“The Yes and No Brothers”

I wonder if you have ever said yes to something and then wished later that you had said no. Look at the smiles on your neighbor, turn to the person next to you and look how they are smiling. From those smile, I can tell that this has been your experience. It has been my experience, too. I want you to know that it has happened to me recently. About two months ago my brother called me. My brother is a minister. Besides sharing parents, my brother and I share a calling to the ministry. He is the pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Arkansas. That is too far for any of you to travel to hear him preach. I would not want you to compare his preaching to my preaching. Sometimes my brother calls just to chit chat and to check in on his little brother to see how things are going. He likes to see how his niece, Annie Grace, is doing. There are times that he calls just to chitchat about the things on his mind and heart. Every once in awhile, and if you have a brother of sister you know this experience, he calls because he wants me to do something for him. I was not surprised when he called the first of August. I looked down at my phone when it rang and I noticed my brother’s name on it. Susie and I subscribe to Southwestern Bell’s caller identification. For me, it is worth whatever it costs every month to have it. It has allowed me to avoid a telemarketer or two. I want to quickly say that I have never, not once, ignored any of your phone calls. We called a shut-in in this church shortly after I arrived here. I do not think that they had caller identification, but their answering machine said, “If you are a telemarketer, hang up now.” We got a kick out of that. When my brother called and I saw his name, I quickly answered the phone. To tell you the truth, his phone call was overdue. I thought he should have called me during the first week of my appointment here. But, he waited until the beginning of August to check in with me. David gave me every chance to brag on our church and how things were going. He wanted to know what the Sunday School was like and how friendly you all were. He wanted to know how Annie Grace was liking her new church. He gave me the opportunity to brag about Vacation Bible School and so many other things. We had been talking about twenty minutes. I thought that our conversation was coming to a close. But then my brother said to me, “John there is something that I want you to do for me.” This was new. Never before had my brother buttered me up for twenty minutes, and then gotten to the point of the conversation. Usually, it’s, “How are you doing today? I have something I want you to do for me.” So he said, “On September 28,” (that was yesterday) “I want you to come to my church in Jacksonville and lead a workshop with Youth on how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Is there anything on your calendar?” Now, this was the first of August. The event was scheduled for the end of September. There were two things that happened there. The first is that it is hard to say “no” to your brother, because he will never let you live it down. And the second is that I did not have anything scheduled for the twenty-eighth of September. So what do you say when your brother asks you and the date is free on your calendar? I said yes. I was once asked to preach at my home church a year ahead of time. Can you say no to someone when they ask you a year ahead of time. You cannot say, “Well, I will probably be sick that day.” You cannot say that and it’s a free date on your calendar? I said yes. I said yes. I was once asked to preach at my home church and I was asked a year ahead of time. Can you say no a year ahead of time? “I’m gonna be sick that day!” No, you can’t say no, so I said yes to that invitation. I also said yes to my brother’s request.

What I should have done was to begin to work on that workshop immediately. That is what I should have done. I should have worked on it a little bit everyday, or a little bit each week, and by the end of September, which was eight weeks later, it should have been finished. I did not do that. How was I supposed to know that the week that David wanted me to do this was the same week that I would be required to go to a three day preacher’s meeting for all ordained elders? How was I to know that three preachers would stay at our house and that we would stay up to all hours of the night talking and visiting? How was I to know that my little girl, who had an ear infection and a fever, would stay home four days from our pre-school. How was I to know all that? And so when I saw my brother at this three day meeting, I wanted to say, “Brother, I want my yes to now become a ‘I’m sorry I cannot do this.’” But I knew the consequences and so I fulfilled my obligation to him. Have you ever said yes to something but later wished that you had said no? My guess is that most of us have had that experience.

How about this? Has there ever been a time in your life when you said no to something, thought about it, and then changed your mind and did what you were asked to do? I have discovered this. I think that the best answer, when asked to do something, is “maybe.” As in, “Maybe I will do that.” That is a good answer. Not yes, not no, but maybe. The writer of James has this verse that flies in the face of that idea. In the words of James we find this advice, “Let your yes to yes and your no be no.”

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus tells the story about a father who had two sons. The context of this story is that Jesus’ authority was being questioned by the chief priests and the elders of the church. They approach Jesus and ask him, “By what authority are you doing these things?” What Jesus had done since last week when we left Him in the vineyard telling the story, is that he had entered Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday on a borrowed donkey. He had chased the moneychangers out of the temple. He had walked up to a fig tree and cursed it because it did not bear fruit. The tree then withered and died. The chief priests and the elders of the church have noticed this. Basically they ask Jesus, “Who do you think that you are?” I love the way Jesus answers them. Jesus does not tell them outright where he gets his authority. Instead, he asks them a question. He asks them where John the Baptizer received authority to baptize and then he tells them the story of a father who had two sons. I love this story. In this story, the father goes to one of his sons and says, “Son, I want you to work in the vineyard.” One of the sons says, “No, I will not do it,” but later he changes his mind and goes. The second son says, “Yes, I will be happy to do it,” but for some reason he does not get off of the couch. I have to tell you, I love the way Jesus starts the story. Jesus asks, “What do you think?” I love that.

Now I know the father in this story is supposed to be God. I know that we are supposed to think about the fact that this father is our eternal father. I know that this man is not an earthly father. I know for sure that this man is not my earthly father. Evidently these two boys were old enough to work in the fields unsupervised, but they were still young enough to live under their father’s roof. Maybe their father said, “As long as you live under my roof, you are going to work in my vineyard.” Maybe he said that.

I want you to know that this father is not my dad. I can remember when I was seven or eight years old, my father decided one weekend that he would plow up all the grass in our yard and we would plant new grass. He spent all day Saturday removing all of the old grass. On Sunday it was our job to plant new sod in our yard. I was seven or eight years old at the time. I was not asked if I would work in our yard. My dad did not ask, “John, would you like to work in the yard today?” I was told to work in the yard. If I had been asked, I would have said “no,” and my “no” would have stayed a “no.” I wanted to have fun that Sunday afternoon. I wanted to play with my neighborhood friends. I was wise (or maybe stupid enough) to ask my dad, “Dad what do you think Jesus would think about me working on the Sabbath day?” Words were not required from my dad for his answer.

But the father in our story is a different father. I want you to notice something about this story. In this story, neither of the boys has negotiation on his mind. Neither of them asked, “Dad, what field do you have in mind? The big one or the medium sized one or the small one? How long to you have in mind that I work? A couple of hours, all day long? You know, it gets hot around noontime and you wouldn’t want me to die of heat exhaustion.” Neither of them says, “Dad, if I do this for you, what are you going to do for me?” The story is simple. One son says “no” and goes, the other one says “yes” but does not go to work.

I will l tell you the truth. I am drawn to the son that changes his mind in less than a verse. Did you notice that? Jesus hopes that you will notice him. I want to know what makes him change his mind. Is there something in his heart that makes him do that? What helped him to change his mind? What helped him to go from no to yes so quickly? “What do you think” Jesus asks. Which of the boys did the will of his father? The chief priests and the elders answer, “The first.” To which Jesus zings them and us with the words: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom ahead of you.” A little commentary here from your preacher. These are going into the kingdom not instead of you, but ahead of you. “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him and even after you saw their lives changed, you did not change your minds.” And that is it. That is all that there is. What do you think, church, what do you think?

This word is a hard word. I have been your pastor for four months now. You have been gracious to me. Will you still be gracious to me after this morning’s sermon. This is a hard word. The question that I want to ask you today is this, “Which brother are you more like?” I will have to tell you that after we had a Nominations Committee meeting the other night, on Sunday night, I went back to my office, and I read this scripture and I thought to myself, “If anyone tells me no when I ask them to do a job in the church, I will ask them to read the words of this parable.” But the point of the parable is not to get someone to change their mind when they are asked to do something. The point of the story is that God gives us the grace to change our minds when we are confronted with good news. If we ever say no to the gospel, or no to the good news, then God gives us the grace to change our minds and to do what God really needs for us to do. You see the chief priests and the elders had been in the church all of their lives, ever since day one. And now, ahead of them, coming into the kingdom were sinners and prostitutes.

I want to ask you about two things today. The first is this, “Which brother are you more like?” Are you like the brother that said no, but eventually said yes and went to work in the field. Make no mistake about it. The field is the kingdom of God. Are you like that brother? I heard of a man who came into a church about this size of our church. He came on a very important day. The sanctuary was full. The head usher was sitting in the back making sure everyone had a seat. The head usher was dressed in his best suit. Everyone in the pews were wearing their finest clothes. Then in walked a young man who had never been to church before. He had long hair and a unkempt beard. He was not wearing shoes. He looked for a seat, but there were none, and so he walked down the center aisle and sat cross legged on the floor. All eyes were on the head usher. What was he going to do? Would he gently ask the young man to leave or to ask him to sit in the back? The head usher walked down the aisle in his best suit and with his sixty years of church experience with him. He spoke into the young man’s ear and then he, too, sat down on the floor near the front of the church. One of the messages of this passage is that it does not matter when or how we come to the church. The day, whenever it is, is an important day. Are you like that son? Have you been here your entire life or have you recently come? Our neighborhood is full of people that have not yet come to church Amen? Are you with me?

Or are you like the other son? Parents like this son. “Son, I want you to go and wash my car.” “Yes, Mom, I’ll be happy to do it.” But then, they don’t do it. The church loves this son. “I want you to volunteer and do this in the church.” “Preacher, I’d be happy to do it.” Sometimes they do, and well, sometimes they don’t. Last week, if you were here, you heard me admit that I have been in the church all of my life. Last week, when we talked about the laborers in the vineyard, the first hired and the last hired, I admitted that I was among the first hired. I have been in the church my entire life. I am a little like the chief priests and the elders. I have been in the church my whole life. Friends, what did you have in mind when you joined the church? When you came up and made your profession of faith and said, “Yes, I will do these things. I will support the church with my prayers, my presence, my gifts, and my service.” Every Sunday, we find ourselves in our pews. We know where we sit. We know our place. Today religious people are defined as those who show up in worship services. I heard a guy a few weeks ago say this. “We are not baptized to sit.” Are you with me? Are you mad at me yet? We have work to do. We have important work to do in the church. I need for you to join me in standing up to do the work of the church. Donna Smith came to the early service today. After it she told me about a time when she was on staff here. Her job was to call someone and to ask them to do a particular job in this church. Donna called and when the person was asked, she said, “Thank you for calling me. I was hoping that someone would ask me to do something in the church.” Please do not make me call. We all have a job to do. Look around in our church and notice our ministries. What can you help us all do together?

The Methodist church is defined by doctrines. Our doctrines are what we believe. Our church teaches that we are given a clear mind to think about what we believe and what we should do. The brothers Wesley, John and Charles, believed in the hymns of the church. John preached the gospel; Charles furthered it by writing hymns. He wrote wonderful hymns like this, “Take my life, and let it bd, consecrated Lord to thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a might I withhold, Jesus Christ the crucified.” And then the one we will sing later today. I will not sing it, because I am afraid that you will not return to church if I do sing. The hymn is #413. Charles penned these words, “To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill, oh may it all my powers engage, to do my Master’s will.”

Which one of the boys did the will of the Father? We are supposed to do the will of our Father. Jesus modeled this for us. In the garden, near the end of his life, he said, “Lord, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, let your will be done. Jesus did the will of his Father. So, church, what do you think? What do you think about this? Let us pray.

(Special thanks to God who gives us the grace to change our minds when a mind change is the best thing. Special thanks to the writings of the Wesley brothers. And special thanks to this church, who has the courage to say “yes” to the gospel).

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