- NO MASS THIS SUNDAY!! Robert and I will be away.
- Sunday, October 4, 2026, there will be a joint liturgy with First Congregational, our sister community, celebrating the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. There will be a special collection for The Nature Conservancy of Minnesota, in honor of Francis who loved all of God’s creation. The Nature Conservancy protects natural lands and has planted millions of trees in Minnesota. There will also be a blessing for our pets – bring pictures and names!
- Please never hesitate to call, 507-429-3616, or email, aaorcc2008@gmail.com if I can help you in any way.
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Dear Friends,
As you know, we are away this weekend. Pastor Dick Dahl has provided the following homily for your reflection, and I have included the Sunday readings too. Thank you Pastor Dahl.
Blessings to you all, Pastor Kathy
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Readings:
- Ezekiel 18: 25-28
- Philippians 2: 1=11
- Matthew 21: 28-32
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Homily – 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 27, 2026
From Pastor Dick Dahl
Do you recall a time, maybe many times, when you needed forgiveness from someone in your life? As well as the mercy and forgiveness of God? I know I do.
Usually seeking forgiveness requires recognizing and admitting to myself that I was at fault. Whatever excuses and lack of honesty with myself led to the behavior, I now see and admit that I was wrong. This honesty must take place within myself before it can be expressed to someone else. This honesty requires the gift and strength of humility.
Today’s readings have a lot to do with these issues. Verses from Psalm 25 cry out: Remember your mercies, O Lord, Your ways make known to me, Teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth. The sins of my youth remember not, in your kindness, remember me because of your goodness, O Lord. He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way.
In the first reading prophet Ezechiel describes God responding to Israel’s complaints that he is being unfair. Imagine that! God’s response to Israel is that he is in fact teaching them to turn from decisions that lead to death. They need to follow decisions that lead to life. What decisions do we make that lead to life?
Next comes Paul’s heart-felt letter to the Philippians in which he tells them the paths to follow that lead to life. From prison he pleads with them to be united in love and do nothing out of selfishness or vainglory. He urges them to look out for the interests of one another.
For Paul, it’s all about “putting on the mind of Christ.” He quotes a hymn: Jesus the Christ did not regard equality with God to be grasped and held onto. He emptied himself, humbled himself, not just by becoming human, but even by taking the form of a slave, obedient to death, even the humiliating and excruciating death on a cross.
Then Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus asking the chief priests and elders their opinion about decision-making. The examples involve two sons, one of whom agrees to do what his father but then does not do it. The other refuses to do what his father asks of him, but then does it.
The sons each made two decisions. First, what they said they would do. And then, what they actually did. We make many agreements, from a date for lunch to making marriage vows. The initial agreement is important, but the follow through or failure to do so is what really counts. That is often where the need for forgiveness and the hope for mercy comes in.
So far, we’ve considered our need for merciful forgiveness, the humility to recognize and admit when we’ve been wrong, and knowing that follow through is more important than promises. These pertain to our everyday lives with one another, similar to what Paul was doing when he wrote to the Philippians about how they were treating each other.
Two cotemporary profound teachers have helped me and many others how to “put on the mind of Christ.” For Franciscan Father Richard Rohr “acceptance of (the) invitation to solidarity with the larger pain of the world is what it means to be ‘a Christian.’ It takes great inner freedom to be a follower of Jesus. His life is an option, a choice, a call, a vocation for us, and we are totally free to say yes or no or maybe. We do not have to do this to make God love us. That is already taken care of. We do it to love God back and to love what God loves and how God loves!”
Sister Joan Chittister has said, “Christian discipleship is by nature a very dangerous thing.” She went on, “People with high need for approval, social status, and public respectability need not apply…. True discipleship is…a way of living that is not political but which has serious political implications. The disciple takes public issue with the values of a world that advantages only those who are already advantaged…. It takes umbrage at systems that are more bent on keeping improper people out of them than they are in welcoming all people into them. True discipleship takes the side always, always, always of the poor, the minority, the outcast, the reviled, the rejected, the other, despite the power of the rich and the powerful.”
By “putting on the mind of Christ” we ask to be taught what we can do to counter the systemic injustice that forces so many to suffer despite their best efforts to cope. We are called to seek justice and to humbly respond with mercy to the needs of others. This is also to realize that it is only by His Word that we are healed, by the gift of Grace that we never earn but is offered to us abundantly and to which we can only respond to with grateful hearts.
