25 September 2011 “Showing up” Matthew 21:23-32

25 September 2011 “Showing up” Matthew 21:23-32

The story is told of a missionary who was scheduled to speak about his mission work at a distant church. He got up before daybreak that Sunday morning and spent the afternoon speaking with members of the congregation. As he was leaving that evening, the treasurer of the church gave him an envelope, which he tucked in his pocket. It was very late when he made it home. As he undressed, he remembered the envelope. He turned on the light in the bathroom and opened it. Out fell a check with his name written on it in bold letters. Under his name were the words: A million thanks! It was signed by the treasurer. While I am sure the “A million thanks” was sincere, sometimes words are not enough.

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus is asked rather bluntly by the scribes and Pharisees who in the world he thought he was. He had just entered into Jerusalem, he had cast the moneychangers from the temple, cursed the fig tree and asked the religious officials if they had accepted John and the baptism he brought. The stories they heard about Jesus were of a man who was performing miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead and challenging the established churches authority. They wanted to know who he possibly thought he was coming into their temple trying to teach them this way.

Knowing sometimes words are not enough, Jesus tells them a parable, a story which will explain who he is if they will live their life like the parable says they must. Living this new way they will know who he is because mere words cannot tell them. Knowing who he is, they will discover, is not about head knowledge. They will know who he is when they act, when they live their lives in a certain way. Then and only then will his identity be known to them.

Of course this is Jesus’ message to us too. We can do all the bible study in the world for all the days of our lives yet we will not know who Jesus is until we actually live what we believe. When we live what we believe our lives change, our views about life change, our expectations for life change.

Jesus told the scribes and the Pharisees a parable about a man who had two sons. First, he sent his older son to work in his vineyard, but his son refused to go, then later, he changed his mind and headed for the fields. Not knowing this, the father sent his second son to do the work his older brother had refused to do. This son said he would go, but then changed his mind and never set foot in the fields. “Which son did the will of the Father?” Jesus asked. Which of the two boys obeyed?

It is easy to see that the son who obeyed his father is the one who went into the field to work the vineyard. This was the first boy. Even though he said he would not go, when he changed his mind and went to the vineyard that is when he was being obedient.

Having told this teaching parable Jesus makes crystal clear to these priests and elders from the temple the lifestyle they must lead if they are to know him and under whose authority he acts.

Then, he tells them which brother they were. They were not the one who obeyed their father. They were the ones who said they would go and do the work their father asked them to do but never set foot in the fields. They said all the right things, believed all the right things, stood for all the right things, but would not do the right things God asked them to do.

And lastly, because they would not live their lives doing what God asked them to do prostitutes and tax collectors would enter the kingdom before them. Why so harsh? Because as religious leaders, the priests and scribes were known for their words, but were short on deeds. The Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “Jesus wants followers not admirers.”

We hear all too often of people whose actions do not match their words. They sound great, they say all the right things yet they fall far short of doing what they say they will do or being who they think they are. When I am honest with myself and listen to myself, and assess my actions I am certainly guilty of the same thing.
Perhaps you are too. We pray,” I love you Lord, I give my life to you Lord, and I will follow wherever you lead me Lord.” Yet how quickly do these words of faithfulness to discipleship become defensive when we try to explain our inaction, when we try to justify why we have fallen short of what God asks us to do. Who among us has not been like the second son, saying we will be faithful and then forgetting or ignoring our very own promises. We all know how hard it is sometimes to keep the promises we make.

As Elisabeth Elliot has observed, “The problem with living sacrifices like us is that we keep creeping off the altar.” We know about the creeping. This creeping, this sliding away from faithfulness may be conscious or unconscious.

Consciously we know when we say one thing and do another, when we promise we will love each other on Sunday and then find ingenious ways to take advantage of one another on Monday. This consciousness is not the real problem for most of us. It is the unconscious that is most problematic, the way many of us substitute our beliefs about God for our obedience to God, as if it were enough to say “I go Lord”, without even tensing a muscle to get out of our chairs. It is easy to get beliefs mixed up with actions.

There are many people I know who believe they love their families but spend very little time with them. There are even more who believe they are against violence in movies but stand in line for the next “Die Hard” sequel. There are sadly greater numbers who believe in the American way but are not even registered to vote.
There is this peculiar gap between what we believe and what we actually do. The theological word for it is sin – missing the mark – which is both inevitable and forgivable but never tolerable for those who say they love Jesus. When Jesus is the mark we are missing the result is deeply damaging. We see it tear up families, friendships, communities, even our world when we say we will love and instead we are indifferent, when we say we will do right and do wrong, when we say “I will go Lord” and go nowhere at all.

What we believe, you see, has no meaning apart from what we do about it. There is no creed or mission statement that is worth more than one visit to a sick friend, or one handout given to someone homeless, without a job, or a crumb to eat.

It becomes clear to me every day here at Genesis, there are faithful souls in this church whose actions do match their words. We do care for one another, for our community, our country, and our world. We do not have to look far to know there are people who do what they can do. There are ones among us who take casseroles in times of need, who write a note when someone needs it the most, who take folks who don’t have a car to the store, who make an encouraging phone call or give a gentle squeeze of the hand to say “I am praying for you.” Some living sacrifices do not slip off the altar.

In Isak Dinesens book, “Out of Africa”, she tells the story of a young Kikuyu boy named Kitau who appeared at her door in Nairobi one day to ask if he might work for her. She said yes and he turned out to be a fine servant, but after just three months he came to her again to ask her for a letter of recommendation to Sheik Ali bin Salim, a Muslim in Mombasa. Upset at the thought of losing him, she offered to raise his pay, but he was firm about leaving.

He had decided he would become either a Christian or a Muslim, and his whole purpose in coming to live with her had been to see the ways and habits of Christians up close. Next he would go live for three months with Sheik Ali to see how Muslims behaved and then he would make up his mind.

Aghast, Dinesen wrote, I believe that even an Archbishop, when he had these facts laid before him would have said, or at least thought, as I say, “Good God, Kitau, you might have told me that when you came here.”

You know, God is always watching, if we think God will tell us ahead of time when he is looking to see if our actions match our words we are in for a rude awakening. You see, God has been telling us all along to be on the lookout, we will not know the time or place God will call us to account for our lives. There are plenty of people who say, believe, or stand for all the right things. What God is short of are people who will go where God calls them and do what God gives them to do.

A Baptist minister in Birmingham Alabama named Roger Lovette tells about his son sending him a bulletin from the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. One Sunday his son stood in a long line of visitors to listen to Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school. He stayed for the worship service and sent the bulletin for that Sunday to his dad.

Reverend Lovette discovered this notice in the bulletin: “Rosalynn Carter will clean the church next Saturday. Jimmy Carter will cut the grass and trim the shrubbery.”

It is not always the one who talks or preaches or teaches who reflects the will of the Father. Sometimes it is the one who shows up on a hot Saturday afternoon to dust the pews, take out the trash, cut the grass, lend a helping hand to a stranger, reach out to pray with someone, letting their actions speak louder than their words.
Letting our actions speak louder than our words is what is most important to God. It is not what our mouths say, it is what our lives say that teach others under whose authority we act. This is how we will know who Jesus is, by living our lives in action, doing his will. This is how Jesus reveals to us who he is. Not in the words we say but in the things we do. This is exactly the model Jesus lived and the clear way we are to follow.

You know, Jesus has learned to tell the difference between those whose actions match their words and those whose don’t, and we can know it too. Even about ourselves. To tell which one we are, look in any mirror. What is moving? Our mouth or our feet? It is so telling isn’t it. Our mouth or our feet?

Clearly one without the other is like a check with God’s name in bold letters and the words, “A million thanks.” Sometimes words are not enough.


In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.

Additional resources:
“Home By Another Way,” Barbara Brown Taylor, p. 188-191.
“Showing up,” Christian Century, V. 122, No. 19, pg. 20.

092511.gpc