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A young and successful executive was travelling down a neighbourhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He kept an eye out for children who might suddenly dart out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

Coming from a big city, a man named David wasn’t prepared for the approach rural Maine businessmen take toward their customers. Shortly after David moved there, he rented a rototiller. The store owner showed him how it worked and explained that the charge was not based on how many hours he had it out, but rather how long it was actually used. Looking over the tiller for some kind of meter, David asked, “How will you know how long I’ve used it?” With a puzzled look, the owner simply said, “You tell me.”

The Parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. The parable of the lost sheep follows what I’ve said from Richard Rohr that we are to love wastefully. The question is it taking the other 99 sheep for granted? And the squeaking wheel gets the oil? Sibling animosity and jealousy, the one having problems steals focus from the other one who is potentially the good one.

This passage in the gospel today sounds harsh. But it might help to put it into context. The passage begins with a large crowd following Jesus. So maybe Jesus is wondering why so many are there with him. I would think he was figuring that many of the crowd were there out of curiosity and with no real commitment to what he was saying and what he was about.

A story told by Martin Buber in his book Early Masters. A man who lived in the same town as Rabbi Zusya saw that he was very poor. So, each day he put 20 coins in the little bag in which Zusya kept his Hebrew texts, so that he and his family might buy the necessities of life. From that time on, the man grew richer and richer.

Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. The Sabbath is a weekly day of rest or time of worship given in the Bible as the seventh day. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and is one of the Ten Commandments.

A number of years ago I was asked the question, is it a problem there are so many different churches? My answer no, as long as they don’t think they’re the only ones with the right answer. But since then, I’ve asked myself the question, why are there so many different churches?

One of the ways I was taught to look at gospel passages in preparation for a sermon was to ask questions, more specifically identify the questions I have about the passage itself. There are two questions I have about today’s gospel.

I am reminded the bumper sticker, whoever dies with the most toys wins. The bad news we cannot take them with us. Yet, there is a correlation between wealth and length of life. Life expectancy for the rich is longer than for the poor.