We continue our sermon series from Matthew. The parable of the bridesmaids was the first of three parables in Matthew 25 meant by the gospel writer to teach what faith should be for those who were waiting on the return of Jesus. With the Presidential election this week we have experienced what it means to wait. The bridesmaids were supposed to wait on the bridegroom, and in this case when the bridegroom was long delayed, some bridesmaids were prepared while others were not. The wise bridesmaids, however, seem selfish in not sharing their oil. Perhaps the oil represents something that can’t be shared, something in one’s own spiritual life that simply can’t be shared with others. What does that mean for us and our own waiting?

Today is All Saints Sunday when we name and remember those who have died in the past year. This year the grief is particularly acute because of the effects of the pandemic. However, we are in the presence of a loving and compassionate God, a God of life and resurrection and hope. The reading today Psalm 34 is a message of hope. It is an acrostic poem, the beginning of each verse being a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, as a teaching tool. It teaches about the nature of God, and it uses a personal example to witness to the goodness and love of God.

In the context of this week’s Presidential debate, we know that debate is an ancient form that often produces new insight, and that is the setting for today’s reading where Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees – a lawyer asked Jesus which commandment is the most important. We don’t know the lawyer’s intent in asking the question, but Jesus responded in a way that was new, connecting love of God with love of neighbor and love of self, and proclaiming these to be the greatest commandments.

Continuing with our sermon series from Matthew, today’s reading is the familiar story of the Pharisees and Herodians trying to entrap Jesus by asking him whether to pay taxes to Caesar. Beneath the obvious question is the issue of where one’s loyalties lie. The Pharisees and the Herodians each had different perspectives and interests where Rome and Jesus were concerned. Neither group thought Jews ought to pay the tax. Does this story have something to say about our own view of our own righteousness? Perhaps the important part of the answer of Jesus comes after the “and.”

Continuing with our sermon series from Matthew, today’s reading is the parable of the wedding feast wherein a guest is thrown out because he is not dressed appropriately. It is an odd teaching in that the host seems to be judgmental, and Matthew’s version is more violent and seems more unfair than Luke’s version. What has this guest done or not done that evokes such a response from the king? What does this mean for us?

Continuing with our sermon series from Matthew, today’s reading has to do with questions of Jesus’s authority. In context, Jesus has come into Jerusalem from his several years of Galilean ministry, and one of his first acts is to throw over the tables of the money-changers. And then he begins to teach in the temple area. No wonder the chief priests and elders question his authority. Jesus doesn’t answer directly, but asks a question of his own – what about the authority of John the Baptist? Then Jesus tells a parable to challenge their idea of authority.

Continuing with our sermon series from Matthew, today’s passage is a difficult parable wherein, from one perspective, a farmer is imminently fair, but from another, some laborers feel cheated. Perhaps this parable shows us that the human idea of fairness is not God’s idea of fairness. And perhaps we are to understand that our tendency to compare ourselves to others is also not Godly. So what is Godly?

Dr. Townes recounts her childhood vision of heaven, then moves to today when we're in an age of technical wonders, a time when we have to much to entertain us that it leaves us with no room for a concept of a heaven. But where are the marrows of deep joy? Is it fatal to love a god that doesn't love us? Shouldn't we be turning to a God who does so much? Shouldn't we answer life with our own lives?

Continuing our series of sermons from Matthew, today’s reading is a wrenching parable with a servant who is forgiven but then refuses to forgive someone else for the same thing. But is this behavior just like ours? We have received God’s grace and love, and yet do we pass that grace and love on to others? Do we not keep track of others’ wrongs against us? Do we not hold others responsible? And yet Jesus keeps telling us about forgiveness. How do we move toward forgiveness?

Continuing our series of sermons from Matthew, today’s reading is that familiar parable of the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the one lost sheep. This search itself – to leave the 99 – may not seem sensible. Then Jesus says the shepherd rejoices more at finding the one lost sheep than over the 99 who weren’t lost. Does God not notice those sheep who do not stray? Yet, each of us has, at one time or another, been lost, and we can remember what it feels like to be found. How wonderful it is to be part of a flock whose shepherd notices when one is lost and will go find that lost one. Perhaps this tells us that we, too, are called to find the lost and to rejoice in the finding.