PENTECOST 16

Sunday 28^th September 2014

“Two Sons”

Peter Davey

Readings:

Philippians 2: 1-13

Matthew 21: 23-32

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Our Gospel reading this morning from Matthew contains one of those little stories of Jesus that are so deceptively simple. A father has two sons and he says to the first son, “Go and work in the vineyard son”. And the son says “No, dad, I have better things to do!”, but then he goes away and does work in the vineyard. The father says to the second son, “Go and work in the vineyard son”. And the son says, “Yes, dad, of course”, but then goes away and doesn’t work in the vineyard. Which one of the 2 did the father’s will? They say, “The first”. And then Jesus puts in the punchline, “Believe me, prostitutes and dishonest tax-collectors will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before you!”

Now Jesus was directing this story to the Jewish elders and authorities in the Temple in Jerusalem, but let us not kid ourselves. In 21st Century Dunbar, this story of Jesus is directed towards us and all Church goers. So what do we understand by this story?

Well it seems to me that the first son represents those people in our community  who, for various reasons, are on the edge of society. In Dunbar we might think of drug dealers, vandals, prostitutes or thieves. Such people know that they are not honest and upright citizens and they don’t even pretend to be. The second son however represents those people who see themselves as good citizens who try and live lives according to the values they were taught as children and particularly those who are trying to be good Christians. These people try their best to live honest lies adhering to the moral code they were taught by their parents or by the church or what they read in the Bible. To be honest, I think most of us fit into the second son category. These two sons are very much like the two sons in another famous parable of Jesus; that of the Prodigal Son. The first son is the one that takes his share of his father’s inheritance and goes away and spends it all on drink, drugs and women. And then, when it all goes horribly wrong, he realises what a complete fool he has been and returns to his father to beg his forgiveness. The second son in that story is the one who stayed at home and did his duty, but when his prodigal brother returned he resented his father’s generosity and love for his brother saying, I have been here doing my duty all these years and you never threw a party for me!”    In this story Jesus is saying that you are better off being a prodigal and then recognising yourself as hopeless, rather than trying to live a good life and being self-righteous. The point Jesus is trying to make is that entering the Kingdom of Heaven is about dying to self and becoming like a child, relying totally on the love and forgiveness of the Father. The reason prostitutes and tax-collectors enter the kingdom first is that they are more likely to acknowledge their unworthiness while the so called good people think they can rely on their good deeds to get them into the Kingdom.

But in our gospel story Jesus says that the 2nd son says he will work in the vineyard but then doesn’t do so. This is because what Jesus means by working in the vineyard is bearing the fruit of love and compassion in our lives like that of his own life but such a life is impossible without the Spirit. That is why the very righteous Pharasee and Temple leader nicodemus was told by Jesus that “he must be born again of the Spirit”. For only the Spirit of Christ in us will allow us to bear the fruit of love and compassion. Our own self is incapable of doing it and we have to get it out of the way, to die,  and let the Spirit of Christ abide in us. But first of all we must recognise our utter hopelessness  to truly love our neighbour and then we can allow Christ to live in us.

Now you might be sitting there and thinking, “Ah yes, but it is all very well for you to stand there and say these things, but aren’t you also one of those in the category of the second son?”, and you would be right! I was brought up as a Christian and live a reasonably upright and moral life. I go to church on Sundays and do good deeds from time to time. It is for each one of us to meditate on this parable of Jesus and decide if we are indeed one of the self-righteous ones that Jesus is so critical of. This is where Paul’s words in the epistle are so helpful. He writes, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”. Each one of us has to reflect on whether we do have the mind of Jesus, and every day surrender ourselves to the Spirit of Christ and allow him to live in us and love through us. No amount of reading or studying will transform our minds into the mind of Christ. Only the Spirit can do that. As Cardinal Newman puts it in the prayer I love so much, “Jesus, flood my soul with your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.” This transformation is a long process and we have to work it out for ourselves. 

In the epistle Paul puts it this way, “Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure”.

So let us, through contemplation and in the privacy of our own hearts, allow the Spirit to transform our minds into the mind of Christ so that our thoughts, words and actions may be those of Christ Jesus born from love and compassion. The good news is that Jesus tells us in his parables that once we recognise that all our efforts to be good and righteous are useless and we too come to the father for forgiveness, the Father is waiting to welcome us into the Kingdom.