Pentecost 16, Year A

Proper 21 -- Ezekiel 18: 1–4, 25-32; Psalm 25: 3-9; Philippians 2: 1-13; Matthew 21: 28-32

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, September 28, 2014.

“OUR WALK AND OUR TALK”

(Homily text: Matthew 21: 28 32)

            “Preach the Gospel….if necessary, use words.”

            This saying is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we will celebrate at the end of this week (October 4th).  This blessed saint captures - in this simple statement - the essence of authentic Christian living, a state in which our walk (our daily living) is matched by our talk (what we say about our faith in God).

            And so it is that Jesus tells His listeners a couple of parables about a vineyard and those who work in it.  His audience is made up of the chief priests and the elders of God’s people 2,000 years ago, we learn from reading a few verses earlier in Matthew 21: 23.  Once these parables are told, the chief priests and their allies will perceive that Jesus has been telling these parables as a judgment on them (see Matthew 21: 45).

            The scene where today’s parable is told is the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus has now made His triumphal entry into the Holy City on Palm Sunday (narrated by Matthew in 21: 1–10).  Then, He upset the normal life of the Temple by overturning the tables of money that the moneychangers were tending to (verses 12 – 16).  So we find ourselves in Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.  The stage for the final showdown with the Jewish leadership is set.

            The parable before us this morning is often known by the title “The Parable of the Two Sons”.  (We will hear the next parable, which is known as “The Parable of the Tenants”, next Sunday.)

            As is our usual practice, we should begin by looking more closely at some of the details of this parable.

            The first detail that catches our attention is the setting for the work which is to be done:  The vineyard.  In Old Testament imagery, the vineyard often represents Israel and God’s people. Jesus often appropriates this imagery to apply His teachings to His original hearers.  It is quite likely that the chief priests and the elders who heard Jesus tell this parable would have made the connection between the vineyard and Israel.[1] Perhaps they wondered, “Is He talking about us, or about God’s people? Is He talking about Israel?”  But we would do well to remember that, in last week’s gospel reading, Jesus also used the image of the vineyard in His telling of the parable about the workers who were hired at various times of the day, but who were paid the same amount, regardless of their length of service.

            Another detail concerns Jesus’ explicit application of the parable to His original audience, the chief priests and elders.  He tells them that the “tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”  Such a role reversal is common in Matthew’s gospel account….often, this role reversal finds its truth in a statement we read often in Matthew:  “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”  Another theme that is prominent in Matthew is the ultimate judgment.  Here, God’s judgment is implied.  In next week’s parable, the judgment is direct.

            In truth, neither of the two sons in today’s parable comes off with high honors, though it is true that the second son, the one who initially refused to go work in the vineyard, comes off better than the one who simply paid lip service to his father’s request.  Neither son’s walk is matched entirely by his talk.         

            But God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness seems to be in view here:  The second son is the one who will enter into the kingdom, because he repented of his original refusal and did the will of his father.

            In its original context, the parable is clearly a judgment on the leadership of God’s people in Jesus’ day.  Their talk was excellent, but their walk was terrible.  Jesus will summarize the disconnect between their walk and their talk in Matthew 23: 2 – 3, which reads:  “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.  For they preach, but do not practice.” [2]

            For Matthew’s Church, composed as it most likely was of Jews and Gentiles both, perhaps the meaning had a lot to do with those who had come to faith in Jesus Christ, but who were latecomers in responding to God’s call, made in Christ.  Perhaps both Jews and Gentiles alike had initially refused that call.

            For Christians down through the ages, both the members of Matthew’ Church and Christians today, the challenge is to continue to respond to God’s call to come into closer and closer relationship with the Father through the Son.  As we do so, we are called to allow the Holy Spirit to integrate our behavior with our conversation, so that we preach the gospel, and, as St. Francis says, “use words, if necessary.”

AMEN.

           

---

[1]   This imagery is particularly clear in Isaiah 5: 1-7.  Another example may be found in Jeremiah 12: 10.

[2]   It’s worth noting that Matthew is fond of repeating themes or teachings of the Lord in his gospel account.  In Matthew 23: 2–3, we read in another way what the Lord had said in today’s parable.

Pentecost 15, Year A

Proper 20 --  Jonah 3: 10 – 4: 11; Psalm 145: 1-8; Philippians 1: 21-27; Matthew 20: 1-16

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois, on Sunday, September 21, 2014.

“LEGAL CONTRACT, OR GRACIOUS GIFT?”

(Homily text: Matthew 20: 1-16)

            We begin with two questions this morning:

            1.  Is our relationship with God a legal contract,  wherein we receive from God in direct proportion to what we, ourselves, have done?

            -or-

            2.  Are we the beneficiaries of God’s graciousness and gifts, receiving things for which we did not work, and for which we do not deserve to receive on our own merits?

            Essentially, that second question seems to be the point that Jesus is making as He tells the “Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard”:  We cannot earn God’s goodness toward us.

            Allow me to suggest that a correct understanding of the nature of our relationship with God has been a problem for God’s people at various times in the history of our relating to God.  We’ll explore that in some detail shortly.

            But first, let’s take a look at the parable before us this morning in some detail.

            Jesus lays out a very commonplace scenario as He describes the hiring of a group of workers at daybreak in a marketplace…..the workers are hired, told that they will be paid a denarius for their work that day,[1] and are sent off. 

            Then, the landowner comes, again and again throughout the day, and enlists other workers to join in the work.  It is an interesting and important detail to notice that these later-hires are told that they will be paid “whatever is right.”  No set amount is agreed upon before they head off to the work. 

            The last set of workers is hired at about five o’clock in the afternoon, and they manage to work only one hour.

            Then, Jesus says, the last-hired are paid first.  They are paid one denarius, the same as the first-hired.

            (Wouldn’t our modern sensitivities which have to do with labor laws and with equitable treatment for work performed be offended by such an action?)

            Jesus’ parable must have spoken very powerfully to the Christians who made up the early Church to which Matthew was most likely addressing his gospel account.  After all, it seems possible that Matthew’s church was dealing with Jews in their community who were practicing a legalistic sort of religion, one which was based on a contract with God.

            That contract with God was – in the Jewish estimation of 2,000 years ago – the Law of Moses.  God’s people in those days attempted to keep every requirement of the law, and expected, thereby, to win God’s favor.  There is evidence to suggest that people, in Jesus’ day, believed that if a person was wealthy or was blessed with good health, that that person was blessed by God because they were living a holy life.  Such an approach comes down to the idea that “OK, God, we’ve done so-and-so, so you owe us such-and-such.”

            But Matthew’s church seems to be composed not only of Jews who had come to faith in Jesus, but also Gentiles, who were pagans before coming to Christ.  Perhaps many of these Gentiles felt like they were the later-hires, or the last-hired, in Jesus’ parable.  And, they were sure, that God’s goodness and graciousness was theirs just as much as it had been for the descendents of Abraham.

            We need to return to Jesus’ parable for a moment. 

            Notice that Jesus says that the landowner agreed to pay the later-hired “whatever is right”.  No set amount is agreed upon.  Those who were called to go into the field in the later morning, or in the afternoon or evening, responded in faith to the landowner’s assurance that they would be paid whatever the landowner’s judgment decreed was fair and equitable.

            The latecomers to faith in Jesus who were members of Matthew’s church had also acted in faith, knowing that God would be gracious to them, showering on them out of God’s essential goodness and generosity the gifts that were made available to those who had come to faith earlier on.

            These Gentiles had an important lesson to teach those who were born into the family of Abraham: 

·         We have no inherent claim on God’s goodness. 

·         We have no right to demand that God treat us in any specific way in direct relationship to our actions.

·         Yet God will relate to us in generosity, love and care, if only we will have faith in God’s essential character.

            Our default posture toward God is one of faith.  We cannot claim that we have earned God’s actions toward us.  God, out of His essential nature, will relate to us in generosity of spirit and actions.

            Of that we can be sure, for God will act toward us in accordance with His sovereign will and in the generosity which is His alone to bestow.

AMEN.

---

[1]  In Jesus’ day, one denarius was the wage for a common day laborer for one day’s work.  Such a wage would have barely supported a family at a subsistence level.  The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation of the Bible that we are using omits this fact, instead saying that the laborers were hired “for the usual daily wage”.

Pentecost 14, Year A

Proper 19 -- Ecclesiasticus 27: 30 – 28: 7; Psalm 103: 8-13; Romans 14: 5-12; Matthew 18: 21-35

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, September 14, 2014.

“HOW MANY TIMES IS ENOUGH?”

(Homily text: Matthew 18: 21-35)

            “How many times is enough?”

            Essentially, that is what Peter asks the Lord as he says, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”

            The designers of our lectionary for this morning have done an admirable job of choosing three passages which have to do with forgiveness.  Even the Psalm for this morning declares God’s forgiveness, as it says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.”  (103: 12)

            Let’s concentrate our attentions this morning on our gospel text alone.  For Peter’s question arises in the text immediately out of Jesus’ teaching about a person who has sinned, and about the process by which the body of Christ (that is, the Church) is to deal with the problem.[1]

            Peter’s question is one that ought to concern every one of us, as we seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and as we seek to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  For it is certain that occasions of offense will arise, giving us the opportunity to forgive one another, even as we have been forgiven ourselves.  (More on all of this in a moment.)

            In response to Peter’s question, the Lord spins out a tale of a Gentile king, his servant, and another servant with whom the first servant has been dealing. Generally, the Lord’s teaching is known by the title “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.”

            Some details in this parable are worthy of closer attention…..

            First of all, most scholars agree that the Lord is portraying the action of a Gentile king.  They point to proscriptions in Jewish law that forbade the selling of family members into slavery in order to pay debts, and to provisions in Jewish law which forbade the use of torture (which was commonly practiced in the ancient world).

            Next, we ought to note the way in which the Lord tells us about the amounts of money owed by the first servant, and by the second.  The first servant owed his king 10,000 talents.  In Jesus’ time, a talent was equal to the wages of a day laborer for fifteen years.  We might compare this amount to the total amount of taxes that King Herod the Great received from all the lands he ruled in one year:  That amount was about 900 talents.  In ancient times, the number 10,000 was the highest number available to quantify things.  In today’s parlance, we might tell this story by saying that the first servant was in debt by the amount of billions of dollars.  The Lord’s point seems to be that the amount owed was completely beyond anyone’s ability to repay.  By contrast, the amount owed by the second servant to the first, 100 denarii, was equal to 100 days’ pay for a day laborer.  Certainly, this amount could have been repaid, if only the first servant had shown mercy and had exercised some patience.  We will reflect on these aspects of the parable in a moment.

            The Lord’s point seems to indicate that we are in debt to God to such an extent that we can never expect to repay the debt we owe.  By contrast, however, we do have the ability to forgive those who trespass, who owe a debt, to us.

            But what about forgiving others to the extent that Peter asks about, or that the Lord demand that we forgive?

            I will speak personally here in response to this question…..

            If left to my own devices, I might be inclined to forgive someone who had wronged me maybe one time. If the offender is a child or a grandchild, I would grant them more occasions of forgiveness. And yet – children and grandchildren excepted -  I am also aware that, even if I do forgive that person, I am likely never to forget the offense.

            Hmmmm…..

            I fall far short of even the standard that Peter suggests, don’t I?

            Peter’s suggestion that he forgive someone seven times seems to suggest that, if he had forgiven someone that many times, that he could then cease from forgiving.  The reason is that the number seven by the reckoning of the Bible is the number that suggests “ceasing from work” (as in Genesis 2:2, when God rested from the work of creation), and as we find the significance of the number seven in the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath day, in which one was required by the Law of Moses to do no work, to rest.

            Knowing that I already fall short of even Peter’s standard, how then am I to meet the Lord’s standard, which calls for multiples of the number seven[2] as the number of times we are required to offer forgiveness to others.

            We need God’s strength to accomplish that, or even to begin to try.

            The strength to begin to have the love and concern necessary to forgive someone a large number of times stems from remembering how many times we, ourselves, have been forgiven by God.

            Again, I will speak personally to this point….

            As I look back on my life, I recognize the reality of the saying, “I am a work in progress!”  At times, I seem to make one step forward in my walk with God, but then I fall back two or more steps.  Again, I am forgiven, strengthened, given a boost, and shown the way to go, and I manage three steps forward.  But soon, I am, again, in need of God’s forgiveness, God’s patience, God’s insight, God’s power as I slip back a step or two or more to behave in a new, different and more godly way.

            Is my life experience anything like yours?  Are you, too, a “work in progress?”

            I suspect, if we are honest with ourselves and with God, that all of us are “works in progress.”  We are in need of – and most likely have received – God’s graciousness, forgiveness and strength.

            If we look at the business of forgiveness, of being forgiven and of forgiving others, at the very heart of the matter is the reality that, if forgiveness is not offered and received, then walls of separation begin to rise.  Pretty soon, we are alienated from God.  Pretty soon, we are alienated from one another, and the Church’s witness to the world around us is blunted.

            That is one reason why we have a Confession of Sin in our Sunday worship.  This part of the liturgy asks God to wipe the slate clean, and to pardon us so that we can be connected anew to the living God.  It is no accident that the Confession of Sin takes place immediately before we approach the Holy Table of the altar, where we will commune with the Lord in the elements of bread and wine.  The Holy Eucharist allows the walls of separation to be broken down, so that we may enter into an intimate encounter with the living God.

            One final point is in order:  Forgiveness is a two way street:  Matthew’s gospel text makes it clear that, in order to be forgiven by God, we must be willing to forgive others.  The well known phrase in the Lord’s Prayer points to this reality as it says, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  But the verses which immediately follow this wonderful prayer serve to drive the point home:  There, we read, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but it you do not forgive others, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.”  (Matthew 6: 14–15)

            So, to a very large extent, we are in control of our own destiny where forgiveness is concerned. We have already been forgiven by God for the insurmountable, unpayable amounts of our own sins and trespasses.  That is God’s gift to us, freely given.  We, in turn, are to turn around and pass through God’s forgiveness to others, as we offer our own forgiveness to them.  God’s forgiveness ought to soften our hearts toward others.

            That seems to be the gist of the Lord’s teaching that we hear today.

            May the Holy Spirit prepare in our hearts the awareness of God’s great mercy and forgiveness, that we may, in turn, offer that same generosity to others, that their hearts may also be softened to receive our forgiveness and God’s.

AMEN.

---

[1]   This was last Sunday’s gospel reading, taken from Matthew 18: 15–20.

[2]   The Greek may be translated either as “seventy seven” or as “seventy time seven”.  Various translations offer these two options.