Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
Pentecost 20, 09/28/2008
Sermon on Matthew 21:23-32, by Luke Bouman
Matthew 21: 23When 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?" 24Jesus 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. 25Did 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?' 26But if we say, ‘Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." 27So 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.
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.' 29He answered, ‘I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir'; but he did not go. 31Which 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. 32For 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.
"By What Authority"
Pastor Johnson sat in his office and stared at his desk. "How could things have gotten to this point," he thought to himself. He had just been asked to resign. I looked like he would have to leave the congregation and community where he had served for a scant four years. And all of it had to do with a sign. He had not approved of a new sign that was erected in front of the church by the congregation's preschool. But then no one else, not even the church council, had approved of it. The sign itself wasn't bad. It wasn't especially in a bad location. It was just the principle of the thing, done without approval. So the pastor had gone out himself and corrected the problem, taking down the sign and placing it in storage until it had gone through the proper channels. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but in retrospect, it was heavy handed, insensitive, and a couple of other things that were yelled at him by angry members right before the council took the vote that requested he seek call elsewhere within 6 months or face termination of his call.
In reality this was simply the straw that broke the camel's back for Pastor Johnson. He had been in contentious discussions since the day he arrived at Amazing Grace Church. It is just that they did so many things wrong and he knew the right things to do. He had been right about most of them too: updating the worship service, reorganizing the committees (and doing away with the "do-nothings" who were on them), redesigning the Sunday School program and youth ministry, all of the changes he brought were met with resistance but were good for the congregation, or would have been if the people had just accepted his wisdom. He was the pastor; he had the authority of the pastoral office behind him. He did not understand why they didn't follow him. As feelings of grief and failure washed over him, his head grew heavy and hit the top of his desk with a loud "thunk." Why had things gone so wrong? What was he going to do now?
The next day he dutifully called his Bishop to let him know what had happened. He made an appointment and drove to the nearby city where the office was. He did not know what to expect. The bishop was kind and caring, but far from comforting. He asked Pastor Johnson to reflect on the topic of authority. "What authority does a pastor have?" he asked. "How do you exercise that authority? Most importantly, how is your authority tied to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" The bishop suggested some bible resources to help reflect on those questions. With a kind, almost fatherly smile, he sent Pastor Johnson home with an invitation to come back in a month to talk some more. Pastor Johnson knew, somehow, that there would not be another call for him until, no UNLESS he figured out answers to these questions. He went home determined, but also worried and puzzled about his future.
The Authority that Compels
Much of the way the world does "authority" is to use it in such a way that it bends the will of others to match those in power. Government uses such authority (thank goodness) so that we might live together in relative peace and harmony. Government abuses that power whenever it enforces laws that degrade a portion of the population, as with "Jim Crow" laws of the last century. This kind of authority is also used by some in the workplace, to ensure that people do their jobs and to encourage them to do their jobs well. (It is a matter of some debate, of course, how effective this is.) This is the authority that compels people to act or think in a particular way. We even find this use of authority at work in families and households. Whenever "because I said so" is the answer to the child's question why, the authority to compel is in use. When used well and with good intent, this authority is good for many, if not most of us. It is part of the gift that God provides so that we can live together in a sinful world.
The question I find today's text asking, behind the story of Jesus and his confrontation with the temple rulers of his day, is how this gift is being used or abused by those same officials (or Jesus for that matter). Perhaps it would help to reframe their question. They seem to be asking, "Do you, Jesus, have the power to enforce the things you are doing and teaching?" By implication they suggest that this is a power that they alone possess. By extension, they are suggesting that Jesus authority is somehow under their jurisdiction and control, and if pushed they have the authority to shut him down. In some sense they are right. By the end of the week in which this confrontation occurs they do shut Jesus down. These officials (let's be careful to remember that it was not the entire nation, but this group within it) conspire to arrest Jesus and have him executed in order to shut his movement down, ostensibly for the good of the nation.
It is not surprising to us, at least in the nearly five hundred years since the reformation, that we continue to see religious people acting in the same way. Many use whatever authority they have to try to control either belief or morality based on the power to compel. Some Christians (Lutherans among them) seem consumed with how to think about or understand God. We "know" that there are rights and wrongs, which we have labeled "orthodox" and "heresy" so that we might clearly separate the good thinkers from the bad. Other Christians have determined a set of "right practices" or norms which the church might enforce, leading to "Puritanism" historically, and to all sorts of levels of control today. Whether thought or action, such things are carefully monitored and if a person doesn't conform, they are either tossed out or subjected to "reprogramming" by those in authority.
Without going into a full debate on whether such practices by religious groups (not just Christians) are good or bad, what I will say is that they have a negative impact on one thing above all others in the realm of spirituality: faith. One cannot be compelled to trust. One cannot be forced to have faith. If faith is required of us who follow God, or at least of those of us who follow Jesus, it cannot be demanded or commanded. Relationships, even with God, which are formed in love, for love, cannot be forced.
Interestingly, we know all of this. We know that those who try to force an unwanted relationship on another have crossed the boundary of decency. We call them stalkers, or worse. It would be, for example, like the young man I once knew. He was so convinced that God wanted him to marry a particular young woman that he engaged in some very bad behavior, scaring the poor girl half to death with his advances. Because God created us, out of love, for a loving relationship with him and with each other, our lives in relationship are ordered differently. When we forget this, we risk losing the spiritual quality of our relationships altogether.
This does not mean that there are no standards of belief or moral action. This does not mean that we don't admonish one another out of love. It means such things are signs of our broken world and our broken relationships, not vehicles by which they might be restored. That is why Jesus finally rejects an authority that compels as appropriate for the temple leaders in his day, and why those of us who lead in today's world need to sit up and take notice. The authority to compel, what we normally term "the Law" can indeed point us to our failings, can show us that we lack the relationship with God that we need, but it does not create that relationship, and in fact may not even work when that relationship is not already firmly established by another means. This kind of authority is not how God chooses to create relationships. Jesus himself embodied and taught a different way.
The Authority that Invites
The authority that Jesus talks about is instead an authority that invites. This authority based on gracious action, is deeply embedded in Israel's rich history. It is the authority that is at the basis of each of the covenants that God makes in the Old Testament, whether with Abraham or Jacob, whether with David or Israel as a nation, God invites people to trust by giving them gifts and keeping promises. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus continues this practice by gifting people with meals, with healing, with life, with wholeness, as a sign that God's promise to send a Messiah is fulfilled. In the process people, many of whom were on the outside looking in, were now invited to participate in the messianic feast. These include the "sinners," the prostitutes and the tax collectors, who are mentioned again in today's text and have been a source of controversy for Jesus. Apparently they could not be forced into a relationship with God by the religious people of the day, but they could respond and be transformed by grace and love. Then, only then, did they heed Jesus' command to go and sin no more. What we have traditionally called "gospel" creates a context for a saving relationship. It invites people to trust, to have faith in God.
So Jesus shocks us again, by challenging us to learn, to experience, to live a different kind of authority, not the authority of the earth (helpful though it might be in certain cases) but the authority of heaven. This challenges us because it reorders how we see everything, from the rules we set to the way we use scripture. Now, mind you, I'm saying that gospel alone, without law, will allow us to order our lives. We are, as Luther said, both sinner and saint, and as such we are not ready to build our lives on the authority to invite alone. But we cannot either build any kind of faith though compulsion. And it is only when we act willingly, out of faith, that we actually do the will of God anyway.
This kind of authority is unknown and hidden to the temple leaders who ask Jesus their question. His question of them is not evading them at all. Instead he is asking whether they have any grasp whatsoever of the "authority of heaven" the authority of John and of Jesus. Their answer indicates that they do not have a clue. Just so, our answers, in our everyday dealings with each other in and out of the Church, will signal to what extent we have "gotten the message" and to what extent we say that we are going out to do the God's work when we don't, in fact, go.
A Loving Invitation to Love
Pastor Johnson's phone rang while he sat at home, numb, unable to move. It was Mabel, a wise older woman who seemed always to be at church and never complained once, that he was aware of, to either side of any dispute. "Is everything ok with you?" he asked her. "I should ask YOU that," she chuckled in reply. She explained that she had heard about the vote of the previous day, well, everyone had. She wondered if he needed anything, and he put on his best "I'm ok" routine. She paused for a moment and then decided to speak from her heart.
"Pastor, I hope you don't mind my telling you this, but we actually do love you, most of us, anyway. But what I wonder is if you love us. I mean, you seem to be a smart fellow, and most of your ideas are pretty good ones. But it seems like we aren't good enough for you. All you want to do is change us, second guess us, tell us where we are lacking. You say that God loves us, but you don't seem to act like God will really love us until we are better, until we are, well, more like you. I don't think, in my heart of hearts, the people really want to see you go. Whether you know it or not, we're all about as broken up about this all as you are. Now, I don't know as there is a way to do this, but if we could all just step back a bit and think about how much God has blessed all of us and how God has placed us together mostly to invite others in, not keep them out by bickering amongst ourselves, maybe we could get this figured out. I just have a sense that your ministry is not a matter of telling us what to do, but a matter of showing us that we matter to God and to you. That way, maybe, we could start making some of those good choices together with you, and not against you, if you know what I mean."
These words hit Pastor Johnson like a punch to the gut, and it was a minute before he realized that she has spoken them softly and kindly and with deep love for him. The enormity of the failure to demonstrate love in his ministry, a failure to which he had been blinded, suddenly appeared before his mind's eye and he began to sob. Mabel listened to his wordless cry for what she deemed long enough and then began to speak again.
"Pastor, I'm not smart enough to tell you how to go about this. But I just want you to know, again, how much love there is for you out there, waiting, just waiting for you to show us that you love us too. Now, I know that you have that kind of love in you. I'll expect you'll find a way to let it out. And remember, actions speak louder than words."
With that, she said goodbye, and Pastor Johnson sat in silence and marveled at the courage and wisdom of this sweet old woman. His mood had taken a turn, however, and he was surprised at how motivating and empowering her expression of love, in the form of this phone call, had been. As he went to sleep that night, he was determined not to let her down. He did not know whether it would be in his current congregation or in another town, but one way or another, he would find a way to live out his calling differently. He would, as Mabel has suggested, "find a way to show that the people mattered to God and to him." Where he would find the strength he wasn't sure. But he trusted that God would take care of him, and give him strength when he needed it. He tossed and turned that night, not with worry as before, but with the eagerness of one who prepares for a journey to a new destination.