Changing Our Minds

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 26, Year A – 1 October 2017

Text: Matthew 21:23-32

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Today, Jesus tells us a Tale of a Father With Two Sons. The Father has a vineyard, and he needs some work done. He asks one son to go work, but that son refuses to his face. So the dad asks his other son to go work in the vineyard. That son agrees to do the work.

There’s some backstory missing for us, the listener. We don’t know why the first son changes his mind and goes to work in the vineyard. We don’t know why the second son changes his mind and doesn’t work in the vineyard at all. All we learn is that one son does what the father wants, and the other son doesn’t, in both cases because the sons each change their minds. 

This story is a about a question of will. The father’s will – his desire – is for some work to get done in his vineyard. His sons both clearly know what his will is – but only one of them follows through, and we’re left wondering how the dad dealt with both his sons. What words of thanks did he give to the one who did the work? What words of anger did he have for the son who blew him off?

Once, many years ago, I made plans with a friend to go to a restaurant for dinner. I’ll call the restaurant Rob’s BBQ. Early in the day before we were supposed to meet, while I was at my college job, I changed my mind. I called my friend, and I canceled our plans. I don’t remember what my reasoning was – I do remember that my friend was rightfully angry with me for canceling, especially without a good reason.

After we got off the phone, I felt terribly guilty. I knew we would get past it eventually, but I felt badly for causing this rift between us. I stood by the phone and reflected on the conversation and my guilt. I was standing by the window, looking out, toward the UT Stadium, and from that vantage point, I could see the planes they flew over the stadium – the planes that carry the advertising behind them. The planes would circle over the stadium, come toward where I was, and then return to the stadium. Around and around.

As I stood there, by that window, I took a second to read the banner behind one of the planes that afternoon, and – I kid you not – it had a directive on it: “EAT AT ROB’S BBQ!”

I laughed out loud, took it as a sign in the heavens, quite literally, and called my friend. At first, she was suspicious of my sudden change of heart. But she relented and forgave me, and we went to have a delicious BBQ dinner. Most importantly, the rift in our friendship was mended.

There’ve certainly been other times in my life when I’ve changed my mind and things haven’t worked out so well. You probably have those times, too – can you remember any of them?

"Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven."

Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say to God: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” and Luther said that when we pray this, we’re asking for God’s will to “come about in and among us.” And that’s the really tricky part, because maybe I want for God’s will to be done in someone else’s life – maybe someone I think could use some of God’s will in their life. 

Then God tries to accomplish something in my own life, and I resist. God’s will is too difficult. God’s will is too challenging. God’s will leads me to try things that make me uncomfortable or that I really don’t want to do. And so I change my mind from “Thy will be done,” to “Never mind, God! Really. I know best.”

When I do that – when I act like I know better than God - a rift between me and God opens up faster than anything. 

That rift is called “sin,” and I sin daily. I sin daily in thought, word, and deed by what I have done and what I have left undone. Do those words sound familiar? From where?

Right – these are from our corporate prayer of confession. If we say them with intention, then as we pray these words, we think about the times we’ve denied God’s will, and we think about the people we haven’t loved as much as we love ourselves. 

I sin daily, even though I know that God’s will for me is to love God with my whole heart, and to love my neighbor as myself. This prayer of confession is like a re-set button, in a way. It’s like that plane that gave me that directive to go eat BBQ, except this banner might read: “Love God with your whole heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

And maybe that banner would be followed by another, reading: “By grace you have been saved. May Christ live in your hearts by faith.” 

And then, while we’re imagining planes with banners behind them, maybe a third one could come behind, saying, “Go and put your faith and love into action!”

We don’t do God’s will to earn our way into heaven, yet we also read in Scripture again and again that seeking God’s will and doing God’s will are important parts of our lives as Christians. And, for all of the modern-day questioning and proclaiming about what is God’s will (and what isn’t) – this I know to be true: God’s will is what God commands, and Jesus says that the greatest two commandments are to love God with our hearts, minds, and souls, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

So when we come to church and say the confession and receive God’s forgiveness, these are not merely words on a page or in the air. Sometimes I have people who aren’t familiar with liturgy ask why we say these same things every Sunday. “Don’t the words lose meaning?” they ask. 

Well, maybe so. But they don’t have to. These words of confession and forgiveness are meant to be emblazoned on our hearts, our minds, and our souls. We don’t always love God or love our neighbor, even though we know this is God’s will for us. 

But, even as the difficult words of confession sink into our spirits, we then hear the next words: that we are saved by God’s grace, and we are given strength by Almighty God to have power through the Holy Spirit, so that Christ may live in our hearts by faith. 

And when we change our minds – and hearts and souls – away from God’s will, God is always calling us back, so that the rift between us can be mended. 

Let us close with words of prayer from our Hymn of the Day, that we will sing next:

“Give new strength to our believing, Give us faith to live your word.”

Amen.

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