Upcoming Sunday Gospel Readings
Sunday 1 October 2017
Matthew 21:23-32
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
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The first part of the Gospel is interesting, but it is the second that is really the meat of the Gospel for us. It is certainly interesting to see how Jesus twists the leaders into knots on the issue of authority and the role of John the Baptist. But our focus needs to be on the two sons presented by Jesus. I say that because these sons, who are presented as fictional characters, are anything but fictional. We are those sons. The issue at hand is the issue of authentic faithfulness versus lip service. One says they are faithful, though there is no actual application of that faithfulness. The other speaks a rejection of faithfulness, and then goes and does the very act of obedience that was rejected in word. And Jesus tells us, even compels the leaders of the day to join him in this statement, that the one who did the will of the father is the later. For us, we need to acknowledge that the father is none other than God. From that then we ask the question in an act of self-examination: “Who am I? Am I paying lip service alone but not living that word into action? Am I resisting obedience, and then submitting and putting faith into action? The goal, of course, is to speak and to act in the same spirit of obedience and faithfulness. How are we doing with this? This need not be a terrifying examination, for the goal of this examination is the desire of God that we be transformed to bring our speech and our action into unity, and thus serve our God faithfully in what we say and do. And as this is the will of God, we can rest assured in the knowledge that God will assist us to do the very thing which God desires of us and for us.
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Father Timothy Alleman
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