LENT 2016 - GOING TO JERUSALEM

Friday, February 19
The Parable of Two Sons - Matthew 21: 28 – 32

             “I don’t want to!” I expect there’s not a parent alive who has not heard some rendition of those words from a child.

           Clean up your room! I don’t want to!

           Eat your vegetables! I don’t want to!
           Do your homework! I don’t want to!

           Get off that computer!  I don’t want to!

            Sometimes, the “I don’t want to” becomes “I don’t have to.” (Just ask any church nominating committee.) And sometimes it becomes, “you can’t make me!” (Just ask any church nominating committee.)

            In this parable there are two sons. Their father asks them to do some work on the family farm. One refuses, but has a change of heart and goes to work. The other son promises that he would go, but never shows up for work. “Which of the two did the will of the father?” (v.31)

            Oh, is this a trick question, Jesus? Why are you asking me?

Look, Jesus, I meant to show up at the Feed the Hungry supper to help but it was snowing. Yes, I know that I signed up for the bible study but it’s on my favourite night for TV. I was just about to get up and go to church, but I fell asleep again. I was all set to volunteer at the Food Bank but a friend phoned and invited me to a hockey game. Yes, the pastor asked me to be on that committee, but I… don’t… want … to!!!! He can’t make me!

In a book that I am currently reading by my favourite O.T scholar/theologian, Walter Brueggemann, he points out that the biblical concept of obedience is not about doing one’s duty or being obligated because of hard-core, religious rules. Obedience arises out of the wonderful, loving relationship that we enjoy with God.  

As in any free, loving relationship one of our greatest delights is in making the other happy. We do unto others, or God, not out of sullen duty or fear of punishment but because when we witness the happiness of another it gives us such great joy, too. This becomes our “true heart’s desire”.

Brueggemann writes, “Thus one in love is constantly asking in the most exaggerated way, what else can I do in order to delight the other? ...one does not count the cost, but anticipates that when the beloved is moved to joy, it will be one’s own true joy as well.” (Truth-Telling as Subversive Obedience, p.10)

He defines obedience “as the concrete, visible way of enacting and entering that desire, so that duty converges completely with the desire and delight of communion,” (p.12).

Jesus says all of that in his question, “Which of the sons did the will of his father?” Ask yourself, at least, why the first son changed his mind about helping his father. I think it was because he loved his father.

The Father needs his children to work the family business. The Kingdom needs people to step up and do the work. But out of love, out of joy, out of the blessings one gives and receives when doing the Father’s will.

Glad you decided to show up. Grab a hoe. Here’s a wheelbarrow. The back-forty needs weeding. There are work gloves in the shed. 

By the way, where’s your brother?