Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
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Readings: Philippians 2: 1-13 and Matthew 21: 23-32
Today’s Collect is one of the recent additions to our Sunday collection, and it is based on words of St. Augustine. We pray – “Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” The idea comes through that we will only find true fulfilment and satisfaction in life when we search for the reality of God’s presence in our lives and what it is that God is calling us to be and do.
This is one of the lessons we are being taught in the parable that forms part of today’s gospel. It is set in the context of a question about Jesus’ authority. When Jesus asked the chief priests and the elders a question in response to the question they had asked him, he wasn’t dodging the issue or stalling for time. Because, if the authorities didn’t recognise the goodness, the God-ness, of John the Baptist, then they weren’t going to recognise the authority of Jesus either. People flocked to John for baptism: the ordinary working people, including sinners and outcasts; they heard his authoritative call to repentance and responded. All regarded John as a prophet, except the religious authorities, who weren’t sufficiently spiritually aware to see that something new from God was happening with John, and with Jesus.
Now, in the parable, neither son was perfect. Both were unsatisfactory, but the one who in the end obeyed his father was far better than the other, who said he would go to the work, but didn’t. We probably recognise examples of both categories of people today. I’m sure we can all think of someone who professes no faith and yet seems to do more good than many professing Christians. We need the grace to hand the matter over to God to judge. Let’s not overlook that Jesus did say that the tax-collectors and prostitutes were going into the kingdom ahead of, not instead of, the chief priests and the elders. He did say elsewhere that those shown great forgiveness can also be those who show most love. Looking at the parable story on just a more practical level, it’s about making choices and practising what we profess, and also about promises and performance.
And what about us? Maybe we recognise in ourselves something of both sons, or the people in those groups. Maybe one day we say ‘yes’ to God, setting out with great enthusiasm and good intentions, and then fail to live up to that promise; on another day we start off by saying ‘No’, in a grumpy or uncooperative mood, but then surprise ourselves by some good that we do. Human beings are complicated mixtures, with propensity for great good, and for more underhand behaviour, given the right, or wrong, circumstances.
St. Paul’s words from the familiar second chapter of Philippians speak about humility. Jesus humbled himself, not regarding equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave and being born in human likeness. So St. Paul urges us to be of the same mind: in humility regarding others as better than ourselves.
Humility is not self-deprecation, but acting and making decisions through a strong and firm and accurate sense of our identity in Christ. C.S. Lewis said, “The thing about a truly humble person is not that they think less of themselves, but that they think of themselves less.” So, in the parable, the first son had the strength of character to change his mind after saying ‘No’ to working in the vineyard, and eventually meeting his father’s wishes.
So there is much about self-awareness in these readings, and in the Collect. May we better recognise that our hearts will be restless until they find their rest in God. Let us endeavour to deepen our spiritual lives and come to understand ourselves better, and become more dependent on God day-by-day; more in tune with him, so that we live more fully to his praise and glory, that we find fulfilment, and become of greater service to others.