Twenty-sixth Sunday   Sep  25, 2011

  Ezekiel 18:25-28 Psalm: 25:  Phil  2:1-11  Matthew 21:28-32

1.  Jesus said, “Everyone who uses a sword will be killed by a sword.” Mt 26:52. In a word you pay the consequences of your action. This happens to be the main theme of our first reading from Ezekiel. This was in contrast to the previous understanding of corporate responsibility. According to that understanding, if a member of the community sinned, the whole village or tribe suffered as a result. A logical follow up to this understanding was: if a Father sinned, the children paid for it to the third and fourth generation. 

 We see this argument brought up again and again in the discussions during Jesus teaching ministry in Palestine. The clearest case was the story of the blind man in John Ch. 9 vs. 1. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 

 Although corporate responsibility was not abrogated, the stress of Ezekiel is on individual responsibility. Do not put the blame on others. As the saying goes: “Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent had not leg to stand on.”  All this called for a personal “metanoia” μετάνοια – a change of mind and heart. This is a backdrop for the Gospel.

2. The letter to the Philippians has the gem  Ch 2: 6-11 – a poem, a hymn of sheer beauty which encapsulates the essence of Christianity. A Scripture Scholar has said if every Bible in the World were lost or destroyed, and we had only Philippians 2:6-11  left, we would have the very heart of Christianity, the kernel of the Good news of the Kingdom of God. This is most likely an exaggeration, but it shows the richness and depth of the theology of these verses from the Letter to the Philippians

3. This whole selection of the second reading is an invitation or calling to be holy. It is a calling to μετάνοια – a change of mind and heart. The hymn gives us a motivation, an incentive a pattern of Christ that we can follow. Some Scripture scholars will go further. It is not just a pattern to imitate, a model to emulate, it is the fruit and the end result of what is happening to believers because they are one in Christ. In Christ they live and move and have their being.

 This awesome realisation of grace comes to those who are humble. However, if one is proud and vain, a realisation that one is saved in Christ, gives them an air of superiority and elitism. The Gnostics would make this assertion of themselves. They did not have to fast, pray and do penances, because they had the inner track, a personal line of salvation.

4. Our Gospel explicitly mentions a change of heart on the part of the son, who started off with “I will not go” – to the vineyard, in answer to his father’s bidding. But we are told in a terse manner: “He had a change of heart, he went”

 Once again there are three levels to this story. The first is the original parable as told by Jesus. The second level has the additions, which accrued through oral tradition. The third level is the slant or twist that Matthew gives for this readers who have a basic Jewish Background.

 In Ezekiel, the emphasis is on personal responsibility, without distancing oneself from community responsibility and salvation.  If a good person turns away from  good acts and does evil, that person will be condemned – not the whole community. If a sinner turns away from sin, and turns to good, that person will be saved.

5. In the third level of reading the Gospel, we find Matthew going from the salvation of individual to the salvation of the whole community. The good news was preached to them. John the Baptist ratified this. But the Jewish people did not heed the good news. As of this moment, salvation would be offered to the Gentiles, who heard the word of God and were responsive to the teaching.

Matthew tells his audience that the tax collectors and prostitutes listened, changed their ways like the son who did not want to work in the Vineyard at first sight. The Gentiles were not tax collectors or prostitutes, but they fell into the same dispensation, - they were outside the realm of salvation according to the Scribes and Pharisees.

6. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his listeners, this will no longer be the case. Salvation is universal, Salvation is for all. But since the Jewish Community rejected it, the Gentiles would benefit.  They would receive this salvation.

·             The Jewish Community was like the Son who said “Yes” to his father, but did not go to the Vineyard. Salvation would no longer be extended to them, like the good person in Ezekiel, who gave up his good ways and sinner.

·             The Gentiles meanwhile were like the Son who said, “No” but changed his heart and went into the Vineyard. They were like the “sinner” who changed his ways – and now they have salvation as their inheritance.

The Language of God

      There is a legend of an African boy called Emmanuel, who was always asking questions. One day he asked the question, What language does God speak? No one could answer him. He travelled all over his country to find the answer but did not get a satisfactory answer. Eventually he set out for distant lands to find the answer. For a long time he had no success. At last he came one night to a village called Bethlehem and as there was no room in the local inn, he went outside the village in search of a shelter for the night. He came to a cave and found that too was occupied by a couple and a child. He was about to turn away when the young mother spoke, “Welcome Emmanuel, we’ve been waiting for you. The boy was amazed that the woman knew his name. He was even more amazed when she went on to say, For a long time you have been searching the world over to find out what language God speaks. Well, now your journey is over. Tonight you can see with your own eyes what language God speaks. He speaks the language of love, that is expressed in sharing, understanding, mercy and total acceptance.  Both Jews & Gentiles hear it