Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on September 28, 2008
(Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32
Psalm 25:1-14
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:28-32

When I was in high school I vaguely remember a conversation with my mother that went something like this. “Carl, will you sweep out the garage?” “Yes, Mom, I will.” Three or four, maybe five days later she said, “Carl Douglas Mann, (You know you’re in trouble when your full name is used), I thought I told you to sweep out the garage!” “No, you asked me if I would sweep out the garage, and I said that I would.” “Then why is the garage still dirty?” she asked. “Because you only asked me if I would, you didn’t say when you wanted it done!” You know, I’m so glad that I wasn’t my son.

I willfully chose to ignore the implied imperative embedded in her question, which was less of a question as it was a command. What I needed was what my father used to call an attitude adjustment! Now looking back, as a parent, I know in my heart that in playing clever word games I demonstrated disrespect to my mother. And as a parent, I would have to say that both boys in today’s Gospel demonstrated disrespect for their father.

In fact, it was more than just disrespect, which is a lack of courtesy; they caused their father to lose face both publicly and privately. They did not honor their father; the first by verbally disobeying his father’s direct command, and the second by giving lip service to his father’s command, and then ignoring it completely.

But Jesus’ question to the chief priests and elders of the temple wasn’t, “which of the two sons dishonored their father the least?” But rather, “Which of the two did the will of the father? And they answered him correctly by saying it was the first son because even though he initially said no, he changed his mind, and went into the vineyard.

Now the Greek word that is translated as “changed his mind” doesn’t mean he just did the opposite of what he said he would do but rather he changed his way of thinking about that for which he was concerned. In other words, he adjusted his attitude toward his father; he had a change of heart.

A change of heart! Where have we heard that? In the Old Testament lesson this morning, God has Ezekiel say to Israel, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” “If you, my chosen people, don’t adjust your attitude, if you continue to act contrary to my will, you, not I, will bring ruin upon yourselves.” And of course this is what happened. Nebuchadrezzar sacked Jerusalem, and carried the key citizens and their families off to Babylon, which was located in what we now call the country of Iraq.

“Get yourselves a new heart!” God delivered the Hebrews, His Chosen People, out of the bondage of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea into the Promised Land, and established a covenant with them by which to live. Now the heart of this covenant is that they will have no other gods, worship no other gods, and serve no other gods than the Lord their God because the Lord is a jealous God who tolerates no rivals for His people’s devotion, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate [Him], but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love [Him] and keep [His] commandments.

Now by this commandment, it appears that God will penalize those who act contrary to His will, including extended family members, and only love those who love Him and keep His commandments. But during the period, from the time which God gave His commandments to His Chosen People to the time of Ezekiel, the Chosen People made it abundantly clear that they were incapable of loving God and keeping His commandments. Over and over again, they turned away from the Lord and followed the pagan gods of neighboring countries. So God sent His prophets to warn them of their impending doom if they continued in this manner, and as mentioned before they were conquered by Babylon.

But I want you to notice something that God says through Ezekiel. The sentence about eating sour grapes causing the children’s teeth to be set on edge is in direct relation to the provision in the covenant about visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generations. It appears that God is having a change of heart! God says, “Know that all lives are mine.” In other words, His steadfast love is for everybody because everybody belongs to Him. Death is still the ultimate outcome for those who choose iniquity but He no longer wants to hear anybody whining about or blaming others for the situation they find themselves. Everybody has to be responsible for their own choices. True, we will still be judged according to the ways that we have chosen to live, but it is God’s will that we all live. Therefore it would behoove us to cast away the transgressions we have committed against God, and get a new heart and a new spirit!

Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that we can’t. We are incapable of a change of heart on our own. Time has proven that when left to our own devices, we continue to act contrary to God’s will. We constantly put other gods, other idols, and other impediments in the way of our relationship with God.

But the Good News is that God has recognized our incapacity. He recognized that the old covenant, based on the written law, had become a burden to His Chosen People of which they were incapable of bearing. So He says in Ezekiel (11:19) that He will give His Chosen People one heart and put a new spirit within them; He will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. And in Jeremiah (31:31-33) He says that He will make a new covenant with Israel; He will put His law within them, and write it upon their hearts, and then He will be their God, and they will be His people! No longer will they teach or say, “Know the Lord” for they will all know Him in their hearts; for He will forgive them their iniquities and remember their sin no more!

Jesus Christ is that new covenant! God became incarnate in the person of Jesus! Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law and the prophets by dwelling among us, and giving us the same warning; if we choose any god or idol or obstacle to rival God then we will bring ruin upon ourselves; we will be eternally separated from the presence of God in death.

But the Good News continues. Not only did Christ dwell among us, He also died for us in order to atone for all of our iniquitous choices. And by His glorious resurrection He abolished the sentence of death in that if we choose to believe in Him, being baptized into His life, death, and resurrection, then His Spirit will dwell in our hearts forever, and we will live eternally in the presence of God the Father! No more separation!

You see, God didn’t really have a change of heart. He has always loved each and every one of us since before He even created us. But we misunderstood His commandments. We continually separate ourselves from Him, and mistakenly perceive that He doesn’t love us by blaming everyone but ourselves. We even blame Him, the very Source of Love. But in His steadfast and merciful love we are given the opportunity and the power to transform our hard heartedness by choosing to accept God’s gracious gift of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. By sharing in His love and His spirit only then will we be in full accord and of one mind with the will of God. So let us pray to the Lord that we may become obedient children, showing honor to our Father in heaven. Gloria Patri