The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God. Amen.

Yesterday evening, I officiated my first wedding as a priest. Performing a wedding is a profound honor. In the love a couple has for one another, we see a manifestation of the love which God has for the Church, and for the all creation.

Marriage comes with a demand, too. When married, the vows are very clear – will you care for, love, cherish, this other person until death: the response, of course, is: “I will!’

But of course, what contributes to a successful marriage is not merely the act of saying these vows to one another – but of doing the vows, living them day by day.

Our words, our promises, our vows, are meaningless without action that follows from the promises. When our words do not align with our actions, we have the potential to become hypocrites.

 The Gospel today invites us to reflect on the gap between what we say, and what we do.

For context, today’s Gospel begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem. He is speaking with “the chief priests and the elders of the people.”  (Matt. 21:23).

This is notable! Jesus is dialoguing with the highest-ranking religious leaders of his day near the most sacred site for the Jewish peoples.

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, the religious leaders have seen Jesus teaching, preaching, healing, and they have seen him critiquing how religious leaders lay heavy burdens on the people while they themselves do little.

So, they question Jesus. “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matt 21:23).

Jesus returns with a question – “Did the Baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (Matt. 21:25)

It is important to recall what John the Baptist was doing. He was welcoming people into a baptism of repentance – an opportunity to change their lives from one direction, and to focus their lives in an entirely new direction. He also, in Matthew 3:7, calls religious leaders a “brood of vipers.”

John was not particularly liked by them.

Repentance, after all, is fundamentally about giving up some way of being, and turning in another direction towards God. It is also a progressive act; it is done again, and again, and again, because we as humans are never finished in our development as we move our whole selves towards God.

The religious leaders whisper among themselves about how they should answer – and ultimately they come to no answer at all. Jesus does not give them a response, either.

The religious leaders in the temple exhibit a kind of paralysis, a never-ending debate about making an answer. We can see elements of this play out within large organizations, businesses, and governments when it comes to climate care. There may be endless debate about the “best” way to care for the world, but until an act of repentance is offered – until they turn from one aspect to another way of being – pollution, environmental destruction, and climate crisis continue to grow.

As a side note, often in the Old Testament, the growth of sin is associated with environmental degradation. But that’s for another sermon sometime!

Back to the Gospel: Jesus poses another question – about two sons who are asked to work in their Father’s vineyard. One says no but does the work. One says yes and does not do the work.

Which one do you think the religious leaders are?

They are the ones who say they will do the work, but in fact do nothing.

As your Vicar, this Gospel passage has me sweating a bit – and it’s not just the garments.

In the parable, to do God’s will requires not merely saying “yes” but following through that “yes.”

When we consider our baptismal vows alongside the Season of Creation and today’s Gospel, we are left with an invitation to reflect on the gap between what we say we do, and what we actually do.

Our liturgy focuses more heavily on care for creation, we have some formation around our call to steward the earth as people of faith. We sing praise to God for the good gifts of creation. This is well and good!

But there is an aspect of repentance, too, in the midst of this season. The continuous act of turning towards God invites us to seriously consider and contemplate our roles as a church in leading the charge towards climate care.

We say yes to care for the climate, but are we following through? What does this look like? What is our capacity to effect change? We do not, for example, have funds for solar panels. But can we do something else to care for our little corner of Tucson?

I think that we are absolutely interested in engaging this conversation – I do not think we are as stiff hearted as the religious leaders in the Gospel today, the ones who say “YES!” but then do nothing.

Rather, I think the Gospel invites us to consider our next steps in active repentance towards creation care. It convicts us, it does not shame us, and it convicts us to consider our next steps as people of faith who have taken vows to renounce Satan and evil, and care for all people.

Repentance is, after all, a progressive.

And creation care is an element of care for all people.

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on the gap between what we say and what we do. It invites a kind of actionable decisiveness.

And I am left wondering, what might we as a church do next year, during the season of creation, to take one more step towards active repentance – which is changing ourselves in thought, word, and deed, from sin, towards God?

This is the invitation towards love and life which Christ is drawing us into. And it is a gift to consider these things, together, as a community, held in love and transformed by the grace which pours forth from God.

Amen.