Currently we are nominating elders and deacons to serve the church. A lot of deliberation goes into choosing people. Everyone on the nominating committee gets to ask specific individuals if they are willing to serve, to do the task of elder or deacon. If you get one of those calls, I would ask that you prayerfully consider it. As you would expect, some say yes and others say no. We can work with either answer. We simply need clarity, yes or no, so we can move forward.
Yes and No are both answers given in the story Jesus tells about two sons. Their father asks them to work in the vineyard. One says no, but ends up working, while the other says yes but does not go. Interestingly, this story is only in Matthew’s gospel, after an exchange about Jesus’ authority. You need to know that Jesus has just entered Jerusalem, the Triumphal Entry, and overturned the money tables in the Temple before having this exchange with the religious leaders. READ Mt. 21:23-32
First, I want to say it is OK to change your mind. To re-choose, to reach a different conclusion. Listening to what is happening in your life and adjusting and adapting is part of being human. The two sons changing their minds is something different. We can look at this from an individual perspective or a societal one. We can ask ourselves, “Am I willing to change my mind when the situation calls for it?” “The parable sets up a comparison of two sons. One who says he will do what his father asks, but doesn’t, with one who says he won’t, but does. For every individual who hears this parable the comparison helps them (forces them) to ask the question, Which am I? Am I the son who presents himself as obedient while running around raising havoc, or am I the daughter who to all appearances is the “black sheep” but in the end does what is needed? Which am I? Which are you?” (Working Preacher, Karl Jacobson). Jesus is wanting to know who is following God’s will. The religious leaders knew it was the first son who changed his mind and went out into the field. Yet they cannot see that Jesus is asking the question of them, “Are you following God’s will?”
Let’s remember Jesus shares this after an exchange with the religious leaders about his authority. Jesus is in the temple teaching, not the religious leaders. He has home field advantage. The chief priests and elders are trying to trap Jesus by challenging his authority. That’s why Jesus answers their question with his own question. At first, I don’t understand what John the Baptist has to do with this. But John is the one who paved the way for people to see Jesus as the Messiah, to change from the old ways and see that God was doing something new in Jesus. The people who followed John and repented were ready to then follow Jesus. It was the tax collectors and prostitutes who could change their mind and repent and started following Jesus. It was the tax collectors and prostitutes who were doing God’s will. The religious leaders, not so much. So, Jesus’ question, is trying to get the leaders to look in the mirror, to ask themselves, “Which am I?” when it comes to accepting John’s call to repentance. “Which am I?” when it comes to doing God’s will?
The parable, therefore, confronts the religious leaders with whether they are truly doing the will of the Father. But this is not only a personal question, but also a societal one. When Matthew wrote this gospel it was in the aftermath of the Jewish War when the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed and the priesthood dismantled. The religious leaders had recently failed the people. “They were the second son in the parable. They could have become the first son, (changed their minds following Jesus,) but they never chose that path” (Working Preacher, Eunyung Lim).
Devastating war, the corruption of religious leadership, interwoven with authority, power and politics. Does that sound familiar? If Jesus was here today, I wonder what question he would ask the religious and political leaders? What would Jesus ask of the ones who stoke fear of immigrants, who like power more than humble service, who fail to see the divine in our neighbor and seek policies that corrupt and divide rather than help and heal? So much of our politics is run by the second sons, the ones who say they will go, do, help, but who don’t. Who say they will lower prices, make our country strong, end the forever wars, but who have failed the American people.
Those who have gotten us into a war of choice, sent gas prices skyrocketing and everything cost more while our leader is focused on arches and ballrooms. Second sons. They say they will go and do, but they don’t.
Oh, what I would give if they looked in the mirror and asked, “Which am I?” If they reflected on how they are failing those they were elected to serve. And yet this week we are seeing politicians turn away from the chief leader, even people in his own party, distancing themselves from him. Not quite self-reflection, but at least toxic political reality is setting in. They are choosing to re-choose; to say I want to change my mind and go work in the vineyard like the first son. I am sure that is only for their own political survival, but it is better than lying to the American people and doing nothing like the second sons.
“Which am I?” is a question we must ask ourselves when we vote, when we choose our leaders, when we set this nation on a new course, much like Jesus was setting the nation of Israel on its new course. This short parable resonates with Israel’s foundational stories. “Jesus calls the sons in this parable “children,” just as Israel was often identified as God’s (sometimes rebellious) children. The vineyard is a stock symbol in Jewish tradition for Israel. Jesus is, therefore, not asking his adversaries to comment on random, fictitious brothers, but to locate themselves within Israel’s foundational and continuing stories” (Working Preacher, Stanley Saunders). The same way we must locate ourselves within our nation’s deep democratic, justice loving, hard working roots. We cannot stand idly by when corruption, self-aggrandizement, our right to vote, and our very way of life are being demolished.
Even if you have sided with the party in power, much like the religious leaders did in their day, Jesus is asking them, and you, to rechoose. To say I believe our nation is more important than our power and connection. That we need leaders who will speak truth to power and set this country on a right course. That is what the John the Baptist question is all about. Even after the religious leaders saw John and his ways of righteousness, the religious leaders did not ask themselves, “Which am I?” Did not look in the mirror and say, “Should I re-choose?” Should I rethink the consequences of my first choice. Jesus called them out saying, “even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe” (32).
“The distinction between the two brothers turns on action versus word. Jesus and his adversaries agree that only one son does the will of the father, the son who says “no,” but (changes his mind and) goes nonetheless into the vineyard to work. Actions speak louder than words. (The religious leaders) failure to believe and respond to John reveals the truth about where they stood, and thus which brother they actually represent. Jesus’ authority, in contrast, is affirmed by the integrity of his words and actions, as well as by its outcomes: gathering and restoration, healing and cleansing, restored sight, table fellowship with sinners, and preservation of the least ones—all examples of the “fruit” of repentance.”
“Jesus is more powerful than the world’s powers, but his power is of a different kind, a power that produces healing and reconciliation rather than alienation and violence. From the moment of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, Matthew focuses on the assertion, demonstration, defense, and finally the affirmation, via the cross and resurrection, of Jesus’ authority” (Working Preacher, Stanley Saunders). I would call that the authority of love. Jesus is lovingly asking us, “Which Am I?”
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