September 28, 2014: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
On a sunny morning like this, I am reminded of a story about another sunny Sunday…. William heard the all too familiar voice coming from the bedroom door, “William, it’s Sunday. Time to get up! Time to get up and go to church! Get up!” From under the covers came mumbles, “I don’t want to go!”
“What do you mean?” “That’s silly! Now get up and get dressed and go to church!” “No!” he shot back. “I’ll give you two reasons. I’m tired and they don’t get me!” “Nonsense, I’ll give YOU two reasons to go. First, you are 42 years old, and second, you are the PASTOR!” William got up and went to church with his wife.
We have all had days like that, right? Times when, even though we knew what we had to do, we just didn’t feel like doing it. That’s why I like this parable that Jesus tells. But, let’s take a step back…
This is the first of three parables addressed to the leaders of the temple in Jerusalem. In the previous verses of Matthew, Jesus has made his triumphant procession into Jerusalem, something we celebrate on Palm Sunday, then threw a hissy fit about money changing in the temple, curses a fig tree, and then begins to have several encounters with the leaders of the temple. In other words, it has been a very busy week. I could understand Jesus saying, “I don’t want to get up tomorrow God – nobody gets me – seriously, and I am just a bit over their whole attitude.”
But, Jesus practices what he preaches and goes to the temple where he is confronted by the leaders – the chief priests and the elders. Now, in those days, these people had quite a bit that was given over to them by the people – money, prestige, and power. They decide that all this table turning and fig tree killing and Hosanna in the highest stuff needed to be slapped down a bit, so they decide to make sure this lowly carpenter from Galilee knows whose in charge. So when Jesus enters the temple – their home turf, they decide the time is ripe to put him in his place.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Their whole line of questioning is around authority…but they are so concerned with their own personal power, that they trade away a sense of truth to try to hang on to it. When Jesus answers their question about where he gets his authority, by asking them about John the Baptist, they dodge it with the political deftness that our President and Congress would envy. Rather than answer the question, they say they don’t know – they neither confirm nor deny. Why? Because they are less concerned with truth, than with personal power. They don’t understand either really.
And so Jesus tells them a parable about a man with two sons. He asked each to go work in the vineyard. One says no, but later returns to do the work. The other says yes, but doesn’t follow through.
Now, whenever I hear this parable, I remember a time when me and my older brother were in our teens, and my Dad told my brother to fertilize the lawn. Now, every year this is one of those things we do, and we so rarely see any results. My brother didn’t see the point in it, but he did as he was told, and went out with the spreader, fertilized, and then headed out to hang with friends. A few weeks later, as the grass started to grow in my Dad hit the roof. Seems it was the one year that the fertilizer really did work…only my brother just sort of meandered around a bit on the property, making it look like he was doing his chore, before heading out to do what he wanted to do instead. The result – a rather wavy looking line of beautifully green grass all over the yard, with hungry brown grass in between – and one angry Dad.
Jesus is teaching the temple leaders about what it really means to have authority, and he does it by emphasizing obedience. Now, that would seem a bit of a contradiction – especially in today’s society when authority is equated with great power and influence…but Jesus isn’t arguing that authority doesn’t have power and influence, quite the contrary. So what is he saying then?
We can find the answer in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where he says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”
If there was one single sentence that describes what it means to be a Christian, this is right up there as a top contender. But what does that mean?
St. Paul then talks about Jesus, using an early hymn – which offers us a glimpse into the early church. Now, you can always figure our when the author of our scriptures is quoting something, because, if you look at it, it is set aside, right? But, that is for our benefit today – Paul’s audience didn’t need that. It would be today like me quoting from our communion hymn, and saying “Rock of Ages, cleft for me.” I doubt any of us would need to be told that was from a hymn. Hymns are an important part of our liturgy, because, as Bill Davies points out in his article in our newsletter, hymns are our theology and Christology set to music – they are essentially statements of our faith, of who we are as a community, of what we believe. So, if Paul wrote his Letter to the Philippians between 61 and 63 C.E., then this hymn was probably composed just one or two decades after the death of Jesus. It gives us a neat little glimpse into the earliest Christian understandings of who Jesus is. But the most important part is in the beginning.
“…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.”
The early followers of Christ understood that through emptying of all power, and taking on the cloak of humility, Jesus was given all authority.
And it is the same message Jesus is giving these temple leaders. Authority comes not from walking around in front of the people with showy words, but from truly living as God calls us to live – humbly loving and serving others.
Now, just hearing the word humble, makes me think of the song by the 70s country singer Mac Davis,
“Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.” Somehow, I don’t think that is what Jesus or St. Paul was talking about.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”
St. Paul is imploring all of us to do as Jesus did – empty ourselves…but of what?
Of all that the temple leaders confronting Jesus felt was so important – our misplaced perception of truth and authority, and the fear of letting all of it go. I am reminded of a story about some Jewish seminary students.
“Several yeshiva students found by their rabbi one day in the house of study, playing checkers when they should have been studying Talmud. Embarrassed, they returned immediately to their books. But the rabbi smiled and told them not to be ashamed, since they should always study the law wherever they find it. So he asked if they knew the three rules of the game of checkers. Obviously they assumed they knew what they were playing, but none would be so bold as to appear to teach the rabbi. Therefore, the rabbi, the master of the Talmud and Kabbala, rehearsed for them the rules of the game of checkers. “First,” he said, “one must not make two moves at once. Second, one may move only forward, not backward. And third, when one has reached the last row, then he may move wherever he likes. Such,” he said, “is what the Torah teaches.” And he left.
Only much later did the students grasp what they had been taught that day: that they should not clutter their lives with more than one move at a time, that they should always keep sight of the goal toward which they pressed, and that they would become truly free only as they moved to the last row, making themselves the servants of others. Freedom is discovered in obedience.
So for Christians, that might be: Focus solely on what Christ teaches, look to the future rather than dwelling in the past, and give of ourselves to love and serve in the name of Christ.
Like those temple leaders, we today seem to equate authority with power, and obedience with submission. But in Christ we learn that nothing could be further from the truth. Last we heard him teach that the “first shall be last and the last shall be first.” Authority is not something given to you by other people, it is something you have – something God gives you…but it is only something you will understand when your heart is humble enough for it to emerge. The rest – all the other trappings we think are important – money, power, prestige…it is the real emptiness of life.
And obedience? Is Jesus asking us to be slaves – to allow another to control us? No, not at all. There is a difference between humility and forced submission. Humility comes from a place of authority, submission from a place of oppression.” It is truly as the Rabbinical students came to understand, that in humbling ourselves, placing ourselves on that last row, we are then truly free.
And when we break the shackles of perceived power, we come to find that it is in our humility, our smallness, from which great things come.
Today, we will be giving each of you the first of several gifts this stewardship season. It is a mustard seed. Now, you might be thinking – wait…that was a different parable. Yes, but it is exactly the mustard seed that Jesus became when he emptied himself. It is the mustard seed that Jesus reminds us of even in today’s parable – that the lowly that has true greatness within it. It is the nourished with the gifts of God – rain, sun, and earth, grows into something much greater than one would imagine from its humble beginnings.
This is a symbol of what Jesus is teaching us today. It is a symbol of what St. Paul is asking of us today. And both lessons teach us what it means to be a follower of Christ – what it means to claim a Christian identity – what it means to be a community of faith.
The seed’s size represents the humility we all are to take on when we “let the same mind be in us as in Christ Jesus.” But Jesus was also telling us that we must actually DO something with that. Authority not lived out, is wasted.
The seed is just a seed, unless it is planted and nourished. If it stays in a seed package, it is of no use. Jesus wants us, even when we have days where we just don’t want to, when we feel tired, or distracted by other things, to remember who we are – children of God. Seeds with great potential to grow. Laborers in the vineyard of God to feed those who hunger for light, acceptance, forgiveness, and love.
In our processional hymn we sang these words, “A single great commission propels us from above to plan and work together, that all my know Christ’s love.” That is our work. That is the vineyard we are called by God to labor in. It isn’t enough to say, “Sure, I’ll pitch in…” and then do nothing. Jesus is clear that words are not enough – it is not only our lips, but in our heart, and in our deeds, that we respond to work we are called to do.
Like the preacher in the earlier story who didn’t want to do the work of the church, we all have days when we feel like we just aren’t capable, or we are too worn out. “I really think that most people are in the first son category really – trying to do what is right. We may be confused at times, which causes us to make wrong decisions. Life may throw us an unexpected curve that makes us truly wonder what God could possible want us to do. However, most people are doing the best they can. God honors that. If God…can cut us some slack, let us do the same for each other, and for ourselves. God takes our rambling lives and gives them direction. Obedience to God is not a simple matter of following orders or rules. It has to do with being open to God’s shaping of our lives. We are a work in progress.” That first son did come back and do the work because he was open to hearing God’s call.
And, I think sometimes that initial reluctance to go into the fields comes from what my brother must have felt – what’s the use. It won’t do any good anyway. We can sometimes be like the man who was walking along the beach one day when he noticed a small boy who was walking along a beach at low tide. Along the shore where countless thousands of small sea creatures, having been washed up, that were stranded and doomed to perish. The man watched as the boy picked up individual creatures and took them back into the water. “I can see you’re being kind,” said the watching man, “But there must be a million of them; it can’t possibly make any difference.” Returning from the water’s edge, the boy said, “It will for that one.”
Indeed.
The mustard seed is small – humble even, but grows a mighty harvest. We may be individuals, but in offering our own small seed, we, as a community of faith – this community we call Christ Church, are able to be nourished by Christ, so that from this place, this mustard plant of Christ Church, may grow – not for itself alone, but to humbly serve our neighbors in the name of God.
We have a choice…we can say yes to God’s call, living into who we are as children of God to reach down and carry small creatures to the sea…or we can throw up our hands and say our little contribution won’t make a difference.
We have a choice…we can take on the mind of Christ, emptying ourselves of earthly power to carry the yoke of true authority, serving the least, the lost, the lonely and the last…or we can hold tightly to the things we think are important, but that are shadows of what is real and true, and in our misplaced priorities, lose everything.
We have a choice… we can offer our own humble mustard seed to plant in our community of faith, that it might grow to shelter and feed others in ways unimaginable… or we can leave ours in the seed pack – tell God yes – sure, I’ll help work your vineyard, but like the second son, not follow through.
We have a choice… authority or power, yes or no, words alone or deeds too.
I leave you with the words of St. Paul – words that he wrote to a community of faith he loved, words he hoped would guide them in the days when he would be gone from his earthly life, words to guide us here at Christ Church these many centuries later: “be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 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.”
Amen.
The Rev. Diana Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
September 28, 2014
Pent 16, Proper 21 – Year A – Track 1
1st Reading – Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
2nd Reading – Philippians 2:1-13
Gospel – Matthew 21:23-32
