October 1st, 2023 - The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost - Pastor Erin Bovendam - Matthew 21:23-32

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew the 21st chapter

And I'm gonna invite you to be seated because it's important for you to know some background before we get into this reading today

So before this reading happens Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey

So that makes us think of Palm Sunday, so we know it's Holy Week

That means Jesus is coming very close to his crucifixion and death on the cross

And what happens before this reading what leads up to these passages?

Is Jesus is kind of pushing things in that direction

So he comes into the temple and he overturns the tables of the money changers there

So he upsets the system of sacrifice the religious system for that day

And it especially notes that he overturns the seats of those who sell doves

Who are the people that would buy doves anyone have any idea who could afford to buy doves?

Only those experiencing the most poverty that's the only thing they could afford so when it's especially

Mentions he overturns the seats of those who sell doves

I think it notes that Jesus is showing special care and concern for those experiencing poverty

So he upsets this system and the money that came into that system sometimes was was misused or exploited to support the religious leaders themselves

So Jesus upsets that system and then he has those who are blind and lame come to him

And he heals them and these people that weren't welcome before are suddenly welcome

And it's outside the way that the religious system would have it work and so this upsets the religious leaders of the day

So we get to our reading today, and they're like who gives you the authority to do these kinds of things and I think it invites us to ask

What authority is it that we base our lives and our actions on?

Here's a reading from Matthew chapter 21

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

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

We say from heaven he'll say to us then why 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 don't 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 did 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 the Lord

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

The gospel of the Lord

So we have this question of authority by what authority is Jesus doing these things and who gave it to him

Jesus pointed out that authority can only ever be given

Some people get authority because some people higher up have given it to them like a boss

Others get authority because people allow or give them authority over them

It invites us to ask what kinds of things do we allow to have authority in our lives?

What things do we allow to have authority that maybe don't deserve it?

The religious leaders find authority in their traditions

They also find authority in a system that keeps on benefiting them

Like why would they want it to change? They're benefiting from the authority they have

Biblical scholar Emerson Powery

He talked about Jesus' parable and he noted that the son who is most expected to understand and do God's will

It's relating to the religious leadership

The ones who are most versed in the scriptures who most should understand God's will

They don't get it

They fail to see God's work in Jesus

While the son least expected to understand and do God's will

He says that is the one most culturally despised by the rest of us

That one acknowledges God's work in John the Baptist and in Jesus Christ

Another scholar notes that this week we see more clearly how Jesus' ministry of transformation

offends those with a vested interest in keeping the status quo

That Jesus' ministry of transformation most offends those who are most interested in keeping things the way they are

I think that invites us to think about today are there places where we don't want systems to change

or we don't want things to change because we are benefiting from how they are now

It's something to think about

I remember several years ago reading an article about someone who was a part of a church

and he shared this in the article

He was a part of a church and he got really upset at how his church was welcoming a certain group of people into their community

He was really upset by this because he didn't think his church should be welcoming them

And so he went to his pastor and he complained about it

And his pastor invited him to go home and to read the gospels and to pay special attention

To what does Jesus do? Where does Jesus go? With whom does Jesus spend his time?

And the man actually went home and he did that

He read the gospels

He paid attention to everything that Jesus said and did and he came back

And he was completely changed

He said he realized that his church was walking in the way of Jesus Christ

They were welcoming people as Jesus would

And then he joined in that ministry

That is living not with the authority of our own assumptions in our lives

But that's living with the authority of Jesus Christ

There are times when I've heard people say

Talk about like what the Bible would say or what they know Jesus would stand for

And they clearly haven't found that in the Bible or read that in the gospels

And perhaps unsurprisingly what they say Jesus stands for seems remarkably like what they want to stand for

And the thing is we all do this at times

Instead we want our lives and our actions to be shaped humbly by following Jesus

It invites us to ask what is it that really is shaping our life and our faith?

Is it the authority we give to ourselves?

Do our politics, and I'm talking to everyone on all ends of the spectrum

Do our politics or our own assumptions end up shaping our faith and our belief?

Or does our faith in Jesus shape how we live out our politics?

Does our faith rewrite some of the assumptions that we have?

If our faith never rewrites some of the assumptions we have

Then we may need to go back and listen humbly for Jesus

And I'm talking to myself as well

Because Jesus' word is constantly working on us and working in us

So that we can see things in a new way

We can say what we believe, but if we don't live it

That might not be what we're actually believing

I think about our mission statement

Thank God, share Jesus, help others

Does our church fully live that?

I think there's definitely ways we do

How about us as individuals?

Are we living that?

Because the church isn't just coming here to this building whenever we come here

But we are the church every time we leave here

And in our day-to-day lives are we thanking God, sharing Jesus, helping others?

If we aren't living that out, it might just be nice words that we say

So again, what things do we give authority over our lives?

If we change directions a little bit, a different way that we give things authority

There was a writer for the New York Times who once wrote about going through a traumatic event in his life

He was seven years old and I think something happened to a family member

And he was angry

When he was 20, 13 years later, he decided he was going to enact revenge

And on his way to enacting revenge for what happened to him

He all of a sudden thought to himself, what are you doing?

You can't keep living your life this way

Yes, this has been bad, but you deserve to live in spite of it

You have a life and you can't give this thing so much power over that life

That it takes that life away

What he realized after 13 years had passed

Was that he kept giving this event this authority over his life and his future

The future was open and it could be shaped in a new way

God calls and invites us into that new future

One that doesn't have to be shaped by our assumptions about other people or about how we think things should work

It doesn't have to be shaped by our regrets or our resentments of the past

But a future shaped by our baptismal identity as children of God and Jesus Christ

Martin Luther, for whom our Lutheran church gets its name

He used to struggle with various things

And when he was going through a particularly difficult time

When he was overcome with worry and doubt

He would yell out to himself, I am baptized

His assurance in that time, the thing that had authority over his life and his future

Was not his past mistakes or past failings

It wasn't words that others said about him, even those in power

But the authority in that instant over his life was Jesus Christ

Who God had claimed him to be as his child of God in his baptism

Something that Jude and Sadie are going to experience later today

What is it that really shapes us?

What assumptions are we each clinging to?

Maybe it's assumptions about others or how life should be

Where might the Holy Spirit be working to help us understand things in a new way?

Or to be more fully shaped by Jesus?

Or think of the thing that you most regret or resent from the past

If that one thing no longer weighed on you

If it didn't keep hanging over you

What would you or what could you do?

Freed from that one thing, what would life be like?

And sometimes we also need God's help through a counselor or through a life coach

To help us get through that, to be freed from that thing

But in the end, no level of brokenness or hurt has to shape our future

But only our God who calls us to new life again and again and again

In the end, what is it that's worthy of having authority in our lives and of our future?

We know it's Jesus, Jesus alone

Who overturned the tables of the money changers to show that there's a different way

Jesus who died at the hands of his enemies praying for them

Instead of igniting holy revenge on them

Jesus whom God raised from the dead that even death could not defeat him

Jesus who promises that our worth, our life, our future is certainly in God's care

May that authority be what defines us and shapes our lives and our actions

Today and every single day ahead. Amen.