First Sunday in Lent, 2026
Vestry Sunday
GENESIS 2:15-17; 3:1-7; PSALM 32; ROMANS 5:12-19; MATTHEW 4:1-11
God surprises us
There are two topics that I would like to speak on briefly this vestry morning: firstly, the ways in which we are called to follow Jesus as the church we are, where we are; and secondly to speak to the way this leads to God surprising us.
I’l start with a bit of ecclesiology—the doctrine of the church, and specifically the way we understand the church to be a body. You are probably more accustomed to me speaking about the church as the Body of Christ, and I will come to that. But first, I’d like for us to be mindful of another way that the church is described as a body, and that’s with Jesus as the head of the body.
This comes from Colossians, where Paul is describing the supremacy of Christ. Among the ways in which Christ comes first, Christ is also “the head of the body, the church.” And in Ephesians, where we read that “Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour.” Christ rules over us, in his gentle way, as the servant king; as a body, with Christ as our head, Christ guides us.
It’s a reminder that our salvation comes from without us, and that we are not simply left to our own devices as we try to make our way as the church in the world. This is an important guiding principle before we get to what it means to speak of the church as the body of Christ, because we are reminded, with Christ as our head, that we don’t do this thing called “church” alone and without God’s guidance in Christ.
But Christ is more than just the head of the church; the church itself, as a whole, is Christ’s own body. This helps us to see the whole of the church as doing the ministry of Christ: not just the priest, not just those on the payroll, not even just the wise elders. If you are baptised, you are a member of the Body of Christ, and you have a ministry.
For some their Christian vocation is integrated into a secular vocation—where you work is where you live out your calling (and to make the requisite nod to Luther), but even when our Christian vocation leads us outside the walls of the church to do ministry, we still are part of, and ought to give, a tithe of our time directly to the life of the church. Some can give more, and some need to give less— but if you are a member of the body, you are a ministering member of his church.
And I’m deeply grateful for this. Imagine if St. John’s ran itself as though “Father knows best.” We would be a shambles! I am so grateful for people who understand physical infrastructure, who can work a spreadsheet, for engineers who can solve problems, and for people who can plan and run a project. These are not things in my toolkit, and you really don’t want to see me try. I more often than not just make a mess of such things when I try to do such things, as some of you could attest! Not to mention that I am a creature too, subject to limit and frailty. I can’t always get to the things I could do and have some skills in doing, if it weren’t for the fact of my own finitude.
But to be the body of Christ means more though than us doing certain things simply because the priest can’t do those things. To be the Body of Christ, each of us ministering, is more than making up for someone else’s lack. It means discovery sometimes of things we didn’t know we needed; it can mean trying something new, because someone tells us they think we might be good at something; sometimes it can lead to feelings of failure. It means, as members of Christ’s body, we bring uniqueness and eccentricity in the ways we follow Jesus, not just making up for a lack but instead as a way to live into God’s own generous abundance.
It means that we bring ourselves to bear on the life of the church, and that together we do Christ’s ministry, whether that be in caring for one another, or caring for the world God loves, in ways that are as diverse as the people present here as members of Christ’s body.
There’s a number of things I’ve learned in my time at St. John’s. One of them is that this is hard work, and not just for me. We’ve been given a number of difficult things, large and small, to cope with in my time here. I would take some comfort, though, in the fact that Christ is our head, and is guiding us. Christ is for us, often in ways we don’t know how, and in ways we don’t see, until we look in retrospect. I have my moments of doubt and of melancholy; there are times when I am simply overwhelmed. But together, with Christ as our head, by God’s grace, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have weathered, and are weathering, the storms. Thanks be to God.
Which leads me to what I’d really like for you to take away today: and that is that God surprises us. Christ is our head, guiding us in ways we don’t always understand fully. The Holy Spirit is breathing life into us, moment by moment. Our God is a living God. When we live into the reality of the church as the body of Christ, with each of us exercising our gifts, we will be open to all sorts of new things, because our gifts will be as diverse as we are. And as a result, God surprises us.
Take today. Would I have predicted that we would have a thriving Sunday School downstairs, or that we would have music shared by the Black community at St. John’s, or even that I’d get to sing the Great Litany, could I have imagined any of this a couple of years ago? Nope. God surprises us.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t plan—we need to plan those things we can plan. But so long as we are growing in our life in Christ, we will be discovering new gifts in ourselves, and in one another—and being open to that Spirit, the Spirit that gifts us with ministry, the more we live into our baptismal vocation of our own ministries, the more we will be surprised.
This all sounds a bit abstract, at least in the sense that I am not today setting out a detailed plan for ministry. Read the reports—you will see a lot of people working and planning, and this is perfectly right and appropriate. (You will also find a lot of opportunity for ministry, and where you are needed: Altar Guild, Coffee Hour, care for the building especially.) And our two centres of ministry remain: we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and we care for the city in which God has placed us. We love God and we love our neighbour.
But what I am hoping you take away today is something a bit deeper than a prediction and/or a plan for where we might be in a year or three or five or seven. I am hoping that what you hear is this: you have a ministry as a member of the body of Christ. You are called to exercise that ministry in the church and for the world, for the sake of God. Being attentive to that movement is to be attentive to the Holy Spirit that is moving you, and moving us.
This is what it is to be faithful—and I invite you to be open, and to go deeper, into the ways in which you are being called, and deeper into the life of the God who surprises us.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.