|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25–32 |
Psalm 78:1–4, 12–16 |
Philippians 2:4–13 |
Matthew 21:23–32 |
In some sense I see Jesus in all good High School coaches and the majority of college athletic coaches, too. As the season begins, a coach gets a fresh group of hopeful kids, integrates them with the returning veterans, and molds them into a team. Some drop out. Some of the players have to learn that they are not the hot shots they thought they were and that every time they get the ball they won't make a touchdown or prevent a goal. Perhaps they won't play the position they had intended. They will learn to share, deal with disappointment and experience unexpected growth. They may realize that they will never accomplish anything significant solely on their own. There will be those who begin to show exceptional talent and promise and those whom fans will quickly recognize and praise, and those who may deserve, but will never obtain that recognition.
After the innumerable practices, drills and chalk talks come the games, and then the post game reviews. The score on the field is what players make it, but the valuable lessons learned are intended to go far beyond the particular game. Good coaches know that life is much larger than a season of play. Coaches mold their players for much more significant things. Coaches know that their players will graduate, the team will disperse, and that the best fruits of their labors will come to maturity in the future when neither coach nor players are around each other, and the players are far removed from the practice or playing field. .
In the Gospel lessons these past summer months, Jesus has been coaching his disciples as they travel around Galilee. This Sunday, however, the Gospel is set in Jerusalem, very close to the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. Things are tense and hostile. Jesus' opponents don't want dialogue or open communication. They want to trap Jesus, discredit him, and squelch his message. Jesus wins the contest of wits, but no minds are changed. The disciples realize that they are about to graduate and will have to adjust to a much more difficult situation.
Perhaps out of the heat of the controversy in the cool of the evening at the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany, the disciples are able to process the story of the two sons. We all say one thing and do another at one time. We all contradict ourselves or act in hypocritical ways. Yet the son who comes back, who remembers, who turns and shows up, becomes the one in whom God's vision is revealed and furthered. It is similar to the player who makes mistakes on the field, even serious ones that cost the team the game, and yet has the courage, the honesty, and perseverance to return to practice, to show up and try again. I suspect a coach would much rather have a player who makes mistakes and later admits them, than a player who claims or denies them. One of the lessons of lifelong learning is to show up and discover that one may begin again.
Discipleship is not usually about catching the long pass, or being the hero of the game. It is not about scoring the most points against a weaker opponent. It is not about being inducted into a hall of fame. I don't think that is what the lasting value of amateur athletics is all about either. Character is much deeper than fame.
Both Jesus and his opponents knew the answer to which son did the will of the father. That was not under contention. Jesus went further. He talked about the possibility of undesirables, no accounts, those who never make it to the podium, who are never recognized for great accomplishments, who are usually discarded and scorned, as having a place in God's new commonwealth. Faith, compassion, and commitment often are revealed among people and in acts that never make the headlines. That is what many of Jesus' opponents missed and even found scandalous.
I posted on the bulletin board a recent article in the Christian Century containing a Sunday School lesson by Jimmy Carter. In the same issue was mention of a church bulletin of Maranatha Baptist Church. Down at the bottom in small print was the schedule of weekly assignments: "Rosalynn Carter will clean the church next Saturday. Jimmy Carter will cut the grass and trim the shrubbery" (The Christian Century, September 20, 2005, p.20).
We often lament that history has not recorded any famous deeds that the majority of Jesus' twelve closest disciples accomplished. Perhaps that is part of Jesus' coaching legacy in and of itself. It is the disciples, who keep at it, who fess up and recognize their own mistakes that truly do much of the work Jesus sends us into the world to do.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
