09/29/2026
September 27, 2026—Pentecost 18
Sunday Promise
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.
Let us pray. God of mercy, even though we said no to you, you sent Jesus to call us back to you. May your promises of forgiveness and life turn us back to you, give us faith in you, and help us care for one another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A READING from Matthew 21:23-32
23When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" 24Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, "From heaven,' he will say to us, "Why then did you not believe him?' 26But if we say, "Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." 27So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 28"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29He answered, "I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, "I go, sir'; but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the pr******tes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the pr******tes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Here we are at the doctor’s office. We go to the window and tell the receptionist our name and that we have an appointment with the doctor at nine fifteen. We go sit down and wait. One other person is sitting in the waiting area, and as we find a chair to sit in, a door opens, a name is called, and that person gets up and goes in. Other people arrive, talk to the receptionist, and also sit down. The door opens and a name is called and a person, who arrived after we did, gets up and goes in. That’s okay, maybe their appointment was before ours. But when several more people get called, we don’t just wonder if we have been forgotten, we sit and think, “Why are they going in before me? I got here first.”
It’s like people standing in line waiting to talk to St. Peter who decides who gets to enter heaven. Peter tells lots of people they don’t get to come in, and those people walk away, walking along this big wall, and then they turn the corner and a little way down the side wall there is Jesus, giving everyone a boost over the wall so they do get into heaven.
Then there is the boy named Calvin, and he has a pet tiger. Everyone else sees the tiger as his stuffed toy. He was in the grocery store and there was a display, a tall pyramid of stacked cans, and he knocked it over. The store never let him back in. He said, “You make one mistake and you pay for it for the rest of your life.”
In those situations, they all ask, “Do I have to be on time?” Or, “Do I have to be nice today?” “Do I have to have to brush my teeth today?” Ask that one and imagine your dentist standing there looking at you.
It’s all about the question, “Do I have to be good?”
We know we are supposed to be good, but we also know we aren’t always good. We joke about it when we say, “You be good now.” Or, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” “Forget the rules. Just go have some fun.” We joke, but it is not a joke for the tax collectors and pr******tes. They have made a big mistake. They are told again and again they have to pay for their mistake for the rest of their life.
For those in charge in Jesus’ time, that one mistake was a whole lot more than knocking over a tall tower of cans. Knocking over that tall tower of cans was to break God’s law. That one mistake of being a tax collector or a pr******te was to break God’s law. And those in charge said that for that one mistake, the tax collectors and pr******tes had to pay for it for the rest of their lives. They were like St. Peter at the gate of heaven turning people away for that one mistake.
Jesus, however, was forgiving people their big mistake. He was saying that he would get then into heaven. And that is why those in charge asked Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” If Jesus was doing things the usual way, nobody would have said anything. If Jesus was teaching that if you make a mistake, then you pay for it for the rest of your life, he would have been teaching in accordance with what the people in charge said you had to teach, so it would seem Jesus was under their authority. But he wasn't teaching the usual. He said that if you made a mistake, if you said no, but then went to work in the vineyard as the father had asked his son, you did do the will of the father. If you make the mistake of being a tax collector or pr******te, but then trusted Jesus to forgive you, you did the will of the father. Wow, that was so against what the people in charge said that they demanded to know who told Jesus to say such things. Tell us, we demand to know. Jesus, in response, asked what was the authority for John the Baptist to say the same thing Jesus was saying. No answer was given, so Jesus did not answer.
But Jesus had emptied himself, being born in human likeness, and he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him, raised him up from death to new life. By that we know that Jesus had God's authority, the authority that gave the same message Jesus was giving. For when the first people made a mistake, God made them a promise to send them a savior who would make things right between God and them. That same promise was said by the prophet Ezekiel. A prophet was allowed to say only what God told him to say. Ezekiel said, "The word of the LORD came to me: when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it." That is harsh judgment. Ezekiel went on, "Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. O people of God, get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O people of God? Turn, then, and live, says the LORD God."
Jesus' message was God's message, God's message that God had given from that first big mistake. What happened to that message? How did it get forgotten that the people in charge did not know it and so did not like Jesus saying it? They so disliked it that they crucified Jesus. There is harsh punishment. There is condemnation. There is humiliation. There is the very opposite of mercy. But then God gave life to Jesus. God saved Jesus. Even on the cross, under that judgment, Jesus turned to God. And God gave Jesus life, just as God had promised from the start.
By being raised from the dead, we hear Jesus tell us that those who have done wrong, who make the big mistake, who disobeyed God, who got condemned, they were all going into the kingdom of God ahead of the people in charge. Look at the tax collectors and pr******tes, they believed John the Baptist's message of righteousness--that promise that when the wicked turned to God they would save their lives. We believe the message of Jesus, the same as John's, the same as Ezekiel's, the same as God's given to Adam and Eve. Jesus gives us life. To that boy who knocked down that tall tower of cans, God would give him life, just not life anywhere near any display in the grocery store. Or the seventeen year old woman, whose mother died in a car accident, who has gotten so scared of that event that she doesn't know what is right and good anymore. She runs away from home. What does the father promise her? In all kinds of situations, parents will have to trust their own wisdom, their own love, their own Spirit-led ideas of how to take away their daughter's fears. They can be guided by Jesus' message of welcoming back those who turn away from their ways of harming people. But for each of us, when we have to deal with things going wrong, we do have mercy to help us heal and comfort and forgive, to try, and then try again.
We do have to be good. The demand to be good is always there. We all make mistakes, and we all have hurt people, and we all have said "yes, we will do it" but then we don't. The world is full of judgment against those who do wrong. The world is like St. Peter and it turns people away from entering heaven. But the crucified and risen Jesus, he is here to give us life. And we are here to tell that to each other. So, it is good you are here. Amen.
Be present, merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this day, so that we who are wearied and worried by the changes and chances of life, may find our peace in you. Amen.
Be at peace. Serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.