Matthew
21:23-32
I remember the
first time I felt the rush that comes with power. It was my junior year in college. I was a Resident Advisor which means I was
basically in charge of a dormitory floor of mostly eighteen year old young
women. My primary role was to help get
them adjust to their new life in college.
It was a great gig and I loved it.
But I realize how much power I had until one night I was startled out of
a deep sleep by the dorm’s fire alarm blaring.
Once I got my bearings I went into action, as trained. I grabbed my master key, went out onto the
dorm hallway and starting knocking on doors. One by one bleary-eyed students
opened their doors to me. Fire, alarm! I said stating the obvious, Leave now and take the stairs down to the
parking lot. There were about
thirty rooms to clear. So door after
door I’d knock and command, knock and command.
It was kind of fun. After all
those years of parents, teachers, and bosses telling me what to do, now it was
my turn. What particularly sticks in my
mind during that fire alarm was what I did if a door did not open after I had
knocked. When that was the case I’d take
my master key, put it in the lock and open the door. That’s when the rush came. I had the power and authority to open
someone’s locked door without their permission.
It was thrilling! No matter that
most of the time I’d discover that the room was empty. Still I had the power to command! I had the authority to trespass! And I really liked it.
In the years
since I’d like to think that I’ve come down from my power high. Rest assured I turned in my master key at the
end of that school year. I’m no longer
inclined to open anyone’s locked door.
And the idea of commanding someone to do something holds no appeal. Even so the dynamics of power and authority
are at play in my life and yours all of the time. And it certainly is so in our gospel reading
from Matthew. The big deal is who’s got
it - the chief priests and elders? John
the Baptist? Jesus? And from what source does it come, human or divine? That’s important because the two often have
very different ways of being in this world.
Human power is often associated with force, deception, manipulation and
coercion. Human power communicates, If you don’t do as I want then I will make
you one way or the other.
Don’t think that
divine power, the power and authority that God wields is just a bigger and
badder version of that: it’s not. The
most striking difference is that God’s power does not seek to coerce by force,
but to create change by love. Our
collect this morning, the opening prayer we prayed at the beginning of the
service, captures this truth beautifully.
O God, we prayed, you declare your almighty power chiefly in
showing mercy and pity. Think about
that. Our God whose power is truly
almighty, who made the heavens and the earth, who can do absolutely anything
chooses to reveal that mind-blowing, awe-inspiring power to us - how? - by showing mercy and pity, compassion and
tenderness, never-failing kindness and love.
God’s power in no way seeks to dominate or control, but to inspire, to
call forth, to heal and to save. We see
that almighty power most clearly in the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus. Every time Jesus encountered
human power at work by force Jesus responds not with an opposing force but with
God’s greater power of love.
So what does that
mean for us? That means that contrary
popular belief, God is not up in heaven just waiting to strike someone with
lightening when they go astray. Nor is
God about motivating with fear using threats of hell and eternal damnation so
that we might toe the line. God does not
force you or anyone else to do anything that you don’t want to do - and that’s
for better and for worse. Rather every
day of your life God is seeking to show you how much you are loved so that you
might respond in kind and be changed.
With that in mind
let’s look at the story that Jesus tells us today. There is a father who asks both of his sons
to go out into the vineyard to work. On
the surface it sounds like a typical setup for, perhaps, an all too familiar
power struggle between parent and children.
But there really is no struggle here - no coercion is involved. The father makes his request and allows his
sons to respond in whatever way they choose.
The first says no, but later changes his mind and goes to the
vineyard. The second son says yes, but
doesn’t end up going at all. Who
did the will of the father? Jesus
asks. The chief priests and elders
answer, The first.
Don’t be fooled
though. This parable is not just an
ordinary morality tale that endorses hard work and integrity. There’s more to it than that. Yes, obedience to God is a good thing, but
what Jesus is seeking is what happens right before the first son goes into the
vineyard - that is, he changes his mind.
It is that inner change, that shift in his heart that prompts the right
action. Jesus makes this very clear when
he tells the chief priests and elders that what their big problem is is that
even though they’ve encountered God’s message and power through John the
Baptist and now in Jesus, himself, their minds refuse to change and
believe.
Thankfully, the
chance to change one’s mind is not a one time opportunity nor a singular
event. No matter what our life with God
is like right now, God is not finished with us yet. There is always more. Every day God’s power is at work to create
change in our minds and hearts through love.
That love seeks to draw us into a place of deeper faith and invite us to
join in God’s good work in the vineyard, which is the world.
As much as I
delighted in the power I had long ago to force locked doors open that is
nothing compared to the joy that is experienced when an interior door in a
heart or mind is unlocked - not by force, but by the power of God’s love. Let that power in. Allow it to change your heart. Go out into the vineyard and be a part of
God’s good work so that we can tell the good news that our God declares his
almighty power chiefly by showing mercy, pity, love.
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