Dear congregation, thank you for inviting us to be interim pastor in the Danish Church in Toronto. We have so many fond memories of our time in both the Grimsby and Toronto churches. And we have been looking forward to seeing you again.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated a church service in one of our old Danish village churches, and many years ago we celebrated church services in Africa in simple mud huts or under a tree, and today we are with you in a newly renovated church in Toronto. 

Despite the very different buildings, we are all part of a Christian community that extends into all nations, cultures, skin colours, and languages. The form can be very different, but the gospel is the same. The Christian congregation reaches out to everyone.

That theme is clearly emphasized in a text from the bible (Matt 9,18-26), which I like very much. It once happened that a distinguished synagogue leader asked Jesus to come to his house because his daughter was about to die. Jesus went to his house, but at the roadside there was a poor and wretched woman who grabbed hold of him, and Jesus stopped and helped her too.

Here we see that both the synagogue leader and a poor widow got the full attention of Jesus. Jesus cared and treated those who came to him perfectly alike. 

This is, very briefly told, the little episode that takes place. We always see that Jesus takes time for everyone, who come to him in trust and faith, whether it is a ruler of high status or a poor unremarkable woman, who was unclean in the eyes of the Jews. 

But notice they both did something active and were not passive. The ruler begged Jesus to come to his house and was not refused. The woman stretched out her hands towards Jesus. None of them were rejected. Today the Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ cares for everyone who comes to him in need.

It tells us that none of us will be rejected of his mercy if we come to him with all our differences. Let us therefore meet in our church for worship and togetherness, with all our differences and different backgrounds.

Jørgen Flensted-Jensen