Hi everyone,

Here is the re-record of the sermon that was preached on October 11, 2026, for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost.
You can find the bulletin for the service that this sermon came from here.

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
The holy gospel according to Matthew.
Glory to you, O Lord.

¹ Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

  ¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, ¹² and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon
May your Word, O God, be a feast for our souls, that we be renewed by the redeeming of your grace, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

So today, as you may have noticed, is Canadian Thanksgiving.  It’s a day that we do what we can to give thanks for all the blessings and goodness that we’ve received.  Also, it’s a day for many especially here on the Pacific Northwest, to start thinking about winterizing our lawns and doing what we can to ensure that they’ll be looking fresh come spring, nice and spruced up, and devoid of those darned crow-attracting grubs.

But… to what end?  You know despite my best efforts over the years, all the sweat and literal tears I put into this lawn, all the hours and hours of back-breaking work, and that saying still rings true, “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

In case you don’t know this saying, its meaning is pretty straightforward.  We are often tempted to look over our fences into our neighbour’s yard to, you know, just check up on how they’re doing out of concern and maybe for science.  And more often than not, at least in my case, we see that their lawns are more manicured, more lush and healthy, more green than ours could ever get.

And this kind of comparison doesn’t actually end with our lawns.  In fact, it seems to spread to so many areas of life.  And I suppose that makes sense?  I mean, since the advent of the internet and especially social media connecting us more than ever before, we are given this intimate window into the lives of others, or at least, the very best parts of their lives that they curate and display for the world.  Being bombarded by that day after day makes it hard not to compare ourselves with each other and start to feel a bit self conscious and insecure and think that we’re just not quite there, not up to snuff, not kept up with the joneses.

So much so that I wonder if the saying should no longer be “the grass is always greener on their side of the fence” to “the grass is never as green on ours”.

A subtle difference, but I think this change more clearly describes, at least how I see it, the state of our society, the almost universal mentality of inferiority that we share, and how the success of others might almost be offensive and insulting to us. 

In that, they might have their own issues, but we just see ours as worse.  They might have their own problems, but we feel ours are more difficult.  They have their hurts, pains, and worries, but they don’t even come close to holding a candle to all the hardships that we face.

This isn’t to belittle the difficulties that we go through, for sure they are plentiful.  Nor is this to blame us for falling into the victim mentality.  But what I’m saying is that when we keep looking at how our grass just isn’t as green, then we might get so discouraged with our suffering and turmoil that we could end up, as a defense mechanism, pushing away anyone who might sincerely want to help, care for, and be there for us, because we feel that they are so much better off than we are.  Which, in some more extreme cases, might seem like everyone.

And really, while this might seem to be more prominent now as I mentioned, I don’t think this kind of self-defeating and low self-esteem attitude is unique to our time.  In fact, I wonder if this is what Jesus is trying to highlight in the parable that he gives us today.

At first, it sounds like another nonsensical parable like so many of them before it.  A king is holding a celebration for his son who is getting married, and invites all of his probably oligarch buddies, in hopes that this will be a party to remember.  I mean, it sounds like he spared no expense.  He slaughtered his oxen and fat calves and everything.

But those who he invited didn’t want to come.  The parable doesn’t spell out why, but it does say that some were so bothered by the invitation that they actually killed the messengers.  I think there’s another popular saying that speaks against that kind of thing…

I mean, really?  I don’t know if I was ever mad at an invitation to a party enough to hurt someone, let alone the one inviting me.  So I wonder if maybe these who were invited don’t see it as just an invitation.  Maybe they feel like this party isn’t as much a party as it is the king showing off how good he has it.  Maybe they took it as a belittling and condescending way to be put in their place by this act of welcome and graciousness.  Maybe they were thinking like their grass just isn’t as green.

Why else would they be so annoyed?  How else could they be so offended?  For what other reason would they want to deny such an invitation?

But the story doesn’t end there.  After the king totally doesn’t at all overreact to the rejection, he goes and invites basically anyone and everyone who will show up.  He isn’t going let a couple of negative rsvp’s, murdered messengers, and burnt down cities keep the celebration from happening.

And celebrate they did.  Can’t let those slaughtered calves and oxen go to waste.  The wedding hall, as we’re told, ended up being filled with guests.  Likely all strangers, but still.  A good time was probably still had by all.  All, that is, but one.  One who decided to come a little under prepared, who may not have gotten the dress code memo, who didn’t see the celebration as a celebration and for that, was banished into the outer darkness.

Well, we might think, this king is a bit over-sensitive.  Maybe takes this party a little too seriously.  Can’t really take no for an answer.  But then I wonder, as with much of the “punishments” we hear about in the parables as of late, if they weren’t really dished out by the king or whoever we think might be wronged, but rather by the people themselves.  Those that were rejecting the king.  Those that can’t see the grace that has been given to them.  Those who are stuck in thinking that their grass just isn’t quite as green.

They might be the ones who are keeping themselves from the party.

Because when we’re too focussed on our own hardships, we might not be able to see the blessings.  When all we can think about is all the bad in our lives, we might miss all the good.  When we can’t figure out why our grass isn’t as green as our neighbour’s, we might not realise that our neighbour is wondering at the same time why their flowers don’t bloom quite as nicely as the ones on our side of the fence.  Or why their house isn’t as clean and tidy as one we live in.  Or why their Lego display isn’t as expansive and cool as the one sitting in our living room.

So I think that is what happened in the parable and the lesson that Jesus is trying to teach.  Those invited to the party are invited to a party.  They’re asked to join in the celebration.  They are welcomed to accept generosity, grace, and love.  And rejecting that could be what is holding them back, unable to appreciate what they have been given, and perhaps keeping them in that area reserved for the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I’m not saying that we should only see life as all good and no bad, all ups and no downs, all green grass and no not-as-green grass.  Rather, I’m saying that in those bad times, we can remember that there still can be good.  In the downs, we can still appreciate that there are ups.  In the not-as-green grass, we can be thankful that we have grass to begin with.

Again, today is Thanksgiving Sunday, and while it isn’t technically a Lutheran or even Christian holiday, it is one that we observe and use to remind us of all we have to be thankful for.  At time when the church is at a decline, where the world seems to be in such disarray, when people are more divisive than ever, we can be thankful for the unity we share in the body of Christ, one that we dedicated a little girl to today.  We can appreciate the forgiveness and grace that we are given as we are redeemed and welcomed into God’s kingdom.  We can praise our God for God’s gospel of redemption and salvation, that allows us to see each other as siblings in Christ, joined in Spirit, and empowered to serve and be served in community.

This doesn’t make life easy.  This doesn’t make our problems disappear.  This doesn’t even necessarily make our lawns any greener.  But it does give us, remind us, and empower us to be thankful.  And for this and all things, thanks be to God.  Amen.