“Changing Our Minds”

Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter

October 1, 2023

Come, Holy Spirit, come. Take my lips and speak with them, take our minds and think with them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. In Christ’s name we pray. AMEN.

So much has happened in Matthew’s Gospel between last week’s Gospel reading and today’s Gospel reading. 

Last week we read the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, perhaps more appropriately titled “The Parable of the Generous Vineyard Owner.” And, today we have read a parable about two sons who were asked to go work in their father’s vineyard. 

The parables may both be about working in a vineyard, but so very much has happened between the telling of these two stories.

Since last week’s reading, Matthew’s Gospel has moved to Jesus’ last week of his life on earth. Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, riding on a donkey and greeted by noisy shouts of “Hosanna” from the welcoming crowd. He had entered the Temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves  He had cured the blind and the lame who came to him in the Temple. And, he had cursed a fig tree that did not produce fruit – an enacted parable of God’s impending judgment.

Greeted as Messiah and King, generating turmoil all over the city. clearing out the Temple of business as usual…and now we hear that Jesus was teaching in the Temple, the very heart of religious authority. And, not surprisingly, the Chief Priests and elders could not take it any longer.

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

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

Jesus, just who do you think you are?

Well, instead of giving them a straight answer, Jesus asked them a question that they could not or would not answer, then he told them a story.

A man had two sons. He sent the first son to work in his vineyard; the son refused to go, but then later changed his mind and headed for the vineyard. 

Not knowing this, the father sent his other son to do the work his brother had refused to do. This son said he would go, but never set foot in the vineyard that day.

At the end of this brief story, Jesus asked, “Which of the two did the will of his father?”

Now the Chief Priests and the elders knew the answer to the question. Frankly, both of the sons had not been truthful with their father, but one changed his mind and went to work while the other never quite followed through. The faithful one, the one who did the father’s will, was the son who changed his mind and headed for the fields to work.

Yes, they knew the answer to the question, but Jesus interpreted the parable for them anyway, just in case they had missed the point. He told them that prostitutes and tax collectors would enter the Kingdom before they did. 

And, why was this? 

These Jewish religious leaders, the priests and elders, were known for being long on words but short on righteous deeds. And, they couldn’t seem to see or at least to admit who John the Baptizer and by extension Jesus were.

But, the tax collector sand prostitutes? Well, they recognized the authority of John the Baptizer and Jesus.  The tax collectors and prostitutes knew who they were and changed their minds.

Now, if we left the story there, we might all feel pretty good, mightn’t we?  We’re not like those Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ day. We are Christians.  We’re not all hung up on meticulously keeping the law. We believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. We’ve been baptized. We say the Creed and receive communion every Sunday. Yes, surely, we get it. 

Now I don’t know about you, but, if I am honest, I can see a danger here. Because if I am honest, I know I are as much in danger of being the second son as were the religious leaders of Jesus time. I can be in danger of saying “Yes, Lord, I’ll do what you ask” which can be so easy to do, and not actually doing what the Father asks, which can be oh so difficult. 

Three brief points that I’d like to make about this story that Jesus told to the religious leaders who questioned what he was doing. And, as with all parables, these points tell us some important things about God.

First – the longer I am a follower of Jesus the more I am convinced that God is not particularly impressed by our perfect doctrine and eloquent words about what we believe. But rather, I am more convinced that God is concerned with what we actually do. Whether what we say with our lips actually matches what we do in our lives. Whether we actually go to work in the vineyard.

Matthew’s Gospel began with the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught the disciples that they were to be salt and light, to love their neighbors AND their enemies, to do unto others as they would have others do to them.

A few chapters after the story we’ve heard from Matthew’s Gospel today, as Jesus moves even closer to the cross, he says that the basis for the final judgment will be whether we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner.

Actions that speak louder than our words, echoing down through eternity. 

The faithful son was the one who actually worked in the vineyard, not the one who only talked about doing it.

Second, God seems to be willing to give us a second chance to do what God asks of us. We may say “no” at first, but we can change our minds, and God seems to accept our obedience on the same terms as if we had said “yes” right away. 

God’s mercy is great, God’s patience is long, and God’s future continues to be open to us, no matter what we have done or left undone in the past.

And, last. It is God who gives us the authority to work in God’s vineyard, to do the work we are given to do. God is the one who sends us to the vineyard, and God will be with us and empower us as we go. 

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, as the one who was questioned by the Temple leaders about the source of his authority goes to his Father, we hear the risen Jesus say,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

My friends, God sends us to work in the vineyard of the world that God loves so dearly. What will our response be? Not what will we say, but what will we do? 

May what we say with our lips match what we do with our lives. AMEN.