Doing

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 1, 2023

21 Proper A

          In 2015, Don and I were both deputies to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Neither of us had been to Utah before and we were unsure what to expect, other than that it would be very hot there in July.  We are both from Arkansas, so we know hot.  The days at General Convention start at dawn and end late, but I managed to get up early and walk most mornings.  What I remember most about those walks, in addition to the breathtaking scenery, is the scorching sun and the intense dry heat.  We knew hot and humid.  We did not know scorching and dry.  If I didn’t get out by 6am, the heat was prohibitive.  But the bizarre thing was that, despite the heat, I would walk 3 miles or so and never break a sweat.  Or at least that’s the way it seemed.  The reality was that the sun was so hot and the heat was so dry, that sweat immediately evaporated.  The risk of dehydration was very real given the hot, dry heat and there were large jugs of cool water in the lobby of every building.  I learned quickly to drink all the water I could hold. 

          I think about the dry heat and scorching sun in Salt Lake City when I hear the concern of the people in the reading from Exodus this morning.  They are in the hot, dry desert and there are no jugs of cool water anywhere to be found.  The total lack of  water is a recipe for disaster and the people are right to complain to Moses “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?  To kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”  The people are frantic and panicking, which is understandable even if God did just assuage their hunger with manna and quail in last week’s reading.  Now God will assuage their thirst with water that comes from a rock.  I cannot begin to imagine what the desperately thirsty people must have felt when water poured from the rock.  This is yet another miracle in the desert that demonstrates God’s love and watch care over God’s people.  In the wilderness, the people are learning what it means to be in relationship with God and to trust God in the most extreme of circumstances.

          In Jesus’ parable this morning, we hear about a father’s relationship with his two sons.  When asked to go work in the vineyard, one son says he will go, but he does not.  The other says he will not go, but he does.  Jesus asks “Which of the two did the will of his father?”  The response from the religious leaders is the first son because the first son actually does the work.  And on a certain level that is correct.  The first son did the will of the father.

The writer of Matthew’s gospel is very concerned about doing the will of God.  In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  And in the same gospel, when Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are outside waiting to speak with him, he points to his disciples and says “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  Clearly, doing the will of God is important to Jesus.

          And yet, when the religious leaders respond that the first son is the one who actually did the will of the Father, Jesus’ response is “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of heaven ahead of you.”  Does that sound like “right answer?”  Just before Jesus tells this parable, Jesus asked a trick question of the religious authorities.  Jesus asked “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?”  Now Jesus asks another trick question.  “Which son did the will of the father?”  The answer to this either/or question is neither.  The will of the father is neither to say “yes” and do “no,” nor is it to say “no” and do “yes.”   The will of any parent is that words and actions match and that the child can be trusted.  That is the will of the Father in Jesus’ parable.  Trust is the foundation of relationships.  Good works are important but the good works that come from the depths of a good relationship are what really matter. 

          The passage from Philippians calls us into a relationship with God from which good works will naturally flow.  Among other things Paul says “Let each of you look, not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in your that was in Christ Jesus.”  Then Paul goes on to describe the relationship between Christ and God, one in which Christ humbled himself to do the will of God.  Paul ends by saying “For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.”   That does not sound like either of the sons in Jesus’ parable!

          The Hebrew people spent a very long time experiencing all the challenges of the hot dry wilderness, learning to live in relationship with God.  They learned to trust that God would provide, to follow where God led, and to obey what God asked.  They did this because of the relationship God established with them before God ever led them out of Egypt.  Jesus’ parable reminds us that our relationship with God is primary and the good things we do flow from that relationship.  Doing is important.  But doing is not all that matters. What matters is the doing that flows from a relationship with God which we can trust God and God can trust us, or, in Paul’s words, a relationship that enables us to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.           

                                                        Amen.