Pentecost 19

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

SEASON: Pentecost 19
PROPER: 21A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: September 29, 2002


TEXT: Matthew 21:28-32 – The Parable of the Two Brats
“Truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of heaven ahead of you.”

ISSUE: A man has two sons, neither of which are particularly good kids. One is dilatory and sassy. The other one responds correctly but lies. But the dilatory son at least amends his way in time. All of us may have a part of both sons in our own nature. We are well intentioned, but slow to respond, if at all, to God’s call to us. This is a parable that calls to repentance and to respectful and diligent faithfulness to God’s call to us. It is the call to faithfulness and belief in God, and loyal trust, and to know grace is in the vineyard.
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Here’s a parable, The Parable of the Two Sons, from Matthew that I refer to as The Parable of the Two Brats. The parable is actually given in response to elders and chief priests who were asking him about his authority to speak in the Jerusalem Temple, and to upset the tables of the moneychangers. Jesus also responds to them regarding how John got his authority from God or from man. If they respond from man, the crowds will condemn them because John was thought of as a prophet, and if they say from God, then Jesus would ask them why they didn’t respond to John’s prophetic message of repentance. Jesus cleverly turns the tables. Instead of worrying about where John and his own authority come from, why don’t they become more concerned about their own relationship to God?
So then, the parable: A man had two sons. He asked the first son to go into the family vineyard and work. He tells his father he will do so, but he never gets there to do what needs to be done. Isn’t that kind of familiar to those of you who have children? Isn’t that kind of familiar to each of us when we were kids? Cut the grass, wash the dishes, or clean our room and it gets indefinitely put off. Now the father asks the second son to work in the vineyard too, and he is the sassy kid. He emphatically responds, “NO! And you can’t make me! Does that response sound familiar to those of you who have children, and from your own childhood? That’s the reason why I refer to this parable as The Parable of the Two Brats. Now in this period, the son who actually says that he will go into the vineyard but didn’t was considered the more honorable son. In fact, there are three different translations of this parable, one of which claimed the dilatory son to be the more honorable one, because in public he did not disgrace his father by saying “No” in public. You always were expected to honor your mother and your father, especially in public. However, this version of the parable says who did the will of the Father, and you have to come up with the answer, the second son, because he embarrassed his father publicly, he did in fact change his mind at a later date and go do what had to be done in the vineyard at his father’s request. In the end he seems more obedient and honorable himself.
At this point, Jesus concludes the parable with an insult directed toward the elders, Pharisees and temple leaders. The whores and tax collectors are getting into the Kingdom, or realm of God before you. That is, the whores and despicable tax collectors are responding to message of God through John the Baptist and Jesus, even though at first they were dilatory, now they are responding and respecting the authority of John, Jesus and God the father. The religious leaders pay lip service to God, but do not live faithfully involved the justice, mercy, compassion, and love of God. They say they do and look like they do by keep religious rules and giving a good religious façade, but in fact they are themselves criminal in their attitudes toward the poor, the sinners, the peasants, and the oppressed, and unlike the whores and tax collectors they are not turning their lives around. Jesus’ didn’t get crucified because he said nice things. The parable is a terrible insult.
Be warned good Christians that you too are not just giving lip service to our faith and trust in the ways and teachings of Jesus, lest others get into the Dominion of God before you.
Some years ago, I decided to take a trip that had some adventure to it. I wanted to go where the roads end on the east coast of the North American continent. So, I chose a vacation to the Canadian province of Labrador. You drive along the north side of the St. Lawrence through Quebec, and turn north at a little French Canadian town of Baie-Comeau. There you turn north onto The Labrador Highway. The highway is not and interstate. It is six hundred miles long ending in Goosebay Labrador. About 10 percent is paved road, 50 percent gravel, and the last 40 percent or 200 miles is dirt and gravel. You pass through two towns, Labrador City, and Churchill Falls. There is nothing in between but wilderness. Leaving Churchill Falls you pass a very large yellow sign, which gives you fair warning about the remaining 200 miles to Goosebay. (Goosebay was a secret air base during W.W. II.) Very limited access is what kept it secret. The remainder of the road is a tribute to how difficult it was to get to Goosebay, and how it was kept a secret.
The last 200 miles is very narrow rocky dirt road and very rutty, muddy in spots. It is single lane, but still two-way. Bridges are wooden single lane crossings with no sides and two treads for your car’s tires. Remnants of old trucks that didn’t make it across are rusting in the gullies. Its not exactly a thoroughfare. Traveling well into the 200 miles, I came upon a man and his girl friend who flagged me down. He had a flat tire on his way to Goosebay. In fact he had two flat tires, in that his spare tire had also been flattened and the rim damaged. He wanted me to give him my spare tire so he could proceed on. He said he thought he had help coming, but it would probably take hours coming from the opposite direction.
Now I cautiously examined the situation. Here’s a guy who had a flat tire. He’d put on his spare tire, had damaged the rim, flattened the spare time, and damaged the rim. Now he wanted my spare tire? I hemmed and hauled, and thought I don’t think so. In that he said he had long time help coming, and appeared to be driving recklessly on this road, I declined to give him my spare tire. (“He probably deserved a flat tire,” I thought to myself.) We drove on for a good 3 miles, 5 miles, ten miles, 12 miles. Then I looked at my wife, and she at me, and we found a place to turn around, retraced the twelve miles and gave up our spare tire. The only thing important about this story is the turn around. There are times in our lives when we have to turn around; it’s called repentance. Both the guy and his girl friend and I both got to Goosebay at the same time.
We may well have religious thoughts and ideas, and the finest theology, but without living the faith and trusting in the way of Christ, the whores and the tax collectors, the reckless drivers, the addicted, the tramps, the gypsies, the people we look down upon may well get to the Kingdom of God far ahead of the righteous high and mighty.
The two sons in Jesus parable share the likeness of us all from time to time. Sometimes we feel really faithful, religious, upright, and willing to work in the Vineyard, or the world for God, but fail at really living into what we believe by our actions. Other times we are flatly unable to respond to the call of God through Christ, but thinking it over in time finally try to turn around, repent, make the changes we know we must make. It is not tears that God wants from us, and being sorry for our sins and inadequacies, but a deliberate ethical reversal of the way we live. Are we stingy and minimal in our giving for the good of God’s world? Then change. Are we a fearful folk? Then, change; trust in God’s saving presence. Are we hostile, self-righteous folk? Change; make a deliberate turn around to walk in the humility servanthood of Christ. Are we caught up in a world of revenge and war? Maybe we need to change our thinking dramatically as peace loving people of Christ. Are we inclined to see difficulties in life as someone else’s fault? The fathers and mothers ate the sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge, says an old proverb. Ezekiel the prophet challenged his folks to take responsibility for themselves and not place the blame elsewhere. Turn around your thinking. New life with and in Christ comes from our own personal turn around.
Now let’s be clear. Making a decision to enter the Vineyard of God is not a matter of deciding that you are going to be doing a lot of good things, and that’s what it means to be in the Kingdom of God, is to be a do-gooder earning points with God. The point of the parable is that the one son accepts the invitation to respond to the father and to be with him in the family vineyard. The other has the free choice to be there too, but does not enter in. Robert Capon, a Biblical scholar and theologian fascinated, if not obsessed, with the Doctrine of God’s grace tells a story that goes something like this:
Suppose that I told you that I had buried one million dollars in thousand dollar bills under a rock in a field that you owned. And I have no intention of ever reclaiming it back. I have given you some really sensational good news. If you trust me and go to the field and start turning over rocks, you will eventually find the gift. Now your trust, faith, good works don’t earn you the money. It is simply a gift because; I am a bit crazy, or at least extremely generous. They only one thing you need do is enjoy the gift.
On the other hand, you can say well yes the million dollars is there and believe it, but fail to possess the treasure, and see it as some kind of a problem. You are being forced to work picking up those rocks, or may be you feel like you don’t deserve it. Maybe you feel like you should earn the million bucks on your own. The gift is there, but you simply won’t accept and embrace it. You turn good news into emptiness.
The parable of Jesus moves the religious types onto a more basic consideration. Stop worrying about who has authority, respond to the good news of what is being offered. Accept the treasure earnestly. Step right into the Garden of God and embrace His way, His truth, His love, and revel in the forgiveness, goodness, and love of God. Enjoy partnership in the family of God.

Robert Capon’s book, “The Mystery of Christ and Why We don’t Get It.” Page 26.