A Pair of Ducks
October 4, 2026
St. Andrew’s Anglican Church
The Rev. Rod Sprange
I speak to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
As I was thinking about the readings I had chosen for today’s worship, I remembered an incident when I was studying applied theology at St. John’s College. One of my study buddies was Simon Blaikie, some of you will know him, he retired last year as our Diocesan Administrator after Bishop Geoff had to retire due to ill health.
In our theology course we each had to make presentations on the previous week’s assignments and readings. It was Simon’s turn to present. He started to talk about the pair of ducks evident in the reading. I thought, pair of ducks - what is he talking about? I was so bewildered by this reference to poultry that I lost the train of his argument. After the third time he referred to a pair of ducks, I clued in. Simon comes from the maritimes, I think Newfoundland. Anyway he has a slight accent except, when he gets animated about something then his accent becomes more pronounced. He kept saying do you see the pair of ducks, paradox in the reading? Paradox a pair of ducks. He was right. In fact there is a lot of paradox in the Bible. If treated as a simple contradiction these can be confusing, and make people wonder about what’s true. A paradox is when there are two seemingly contradictory ideas or instructions, but which when studied in context are seen to be valid and together reveal a deeper truth. A simple example is ‘you have to be cruel to be kind.’
There are two important examples of paradox in today’s readings. The first is the difference in how God and Jesus seem to respond to offering hospitality. Abraham is blessed after providing hospitality to three strangers, while Jesus rebukes Martha for being distracted by her offering of hospitality. The other example of paradox is in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in which he says that every member of the church (the body of Christ) is equal and necessary, but then later says that some spiritual gifts are greater than others.
How do we resolve these two apparent contradictions and discover a deeper truth in each?
In the middle-east hospitality is of primary importance. This was especially true in Abraham’s time. Travelling was arduous and dangerous. Offering shelter and sustenance to travellers could save their lives. Many people like Abraham and his group were nomadic. They raised animals like sheep, goats and cattle. They would travel from oasis to oasis, pitching their tents where there was access to water and pasture for their animals. As the water or pasture dried up they would drive their animals on to another place.
Everything they owned they carried on donkeys or camels. So every item was precious. You can imagine how valuable flour was, it was heavy but necessary to sustain life. You needed to ration it so you didn’t run out before coming across a camel train of traders, or you reached a town where you could trade for vital supplies.
Abraham was a nomad and was sitting outside his tent one day, in an oasis. He sees strangers coming by and graciously invites them to stop a while, rest, wash their feet and take some nourishment. At this point, we have been told that it is God who is visiting Abraham, but Abraham doesn’t. He addresses the leader as my Lord, not meaning the Lord God Almighty, but as a term of respect, much like us addressing a stranger as sir. Abraham puts on a show of radical hospitality. He tells Sarah to use the best flour to make cakes for the men. And he selects a young calf (a very valuable animal) and get’s a servant to prepare it for a meal for the men. Did you notice how he and Sara don’t join the men in eating,? Guests eat and have their fill first.
Because of the hospitality Abraham has shown the Lord, the Lord blesses him and Sarah by declaring that he will be back and Sarah will bear a son, even though she is in her eighties. After which there is a rather humorous interaction between God and Sarah, but we will save that for another day.
From this and other biblical stories we learn the primary importance of showing hospitality to strangers or those in need. Jesus taught when we feed the hungry we feed him.
Now we move ahead a few thousand years to first century Palestine. Jesus arrives in Bethany at the home of Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus who Jesus raises from the dead in John’s gospel. Jesus begins to teach those in the house, Mary is intrigued and joins the men and sits at Jesus’s feet to listen to him. Meanwhile Martha is busting her buns, taking care of everyone. Offering the kind of hospitality expected when you are hosting important visitors. It’s not surprising that she get’s annoyed with her sister, who instead of helping and performing the role expected of the women of the household, is sitting and listening with the men.
When Martha complains about her to Jesus and asks him to tell Mary to get up and help, Jesus gently rebukes her. He tells her that her worries and distractions from all the tasks that she is doing have prevented her from recognizing the incredible opportunity offered by Jesus’s presence and teaching. He tells her that Mary made the better decision in choosing to just be still and listen to him.
In the Abraham episode we learn that serving others, especially helping strangers is a major way of showing our love of God by loving our neighbour and thereby honouring God. In the story of Mary and Martha we learn not to let our other duties, or busyness distract us from what is of greatest priority. Listening to God must come before serving God. It is in listening to God that we get our direction and discern how God is calling us to serve. Like Martha we need to not allow distractions to get in the way of our relationship with Jesus.
It has also been noted that Abraham believed he was offering hospitality to strangers who needed physical sustenance. Whereas in the Martha story, she is hosted Jesus, who elsewhere, refers to himself as the Bread of Life. He came to feed them! To serve, not be served. This is an important truth for us, while it is good and right that we honour God through service to others, we must devote our time first, to listening to God and to studying Jesus’s teaching.
In his first letter to the church in Corinth Paul teaches them about the nature of the Christian community. Apparently the Corinthians had been arguing among themselves about whose spiritual gift was most important. Some who had received the gift of speaking in tongues thought they were superior to others with what they considered lesser gifts. This was causing damaging division within the community. Paul likens the members of the community to the members of the human body. He calls them the Body of Christ, and as in the human body all its members are needed and have a necessary part to play. So no member is to consider themselves superior to another. Now in verse 27 Paul seems to be listing spiritual gifts in order of importance.
If we consider all of Paul’s teaching we can see that for Paul all spiritual gifts are equally necessary to keep the Body of Christ whole and healthy, but we should treat those gifts and services that build up the Christian community as a priority over other gifts, especially those which are purely private such as speaking in tongues.
At the conclusion of that section Paul says “but strive for the greater gifts and I will show you a still more excellent way”. He shows what he means using the whole of the next chapter - his famous teaching on love in chapter 13. Paul teaches that love is the most excellent way because it is the motivation that makes all gifts valuable to God’s purpose. Without love any gift becomes selfish and can even be damaging to the community, the Body of Christ.
It upsets me when I see a ‘performance preacher’ on television, or when they preach a false Gospel like the so called prosperity gospel. A preacher, no matter how skilled, and charismatic, should never be motivated by wanting to please an audience in order to receive praise and affirmation, or money Preachers must be motivated by love of God and God’s Word, together with love for their community, the Body of Christ. Sometimes this means a pastor may have to be cruel to be kind, and tell a community what it doesn’t want to hear. But the pastor should do so with love and lovingly.
If we link this second paradox with the first, we learn that to discover our spiritual gifts and discern how God is calling us to use them, we must first listen to God, then follow it up with loving service. Spiritual gifts are those that are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and are motivated or energized by love. Love of God and love of neighbour.
Paul sums it all up for us at the conclusion of chapter 13 listing the greater gifts he writes: “and now [these gifts] faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Amen
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