Jesus never said that we should not be ambitious, only that we should only be ambitious for the proper things, things like His kingdom and His righteousness. And, in today’s passage, He skips over the generalities, and specifies what He means by this. He says that the proper ambition is not, as our society suggests (to look after oneself) but to look out for others, indeed, to be the servant of others. That, He says, is the proper ambition. Easier said than done.

It is not difficult to see why Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard might have raised some hackles--both then and now. Jewish leaders would have been most upset with the way that newcomers, folks who did not have the same passion for the Law as they did and certainly did not adhere to it as closely as they had, were elbowing their way into the kingdom. And, likewise, some in the early Church, the folks that Matthew was addressing, probably felt the same way about these new converts, Gentiles and other outsiders who did not really ‘deserve it', who were now enjoying all the benefits of salvation. And we in the church today can sometimes feel the same way about newcomers in the church. After all, we are the ones who have stuck around all these years and kept the place going! Anyway, the grace of God recognizes that none of us ‘deserve it’, and that all of us are equal in needing, but not earning, that grace. We all need God’s help and kindness, regardless of our tenure.

We often use the Jubilate Deo, Psalm 100, in public worship, specifically in Morning Prayer, but it would be easy to dismiss it as ordinary and ho-hum. However, it is actually quite exciting, a call to worship God, yes, and more. It identifies some very good reasons why we should praise God, and not just on Sundays, but all of the time.

Let me begin with a question: ‘just what are your expectations of God right here and now? Are we expecting things to continue on pretty well the same as before, with all the world’s hurts and hazards remaining in place, or are we expecting things to be different, for God to show Himself in some dramatic way and make some very big changes to the way things are? For God to surprise us, even as He did for ancient Israel?’ Sad to say, many back then were expecting nothing, and so they missed out on seeing and experiencing it. I would pray that we would not be the same.

Storms, troubles in life: these are things that we all encounter, whether we like it or not, and whether we ‘ask for it’ (deserve it) or not. They are part of life. The wonderful thing is that Jesus is with us in them and fully understands what they’re about from having experienced them Himself. And seeing as He fully understands, ‘from the inside out’, He is more able to help us than anyone else. So, like the frightened disciples in that soon-to-be-swamped boat, it is best to cry out to Him in prayer--and sooner, the better.

Anyone who hasn’t been ‘hiding under a rock’ is probably well aware of the epic, nail-biter hockey game last night between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers, and, just as aware of the exuberance and hysteria of the local fans. And yet, that response should be as a ‘mere nothing’ in us in light of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus--for not only has He ‘come from behind’ in terms of sin, suffering and death, He has defeated them once and for all! God has done this, and much, much more. Thanks be to God.

Sometimes the Scriptures ‘give us problems’ because we don’t want to follow them and obey what they say. Other times, there are problems because we aren’t quite sure how we are to follow them. Today’s passage is, for the most part, in this latter category.

It speaks of ‘those who sin against us’. Well, depending on our personal sense of ‘injury’, this could cover quite a few people and situations, as there are some people who nurse a continual sense of ‘being wronged’ or being a victim in one way or another.

But then, the passage is not ‘about us’. It is about other people, God’s ‘little ones’, vulnerable people that God loves and cares for. And so, even if they should ‘sin against us’ in some way, shape or form, the underlying idea is that they are precious to God and should be loved back in His love and His kingdom if at all possible. And, if forgiving them is the order of the day, our standard should be that of the Lord Jesus, who loved us even when we were rebellious, and to all intents and purposes, His enemies. In other words, as He has loved and forgiven us, so should we love and forgive others.

And so, even all the business of binding and loosing puzzles us, we can know one thing for certain: we are to love and forgive, even as Jesus did with us.

Our world and our society both love to sort people into categories, whether it be on account of age, ancestry, colour, gender, appearance, achievement, or a host of other things. It delights in a kind of ‘pecking order’. The wonderful thing about God’s kingdom is that there is no such thing. We are all equal, all prized and valued, and worthy of respect and honour. And that goes, not just for other people, but for we ourselves as well. We too are precious in God’s eyes. Let us never forget it.

Pontius Pilate once asked Jesus, “what is truth?” and that question has rebounded through the world ever since then.

We, as Christians, believe that the truth has been revealed once and for all in the person and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and willing to stake our lives, and our eternal destinies, upon it. Even so, there must be raised something of a question, namely whether we always adhere to each and every part of that truth. I suspect that most of us are not entirely consistent in this and pick and choose at times. May God help us to do better with this.

We may well look around ourselves at our world, both locally and elsewhere, and think that it’s ‘going to hell in a hand-basket’, but this isn’t the first time in history that people have felt that way. (Certainly, today’s psalmist thought that way). But people of faith have gone to God in prayer, and yes, God has intervened and turned things around. (Nothing is impossible with God!). So, let us all, with renewed faith and hope, renew our prayers and ask God to move yet again. And thanks be to God, He certainly can do it. I believe that He will.

Today’s passage from Galatians is quite clear on one point, that of our duty to help each other, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. But then certain verses left me puzzled, namely verses 3-5 and 7-8. But then I realized that they have to do generally with our motive in helping each other, and more specifically with our innermost agenda or rationale for helping. If we see ourselves as better than others, or are sitting in judgment over them, our helping will inevitably be flawed, misdirected, and potentially even harmful. And so Paul directs us, rather correctly, to look to ourselves and be ever vigilant and careful in what and why we do things.

Here’s an interesting and potentially very helpful and inspiring exercise: to think back over one’s life and try to remember all the times when you have been seized with a sense of wonder or gratitude--perhaps due to a wonderful event in your life or the life of your family, or because of a moment of insight, or a close call in a time of danger, or something glorious or spectacular in nature, or perhaps even something in church (surprise!) And then ponder whether God was in that or part of that, whether God was acting in your life. And then to thank Him for His presence, a presence that will continue on for the rest of your life. Something to think about.

The apostle Paul tells us, quite emphatically, that we should not allow ourselves to be conformed to this world or its ways of thinking, but instead, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2). The latter injunction is a bit of challenge, for we are not always aware that we are becoming conformed to our world’s ways of thinking, so subtle and insidious this influence can be at times. The Bible describes this influence as leaven or yeast, as something that quietly and unnoticeably ‘worms its way’ into how we think and behave. And so we need to be careful and vigilant, hence our meditation for today.

Something that we all forget all too often is that God is in charge, and none other--and that includes ourselves. And yet we often go about life, thinking and acting as if we are the bosses. I mean, how often do we draw up our ‘things to do today’ lists without consulting God or asking God what He would want us to do today? I have to say that I am frequently guilty of this, and I suspect that I am not alone in this failing. So, then, I have to wonder, what would it be like if we actually took the time to ask God for His plans for us for the day, and then carried them out. Something to think about.

If there is anything that Jesus repeated in His numerous discourses, other than, of course, the need to trust Him, is His call to persistence in prayer, which, actually amounts to the same thing as trusting Him. Sadly, however, we grow tired or disillusioned by God’s seeming silence or seeming refusal, and so we give up on praying. Here, our Syro-Phoenician, Canaanite woman can be a great inspiration. She didn’t give up, in spite of initially not seeming to get a hearing. Let us be like her and not give up either.

I don’t know about you, but often I find the news, even that of a more local nature, to be awfully tiring, disappointing and worrisome. And then, when it comes to aches and pains, which seem to come all the more frequently these days--not to mention the reoccurring ‘visits’ to various medical professionals, a future place of relief and glory seems most attractive. In today’s passage, the apostle Paul speaks not only of a place, but of a new existence, in fact, a new body, where all these woes and ills will be put behind. All in all, it sounds quite attractive--something to look forward to, and something to whet our hope and our trust in Christ Jesus.

Jesus knows us far better than we do, and He knows that to get to ‘the heart of the problem’, He needs to do just that--in other words, get to our innermost beings, our hearts, the centre and root of everything that we think, say, or do. The problem is that often we don’t even realize what lurks there, nor just how wayward or unsavoury it is. It is so easy to be fooled by what lies therein. When an ancient prophet said that ‘the heart is deceitful about all things’, he was spot on. And so we need help from God, and from His holy word, to reveal it to us, and likewise His help in knowing how to deal with it and actually doing so.