Theme:  Jesus desires a “change of heart” in making a difference in a messed up world.”

We all have had these experiences, where the promises far exceeds the performance, where people say “yes” too easily and then don’t follow through.  Isn’t it aggravating when people say, “Yes, yes, we’ll do it!” and then don’t follow through.  Like when the grandparents are coming over for dinner and the children are asked to pick up their rooms, and they nod a passive “yes,” and you, the parent, find them lounging in front of the television.  Does this drive you up the wall?  It does me.

Or let’s say you help with a volunteer organization such as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, a soccer team, a church.  And let’s say that this soccer mom volunteers and says, “Yes, I will telephone all the parents and tell them about the change of time of the game.”  But she doesn’t do it, and nobody shows up because no one was called. Doesn’t that drive you up the wall?

Or let’s say that you are a computer programmer, and the programmer at the cubicle next to you says, “Yes, I can get that work done tonight,” and you come into the office in the morning and it isn’t done.  You can’t say anything, so you bite your lips and inside, shake your head in disgust and you do the work.  It’s aggravating when people make promises but don’t follow through on them.

Since we all have had similar reactions and feelings, it is easy for us to understand the parable of Jesus for today about the two sons.  The meaning is so obvious.  Some religious people make all kinds of grandiose promises to God but their performance doesn’t live up to their promises.  These Christians promise God,  “O yes, God, I will be your faithful disciple.  I will carry out the mission of the church.  I will do your work in the world.  Yep, count on me. I’ll get the job done for you, Lord.”  But they don’t do a darn thing.  So God goes and finds some less “churchy” people who actually go and do what God wants done in this world. 

The vineyard, the world, is always in a mess.  There are always earthquakes, floods, tornados in the world.  There are always wars in the various parts. There are always divorces and families falling apart.  There are always poor families living down the street, with not enough money and emotional resources to make it. 

And what is the reaction of the church to this pain and devastation in the world around us, far and near?  Too often, we merely hold our worship services in the middle of the vineyard.  We have our Bible studies and small group studies in the middle of the wine estate.  And so God, in the parable for today,  in his disgust for our unwillingness to do the needed work in the vineyard says, “I will go and find somebody else who will do the work in this world of mine.”

In other words, this parable is an invitation for us not to be like the Pharisees. It is a challenge to go into God’s messed up world and do the necessary work.

In Jesus’ parables, the accent is always on the last figure, on the last personality of the story.  That is where the focus is.  The focus is on the second set of people, the tax collectors and prostitutes, who actually had a change of heart and went and did the work.

You see, Jesus’ problem was with the Pharisees who didn’t think that they needed a change of heart; that they were just fine the way they were; that they were appropriately religious and they knew it.  And that’s the way it has always been: in the Old Testament, the time of Christ and throughout all of church history.  God’s people have consistently been blind to our own need to have a change of heart about doing God’s work in the messed up world around us.

And so in this parable for today, Jesus is inviting you and me to have a change of heart…..about the messed up world around us.  You and I need a change of heart about the painful needs of hurting people around us…we need a change of heart about actually doing God’s work of love in a messed up world.  We need a change of heart, a change inside.

Rev. Edward Markquart