PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

Sunday 25th September 2005

Trinity 18 | Year A | Proper 21 Track 1 | Ordinary Time Week 26

Exodus17.1-7  |  Philippians 2.1-13  |  Matthew 21.23-32

Terrible joke to start with...

One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her thimble fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"

The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and that she needed the thimble to help her husband in making a living for the two of them. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden thimble.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked. The seamstress replied,

"No."

The Lord again went down and came up with a silver thimble.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked. Again, the seamstress replied,

"No."

The Lord went down again and came up with a wooden thimble. "Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked. The seamstress replied,

"Yes."

The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home happy.

Some time later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river. When she cried out, The Lord again appeared and asked her, “Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the water!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with Mel Gibson.

"Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the seamstress.

The Lord was furious.

"You lied! That is an untruth!"

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Mel Gibson, you would have come up with Tom Cruise. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes', you would have given me all three. Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to Mel Gibson."

In a tangential sort of a way that story is about honest and practising what we preach... which is what today’s gospel story is about...

ALL ABOUT ME!

We’ve taken a jump forward in Matthew’s story since last week. The gospel story has moved on a pace and Jesus has entered Jerusalem, with palms waving and cheering, riding on a donkey in the manner that either a priest or a king or a prophet would... he has cleared the temple out and generally made himself unpopular with the religious authorities. His card has been marked. So now they approach him while he’s in their temple, teaching their people on their turf, and - apparently not unreasonably - they demand to know by what right - on what authority - he’s doing “these things” (like riding into town like a prophet or a priest or a king when he’s clearly none of these things!, and upsetting their careful temple money-changing operation, and now teaching their people.)

THE JOHN-JESUS LINK

But the religious people have a weakness in that they have refused to acknowledge John the Baptist and his ministry - they might not have condemned him, but they certainly didn’t support him: they sat on the fence when they knew (or so it is implied in their “talking amongst themselves”) that John was right - he was received and accepted by the people, they saw the fruit of repentance, they heard his call and his preaching, yet they remained unmoved.

The religious people refused to believe John’s message of repentance.. perhaps they didn’t think they had any reason to repent? But also - significantly - John pointed to Jesus as the one who would “baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire!” (Mt 3.11). If God was speaking through John, then God was speaking through Jesus!

So because they refused to acknowledge John they know they can’t answer Jesus’ question, because if they do they will condemn themselves as being unwilling to see God at work or do what God asks of them - and have to admit that Jesus has come from God - which was the answer to their own question in the first place!

(From the way Jesus answers the question with a question the implication is quite clear that Jesus believes both he and John the Baptist have been sent by God to Israel - and that they have rejected both of them.)

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

So the story Jesus then tells is about the difference between saying and doing. In a nutshell: actions speak louder than words. Simply knowing what God requires, is no substitute for actually doing it...

The first son said “no” but did what he was asked with bad grace; the second said “yes” and didn’t do what he was asked at all...

The Philippians passage is probably a well known liturgical hymn already known by many - Paul merely includes it and uses it as an illustration... but Paul reminds his listeners that fine doctrinal statements are one thing - but that they need to be lived out - there are practical implications for Christian living in the fine words they sing or recite in worship. In this case it’s about humility and self sacrifice. Words are important, but deeds test the words...

The “vestry prayer” we use with the choir and servers before mass as we kneel at the altar rail is a reminder to those of us involved in leading worship here at St John’s: “Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our lives... through Jesus Christ our Lord...”

CHURCH IS FULL OF HYPOCRITES...

Christians are some times accused of being hypocrites; people who say one thing and do another. In one sense that will always be the case: we profess to follow Jesus, to walk in the footsteps of the perfect human being, God in our flesh. We say that we try to love others as Jesus did, that we seek to bring forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that we treat people as we see God treating us...

...and yet we don’t... we fail... we get it wrong... we’re self centred instead of Christ centred. We’re lazy and apathetic. Sometimes we deliberately choose the wrong way or say the wrong thing, or ignore what we know we should challenge.

So in that sense there will ALWAYS be a gap between what Christians say we aspire to, the pattern set for us, the road we’re called to walk... and what we actually do. So yes, Church is full of hypocrites. But the good news is that there’s always room for another one... and we’re not content with being hypocrites, we are trying - with the help and grace of God - to narrow that gap between our image and our likeness.

I’m reading a book by Bishop Kalistos Ware at the moment called The Orthodox Way, which is an apologetic for Orthodox theology and spirituality, and he’s wont to use lots of lovely throwaway phrases and pearls of wisdom. In one he talks about how as human beings we are made in the image of God and yet called to be moulded into the likeness of Christ and he describes the process of discipleship as “moving from the divine image to the divine likeness...”

In the gospel story Jesus shows us that consistency and honesty are what God really requires. God asks us to be improving hypocrites!!

TWO NOT-SO-GOOD BOYS...

In Jesus' parable the man has two sons. Who are the sons? Well since the parable is told to the religious leaders and it’s explained that the prostitutes and tax collectors are entering the kingdom ahead of them, the two sons represent the Good Religious people - who have the fine and right WORDS (like the second son who says he’s going into the vineyard, but doesn’t); and the outcasts - who don’t have the right words, but ACTUALLY DO the right thing (like the first son who says no, but does go to work).

There is the contrast again between the upright religious who think they don’t need to repent and the outcast “sinners” who know they do... There’s an element of rebellion in the son who says no, but then come s round: there’s an element of deception in the son who says yes but doesn’t do anything about it.

It’s worth noting that in this parable nobody is praised! The story uses two very imperfect groups of people - neither son in the parable was likely to bring fulfilment to his father, even though the job got done in the end. Yet the one who did what he was asked was far better than the other.

I’m sure we’ve met the two types of people Jesus talks about: those whose profession is better than their actions; and those whose actions are better than their professions... And neither group are particular “good”....

REVOLTINGLY PIOUS...

There are those who claim to be terribly pious, or their words lead you to believe that they are - they usually don’t laugh at rude jokes, or they frown at laughter - but their practice doesn’t match up with the image they try and put over: they don’t say their prayers, or love their neighbour, their faith doesn’t actually touch their lives or whatever. There is no depth to their commitment or faith.

...CYNICALLY GOOD...

Then there are those who claim to have no faith, are loud in their protestations at what a bad thing the Church is, about how religion is all right for children and old ladies, but not for them... and yet often their lives are lived with more practical love and care for their neighbours than some Christians... they are often cynical or irreligious, and they are not always comfortable people to be around.

But the point of the parable is that while the second group - those whose actions are what they should be - are more preferable than the first group, both groups are far from perfect. In the authentic consistent person, practice meets profession.

JUDGEMENT: A MESSAGE FOR US!

This story is one of three - we get the next two over the next two weeks - about judgement. Jesus is challenged by the religious people on their turf and his response is to tell three stories about them showing the religious people of his day to be inadequate in their response to God... It’s sobering stuff, because whenever we come across “religious people” in the gospels we know that we can just as easily read “church people” today... What Jesus said to the religious establishment of his day, he also says to us who claim to be the religious people of our day...

So in this story the religious people are slammed for sitting on the fence; for not doing what they know God wants them to do; and for generally being inadequate in their response to God.

So what of us?

WHAT’S SAFE? WHAT’S TRUE?

Is there a challenge here to move from expediency to truth? Not to ask the question “What is safe to say?”, but “What is right, what is the truth?”. To say “I don’t know” when we do know, but are afraid that we might be laughed at , or prove unpopular is cowardice.

The parable is a challenge to us to be consistent in our words and actions: we should practice what we preach - there should be some kind of consistence in our proclamation and our lifestyles. Yes, we know we will fail and get it wrong... and so we know we need to repent - to turn around, to say sorry, to seek God’s forgiveness, to allow God to pick us up, dust us down and set us on our feet again to carry on walking his way.

SO WHAT DO WE PREACH?

So if we are to practice what we preach, part of our “preaching” must be to realise that we are not “holier than thou”, we haven’t arrived, we are not perfect, we are not infallible, or sinless... our “preaching”, our profession (our preaching) is all about knowing that we are forgiven, and that God constantly offers us a new start... that although we fall down and fail, God repairs and restores us. If THAT is our preaching, then we stand more chance of our actions and our words matching!

AND WHAT DO WE PRACTICE?

But that does require a degree of humility and self knowledge. “There but by the grace of God go I...” - this sermon is becoming riddled with clichés and naff sentiments... But with all these popular statements there is an element of truth in them...

HERE ARE THE MAIN POINTS AGAIN...

So the story is told against the religious people of Jesus’ day - so it is also being told to us here in this church today.. and the challenge is to be consistent, to practice what we preach (or what we profess); and the warning implied is that our preaching (our profession) should be about God’s Grace, not our goodness.

Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea