The Rev’d Lucy Nguyen

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 11 October 2026

Readings: Isaiah 25:1-9 | Psalm 23 | Philippians 4:1-9 | Matthew 22:1-14

What are some real life examples you have experienced which you found to be both a gift and challenge?

• Childbirth
• Child / grandchild minding
• Weeding out the agapanthus
• Studies
• Friendships
• Marriage
• ….

Can you see yourself in any of these situations?

And if you can, then might you also have a sense of two possible perspectives:
A “before” feeling where you’re excited about the event, blithely ignorant or minimizing any possible challenges which might accompany the “exciting bits” which will make it a bit harder than expected?

Or a “before” feeling where you hold a deep reluctance, imaging an experience of hard work for little reward only to be happily surprised that it was well worth the effort, more than could you imagined?

This morning the intersection of our readings [Isaiah 25:1-9, Philippians 4:1-9, and Matthew 22:1-14] reveals a profound theological tension: God’s love is an extravagant, unearned gift, but it comes with a radical challenge to transform how we live, think, and respond to God’s invitation.

We had a “warning” in our morning collect which picks up on this theme in the words …
“Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord…” [The Collect for Proper 23 (Book of Common Prayer]. The collect acknowledges that while grace is an unearned gift that runs ahead of us, its primary purpose is to completely reorient our lives toward active, holy living.

Perhaps during the week to come, you will look back upon these words and prayerfully wonder how all that “reorientation to active holy living” is working out for you. How is it working out for you – in the knowing, in the learning or in the remembering that God’s love is freely yours and when you fall in love with God, who is already in love with you, there is call which you’ll feel in your waters, to continually be orientating your life to holy living. Continually adjusting through all your ages and stages. “Free grace” whose purpose is to completely reorientate, as the poet Mary Oliver called it “your one wild and precious life”.

Two sides of divine love – Gift and Challenge.

Across this morning’s texts, God’s love is portrayed as a lavish, protective, and restorative gift that meets humanity in its deepest moments of need. Despite the severity of some of the language in these stories. Because yes, while God’s love is given freely, it is never passive. It demands a response, a shifting of priorities, and a commitment to spiritual alignment.

In our first reading, Isaiah’s Feast of Deliverance (Isaiah 25:1-9), God is celebrated as a refuge for the poor and a shelter from the storm. The ultimate expression of God’s love is a promised banquet of “rich food and well-aged wines,” where God will permanently swallow up death and wipe away every tear.

The challenge lies in the endurance required before the promise is fulfilled. An endurance which exceeds what we ourselves can do on our own and might be more than we thought we were signing up for when we affirmed our faith at confirmation.

Thankfully in our foundational text Scripture moves us from life before Jesus to life with Jesus. Paul in Philippians 4:1-9 highlights the psychological and spiritual gifts of God’s love, The Peace that Surpasses Understanding.

Believers … you, me, … are given access to a supernatural peace that guards their hearts and minds, rooted in the assurance that “the God of peace will be with you.” And yes, there is a challenge in this gift. Paul challenges believers to actively manage their anxiety through prayer and to intentionally discipline their thoughts. We are commanded to dwell only on what is true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable, and to put these teachings into active practice. Inspirational — and challenging for those of us who dip our toes (or more) into pools of doubt, worry, and ignorance.

And perhaps, if we only give our morning Gospel a quick once over, we may indeed be caught up in anxiety – a wedding banquet with challenge [Matthew 22:1-14].

In the parable of the wedding banquet, the king flings open the doors to anyone found on the streets—both the good and the bad. The gift is inclusion; the invitation to intimacy with the King is entirely free and unmerited. And yet, this text presents the starkest challenge. While the invitation to the banquet is free, staying requires wearing the provided wedding garment. Which we realise when we read that one guest, who refused to change out of his old clothes, is cast out.

The challenge of God’s love is that we cannot enter God’s presence and insist on remaining unchanged; Grace demands a transformation of character.

When woven together, our morning’s scriptures show that yes – God’s love rescues us exactly as we are and God loves us too much to leave us as we are. The freely given gift of God is an eternal welcome to the divine celebration of life, and a supernatural peace, a peace which passes all understanding.

The challenge of God’s freely given welcome is our daily decision to stay. To stay and become clothed in the deep welcome and mindset of Christ, to love God and others as we are loved. And to not slip back into our old garments of turning away from God and our anxiety that we are not truly loved and welcomed just as we.

Thankfully God knows our human nature as we are indeed created by God, and the welcome of God is, as we sometimes sing, “new every morning”. It is eternal and yes, that can boggle our mind, it is a welcome and a love which passes all understanding.

And yet … when we have experienced it, when have witnessed the ongoing transformation of God’s love in ourselves and others we can believe – again, and again!

Thanks be to God Amen!

Richard Rohr cac.org
Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day” (published in her collection New and Selected Poems, 1992).