Pentecost 18A

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 18A
PROPER: 21A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: September 26, 1999

TEXT: Matthew 21:28-32 - Parable of the Two Sons
"What do you think? . . . . . he changed his mind. . . . . Which of the two did the will of the father?"

ISSUE: This parable, as obvious as it may seem in terms of who does the will of the Father, is about change. The one son who says "No" to his father does in fact change and do what he is asked. The parable is also a challenge to the Pharisees who are questioning Jesus' authority and his honor status. He answers them with the fact that there is new standard. It is not honor that counts so much as those who actually do the will of God. He is doing it, and the tax collectors and harlots are also changing and stepping into the Domain of God before them. The parable challenges the religious establishment of our own age. Do we merely honor God, or do God's will working in the world vineyard?
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This parable of of the Two Sons seems to us to have a very obvious answer. A father has two sons. He commands them to go and work in the vineyard. The first son says "No" that he will not go, but later changes his mind. The second son says that he will go, "Yes." But he does not. Which one does the will of the father is the question that Jesus asks. The people respond, "The first," that is, the son who said "No" but then changed his mind. The response seems so obvious that it is hardly worth Matthew recording the story. We might say that anybody in his right mind would know the answer to that question. However, understanding the story in the context of Matthew's gospel account, and in terms of what the story meant in Jesus' time puts a new light on to the story.
The parable of the Two Sons follows very shortly after Matthew's account of the Cleansing of the Temple. Recall that Jesus had made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where the people cried out, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord." He proceeds to the Temple and begins the cleansing process. The tables of the money changers are overturned, and the stools of those who sold pigeons and sacrifices. He begins then to heal, or restore,the blind and crippled in the Temple. The temple authorities, the chief priests then challenge Jesus' authority. Who does he think he is doing these things? They challenge him: Who licensed him, gave him permission to do these things? He has not been licensed or given any authority to do these things by the Temple leadership. They are challenging hsi honor, which is something that could be given to him by other honorable persons. Jesus had no honor by virtue of his birth. He's merely a rebellious son of a carpenter from Nazareth. They challenge the fact that he has no status or authority.
Then Jesus responds with this insulting parable and saying. What do you think? He challenges their sense of logic. A man had two sons. Which did the will of the father, when the father sends them to the vineyard. The one who says "No" but chabnges his mind and later goes, or the one who says "Yes" but doesn't go. They have to answer to their dismay, the one who said "No" but later did go. If Jesus had said which is the more honorable son. They would have had to say, the second. The more honorable son is the one, who even though he doesn't do what his father asks, does not say "No" to his father in public. In public he honors his father with the positive verbal response. "Yes, father I will work in the vineyard." The dishonorable son is the son who says "No" to this father in public, even though he later goes. He dishonors his father and himself by this rebellious behavior in public. Remember the commandment, which these people knew very well: Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother."
What Jesus is saying is that he is no longer buying into their system of empty honorableness. They are challenging him when they themselves pay great tribute to God the Father, but do not really do his will. And doing the will of God is what really counts. Jesus is saying that there has to be change in the system in terms of what is really important. It's not all this phoney honor that counts, but doing the will of the God the Father, that's what counts.
In the story of the Two Sons. The one son says "yes" that he'll go into the vineyard to work, but he really has no intention whatsoever, even though he has giving the honorable response. The son who says "I will not" is changed, and as the text says: "but later he changed his mind and went." He changed. That's the issue. The chief priests and elders, the Temple authorities are challenging Jesus as to his honor and status, but Jesus is saying to them that's not what counts. What counts is being changed enough to do the will of God the father. He rubs salt into their wounds and literally insults his adversaries when he says to them: "Truly I tell you, the tac collectors and prostitiutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you." In a sense he saying that those whom they consider last are going in first. He's saying to them, "Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord," enters the Kingdom of God, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do." Jesus raises the question which one did the will of the Father, and the answer is easy enough, but in his own time is was a significant challenge to the ways, and thinking of the time. Jesus is doing away with what looks right and honorable, and he's saying essentially it is the actions that speak louder than words and the ability of people to shape-up and change. That's exactly what the tax collectors and the harlots were doing. Yet, the religious leaders were challenging Jesus' honor, his status, his authority. He was stepping out of line, but he was doing, as were so many following him, not what was honorable, but what was the will of the Father.
The story for us today is a call to an awakening. It calls for repentance, change even in our world today, and it challenges us as well, I think, to make the attempt to rediscover what does it mean to work in the vineyard of God, and what is our status. Are we honorable but ineffective, or are we maybe not so honorable but willing to change and enter into the Domain of God and to what is God's will?
When we are children, there comes great independence when we come to appreciate what "No" means and that it has a kind of power to it. Children go through that stage of saying "No" and challenging the parental authority in their lives. Yet as we grow older and sometimes wiser we realize that saying "No" to all authority has consequences. to be co-operative and to support the family and community of which we are apart has real benefits to it.
When we are sensitive to the world around us we know only too well that there is much to be done in the vineyard of God. There is significant suffering and pain around the world. People suffer from earthquakes and hurricane flooding. There are people that are lonely and without family and support in nursing homes. Violence in our society is rampant and increasing numbers of people are suffering from its consequences. Fortunately there are many organizations and churches that find for themselves significnat ministries to answer human need. There are many individuals who lead very active lives in the servanthood ministry. Inspite of the fact that people's resources are sometimes limited, or their time is limited. We have to say "No" to many things. Yet the needs persist, and lives have to be examinined, and we have to wonder what God is calling us to do beyond our own personal needs.
One of the great examples in our society is the tremendous work that is done by A.A. members. They recognize that it is by the grace of God that they find healing from the awful disease of alcoholism. Sometimes a significant part of their lives is saying "No" to God or to their higher power. Once aware of that they must change their lives or die, and recognize there is a saving grace that can come from God, they move eventually into the steps of making amends and of assisting others. They go through a real process of change, coming to their senses, and then moving into a more joyful meaningful life of serving others. sometimes they are stepping into the realm of God long before those religious types who give lip service to God, who say Yes and do honorable things, but are not really into doing the will of the Father.
All of us as Christians, as members of the church have to be awakened occasionally and have to examine our lives. Do we go merely through religious motions, or are we finding the ministries to which God calls us? Sometimes I think we can become settled into a very comfortable group of people, who are good people, and comfortable with one another. We become and are, indeed, very respectable and reputable people. However, we can become very turned in on ourselves as opposed to serving God's world with specific ministries and without much in the way of sacrificial giving and support of Christ's church so that it can effectively do it work amd will in the world. We see ourselves as the privileged, and think that everybody else must change when maybe it is us that needs the changing.
Jesus says to that crowd around him, "What do you think?" then he proposes the story of the two sons. He calls his followers and those who challenge him to thinking and reflection on their lives. While it is obvious who is the one doing the will of the Father, we sometimes miss it's relationship to ourselves and to our lives. All that honor stuff, respectability and privilege, is not what life is about. It is about doing the will of the Father. It is about change, repentace, and taking stock. of our lives as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ in the world. Sometimes the least among us, those you might not expect, are the very ones who are stepping into the realm of God ahead of us. Some of us are identified in this world as hypocrites, play acters at religion. It could well be that sometimes that is a very fair consideration. Sometimes it is not. But, what do you think? What do you think about your life as a son or daughter of the Father, and as a member of Christ's church in the world?