Prayer

Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen 

Sermon    

  A couple years back my Sister stayed with me for a few weeks. For the most part she was happy to here. I kept her supplied with chocolate covered marshmallow cookies.  What she didn’t like was the sound of the clocks.   I have a thing for clocks.  A love given to me by my father.  I love the sound. It reminds me never to wish away time.  Surprisingly since Covid I have stopped wearing my watch.  Which is surprising considered my life is so scheduled.   I have friends who’s idea of planning is waking up in the morning and thinking what should I do. 

I have plans, short term, long term. I have back up plans for those plans and a few emergency plans. 

I can remember reading an article which stated that we have lost the ability or even the gift of getting bored.   Being bored is considered to be a very relaxed state of being with the mind having nothing to work on.  As if.  That is so not in my plan. 

There is a theory, it is actually very old but was truly formulated in  William Paley’s book in  1802 “The Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity.”  The theory is known as the analogy of the watchmaker.  The theory is that God is like a watch maker that he has created all things and set all things in motion and that in all things that have and will happen are have  and will happen as part of the great movement of the universe.  (One could maybe find issues with this theory and join us at I wonder to explore this more)  Like a clock we are all interconnected working as part of the greater whole in the mission that is set before us. 

The General Council met This summer and we now have a new Moderator.  The Right Rev. Dr. Kimberly Heath.  May we ask that the Spirit may guide her with wisdom as she leads our church towards the future. 

 The Gospel    It is a hard one to hear for it speaks of the cost of discipleship. To be lead by the Spirit is at times difficult.  To move forward one must plan and consider what the cost will be. Jesus here in the Scripture is using common wisdom saying of the day. 

The United Church of Canada has been looking at who we are.   The office of growth and ministry development in a report called Towards 2035 a 10 year projection for the state of the United Church of Canada states “that in 2035, the United Church would likely have only 111,000 members — a 65 percent drop from 321,054 members in 2023.  By 2035, there could be only 8,174 attending Sunday worship, a massive drop from 110,877 in 2023. Identifiable givers could number 46,959, an enormous loss from 149,909 in 2023. Participation in Sunday school will likely fall to 2,554, from 18,048 in 2023. T hat pastoral charges are not declining quite as dramatically. There were 1,976 in 2023, predicted to fall to 1,633 in 2035. “

I found these rather sobering statements.   In light of the gospel the time is now for us to plan for who we are as the church in this area.

 The question how do we plan.   Surprisingly there is an economic theory that was explained to me just recently called Game Theory. 

Game theory was introduced by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern. They developed the foundational concepts of game theory in their book “Theory of Games and Economic Behavior” published in 1944. Von Neumann and Morgenstern’s work laid the groundwork for analyzing strategic decision-making and its applications in various fields, including economics, politics, and social sciences.  

Game theory is the study of rational decision-making in situations where the outcome of one participant’s choices depends on the decisions made by other participants. It allows us to analyze how players strategize to maximize their payoffs or utility. The Key Elements of Game Theory

1.   Players: In game theory, participants are referred to as players. Each player selects a strategy to achieve the best possible outcome, considering the strategies chosen by other players.

2.   Strategies: Strategies represent the set of actions or decisions available to each player. Players aim to choose the strategy that yields the highest payoff.

3.   Payoffs: Payoffs are the rewards or outcomes obtained by players based on their chosen strategies and the strategies of others. Players seek to maximize their payoffs. 

The ultimate ending is known as the Nash Equilibrium.  I will forgo a lengthy explanation, it is rather complicated. 

1.   Mutual Optimality: In a Nash equilibrium, each player’s strategy is optimal given the strategies chosen by others. No player can improve their payoff by unilaterally changing their strategy. It is a state of mutual optimality where all players have reached their best possible outcomes.

2.   Strategic Stability: Nash equilibrium is a stable state because no player has an incentive to deviate from their strategy. Any unilateral deviation would lead to a suboptimal outcome for the deviating player. The equilibrium acts as a self-reinforcing pattern of behavior.

Nash equilibrium plays a central role in game theory by providing a tool to analyze strategic interactions. It helps us predict the behavior of rational decision-makers in diverse scenarios, such as economic competition, negotiations, and social interactions.