Image Source |
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment