From our Gospel lesson: Which son did the will of his father? The first said "no" but later went and did as his father asked. The second son said "yes", but he never showed up. And the Pharisees answered the first son… This indicates to me that God truly cares more about what you do, than what you say you will do.
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Have you ever said that you would do something, and then somehow never got around to it? I have, more than once. And that's a little strange, because I usually pride myself on keeping my word, if I say I will do something.
But I have told someone that I would do something, and as the time approached, I just forgot, got busy doing something else and just absolutely let it slip my mind. I have felt really bad about it, but once the moment is gone, it's really hard to make it up. That may be something that all of us have done at one time or another.
But I've also done it intentionally - told someone I would do something - and as the time approached, began to feel really insecure about it, and decided that I was not the best person for the job – so I didn’t go. A lot of us say, "Yes" because we don't want to hurt someone's feelings, or sometimes because it makes us feel important to think that someone believes we have the necessary skills and abilities to do a particular job.
I am a people pleaser - there is something in my background that had convinced me at one time that I had to do everything I could to make people like me; that if I could just do the right thing, then they will like me. I understand much more fully now that this is only partially true. But even though I know it intellectually, believing it and living into it is sometimes very hard. I know for a fact that God loves me, regardless of what I do or say. I know that He loves me every bit as much as I love my children, even when they occasionally disappoint me.
I look at today's lesson from Philippians - "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..." And I wonder how many of us can actually live up to this ideology.
Quite often, when we regard others as better than ourselves it is from a low or inferior self-esteem - and we allow ourselves to be trampled by those stronger personalities that surround us. This is not what Paul is talking about, being a footstool for those who would use us.
But I've also been at the other end of the spectrum, too. I've taken pride in something that I've done - and it usually happens after the fact. I get through with something and think back, "Oh wow, I just did something really good!" . . .
When I am in the middle of a situation, I simply respond - I have been told that my instincts are impeccable - and at the end, I feel like I have done God's will. I believe that it is God's will at work in me. And then I have time to think about it later and that's when I get into trouble over pride.
The truth is, we are human, and we respond in human ways, and they may be all over the board. There are times when our insecurities may kick in, or when our pride dominates, but there are also those times when we respond with the heart of Jesus -- and God smiles.
I had a parishioner at Redeemer make an announcement one day saying, "I've decided that I'm not ever going to sin again." My thought was that this was an arrogant statement, because no matter how hard we try, we are human, and we are going to make mistakes, and we are going to get things wrong, and we are going to make assumptions that will turn out bad.
But thank God, He is not up in heaven keeping score of how many times we do good versus how many times we miss the mark. And I don't think it matters to him whether the last act in our life is a good one or a poor mistake. I think God looks at the whole picture: Did we try to live our life in a Godly way? Did we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and try to follow his example?
It was for this reason that Jesus Christ died on the cross - because we can't always do the thing God asks us to do - because we can't always forgive, and we can't always reach out; because we are sometimes selfish, or conceited - because we are human. For these reasons, Jesus Christ emptied himself and became obedient, even to the point of death; so that we might have life eternal.
The very powerful message in this Gospel message is 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 his community.
Yes, there are people in our community who sin knowingly. We are human. We know we promise that we will strive for kingdom behavior and we know we will sometimes fail. After all our baptismal covenant says that "when" we sin we will return. When - not if. Christians know we are not perfect. But we as Christians also rejoice when the sons and daughters of God who have been outside, 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 there ready for the latecomer and for the newcomer.
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Author Saul Bellow wrote about a rabbi who lived in a small Jewish town in Russia. The rabbi had a secret. Every Friday morning the rabbi disappeared for several hours. The people of his congregation liked to tell people that during his absence from them their rabbi went up to heaven and talked to God.
When a stranger moved into town and heard this explanation for the rabbi’s weekly departure, he was not convinced. So he decided to find out what was really going on. The next Friday morning, he hid by the rabbi’s house, waiting and watching. As usual, the rabbi got up and said his prayers. But unlike other mornings of the week, he then dressed in peasant clothes. He grabbed an ax and wandered off into the woods to cut some firewood. With the man watching from afar, the rabbi then hauled the wood to a shack on the outskirts of the village where an old woman and her sick son lived. He left them the wood, enough for a week, and then went quietly back home.
After seeing what the rabbi did, the stranger decided to stay in the village and join the congregation. From then on, whenever he heard one of the villagers say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven,” the newcomer quietly added, “If not higher.”
Philippians -
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