World Communion Sunday*
Matthew 21:33–46 · October 4, 2026
Matthew 21:33-46
Betrayal. Theft. Murder. Real estate.
If I asked you what these have in common, you might say, last week’s episode of Landman. Or your favorite true crime podcast. Or an average newsday in South Florida.
I doubt your first answer would be, The Bible. Even more doubtful would be a parable by Our Sweet Jesus. And yet, here we are – assigned this reading on this day for reasons known only to God and the Revised Common Lectionary.
I wish I was skilled enough to seamlessly tie betrayal, murder, etc. to Stewardship Dedication, World Communion, and a presentation by our African missionaries. Frank could probably have pulled that off. I’m just an Interim Pastor.
Plus, if you notice, there’s an asterisk on today’s sermon title. The fine print on the back of the bulletin says, “Items subject to change.”
Aren’t we all? Subject to change? Subject to crimes? Like the landman in the parable?
You never know you’ve been a victim of crime until after the fact. If you can’t prevent it, the best you can do is clean it up.
I think that’s the greater point of Jesus’s spicy little parable: Do the cleanup. Manage the damage. Watch your asterisks. Because more often than not, that’s where we find God.
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It happened again last week. I – or rather, you – were victims of a church-related cybercrime. Someone posing as me emailed the lot of you. Wendy and I spent a day doing cleanup. We posted warnings. We answered confused and occasionally angry phone calls and texts.
This is now a common scam perpetrated against churches. Someone or some AI gets its claws on the church directory and impersonates the preacher. It makes me so mad. Like the landowner, I also would like to put those wretches to a miserable death or at least take their computers away. It’s betrayal, theft, and internet real estate fraud. See? The Bible does speak to us today.
Basically, if you get an email from me, ignore it. Some people do that already. Fine. Don’t open it. Don’t click on it. Don’t reply to it. What gets me fuming is that I’m not the real target; you are. Do not mess with my people.
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And I think that’s like what Jesus was saying in his parable. Except instead of his people, he was saying, “Do not mess with my God. Do not mess with my people. Or, as they said in The Wire: “If you come for the King, you best not miss.”
So Jesus says in verse 43: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.”
“The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
That doesn’t sound like sweet baby Jesus, meek and mild.
What happened?
This parable was written down in the Gospel According to Matthew. It was written years after Jesus had been crucified and risen. But even then, the early church was still in cleanup mode. The church people were trying to figure out what Jesus meant in all his parabolic stories. What did the Resurrection really mean? They didn’t yet see the big picture.
They were searching for the footnote at the bottom of their bulletins. Asking: “What does all this mean? To us? And what does it mean for the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven?”
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Matthew says the people regarded Jesus as a prophet. This they got. But they had to put an asterisk on that. They knew he was more than a prophet, but what, exactly? They were searching for clues at the scene of the crime, piecing together the mystery of faith. What did Jesus mean in these puzzling parables? What was he really saying in these shocking sermons? These things like, “The meek shall inherit the earth?” Things like, “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping.”
How does it add up?
2000 years later, we’re still asking the same questions. Still trying to put the pieces in place. We’re searching for the footnotes at the bottom of our bulletins. What is Jesus saying to us, today? What do WE put after the asterisk?
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What we share – what we share in faith – what we share with each other. These may not be the whole answer. Because there’s always more to come.
Sharing Communion not just with each other but with churches all around the world. Sharing seats at one, infinitely long table.
Sharing our money with each other, with the church. Investing our gifts, whatever they might be – investing in a future for our congregation, making pledges of funds and prayers for missionaries and ambassadors of faith all around the world.
Things like World Communion. Like Generosity campaigns. What we share is what follows the asterisks. And what we offer is always subject to change, always inspired to grow.
Whenever we’re not wasting our talents in miserable acts of betrayal, theft, murder, and fraud. When our sins decrease, the love of Christ is set free to fill the vacuum.
Those on whom the stone doesn’t fall… we who stand on the Rock of our salvation instead of beating people over the head with it… we who share good news instead of throwing it like a weapon. When we step beyond our anger and boldly walk into an earth as it is in heaven – that’s when we start to figure out what’s yet to come.
And it’s not death. It’s life. Life beyond our schemes. Life beyond victimhood.
How exactly will this new life look?
That’s for us to discover. That’s for us to find in this adventure of life. This journey our Savior calls us toward, saying, simply, “Follow me.”
“Follow me. Let’s see how far we can go together.”
[EOS]
James McTyre www.jamesmctyre.com
