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"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's" and the binary trap- Matt 22

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Matthew 22: 15-22 Our gospel reading begins with the Pharisees plotting how to “entangle [Jesus] in his words”. So, they come up with a very clever trap that forces him into a binary: either he picks option A and there are undesirable consequences, or he picks B and there are undesirable consequences. Picking either A or B is going to be undesirable. The Pharisees are no friends of the Herodians, but since Jesus is a common enemy to both, they found a way to work together. So representatives of both groups come to Jesus with a trick question. The Herodians were a faction at the time that was loyal to King Herod, and they wanted to play nice with Rome. King Herod embarked on numerous impressive building projects, which included building cities for the pagan population living in the area. Herod even erected a golden eagle at the entrance of the temple, which was a symbol of Rome’s dominion. He also spent lavishly on gifts for Roman officials. The Herodians embraced this as the practical ...
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Politics and the Pulpit

I have many clergy colleagues who are making their voices known regarding Alberta politics at the moment. They have good reasons for doing so. It seems to me that you either say nothing, or you say quite a bit.   After talking with our church corporation, we have decided that we're not going to say anything publicly about the Alberta referendum at St. Leonard's. There are a number of reasons for this. 1. We haven't had anyone contact the church asking the church to say something because they don't know what to do. What we have had are people contacting the church asking the church to send out resources that they are sending us. 2. The bishops of Calgary, Edmonton, and Athabasca have written a joint letter. I checked with our bishop and this is optional to share with our congregations.  So, the letter from the bishops was recommended to us as something we might choose to share, but not something we were told we were required to share.  With all due respect...
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Thanksgiving 2026

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  Deuteronomy 8: 7-18; Psalm 65; 2 Corinthians 9: 6-15; Luke 17: 11-19 There's a modern type of psychology that is sometimes called Positive Psychology. When you go to a psychologist generally you go because you are treating a problem of some kind, and so you'll go to a psychologist to help you with your anxiety, or your depression, or grief, or a trauma you've experienced. Positive Psychology differs from the usual approach in that it tries to look at how to develop and maintain a healthy psychological state. So it's not looking at the problem as much as it's looking at creating general psychological health. One aspect of Positive Psychology has to do with learning to grow in gratitude. These psychologists have found that learning to be grateful reduces negative emotion and improves life satisfaction. They recommend practices such as gratitude journaling, listing things that you're grateful for, and writing letters to people you're grateful for. The neurosc...
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Exodus 20- The Nine Commandments

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Exodus 20:1-20 Today I would like to take a look at the Ten Commandments because it's such a famous part of the Exodus story. I thought that maybe what I would do is to go through these commandments and just say a little bit about each one. Just as an overview, the Ten Commandments are a part of the larger set of laws that were given as a part of the covenant with Israel. So why look at these particular commands and make them stand out from the rest? One reason is that Jesus actually pointed to these when a wealthy man came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" And Jesus replies by listing the 10 commandments. So, if Jesus pointed to these, then they are obviously worth our attention. They seem to have been understood as a kind of summation of the law. Another reason we might pay attention to these is because from early times the church was trying to figure out how the laws applied in the New Covenant. For Jewish Christians, most ...
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From Grumbling to the Mind of Christ- Exodus 17 & Philippians 2

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Exodus 17:1–7; Philippians 2:1–13 Over the past few Sundays we have watched the Hebrew people be rescued from slavery through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. We read about the Passover and how the blood of the unblemished lamb was put over the doors to mark the people of God to protect them from the final plague (Ex 12). We read about the angel of God and the pillar of cloud standing guard, protecting God's people from Pharaoh's army. And we read about Moses stretching his hand out and God driving the sea back so that the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. We read about the waters covering Pharaoh's army. The Hebrew people were miraculously saved from through God's miraculous intervention (Ex 14). You'd think that after being saved in such miraculous ways, your trust in God would be unshakable. But then we read in Exodus 16 that  “the whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.”  They said,  "If ...
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Matt 20- The Parable of the Vineyard Workers and the Dangers of Envy

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Matthew 20:1-16 In our Gospel reading today Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who hires people to work in his vineyard. Young men who had no other work would wait at a particular location, hoping to be hired for the day. This is still something that happens regularly around the world. They would usually work hard because they would hope to be hired again and maybe even get a regular job. If they weren’t hired by noon the young men would usually head home, but they would have to meet their families with the fact that they hadn't earned anything for that day, which might mean not eating anything that day. In the parable, the landowner went in the morning and hired people to work his land for the usual daily wage- a denarius. He would know how many people he needed, so it's strange that he keeps returning to hire more. The vineyard owner went again at noon, and then 3:00 in the afternoon and then again at 5:00. Quitting time was around 6:00 or 7:00, as the sun was starting...
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Romans 14- The Weak and the Strong

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  Romans 14: 1-12 What I want to focus on today is our reading from Romans 14. Here Paul is talking about differences in practices among believers. The strong are those who are considered more spiritually mature. They understand what Christ has done and how all-pervasive his work has been. Who he calls “the weak” are those who are less spiritually mature, and so their conscience is more vulnerable to what might seem like a violation of Torah instructions regarding things like the Sabbath observance. In the sense that they don't see Christ's work as being as pervasive. Last week I spoke about conflicts and disagreements in the church and I think that flows very naturally into what Paul is saying here in Romans. The church in Rome was probably a mixed body. You would have Gentiles who are former pagans who are now following Christ, and you would have Jewish people who have come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, who are still following the cultural practices of their people and ...
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