Matthew 21:28-32
Philippians 2:1-13

Our gospel reading is disturbing. Why does Jesus appeal to these two sons? Why does he feature the mouthy one, the one who told his father, “no!” Why does he honor tax collectors, economic oppressors, and prostitutes? Why does he make such a bid deal of obedience, not faith? Why concentrate on the external conformity rather than in internal emotions? The parable is hard for us to hear. I’d like to ask why this is so. Then I’d like to look at our Gospel reading before turning to the Epistle reading this morning.

I. We’ve got to come to terms with why it’s hard for us to hear Jesus’ teaching here as good news.

It seems to me that non-Christians have discovered the irony in the transformation of the Christian faith in modern America. Wasn’t it Ghandi who asked why only the Christians were the only ones who didn’t know that Jesus taught non-violence? In today’s world, many artists recognize the distortion of Christianity by Christians in the US. Cake wrote a song, “Jesus wrote a blank check.” Billy Idol, not exactly cut from the same image as Amy Grant, covered a wonderful song from the 70s called, “Plastic Jesus”. It speaks of the type of faith that makes it hard for us to hear the gospel today.

I don’t care if it rains or freezes, Long as I got my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car;
Through my trials and tribulations, And my travels through the nations With my plastic Jesus I’ll go far.

Ridin’ down the thoroughfare, with his nose up in the air
A wreck may be ahead, but he don’t mind.
Trouble come and he don’t see, he just keeps his eye on me
And any other thing that lies behind.

If I’m in the traffic jam, he don’t care if I say **expletive deleted**; I can let all my curses roll
Cause hazy co plastic doesn’t hear Cause he’s got a plastic ear.
The man who invented plastic saved my soul.

If I weave around at night; he’s gone to think I’m very tight.
They never find my bottle, though they ask.
Plastic Jesus shelters me, for his head comes off, you see
He’s hollow and I use him like a flask.

I don’t care if it’s dark or scary Long as I got my minted Mary
Riding on the dashboard of my car. I feel that I’m protected amply
I’ve got the love of the whole **expletive deleted** family
Riding on the dashboard of my car.

These artists have picked up that we’ve been shaped by what a sociologist Christian Smith and others call “therapeutic individualism”. That’s kind of fun to say, “Therapeutic individualism”. Basically, this means that we view “the individual [or I might add, the communal] self as the source and authentic standard of moral knowledge and authority, and individual self-fulfillment as the preoccupying purpose of life. Subjective, personal experience is the touchstone of all that is authentic, right, and true”(Smith, Soul Searching, p. 173). Jesus, or rather, faith in God or Jesus or whatever works for me, whatever I experience as ‘meaningful’ or significant is what really matters, what I want to do, what I must do. My responsibility in life is to make my actions fit with the internal emotions, passions that I bring with me in my deepest self, or within my “community”.

Of course, this means obedience to anything outside my self or my own circle of intimacy is a bad thing. Smith writes, “’External’ traditions, obligations, and institutions of society” are “inauthentic and often illegitimate constraints on morality and behavior from which individuals must be emancipated” (Smith, p. 173). What matters is intentions, one’s heart, one’s sincerity. If behavior doesn’t match up with the inner emotions, one shouldn’t engage with it. Why, the son who says he will do what the Father says is the one who is morally authentic, even if he can’t bring himself to do what the Father says. The other son is merely conforming to the Father’s authority. Obedience doesn’t matter; what matters is intentionality, agreeability, even if it is not followed by proper behavior.

Once we’ve been shaped by “therapeutic individualism”, it’s very hard to hear Jesus’ riddle as making any sense.

This is how the US society has shaped us. We’ve learned to shape our behavior to meet our emotions. If something will enrich our experience, we’ll choose it. But to engage in something merely to obey, no way we’ll do that. Obedience only can serve my personal meaning, and therefore, cannot be obedience. Given this cultural prejudice, no wonder we can’t hear Jesus’ saying. It makes no sense to us.

2. But the story is clear: obedience, not agreeability, not respectability, is what matters to God.
We like agreeability, respectability, in ourselves and other people. I do. Someone who is smooth talking, someone who will be nice. In some ways, it doesn’t matter what follows afterwards. Especially in things of the heart, in what we call voluntary activities, those activities not determined by work or the state, appearance, language, agreeability, respectability is what we’ve learned to honor.

Yet Jesus’ riddle is quite simple: Which child obeyed his father? The one who obeyed is the one who obeyed. As they say, talk is cheap. Agreeability is overrated. Respectability doesn’t really matter. What matters is the visible act of obedience in the world, obedience to the will of the Father. It’s not obedience to some inner voice; it's obedience to the proclaimed Word of the Father.

Jesus seems to be speaking of obedience to God’s kingdom in his riddle, obedience to his Word as the Word of God. John announces God’s kingdom, and its righteousness. Jesus proclaimed, taught, lived this kingdom. The kingdom isn’t about nice words; it’s not about agreeability; participation in the kingdom doesn’t come through respectability. Even prostitutes and tax collectors participate in the kingdom before the agreeable and respectable. The kingdom is about obedience to the Word of the Father, seen and heard in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. One bodily participates in the kingdom through obedience to Jesus. It is impossible to be obedient to this kingdom without faith in, loyalty to Jesus, for the Father has commanded us to believe in the One Whom the Father has sent. Repentance therefore is necessary; obedience follows repentance.
Obedience to the Father through the Word of the Son matters.

3. Then our passions, our emotions, our inner psyche has to be shaped by the Spirit to meet the demands of our obedience.

Did you notice the importance of obedience in the epistle reading? Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. Christ became obedient. Paul states, Obey me. And then the whole passage comes to its outcome in the command, “Work out your salvation in fear and trembling.” Obedience to the Word of God is work. For in the work, we have to be re-made, sanctified by the Spirit, to sustain life within the obedience of our actions.

Obedience comes before the inner desire, before our desire for fulfilling experience; obedience comes before we feel like it. In obedience, the Spirit must form the inner desire rightfully for proper love of God and neighbor as we participate in God’s kingdom through Jesus by the Spirit’s power. Excuses, rationalizations, denials, agreeability – none of those matter. Indeed, such actions mask our disobedience that arises from a lack of goodness in our hearts. We live in self-righteousness, rather than the righteousness of Christ. And tax-collectors, economic oppressors, and prostitutes go before us into the kingdom for we think that we don’t have to engage in repentance, the repentance even of believers; they cannot afford such delusions.

This is why direct, personal, obedient participation in the works of mercy is so important. I don’t care about your “political views.” Engaging in the works of mercy, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, overseeing the sick, visiting those in prison, burying the dead, as obedience to Christ puts us in situations that force us to be changed inside. Obedience forces us not to be captured by the ideologies of the left or right around us; obedience forces us to trust in God, not agreeability and respectability; obedience forces us to grow in faith, hope, and love of God and love of neighbor in God. Obedience forces us to have the fruits of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Obedience is not an end in itself; the end is the inner virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, our sanctification. But we will not fully discover these fruits in our lives without obedience. We obey God the Father through Christ – and thereby open our lives for the Spirit to remake our hearts as we engage in the works of the kingdom, working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

We come to this Table in obedience. Not because we think it’s cool, not because it’s a hip way to reach an ‘emerging church’. We don’t come because if you come, you’ll have a powerful spiritual experience. We come because we’re commanded – Jesus said, “As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.” You can pretty well live every day without recognizing the most important aspect of your life – God’s love for you in Christ. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for you. In the coming, in participating in the real body and blood of Christ in faith, the Spirit works to bring forth the love for God for which you were made, a love to be lived out in love of neighbor. Come in repentance; come in faith; come to let the Spirit bring forth the Spirit’s fruits that arise out of obedience to the kingdom that God has shown us in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And most of all, be thankful.