This was Rev. Cari’s first Sunday back from her sabbatical, and as she stated in the opening of the sermon, the gospel text for the day, Matthew 25:31-46, is a “marvellously complex” one.

She had invited the congregation, when she read the text aloud, to pretend they’d never heard this parable of the sorting of the sheep and the goats before. In the sermon, she addressed “part one” with the sheep, as well as “part two” regarding the goats. And she did so framing the sermon by referring to an experience while on retreat at Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario.