The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.( Mt 22:15-22

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I think maybe it’s time to talk about the church.

Because Paul’s enthusiasm for the church he founded in the city of Thessaloniki, as recorded in 1 Thess 1:1-10 is so encouraging.

Like him, I too am enthusiastic about the church .

Paul tells the people there, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers in Macedonia and Achaia, and because of you, the Lord’s message has spread everywhere in these regions.”

As Dr. Barclay has it: This is Paul at his most winsome. He is complimenting the church on its real qualities, but he will also, later in this letter, issue a gentle rebuke. 

But that’s OK, we all need to be set back on the right track sometime.

Barclay says that with Paul,  even when he rebuked, he never wanted to discourage,  but always to uplift.

In every person there is something fine, and often the best way to get rid of the lower things is to praise the higher things. The best way to eradicate faults is to praise virtues  – so they will flower all the more.

Everyone reacts better to encouragement than to rebuke

And so,  because they come from a loving heart, Paul’s joyful comments to the people in the church in Thessaloniki, bring us joy too. 

I would like to think that someone who had left this church for parts afar, would remember us, and write to us in such a heartwarming way.

I imagine so.

Don’t you?

I hope so, because that is the only sort of church that can do God’s work here in earth.

By God’s work, I mean all the things we do here, and out there, that bring us to the notice of other people. The things we do and say that will have people asking, “What church do you belong to?” 

How do you do it? 

And then we can tell them.

Paul says that that church – and he means the people, not the building – they may not even have a building as yet – they serve God while waiting on the coming of Christ.

They live in the world doing God’s work, but are conscious that at any time, God may decide to call us all home.

This sort of church,   is one that can only be what it is,  by being, as Barclay has it, ‘In God.’

He says that just as the air is in us,  and we are in the air, and cannot live without air, so the true church is in God and God is in the true church, and the church can’t live without God.    

And, since that same God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need not shiver in fear of a God who is a tyrant, but instead, bask, in the sunshine of a God who is love.

They couldn’t be the sort of church they are, unless they are ‘in God.’

They couldn’t be the church they are unless God guides them, and governs them, and is ‘in them.’

That’s the only way it can work, but, you know,  sometimes it is just all too much for some people. Serving God is just too much for them. 

Emerson Colaw tells about doing some work with his church’s membership list. He was writing to those who hadn’t been in church for a long time.

He wrote to one family that had been very active in the church, and he got a letter back that said:  “Mr. Colaw, we now live near a university campus and we go every Sunday to the chapel service there. They have unusually fine music ….they have nationally known preachers every Sunday morning,” and here she added a note that he didn’t think  was really necessary,    she said, “We had never heard such preaching as that before. The children are being taught in Sunday School by seminary students,”

And then she ended, “ But the best of all is there is no membership, no pledging, and no women’s committee asking me to work. So if you don’t mind, we’ll just discontinue our membership at your church and continue to enjoy what we have here.”

No involvement, no bother, no crosses.

This family went to a church where they didn’t have to serve God, and that’s how they wanted it.

What sort of church was that? Would Paul say about that church, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers?”

Not!

The church exists to serve God, to glorify God, and so do we – the bricks of our church.

Without God there will be nothing accomplished, nothing gained, and come that great day when we are called to account for how we used the gifts that God gave us – we will have nothing to report! 

Even the children of Israel, as wayward as they often were, had to  acknowledge that they needed God to be with them every single day.  

In Exodus we read, Moses saying that  they will not move unless God goes with them.

“If you aren’t going with us,” he says, “ Then please don’t  make us leave this place.”

That’s like you or I saying, “ God, I am not going to take another step in my life without you to guide me.”

And I mean that. I can tell you, that I got lost when I set out without Him.

In our Gospel reading today, we see a Jesus who is ‘in God,’ and God  ‘in him.’  Over the last few weeks, we have heard him challenge  the religious leaders over the way they were living their lives  – they thought they were doing very well, until Jesus put them straight.   

If you remember he has compared them, in the story of the two sons, to the son who wouldn’t do his father’s will.  In the story of the wicked tenants, they are the wicked tenants. In the parable of the king’s feast, they are the condemned guests.   He has been giving them ‘ what for.’

And now, this week, we see them going onto the attack.

The Pharisees have joined with some from the party of the Herodians, two parties who hated each other, but came together to attack Jesus.

They have dreamed up a way to damage the credibility of Jesus in front of a crowd of people.

Now  I understand that  everyone hates paying taxes – there may be some people here this morning who actually like paying taxes – but I think I am safe in saying that most people hate them.

It was no different in those days. There was a tax on what the farmer harvested. There was income tax and there was a head tax, or poll tax. This was the one that was being used to challenge Jesus.  The amount of the poll tax was one denarius per adult. One denarius was slightly more than a man could earn in a day.

The questioners knew how people hated paying taxes. They hated them for purely economic reasons –  obviously – and they  hated them from a religious point of view. The emperor’s head was on that coin, the emperor who called himself as a god.

There is only one God, of course. So for a Jew, even using  money on which there is such an image could be a blasphemous act.

So, the religious and political leaders came up with their big question, their plan to catch out, Jesus. “Should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”

You can just see them watching  Jesus, as the one chosen to ask the question spoke up, and  smiling a little as he asked it.  This time, they think they have him.  

“What’s your answer to that? Huh?”

But as we read, Jesus turned the tables on them. He asked them whose face was represented on the coin, and when they answered, “Caesar’s,” he simply said, “Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

Pretty smart eh?

He was on the ball, wasn’t he? Well, Jesus had an advantage over them, he knew whom he served.  He served –  God his Father.  Those who know what they are doing will always win out over those who don’t. 

I am reminded of a story about two clergymen who were arguing over some fine doctrinal point.

They had argued for some time, when eventually, one minister said to the other, “Look, what are we fighting over? We are both striving to do the Lord’s work. You do it your way and  ……….I’ll do it His way.”

Doing things His way is what we should be about, isn’t it?

We all need to be reminded now and again for whom we work. .

But more than that, we should remember that we can’t do anything meaningful if He  is not in and of our  church. 

And we will never do anything meaningful, if he is not in and of, our life – if  He isn’t with us!

Moses said to God, “If you go  with us, everyone will know that you are pleased with your people. That way, we will be different from the rest of the people on earth.”

Isn’t that what the church – that’s us – should also be saying? Be with us Lord, and make us different?

Amen

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom ofGod.” (Matthew 5:13-20)

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I was in a town in Belgium called Diest, on a number of occasions  as I stopped, with my friends, on the way to Dunkirk to board the ferry across the Channel, to come home, and one thing that I remember is that the streets in that town were very dark, with street lamps very rare.

The brightest lights came from signs in the windows of the bars.

I remember a comedian once describing Belgium as a country illuminated with one forty watt bulb.

I knew what he meant!

The thing was that you were drawn to the lighted windows of the bars, out of the dark, and into the light inside.

I have known Christians – people who professed to be Christians who had no light in them.

Had no enjoyment in them.

Dark, like those Belgian streets.

And I don’t mean people who were undergoing trials, sickness, or other hardship, I mean people whose lives seemed to me to be normal, but they had no warmth, no light, no joy, in them.

And that doesn’t only apply to everyday people: Oliver Wendell Holmes, once said, ” I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

And I must say that the preachers I heard as a child didn’t seem to have much humour in them. They had the right words, the projection of their voices, the correct intonation,  but not a smile, or a sense of the joy of being close to Jesus.

And their sermons were designed to make you feel guilty, and uncomfortable.

We should be like a beacon, like a lighted window on a dark street, welcoming and professing the joy we find in knowing Jesus.

Like someone once said, if you are not enjoying, it you aren’t doing it right.

If you are not a happy Christian, you may not be practicing your faith right.

But the point is that we don’t shine because of some native luminosity within us,  but that we reflect the light of Christ in us.  

And what we do, and what we are, should point people toward our Father who is in Heaven.

I have met, and so have you, people who have real hardship in their lives, or have suffered great loss, and yet you wouldn’t know it from their demeanor.

They have a love and a light about them that uplifts you just to be near them.

It isn’t that they have a magic formula.

 It isn’t that they are on medication.

It isn’t that they have mastered some trick that helps them see beyond.

It is because they have Christ in their lives, and that light shines through the hard stuff. 

What may help them, is realizing that  Christ  walks with  us. That we are not alone on our journey.

.

And we just can’t help sharing the light. .

We all know people like that.

And you are drawn to them. Because love shines out of them.

You know what I mean?

And it isn’t about obeying the law. Or about being so good. Or being a stickler for what’s the right thing to do.

And that brings me to something Jesus says today, that seems contradictory.  Seems to go against what Jesus, and Paul have both,  taught.

In Romans 10: 4, Paul tells us that “Christ is the end of the law.”

It has been a great part of Paul’s ministry that once we belong to Christ we don’t need the law.

We have the law written on our hearts, if you like, and we just act right. 

Can’t help it.

Jesus said the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

The law was made for people, not people for the law.

But Jesus is saying here today in Matthew’s Gospel,  that whoever breaks the least of these commandments or teaches others to do so, will be called the least in the kingdom of God, whereas those who obey them, ( the commandments that is ) and  teaches others to obey them, will be called great in the kingdom of God.

And yet Jesus, himself,  broke the law, didn’t he?  He healed the sick on the Sabbath, for example, annoying the Pharisees.

So what do we make of this?

This seeming contradiction?

Some people have been so puzzled by this that they think  Matthew has Jesus extolling the law to make his Gospel more appealing to the Jews, since Matthew’s gospel is the most Jewish of the Gospels.

William Barclay sees things differently.

He tells us that the Jews thought of the law in four different ways.

First, ‘the law’ means the Ten commandments.

Secondly, the term ‘the law’ also means the first five books of the Bible.

Thirdly, they used the phrase ‘The Law and the Prophets’ for the whole of Scripture

Finally, the Oral or Scribal Law.

This last was the most common meaning of the Law, during Jesus’ time and this is the form of the law which Jesus and Paul condemned.

In the Old Testament, there aren’t that many rules and regulations, mostly there are broad principles which we can think about and use in life.

The Ten Commandments for example, have these great principles, which are there to guide us..

But to later Jews these principles did not seem enough. And since the commandments came from God, you could use them to come up with a rule and regulation for every issue that you might face in life.

For example, the Sabbath must be kept holy. Quite simply you should not work on the Sabbath.

But what was work?

How was work defined?

The carrying of a burden is work, according to the Scribal law . 

But what constitutes a burden?

Food that weighs as much as a dried fig, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a wound, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, and so on.

Burdens!.

You get the picture.

The Pharisees were among those who had worked out these rules, and lived their lives trying to adhere to them.

Scribal law had been oral law for  centuries, but eventually  a summary of the law  was made, and written down, and is known as the Mishnah,  which contains sixty three tractates on the various subjects of the law,  and which in English comes to eight hundred pages.

Later, commentaries were written to explain the Mishnah, which became known as the Talmud.

The Jerusalem Talmud comprises twelve printed volumes, the Babylonian Talmud comprises sixty printed volumes.

So there were thousands of legalistic rules and regulations to be heeded.

This was the kind of law Jesus and Paul both condemned.

Reverence for God and a respect for others, is to come out of love of God, and not from love of the law.

You can see that trying to live a life that is entirely blameless, would be impossible. In fact it was said that if one person could live through a day without breaking the law at all, then the world would end.

You can live your life by trying to satisfy “The law of God ”  and as we have seen, that law can be expanded exponentially, or, we can show our gratitude for the love of God.

That is the message Jesus brought.

And to those who asked him which law was the greatest, he answered, ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

“And Love your neighbour as yourself.”

That’s it.

Two laws.

Period.

An everyday real life example of what Jesus was preaching,  that love is more important than the law – and that Christ should shine out of us in such a way that people know we are Christians, happened like this:

A lady at a church I attended liked to organize events. In fact it was a skill she had, and had taken upon herself. And she was good at it.

At one event she had asked for volunteers to help and a young woman new to the church, was one of the volunteers.

The event was an outside barbecue, and when it was over the chairs and tables had to be brought back into the church.

The new young lady volunteer brought a chair in and not knowing where they went, stood it against the wall and turned round to bring more.

The organizer saw where the young woman had placed the chair, and said,” Not there stupid!”

It was so important to the organizer that the chairs  be in the right place – you might say according to the “law” – her law – that love and understanding went out the window,

That young woman attended for a little while longer, then left the church.

Now you might say that she shouldn’t have been so easily offended.

Or you might say that if that was the kind of Christian that church was producing, she didn’t want to belong to it.

In everything we do, and say, without knowing it, we show the world what kind of Christian we are.

The light of Christ within us, should shine on the person who is ahead of us in the check-out line, with a lot of stuff, buying lottery tickets, cashing in coupons and who then takes up more time by searching in her purse for every little bit of change she can find. 

The light of Christ within us should shine on the person who takes the last parking spot, the one we thought was ours.

The light of Christ within us should shine – even down the phone line –  to the person who is calling for the umpteenth time to ask if we want our heating ducts cleaned.  I must admit I have a hard time with that one myself.

Our light needs to shine on the person whose dog poops on our lawn.

Our Light……you get the picture……

………….and it’s not always easy.

But it is possible..

I was talking to a young woman once who was being given a rough time by her ex-husband, recently divorced. 

She told me she was still terribly angry at him, and that anger burned inside of her and  kept her awake at nights.

What should she do?

I said, “Pray for him.”

No way was she going to do that!

I pointed out that anger is physically and mentally damaging, and the only way I knew to rid oneself of such anger is to pray for the perpetrator.

Pray that God will move in his heart, will make him aware of his cruel actions.

Pray that God will guide him into a better way of acting, pray for his soul.

That, would be showing love for an enemy – wishing God’s love and guidance for them.

It may hard to understand, but when you have a light reflecting  God’s love for you, it can’t selective. 

Because when you think about it, a light that is placed on a hill can be seen by everyone.

Good or bad.

Amen

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

Jesus said, “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants^[a] to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;^[b]
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is marvellous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”^[c]

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.   (Mt 21: 33-46)

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Jesus is laying a story on the chief priests, and Pharisees, and quite obviously, at that. The landlord  in this story is God, of course. The tenants are the chief priests, the scribes and the religious lawyers. The servants who are sent by the landlord to collect the rent, are the prophets of ancient times  – killed for telling people the error of their ways – and the son of the landlord, of course, is Jesus himself.

The religious leaders had been trusted with the care of Israel, but had seized it for themselves. And they see Jesus as a real threat to what they have going on.

This story tells us that Jesus already knew he was going to die. And the people he is talking to?   The truth is, they can’t change . They are as much prisoners of the system as are the poor.  They might,  if they really, really, wanted to – change – but it would call for too great a sacrifice. 

One man who did  manage to change, of course, was Paul. He had been one of them.  As he says here, he had been one of the religious elite. He had been part of the power structure. He had persecuted Christians. He trod the same road as those who crucified Jesus.    He had been one of the elite, but ironically, had been a slave to the law.

Confronted by a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus,  he turned his back on a lifetime of  worship of the law,  and followed Jesus.  He realised that despite all that he did to obey the law, it hadn’t been able to save him.

Today, he tells us that he has given everything up for Christ, and counts all his past achievements as garbage.       And he  has no regrets.   He says, “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ.”

“Christ showed me,” he says, “That what I once thought was valuable,  is worthless.”

Have you been following the stories of the heads of huge corporations?  Those  who have been caught  stealing vast sums of money from the companies they ran?  Sums  so vast that their companies collapsed around them?

Did you read about how one family looted the company they ran, of hundreds of millions of dollars? The prosecutor says they used the company as a personal piggy bank.

The main culprit is the  family patriarch, who is seventy-five years old.  He has already lived past the average lifespan for males in North America. 

And yet, this man who could be called to his judgment any day now, is still robbing and lying and accumulating loot.

“What is a man of seventy-five going to do with hundreds of millions of dollars?”  He can’t spend it in his lifetime. It isn’t to leave to his family,

because his sons were riding the same illegal gravy train.

We are not talking about making a comfortable life for yourself here. We are talking about greed for greed’s sake.

Did his greed blind him to all sense of proportion?

He is going to die someday soon. Probably in prison. Hello???

How is all that money going to help him then?  Doesn’t he know he will have to answer for everything he has done?  And soon. And he too will realise, too late, that what he has valued is truly worthless.

You know I read something that really made me sit up and take notice the other day. It was written about near death experiences, by a surgeon who has been present at many of them. 

You know what usually happens, don’t you?  The person’s heart stops, usually during surgery, but sometimes in the patient’s hospital room. The doctors rush to revive the now ‘dead’ patient using those paddles placed on the chest. They do it a couple of times and the patient’s heart starts beating again.

When they have come around enough to be able to talk, some of them tell of having gone toward a bright light, meeting dead relatives, or even meeting a Christ-like figure. They report feeling a deep sense of peace, and happiness, and they usually say they will never again be afraid of dying.

You have heard these stories, haven’t you?

Well this surgeon says that when he questioned patients about their near-death experiences, he found that  for  over half of them it wasn’t so wonderful at all.

These people reported  seeing dreadful landscapes, lakes of fire, and horrible figures – demons – for want of a better name – and intense fear. It was terrifying!

When they have had more time to think about their experiences, they decide not to tell anyone,  as they are ashamed to talk about it.   

The people to whom Jesus was preaching – the same ones who would ultimately crucify him- were hanging onto power. They were hanging onto their perks. They were probably even scheming to add to what they already had, and just like those modern day criminals, we have talked about,  they were apparently oblivious to the fact of their inevitable journey from this world to the next.

And to the coming judgment.

But Paul doesn’t fear judgment. He isn’t living his life out of fear of retribution. He has come to love Jesus, and enjoys telling about it, and he wants his friends to continue to find joy in their faith, and,  in their lives.

And he very emphatically warns those friends in the church in Philippi,  against those who would enslave them to Jewish laws. He says that knowing Christ is enough.

Now our Old Testament lesson today recounts the Ten Commandments.  Does what Paul is saying mean they are no longer needed? If Christ is enough? 

A big emphatic, “ No!.” Those laws are still valid.

But if you look at just a few of them  you can see that you could look like you are obeying all those laws, and still not be a good person.

Do not worship any God except me.  Well we know there aren’t any other gods, don’t we? So that’s an easy one.   

But even though you may not worship Baal, or any other heathen god,  there may be things in your life that you put before God.  Think about the things that take up all your time and a lot of your money?  If you  give inordinately – if you sacrifice  – time and effort, and money, to something, then isn’t it a god, to you?

Do not misuse my name. This refers back to when it was thought that knowing someone’s name allowed you  to use it against them in magic.  I think that using God’s name in vain is an insult to God. You could avoid doing that, and so be on the right side of this commandment,  but still have a filthy mouth.

Remember the Sabbath. I remember people who would never work on the Sabbath. But they never went to church either. They didn’t use the Sabbath in the way it was meant to be used. They didn’t work on Sunday but they  sure didn’t keep it holy.

Respect your father and mother. It’s possible to respect your father and mother, but not to really care for them.

Do not murder.  I know of instances where a person’s life has been almost destroyed by lies, and yet the liar could claim never to have murdered.

Be faithful in marriage.  We have read sad stories of  couples whose public face has been one of  marital accord, and have heard later of terrible abuse that went on behind closed doors. And yet the abuser could claim never to have committed adultery. 

So you get the idea.

Sticking to the letter of the law is easy.  What we want is people who stick to the intent of the law.

And the intent of the law?

Well Jesus summed that up when he told us: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. And  Love your neighbour as yourself.

The religious leaders obviously didn’t do this, and yet, they would say they obeyed the law in every way.

And so have today’s leaders, corporate and political. How many times have you heard, “ Everything I did was within the law.”

Tell that to the shareholders and bond holders, and the banks left holding worthless paper.    And the employees now without jobs, and with pension funds ravaged.

And did they enjoy doing what they did?   Do they really feel fulfilled?  Do they consider they have contributed something noteworthy to  this world?

And we?  We who try hard to live as Christ did, and find ourselves falling back at times; discouraged at times; despairing at times?  What about us?

Like Paul, we are not perfect.  We haven’t yet reached our goal – the goal of living  in Christ, and for Christ.  But let Christ take hold of us, and help us keep running towards the prize.

Because the past is over, gone, forgiven, and should be forgotten, as we strive with  new life in Christ, to win the prize of being called to Heaven.

This is the prize God offers because of what he did in Christ Jesus. 

This is the prize that is open to us, because of his life, and death and resurrection and glorious ascension.

And in striving for that, think of the legacy you will have left in this world.

Not because of what you took, but because of what you gave.,

he Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

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?”

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 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 said 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 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. ( (Matthew 21:23-32):

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The preacher went on and on, and some of the people began to wonder when he was going to finish. It wasn’t that what he said wasn’t interesting, but rather, most of those there were long time church members and they didn’t think they needed to listen too closely.

And it was a hot day and even though the windows were open, it was stuffy in the church, and most people there wanted to get home for lunch, and hopefully, a cool drink. So they looked at their watches, and sat this way and that, and looked around, and counted the tiles in the ceiling, and eventually the sermon was over and the rest of the service would soon go by, and they could leave.

The parson shook hands with each member of the congregation as they exited, and then he turned to go back inside, to tidy up before he left. But he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw an older man, dressed in old and shabby clothes brushing grass from his pants. The man saw the parson and smiled, “Can I talk with you sir?”

“Well, er, I was just going. But come inside. Would you like a glass of water?

 “Thanks, but no. I just walked into town an hour ago, and was tired, so I sat against the church wall in the shade, and I heard what you said. I meant to be on my way, but something you said stopped me.”

“What was that?”

“You said that because of what Jesus did we are forgiven whatever bad we have done and can be back on good terms with God again. Is that right?”

“That’s basically what I said, “ nodded the preacher.

“Does that apply to me too?”

“It applies to everybody.”

“And what do I have to do?”

The parson took this man by the arm, and led him to the altar rail. “Just kneel here and ask God to forgive you for your sins, and if you are truly sorry, then He will and you will be free.”

 The man did that. He prayed aloud,” God, you know I have been a bad person. You know I have stole stuff, and hurt people. And I am sorry. I am tired of being on the outside. Can you please forgive me. Can you please let me in?”

 Something seemed to change in that old man. He stood up. His eyes were wet but his shoulders seemed to be set a little straighter. His face didn’t seem so lined.

“I’ll go now,” he said to the parson who was also crying, and he walked out the door.

The minister sat there for a long time. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He had preached each week at this church for seven years, and although he knew some of his flock needed to repent of the way they lived, none had ever indicated they would.

Oh, the people at his church seemed like such good people, There was the odd person you had to tread lightly with. There were people who partied a bit. One couple seemed too strict with their children, and he worried about them. But they attended regularly.

They all seemed to listen to what he preached, and seemed to want to follow what he said, but he knew they didn’t.

But this man?

Here was a man who had rejected God, had lived his life outside of God’s grace. had refused God, and yet he had finally realised his mistake and had come back to his Father. (I came across this true story on the web many years ago. Still relevant today)

Matthew tells us that Jesus is talking to those who show their love of God by how they played by the rules, by the law – in other words, how they showed it. They seem to be saying they serve the Lord but often they don’t. The law gives them latitude to look good but not necessarily to be good or to do good.,

And he gives them the story of the two sons, to illustrate what he means. One rejects his father’s order but later changes his mind and does it. The other says OK, but then doesn’t. He is telling the Pharisees something here, but they probably won’t hear what he is saying. Their lives are so organized around the law that they can’t imagine how they could be wrong.

 I am going to tell you another true story of two brothers. One was eight and the other four years old. Someone had given them a budgie in a cage, which they loved, but often forgot to look after. It was their responsibility and mostly they did what they had to do, but being young children they often forgot.

Then one day the cage was silent, and their mother checking it saw the bird was dead Its food box was empty and the water container, was dry. Then she remembered that in the last day or day or so, she had kinda heard, and kinda saw, it do something weird. It would jump down from its perch, head toward the seed bowl and do a sort of strange dance around it before going back to the perch. She had no idea what it was doing, and had been too busy to really check it out..

I remember when she told me about this, about thirty years ago, but it was only the other day that I understood what had happened. I am a really slow learner.

 Birds aren’t so dumb as you might think. They can be trained to do tricks, and they can learn.( Some day I will tell you the story of the chicken that played the piano.)

 This budgie had probably seen that when it did that little dance – made a noise, and jumped around, that it would not be long before food and water arrived. And here it was doing that and expecting the same thing to happen.

This time there were no little boys around, but the bird performed that same ritual, which had been answered in the past, hoping food would appear.

 Like from God?

 We read in the Old Testament, and in other historical accounts that people would have gods whose purpose was to help humans. A god who provided rain, another who provided fire, another who brought good luck and so on.

It seems that humans have always had a real sense that there is a God, and have sought ways to influence God. To win his favour. But how to please this God? How to ensure that he would continue to favour his people? The answer appeared to be that sacrifices would have to be made.

The sacrifice would have to be something precious. God wouldn’t want a worthless sacrifice, would he? So sometimes a child was sacrificed.

The Old Testament refers to this, and we know from archeological research that it took place in South America. You will remember the story of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac but being restrained by an angel. Sacrifice has always been a part of worship, it seems.

We especially remember the sacrifice that Jesus made, for us – his own life, And we remember it in the Eucharist, don’t we?

We relive that last night when Jesus was with his disciples when we participate in the Eucharist.

Such rituals help us to remember and to commemorate, and to make a connection, with our God. And are very valuable as a part of our faith. They help us to come close to God. To feel a nearness with God and with each other. And we do them to persuade God to be near us.

But these rituals are for us, not for God. He doesn’t need ritual, he doesn’t need praise, He needs nothing. He created everything there is. Why would he need anything?

Psalm 50, says it well,” I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. 10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the air,[a] and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine

 If God is so great, and so powerful, then he doesn’t really need anything, does he? Even praise?

 That’s something we need to do. We need to, as I said, to help us feel close to God. I remember the first time I knelt at the altar rail and took communion. I was blown away by the feeling, the blessing, the closeness to God I felt and still do. But really, it’s not what we do in here, in our beautiful old church, that is important. It is what we do out there.

What we do here is to help us to do the important stuff out there. And what we do for others. What we do to others. How we help others. How we Love others.

That’s what He wants from us.

And when we finally do see Him, He is going to ask, ” What did you do? ” Not how much did you worship? Or how many times did you go to church?

 Like he would ask those Pharisees, what did you do for others? And they would say, “We obeyed all your laws.” But he would ask, again, ” What did you do for others?

And He will ask the same thing of us. Not did you jump off your perch and do a dance to please me, but what did you do for others?

You might say, ” Well, I played a good round of golf every week, or I worked hard and built a nice home. Or I attended church every Sunday and sat through hundreds of sermons. And He will ask again, ” But what did you do?” “

And He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”… And the goats on the left…….?.

For over a hundred and eighty years people have needed the church I attend as a place of praise, of prayer , of ritual, of community, and friendship, all of which have helped our forebears, and help us, to know what it is we should be doing out there, and to encourage us to do it.

So we should be able to answer the question, ‘ What did you do?” with confidence.

The man I mentioned at the start of this story, had done nothing good, it seems. In fact he confessed to doing a lot of bad. But when the  minister sat outside that church,for a moment after the service, he thought of people  who attended regularly. Some there would be, the preacher knew,  who didn’t actually follow what he tried to tell them in his sermons.  That old man who had wondered by, not a church attendee, had found something that urged him to move from his old life into a new one.

 He didn’t jump off his perch and do a dance, nor did he make any great sacrifice, all he did was acknowledge his need to be right with God.

I have loved my church. I have loved all who attend faithfully,. I have loved doing worship there,. but I oft need reminding, and maybe you do too, of all we need to do to be right with God. .

It’s not so much is it?

Really!