The Future Is Now

November 8, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Future Is Now” Matthew 25:1-13

In the year 847, Thiota thought the world was coming to an end. A German Christian peasant woman, Thiota began to prophesy that the apocalypse was drawing near. In fact, the Kingdom of God would come that very year. Fellow peasants and local clergy joined her apocalyptic movement. With public prayers and generous offerings to support the growing ministry, it didn’t take long for the church to raise the alarm. They convened a special synod meeting in Mainz, took Thiota into custody, and interrogated her about the origin and purpose of her message. Under duress, she confessed that she shared her prophecy at the instigation of a local priest, who was profiting from her message. We’re not sure what happened to the priest, but the church condemned Thiota. She was stripped and publicly flogged. Humiliated, she never prophesied again.

In early 19^th century England, Joanna Southcott prophesied that the Kingdom of God was coming and the end was near. Her prophecies were widely distributed in pamphlet form and she found a growing following among the working- and middle-class. In 1814 at the age of 64, she announced that she was miraculously pregnant and the birth of her child would usher in the end of the age. When Joanna died later that year, without giving birth, her followers despaired. She left behind a sealed trunk which they believed contained writings that would further illuminate her prophecy, but when the Southcott Box was finally opened in 1927, there were no writings, merely a jumble of personal possessions, including a night cap, horse pistol, and lottery tickets.

We may be amused by the end times predictions of the Germans and English, but did you know that northeastern New York was once a hotbed of apocalyptic predictions? In 1834 in Washington County near Whitehall, William Miller, a prosperous farmer and Baptist lay preacher, published a 64-page teaching that insisted that Jesus was coming soon. Basing his prognostication upon his interpretation of the Book of Daniel, Miller narrowed the date down to October 22, 1844. Miller attracted a sizeable following, by some accounts as large as 500,000. As the big day drew near, they prepared for the coming Kingdom, by distributing possessions, settling debts, and gathering for prayer. When October 22, 1844 ended like any other day, it was labeled “The Great Disappointment.”

The question of our preparedness for the coming of God’s Kingdom is at the heart of today’s strange parable from the Gospel of Matthew. As Jesus shared his story, he was teaching on the Mount of Olives, where first century Israelites anticipated God would one day come to usher in the Day of Judgment. It was the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. In town for a final Passover Festival, Jesus was facing increasing opposition from powerful adversaries who controlled the religious and political landscape of Jerusalem. Already those opponents were plotting his demise. Within days, he would be arrested, condemned, tortured, and marched through the streets to a public execution.

Against this backdrop, Jesus told his story about bridesmaids, half of whom were ready for the delayed coming of the bridegroom and half of whom were unprepared. Without a sufficient supply of oil to light the wedding processional, the ill-equipped maids rushed off to the marketplace while the bridegroom arrived, the wedding party got underway, and the door was locked to late arrivals. The foolish ones were left languishing in the dark while the party was in full swing. It helps to know that in Jewish thought, the fulfillment of history would come as God—the holy bridegroom, wed Israel—the expectant bride. It was an end-times’ teaching being shared in an end-times’ location. The kingdom was coming. Would Jesus’ followers be prepared?

It really shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus concluded his public ministry with messages about the coming of God’s Kingdom. Afterall, that was how he got the party started. Jesus emerged from his forty days of wilderness temptation with the words, “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” In Jesus, God was at hand, working in ways that revealed the mercy, love, and justice of God’s Kingdom. When Jesus welcomed outsiders, like sinners, tax collectors, Canaanites, Romans, and Samaritans, the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. When Jesus multiplied loaves and fish to feed hungry people, the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. When Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead, the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Jesus’ life was one long revelation of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that is always all around us if we only have eyes to see.

As they sat on the Mount of Olives, Jesus’ friends hoped that the apocalyptic moment was near. They hoped that the Kingdom would come and God’s will would at last be done on earth as it is in heaven. But then Jesus told that story, the one about the bridesmaids, which cautioned them that the Kingdom was coming, but they would have to wait for the end times party. In the meantime, they were called to readiness. It was a “not-yet” time. The Kingdom had come in Jesus, but it was not yet fully revealed. In that “not yet” time, they would need to live in faith and patience, putting into practice the lessons that Jesus’ life and ministry had taught them.

Unlike Jesus’ first century disciples or Thiota of Germany or Joanna Southcott of England or William Miller down in Washington County, we don’t live with the daily conviction that the Second Coming—the End of the Age—is about to pounce upon us. It’s a struggle for stories like Jesus’ parable to speak to our life of faith. But at the heart of Jesus’ words is a deeply ethical core that is important for people of faith, whether we are convinced that the bridegroom is coming tomorrow or we are hunkered down for the long wait. I’d like to make a few suggestions that could prove useful for here and now. Are we ready?

We live in the “not yet.” The love, mercy, and justice that Jesus revealed in his ministry is not yet fully revealed in this world around us. When fifty million Americans each year depend upon food banks and local food pantries, this is not the Kingdom. When more than 600,000 of our immigrant neighbors, regardless of status, have been detained across the US, this is not the Kingdom. When nation lifts up sword against nation from Gaza to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Iran, from Sudan to Somalia, this is not the Kingdom. We live in the “not yet,” longing for the day when the love, mercy, and justice of the Kingdom shall reshape our world.

Although we live in the “not yet,” we also live in the “already.” As Jesus taught, the Kingdom of God is all around us. That Kingdom is revealed when our intentions and actions reveal Jesus to a waiting world. When we partner with the Food Pantry to feed hungry neighbors, the Kingdom comes. When we welcome the stranger, like our immigrant neighbors, the Kingdom comes. When we choose peace instead of conflict and stop making little wars on the home front and big wars on the world stage, the Kingdom comes. The Kingdom is revealed through us when we live with a willingness to be like Jesus in this “not yet” world.

Jesus teaches that we have a choice. We can seek to forge that “already” world, where Jesus is known and the Kingdom comes in our everyday actions of mercy, love and justice. Or, we can choose to live into the “not yet”—to choose the status quo, to turn a blind eye to want and injustice, to fail to accept responsibility for the hell we create on earth. The coming Kingdom of God is here. We choose if we will serve it. Our failure to do so has serious implications for our world, which needs mercy, love, and justice now, more than ever. Our failure to do so has serious implications for us, because a world without Kingdom values and Kingdom actions is a lot like bridesmaids shut out of the wedding party, weeping inconsolably forever, alone in the dark.

Undoubtedly, the latest end times prophecy is being imagined, even as I speak. According to a recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, one-third of the country quietly suspects that the end will arrive within their lifetime. That’s right, about 100 million of our neighbors are convinced that threats like climate change, nuclear war, economic collapse, and artificial intelligence will bring an end to the world as we know it. In a world where it feels like the “not yet” is winning, Jesus needs us more than ever. Our neighbors need us more than ever. The future is now, my friends. May we go forth with the mercy, love and justice of the Kingdom.

Resources

Beth Schwartzapfel and Anna Flagg. “Trump’s ICE Has Detained More People Than the Population of Atlanta” in The Marshall Project: Nonprofit journalism about criminal justice, August 25, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/08/25/immigrant-detention-trump-ice-thousands-length

Matthew A. MacIntosh. “Apocalyptic Cults from Antiquity to the Modern World” in Brewminate, April 20, 2026. Accessed online at https://brewminate.com/apocalyptic-movements-history-end-times-cults-beliefs/

John Mac Ghlionn. “Why tens of millions of Americans now believe the end is near” in The Hill, March 25, 2026. Accessed online at https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5798331-end-of-world-suspicions-rise/

O Wesley Allen. “Commentary on Matthew 25:1-13” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 8, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-32/commentary-on-matthew-251-13-10

Susan Hylen. “Commentary on Matthew 25:1-13” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 12, 2017. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-32/commentary-on-matthew-251-13-9

Matthew 25:1-13

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. ¹¹ Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The Crossing

November 1, 2026November 1, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Crossing” Joshua 3:7-17

When the Rev. Jim Erdman moved his young family to Saranac Lake in 1958 to serve as our pastor, he found a rapidly changing community. The advent of antibiotics had brought an end to the cold air cure for tuberculosis, the source of local prosperity for more than seventy years. The local population was dropping. Although the roadside sign that welcomed Jim to the village in 1958 said that our village population was 7,000, by 1960, that number had fallen to 6,000. Our sanctuary, which still had the enormous church bell hanging from a shored-up belfry, was noticeably sagging. The Christian Education building in the backyard, which was built in 1893 as a horse barn, needed a new heating system.

Money was tight here at the church. No repairs had been made to the manse, where Jim and his family would live, in seven years. Plaster was cracked, paint peeled, a rickety cure porch had to be torn off, and floor joists needed replacing. The pastor’s pay was often delayed because there wasn’t any money. The church rolls claimed 286 members, but most were inactive or had moved away. In his annual report of 1960, Jim wrote, “This year has found a relatively few members and friends vitally concerned with the work and witness of the church, both here in the community and around the world.” In 1960, the Methodist Church next door offered to buy our property with plans to tear down the building for a parking lot. It must have been a lowball offer, because the session said, “No.”

We struggled with whether or not we could continue. From 1970 to 1972 when Phil Zebley was pastor, Ann Boutilier’s late husband Bill was charged by session with chairing a committee to explore the possibility of a merger with our Methodist neighbors. We tried combined Sunday School classes, shared worship at 8:30am here and 10am there. We even considered having our Holtkamp pipe organ, which had been donated but not yet built, installed next door. Repeated surveys of the congregation showed we were ambivalent about the changes that financial prudence might demand. The exploratory committee on merging asked, “Do you want to see the shared ministry continue?” 46 voted yes, 46 voted no, and 18 people abstained. Times were tough and we were having a hard time seeing what the future might look like.

Our Israelite ancestors knew all about daunting challenges and unsure futures. Forty years of wilderness wandering had at last brought them to the Jordan River and the backdoor to Canaan. There on the far side of the river was the land of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There was the land flowing with milk and honey and the promise of descendants as many as the stars in the sky. God was bidding them to cross, but they weren’t so sure about that.

There were big obstacles. The river itself was overflowing and swift, surging with spring snowmelt from the mountains of Lebanon. How could they cross with their children and seniors, flocks and herds? Who would lead? Moses, who took on Pharaoh and won! Moses, who split the Reed Sea! Moses, who shepherded them in the desert! Moses, who spoke with God and gave them the law to guide their community! Moses was dead. Joshua, a brash, young, untried leader may have stepped into Moses’ sandals, but could he fill them? That land on the far side of the Jordan was hardly vacant, but occupied by Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites and more. The spies, whom Joshua sent ahead, cautioned that the people of the land were numerous and strong. The cities were fortified and well-defended. It would be easier to remain on that other side of the Jordan as a wilderness people.

Joshua and the Israelites found the courage to cross the Jordan because they knew that God would be with them. That’s what God promised the young Joshua, “I will be with you just as I was with Moses.” Still, it took a lot of courage for the people to muster on the banks of the surging river. But as they looked across to the other side, they remembered forty years earlier, when they had stood on the shores of the Reed Sea with Pharoah’s army in hot pursuit. God had made a way forward then. They decided to trust that God would make a way forward now.

As the toes of the twelve priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant touched the flood, the people left the wilderness as they had entered it, with God holding back the waters. The Israelites left the wilderness behind, knowing that God was in their midst. God called them to a future that they couldn’t quite imagine. Daunting. Uncertain. Unsure. Yet God was faithful still and would be faithful in all the years to come.

It should come as no surprise that the question of merging with the Methodists continued to trouble the waters here at the Presbyterian Church, especially as the Christian Education building (Gurley Hall) became increasingly dilapidated and in need of major capital investment. In 1984 a delegation of church members appealed to session to again approach our neighbors about the possibility of a shared ministry. Indeed, we might be worshipping next door at the Presbydist Methodterian church if a competing vision hadn’t arisen among the people, a vision for a radically different building: two stories with Christian Education classrooms downstairs and a commercial kitchen and Great Hall upstairs. We weren’t too sure about that though. In an initial vote at a congregational meeting in September 1983, 36 voted for the new addition and 25 against.

There were daunting challenges to be faced. First and foremost was money, which remained a persistent problem. We struggled to balance our budget, and the cost for the addition would ultimately reach $265,000—that’s about $869,000 in today’s money. There were questions of leadership, with three different pastors serving the church over the course of two crucial years of discernment between 1983 and 1985. Then, when the choice to build was made, there were other conundrums to face. A contractor botched the concrete foundation. Floods repeatedly soaked the basement. The builder erred by two feet in the measurement of the plans for the new wing.

Despite, the difficulties, we knew that God was calling us to a bigger and better building that would serve us and the community. We put our toes in the water, and miracle of miracles, an elaborate scheme of pledges, loans, and the sale of the manse made the money work. Miracle of miracles, Sally’s late husband Bill Plumb, caught the vision and agreed to spearhead that Fellowship Wing Committee and building efforts. Miracle of miracles, Skip Outcalt worked out a drainage system that would keep the downstairs dry—most of the time. Miracle of miracles, the contractor made good on their measuring mistake by installing distinctive cedar siding for the whole church.

We crossed over into that future that God held ready. We trusted that we could do it because the Lord would be with us, just as the Lord was with the Israelites and Joshua and Moses. When the “new” building was dedicated on November 15, 1987, it was already in use—not only by us, but also by Alcoholics Anonymous, Prime Time Nursery School, Boy Scouts, and Bobbi Damp’s dance studio. I’m told that the possibility of merging with our neighbors was permanently dropped.

On All Saints—Stewardship Commitment Sunday, God calls us to step into the future that God holds ready. We live in challenging times. The rising cost of living inclines us to tighten our belts and close our fists to generous giving. In the lead up to Tuesday’s election, the powers that be—on both sides of the aisle—tell us to see our neighbors as enemies, undeserving of our help or business or friendship. The rise of cultural secularism, which has pushed churches to the margins of society, and the surge in Christian Nationalism, which sells a distorted notion of the gospel as the American Dream, these fundamental cultural shifts have made church unappealing for many of our neighbors. It’s tempting to play it safe. It’s tempting to limit our commitment of time, talent, and treasure. It’s tempting to stay put in the wilderness.

But this morning, Joshua and his Israelite friends, this morning, our ancestors in the faith, right here at the First Presbyterian Church, bid us to consider a different kind of future. It’s a future where we truly see that God is with us. The challenges may be real. The future may feel daunting. Uncertain. Unsure. But the Lord is faithful still. The Lord our God is in our midst. The future calls, my friends. Let’s step out.

Resources

Carolyn Sharp. “Commentary on Joshua 3:7-17” in Preaching This Week, Oct. 30, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-31/commentary-on-joshua-37-17-2

Dennis Olson. “Commentary on Joshua 3:7-17” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 5, 2017. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-31/commentary-on-joshua-37-17-4

Bryan J. Whitfield. “Commentary on Joshua 3:7-17” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 5, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-31/commentary-on-joshua-37-17-6

Evelyn Outcalt and Judith Kratts. A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 1890-1990. Self-published, 1990.

Joshua 3:7-17

⁷ The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. ⁸ You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’ ” ⁹ Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.” ¹⁰ Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: ¹¹ the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. ¹² So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³ When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.”

¹⁴ When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. ¹⁵ Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, ¹⁶ the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^[a] were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

Something to Eat

October 18, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Something to Eat” Matthew 14:13-21

If your last trip to the grocery store left you scratching your head and wondering where the money goes, you are not alone. U.S. consumer prices rose 3.4% between August 2025 and August 2026 with a number of economic factors contributing to that spike. Gasoline prices were up 27.4%. The median U.S. rent is now $1,965 a month. That’s 44% higher than in January 2019. Grocery prices have climbed roughly 32% since early 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those rising costs are a contributing factor when it comes to hunger across the country and in our community. Almost 48 million Americans are food insecure. That means family meals are regularly skipped because they lack the resources to put food on the table. That’s driven by those higher food prices and the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. 3.5 million Americans lost SNAP benefits due to budgetary cuts in 2025—the steepest decline in thirty years. 14 million children in our country are food insecure. 12 million older adults and seniors also face food insecurity. Twenty-five million people are food insecure because they work in low wage jobs—they earn too much to qualify for assistance, but they can’t put food on the table. Fifty million people each year depend upon food banks and local food pantries, like the Saranac Lake Interfaith Food Pantry downstairs. In Franklin County, 15.1% of our neighbors and 20% of our children are food insecure.

Hunger is a global problem. Two billion people in our world are food-insecure. 266 million of them are “extremely hungry”—that means they cannot get enough food to meet their most basic nutritional needs. 65% of those hungry people live in conflict afflicted areas, from the 1.4 million people of Gaza to the 19 million Sudanese who have been driven from their homes by civil war to the 2 million Ukrainians who need food assistance due to the ongoing war with Russia. The majority of hungry people in our world—60%—are women and girls because they eat last and get least. Drastic cuts to global humanitarian funding have exacerbated the problem. U.S. support for hunger relief dropped from approximately $14 billion to only $3.7 billion between 2024 and 2025.

Whether we are feeling the pinch at the grocery checkout, or we are volunteering at the food pantry, or we simply keep an eye on the world news, we know that hunger is a problem, right here at home and for our global neighbors.

Jesus had something to say about hungry neighbors. The Lord was in search of a quiet place to pray and mourn the death of his cousin John the Baptist when his day was hijacked by the needs of the crowd. On foot they followed him to a deserted place. They needed his help. All day long, he compassionately ministered to them. He returned mobility to paralyzed limbs, restored sight to blind eyes, cast out demons, and cleansed lepers. All who came were welcomed and blessed and healed.

But as sun sank and the shadows grew long over the land, the disciples saw a problem. All those people in such a remote place needed to eat. “Jesus,” they appealed to their master, “let’s dismiss them with your blessing so that they can return home or seek food elsewhere.” It was a good idea, but Jesus had an even better one. He pointed to his twelve disciples saying, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

There wasn’t enough. Five barley loaves, two dried fish. The disciples couldn’t feed themselves, let alone 5,000 guests. But they placed their meager provisions in the hands of Jesus and trusted that something good could happen. Like a host presiding at a banquet, Jesus blessed their little bit. Then, he put them to work as servants, going forth into the expectant and hungry crowd.

Somehow, there was enough. The more they shared, the more there was! Later, as night fell in that wilderness place, the people reclined with full bellies around their camp fires and rejoiced in the Lord who helps and heals and feeds. The disciples rejoiced, too, as they gathered up the miraculous leftovers—12 baskets full—and celebrated that their little bit and their helping hands made a difference.

The people of Church World Service have more than seventy years of experience in answering the invitation of Jesus to give hungry people something to eat. It started in the wake of the Second World War, when there was mass hunger across the conflict-devastated global landscape. Seventeen Christian denominations came together to do in partnership what they could not do alone. In those early days, they mobilized more than 11 million pounds of food, clothing, and medical supplies to help neighbors in Europe and Asia. Once that need was met, they kept going, responding to hunger crises across the decades in places like Cuba, Ethiopia, and Haiti. Over the years, their focus has grown from meeting immediate food crises to equipping families all over the world to put food on the table, connect to clean water, and build the businesses they need to thrive.

One of the places that Church World Service is at work to equip people to meet their nutritional needs is the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Tanzania. The camp was established in 1996 by the U.N. and the Tanzanian government to house Congolese refugees fleeing civil war. Nyarugusu is home to 137,000 people who contend with hunger and instability. One of those residents is 34-year-old Francois, who earned his living as a fisherman on Lake Kivu before being forced to flee with his eleven family members. There are no waters to fish in the refugee camp, but Francois has found a new way to support his family through sustainable agriculture programs offered by Church World Service. Francois learned to plant and tend crops, many of which he had never tried in Congo. His wife joined him in their new business. They produced both vegetables and seeds, which they ate and sold to neighbors and local restaurant owners to earn additional income. With the support of CWS, Francois and his family went from fishermen to farmers and became leaders in their community as they shared what they learned and trained others to garden.

Another neighbor in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp is Matisho Justina. Matisho participated in the CWS Wezesha Project, an initiative that equips refugees with essential skills in agriculture, nutrition, and tree planting. Because of her love for fresh fruit and the scarcity of it in the camp, Matisho decided to focus her efforts on training in arbor culture—planting and tending trees. She learned in a tree nursery, where seedlings are cultivated and later distributed to participants. With patience and dedication, Matisho planted the little trees she received. Just nine months later, her once-barren garden transformed into a thriving orchard. Her success had a ripple effect on the community. Neighbors, motivated by the abundance in Matisho’s garden and the high cost of fruit in the camp, are now learning from her how to plant and tend their own trees. Matisho says, “Thanks to CWS… I am not only feeding my family with fresh homegrown fruits but also contributing to a shift in my community’s approach to sustainable agriculture.”

From fresh vegetables to fruit and beyond, Church World Service is answering the call of Jesus to give our global neighbors something to eat.

This church has partnered with Church World Service through the Saranac Lake CROP Walk for forty years. Today after church, walkers will take to the streets to raise awareness and funds to address local and global hunger. One-quarter of funds raised will stay local to feed our hungry neighbors through the Saranac Lake Interfaith Food Pantry. Three-quarters will benefit those 266 million world neighbors who are extremely hungry. Beyond meeting immediate hunger, we’ll be enhancing the capacity of those global neighbors to feed themselves, equipping them to thrive. Who is planning to walk today?

Church World Service won’t be the only one we’ll be partnering with today. We’ll be joining Jesus, who reminds us this morning that it is the call of faithful disciples to give our hungry neighbors something to eat. We trust that our little bit and our helping hands can make a surprising difference when placed in the hands of Jesus. Let’s lace up our shoes, hit the streets, and do just that.

Resources

Matt Skinner. “Commentary on Matthew 14:13-21” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-matthew-1413-21-7

Marilyn Salmon. “Commentary on Matthew 14:13-21” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-matthew-1413-21-3

World Data Staff. “US Prices Statistics 2026 | Inflation, Groceries, Rent, Gas, Food, Housing & Everyday Costs” in The World Data Insight Hub: Finance, Sept. 21, 2026. Accessed online at https://theworlddata.com/us-prices-statistics/

Northeast Regional Food Bank staff. “Food Insecurity by County.” Accessed online at https://regionalfoodbank.net/food-insecurity-by-county/

CWS Staff. “From Fisherman to Farmer: Rebuilding Food Security During the Lean Season in Tanzania” in CWS Stories, Sept. 8, 2026. Accessed online at https://cwsglobal.org/stories/from-fisherman-to-farmer-rebuilding-food-security-during-the-lean-season-in-tanzania/

CWS Staff. “From Seed to Sustenance: Matisho Justina’s Journey Toward a Thriving Future” in CWS Stories, June 12, 2025. Accessed online at https://cwsglobal.org/stories/from-seed-to-sustenance-matisho-justinas-journey-toward-a-thriving-future/

UN World Food Programme. “Causes of World Hunger.” Accessed online at https://wfpuse.org/hunger

Feeding America. “Hunger in America.” Accessed online at https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

Matthew 14:13-21

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. ¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Invite Everyone

October 11, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Invite Everyone” Matthew 22:1-14

July third was the wedding of the decade as singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chief’s tight end Travis Kelce tied the knot in Madison Square Garden with 1,000 of their closest friends in attendance. The bride and groom both wore white—a custom haute couture gown and a hand-stitched tuxedo by the fashion icons at Christian Dior. Tatytay’s ring featured an eight-carat Old Mine brilliant-cut diamond. In attendance? A who’s who of celebrities, from Hollywood stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts to music icons Paul McCartney and Miranda Lambert to sports superstars Olympian Simone Beils and quarterback Tom Brady.

The dinner was sumptuous. Food stations served everything from steaks and seafood to burgers and fries. A dessert table featured no fewer than thirty cakes, along with Pop-Tarts, cookies, and an assortment of pastries. Multiple bars offered drinks, including 3 signature cocktails, specially crafted for the nuptials.

Taylor and Travis wanted everyone to rejoice with them, so they made $26 million in charitable gifts to food banks, children’s hospitals, educational programs, and an animal rescue organization. It was a party for the ages with music and dancing continuing into the early hours of the morning. Invitations were the hottest ticket in town. Even guests who love to spill the tea signed non-disclosure agreements and checked their cell phones at the door.

Jesus told a story about a wedding for the ages. The King’s son was tying the knot and no expense would be spared on the royal wedding. The marriage contract was signed. The rabbi was ready. The fatted calves would be roasted to perfection. The finest wines would be poured out. The musicians were tuning up. There would be dancing and singing and rejoicing all night long.

There was only one problem. The guests of honor wouldn’t come. In actions that were downright treasonous, they made excuses, then mistreated and murdered the King’s envoys. Once the rebellion was quashed, an entirely new guestlist was invited to the wedding banquet. Everyone. Literally, everyone, regardless of social standing, income, age, or ability got an invitation. In they came with great rejoicing, filling the courts of the king with loud shouts of “Huzzah!” and the sounds of celebration.

Jesus said that this story is about the Kingdom of Heaven. To understand his message, context is everything. As Jesus spoke those words, he was in Jerusalem at the Temple. Passover was near and pilgrims had flocked to the holy city from across the empire. Although Jesus found a warm welcome from the crowds who were eager to hear what he had to say, those who controlled the Temple—the chief priests, scribes, and influential elders of the Sanhedrin—were not so happy to see him. They questioned his authority, challenged his teachings, and tried to insinuate that he was a threat to the empire. Later that week, when Jesus finished spinning parables and interpreting scripture, those powerful opponents would put their heads together and plot his arrest and execution. On Friday, Jesus would hang upon the cross.

Considering that context, Jesus’ scary, exaggerated story of a fabulous wedding feast, rebellious subjects, and an angry king becomes a thinly veiled critique of the wealthy and powerful Temple elite, who were planning his demise. Jesus began his public ministry with the words, “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” Now as his public ministry came to a close, he used this Kingdom parable to challenge those who would deny and murder him. Jesus was saying, “Open your eyes, people. Don’t you know the bridegroom when you see him? God’s banquet is in full swing. You are meant to be honored guests. Get over yourselves, come on in, and celebrate with me.”

When we hear Jesus’ story, we are tempted to pass judgment. We shake our heads and tsk, tsk, tsk over those first century insiders who were blind to the work of God and the presence of the Kingdom. We are tempted to pass judgment on people here and now, too, like our atheist neighbors who think our convictions of faith are stuff and nonsense. It’s tempting to pass judgment on the powerful elite of our day, who are too busy building their own kingdoms to serve God’s Kingdom. It’s tempting to pass judgment on contemporary Christians who are eager for the Kingdom, but can’t be bothered to serve it, who can’t be bothered to clothe themselves in the wedding garment of love, compassion, justice, and humility.

But I suspect that we’ve all had moments when we have received the King’s invitation and allowed it to go unanswered. Our calendars are crowded, and it’s hard to make time for Jesus in our busy schedules. We skip church, forego Bible Study, and fall asleep at night before we can say our prayers. Some days, we struggle to allow the King to have authority in our lives. Afterall, we have big commitments to work, family, and community that demand our time and our better selves. Maybe we can sprinkle the King around the edges of all that important stuff. We may even be ashamed of the gospel. We play down our convictions of faith. Our neighbors may know us as parents, grandparents, teachers, healthcare providers, retirees, or Ice Palace Workers, but do they know we are Christians? Do we acknowledge that the most important relationship that we will ever have is our relationship with God through Christ? Do we see that the most important mission that we will ever have is to forge a world where the limitless love of God is known by all?

We say, “No,” to the Kingdom. Given enough time and enough “Nos,” our life begins to feel like we’re living in that burned-out city or that outer darkness of bitter tears and gnashing teeth that Jesus talked about in his parable.

But if we listen with the ears of our hearts this morning, we can hear it. The Wedding Feast is on. The bridegroom is here. There is a place at the banquet table with our name on it. There is room on the dance floor for all who will put on their boogie shoes. Won’t we join Jesus in the celebration? Won’t we join him in making the Kingdom of God come alive for our community? We are all invited, my friends. Everyone. How will we respond?

We’ll say “yes” to the King by feeding hungry people. 47.9 million Americans experience food insecurity. That means they will lack reliable access to sufficient food this year. With rising food prices, that number is also rising. Globally more than two billion people are hungry. Whether we lace up our shoes and walk in the CROP Walk, bring peanut butter and jelly to the Food Pantry collection bin, glean potatoes, or donate two-cents-a-meal, we will say “yes” to the King’s invitation.

I hope that a couple of you will say “yes” to the King’s invitation by sharing a story about your life of faith on Reformation Sunday. In what has become one of our favorite Sundays of the year, we listen deeply to stories of those blessed moments in life when we have known the goodness of the Lord. It could be a story of a life lesson learned. It could be a story of a challenge overcome. It could be a story of the surprising Jesus, who comes to us in the guise of a needy neighbor, a child, a wise mentor, or even the good creation. Your “yes” will inspire all our “yeses” as we consider how we will make a Kingdom difference through the church in 2027.

Our “yes” to the King could look a lot like Christian caring. We’ll visit with a lonely neighbor. We’ll listen compassionately as a friend shares their struggles. We’ll extend a kind invitation for a meal or a walk or a church service. Perhaps we’ll gift a prayer bear, some flowers, or a prayer shawl to someone who needs love. We’ll pray for others, inviting the King to be present and powerful for those who feel alone and powerless.

All those “yeses” will serve the Kingdom. All those “yeses” will nudge this fearful and broken world a little closer to the beautiful feast in the Kingdom of God. All those “yeses” are like being an honored guest at the wedding of the decade, at a wedding for the ages. My friends, the table is set. The savory smells of the feast waft from the kitchen. The dessert table beckons. The champagne is about to be poured. The musicians are tuning up. Consider this your royal invitation.

Resources

David Lose. “Preaching an Ugly Parable” in …in the Mean Time, October 6, 2014. Accessed on-line at http://www.davidlose.net/2014/10/pentecost-18-a-preaching-an-ugly-parable/

Lance Pape. “Commentary on Matthew 22:1-14” in Preaching This Week, October 12, 2014. Accessed on-line at http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2204

Carolyn J. Sharp. “Commentary on Matthew 22:1-14” in Preaching This Week, October 11, 2026. Accessed on-line at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-28/commentary-on-matthew-221-14-10

Rachel DeSantis. “Taylor Swift Found ‘Happily Ever After’ with Travis Kelce. All the Details from the ‘Fairy-Tale’ Wedding” in People, July 7, 2026. Accessed online at https://people.com/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-all-the-details-fairy-tale-wedding-exclusive-12013138

Editors. “They’re Married! Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Wedding Details” in The Knot, July 7, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.theknot.com/content/taylor-swift-wedding

Matthew 22:1-14

22 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.”

Bear with Me

October 4, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Bear with Me” 1 Cor. 1:10-18, Eph. 4:1-3

Wherever two or more are gathered, we can trust that there will likely be a quarrel. We may like one another well enough now, but this church has a uniquely fractious history. It dates to our earliest years. In July of 1890, Rev. Richard McCarthy and the seventeen original members, listed on that oak plaque on the back wall of the sanctuary, planted this church as a mission outreach of the Champlain Presbytery. It was a bold statement of unity in a gospel purpose. Yet three years later in a bitterly disputed meeting, the church voted to oust Rev. McCarthy. The meeting wasn’t pretty. One faction called for the pastor’s termination while the other rallied to his defense. One member called for the disallowance of some votes because those members had not attended church enough in the past year. The split was over different visions of mission. McCarthy and his supporters embraced their original purpose of outreach, planting churches from Saranac Lake all the way to Star Lake. But McCarthy’s opponents wanted a minister who spent less time on the road and more time ministering to this congregation.

Twenty-four years later in 1917, we were at it again. This time, we put up our dukes over whether our nation should be embroiled in the Great War in Europe. Our minister at the time was the youthful Rev. Roy Chamberlin. He was a Christian pacifist. When he passionately shared his non-violent views at a village gathering in the Harrietstown Hall, all you-know-what broke loose in the community. Some were ready to tar and feather the minister and ride him out of town on a rail. The church split down the middle on the future of their pastor. His job was preserved only through the advocacy of a few influential members, but that didn’t put out our fire. The crisis resolved the following year when Chamberlin enlisted in the war effort as a chaplain and sailed for Europe, leaving his wife and baby behind in the manse.

Even our peaceful times are often beset by conflict. The late Jan Bristol told me that Rev. Gurley, who served the church for twenty years, dealt with division. In fact, the session was once so angry at him that they changed the church locks and refused to give him a key. Later, Rev. Meacham, who served us during the expansion of our building to include the Great Hall and downstairs classrooms, would become so incensed at session meetings that he would stand up and walk out, leaving the elders to moderate themselves. Not long before I came, the pastorate of Rev. Monts sparked factions and deep divisions that threatened the very future of the church. Jesus promised that where two or more are gathered in his name, he is present. Boy, do we need his help.

We aren’t the only people to be prone to conflict. The Apostle Paul made a hopeful beginning when he planted a church in Corinth. His successor Apollos did his best to water that spiritual garden. Even so, the folks in Corinth couldn’t get along. They quarreled about whether it was better to have been evangelized by Paul or Apollos or Peter. They disputed which spiritual gifts were best. They couldn’t agree if it was appropriate to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols and purchased in pagan meat markets. They argued about whether people should wear head coverings in worship. They brought civil lawsuits against one another. They challenged Paul’s apostolic authority, questioning whether he had the right credentials to lead the church. They even fought about what we might presume would be their rite of greatest unity—the Lord’s Supper. It was so bad that Chloe’s people wrote to Paul, asking him to intercede and resolve their differences.

When Paul wrote his Corinthian friends in response, he reminded them of the unity they were called to in Christ. Afterall, Christ was not divided. Jesus had reached out and ministered to diverse neighbors without prejudice or exclusion. He sat at the dinner tables of pious Pharisees and the scandalous table of tax collector Zacchaeus. He healed the Jewish mother of his friend Peter, the daughter of a Canaanite enemy, the daughter of a synagogue leader, and even the slave of a Roman centurion. He preached amid the most prestigious rabbis of his day on the teaching steps of the Jerusalem Temple, and he preached on a mountainside, surrounded by poor peasants desperately seeking good news. Christ loved and welcomed all.

Paul saw in the cross the means of overcoming our deep divisions. On the cross, a Roman weapon of brutal execution and mass intimidation, God chose to die for us, praying even for those who tortured and murdered him. God took the cross and transformed it from a weapon of hate to a symbol of limitless love and reconciliation. Through Jesus’ choice to suffer and die on the cross, we learn of God’s infinite love for a broken world, a broken world where we would rather put up our dukes than sit down to the table of peace. Paul reminds the church that we are part of the body of Christ, and when we choose to fight and scratch, belittle and hate, ostracize and alienate, we wound the holy unity that Jesus died for.

We live in times that feel uniquely fractious, maybe even a little like the Corinthians squabbling about everything from leadership to the food we eat. This morning, Republican supporters are on the road between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid in tricked out trucks and patriotic cars tooting horns and championing the cause of their favorite candidates. On the seventeenth, folks who disagree with those convictions will rally in Riverside Park, waving signs, wearing inflatable costumes, and calling for a different agenda. We label one another: Libtards and Dumocrats, MAGA maniacs and fascists. We would rather put up our dukes than sit down to the table of peace. Paul speaks to us still. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.”

The healing of divisions in churches or society isn’t easy. In fact, it is the most courageous and dangerous calling of all. Just ask Jesus. The way forward is found not in the forming of factions and the insistence that we are right. The way forward is found in the words that the apostle spoke to the Ephesians, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Healing begins only when we truly accept God’s limitless love for all people. It begins when we follow in Jesus’s way of reaching out across difference to accept others as God-given neighbors. It begins with listening deeply, sharing gently and honestly, seeking the wholeness and healing of a hurting world. We at the Presbyterian Church, who are veterans scarred by the wounds of 136 years of conflicts overcome, have a special calling to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Can we dare to be leaders, not in division but in reconciliation and mutual respect?

If we go on to read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we learn that Paul’s argument about the unity that must be found in Christ and the power of the cross was convincing for the church. The Corinthian saints felt a “godly grief” and repented of their fractious ways. They forgave and consoled one another. They lived with the Spirit of the living God written upon the tablets of their hearts. They made room in those hearts for Paul and one another. They exceled in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in eagerness, and generosity to those in need. They found a renewed zeal for the gospel that made Paul proud. May the same be said of us.

Resources

Brian Peterson. “Commentary on Eph. 4:1-16” in Preaching This Week, August 5, 2018. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-2/commentary-on-ephesians-41-16-4

Sarah Henrich. “Commentary on Eph. 4:1-16” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2015. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-2/commentary-on-ephesians-41-16-5

Bryan J. Whitfield. “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:10-18” in Preaching This Week, Jan. 25, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-1-corinthians-110-18-7

Jane Lancaster Patterson. “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:10-18” in Preaching This Week, Jan. 26, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-1-corinthians-110-18-5

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God[a] that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The Healing Trees

September 27, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Healing Trees” Ezekiel 47:6b-12 and Revelation 22:1-5

The Fortingall yew is the oldest tree in Scotland, and perhaps all of Europe. At 5,000 years old, the tree was already ancient when the Prophet Ezekiel languished in exile in Babylon and Jesus strode out of Galilee and shook things up in the Jerusalem Temple. The tree has long been considered a sacred place. Druids once worshipped beneath its branches. In the seventh century, Colomba sent monks from the Isle of Iona to preach the gospel in its shadow. In the 19^th century, Presbyterians built a church there and have been caretaking the tree ever since. If you visit today, you’ll find that the Fortingall yew has been enclosed behind a stone wall for its own protection. Visitors, looking to capitalize on the tree’s longevity and notoriety, like to cut off large branches and pieces of the trunk to carve drinking-cups and other curiosities.

If you are looking to visit old trees closer to home, you could come with me to the Elder Grove in Paul Smiths. The trail is intentionally unmarked. Up a hill, under a power line, and through dense woodland, your boots rattle through inches of leaf litter and debris. The fifty or so Eastern White Pines of the Elder Grove germinated around 1665 when a fire or windstorm cleared the area and allowed the pines to out-compete other trees. Visiting the Elder Grove feels like an otherworldly pilgrimage. To be surrounded by those aging giants is a journey back in time to the virgin wilderness of pre-colonial America. It’s a master class in the epic scale of creation, taught by none other than the great Creator.

In our readings from Ezekiel and Revelation, God spoke through the prophets, revealing future plans for a renewed creation. The new Jerusalem descends from above as God Almighty comes to us. Heaven and earth become one, and all creation is renewed. It’s a return to the primeval paradise of Eden—with trees front and center. Fed by the river of the water of life, the trees bear fruit that will satisfy our deepest hunger and leaves that will bring healing to the nations. People of every ethnicity, speaking every language, representing every country will dwell together in peace and wholeness before the throne of God and the lamb.

It’s a beautiful vision granted to faithful people in times of crisis. When God spoke to the Prophet Ezekiel, he was in Babylon. Once a priest serving in the Jerusalem Temple, Ezekiel accompanied his people into exile. The Promised Land was lost, the Temple destroyed, their best hopes for tomorrow dashed. Similarly, when God spoke to John of Patmos, the seven churches of the Revelation teetered on the brink of extinction. Rejected and expelled by their Jewish kinfolk, persecuted by the Roman Empire, mistrusted by their pagan neighbors, those first Christians sought to hold fast to their faith despite hardship. They needed a Word from God. When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow.

Dendrologists, scientists who study trees, affirm the healing power of trees that was promised by the prophets. Our forests are the great lungs of the earth. While we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, God in God’s infinite wisdom created trees to breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Trees are also natural air filters that absorb pollutants. Every year, US trees remove 17.4 million tons of pollutants from the air. Trees play a crucial role in preventing soil erosion, water pollution, and flooding. A single large tree can lift 100 gallons of water from the ground and discharge it into the air in just one day. Time in the woods has a big impact on our physical and mental well-being, too—reducing stress, lifting mood, and giving our immune system a boost.

Old growth forests, like the remnant of the Elder Grove, have a unique role to play in the help and healing of our world. A single old growth tree with deeply fissured bark, hollow cavities, dead branches, massive crown, and vast subterranean root system may harbor up to 2,300 species—plants, animals, birds, insects, fungi, mosses, lichen, and more. Those old trees play a key role in stemming climate change. They are far superior to second growth forests at storing carbon, sequestering it over centuries in massive trunks, branches, and roots. Old growth stands actually create their own microclimate where shade and cooler temperatures provide refuge for animals and plants in a warming world. The leaves of the trees are, indeed, for healing.

Dendrologists tell us that only one percent of the old growth forests in the eastern US remain. In the west, about five percent persist. Worldwide, only one-third of our virgin forests have escaped logging. Trees may be a renewable resource, but science shows that second-growth forests will take centuries to develop the carbon storage capacity of their elders. Young forests are more vulnerable to invasive pests and disease, like the Hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, and beech-scale insect that plague our Adirondack woods. The science shows that climate change is having a disproportionate effect on our northern forests, with temperatures rising here much faster than the global average. Reduced snow cover, increases in extreme weather, and rising average temperatures are putting our forests at increased risk. The frequency and extent of forest fires have been higher in recent years than in any time in the last 10,000 years. The leaves of the trees may be for healing, but they face unprecedented challenge in a warming world.

When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow. Botanists use the term refugia to describe the little pockets of plants and animals that repopulate areas after big changes in the environment, like after the last ice age when the glaciers receded and remaining animal and plant populations surged to fill new territory. In a warming world, those areas of refugia will be found in places like the Adirondacks, where the northern slopes of mountains and remnants of old growth forests will preserve habitat for threatened ecosystems. The possibility of a healed world on the far side of the climate crisis is right here. Like Ezekiel and John of Patmos, we are in the right place at the right time to speak God’s hopeful vision to the world.

We also have a role to play in safe-guarding and preserving those remnant places from which renewed life will spring to heal the planet. In her book Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, professor, author, and speaker Debra Rienstra teaches that, in an age of climate change, Christians are called to be a refugia. Our churches are to be welcoming places that provide “life giving nourishment,” the spiritual water that can sustain us and allow us to thrive amid change. Together, we can lean into that vision of the Kingdom that God shared with Ezekiel and John the Revelator, the vision of a creation where the waters flow in abundance, the forests thrive, and the world is healed. As we lean into that vision, we can trust that God will be in our midst, working through community and inspiring our dreams. We are called to be a people and place of refuge in a warming world.

What does a refugia church look like? We put on the orange vests and do highway clean-up. We gather to read and reflect in the Earth Care Book Group. We improve the energy footprint of our building. We raise funds and awareness to protect our waterways through the Earth Care Coffee House. We get outdoors with picnics and Sermons on the Trail and paddles. We stand in places like the Elder Grove with awe and gratitude for God the Creator and Jesus Christ through whom all things came into being. Will you be a place of refuge with me?

Earlier this year, we had good news for our old growth forests. It has long been the common belief that perhaps only 50,000 acres of our 6.1-million-acre park have not been logged. But new researched, supported by a $1.3 million study by New York state, suggests that those numbers are wrong. We have more old growth trees, more refugia, than we thought—perhaps as many as 270,000 to 440,000 acres of forest that, like the Elder Grove, are hidden in plain sight. The study documented 500-year-old red spruce and eastern hemlocks, 400-year-old sugar maples and yellow birches, and forests with five species of trees older than 300 years. Much of that old growth remnant is in our backyard, like the woods around Polliwog Pond near Fish Creek Campground. That’s good news for us, our forests, and our efforts to mitigate climate change.

When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow. Let’s dream together as a people and place of refuge.

Resources

Ella McKendrick. “The Fortingall Yew: A Complete Visitor’s Guide” June 4, 2025. Accessed online at https://ellamckendrick.com/fortingall-yew/

Amy Feiereisel. “Inside the 350-year-old ‘Elder Grove’ of Paul Smiths,” Sept. 1, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/48366/20230901/inside-the-350-year-old-elder-grove-of-paul-smiths

Dalia Kellou, Alexander Nauels, Uta Klönne. “Climate impacts in northern forests” in Climate Analytics, March 21, 2024. Accessed online at https://climateanalytics.org/publications/climate-impacts-in-northern-forests

Mike Lynch. “Study reveals 400K acres of old growth forest, hiding in plain sight” in Adirondack Explorer, March 15, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/environment/natural-history/adirondack-old-growth-forest-in-the-adirondacks-more-than-expected/

Steven Bouma-Prediger. “The Leaves of the Trees Are for the Healing of the Nations,” in Reformed Journal, April 5, 2020.

Debra Rienstra, “Little Pockets: Refugia Basics” in Reformed Journal, August 17, 2019.

Melinda Baker. “Old Growth Forests nd Large Old Trees as Critical Organisms Connecting Ecosystems and Human Health” in Springer Nature, Jan. 5, 2022.

Chad Rimmer, Carol Marples, Pauline Mumia & Johanan Celine Valeriano. “Living Waters: Season of Creation 2026” in Season of Creation, Fall 2026.

Debra Rienstra. Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, Tantor Media, 2022.

Ezekiel 47:6b-12

Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7 As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9 Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. 10 People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11 But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

Revelation 22:1-5

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Late Comers

September 20, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Late Comers” Matthew 20:1-16

Many years ago, before I went to seminary, I was a young adult living in a diverse urban neighborhood. My daily path to work took me past the local 7-11 convenience store. What I remember most about the 7-11 was the crowd of Hispanic men who hung out there every morning—rain or shine, weekends, too! I wondered, didn’t they have anything better to do than stand on the corner and hiss at me as I hurried to catch my train?

One morning, as I was rushing by, I saw a big contractor’s van pull up to the curb, the kind a house painter or roofer might use. The driver leaned out the window and gestured to a few of the waiting men. They quickly scrambled into the back of the van and away they went. Another morning, as I hurried by, I saw a big pick-up truck stop. The back was full of the plants and tools of the landscaping business. The driver held up his hand to show that he was looking for five workers. Immediately five men vied to climb into the bed of the truck and away it rolled.

I soon realized that the 7-11 wasn’t so much a hang-out spot as it was a job-seeking spot. There was some unwritten law of the city that told day laborers to show up at the 7-11 because tradesmen of all sorts would stop there, looking for help. I’m guessing that many of the men who waited at the 7-11 were undocumented. I’m also fairly certain that the bosses who hired them paid less than a living wage for very hard work. It was probably also true that those bosses couldn’t find anyone else to do that backbreaking, gritty labor.

Occasionally, I’d find myself rushing past the 7-11 later in the day. I would see a few day laborers still lingering, looking up anxiously as vehicles slowed, still hoping that someone might stop, invite them to hop in, and put them to work. These workers were often old and gray or barely past puberty or physically frail. There were always more men eager for work than there were bosses ready to hire them. It was a whole world of hard physical work and meager wages that I never knew existed. All those day laborers were dependent upon the initiative and generosity of folks who were much more fortunate than they were.

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus described a similar scenario. In Jesus’ time, workers also congregated in the marketplace to seek employment. These were everyday folks who eked out a subsistence living from a garden plot and a goat or two. They depended upon seasonal labor to make ends meet. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard owner, seeking workers for his vineyard. At the crack of dawn, the vineyard owner recruited a few early risers and agreed to pay them each a denarius, just enough to meet the daily need of a large, poor family. Then, he sent them into the vineyard to work. Again and again throughout the day, the vineyard owner recruited workers, even at the eleventh hour, at 5:00, when the sun was sinking low and the shadows were lengthening, the vineyard owner hired folks waiting for work and promised to pay them what is right.

When quitting time came, the vineyard owner sent his manager to pay the workers, handing him a generous purse and instructing him to make sure the last were paid first. The workers lined up, last hired to first hired, and as the manager went down the line, he reached into the vineyard owner’s purse and fished out a silver denarius, pressing the same wage into each worker’s palm. The lucky one-hour workers couldn’t believe their good fortune, and those hard working twelve-hour-laborers grumbled that those one-hour-slackers shouldn’t receive the same wage. They’d worked harder and longer. They had the blisters, sore backs, and sunburns to prove it. But the vineyard owner would hear none of it. If he chose to be generous with those who were late in coming, why was that of any concern to them?

Jesus tells us that this is the way the kingdom of heaven works. How we feel about this parable has a lot to do with whether we see ourselves as early risers or latecomers. Among Jesus’ critics were scribes, Pharisees, and devout Jews who had been laboring in God’s vineyard—serving the Kingdom of God—all their lives. They looked at the sinners, tax collectors, lepers, and no-account-losers whom Jesus welcomed into the Kingdom. It wasn’t fair that people like that should receive the same divine love and heavenly reward that they expected. I’m not sure whether the story Jesus told eased the tension with his critics or just ruffled more feathers. The outrageous love and mercy of God can be hard to wrap our heads around. Think of Jesus, telling this shocking and uncomfortable story to people who didn’t want to hear it. Think of Jesus, who knew he would one day be brutally killed to reveal God’s limitless love and mercy for us.

Now, here’s what would really ruffle the feathers of Jesus’ critics. This story sounds like it is all about work. Doesn’t it? But it is really all about grace. God loves us—not because we are the hardest workers, keeping every jot and tittle of the Torah, wearing God out with our prayers, and impressing the neighbors with our exceptional piety. Rather, God simply chooses to love us because God is love. Whether we find this truth and come to God at the eleventh hour or we have known our belovedness from the cradle, we are loved and welcomed. There is a place for us in the Kingdom.

The story of the workers in the vineyard sounds less unfair and unsettling when we realize that we are actually all one-hour workers. We are all latecomers who get the whole denarius, who find salvation late in the day, despite our meager efforts. We are the tax collectors and sinners. We are the uppity women. We are the lepers, and gentile outsiders. We all come to the Kingdom of Heaven late in the day, undeserving of the whole denarius.

We have our reasons for that. We waited all day to go to the vineyard, but no one wanted us because we were too old and infirm, too green and inexperienced, too weak and unclean. We didn’t make it to the vineyard on time because we had overwhelming crises at home that needed our undivided attention. We showed up late because we got lost down that wrong road of addiction or compulsion or sin. We almost didn’t make it to the vineyard at all because we were so depressed that we couldn’t pick our heads off the pillow. We rolled into the vineyard at the eleventh hour because we didn’t even know that the vineyard was hiring.

We are the latecomers. How happy we are to learn that we are accepted and welcomed, loved and rewarded! How happy we are that God generously shares without measuring our worth! That crazy vineyard owner gives and gives and gives without counting the cost. Thank you, Lord.

I doubt that the 7-11 in my old neighborhood is still an open-air labor market. Aggressive immigration enforcement has disrupted local economies, especially those employment opportunities that others don’t want, employment opportunities that are hard and gritty and poorly compensated. I’m sure there are bosses out there still in need of workers. I’m sure there are workers, both early risers and latecomers, wondering how they can support families.

I’m sure the vineyard owner hopes that we will one day realize that grace is freely given for all, whether we are early risers or we are those who come to the vineyard at the eleventh hour. Perhaps we will one day move past our ruffled feathers. Perhaps one day we will know that the love and welcome of Jesus are intended for all.

Resources

Karl Jacobson. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 18, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-3

Ira Brent Driggers. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 21, 2008. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-4

Kimberly Wagner. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, March 5, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/laborers-in-the-vineyard-2/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-8

Matthew 20:1-16

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Photo by Gonzalo Acuu00f1a on Pexels.com

The Economy of Grace

September 13, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Economy of Grace” Matthew 18:21-35

This week marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11. In lower Manhattan on Friday, family members read aloud the names of the 2,977 people killed in the attack on the twin towers. In that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, National Park Service employees rang bells for each passenger and crew member killed in the crash of Flight 93. At the Pentagon, an American flag was unfurled on the side of the building, marking the spot where the fourth plane crashed.

If we are old enough, we remember where we were on September 11, 2001. I was in seminary, teaching English to international grad students in Chicago. Duane was in the post office at Paul Smiths College. Where were you?

When they heard the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Talat Hamdani was teaching English at a Queens Middle School and her husband Saleem was operating his convenience store in Brooklyn. Their oldest son Salman was an EMT and cadet with the New York City Police Department. That morning, Salman was on his way to an internship when he witnessed smoke coming from the Twin Towers. He hurried to the scene to aid victims, using his police and EMT identification to get a ride through the restricted traffic. Salman never came home. Talat and her husband Saleem soon realized that the path to forgiveness would be difficult for them as they contended with both grief at their son’s death and suspicions of neighbors who conflated their Muslim faith with acts of terror.

Jesus knew how very difficult it is to practice forgiveness, so some of his toughest teachings tackle that difficult topic. Today’s lesson is one example. Peter thought he was terribly generous when he offered to forgive his neighbor seven times. Imagine his dismay when Jesus told him to extend the olive branch not seven but seventy-seven times, which basically meant that he should always forgive without limits.

To prove his point, Jesus told an outrageous, exaggerated parable about an unforgiving servant. A slave owed a ridiculous debt to his king—10,000 talents. A talent was the greatest monetary unit in the ancient Near East, a 150-pound weight of silver, worth fifteen years’ wages for a day laborer. The slave in Jesus’ story owed the king 150,000 years’ worth of labor. No one could pay that debt. But when the slave made an impassioned plea that touched the heart of the king, the unthinkable happened. In an act of sudden, undeserved mercy, the king cancelled the debt.

We expect the forgiven slave to go and do likewise, but when granted the opportunity to forgive a fellow slave a relatively small debt, the hard-hearted scoundrel shocked us with his ruthlessness, seizing his debtor by the throat and throwing him into prison. When a whistleblower got ahold of the royal ear, the king forgot about the mercy and promised the unforgiving servant a life of pain and punishment.

It’s a story of hyperbole—over-the-top exaggeration—a rhetorical strategy used to make a point. As followers of Christ, we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. In God’s limitless love and mercy for us, we are to find the capacity to be merciful to others, even those who have terribly wronged us, who are in our moral debt. Limitless forgiveness—really, Lord?

It’s tempting to write off Jesus’ words as a moral ideal that is beyond our reach, but Jesus knew the hard work of forgiveness. His family accused him of being crazy. His home church in Nazareth tried to kill him. Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Abandoned by the disciples. Denied three times by Peter. Condemned to death by the religious and political authorities. Mocked, taunted, and abused by his neighbors. Brutally scourged, beaten, and executed by those who surrounded him at the last, gambling for his clothes. Still, Jesus had the moral courage to pray even as he was dying, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We aren’t Jesus, rejected and dying on a cross. We may not have lost a beloved one on 9/11. Yet, we all know how it feels to struggle to forgive. We have had to live with the consequences of a loved one’s misconduct. Our parents mistreat or fail us. Our kids reject us. Our friends betray us. Our elected officials disappoint us. We’ve been ripped off. We’ve been done dirty in the workplace. Our anger is righteous. The crimes against us are heinous. Those who have sinned show no remorse. Forgiveness is tough.

In the days following 9/11, the Hamdani family, who lost their son Salman, faced extraordinary scrutiny. Because of the family’s Muslim faith, investigators from the FBI and NYPD began questioning them about Salman. Congressman Gary Ackerman visited the family’s Bayside home and asked about Salman’s motives for becoming a police cadet and which Internet chat rooms he visited. When CIA officials came, they confiscated a college graduation photo of Salman, posing with a fellow student from Afghanistan. Reporters appeared at the family’s home. The New York Post published a story entitled, “Missing or Hiding? — Mystery of NYPD Cadet from Pakistan.” Anonymous “Wanted” posters were distributed featuring Salman’s NYPD cadet photo and the phrase “Hold and detain.” The implications were clear. There were people promoting the notion that, because he was a Muslim, Salman could have somehow been in league with terrorists.

In October 2001, Salman’s remains, medical bag, and identification were found in the wreckage of the North Tower at Ground Zero. His family wasn’t told of this discovery until March 2002 when he was officially cleared of all suspicion. Salman is mentioned in the USA PATRIOT Act, which states, “Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent…” For Salman’s family, forgiveness has been complex. Of course, there was the matter of the terrorists who flew jets into the World Trade Center, but there was also that unreasonable cloud of suspicion, accusation, and prejudice that surrounded them when they were hurting most.

Jesus taught that we cannot be in right relationship with God if we are not in right relationship with others. Each week in worship, we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, “Forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” In God’s Kingdom, there is a great economy of grace. The mercy that is so generously extended to us must be extended by us to others. That doesn’t mean that we allow ourselves to be abused, or pretend that our hurt doesn’t matter, or condone ongoing bad behavior. Instead, forgiveness is a choice. It’s a daily discipline of allowing the past to be the past, and moving forward into God’s future, with our broken hearts and broken lives stitched back together again with the needle and thread of grace. It’s a grace that was made to clear to us long ago on a lonely hilltop outside Jerusalem where an innocent man gave his life to forgive the sins of the world.

When Salman Hamdani’s father died in 2004, his widow Talat said that it was due to a broken heart—he couldn’t live with the death of his son on 9/11 or the painful way the family was treated in the months it took to learn of the recovery of his body. Talat has worked through her grief and hurt through her involvement with Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of those killed on September eleventh. Inspired by the life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they seek to break cycles of violence with nonviolent direct action in the pursuit of justice.

Talat writes, “Salman was a casualty of 9/11 not because he was an EMT, or an NYPD Cadet, or for being a Muslim. He, like the other victims, was a casualty of 9/11 because he was an American and cherished the American values of democracy, liberty and freedom to pursue a faith of his choice. Hence, the best way to honor all the victims of 9/11 is to uphold these American values. We, as a nation, have to unite and overcome the ugly monster of prejudice and ignorance [through] forgiveness and reconciliation. It is imperative for each of us as individuals, as well as a nation.”

We all struggle to forgive, my friends. Yet Jesus asks us to join him in that great economy of grace, to join him on that beautiful, terrible, healing path that nudges our world a little closer to God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom where we, who owe unbearable, unpayable debts, experience undeserved mercy and limitless forgiveness. How many times shall we forgive? Not seven times, but seventy-seven times. May it be so.

Resources

Sharon Otterman. Obscuring a Muslim Name, and an American’s Sacrifice in The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2012. Accessed online at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/nyregion/sept-11-memorial-obscures-a-police-cadets-bravery.html

Talat Hamdani. “My son died as a first responder on 9/11” in CNN: Opinion, Sept. 11, 2013. Accessed online at https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/11/opinion/hamdani-9-11-memory

Peaceful Tomorrows. “Talat Hamdani.” Accessed online at https://www.peacefultomorrows.org/patricio-and-talat

Nicholas J. Schaser, “Commentary on Matthew 18:21-35” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 13, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-24/commentary-on-matthew-1821-35-7

David Lose. “Faith, Forgiveness, and 9-11” in Dear Working Preacher, Sept. 4, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/faith-forgiveness-and-9-11

Karoline Lewis. “A Generous Forgiveness” in Dear Working Preacher, Sept. 7, 2014. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/a-generous-forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²²Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

²⁸“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

²⁹“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

³⁰“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³²“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Truth and Reconciliation

September 6, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Truth and Reconciliation” Matthew 18:15-20

Marty hasn’t spoken to his brothers in decades. It all started Thanksgiving of 1980. The whole family gathered at Marty’s home for dinner. Marty’s wife Lois cooked the most beautiful meal. She made cranberry relish, giblet gravy, and the turkey, roasted to perfection. It’s too bad no one stayed for dinner.

The trouble started not long after everyone had a few cocktails and the conversation turned to the recent presidential election. Marty the Reagan Republican was delighted that his candidate won. Reagan was sure to get the nation back on the right track, cut off those welfare queens, and teach those Democrats a lesson.

Marty’s brother Tim cast his ballot for Jimmy Carter. Tim saw Carter as a man of rare principle and goodness. Carter needed another term in office to end partisan politics and turn the economy around.

Marty’s other brother Frank was always a free spirit, so no one was surprised that he voted for the Independent John Anderson. Frank admired Anderson’s suggestion of a fifty cents-a-gallon gas tax to curb consumption and save energy. In fact, Frank was thinking of trading his old Datsun for a bicycle and simply peddling everywhere.

Round and round the conversation went, each brother extolling the virtues of his candidate and deriding the flaws of the opponents. The last straw came when the free-spirited Frank referred to the Great Communicator as Ronnie Raygun and mimed the President-elect shooting everyone who disagreed with his politics.

“Get out!” Marty yelled, his face red, a vein on his forehead pulsing. Marty marched into the hall, grabbed all the coats from the closet, opened the front door, and threw them out on the lawn. “All of you! Get out now!”

They did. Speechless, the brothers with their wives and kids piled into their cars and left. They stopped at a truck stop on the throughway for a disappointing Thanksgiving dinner, while Marty and Lois had leftovers that lasted weeks. Turkey soup, turkey hash, turkey fritters, turkey omelets, turkey casserole. The aging brothers are still alienated.

Jesus knew that relationships could be fraught with this pattern of sin, distance, and disconnection. The lessons of Matthew 18 are devoted to how we are to respond to brokenness and separation. In fact, right before the words of today’s gospel reading, Jesus told his friends the Parable of the Lost Sheep to emphasize the importance of reconciliation. In the parable, the good shepherd placed himself and the ninety-nine other members of his flock at risk to go off in search of the one sheep who was lost in the wilderness. For Jesus, our good shepherd, families and communities cannot be whole until broken relationships are healed and the lost are restored.

That prepares us to hear today’s lesson. Do you remember what Jesus said? Where there is alienation, we should first address the issue one on one, speaking the truth in love. If we fail, we invite one or two others to join us in our efforts to bridge the divide. If that fails, we seek the aid of the community of faith. If that proves to be unfruitful, we are to treat the lost lamb as a Gentile or a tax collector, which sounds about as low as you can go until we remember that Jesus ate with tax collectors and welcomed Gentiles. Jesus spent much of his ministry focused on these outsiders, so the Lord is telling us to always seek reconciliation.

Jesus might caution us to be careful about how we put his reconciling process into practice. Jesus, who taught us that our ultimate responsibility is always to love God and love one another, would remind us that our efforts to reconcile must be prompted by love and not by the desire to bring shame, inflict guilt, or prove someone wrong. Only love can help us take responsibility for our feelings and actions and invite others to do the same. Only love can allow us to be vulnerable and direct. We all know the pain of separation and alienation; yet, Jesus believes that we can make different choices that will bring healing to all that brokenness.

The story I told of Marty’s fateful Thanksgiving of 1980 may sound extreme, but we have all experienced separation and alienation. Perhaps your Marty is the daughter who moved out of state and phones home infrequently since you told her what you really think about her boyfriend. Perhaps your Marty is that valued colleague who stopped speaking to you after you got a promotion and he didn’t. Perhaps your Marty is the parent who refuses to see you since you expressed concern about their drinking. We all know the pain and puzzle of brokenness. We all know how it feels to stand on the far side of an unbridgeable rift, separated from folks whom we have loved and respected. Jesus’ remedy for our broken relationships sounds so simple. Why is it that we have such a hard time putting it into practice?

Dr. Murray Bowen of Georgetown University, one of the leading family therapists of the twentieth century, developed Family Systems Theory to describe the pattern of distance and disconnection that he noticed in the families he counseled. Bowen believed that families manage tension and anxiety through triangles and distance. I’ll give examples.

Marty’s brothers Frank and Tim never took that first step that Jesus taught us to take—never returned and confronted Marty about his outrageous behavior, never spoke the truth in love. Instead, they dealt with their anxiety by forming a triangle. They talked with one another instead of talking to Marty. It started at the truck stop, where they ate that disappointing Thanksgiving dinner after Marty tossed them out. Frank turned to Tim and said, “Reagan, Ray gun, r-a-y-g-u-n. It’s funny. Isn’t it?” Tim nodded, “Geeze, you’d think Marty would lighten up. Can you believe that guy?” Frank and Tim felt a lot better, but the triangle they created did nothing to heal the rift with Marty because they didn’t confront him.

Now an example for distance: If Frank and Tim were masters of the triangle, Marty was the master of distance. Rather than work through his anger with his brothers, Marty opted out of being in relationship altogether. Every year when the Christmas cards come from Tim and Frank, Marty tosses them in the trash. Cut-off. That’s the ultimate expression of distance. That’s the painful reality that Jesus hoped we could avoid.

Professor Bowen, like Jesus, believed that for broken families to find healing, they needed to stop forming triangles or choosing to disconnect. Instead, they needed to learn ways to stay in relationship and communicate directly with one another in times of conflict. Families that failed to develop practices for direct, healthy communication tended to repeat the same patterns of brokenness from generation to generation.

One last example. It shouldn’t surprise us to learn that the father of Marty, Tim, and Frank had been alienated from his siblings, too, over an inheritance dispute. In fact, Marty, Frank, and Tim never met their aunts and uncle. Never knew their cousins. Within families, all that brokenness passes from one generation to another until someone has the awareness and the courage to make some different choices about how they will be in relationship. Lord, have mercy!

Now, here is the good news that Jesus was trying to communicate to his followers. One faithful person who chooses to follow the advice of Jesus, who bravely faces alienation head-on and reaches out in love, can change an entire family. One person with the courage to be honest about sin, pain, grief, and hurt can be the architect of a changed future. One person can restore wholeness to the flock.

We all know how it feels to stand on the far side of the unbridgeable rift, separated from folks whom we have loved and respected. Jesus taught that it doesn’t have to be like that. I’d like to invite us all to think of a personal relationship that is fraught and in need of reconciliation. Who is your Marty?

This week, we could commit to making one loving effort to restore what has long been broken, to find the lost and heal the hurt. We could mail a card or send an e-mail. We could pick up the phone or show up in person with words of truth, vulnerability, and love. If the hurt is very raw and deeply painful, we may only be able to pray about the healing that is needed, or we could seek a coach to help us. Although we may feel powerless to reconcile, we can remember that Jesus is not, and we can assure ourselves that wherever two or more are gathered in his name, he is there. He is with us. We can remember that Jesus would stop at nothing—not even his suffering and death on the cross—to reconcile us to his Father in heaven and to one another. Let’s take just a moment to quietly commit ourselves to finding the lost and healing the hurt. May God grant us the courage and the awareness to make different choices in our relationships…

Perhaps there could even be hope for Marty’s family. After all these years, Tim could call Marty to say that Reagan hadn’t proven to be such a bad President after all. Or, Frank could peddle his bike over to Marty’s door and say, “Brother, I may not appreciate your politics, but I love you and I miss you.” Perhaps Marty could begin to pray for the Lord to help him move past the anger, shame, and embarrassment that have kept him from his brothers for all these years. Who knows? Maybe this Thanksgiving Marty, Frank and Tim will sit down at the table together. Jesus would like that.

Resources:

Roberta M. Gilbert. The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory. Falls Church: Leading Systems Press, 2004.

Ronald W. Richardson. Creating a Healthier Church. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1996.

Richard W. Ward. “Commentary on Matthew 18:15-20” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 10, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20-6

Audrey West. “Commentary on Matthew 18:15-20” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 6, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20

Matthew 18:15-20

15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Who Me?

August 30, 2026 / reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Who Me?” Exodus 3:1-12

God knew the suffering of God’s people. A new leader rose to power. He stirred memories of former greatness and fanned the flames of national pride. He promised a better future and denounced the evil of other nations. He saw enemies everywhere. They practiced other faiths, loved differently, came from other lands, or held differing political convictions. His special police roamed the streets in brown shirts and jack boots. His dogs of war pushed past borders, greedy for new lands. His enemies began to disappear: vanished in the middle of the night, taken from workplaces, snatched off the street. The trains rolled on and the camps filled up, smoke rising against sullen skies. Some fled to avoid catastrophe, leaving everything behind to keep their lives.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. The color of your skin determined the quality of your life. They knew the back of the bus, the wrong side of the tracks, and the third-rate school. They endured the endless cycle of share cropper debt, and the daily humiliations of the maid, the cook, the laundress, the mammy. They had no political representation. They couldn’t vote. Men in white hoods burned crosses on their lawns. Men in speeding cars tossed Molotov cocktails through living room windows. If they forgot where they belonged, they faced jail time, a beating, a lynching.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. Long ago, they fled famine to seek sanctuary and grain from brother Joseph in Egypt. But a new Pharaoh ruled who didn’t know Joseph. A new Pharoah arose who feared God’s people. He saw them as sub-human foreigners, beasts of burden to be exploited and controlled. He oppressed them with forced work. He punished theme with harsh taskmasters. He murdered their boy babies. They ate the bread of suffering and drank the tears of bitter grief.

They escaped over the Alps, braving the heights and the weather in search of sanctuary. They scurried one by one, two by two, sometimes in small families through the streets of the village of Le Chambon. They were desperate and frightened, fleeing certain death for an uncertain future. One cold and snowy evening, Magda Trocmé opened her door to a woman in a thin coat with terribly worn, wet shoes. Magda invited her guest in and put the woman’s shoes in the oven to dry. Later, the smell of smoke alerted them that the worn, wet shoes were ruined. She fed the woman, gave her a bed for the night, and then quietly appealed to neighbors for shoes. Her husband André secured false documents on the black market to safeguard their guest’s travel. In the morning, they sent her south to safety in new shoes.

She worked as a seamstress for affluent white neighbors. One day, she left work, shopped at the local discount drugstore, and boarded a bus for home. She took a seat in the middle of the bus next to a Black man and across from two Black women. She was 42-years-old and the bursitis in her shoulders was acting up. As the bus continued along its regular route, the white-only seats filled up. At the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, several white passengers boarded, but there weren’t enough seats. The driver demanded that Black passengers in the middle rows move. Everyone near Rosa Parks did, but she didn’t. When the police came, she was arrested and charged with breaking state law. Later, she was tried and convicted. She was fined $10, with a further $4 in court fees, equivalent to about $171 today.

God knew the suffering of God’s people, but Moses wasn’t so sure that he wanted to get involved. Long ago, he left Egypt and the Hebrew people far behind. In fact, he fled the Nile delta as a wanted man, having killed an Egyptian taskmaster for abusing an Israelite slave. Moses was born an Israelite and raised as a foundling in Pharaoh’s house, but he felt he didn’t belong anywhere. Now in midlife, he had a good life in a new land. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses could think of every reason to not get involved. He didn’t have a dog in that fight anymore, he wasn’t eloquent, and Pharaoh would never listen to him anyway. But God assured Moses that those excuses didn’t matter because God would be with him. Moses returned to his father-in-law’s camp, packed up his wife Zipporah and the kids, and returned to Egypt.

Rev. Andre Trocmé, his wife Magda, and the residents of the Alpine parish of Le Chambon, France, helped more than 5,000 German refugees during the second World War. They did so despite the Nazi occupation of their nation. They did so despite incredible peril to their own safety and freedom. Perhaps most extraordinary about their actions was their belief that they were utterly ordinary people, practicing the simplest acts of Christian hospitality. Late in life, when Magda was asked why she had hosted that first refugee, she responded, “It was dinner time.” She opened the door, and before she knew it, the community was caught up in God’s great purpose for their lives.

Rosa Parks’ act of civil disobedience on that Montgomery bus sparked much broader social action by Blacks and progressive whites in her community. It launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Soon after Rosa’s trial, 15,000 Montgomery residents attended a planning meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke and Ralph Abernethy shared the demands of their civil disobedience. It took 381 days, but segregation on Montgomery’s public transportation system eventually ended. Many years later in her autobiography, Rosa Parks wrote that she had refused to yield her seat that day not so much out of a sense of holy purpose as it was from the awareness that she was just plain “tired of giving in.” She played a pivotal role in bending the arc of the moral universe toward God’s justice.

Upon his return to Egypt, Moses went to Pharaoh with God’s demands. Just as Moses had anticipated, Pharaoh did not listen. Ten times, God sent Moses to Pharoah with the bold demand for freedom. Ten times, God sent plagues to soften the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. The Nile turned to blood. Frogs, gnats, and flies swarmed. Pestilence and boils erupted. Hail fell. Locusts destroyed the harvest. Darkness fell across the land. Finally, the firstborn of all Egypt died. When Pharaoh yielded to God’s demand, Moses led the people out of Egypt and on to the holy mountain, where the bush had burned but was not consumed. God blessed Moses and the people with the Law and the promise of a land that would flow with milk and honey. In saying yes to God’s call, Moses served a holy purpose that ended the people’s suffering.

God knows the suffering of God’s people. They dig through the rubble of a city destroyed by earthquake. They thirst for clean water in sub-Saharan Africa. They wait in squalid detention centers to be deported to a land where they once fled death squads. They languish in the corridors of skilled nursing facilities where family never visits. Their civil and voting rights are yet again at risk. They stand in grocery store aisles and wonder how to put enough food on the table to feed their families. God knows the suffering of God’s people.

God calls us to join God’s great work of help and healing, justice and liberation. Some days, all we can do is think of all the reasons that we really cannot commit. We’re too busy. We work too many hours. We have too few financial resources. We are too old or too young. We have a few too many personal problems. We don’t know what the neighbors might think.

This morning, the stories of Le Chambon, Rosa Parks, and Moses remind us that when God calls us, all we need is a heart that will offer hospitality. All we need is a spirit that is sick and tired of giving in. All we need is to trust that God will be with us despite our shortcomings. God knows the suffering of God’s people. So do we. When God calls through the burning bush or the importune neighbor or the overcrowded confines of a city bus or the everyday encounters of our own lives, may we say, “Here I am. Use me.”

Resources

Roger Nam. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15

Kimberly Russaw. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, September 3, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-6

Cameron BR Howard. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-7

Philip Hallie. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. Harper Perennial, 1994.

Rosa Parks, Jim Haskins. My Story. Puffin Books, 1999.

Exodus 3:1-12

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb,^[a] the mountain of God. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” ¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹²He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Joann White

writer, pastor, spiritual director, and enthusiast of wild places

The Future Is Now

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Future Is Now” Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25:1-13

The Crossing

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Crossing” Joshua 3:7-17

Joshua 3:7-17

Something to Eat

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Something to Eat” Matthew 14:13-21

Matthew 14:13-21

Invite Everyone

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Invite Everyone” Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14

Bear with Me

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Bear with Me” 1 Cor. 1:10-18, Eph. 4:1-3

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

The Healing Trees

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Healing Trees” Ezekiel 47:6b-12 and Revelation 22:1-5

Ezekiel 47:6b-12

Revelation 22:1-5

Late Comers

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Late Comers” Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20:1-16

The Economy of Grace

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Economy of Grace” Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:21-35

Truth and Reconciliation

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Truth and Reconciliation” Matthew 18:15-20

Matthew 18:15-20

Who Me?

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Who Me?” Exodus 3:1-12

Exodus 3:1-12