Year A Proper 22 2 October 2011
Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Psalm 19 Philippians 3: 4b-14 Matthew 21: 33-46
I’ve known some pretty wonderful people. I’ve also known some great people who told me quite openly that they are pretty good people. I think I’ve touched on this subject before about people who are fine and upstanding citizens who like to believe that they would never succumb to the pits that others do. But it is from someone with greater wisdom comes the saying, “There but for the grace of God go I”.
One of the biggest pitfalls for “good” people is the misconception that they might be “good” enough to earn a place in heaven. The old fashioned term for this is actually “Self righteousness”, and it is a “right-ness” that comes from obeying the law of God. Good people will tell you that they keep God’s commandments. In fact some influential baby boomers and generation Xs have been so effective in encouraging the next generation, that you will find most people see themselves as good. The evidence of this is in how offended people become if you should hint that they may be sinners. Most people, without knowing what God’s commandments are, will assume that they keep them all.
Our first reading for this week lists those commandments, the first one being, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2,3
Following on from this is the next command: Exodus 7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
We live in a country that worships the god of football. Our culture idolizes the god of good looks and intellect, and all of us to some extent serve the god of materialism. We live in a globally connected society that constantly misuses God’s name as an exclamation. My own little “hobby horse” is to try to get children to understand that some people may find it offensive to use the exclamation, “Oh my God”. But this little phrase has become such a catch phrase that the Legally Blonde musical actually has a song titled, “Oh my God”.
Generally we know that nothing is meant by the phrase and it is as meaningless as “bust my buttons!” However, there is a tradition among Jewish writers of writing G-d this way. They put a dash in the middle so that they are not technically using God’s name. They knew that God was serious in His commands and so they treated his name in all aspects with the upmost respect.
We live in an age of the Grace of God. We overlook sins because we know that Jesus died and took all the punishment for these things, but does that mean that the commandments are no longer valid?
As in many things to do with God, we are dealing with a two sided coin. On the one hand we have the commandments which are in every way valid and eternal, but on the other hand we have the fact that we simply cannot keep these commands perfectly and thankfully we have the grace of God to save us.
In our readings this week we find St. Paul striving to teach the Philippians about human goodness, because he was once a very fine, admirable and upstanding citizen. St. Paul was one who kept the commandments perfectly – at least as far as the “letter” of the law was concerned, yet he failed when it came to the “spirit” of the law and was ignorant that he was lost, until he was confronted by God.
Philippians 3:4b-7 “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”
St. Paul considered all his confidence in his own goodness to be complete loss for the sake of Christ. Why? Because he was aware that his “goodness” left him ignorantly misled and hardened him from any awareness of his need for a saviour. He was persecuting the followers of Christ and thought he was doing the “right” thing, yet the sick, the poor, the tax collectors and prostitutes and those who were acutely aware of their sinfulness were able to easily receive the grace of God and the gift of eternal life.
Our self perceived goodness is a stumbling block to seeing things as they really are, just as is our self perceived cleverness. The Psalm this week explains that the Heavens declare the glory of God. Nature itself is testimony to the person of God, but the self perceived clever won’t listen. Our cleverness gets in the way of allowing us to be vulnerable enough to simply say, “Wow! This is the work of God” and instead we labour for another explanation.
Our Gospel reading shows us the seriousness of self perceived “right-ness”. Jesus tells a parable which seems so outrageous. It is about a land owner who planted and established a vineyard then rented it to tenants. These tenants refused to give the land owner his fruit and they abused the servants that the land owner had sent. Finally the Land owner sent his son, but the tenants actually killed the son, thinking that they would then receive his inheritance.
It seems ridiculous that these tenants could be so foolish as to think that thinks would turn out okay for them. But this is a parable about the religious leaders, the Pharisees, who were listening to Jesus. They were so convinced of their own goodness that they couldn’t see the harm they were doing. It is a parable that was told to try to awaken and warn the people of Jesus time, but it is written down to be a warning to us.
The commandments of God have not been nullified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. What has happened is that those who realize their need for a saviour and confess Jesus as Lord are completely forgiven any failure to keep those commands. – But first to be forgiven we must admit our sin.
Philippians 8- 9“ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
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