"Walking the Walk with Jesus"
When I visited Marie in the Kaiser ER a couple Saturdays ago, as I was got out of my car I pulled out my wallet and found my Oregon Synod pastor card, signed by Bishop Laurie, just in case I needed to prove that I had the authority to visit a patient because I wasn't family.
When I have joined other pastors to show support for immigrants at a courthouse or in a public square, we put on our collars as a symbol of spiritual authority. News companies recently have had to claim their authority to cover the administration by reminding us all of their First Amendment rights, the freedom of the press, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Jesus is asked about his authority in today's gospel reading. He is in Jerusalem for the last week of his life, and the religious leaders wonder why he has the right to do what he's doing. In other words, Who do you think you are, coming into town and letting people shout, Hosanna to the Son of David? Who do you think you are, overturning the tables of merchants in the temple, and calling it a den of robbers? We chief priests were appointed by God, we elders were elected by God's people to do our religious duties. By whose authority are you doing what you're doing?
So, Jesus throws a question back at them: Was John the Baptist's ministry from heaven or not? In other words, was God behind John's ministry? This puts them in a conundrum: if they say yes, John's ministry came from God, Jesus will say, Then why didn't you follow him? And if the say, No, the crowds who supported John won't like it, so they plead the 5th. The religious leaders say, We don't know. And Jesus says, Then I won't tell you where my authority comes from. But I will tell you a story. •
Let's just recap the story. A father who has two sons and a vineyard that needs some attention. He asks the first son to go to work in the vineyard; the son says, "No," but later changes his mind and goes.
The father asks his second son to work in the vineyard, and that son says, "Yes," but then doesn't go. So he asks the religious leaders, Who did the will of his father? They correctly answer, The first son. The work got done eventually.
Then Jesus lowers the boom. He says, You leaders are like the second son. You're all talk. The tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of heaven before you, because they are like the first son- they didn't start so well, but they listened to John the Baptist and they repented. They showed up and turned their lives around. You mouth religious piety, but there is no follow-through. You say, "Yes," but then you don't show up.
So a helpful question to ask with any of Jesus's stories is, Who am I in the story? As biblical scholar Karl Jacobson asks, Am I the son who presents himself as obedient, Yes, dad, I'll do whatever you say, and then I raise havoc around town? Am I the "black sheep daughter" who says, No, absolutely no way, and then I show up anyway and do what's needed? Which one am I? Do I talk the talk, but not walk the walk? Am I a latecomer who finally comes around? Who am I in the story?
Jesus tells this story about the two sons to the religious leaders, and then he brings it back around to John the Baptist. John came to you in the way of righteousness and you didn't believe him. But you know who believed him? People that you dismiss- people you judge to be on the low end of morality- tax collectors and prostitutes- they believed, they repented, they turned around, they began to walk the walk. They showed up.
Now, when Matthew tells this story of Jesus, he is encouraging his church community in his time, and he is criticizing the Jewish leaders of his day. He writes this after the fall of the temple in AD 70. Rome was putting heavy taxes on the Jewish people because they had rebelled against Rome. Many people were really struggling economically, and the religious leaders could have helped the poor, but they didn't. By the way, the chief priests were appointed by God. The elders were elected by God's people. The people put their trust in these spiritual leaders. These leaders said the right things, they talked the talk, but they didn't serve God's people. They didn't show up in the vineyard.
Now, Jesus says to the leaders, John came to you in the way of righteousness. What does that mean? The Jewish concept of righteousness doesn't mean an abstract spiritual state of being. Righteousness is active; righteousness means giving generously to the poor; righteousness came to mean any loving act. Love of God was acted out in love of neighbor.
In Deuteronomy, the people are told to bring a tithe of their harvest once a year to the dwelling of the Lord, a tenth of the harvest. But every third year, you bring that tithe into your town, and give it to the Levites, who were assistants to the priests, because they didn't make any money- you give it to the resident aliens among you, yes, to the migrants in your midst, you give it support the orphans and the widows. That's what righteousness looked like.
The Jewish concept of righteousness is concrete acts of love and mercy and compassion. It's a form of distributive justice. You're supporting the ones who struggle, because you're in a proper relationship with God and with the community. (Deut. 14:22-29) So, Jesus says to the leaders, John came to you in the way of righteousness and you blew him off. You didn't want to change; you didn't want to make any sacrifice. You just wanted to spout religious words. Jesus says earlier in Matthew- Not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, (religious words, right?) will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matt.7:21)
Now, let me interject a Lutheran concept here, which is really a concept from St. Paul. We aren't saved by our good works; we know that. We aren’t save because we: show up in the vineyard. We're saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The woman at the well in John's gospel calls him the "Savior of the world." Paul says it so clearly in Ephesians 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing- it is the gift of God; not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
But then Paul says, We were created by God/or good works- we act out our salvation in the world. We show up for the world. We do good works as a response to God's love for us. When somebody loves you unconditionally, you want to respond, don't you? Our good works are a way to respond in love to the God of grace and mercy.
We get further clarification on the way of righteousness in Luke's gospel, when John is baptizing at the River Jordan. People show up for baptism, and they ask, What shall we do? How are we supposed to live now? How do we walk the walk? And John gets really practical- He says, If you have two coats, share one with somebody who has none. If you have more than enough food, share with somebody who doesn't. Tax collectors- don't cheat people. Soldiers- don't extort money from anybody. In other words, do your job with integrity. Show up for other people with your time and talent and your resources.
By the way, the religious leaders show up all throughout this gospel, and they usually receive some hard words. When the religious leaders appear for baptism in Matthew 3, do you remember what John calls them? A brood of vipers! You talk the talk but don't walk the walk. John says to them, Bear fruit worthy of repentance- don't take advantage of your religious pedigree as children of Abraham. That's just talk! I want you to bear fruit-walk the walk!
Two chapters before this, Jesus says to the disciples, You see how the leaders of the gentiles lord it over the people; they are tyrants. Jesus says, Not in my kingdom. Not my agenda. Not in our community. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant-it's an upside down kingdom.
In our second lesson from Philippians, Paul tells the church how to "show up" for each other: Look to the interests of others. Be like Christ, who left heaven, humbly took on human flesh, and gave his life for others.
Paul says, We can't do this on your own, because we get turned in on ourselves. We get selfish. Part of us wants to do what is right, and part of us doesn't. So Paul tells us the secret- God is at work in us, enabling us to will and to work for God's good pleasure. The Spirit of God shows up in our lives and in this community, so that we can show up for the world. By the way, the Spirit of Christ is already out there working before we show up.
We join in to what God has already started. It's like that announcement you hear sometimes on TV- We are joining a program already in progress. The Spirit work is already in progress in the world around us- when we show up, we join in!
Some of you might remember that on a January night in 1973, Senator John Stennis was arriving home in Washington DC when he was accosted by two young robbers. The 71-year-old Stennis was a Hawkish Democrat from Mississippi who supported the Vietnam War. He was the powerful head of the Senate Armed Services Committee. These two young teenagers held him up for his gold wristwatch, his wallet and a quarter in change.
And when he started hollering and carrying on, they panicked and shot him twice with a
.22 caliber pistol. One of the bullets ruptured his pancreas, the other lodged in his left thigh. For six hours the doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center worked on him to save his life.
When the news went out on the radio that night, another senator was driving home, a senator at the opposite end of the political spectrum, a Republican "dove", Oregon's own Mark Hatfield, who had often clashed with Stennis.
Sen. Hatfield later said, "I had no skills to offer. But I knew there was something I must do- and t1'at was to go to that hospital and be nearby where I could be helpful, if possible, to the family."
He got to the hospital where was all kinds of confusion as senators and colleagues and friends and reporters gathered there. The hospital crew was understaffed and couldn't field all the calls and questions.
So Senator Hatfield scoped out the situation, spotted a switchboard that was unattended, and began to answer the phones. He worked all night. He never told the callers who he was, because he didn't want it to seem like he wanted any political gain out of it. In the morning, he stood up, stretched, put on his overcoat, and said as he walked away, "My name is Hatfield. I'm happy to help out on behalf of a man I deeply respect." Senator Hatfield showed in a very practical way up that day
I always pray that I meet the people I'm supposed to meet during my day. Wednesday, I walked out into the parking lot to pray for people in line at the Bridging Cultures food pantry. A woman with a volunteer hat was walking my way, and she said, Are you from the church? I told her I was the guest pastor while the real pastor was away. She said, I am so impressed with what your church does for the community. And I thanked her for what she was doing. She told me they have the same sign at their church, a Mennonite church. I wasn't sure what that sign was, so later I walked around to the side of the building and saw a sign in three languages- No matter where you are from, we're glad you're our neighbor- in Spanish, English, and I believe in Arabic.
I love that sign. Let's keep loving and serving our neighbor, whatever language they speak. Let's keep listening for what's next. And with the Spirit's help, let's keep showing up in the vineyard. Amen.
"Walking the Walk with Jesus"
