Sermon Notes for October 1, 2017
Read Matthew 21:23-32, where a father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard.I wonder about these sons this morning. I wonder about who they were and what else was going on in their lives. The first son, who simply and baldly says "I won't" is defiant in a way sons simply weren't at that time. We may be used to teenagers who talk back, but a son in open defiance would be strange for them.
And the second son, who maybe meant well and just had no follow through. Did something come up? Did he get distracted? Did he say yes with the best of intentions and then his time simply got away from him?
We don't know. Like so many parables we never find out the background, the details that Jesus leaves out. What we do know is when and where Jesus is telling this story. The religious leaders of the day are challenging him yet again on who he is, and where he gets the right to do what he does. He does his usual responding with a question that they cannot answer and moves on to this parable.
So while we don't know the motivation of the sons this morning, we do know who they are standing in for. The first son is like those tax collectors; people who have spent most of their lives sinning against God and their neighbors. By asserting that they later go to work in the vineyard, Jesus is leaving a way open for them to turn back to God.
But the second son, the one who was full of yeses and yet did nothing, he was standing in for the chief priests and the elders: the people who talked a good game and yet never really did anything. The great Soren Kierkegaard wrote a parable about that behavior. It went like this:
Suppose a King issued an order to his Kingdom to be obeyed by all. But instead of obeying it the people created schools to teach people to teach this order to the people. And these new teachers then went out and held weekly study groups so people could study the King's order and then they also had weekly celebrations to sing praises to the King for giving the order. And, in the universities, those who wrote the most interesting interpretations of the King's order won prizes and important titles. What if they did all this, but throughout the whole Kingdom, no one actually bothered to obey the order? "How," Kirkegaard asks, "Do you think the King would react?"
Jesus is making it clear that simply saying that one loves God and wishes to be a part of the Kingdom is not enough. The chief priests and the elders honored the Law and taught it it to others over and over again. They followed the Law to the letter. While the tax collectors and prostitutes had turned their backs on the Law and were, therefore, seen as outside God's salvation. It was pretty clear cut to the people of the time.
But as we read the gospels, it becomes clear that it was these outcasts who were the ones who saw that God was doing a new thing in Jesus and were changing their ways – repenting of the sin and setting out on a new life that was to lead them into the Kingdom. They went and repented. They went and worked in the vineyard.
Words are not enough. What we do matters too. We have to actually carry out God's will, not simply study it So the question becomes what is the will of God?
We're told as much in our passage from Philippians this morning. "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross." In other words, love God with your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. That is following the will of the Lord. That is working in your Father's vineyard.
These days it seems the world turns away from a wordy gospel. The more we talk, the less nonbelievers want to listen. But what always catches people's interest and curiosity are those who have learned to move beyond the words. And it isn't just the Gandhis and the Mother Teresas who remind us all over again what faith and commitment are all about. It's people in Doctors Without Borders who travel on their own time and expense to work with those who have no other help. It's the ones who help with Disaster recovery, taking their own time and money to pitch in where they can. It's the people who take their free time and volunteer it for others, giving as much as they can and then some. That is doing the will of the Father.
Here's the thing. Neither of the groups, neither of the sons in the parable, did everything they were supposed to. The first son was rude and disrespectful to his father. "I won't." No excuses. No "I'm sorry I can't..." but simply, "I won't." That is a response that would make no parent happy.
The second son at least started off polite and respectful. "Yes sir." He knew the father deserved his respect and obedience. It was the follow through that he fell apart on. How many of us have told someone we would pray for him or her and then got distracted and didn't? How many of us have thought or talked a lot about helping the marginalized in our neighborhoods, but haven't? How many of us have meant to contact those we have lost touch with, but never had?
When asked, which of these two did the will of the Father, the answer is clear. "The first one." No matter how many good intentions or good excuses the second son had, it is the first one that in the end, did as the father asked.
We all have good intentions. But as Jesus teaches us in our gospel reading today, our intentions don't really matter. It's our actions that are grounded in and flow from our relationship with God that count – individually and as a community.
In Alive Now, Andrea Woods writes about someone named Mr. Pritchett. Although he doesn't have much education himself, he is one of the best teachers for others. He told his Sunday School: "I don't care where you go to church on Sunday morning or how you sing your songs. What I care about is what you do with Sunday when Monday rolls around."
They heard him say this, and they saw him live it. He fixed broken windows. He drove sick people to the doctor. When they were unable to take care of something in their daily lives, he would step in to help. He remained even-tempered. He was able to listen to other people's troubles. The Monday man at work was exactly the same as the Sunday man at worship.
Being a Christian inside the church during the worship service is saying yes. Being a Christian in the world during the week is working in the vineyard.
Unfortunately it is easy to behave like the Chief Priests and Elders. There are days when everyone is guilty of saying yes and living no. We say yes to the belief that God is the creator of all things, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth," and yet how do we treat the world which God has made?
We say yes, the Gospel calls us to serve the poor and needy of the world, and to the truth that "if we do it for the least of these," we have done it for Jesus. But when we see the homeless on the street or the sick and impoverished looking for somewhere to turn it is so easy to turn away. To make an excuse.
We all know how hard it is to keep the promises we have made. It is far easier to make the promise, to say the words than it is to follow through. Life interferes. Things come up. We get busy. We say yes, but do we follow through?
I think there is a third option to these two sons. We can say yes, and mean it. We can say yes and then go out into the garden to work. Let our actions match our words. We've already spoken up in our lives. By being a Christian, you've already told the Father yes, you will serve.
Now what will you do?
