Faith That Shows Up

Holy gospel according to Matthew.

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 Jesus 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 the father?

They said, The first.

Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the dominion 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 as the new pastoral intern here at Upper Dublin, only three Sundays into my year of serving with y'all, let's just say I get where the two sons in today's story are coming from.

At times my summer felt very long.

Patiently and not so patiently, waiting for my internship to finally start after three years in seminary.

Some moments I was really content, soaking in the relaxing days in the library on campus and with my dog.

And other moments, well, I was so nervous in all that waiting that I had to talk to friends and family to get over the impulse to turn and run away from the newness of this role.

And I imagine most of you can think of a time or two when you felt the same way.

You said yes to something, started something new, and somewhere along that journey found yourself wanting to change your yes to a no, to retreat from whatever the weight, change, or newness that your yes was bringing into your life.

This is the moment where our gospel is picking up.

And it starts at kind of a unique spot in the gospel itself, in the story of Jesus' ministry.

It starts the day after Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in this massive procession worthy of a king.

And then there's a change in tone that starts today's reading, where Jesus is challenged by these authorities about who he is and why he's been doing the things he's doing.

Healing, blessing, and being with those who were the undesirables of Jesus' time, those that proper society encouraged people to stay away from: tax collectors, prostitutes, the sick.

And in Jesus' time, just like ours today, authorities often want us to stick to the status quo, to not change things up, to keep the balance just the same, and encourage a sense of individualism over a community identity, especially when that community serves those too often ignored in our world.

A thread that ties each of these readings together is that they are providing encouragement and a challenge to us.

They're providing an encouragement and a challenge to change our ways and do something good in the vineyard that is our world.

Be it local, national, or global communities, we're being encouraged and challenged to change.

Take the example of the prophet Ezekiel, who is talking to a community in exile.

The people are lamenting about the sins of their forbearers and God being unfair.

Ezekiel reminds them to focus on what they can do in the world now, instead of just wishing to change things and turn back time and maybe not be exiled.

Ezekiel encourages them to change from thinking and worrying about their current situation to doing something, and that it is in the doing that we are able to see life with God vividly.

In a lot of ways, that's the situation we are in today.

We're living in a world that has rapidly changed and have to figure out what it means to be a Christian today, both individually and as a church community.

We could spend a lot of our time stuck in the war in the worry, but we cannot live into our call as Christians from that space or place.

We are called to move away from a thoughts and prayers mindset to one of action and service in the image of God, and that's exactly what our second reading is reminding us.

It gives us guidance about how to act in the vineyard of our community, especially in a new and challenging time.

Paul is writing from prison to this new church that is getting its roots grounded, and offers a pretty upbeat letter considering his circumstances.

He writes about how we are called to live into our baptism by being of humble service in our world, just like Jesus.

But we have to ask, what does that mean?

What does that look like in the lives we actually lead?

And it's a hard question.

Our lives are increasingly overtaxed, overly stressed, and we get notifications sent to our phone left and right, and to-do lists that grow day by day.

So it feels like a massive undertaking to be anything like Jesus.

So what are we to do?

First, we are encouraged to live into our calling as Christians in the world in ways both big and small.

We trust that our salvation is a free gift from God as Lutherans.

So it does not rely on any good deed or special action to be Christians and receive grace.

But caring for one another is still a part of our call.

And we have to live in that tension.

Anytime we do something good in service of one another is a way that God is at work within us and our world.

To put it simply, we are encouraged to think about what would Jesus do and then make the change to go and do it.

Second, we're encouraged to hold fast to the good news that God loves each one of us no matter what.

And while we change our minds constantly, God doesn't change their mind about that.

Even when we make mistakes in loving and serving one another.

God's love is here for each of us when we say yes and change our minds to no, especially when we change our minds to no.

But also when we say no and change our minds to yes.

No matter what, God is always reaching out to us in love and knows that we are still learning what it means to share that love in the world.

Finally, each of these readings are coming to us from challenging times themselves.

Paul from prison to a church under the risk of persecution, Ezekiel and the people of God in exile, and Jesus talking to the crowd shortly before his trial and death.

While you could look at each of these readings and see a sense of judgment, saying, we need to do better, really, each is coming from a place of understanding, offering encouragement for how to get through a challenging time with God's help and guidance.

So just like I'm the pastoral intern this year and I'm learning more about my personal call to ministry, all of us are learning how to walk the walk, talk the talk, and act in the way of God.

It's not easy.

We are all constantly having to battle to change our hearts and minds from that of this world to that of God.

And find ways to be of service in the vineyard that is this world amid busy personal lives.

God loves us in the lives we actually live, not expecting us to get it right.

Even those authorities that question Jesus in the gospel reading are not lost from that kind of love and grace.

God is always sneaking love into the busyness of our ordinary days in the lives we actually lead to remind us that love is all around us if we only look.

This kind of love sneaking into every commonplace act of service is something to pay attention for, to jot down for whenever being Christ-like feels like an impossible order.

It's this love that sustains us, that builds us up to shine the love of God into the world and to see God in everyone we meet.

And if you are finding yourself needing some of that sustaining today, I invite you to hold on to this story from my very first Sunday as your intern.

During my first service, I only had two roles: be installed as the pastoral intern and participate in distributing communion, including offering a blessing to anyone who requested one.

Now, communion and blessings are something that are relatively routine for a seminarian.

They're something that aren't out of the ordinary or new to me.

But in the moment of blessing a little one of this congregation, I was caught up in the awe and wonder of God's love for each part of creation: person, plant, animal, rock, and awn.

As I gave my blessing, I looked into their eyes and could just see that love for all of us.

As I said, remember that God made you, God knows you, and God loves you.

I was seeing the face of God break into my routine, ordinary day, to the point that I almost forgot the words for giving the bread to the next person in line.

So I ask again, so what?

Why does it matter to do good things in the world even though we trust that God loves us when we inevitably mess it all up?

It matters because each time we act in service and love for one another, from feeding to caring for to blessing to being present with someone else.

We are inviting the face of God to break into our day, into our ordinary, mundane world.

And that is something to be thankful for, to bask in the awe of and wonder of.

No matter what moment or day it is, that's something to hold tight to.

And I'm thankful for this community that I get to learn with and grow with over this year.

For all of the ways God shows his love for us, I say thanks be to God.

Amen.