Puddleglum's Pensees

Like last week, the Gospel for this morning is frightfully familiar to many here. If you’ve grown up in church—as I have—have spent significant chunks of your summers at church camps or Vacation Bible Schools—as I have—you know the parable of the unforgiving servant very well. As I remember it, this parable was in fact the second parable that I learned, coming hot on the heels of the parable of the sower. For how many this morning is this true? This is a story you’ve heard many times before? For how many is this a new story? This is one that you don’t recall hearing, or being the basis for a sermon before? Whether it’s familiar or not, for how many is it an off-putting parable? Unnerving? Well, I think it’s off-putting. Unnerving. Frightening, even. And I also think it’s true, life-giving and good news. It’s all of that together. Let’s dig into it. Notice first the that the passage doesn’t stand on its own. We’re still part of a larger conversation about what it means t...

Sometimes a Gospel passage is difficult to understand, isn’t it? When I first moved to Sudbury, the local funeral director asked me out to breakfast and as we were eating, he said, “Tim, I have a question for you.” You know how you know when you’re on the hotseat just from someone’s tone? I knew I was on the hotseat. But he was paying so there was no getting out of it. “Go ahead Gerry,” I replied. “You know that story in Matthew about the coin in the fish? The one where Jesus tells his disciples to catch a fish, find a coin in the fish, and use the coin to pay the temple tax?” “Yes, Gerry, I know it.” “What does that mean?” “No idea Gerry.” “I ask every new pastor that question. Nobody knows what it means!” Well, I have a better idea now. But you get the point, right? Sometimes the Gospel passage set for a Sunday morning is hard. The coin in the fish story is distant from us in every way. It may have made perfect sense in 73 AD when Matthew set it down. It may have...

I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t love a present. Christmas, birthday, anniversary, milestone event, whatever. Just a couple of weeks ago, Rachel and I gave our high-school grads presents. A laundry basket, some kitchen items, and a bag of peanut m&ms. I can’t imagine getting all excited for a laundry basket and some tea towels, but JD and Chloe seemed to. And good for them. Even if the present in itself is merely useful instead of spectacular, it’s nice to know someone is thinking about you. Right? We all love presents. Now, imagine coming to the tree on a Christmas morning. You’re bleary-eyed. Dying for that first cup of coffee to get you through a busy day of unwrapping, church, turkey dinner, and all the rest. And your child comes up to you and says, “Where’s my Christmas sacrifice?” Or you say to your child, “Why don’t you start handing around the Christmas sacrifices?” Or your spouse says to you, “Oh honey, thank you for the sacrifice. It’s just what I wanted.” ...