When Words Aren't Enough

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September 28, 2014

Philippians 2:1-13

¹If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 
⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, 
          

did not regard equality with God 
          

as something to be exploited, 


⁷ but emptied himself, 
          

taking the form of a slave, 
          

being born in human likeness. 
     

And being found in human form, 


⁸ he humbled himself 
          

and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a   

cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him 
          

and gave him the name that is above every name, 


¹⁰  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, 
          

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 


¹¹  and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
          to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Matthew 21:23-32

²³When 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?”

²⁴Jesus 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. ²⁵Did 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?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” ²⁷So 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.

²⁸“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. ³¹Which 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. ³²For 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.”

Sermon: When Words Aren’t Enough

Imagine something for me: picture yourself in the dentist’s office (I know, I’m sorry), and that he has a big shiny diploma on the wall, his name on the sign outside and the coat to prove he is who he says he is.  Then, as he reaches towards your mouth holding a drill, he asks you, “Which end of this thing goes where??”

It would not inspire great confidence.  Okay, imagine this:  you go to a fancy 3-Michelen-star restaurant, with awards all over the walls (you know, like Millar’s in Vass).  You had to book a table a month in advance, because this is the best of the best chef there is.  As you sit at your much-coveted table and put your cloth napkin on your lap, that famous chef plops a bowl of mushy cornflakes in front of you for supper.  Again, not very impressive.

If Forest Gump were to talk about authority, he would say, “Authority is as authority does.”

It doesn’t matter that your dentist has a shiny, fancy diploma and his name on the door if he doesn’t know what to do with that authority.  It doesn’t matter that an acclaimed chef is renowned on paper, if she can’t do better than a bowl of mushy cornflakes.

I think this is what Jesus was trying to teach the religious elite in our Matthew passage today.  Those elders and chief priests were a wee bit authority obsessed, and they tried to trick Jesus.  Lesson one: don’t ever try to trick Jesus.  He’s a smart cookie, y’all.

“Who authorized you to do these things?” they ask him, like he’s having a garage sale without a permit.

 “Well, you answer me first -- John the Baptist, who baptized many, where did his authority come from?  Heaven or earth?”

Clever Jesus set a trap, you see.  If they said heaven it meant they agreed with all John the Baptist said about who Jesus was.  They couldn’t do that.  If they said earth, they went against what the majority of their people thought.  They couldn’t do that.

In a singular moment of honesty, they said, “We don’t know.”

“Neither will you know where my authority comes from.” Jesus replied.

And then he told a story about two sons, whose father asked them both to go work in his vineyard: one who said no, but ended up working, and the other who said yes, and didn’t follow through.

The point: one son changed his mind and did something.  The other didn’t.  The one who changed his mind was praised.  The elders and chief priests never could change their mind about the rigid way they perceived God’s authority in the world, and so they missed who Jesus was, and what he was about. 

They couldn’t see past the war of words to recognize that the authority Jesus had as the Son of God had very little to do with words.  Yes, there was that moment when he was baptized by John the Baptist, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to him.”

Quite an impressive voice of authority coming from heaven, there.  But if Jesus had walked away from the Jordan River and spent the rest of his days eating Cheetos on the couch, those words wouldn’t have meant much, would they?

He proved his authority, not with words, but with actions: turning over tables of greed in the church, welcoming the prostitutes and tax collectors without reservation and showing that grace was for them, too.  Yes, he said the last shall be first and the first shall be last, but even more than that, he put the poor first, and didn’t care what eating with questionable characters did for his reputation.

We in the church spend a good bit of time talking about the authority of Jesus and the authority of scripture (case in point happening right now).

But if this gospel story teaches us anything, it shows us that sometimes words fall short.  If those words – even the most profound words – aren’t wedded with actions, with changing, with doing something, they lose their meaning.  They become just a lingo for church-going folks that we haven’t bothered to translate for those beyond our walls to hear and experience.

And so if we who would follow Jesus are going to speak about his authority in our lives, we’ll have to move beyond just words.  We can say we follow Jesus, but if we don’t give credence to those words with acts of service and compassion, we’re like the son who said he would work in the vineyard but never showed up. 

If we say Jesus has authority in our lives, but that authority never creates change, never leads us to decide to do or be something new, it is possible that Jesus doesn’t have much authority in our lives.

We can say Jesus is Lord, but if we don’t prioritize our lives in such a way that we put the least of these first, as he did, they are just empty words.

We can say the Church is the Body of Christ on earth, but if we don’t extend ourselves beyond our own walls and worries, they are just empty words.

We can say God is with us, but if we don’t show others God is with them when they most need the reminder, they are just empty words.

Words matter.  But actions are where authority is found.   Authority is as authority does.

Perhaps this is why Jesus didn’t answer that question posed by the elders and chief priests.  Perhaps he was simply sick of the words, and ready to get on with the actions of proving who we was, and what he came to do. 

And perhaps more than all, he cared very little about being an authority figure, and very much about being a humble, serving, Savior, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.   Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.

Yes, we confess that Jesus is Lord.  But if we only confess with our words, we’ve missed the point entirely.  Let’s confess who Jesus was and is, not with even the most clever of words, but with our lives, poured out in service and emptied for others, in his name, amen.