Jesus’ story reveals that the king, sitting in judgement over the nations, was not watching from afar and was not simply travelling with the righteous but was with those the righteous cared for. That is the vantage point from which the king watched the world – this is the centre from which all else flows.

The strangeness of this parable lies in the dissonance between the story and what Jesus usually teaches about wealth and reward in the Kingdom of God… …which should make us suspect that this parable isn’t actually about wealth – and may not be about the Kingdom of God, either.

So what, then, might it be about?

A brief reflection on the Greatest Commandment before the congregation entered into a lively discussion amongst themselves.

This is what true Thanksgiving does. It changes us at a deeper level than our skin. It acknowledges our true nature as creatures radically dependent on God in times of plenty as well as in times of want. It refocuses our concerns and our desires and our commitments from the things we have or the things we wish we have to the One to whom we belong and on whom we can rely.