Worship and Devotions

Welcome visitors and old friends. Welcome regardless of belief, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status, marital status, age, abilities, or life situation. Welcome believers and doubters as well as doubting believers. Welcome to share the fullness of Christ's love for the world!(Adapted from The welcome message from the Thomas Community in Finland. "Celebrating milestone moments" by Rev. Jukka Joensuu. Canada Lutheran January/February 2024 Vol. 39 No. 1; chorus of ELW 523)

Sunday October 18, 2026

Twenty First Sunday After Pentecost

When the Pharisees try to trap Jesus, he tells them to give to the emperor what belongs to him and to God what belongs to God To gather for worship reminds us that our ultimate allegiance is to God rather than to any earthly authority. Created in the image of God, we offer our entire selves in the service of God and for the sake of the world.

Music

God is Here

God is Here - Hymn with Lyrics

Prayer of the Day

Sovereign God, raise your throne in our hearts. Created by you, let us live in your image; created for you, let us act for your glory; redeemed by you, let us give you what is yours, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Readings

Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99;1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Gospel - Matthew 22:15-22

Alternate First Readings

Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96: 1-9 [10-13]

Gospel: Matthew 22:15 -22

Glory to you, O Lord.

After Jesus begins teaching in the temple, religious leaders try to trap him with questions. First they ask if God’s people should pay taxes to an earthly tyrant like Caesar.

15 The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Music

Now Thank We All Our God - ELW # 840

Now Thank We All Our God (Tune: Nun Danket - 3vv) [with lyrics for congregations] - YouTube

Sermon

Give to God the Things That are God's

by Pastor Carol J. Dennison

Matthew 22:15-22

“Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) says Jesus. What is Jesus talking about?

It is the final week of Jesus' life on earth. It begins with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt of a donkey with people shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:6-9)

His first action is to throw the moneychangers and sellers and buyers out of the temple. Then he begins to teach about the kingdom of heaven and how entry into it is for the last, the least, the dead! He thoroughly enrages the religious leadership with his assertion that “many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

Now two unlikely allies try to trap him into saying something for which they can arrest him and, preferably, have him killed. The Pharisees, among the strictest observers of the Jewish laws, and the Herodians, connected to the half-Jewish rulers of Judea, keep their mouths shut and/or collaborate with the Romans in order to maintain their worship or their power. “Oh, Jesus, you are so sincere. You teach God's ways truthfully and do not respect outward appearances or show partiality to any group of people. That's why we want your opinion: Is it lawful for we Jews to pay taxes to the Romans or not?”

Everyone in the Roman Empire has to pay taxes to support the Roman armies, keep the main highways in good repair and allow the rulers in Rome and Palestine to live in luxury! Within Judea, as a conquered nation, the payment of such taxes is hated. Not only does it emphasize their conquered status but it has to be paid in Roman coinage which has the image of the Roman Emperor on it and engraving identifying the Roman Emperor as a god. To the Jews this is idolatry.

“You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:2-6; Deuteronomy 5:6-10) So God commanded and so they would not use this coinage in the Temple.

Jewish coins are used to pay the Temple taxes and to buy the animals for sacrifice. The money changers whom Jesus chased out of the Temple are there to exchange Roman coins for Jewish coins. They should not be inside the temple area.

Jesus calls the questioners hypocrites! You use the Roman coins readily enough in business yet are quibbling about using them in taxes? You do not really think I am God's servant telling you the truth of God's ways or you would listen to me. I know what you are up to! Show me the coin for the tax.

The questioners have no difficulty finding a denarius and bring it to Jesus. Whose head is on it? Whose title is engraved on it?

The emperor's.

Since the coin has Caesar's head and title on it, it belongs to him! Give it to him AND give to God the things that are God's.

They are amazed, and leave him.

What is so amazing about Jesus' answer?

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and all that is in them. “Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humans …in the image of God….male and female [God] created them.’” (Genesis 1:26-27)

What then is God's? EVERYTHING. ''Even Caesar is God's! If God had not permitted Caesar to conquer them, Caesar could have done nothing!

Throughout their history, the people of Israel often observed how God used the least likely people and circumstances to accomplish God's purposes:Moses, a murderer who is not a good speaker; Aaron who makes a golden calf for the people to worship; Samuel whose children do not follow in his steps; Cyrus of Persia, who is called God's Messiah because God uses this foreigner to deliver God's people from their captivity in Babylonia; Jacob, the liar and thief; David, the adulterer and murderer. God uses whom God chooses to accomplish God's purposes and they are often not those we would choose. Why can God do this? Because EVERYONE and EVERYTHING in the whole of creation belongs to God by right of creation!

“Give to God the things that are God's.” On the same day as Jesus said this, he also answers this question: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said … ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Mt. 22:37-40) What we are to give to God is all of our love, our loyalty, our allegiance: heart, soul, mind. Then, with our loyalties straight we are to love, that is, care for, our neighbours as if they are ourselves.

We owe our very existence to God and all of our loyalty and love. We are given the care of the rest of creation before we are even created and while we are still in a right relationship with God. When we decided we were god and had created ourselves, then the care of the rest of creation became the pillage of it, the abuse of power, the destruction and pollution of it. However, God is still in charge. We are simply servants, stewards, caretakers, of creation on God's behalf. We are to give to God what is God's - everything we have and are.

What does this mean in concrete terms?

First of all, it means that we stop acting as if we own everything. Our language betrays us: my money, my house, my car, my family, my life, my body. How many of us can honestly say that we regard what we have and own and are as belonging to God? Yet it does. “All that we have is thine alone, a trust O God from thee” went the old song. (ELW 686 “We give Thee but thine own”) It is right. We need to ask God's forgiveness for presuming to think it is our own.

Secondly, we need to ask ourselves: Since everything I have and am belongs to God, how should I be using these things, this body? What would God want me to do with them?

How can we, you and I, begin to care for creation so it can sustain life for generations to come? Recycling, using fewer resources, cleaning up our messes are all important. It will mean changing our lifestyles. If we need to eliminate greenhouse gases, it means we walk where we used to ride; we buy more fuel-efficient vehicles rather than ones that make us feel and look like big deals; we work to find alternatives to fossil fuels that do not create more problems. We eat less and work to distribute the food that is produced in theworld more equitably so that people everywhere have enough. We forgive the debts of the poorest nations and help them to produce more food rather than insisting that they produce the cash crops, the luxuries, we want. We take care of our bodies by not abusing them with overeating, overdrinking, and overconsumption of the world's goods.

Finally, we need to ask God to show us God's ways, to help us see God's presence among us, in the lives of others and in our own lives. We, like the Thessalonian Christians, have received the gospel in word, in power and in the Holy Spirit. We are to be imitators of Christ, to show our faith in the work we do for others, to show our love in the labours we do for others, to show our hope by being steadfast in our walk with Christ. We serve a living God, one who created and still sustains us with God's presence. We need God's guidance and wisdom if we are to walk in the right way.

May God’s Spirit guide us in the way we should go - giving to God the things that are God's: our lives- to the glory of God and the furtherance of God’s kin-dom. Amen

REMEMBRANCE OF MARTIN MADELUNG (1953-2026)

In joyful expectation of the resurrection to eternal life, we remember Martin Madelung, a much loved member of our congregation, dedicated and caring leader and friend, who has gone before us in faith and who now rests from his labours.

Lord God, you have surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses. Grant that we, encouraged by the example of Martin Madelung, may persevere in the course that is set before us and, at the last, share in your eternal joy with all the saints in light, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Music

Borning Cry

Prayers of Intercession

Seeking the Spirit of God who makes all things new, we pray for the church and the world.

A brief silence.

Living and true God, you inspire us to share the message of the gospel. Give your spirit of love to seminarians and those beginning their lives in ordained ministry. Grant them, us, and all our leaders, lay and ordained, joy, wisdom, patience, courage and a willingness to listen for your guidance. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We give you thanks for the majesty of our oceans, protect the abundant life within them and sustain and guide all who work to preserve them. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We seek your wisdom in all things. Direct all who hold positions of authority around the world, that they act with wisdom and compassion, seeking the good of all. Please bring to repentance and justice those of them who are doing evil. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We ask you to be with all the candidates in the upcoming provincial election. Grant those who vote wisdom and move them to get out and vote. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We pray for all people who work in dangerous or degrading environments. Grant them safety and courage. Heal all who are injured, sick or suffering and comfort all who mourn. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

Here other petitions may be offered.

We thank you for our ancestors and all who have been called home to you especially Martin Madelung. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

Trusting in your boundless grace, O God, we lift up these spoken prayers and those in our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Music

Praise and Thanksgiving

Praise and Thanksgiving (Tune: Bunessan - 4vv) [with lyrics for congregations] (youtube.com)