Matthew 21:28-32, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first son said no, he won’t go to the vineyard. But he changes his mind and goes instead. The second said yes, but backs out on his word. Our Lord asks, which one did the will of his father?

The Gospel today is not about being true so much to our word as it is to our action.

Surely there are words and there are words. Words that are cheap, light, shallow. And words that are costly and solemn and deep. How deep is your word? Does it float on the surface and scatter under stress, or does it plumb the depth of will and action?

It does not matter. Today the Lord seems to be telling us our action matters more than our words. Our deeds are heard more than what we say or profess. It does not take much to move our tongue; it takes much more to move our limbs and lift burdens. We can chant “Lord, Lord” till sundown but those chants can only get us so far unless they issue forth in action.

The action however that is asked of us today is not just any kind of action. It is action that comes from a change of mind. What is being asked of us today is motion that comes from conversion.

The first son said no, but he changed his mind. When was the last time you changed your mind?

It seems more difficult now to change our mind. Echo chambers abound for the picking. We can always find someone or some group who will reinforce our beliefs, who will echo what we want to hear. Add to that the dearth of democratic spaces where we can engage each other respectfully without fear of being hurt or hated by cheap and anonymous words on little screens.

Today we are being asked to change our mind about the good things we’ve said no to, the good stuff of God’s vineyards and banquets and mercies, the kind that have to do with what matters to God, which in truth are the same ones that should also matter to us.

Perhaps we’ve already made up our minds about these things. We see the innocent suffer because of our greed and power, we see crosses and we wonder where God is and so we say no to God. We see a church mired in scandal, we lose heart over the sinfulness of the followers of Christ, and we say the church is hopeless. We see life going nowhere, and we say life is meaningless. We see love in ruins and we say no to love.

The first son said no, but he changed his mind. Will we naysayers ever change our mind?

Today our Lord is asking us to reconsider our position, to be open to conversion. That may entail quitting the echo chamber and not letting the chatter of despair and hate get to us. That may involve reaching out, wrestling within, even some heartbreak over choices and chores in the vineyard of our Lord. To change our mind is to change our lives is to come work with God. In the words of Paul to the Philippians today, that will mean having “the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.” 

In opening ourselves to conversion, we remember how our Lord tells off the chief priests and elders today, the recognized yes-people: you have seen John, you have seen me, you have seen outsiders and outliers heed my summons and go to the vineyard; yet you remain high of mind and hard of heart. Will we naysayers be as intransigent and self-righteous?

Whether we say yes or no, what matters ultimately is what we do or fail to do. What then shall we do about all that we’ve been blessed to see?

Enough said. Let us rise not merely to recite what we believe.