul encourages Christians to contemplate the gifts they have been given and commit to placing those gifts in God’s service. There have been many books and tools developed to help modern Christians do this work for themselves.

Take a look at this resource shared by St. John’s Anglican Cathedral in Winnipeg, including a test you can take for yourself.

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Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.