All are welcome to join us for Sunday Service and Sunday School at 10 am.  Please feel free to stay for coffee in the Fellowship Hall after the Service.  This week we are honouring the children who attended the residential schools Please wear orange as a symbol of remembrance.  Orange lapel pins will be available for those who don’t have orange clothing.

Here are Rev. Marlene’s Notes on the Sermon

“So, the last will be first, and the first will be last” Matthew 20:16

This Sunday’s scripture points out that God’s usual way of seeing things often makes our world’s priorities seem upside down. God’s take on love, especially, escapes human logic. In his parables, Jesus questions a purely legalistic view of reward. Some Pharisees in his day, for example, stressed the concept of human merit. They believed that they had acquired rights over God, and that rewards from God were due them.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard, recounted only by Matthew, depicts life during the harvest in first-century Palestine. This season stirred hopes in the hearts of workers that they would find employment and wages to support their families. Clearly, the owner of the vineyard anticipated a bumper crop, for he went out to the marketplace several times during the day to hire workers.

To the first ones, hired early in the morning, he offered the usual daily wage, while to those who started later, he proposed that they would be paid, “whatever is right.” At the end of the day, the vineyard owner, provoking grumbling from some, ordered his manager to pay all the workers the usual daily wage.

The landowner-who represents God since this is a parable about the kingdom of heaven- goes beyond justice in his giving by crossing the boundary into compassion and love. God chooses to bless his beloved community equally, whether saint or sinner, newcomer, or church founder. That is the wonder of God’s equation— all are loved equally!