A Sermon by The Rev. Merrill Wade

September 29, 2002

I remember a book about Jesus I read one time that I haven’t seen for quite a while. The book was called Experiencing Jesus. It was written by a Jesuit priest, Mark Link. What interested me were his descriptions of Jesus’ parables. He said they were primarily either "window" parables or "mirror" parables.

Window parables were the stories that you could see through. They created word pictures that startled or comforted the hearer into seeing the work of God in everyday language. An example is the Parable of the Lost Sheep, wherein the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to search for the solitary lost sheep. This parable opens a window onto a beautiful scene where one sees the untiring, vigilant, graceful love of God, seeking that one lost person. How sweet and inspiring it is to see through that window, knowing that it could be me that God is searching for.

Mirror parables are not, on the other hand, stories that you see through to glance stunning heavenly realities. Instead, these are stories that hold up a mirror to their listeners. These are stories into which you look and see yourself.

Even though we are far, far away from Lent and Holy Week, in the church’s calendar, our course reading through the Gospel of Matthew has now brought us to the teaching of Jesus that occurs the week he dies on the cross. We are in the 21^st Chapter of Matthew, and in this chapter Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph on Palm Sunday. He has scattered the moneychangers from the temple, and thereafter he returns to the temple and encounters the legal authorities, the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Naturally, they want to know by what authority Jesus has attacked or cleansed the temple, by what authority he speaks for God, and just how arrogant is he that he can accept the praises of the people on Palm Sunday. Once again, who is this Jesus? The chief priests and elders understand themselves. They are the honored leaders. They have credibility, nobility, and standing. Jesus is a peasant from Galilee, from the backwater of Nazareth, a veritable nobody from a non-place.

Amidst these sociological dynamics Jesus tells the chief priests and elders this parable.

A man has two sons. He tells the first to go to work in the vineyard today. The son says, "I won’t do it." But he changes his mind and goes to work. The man goes to his second son and tells him to work in the vineyard. He responds, "I will, Sir." But then he does not go to work. Let’s stop there.

Mark Link would call this simple story a mirror parable. But before we look in the mirror ourselves, let’s imagine first what the chief priests and elders might have seen as they looked into the mirror Jesus raised before them. In a culture where honor and shame were the prevailing values, the chief priests would have naturally favored the first son. He said, "yes sir, I’ll do it." For them, the father, the keeper of the family’s honor, must be deferred to. It was really more important that he be revered and verbally respected, than for the son to actually go out into the field to do the work. The second son with his rebellious "no" shamed the father, even though he later regretted his "no" and did the work.

The chief priests and elders depended on the system of shame and honor, of superficial and unearned reverence, to stand over and against this country peasant, Jesus. Now he has held up a mirror to them. Which of these did the will of the Father?

Who did what was right, not out of shame or honor, but out of love and obedience? The chief priests and elders are indicted by their own arrogance and bondage to superficiality. They are the sons that say "yes" and give an honorable nod to God, but refuse to change their hearts to see that God is doing a new thing in John the Baptist and in Jesus. They are blind and deaf to what God is doing because it just doesn’t fit their scheme, their box around God, or their self-image.

The mirror is raised, they look and instead of seeing that they need to change, they simply look away. And they do their part in seeing that Jesus is quickly and efficiently done away with later that week.

Today, we baptized Livia and Taylor. In this ceremony we are presented with both a window on the grace of God, and, a mirror. The window is glorious indeed.

We see through the signs of the water, the meanings of the words and promises, the love of parents and cherished friends and family, deeply into the very heart of God. In Baptism, through the power of the Holy Spirit, each child is invited in a tangible way through the touch of the priest and the warm embrace of the church’s love and commitment, to really be a child of God.

They are included in the family of Jesus and are invited to know and experience Jesus; to have a deep personal relationship with Jesus, certainly through the love of the parents, but also through the work of the Holy Spirit through loving and supportive Godparents and members of the church. Through the window of Baptism we can see God’s perfect love, reaching out to these children, delighting in them, cherishing their very existence.

And in every Baptism we face a mirror. It is not enough that we appreciate and admire the love of God. Baptism is a covenant, an agreement that shapes and forms the essence of our Christian lives. God delights in and cherishes our very existence. We can do nothing to earn that love. So instead of trying to earn such love, we choose, we elect, to enter into a relationship with God that allows us to complete God’s love for us. We respond with the gift of ourselves back to God.

A covenant. A relationship of love and respect and trust that is rooted in the unconditional character of God’s love for us.

"Will you…," each of the questions of the Baptismal Covenant begins. "Will you be faithful? Will you seek and serve? Will you proclaim? Will you respect the dignity of others?" Perhaps here we choke, like the chief priests and elders, on the bitter aftertaste of the parable of the Two Sons.

Are you willing, unlike the chief priests and elders, are you courageous enough, authentic enough, to look into the mirror and see yourselves as you really are? Each of us is encouraged to seize this occasion for the renewal of our covenant with God. A mirror is raised up for us. If you don’t appreciate what you are seeing in that mirror, then take heart that you have the courage to look at all. Take heart that God is the shepherd out on the mountainside searching for that one lost sheep. Searching for you.

Perhaps, you have never taken your Baptismal obligations seriously at all. Now is the time. Now is the time to begin to live life with God at the center. So many of us say to God, "I will, Sir," and then go our own way with ourselves at the center of our universe. I feel so pathetic when that mirror is held before me and all I can see is myself.

Perhaps you have never really said yes to God. A real yes. But you have either said no or just refused to look into the mirror. Or even refused to look through the window onto the magnificent vista of the love of God. Now is the time. What better time might there be?

Today yet another mirror is held up before us. In the next few weeks the church will begin its pledge campaign for 2003. When the church holds the mirror of stewardship before us we again see ourselves as we really are. In the American system of life, money is the chief currency. How many times have you heard it said, if you want to understand the priorities and values of an American, look at his or her checkbook? It says it all. Jesus spoke to this. Jesus told one mirror parable after another attempting to illustrate that money was a means, not an end in itself. Jesus knew that money, like all of life, is a gift from God. Money is a gift to human existence to be used for God’s purposes because it is all God’s anyway.

Crystal and I look into the mirror and attempt to be faithful with God’s money. We give 10% of our income to the church and other important care-giving agencies.

We do this because we have been blessed and because we believe in the church as a place of grace. Today we baptized two precious children of God. When you look into the mirror and consider your pledge this year, try not simply to see yourself. Picture Taylor and Livia. Envision the joy and power the Risen Christ brings to the fellowship of this church. Remind yourself of the faithfulness of the Living God. We are so blessed. See life as Jesus sees it. A free gift from God. For stewardship is about grace and offering grace to a hurting world together. AMEN.