A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, I noticed that in because of what's going to follow. So he says to the chief priests and the elders of the people, what do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first son and said to him, son, go and work in my vineyard today.
The boy answered, I will not go. But afterwards, he repented and then he went and worked in the vineyard of his father. The father then went to his second son and said the same thing. But the boy answered, I go, sir. But he didn't go.
Now, says our lord, which of the two boys did the will of his father? The chief priest and the elders of the people replied, the first one. Jesus said to him, I've noticed this, truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you go. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the harlots, they believed in John.
And even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe in John. This is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. I want in spite of this very attractive text this morning but notice how our lord laid it on the line.
He couldn't have used two examples that would be more telling than to appeal to the tax collectors and harlots. And he says that they are in a better way of being saved than you, the elders and the chief priests of the people. No wonder they wanted to get rid of it. I wanna go back to Sunday. Now during Advent and during Lent, we have Leitari and Gaudete Sundays.
Both of those words are verbs in the imperative mood, and we are commanded to rejoice, to be glad. Present tense. Present tense. Every time I hear those words or the equivalent thereof, the fact of life comes home to me strongly. That people are always, well almost always, looking for happiness tomorrow or in in something they don't have at the present time, if only they have it, if only they get it, if only this plan works out.
They we think so much in terms of think of our happiness in terms of what is not. But in terms of what if only it were. Notice, I didn't say was, were, contrary to fact. That use of this adjunctive is overlooked today. And yet you see, common sense says, leaving aside all revelation of theology and philosophy and everything else.
Common sense says that the only reality we have is the reality of the present. And if we're going to wait to be happy in the future, it ain't ever going to be here. But the definition of the future is that it isn't because when it is, it's present tense. Now this command of Saint Paul, rejoice, is in the present tense imperative, not the future. He's not saying wait till this happens, wait until you get this, wait until that doesn't happen, wait until this fear is resolved or resolved, wait until this hope is fulfilled.
He says, rejoice and be glad. And he was in prison when he wrote it. In other words, what this message means is that wherever you are, however your life is messing you up or you're messing your life up, whatever crunch you're in or however happy you are, however contented you are, however well things are going for you, be happy, rejoice, and be glad in the lord. They say this is impossible. It is not impossible.
Of course, it all depends on what you mean by rejoicing and being glad. A person who's being afflicted with all kinds of ills, physical, mental, financial tragedies, crises, disappointments, failure, these things are hard to take. And nobody's going to go around singing to high heaven under these conditions. But that is not what joy in the Lord means. Of course, you say, well, then what does it mean?
Well, that's a as I say, that's a very good question. It's like asking what the peace of the Lord means. I know what that means. That means salvation. And every time you re hear the word peace, if you read salvation there, you're going to be closer to something that has meaning.
Now, Saint Paul was not exactly a flippant young man. No one ever has accused him of that. In many ways, he was a severe guy. He knew what life was. He knew all about it.
And yet he's the one who who from whom we get that those words. So what does it mean? Well, one thing, whatever else it means, what I wanna stress this morning is not the meaning of the joy in the Lord. I wanna emphasize the present tense of that imperative. In the here and the now, whatever be your condition, rejoice in the lord.
Now during this holy season of Advent, on a lot of our texts, I pointed this out to you from the very beginning of Advent. The text speak as if Christ hadn't come, that we're looking for a savior, that is on his way, that it will happen in a week or two weeks or three weeks. This is not true at all in the real sense of the word of Christ coming. It is perfect past tense. He has come.
We're not hoping for a savior. It's happened. We've got one. What more do you want? There is something more we have to want.
Because while it's true, we have a savior, that Jesus Christ came with his message of the good news of salvation. Well, that is all very true. It will have no meaning for me unless it comes into me, unless I get a hold of it, unless I become part of it. And this is what we actually are praying for. We're not praying for Christ to come.
He has come. Then when I say, may the lord come, what do I mean? I mean, may I wake up. May I open my eyes and my ears. May I realize, become attuned to the fact.
Notice I didn't say truth. I say the fact of Jesus Christ coming and his life and his death and his good news. That's what we're praying for. And if a person is convinced that they have a savior, that this life is the preface to the next, that it is not really two existences. I am already in eternity.
I am already in eternal life. If we understand this and understand that there is nothing under the sun that can happen to me so awful as losing sight of that truth that Christ came, but I knew him not. You'll say, yes, but I know all about it. I know that Christ came. Certainly.
But does it reflect in your daily life? How does it affect your daily decisions? How does it affect your daily reactions to everything that happens? I'm not just talking about the bitter things. I'm talking about the sweet things.
There's nothing holy making in in the awful aspects of life. They can work for your will. They can work against you. And the best things in life, they can make you a better person, they can destroy you, and you've seen this. You have I'm sure you have seen it.
What is the difference? The difference is with the person who's anchored, anchored in Jesus Christ. Now just remember that figure of speech and anchor. That's a very good figure because if a ship is anchored and you get into some kind of turbulence, it doesn't mean that the ship is going to be a nice, quiet, solid place where you could put a drink on the table and expect it there when you put your hand out for it. The fact that a ship is anchored does not at all remove it from turbulence.
It doesn't remove it from danger. It doesn't remove it from making you say, god, save me. This is terrible. I don't know what I'm going to do next. That can all happen.
But the point of an anchor is the ship isn't lost. The ship is held fast in a certain direction, and that's the whole point of it. And so when I say that Christ is our anchor hold, I am not at all minimizing, negating, denying the actualities of living. I'm saying that if Christ means anything, it means that he becomes part of it all. Part of it.
That's when he has come to me. And it's not enough to say he came to me. What is terrifically important is that I welcome him, that I open the door to him, that he has become part of me. This is what I mean when I say when I pray that the savior may come and when we think of this in terms of his coming. He has come.
My job is to react to it, to recognize it, to do something about it, to accept it. Remember Holman's Hunt picture. Here's the closed door. There's no latch on the outside. Somebody told him, he said, don't you know anything about doors?
You're supposed to have a knob on the outside. And Holman Hunt is supposedly to have said, I intentionally did not put that on the outside. The door has to be opened from within. In the name of the father and the son, Holy Spirit. Amen.