Scripture/Sermon of the Day.  October 1, 2023

Philippians  2:5-6

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 
who, though he existed in the form of God,
   humbled himself (and) took the form of a slave.

Matthew 21:23-32

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

23 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?” 24 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. 25 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?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.” 27 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.

The Parable of the Two Sons

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.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 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. 32 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.

Reflection/Sermon:

I.      I was watching the war drama on Netflix and HBO called The Pacific, based on the recollections of two of the surviving Marines of the battles of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  In one of the scenes, a group of Marines are sitting in bunkers they dug out of the sand, on the beach, and one of them sees a crab that’s next to a rock.  A Marine takes out his lighter and lights it and is about to put the fire onto the crab.  Another Marine, with a look of shock on his face, yells at his colleague with the lighter:  “What are you doing?!!!”  It stops the Marine with the lighter from burning the crab.

II.     In another scene, a village has just been shelled and a group of soldiers inspect the ruins for signs of life.  In one shack they hear a baby crying.  They go inside and see a man and woman, probably the parents, died but the infant survived.  The three soldiers making the inspection just stood and stared as the baby cried.  Finally, another soldier came in the dwelling, saw the child crying and went to him and picked him up and tried to comfort him. As he carried the child out he looked at the three soldiers who were still there, staring, and he said, “What’s the matter with you?”

III.    Genesis tells us we are born in the image of God — but that image is not realized.  It is the purpose of our lives to be like midwives to that image so that it can be born and allow God to live through us.  That’s what this parable is about, this short parable about the two sons, which is only in Matthew’s gospel.  The image of God is what moves us to DO God’s will.  Doing God’s will, Jesus says, is more important than saying all the right things.  Anything done in love, in compassion, in kindness towards another life — animal, human, tree — is a sign that the image of God has risen from our depths to the surface of our lives, regardless of what we call ourselves.  Paul refers to this image of God as the mind of Christ.  They’re the same.  We’re all born with this mind — it’s in us right now.  It may be dormant — but it’s the part of us that is most real.  God put us here to wake it up.

IV.     This is the truth proclaimed by all the great religions.  And they have their own traditions and stories.  Here’s one from the Zen Buddhist tradition, another way of saying what Jesus tried to show in the parable of the two sons.
There was an old woman in China who supported a monk for twenty years.  She built a hut for him and fed him so he could use his time meditating and reading the scriptures.  After all these years, she wondered what kind of progress he’d made, so she asked an attractive woman to help her.  “Go and embrace him,” she told her.  Then say, “What now?”

The woman visited the monk and went up to him and embraced him.  Then she said:  “What are you going to do about it.”
The monk said:  “An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter, and nowhere is there any warmth to be found.”
The woman returned to the old woman and reported what happened, and what the monk said.
The old woman, furious, said, “To think I fed that fellow for twenty years!  He showed no consideration for your need or interest in you as a person.  He did not have to respond to your passion, but at least he should have shown some compassion.”
So the old woman at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down.

V.      The old woman had hoped that after twenty years of spiritual practice, the monk would have realized more of his hidden image of God.  But he failed the test. 
I bought this book by the monk Thomas Merton (who died in 1968 when he was 53) called Life and Holiness more than thirty years ago and just read it. In the first paragraph of the introduction, Merton says, “The most common and the most mysterious aspect in the Christian life is GRACE, the power and the light of God in us, purifying our hearts, transforming us in Christ, making us true children of God, enabling us to act in the world as his instruments for the good of everyone.”
This is what Jesus tried to tell us in his stories, his ministry, his death and resurrection.