Readings for October 22, 2017 - Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, year A

• Isaiah 45:1-7 and Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)  
• 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10  
• Matthew 22:15-22

Joint Declaration, Rev. Kinsey
We are now one week away from the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation!  And, seeing Pastor Emily is preaching next week, I want to get in my ‘Luther moment’ while I can!  It’s not every day you get to celebrate a 500th anniversary, you know!
 
It’s difficult to put ourselves in the world of 1517.  In many ways it was a totally different time: it was the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Copernicus, Mercantilism and the Inquisition, but it was before science and technology gave us cars and airplanes, telephones and then cell phones, robotics and computers in everything; before Facebook and Twitter and apps; before speculative stock markets; before LGBTQ; before vaccines and the splitting of the atom; it was before plastic bags and Leggo’s; and before t-shirts and jeans.
 
But that’s not to say some things weren’t the same 500 years ago: like Power and corruption in high places; the love of family and friends; hard work; and beer and wine! 
 
Next week there will be celebrations of the Reformation, here at Unity and around the world, in most, if not all, Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations. 
 
It was on the eve of All Saints, October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses, or debating points, on the Wittenberg Castle Church door, in his humble German berg.  It was the beginning of a contentious relationship between Lutherans and Catholics.  And not all that long ago – within my lifetime – what Lutherans celebrated every Reformation Day, was their goodness and moral superiority.  But no longer!  Now we celebrate the anniversary of the Reformation each year with a renewed sense of coming together, with our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers. 
 
At the leadership levels of our two churches, we have been in dialog for decades, and in 1999 – they must have been worried that the apocalypse was coming in 2000! – we signed a document together called, “The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.”  It deals with Luther’s teachings on justification by grace alone, faith alone, and scripture alone, emphasizing our agreements, and acknowledging where each was wrong, all these centuries later.  And so it also does away with 16th century condemnations, that Lutherans and Catholics made against each other. 
 
On the parish level, members now go between Lutheran and Catholic congregations without much worry, and in the world, we work together and get along without controversy.
 
But the world we live in today, would not be what it is, without the Reformation!  Luther played perhaps the most central role in it – though he was far from its only actor!  Others like Wycliffe and Hus argued for similar reforms of the Roman Catholic Church a century earlier in their home countries of England and Slovakia.  They made headway, but didn’t themselves, embody the spark that caused the break from the old, and the resulting new reality with its Protestant churches, with its opportunity for individuals to find ‘freedom’ in the gospels, instead of ‘captivity to the Church,’ to use a phrase from one of Luther’s works. 
 
Also aiding Luther, was the greatest invention of the time, the printing press!  When Luther wrote the 95 Theses, he posted them on the Wittenberg Castle Church door as a matter of course.  It was done routinely by scholars of the day, as an invitation to debate among academics.  But Luther’s 95 Theses were taken, without his permission, and published far and wide, thanks to the printing press!  And it resonated with people in the pews across the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
In it, Luther questioned the practice of selling indulgences in the church, because these written guarantees weren’t worth the paper they were written on, according to Luther.  No one, including the Pope, could forgive the sins of a dead relative in Purgatory.  So why is the Pope authorizing these indulgences, argued Luther, which are clearly a corruption of faith and scripture?  And in Theses #86, Luther wrote: “Why doesn’t the pope – whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest [among us] – build this … basilica of St. Peter(,) with his own money(!) rather than with the money of poor believers?''
 
Luther himself, felt trapped by how the Church had taught him to fear God’s punishment for his humanness.  This was his passion, and the reason he became a monk instead of the lawyer his father wanted him to be – to his dad’s great disappointment.  So Luther worked the Churches program harder than anyone, to work his way out of this condemnation.  But the harder he tried, the less convinced he felt.  He could not raise himself up to God’s level, no matter how seriously he took it.
 
But a change finally came in 1519.  Sometimes called, The Tower Experience, because he was studying Paul’s letter to the Romans in the Wittenberg Castle tower.  And after much reflection on Paul’s letters, it came to him suddenly – which he later wrote about:
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written [Romans 1:17], “[The one] who through faith is righteous shall live.’” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives(,) by a gift of God, namely by faith. … Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There(,) a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me.
 
Immediately after this Luther wrote his most important works: On Christian Liberty, The Bondage of the Will, and Freedom of a Christian.  He also got deeper in trouble with the Church!  And soon he was condemned as a heretic and under sentence of death.  So his friends smuggled him out of Wittenberg to the Wartburg Castle, where, hidden for 11 months, and using his time well, he translating first the New Testament, then the Hebrew Scriptures, into his native tongue of German, which spread his fame further. 
 
Once Luther discovered his way out of the trap that he felt caught in – by a Church that had lost its way, a Church that had trapped the conscience of all believers in corruptions of the faith, from which they had ‘no way out’ – he, could not go back.  “Here I stand,” he famously said.  Where else can I go?  Luther had opened up the scriptures to ordinary believers, and turned us on to the love and Grace of God, which alone can connect us to the kingdom and realm of God, even now, and by faith, forever, in the power of cross and resurrection. 
 
In our gospel reading today, the religious authorities of Jesus time, tried to trap him, with a highly polarizing question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  But the Son of God could not be fooled.  “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.”  And Jesus pointed out that it was the emperor’s picture, a false god.  "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."   
 
We are only entrapped by the image of those we follow or allow, to rule our lives.  Whose image lives in you?  Who do you worship in your life? 
 
Luther said that we are all entrapped by the Bondage of the Human Will, and the inevitable cycles of corruption of human institutions and their participants.  But we are freed in Christ!  That’s why Luther was so big on baptism!  We put on Christ in baptism, so that we know we are made in God’s image, and so we know the One who we follow, by faith. 
 
As Luther said, we find our way out of the trap, and are saved, solely by God’s Grace through faith. 
 
And half a Millennia later, that’s still something to celebrate!  

Readings for Oct 15, 2017 the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

• Isaiah 25:1-9 and Psalm 23  
• Philippians 4:1-9  
• Matthew 22:1-14

"A Man, A King" by The Rev. Fred Kinsey
This, is not a parable of Jesus, that you would usually find, in Sunday School books!  A man, a king, sends out servants to all those who had agreed to come to his son’s wedding, but they come back without anyone!  He sends them out a second time, to beg and grovel, saying, ‘look, the prime rib is ready, already!  Come to the banquet!’  But the upstanding guests made excuses about being too busy – and not only that, they tortured and killed his slaves.  The man, the king, was “enraged!”  A king who has his own private army, who then, in murderous revenge, sends them out against the guests, even burning their city to the ground!
 
This parable is almost unfit, to be retold, to adults!  When I think of the California fires, and the destruction, and innocent lives lost there, this past week, this parable makes me cringe.  But add to that, intentional burning, as this man, the king does, to settle a score – and it’s chilling for its level of outrageousness. 
 
Then, as if nothing happened, the man, the king, sends out his servants with a new invitation – I thought his servants were dead, but maybe he just has so many, these are a second set of slaves!  ‘Go into the main streets, he says, and invite everyone else, both good and bad, it doesn’t matter, just as long as we fill the wedding hall with guests.’  
 
What kind of a demented dictator could do this? 
 
Jesus tells this parable to those who question his exousia, his authority and power.  “Who gave you this authority,” ask the elders of the temple?  And Jesus replied, ‘I will also ask you one question, if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what power and authority I do these things.  Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ 
 
Like a good lawyer, Jesus already knew the answer they would have to give – which is why they dared not respond.  They rejected John the Baptist, just as they rejected Jesus!  But until the elders could separate Jesus out from his popular following – all those who surrounded him in Jerusalem for the Passover festival – they knew better than to arrest him, or challenge his exousia, right then and there. 
 
This is the 4th major parable in a row that Jesus has told, that begins in the same way.  In each, he gives a double title to the main character he is comparing the kingdom of heaven to.  Whether it’s a “king” as in this parable, or a “housemaster” – in all 4 he adds, “a man.”  So in today’s parable, it begins, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man, a king, who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” 
 
I bring this up, only because, we have always interpreted the king and the housemaster in these parables, as an allegorical stand-in, for God.  Even the English language translations make that assumption, and instead of saying, “a man, a king” they just say “a king”.  But what if Matthew is trying to tell us something?  What if we were to rethink this?  Is this king, in this parable, the God we know, or even want?  This vengeful, bloodthirsty God, who kills those who anger him/her? 
 
If Matthew is comparing the kingdom of heaven to the kingdoms of this world, isn’t this parable of the tyrant king, really a representation of the collision in history of two different brands of authority: our earthly brand based on violence, and the heavenly brand, which gives itself over to the world’s violence, but cannot be vanquished by it. (cf. http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/proper23a/ )
 
The man, the king, in this parable, actually sounds a lot more like the human kings of Jesus’ time in the Herod family, and Pilate, who ruled in tyranny and fear.  Herod the Great wanted to offer the shroud or veil, of an idyllic kingdom on earth, but it was instituted and kept in place by absolute authority, not an exousia from heaven, from where John and Jesus got theirs – but a fractious and oppressive one. 
 
Human rulers often restore order by violence.  There is a false peace, a calm before the next storm, because there’s always another.  So, if you received an invitation from, a man, a king, like this, immediately after he razed a whole city, wouldn’t you be inclined to accept his invitation to come to the wedding feast!?  Unless you run and become a Refugee, you’d better go, right!  And, in the last scene, the tyranny continues when the king finds one guest who was not wearing a wedding robe, when he arrived at his son’s banquet, and this also enrages the king. “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” he says.  And when the guest was speechless, did not answer, the king had him “bound hand and foot and thrown out into the outer darkness.” 
 
Who is it, that is cast out from our communities?  Who doesn’t know, the “robe rules,” the unspoken rules, that are used by those in power?  I think we could say, the homeless, for one – and today, I’m thinking about those who were literally thrown out of Tent City, after so many false promises to help.  Also, the black, brown and poor youth, thrown into prison, who, if they can’t afford bail, sit there for months and years, before getting a trial.  Also, those who can’t find work in this economy, for any number of reasons, who are forgotten.  The Trans youth who are bullied in school.  And, those living with mental illness, who are warehoused in nursing homes. 
 
This is also, Jesus.  The one who was thrown out of the wedding banquet; the rejected stone; the one who was silent before his accusers.  And this is especially true in Matthew’s passion story, where Jesus remains silent, 3 times, at his trials before Herod and Pilate. 
 
Jesus is the one who suffers with us.  He is the Suffering Servant who stands up to a world of violence and revenge, and as the Son, goes to the cross willingly, to expose and change our murderous history, in order to open up a whole new way of life.  We don’t have to wait for the trickle-down scraps from the king, who is just, a man.  We can trust in the Lord, we can build our lives on the one who understands our suffering, and who has opened up the way of faith, and hope and love, to us.  In every act of kindness and mercy we offer back to the world, we build up the kingdom of heaven, that Christ revealed. 
 
In the parable of the king’s wedding banquet, Jesus foretells his passion and gives us a foreshadowing of what’s about to happen. 
 
But when Jesus goes to the cross without a word, “speechless,” he is not giving up, or giving in.  Jesus is revealing and rejecting the kingdoms of this world that have always ruled by conquering and dividing.  Jesus is lifted up on the tree of life, to invite us to the kingdom of heaven, a banquet of celebration, NOT built on revenge, but on the grace and love of our heavenly parent, who loves us all, and does not expel anyone from the Feast. 
 
Jesus asks us to learn, to turn around from our sins of intolerance and exclusion, and our ways of tyranny and oppression, that only lead to quarreling, divisions, and violence.  Otherwise the sacrifice of the cross has not taken affect in our lives, as the Body of Christ in the world.
 
But if with St Paul, we begin to feel, that by our faith, “the Lord is near,” then, “beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable,” begins to live in and through us, and the kingdom of heaven, and the Banquet, are near!    
 
And this is the banquet, as Isaiah described it long ago:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
                a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, says Isaiah.
  And the LORD will destroy on this mountain
                the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
                the sheet that is spread over all nations;
  [and the LORD] will swallow up death forever.
 
Even Isaiah, centuries before Jesus, connected our life after death, with a heavenly banquet.  And what is coming, promises Jesus in his passion, is new life, beyond retribution, a whole new kingdom of heaven, which is dawning among us already, now. 
 
Come, the wedding banquet without end is prepared!  Come to the feast!  

Readings for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Oct 8, 2017

• Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:7-15  
• Philippians 3:4b-14  
• Matthew 21:33-46

Different Ending, Rev Kinsey
(exhaling heavily.)  This has been a really tough week.  58 innocent lives mowed down last Sunday night, at a Las Vegas concert.  No one can figure out why!  He was a Vegas regular – so why target his own adopted city?  There seems to be no explanation for trekking half of his 42 gun collection all the way up to his Comped Suite just to turn them, on fellow citizens! 
 
Was it something about concerts?  He had searched out, online, Boston music festivals, at Fenway Park and the Boston Center for the Arts.  And he actually booked a room at the Blackstone Hotel, here in Chicago, for all four days of Lollapalooza in Grant Park, a couple of months ago. 
 
I’ve attended a number of concerts over the years, as I’m guessing most of us have!  Some of them I’ve been to were even outdoors, like I remember taking my high school sweetheart to see Blood, Sweat and Tears at Summerfest in Milwaukee.  And some 3 decades later, I took Kim there, and we saw Lucinda Williams and Neil Young.  We’ve also been to concerts at Grant Park, back when they had free summer concerts, like Stevie Wonder and Bonnie Raitt.  It’s fun hearing your musical favorites in concert, and a great way to be with other people.  Who would ever desire to harm a crowd like that?  It doesn’t make sense!
 
But Jesus understands this violence, and is unafraid of confronting it in our gospel story.  It’s very personal for him.  This is the third week, and the third of four consecutive major parables in Matthew, that Jesus addresses to his opponents, who have questioned his exousia, his authority and power. 
 
As protectors of the Temple, and keepers of order in Jerusalem, it’s personal, to them, because it’s about their exousia, their authority and power.  And they’re worried that Jesus, and the crowds who have followed him to this massive springtime Passover festival, will disturb the peace, and cause the Roman overlords to have to step-in and take some kind of action to restore order.  No one wants Blood, Sweat and Tears! 
 
But Jesus’ point is that, these Elders and keepers of the Temple economy, do not have clean hands, and are themselves, in part, to blame for the crowds who follow Jesus – crowds who follow him because they only desire peace and justice for their families, and the freedom to worship.  But what the people know, is what the Elders offer is hypocritical, and so their unfaithful authority and power, is actually the root cause of the violence, in Jesus’ parable.
 
“Listen to another parable,” Jesus tells them this 3rd time.  ‘There was a man, a landowner, who had a lovely vineyard, with a winepress, and even a watchtower, in it.’  And as we know from our First Reading, “the Vineyard” is a symbol of the nation and people of Israel, from which God expected a faithful yield of grapes to grow, “a pleasant planting,” as Isaiah says, and that, “God expected justice, but saw bloodshed.” 
 
In the vineyard of Jesus’ parable, the man, the landowner, leases his vineyard out to some tenants, so this landowner can take some time-off, and go vacation in another country.  And he even entrusts these tenants to take care of the important harvest-days while he is away. 
 
But which only plants in their minds, the idea of, stealing the vineyard out from under the landowner!
 
And when the man, the landowner, sends his servants to come and collect his produce to take to market, the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and tried stoning the third.  ‘The landowner’ tries again, sending even more slaves, a second time.  But they were treated the same way.  This patience of the landowner, is pretty much unheard of, especially as he now decides to send his very own son, figuring the tenants would have to respect him.  But the tenants greed gets the best of them, and their eyes widen at the thought of taking the property away from the heir of the vineyard for themselves.  And they throw the son out of his own land and kill him.
 
Jesus asks his listeners what they think will happen to these tenants when the landowner returns?  ‘The man, the landowner,’ they say, ‘will put those rotten tenants to a miserable death, and hand over the vineyard to farmhands who will care for it and help it bear good fruit which they will faithfully harvest.’ 
 
Certainly, that’s what many of us would say, even today.  They deserve punishment for murdering! 
 
But Jesus has a different ending to the story.  He does understand their feelings, and indeed, we know ‘the feeling’ as well.  How many people would like to do the same, and at least initially, would want to lash out, when their loved one’s life is taken? 
 
But Jesus asks them, “have you never read in the scriptures (Ps. 118): ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”? 
 
Jesus implies that he is the “son” of the landowner, who the father thought the tenants of the vineyard would “respect.”  But the tenants only see an opportunity in the heir – the key, to finally having land of their own!  Their killing him, is just like the killing of the prophets of Israel before them.  But this is a cycle of violence that cannot, and will not, solve anything.  It may bring peace for a day, or perhaps longer, but it is not an answer to the shootings and killings, which will certainly return again, sooner or later.  It is not a foundation on which God can build a community.
 
So Jesus, the son, also connects himself with the stone that the builders rejected, and which will later become the cornerstone – that is, the one foundational stone of a whole new building.  A new building that will be built on, the innocent victim, the crucified king, the Son – who on the cross, forgave the penitent bandit, hanging on another cross next to him. 
 
The question is, are we willing to follow the one who forgives from the cross?  Build our lives on the cornerstone, who willingly suffered for the sake of righteousness and forgiveness, when it seems so much more natural to reject that stone!?  God makes that rock the cornerstone of the community he wants to gather, after his Resurrection.
 
And so, Jesus’ parable, of the jealous tenants, writes a whole new ending to our violent impulses.  “Imagine,” says Andrew Marr, Episcopal preacher and theologian, how this story might be re-written, after the death and resurrection of Jesus: “Imagine being one of the workers in the vineyard of this vast estate, who is sweating [away] while [the son] a well-dressed boy coolly walks by with his father, on his tour of the place. Imagine further being caught up in the rebellious fervor that spreads among the workers so that you go on strike and allow the grapes to grow wild.  When the son, grown into a young man, comes to collect the produce, you join in the attack and kill th[is] heir.
 
“Then comes the reckoning,” continues Marr.  “You and your fellow workers are brought to the magistrates, and you expect to suffer a grim fate for what you have done.  To your shock, the owner of the vineyard shows up in court with the son you killed.  The young man is very much alive, although the wounds inflicted on him are still bleeding.  This really has you shaking in your boots!  But to your further shock, the father gets out his will and announces that the vineyard was bequeathed, not only to the son, but to all of the workers.  More shocking still, the father and his son welcome all of you back to work in the vineyard as joint owners.  As fellow heirs, you are ready to act like heirs who will work to keep the grapes from growing wild so as to produce so much wine for the wedding feast, that it will never run out.”  (Moving and Resting in God’s Desire, Andrew Marr: pp268-69)
 
How can we make this, our story, every day of our ‘new’ lives, as the people of God, and followers of the Son?  We are forgiven and invited to be heirs of the vineyard!  We are blessed, in the grace of God!  Go into world forgiven, and join the feast!  

Readings for October 1, 2017, the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

• Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 and Psalm 25:1-9  
• Philippians 2:1-13  
• Matthew 21:23-32

"Which People?" by Pastor Kinsey
During the lull of summer TV programming, Kim and I decided to start watching, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which swept the Emmy’s this year, winning 9 awards, more than any other show. 
 
I can’t give you a full accounting of it, because we’re just 6 episodes into the 10 total shows.  But, of course, everyone knows what the verdict was.  Unfortunately, the jury is still out on “The People”.  The American people are still split on the verdict, just as much as O.J. is a man of two worlds, and the key players in the whole affair – like lawyers, Johnny Cockran, Marcia Clark, and the host of others – are full of contradictions, both virtuous and contemptable.
 
If you weren’t there for the real thing in 1994-5, you probably still know something about what a media circus it was.  In terms of viewing audience, it lived up to its moniker, ‘Trial of the Century.’  Normal broadcasting was just cancelled, to air the court proceedings which had allowed live cameras into the LA courtroom.  Judge Ito, the lawyers, the detectives, and witnesses, all became famous whether they wanted to or not.  The camera’s eye – which for decades had allowed all of America to become voyeurs in their own living rooms, through regular TV drama’s, soaps, sports, and news – now extended its reach, to enable us to become consumers of a real time drama, based on a former football star, the Juice.  Did he do it, or was he set up?  Does the bloody glove fit, or was it planted by a racist cop?  Is Marcia Clark the smartest woman lawyer ever, or a dowdy disgrace to her gender? 
 
Questions like these – most of them beside the point – baited America, becoming the red meat, served and swallowed.  The spectacle gathered us in unison, only to polarize us.  I remember watching it like a guilty pleasure.  Horrified at myself for not turning it off!
 
And as Kim and I watched the remake, episode 6, a few nights ago, she suddenly cried out : this was a Reality Show – before we even had reality shows!  Now I get it!  This is how we got to The Apprentice, and the long bizarre Presidential Primaries! 
 
You probably already figured that out, long ago.  But Kim and I never watched any Apprentice, or Lost, or even Dancing with the Stars – well, except once or twice with my mom! 
 
But I think, it’s true, the original trial could be seen as the first Reality Show, long before the genre was ever even created.  Whereas, The People vs. O.J. Simpson, from last year, is a reflection of us, The People, a severely conflicted America, one the Kerner Commission back in 1968 called, A Nation Moving Toward Two Societies – Separate and Unequal. 
 
But not only is the legacy of Racism in America unresolved – now on top of it, we have a Press Corp that has gone star-struck, because the media has been bought out by corporate elites with a money-ed agenda, that lives by ratings, first and foremost – by the spectacle of “what bleeds, leads,” and therefore, has largely relinquished its First Amendment task of protecting the truth, and allowing citizens to be properly informed, to better participate in a fair and democratic society.  Our news media itself, has become saturated with star studded celebrities, and have fallen victim to those who create Reality Shows – and let’s face it, want to now create reality itself, new fake realities, out of whole cloth! 
 
To the extent that they want to create a new world “out of nothing,” they are the epitome of vanity, aiming, with ingratiating charm, to take the place of the Creator in Genesis, in our hearts and minds! 
 
And this is the kind of unholy ‘authority and power’ that Jesus confronts, in these waning chapters of Matthew.  It is here, in chapter 21, that Matthew begins a series of 5 challenges to Jesus as the Messiah.  And it all begins when Jesus deliberately comes to Jerusalem – the most visible public space, and seat of Roman power, and the temple elites who collude with them – to meet them head on.  Not passively, but with his brand of active non-violence, for all to witness. 
 
Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, instead of a steed; a humble Messiah, with a parade of people – including his 12 disciples and women followers, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the blind and the lame, and the families come for Passover with their children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  And then, overturning the tables, Jesus disrupts the business of animal sacrifice, and calls for a temple of prayer and praise.
 
Then he stayed the night at Bethany.  But “When Jesus entered the temple,” the next day, our gospel reading begins, “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 the authority?’” 
 
It’s, Jesus vs. the Temple Elites: Jerusalem Crime Story!  And the question is: Who has the exousia, that is, the ‘authority’ or ‘power,’ to define what the Temple will be?  Who will the people follow?  Jesus, or the Temple Elites? 
 
The keepers of the Temple have carefully guarded their religious and institutional power, to be able to continue to hold on to their authority – deadening their spiritual life, however, through a deadly compromise with the occupying Roman rulers. 
 
And that’s what Jesus challenges, in return.  Let me ask you this, Jesus says, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”  Either way they answer, they lose, because everyone knows they didn’t believe in John’s authority and power.  But the many people who followed Jesus, held John the Baptist in high regard. 
 
You are like the Parable of 2 Sons, Jesus tells them.  A man had two sons and told the first to go and work in his vineyard – who grumbles about it, and mumbled a weak, No.  But later he changed his mind and did go to work.  In the mean time, the parent went to the other son, who was listening on his ear-buds, and told him the same, and the 2nd son nodded his head yes, to his father, but never went! 
 
And the Jerusalem elders choose correctly, for which of the two kids did the right thing - the first.  Exactly, Jesus says to them, which is my point about you!  Even the sinners and outcasts, who turned around and got baptized by John, and followed me, have been welcomed into the kingdom of God before you, because you have not given up your corrupted privilege and unholy power. 
 
And so, we have a choice, each and every day: to be the people of God, or, the People vs. OJ Simpson!  We have a choice to live out our baptismal calling, or follow a false authority and power.  The choice itself, does not make us righteous or saved.  It only makes us part of, ‘the recovery movement,’ you could say – part of those who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and who actually turn around to follow the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  It makes us more like the first child, who reacted belligerently, but repented and did go to work in the Vineyard, the kingdom of heaven, and not like the 2nd child who stayed home to watch the Reality Show of guilty pleasures, based on false promises,
 
Jesus came, “in the form of God,” as St. Paul said, and did not exploit it for his own gain, but self-limited his own power, in order to share it with those who had little or none. 
 
Jesus derives his exousia, his authority and power, from God.  Even early on in Matthew, after his Sermon on the Mount, the crowds of people were “astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having exousia, having authority, and not as their [elites].”
 
Jesus overcomes the contradictions of our human life, and opens a way for us to become, more free, and more fully human, as God intends. 
 
And so, let us go joyfully into the Vineyard, as Christ’s workers.  Let us become the People who choose to follow, “the way, the truth, and the life” that brings pleasure, without guilt, beyond polarization – The true ‘authority’ and ‘power’ of our world and our lives.