Proper 21A October 1, 2023

Prayer

Let your Spirit make our hearts docile to the challenge of your word, and let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus: may we walk the path of obedience and sacrifice, finding in the self-emptying love of the cross, the way to exaltation and glory at your side. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 21:23-32

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

"It is odd that we still find so many people inside the church who have a greater problem moving with compassion for change in society than many outside the church. They seem bent on protecting God."
"First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 15, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"I'm wondering if it is God who comes and does things that threaten and shatter our understandings of God; and that it is the demonic who wants us to maintain the status quo about God -- which will normally be too narrow an understanding of the God whose ways are far beyond our own."
Exegetical Notes by Brian P. Stoffregen at CrossMarks.

"Voltaire quipped that we ought to judge a person by his questions rather than his answers."

Commentary, Matthew 21:23-32, Karl Jacobson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

This Sunday, we have the parable of the two sons. The first son is the one who "I will not go," but later changes his mind and goes. The second son is the one who says he will go but does not go. This is followed by the polemical question to the authorities: Which one of the two does the will of the father? They, of course, say that the first son, in the end, does the will of the father. For the reader, or especially the one who heard this in Matthew's community, there is an aha moment in which we see clearly that the authorities are agreeing with behaviour that is not like their own.

As we reflect on the passage, it is helpful to remember that after the fall of the temple in Jerusalem, there were really two strands of competing Judaism left. As one scholar pointed out, the Pharisees really are the ancestors of our modern-day friends, while the Jesus movement would be the second great Jewish strand that has woven its way through history. From an early time, Christians understood this passage as a defining one about who that Christian movement was and is. As the ancient bishop and teacher Chrysostom wrote: the Christian is the one represented by the son who at any hour turns and chooses to do the will of the father, to go out into the vineyard and work. The Christian is the son who is the missionary.

But I think there is a deeper message that Jesus is offering. While Chrysostom is right on the one hand, and certainly the history of the Matthean community and the history of Christianity bears out, at the very least, this determined differentiation...there is more. We must stand back. We must now, knowing the context, step back and allow the Gospel text to speak into our context.

The very powerful message is the Gospel message (one that is perhaps more disturbing and challenging than the contextual one). This Gospel message offers the news that it is never too late to follow Jesus and become a missionary worker in the vineyard. God will embrace the son who turns and chooses in the end, no matter what they have been doing, to become a member of the community. Do we not rejoice in the finding of the one over the salvation of the many. It isn't an either-or but a both-and vision of the kingdom.

Yes, there are people in our community who sin knowingly. We are human. We know we promise that we will strive for kingdom behaviour, and we know we will fail. After all, our baptismal covenant says that "when" we sin, we will return. Christians know we are not perfect. But we as Christians also rejoice when the sons and daughters of God who have led life without, who have led life saying "no," turn and join the other workers in the field. We, the church, exist for those who do not yet belong. We exist so that the vineyard is ready for the latecomer and for the newcomer.

As Mrs. Augusta Irving, the elementary school teacher who struck the fear of God into me most days, used to say, "Andy, better late than never." Yes indeed, Mrs. Irving...you have spoken the Gospel..."Better late than never."

Some Thoughts on Philippians 2:1-13

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

"Like Timothy and like Paul's audience, leaders and members of our own congregations are called to imitate Jesus by refusing to insist on their own prerogatives or status, whatever they may be, and serving others in humility."
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Shively, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"What's in a name? From a biblical perspective -- everything!"
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Paul, in this passage, uses a first-century Christian hymn (possibly even one they would have known) to urge the members of the community at Philippi to have the same mind as Christ. That means that they are to seek to not insist on their own way or their own rights (determined by their social status), but they are to become lower than their stations. Like God in Christ Jesus, they are to seek to become powerless and to serve.

Paul invites them to not be better than the other - this is not, after all, a quality that Christ illustrated.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is serving the one that is great. It is in taking the lower seat that you shall be known. It is in washing feet and loving each other regardless of station. It is feeding the poor who have no right to be fed and healing the sick who have not fulfilled the law. It is in eating with those who are not worthy to be eaten with. It is in loving those whom you would not dare to love.  These are the qualities by which you will be known as a follower of Jesus.

This is the work of Christ that they are to continue in the world.  

People will talk about a lot of reasons why our church is failing.  They will ponder the reasons why we are shrinking in numbers.  I think in the end, it is because we don't do these things very well.  

We do not have the same mind as Christ Jesus and are unwilling to become low. We actually regard equality with God as something to be exploited and lorded over those whom we do not believe deserve such equality.  We are unwilling to empty ourselves. We will not serve God or his mission over our own needs and desires.  We are quick to take the highest seat. We are not eager to wash each other's feet - especially not the feet of the poor. We are unwilling to hold back or deny ourselves. We will not sit with those unlike us.  We will not dine with those we don't agree with. We will not be seen with those who are not like us. We are wholly unwilling to do the hard and difficult work of following Jesus as Jesus has invited us to follow.

Perhaps this is why Paul has us squarely figured out.  The truth is like the Philippians what is so bad about our church. It is a comfortable place for comfortable people, comfortable in our going out and our coming in.  Yet Paul may have us figured out...comfortable is not a whole lot like the ministry and character of God in Christ Jesus.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 17:1-7

Oremus Online NRSV First Text 

The people of Israel are wandering in the wilderness. They grumble, and they camp here and there. They quarrel with each other and God. And they want something to drink. So, Moses went to Horeb and struck the rock, and water flowed from it. Moses renamed the place not for God’s providence of water but for the people’s quarrelling and testing of God.

This passage is referred to in the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 when the Devil tempts Jesus. Jesus’ reply is that God is not to be tested. This relies on Deuteronomy’s and Number’s account of today’s passage. See, in particular, Deuteronomy 6:16. 

The religious leaders of the day have put God to the test by asserting themselves into the powers and principalities of this world. They have put God to the test by actually doing the things the devil tempts Jesus with. They have sought to be part of the powers, they have sought to feed their greed, and they have claimed God’s sovereignty over their actions. Jesus rebukes this way of being in the world, and he rebukes the devil in Matthew. He rebukes this way of being by reminding us that God is not pleased with this “self-assertion” or “self-enrichment”.

The Sinai God invites instead a different way of being in the world, one that is about neighbourliness. The Sinai God invites love and love of neighbour as the highest commandments. God in Christ Jesus fulfils such with his own obedience in the face of powers, principalities, wealth, and self-protection. Instead, Jesus shows his obedience to the Sinai God of Moses by keeping the commandments, loving others, and being obedient. God in Christ Jesus reveals a complete dependence upon God.

As John reminds us, everlasting water, which quenches all kinds of thirst, will be given by God through Jesus (the one through whom all waters spring).

Shall we grumble and quarrel, or shall we be obedient to the command to love each other and love God by doing so? Jesus, in the end, shows the way through the wilderness in a manner that is foreign to the humanity that confronts Moses.