SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2023 | AFTER PENTECOST - Proper 21 (A)

Ezekiel

Repent and live - Lord’s way is just

Philippians:

God leads us and encourages us to unity!

Matthew:

Jesus is testing the privileged - want them to commit to something. However, they are unable to, because they prefer to play it safe

THen the parable - initial attitude matters little, if it is not followed through. -> Sinners are reluctant, but may follow through better than those that declare their allegiance to God, but in the end they are not interested truly following through.

Good morning,

I am back! Where did September go? Thanks to all of you for the support for my family - food, gift cards, encouragement, prayers and more! Thank you.

Glad we are still in Matthew! So that we can witness somewhat sassy Jesus, I think…rabbinical sassy - do you want an answer to YOUR question? Well, answer mine first! Don’t want to answer me? Then I will not answer you either. So let’s take a closer look!

First off, they are the one barging in and confronting him, interrupting him while he is teaching.

They want to know

By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

I am not sure about you, but I might be rather grumpy, if someone comes up to me and poses this question in front of everyone while I teach. Jesus kept his composure and instead asked:

Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Mt 21:25.

And by that question, he got the priests in a rather precarious position - neither of the answers would be a safe bet. And notice that rather than discerning what the truth IS, they focus on the consequences - either that Jesus will call them up on their hypocrisy for refusing someone sent by God or that the crowd may turn on them if they reject John’s rightful place as a prophet. So instead of telling what they think, whatever that might be, they claim ignorance and thus forfeit their right to answer from Jesus.

And then, perhaps a piece is missing as it seems rather abrupt - he continues with another parable that will hopefully help us to understand better what has just happened as it usually has been the case.

A landowner has two sons that he invites to work on the vineyard - the first initially refuses but later changed his mind and went and the second initially promised, but ghosted his own father and never appeared. The crowd agrees that the first did the will of his father. And the rhetorical trap that Jesus laid closed shut -

“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Mt 21:31–32.

Yikes! Some scathing words for the leaders! He puts the religious expectations on its head - suddenly their allegiance to God and religiosity matters less than the belief and repentance of those they often called “sinners” and thought them beyond saving - tax collectors and sex workers.

If they were upset with him before, NOW he had done it! How dare he tell us that we will go to God second after some sinners! The nerve...

I am sure that when the “sinners” heard it, they rejoiced!

See, for some time, the religion that eventually settled on its forms in Jesus times and then developed into the Judaism we have today, worked with the idea that after death there is just Sheol, nothing to look forward to, so blessings from God are expected to come during one’s life time. Think the period of Job, which makes the whole story even more daunting for the protagonist. And I think that mentality persisted for a long time and after all, the so called prosperity gospel works with a portion of it as well - stay in God’s favor and good things will happen to you. That has the rather toxic other side - if you are NOT in God’s favor, bad things gonna happen to you, which can lead to some finger pointing and disdain from the “righteous.” Of course, not only it is a bad theology as God does not work according to our wishful ethical thinking (after all, bad things do happen to good people and vice versa), but it can lead to a great amount of self-deception, when success and ritualistic repetition is mistaken for active living faith.

So no wonder, that some really do not want to hear what Jesus has to say here - they are doing their prayers, giving alms, observing the holy days and they have enough money and success, so why would THEY be worse off than those sinners, tax collectors and sex workers, that don’t do those things and their lives seem so much worse?

Well, obviously they confuse their largely unearned privilege for God’s approval and their religiosity for actually being a believer. Ooops. God sent them an opportunity to fix that in the form of John the Baptizer and many failed to even notice. Then comes Jesus and their resistance continues. Meanwhile, the marginalized and oppressed that got dealt some rather bad playing cards by the society to begin with, recognize a new, out of this world, hope and mercy and decide to follow up on it. Sure, perhaps many of them did not really feel like being religious previously, most likely because of the very same notions that their plight is God’s punishment, but now they see a reason to try, repent and follow.

I think with this in mind, we can consider many actions of Christians - hey, the inquisition is going well, I am sure God likes it! The natives are being successfully colonized, surely that’s what God wants! Or perhaps - we are about to cause a government shutdown that would affect lives of MILLIONS of people negatively, but God gave us the power, so surely God would approve. We came THIS close to so much trouble and what for? Intra-party power posturing between factions!

Beloveds, let us not confuse earthly success or unearned privilege for God’s approval - as the proverb goes: God didn’t promise it would be easy, but that God would be with us! And God IS with us, blesses us, and guides us in many ways. However, let us not be like the first son that said I wil, I will and then not followed through, but let’s be more like the second son that perhaps had his struggles and doubts, but then did the right thing anyway. No amount of wishful thinking and religiosity truly pleases God… but it pleases God when we repent and give it our best shot to humbly walk in Jesus’ footsteps and embrace the hope, mercy, and love of God’s kingdom and then act according to it as it is given to us - with love and care for the whole creation. And maybe we will never truly have enough or all our dreams will not come true, but when we act with God’s love and mercy, we know that God’s will is done down here as it is in heaven. Amen.