“Empty Words”           2011

Isaiah 29:13-19       Matthew 21:23-32

 

Isaiah 29:13-19

13The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote; 14so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden. 15Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the Lord, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” 16You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17Shall not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest? 18On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

 

Matthew 21:23-32

23When he 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.

 

When I was a businessman and served as an elder at my church,

            I tried to start each day

                        by reading at least a chapter from the Bible…

            … and it was remarkable how often that particular passage

                        would provide

                                    just the right help or insight I needed that day.

 

Those days, I wasn’t all that knowledgeable about Scripture,

              but those readings did   wonderfully feed and nourish my soul

                  with inspiring truths that often   I had not seen before.

 

Later on when I learned a lot more in seminary,

            by reading about the social, cultural

                        and historical backgrounds from which Scripture emerged

                            and studying the Bible in the original Greek & Hebrew;

               these opened up new depths of understanding and insights

                   in ways that I’d never imagined or known to exist.

 

      But that knowledge about Scripture and those wonderful tools

            useful for more rigorous biblical scholarship and study,

                        also came with an unexpected cost …

                                    … I found that I had lost something very dear to me.

 

     I could no longer sit down and simply read the Bible

            and enjoy it in the same way that I had before seminary;

                             because all that I had studied and learned about it

                                    crowded out some of the wonder and surprise,

                                         the joy and unfettered delight of Bible reading.

 

With all that education,

            just as an engineer has to figure out how something works,

                        or a trained musician can’t simply listen to a song;

- so too when I am reading a Bible passage,

            I can’t help but notice and analyze the language,

                  the nouns, verbs and participles, and sentence structure,

                                    consider the historical and cultural context ---

                                       --- and think about a sermon I might shape from it.

    All that stuff, the facts and background I’ve accumulated,

            can interfere with the simple joy of reading   to feed my soul.

 

The head knowledge can interfere     with feeling it in my heart,

               and so I am torn between the simple inspiration of Scripture

                        and the academics and rigor of biblical studies.

 

 

One time as a pastor, I helped a young man come to Christ,

            and he became a deeply committed and energetic Christian.

   He quickly got involved in everything the church was doing,

            all our activities, Bible studies and service projects.

                        Then fairly soon, he was elected to serve on the Session.

 

But as a young, idealistic and relatively immature Christian,

          he was ill-equipped for the rigors of serving as an elder.

  The inner workings of the church institution, dealing with egos,

           private agendas and church politics shocked him terribly.

 

Church leadership was disillusioning, he struggled in his faith,

            and at times even doubted his service and walk with the Lord.

                           He was torn between the wonder and joy of his new faith,

                                    and the church as an institution lead by sinners.

 

It can be very difficult to reconcile our spiritual potential;

            the wonderful and faithful ways that we can serve our God,

                            with the fact that even our best is often tainted

                                    with self-interest, ego and unworthy desires.

 

 

I am pretty sure that the scribes and Pharisees,

            the high priests, elders and other temple authorities

                        began their religious service for the right reasons,

                                    their spiritual hunger and desire to grow in God.

 

But over time, they bought into the system for expediency sake,

                            and gradually, maybe even unconscious of it,

                                    they sold out to the human religious institution…

          … and so when John the Baptist came along, they rejected him,

                 because he did not fit into their system or expectations.

 

John was a disruption against their Temple-based religion…

        … and how much more so they opposed and rejected Jesus Christ,

                        for similar reasons, and in addition, for his teaching                                                                        about God’s grace and welcome to sinners & outcasts.

 

Imagine the authorities’ anger and frustration on Palm Sunday

            when the crowds were shouting, “Hosanna in the highest”

                        as he rode into Jerusalem sitting on a small donkey.

 

And when he rejected their request for a more respectful quiet,

            they knew that for the sake of the Temple and Judaism,

                        they had to get rid of him before he caused more damage,

                                    yet they were afraid of how the people would react.

 

The next day was even more disturbing   and threatening to them

            when Jesus drove the animals out from the Temple courtyard

                        and overturned the moneychangers’ tables.

            Those in charge at the Temple recognized those events

                        as an   in-your-face challenge    on their own turf…

 

… so the next day when he came to the Temple grounds to teach,

            they demanded his credentials and asked,  by what right à

                        Jesus interfered with the way they were running things.

vs. 1                             

            When he 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?”

 

The temple leaders were so focused on controlling their turf,

            that they ignored or rejected the message and warning

                        that Jesus was sending by what he was saying and doing.

          They were more intent

                   on defending their temple system and institution,

                             then they were,

                                      of being sure that they were on the side of God.

 

Jesus replied to their challenge, giving them a second chance,

            by offering them  opportunity to reconsider John’s ministry,

                        and their commitment    to walking with God.  vs. 24-25a

            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?”

 

The authorities at the Temple we so set on the externals

            their rules and rituals, the Temple organization,

                        so entangled and committed to the Temple institution,à

 

                   à that they never even considered the possibility,

                           that John the Baptist might have been sent by God.

                                   

Centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah had described this: vs. 13~

            The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote; so I will do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. … On that day the deaf shall hear … the eyes of the blind shall see… and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

 

    The ministry of Jesus included bring sight to the blind,

            hearing to the deaf, the sinners and outcasts coming to God.

Jesus was doing all those signs described by Isaiah,

            but the religious leaders refused to see it or accept it,

                   their stubborn self-interest ruled over their hearts.

 

They wasted this golden opportunity  for careful reflection.

            Though they knew what Isaiah and the prophets had written,

                        they still rejected and refused to see the truth,  à

           yet sinners and outcasts repented, and did turn to the Lord.

 

Rather than honest consideration, they plotted church politics;

            ‘how do we protect our turf, our status in the institution?’

 

Consider what Jesus asked, and how they responded.    vs. 25-27

            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.”

 

They missed the point & opportunity of the question Jesus asked,

          and refusing to answer, revealed their hypocrisy before all.

 

Jesus must have been very disappointed by their cold rejection,

          and that   they calculated   rather than    reconsidered;

                        so he told the parable about the father’s two sons.

 

The first son who says, "I will not", but then changes his mind,

            representing the tax collectors and sinners

                        whose lives had been a rejection of God's commandments;

      yet who then repented and responded to Jesus,

                        who transformed their lives into faithful obedience.

 

The second son who says, "I will", but then does not obey,

            represents the religious leaders and authorities

                        whose outward religion said, "yes",

                                    but who rejected and opposed God's work in Christ,

                                                and who wouldn’t work in the Father’s vineyard.

 

There was no mistaking the point of the parable.

            Interestingly, the Greek word, "changed his mind",

                        is not the same word that is often translated, "repent";

            but it’s a different word that specifically means,

               "to change what you care about – or what matters to you"

 

What mattered to the first son, became   obeying his father’s will

            rather than whatever   had earlier   caused him   to say, "no".

After their encounter with Jesus Christ,

          outcasts and sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes

             by God’s grace  changed what mattered most to them,

                   for now they cared about obeying the will of the Father.

 

In contrast, the religious leaders who appeared very religious

            would not change their hearts   hardened into hypocrisy,

                        and would not submit  to obeying the will of the Father.

 

They allowed no room for God to operate in their lives         

            which lead to their spiritual stagnation and malaise;

                                                                        which is a risk     that we all share.

 

That is the point of this passage and parable,

            that we too can fall into the same trap and snare,

                        so sure that we have every detail and truth just right à

 

à that we can become complacent, set in our ways and stagnant…

            … unwilling to consider that we might have a piece wrong,

                        or that God might be up to something different or new,

                                    something other than our experiences of the past.

 

The religious authorities were set in their ways and assumptions

            and they were unable or unwilling to consider anything new.

They allowed only limited space for God to operate in their lives

            which lead spiritual stagnation, hypocrisy and malaise;

                                        …  which is a terrible danger that we all share.

 

The question and challenge is this,

            is our faith fresh & moving, are we growing along our journey,

                        or are we just repeating religious ritual and experience

                                    cycling through the same old thing again and again?

          Do we live as those who walk with God in freshness and wonder?

                        Are we more like son # one,   or more like son # two?

 

There is great danger in being a   regular-religious-insider

    going with too-easy, comfortable, self-assured pat answers,

            that can lead to religious hypocrisy & spiritual stagnation.

 

God is supposed to be unchanging from age to age,   not us.

       So  what is different about our faith this year from last year?

            Has our faith grown, has our walk improved these past months?

      Do we talk a better Christian game  then we are willing to live?   

So how do we combat spiritual stagnation, hypocrisy and malaise?

          How do we keep our faith fresh, moving, growing and joyful?

 

            Sometimes the problem is that we have ignored God ---

                        whose Spirit is nudging us, but we won't deal with it.

Spiritually, we may silence the Spirit by separating from Christ

            -if stubborn, we’ll go no further on our spiritual journey

                        until we are willing to hear with integrity and obey.

 

              Spiritually speaking, we'll stagnate and stop growing

                   until we deal with whatever God has placed before us.

 

We can go through the motions of religion easily enough,

            and we may even fool ourselves   for a while,

                        but we're not going to really hear anything more from God

                                                until we are willing to do what we can,

                                                   until we obey God's will that we already know.

 

It’s pointless to seek God's will if we are not going to follow;

            and hypocrisy, stagnation and malaise will settle in 

                            if there is too much space between

                              the words we say   and the words we actually do.

 

Spiritual stagnation and cool complacency can also set in

          if we are not growing deeper in our relationship with God,

                   if we’re not trusting that God isn’t done with us yet.

 

So we may need to take on a new challenge,  to break the old mold,

            move past our present experience and familiar comfort zone,

                        and actually risk failure  or upsetting the institution

                                    by trying something new, difficult or demanding.

 

*   Our call is to put our faith into action, and even if we fail,

          for far better to wear out,  than to rust out   doing nothing.

 

Are we just talking the Christian life,  saying empty words,

      or are we willing to get off the bench and really play the game?

 

            There once was a father with two sons.  

                        He called them to go, and work in his vineyard.  

                                    One said, “No, I will not, but then he did. 

                                                The other said he would go, but then he didn’t. 

 

                    May God guide and bless us,

                              to live something more than just empty words;  à

          for it’s never too late to regroup and find grace, 

                       to go out, find our purpose and delight

                             as we obey and work in our Father’s vineyard.