Which Son Are You? MT 21: 23-32 10/23/11
The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden First Presbyterian
They were as different as night and day. The oldest boy was always in trouble. “He’ll never amount to any thing” they’d say. “We pity his poor parents” --- while the youngest was a smarmy Eddie Haskell kind of kid --- always having the right words to say -- as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
So one day the dad came and told the oldest of the two boys to get up off his keister and go mow the lawn. “No”, he said. “and you can’t make me.” So the dad turned away shaking his head in sorrow and sadness wondering what he would ever do with his child. “He’ll turn out to be no good,” he told his wife, for what must have seemed like the millioneth time.
But while he was lounging in front of the tv, the son happened to look out the window and saw that the lawn really did need mowing so he got up and he went and he mowed the lawn just like his father asked.
In the meantime, the father had gone to the “good” son, and asked him to do the mowing. “No problem”, he said. “I’ll get right on it. And do you want me to trim the hedges while I’m at it?” “No, son. That’s ok.” And the dad turned away wondering why his oldest son couldn’t be more like that.
All the while, the youngest of the two got himself comfortable in his favorite chair and flipped through the tv channels till he found the Colt’s game. Actually going and mowing the lawn was the last thing on His mind.
Now which of the two boys did what the father wanted? Which one obeyed him? Who was the real “good son”?
The question is so easy even the children know the answer.
The older child, the one who said no, but who went and mowed the lawn anyway, did the right thing. You see, talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words or as they say in AA, “you have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.”
The truth is that anyone can call themselves a Christian. They can recite John 3:16 with the best of them. They can even show up for church every Sunday as right as rain --- even serve on the session --- but once they leave the church, they can make everyone else’s life a living hell, gossiping about who did what to who, cheating their neighbor out of an extra buck --- talking about who’s in and who’s out of the kingdom of God --- certain that their opinion made the difference.
That’s what caught at the priests and the Pharisees in Jesus’ story. They were the religious “right” of their day – they thought they were “right” about everything. It was their way or the highway. They knew who God loved and who God didn’t, and they didn’t need troublemakers stirring up the status quo that put them on top.
What’s more, the crowds knew exactly what Jesus was saying --- and so do we.
It’s not our words that matter. It’s what we do and how we do it that really counts. Jesus even says, “There will be people who will cry out “Lord, Lord”, when I come into my kingdom, but I won’t know them. I won’t recognize them.”
So who will Christ know? He tells us clearly in Matthew 25: I will know the one who gave food to the hungry, a drink of water to the thirsty. I’ll recognize the one who visited the sick and the lonely, who cared for those who had no home, no place to call their own. Those are the ones I will gather to myself. They are the ones who will hear my voice across all eternity saying “Come, my beloved. Welcome home.”
So when someone asks if you can pick up a bottle of shampoo or a tube of toothpaste for RAM so a child doesn’t have to go to school with greasy hair or scum on his teeth, you may want to reach for two --- not just one. Or when someone calls from meals on wheels to ask if you can possibly drive, you may want to reconsider how important it is that you not miss Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for even one day of the month. And when a child needs to be read to and a lap to sit in during story time at the library, you may want to think about how cozy your lap would be.
For what you do matters – both here and in all of eternity.
