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Genesis 18:1-10a

Psalm 15

Colossians 1:15-28

Luke 10:38-42

(The content of this sermon was 100% written in Canada by a human)

This morning we hear the story of the two sisters—Martha and Mary—a story that has been interpreted through the centuries. It’s one of those gospel stories that seem straightforward, but when we look at it carefully, we find it’s nuanced, and full of tension. The kind of tension we live in every day.

Jesus is welcomed into the home by Martha. She gets to work. She organizes, she prepares, she takes on the invisible labour that often gets overlooked until it’s missing. Mary, meanwhile, sits and listens—she’s present, attentive, grounded. And then comes that moment we all relate to: Martha, overwhelmed and perhaps feeling a little alone in it all, says to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that I’m doing this by myself? Tell Mary to help me!”

It’s a fair question. And Jesus’s answer—“Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but one thing is necessary”—has too often been read as a dismissal. Over the centuries, we’ve been told that Martha was wrong, and Mary was right. That contemplation matters more than action. That domestic work is lesser work. And that Martha, the doer, should have been more like Mary, the listener.

But maybe we’ve misread the tone. Maybe Jesus wasn’t criticizing Martha. Maybe he was seeing her.

Martha is not being scolded for working. In fact, she is the one who invites Jesus in. She is extending radical hospitality. She is creating the space where listening can even happen. Her labour is not insignificant. It’s important work.

But something is weighing on her. The text says she is “worried and distracted.” The Greek implies not just busyness, but inner turmoil—being pulled in many directions. That’s the real issue here. Not that she is working—but that she is pulled away from her own center.

Mary, on the other hand, is still. She is rooted. She has chosen to be fully present to Jesus in that moment, despite what may have been expected of her as a woman in that household. She resists the cultural norms of the time—she refuses to be shamed back into the kitchen—and Jesus affirms her place at his feet, in the posture of a disciple.

This is not a story about choosing contemplation over action. It’s a story about the challenge of aligning our inner lives with our outer lives. It’s a story about what it means to be whole.

Let’s bring this story into our own time. Earlier this year, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that over the last five years, there has been a 31% drop in mental health-related emergency room visits for young people. Hospitalizations are also down. On the surface, this sounds like good news—and in some ways, it is. But dig a little deeper, and the picture is more complicated.

Doctors are warning that many youth in Canada are still struggling with anxiety, depression, and disconnection. But instead of reaching a crisis point and ending up in emergency, more young people are accessing community-based care earlier—like family doctors, counselors, and mental health programs in schools.

They are learning, in a way, to recognize when they’re becoming overwhelmed—and to choose help earlier. They’re beginning to say, “I don’t have to keep doing all of it alone.” They’re starting to see that slowing down, reaching out, and making mental space is not a weakness, but a strength.

And maybe that’s the kind of choice Jesus is lifting up in Mary—not because it’s better than Martha’s way, but because it reflects a life lived with presence and attention. Because it’s a reminder that we can’t be everything to everyone all the time. And that choosing to listen, to breathe, to be grounded in what matters—that is sacred work too.

Now let’s return to Martha. What if the issue isn’t that she’s in the kitchen? What if the issue is that she feels alone? That she isn’t being seen? She’s not just asking for help—she’s asking to be noticed. She’s asking, in her own way, “Don’t you care about me?” And that is a deeply human question.

How many of us have felt that way? How many of us have done all the work behind the scenes—planned the event, hosted the meal, held the family together—and still felt invisible?

Jesus doesn’t tell Martha to stop serving. He invites her to notice how she’s being pulled away from her own joy. “Martha, Martha,” he says—repeating her name in the style of the prophets, in the tone of love. “You are worried and distracted. But one thing is necessary.”

So Jesus is not saying “You’re wrong,” or “Be more like Mary.” Perhaps Jesus is saying, “Come back to the centre.” In other words, “You are loved not because of what you do, but because of who you are.”

Mary and Martha represent two parts of the human experience. Mary reminds us to pause. To take in the moment. To listen to the voice of God that still speaks, even in the chaos of our lives. And Martha reminds us that care, hospitality, and action are not lesser forms of discipleship. They are necessary. They are sacred. But even the most faithful work must be rooted in love, not anxiety. In purpose, not performance.

Both sisters are faithful. Both are loved. And we are called, not to choose between them, but to embody them both at different times.

This story also speaks to our life in community as a church. We live in an age of deep distraction. We are pulled in many directions—programming, budgets, attendance numbers, social media metrics, cultural expectations. It’s easy to become like Martha—not in her work, but in her worry. We forget why we do what we do. We forget to rest at Jesus’s feet.

And yet, we also know that someone has to make and bring the food for coffee hour. Someone has to unlock the doors. Someone has to plan the next worship service and work on the property.

Martha is alive and well in our churches. And thank God she is. But we also need Mary. We need those people who remind us that listening, learning, and resting in God’s presence are not optional. They are essential. The strategy for a viable expression of who we are in the future requires both.

The good news in our gospel story today is not that one sister is right and the other is wrong. The good news is that Jesus shows up in their home, just as they are. He receives their hospitality, listens to their questions, and calls them both—gently, honestly, compassionately—back to what matters most.

The life-giving news is that we are defined not by the distractions or our duties in our personal lives. We are not more worthy when our calendar is full, or our checklist is complete. We are loved for who we are right now. We are seen now. We are invited to sit and rest and breathe and remember who we are.

It means choosing connection over comparison, presence over pressure, wholeness over hurry. It means knowing that whether we’re making sandwiches or sitting in silence—God is with us. It means trusting that we are not alone in the work, and we are not alone in the stillness either. It means, as our Canadian youth are slowly beginning to teach us, that we don’t have to wait until we’re in crisis to ask for help. We can choose what makes us whole now.

That’s the better part. And it will not be taken from us. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 30:9-14

Psalm 25:1-10

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

(The content of this sermon was 100% written in Canada by a human)

Today, we are called to consider the wonderfully instructional parable of the Good Samaritan. In the gospel, a lawyer poses a question to Jesus: he seeks a guide for getting to heaven. “Love God, and love your neighbor,” Jesus tells him. To which the lawyer replies, “Define the word ‘neighbor’ for me.”

And so Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. A man is lying injured in a ditch after being robbed. A priest walks by, sees him, and crosses to the other side. A Levite does the same. Finally, it is the Samaritan, the outcast, who stops and offers aid. The Good Samaritan doesn’t only help the injured man to safety, but he pays, out of his own pocket, for his care. “Which of these was the neighbor to the man?” Jesus asks the lawyer. The answer is obvious: the stranger who showed mercy.

This parable reminds me of something that happened recently, much closer to home. You’ve likely seen the headlines—yet another intense wildfire season in Canada. With 510 wildfires burning, and with at least 140 of those deemed out of control as of Thursday, entire towns have been forced to evacuate. Thousands of hectares of land have been scorched, wildlife displaced, homes destroyed. It’s devastating.

But what caught my attention wasn’t just the fires—it was the people who responded.

One story out of Garden Hill stayed with me. As the flames encroached and the air thickened with smoke, evacuation orders were issued, and residents began fleeing in every direction. But there were some who stayed—not because they had no means to leave, but because they refused to leave others behind. A young man, barely out of high school, loaded his pickup with bottled water and fuel, and drove back and forth on smoke-filled roads, helping elderly neighbours who had no transportation. He wasn’t a first responder or somebody trained in emergency aid. He was just someone who couldn’t bear the thought of people being left behind.

Other stories told of groups of volunteers in nearby communities who are turning their community centres, hockey rinks, and churches, into hubs for displaced families—setting up cots, offering food, and helping kids feel safe in the chaos. In many cases these weren’t people who had time. They had jobs, homes to secure, and families of their own to worry about. But they chose to act anyway.

Their actions raise the same question Jesus poses to the lawyer: who was the neighbor? The one who stopped. The one who showed mercy. Not because it was convenient. Not because there was a reward. But simply because someone was in need.

When we read the parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s easy to think we’d do the same. We’d stop and help. But the truth is, most of us live in a world that runs on tight schedules and full calendars. We’ve got meetings, appointments, kids to drive, deadlines to meet. We might see someone in need but feel we just don’t have the capacity to help. Or we don’t notice at all—because we’re moving too fast to see clearly.

The wildfire volunteers made me think about that. Like the Samaritan, they interrupted their lives for strangers. They didn’t just pause to hand someone a bottle of water—they stuck around. They drove people to shelters. They stayed up late comforting frightened children. They checked in the next day, and the next. Their response wasn’t a moment—it was a commitment.

Jesus’ parable is not only about compassion—it’s also about the willingness to be interrupted. The Samaritan doesn’t worry about the rules, or what’s appropriate, or what others will think. He sees need and he responds with his whole self.

And here’s the hard part: mercy is rarely convenient. Loving our neighbor, in real life, will often cost us something—time, energy, resources. But Jesus tells us, that’s the way to life.

Robert Funk, a New Testament scholar, once wrote of this parable: “The Samaritan does not love with side glances at God.” He doesn’t help as a performance or obligation. He helps the way God helps—completely, freely, and is fully present.

In a time when our country faces literal fires and metaphorical ones—climate change, economic stress, social division—what does it look like to love our neighbor? Perhaps it starts by slowing down enough to notice who needs us. Perhaps it means being willing to be interrupted. And perhaps, just like that young man in Garden Hill, it means turning around on the road and going back to where we’re most needed. Amen

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2 Kings 5 :1-14

Psalm 66:1-9

Galatians 6:7-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

(The content of this sermon was 100% written in Canada by a human)

Human beings are not comfortable with uncertainty. Not knowing the future, even in the short-term, is one of our greatest sources of anxiety. Today, there is a lot of uncertainty we need to learn to manage – not just from the tariffs and climate change and the wars threatening democracy and calling into question our humanity as a species, but more privately in our own lives. Perhaps you are worried about a symptom and waiting for a test. Perhaps you are wrestling with the relationships in your life. Uncertainty nags at us and wakes us up in the middle of the night.

So when we have times of clarity, they are powerful moments. When we make a connection at work or in therapy, or recognize our priorities, even reach an understanding about how to handle difficult family members, those lightbulbs may feel like gifts. They are resolute steps toward a future that makes more sense. But that clarity rarely comes without effort, or deliberation, without seeking the advice or knowledge of others – just as Jesus did throughout the gospel story. This is where we get lucky: we not only have the teachings of Jesus to remind us of what matters, and the mission we are called to fulfill, but we also have his example of how to find clarity in our own lives.

Today’s gospel reading is one of those powerful, clarifying moments for Jesus, one that clears the way for all who follow him. We see the courageous Jesus who leads without hesitation or fear. The Jesus who gets us moving toward a future of hope and new life. The Jesus who compels us to follow.

This morning’s gospel also helps us to achieve the clarity that we seek so desperately in life. In the 10th chapter of Luke, Jesus calls 70 others and sends them in pairs to all the places where Jesus was planning to go but didn’t have the time. The gospel was really starting to roll along. The message was spreading ahead of Jesus—perhaps too far ahead. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”.

Today is no different. The craving for the message continues to exist. We are now the seventy. We are now the ones being called. And we are called to go into those places where Jesus goes and intended to go—into universities, businesses, government buildings, gas stations, into every area of life that we walk into. We are called labourers because it won’t be easy: the work of the gospel, requires labour. In a world filled with so much hostility we are called to fulfill a mandate of peace – and not everyone will want to hear it. But Jesus coaches us: “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandal; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If that peace is not received, carry on.”

Imagine 70 people going in pairs throughout a very diverse countryside where there were tribes of people defined by boundaries that had been fought for throughout the centuries — where fear of the Roman Empire threatened the autonomy of most cultures. Imagine being called to a mandate of peace in the midst of that kind of social climate.

Jesus tells them to persist and stay resilient: to keep sharing the peace with everyone they meet. Where peace was received, it would multiply. But even where it was denied, it would not deplete. The labourers were called to make the most of the place where they landed and to maintain the posture that it was not them, but God, who was doing the work of peace among the people of the communities that they visited.

I can’t tell you how many people I have seen lose sight of the posture that Christ calls us to live with as Christians. We can be proud of what we accomplish. We should be proud as a church community that remains vibrant and spirit-filled. But we should never let it become like the pride of the Syrian general Naaman in our first lesson. Our pride should be well mediated by humility so that it remains a posture of openness to the world, and thankfulness to God. For it is God who gives us the ability to heed the call to fulfill the mandate of peace toward others.

Jesus followed his call from God. Jesus maintained a posture of openness to all people hearing the message that the Reign of God had come near. Jesus fulfilled the mandate of peace.

Jesus lived with the knowledge that he would die being nailed to a cross. He lived with the knowledge of all the wrongdoing that surrounded him in people like the scribes and Pharisees that tried to trip him up; in people like Judas who was supposed to be a friend; in people like Pilate and other authorities who wanted Jesus to submit to their rule. Jesus even knew what it was like to be directly tempted by the devil.

If anyone should have had a cloudy view of the world it was Jesus. He saw the worst of humanity over and over again. Yet we learn in today’s reading that Jesus saw through all of it. He held to a faith in our inherent goodness. He believed we could learn from our mistakes. He had hope for our ability to love and forgive.

God’s vision was clear. And Jesus saw the power of the devil, and the influence of baser tendencies for what they were—nothing in comparison to God’s mercy and peace.

And so what happened to those people sent out by Jesus? The seventy returned joyfully, feeling successful in their mission: people, it appeared, wanted to hear the gospel. And Jesus celebrated their success and urged them to continue.

With all his lessons, Jesus teaches us the concrete steps to achieve clarity in our lives. If we heed God’s call to follow no matter where life places us; if we are truthful to the mandate of peace toward others; and if our posture is rooted in service to and for God - then our lives will be gifted with a clarity that sharpens our vision for freedom and new life.

I don’t know about you, but when I consider the life of Christ and the confidence that Jesus had to live out his life with purpose and integrity I am in awe. It’s the kind of living that inspires me. And Jesus says, to me and to all of you, freely and unconditionally, “Here it is—live it—you’re gonna love it.” Amen

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