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Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified.

Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.”

The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair!”

The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.” They weren’t listening. They weren’t listening to the message that was right in front of them the entire time.

Our parable today could be summed up in one simple phrase, “How many times do I have to tell you ____?” Little Johnny got in trouble once by answering that question. His response, “Once more might do the trick.”  We’ve all heard it or said it, “How many times do I have to tell you to turn off the lights?” “How many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?” “How many times do I have to tell you that chocolate and peppermint don’t go together?” Maybe that one is just me.

In the parable, Jesus is talking to the Pharisee, the religious leaders. We have the owner of the vineyard who is God the Father, the vineyard that represents the people, and the caretakers of the vineyards who are the religious leaders.  The parable tells us that God gave the care of the vineyard – his children – into the hands of the caregivers – the religious leaders.  He gave them freedom. He entrusted the people’s spiritual well being to them, but over time, the religious leaders got it wrong, so God sent His prophets to bring correction. Yet, like the applicants for the telegraph job, the religious leaders weren’t listening to the message that was right in front of them the entire time. So time and time again they didn’t properly respond to that message.  God says, “How many times do I have to tell you?”  When they failed to listen to the prophets, God sent His one and only Son to say it again.  But as we know, the religious leaders will end up killing Him.  So what was this message that God kept trying to get across to His children?  We heard it this morning in our Old Testament lesson: The Law. The Law given to Moses and written on the tablets of stone by the very finger of God was the message, but they did not hear it as it was intended.

Instead, the religious leaders took the Law of God and interpreted it. For example, we have the US Constitution. Even with the amendments its not that long of a document, but all the various laws that come from the interpretation of the Constitution go on for volumes and volumes. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time and before did the same thing with the Law of Moses. Instead of teaching it as God intended, they interpreted it and used it to enslave the people and get around the true intent of the Law. Today, Jesus spoke to the religious leaders using a parable to condemn them for their actions. In two more chapters, He is crystal clear, “Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!… Woe to you blind guides!… You snakes!  You brood of vipers!  How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

I can’t imagine the religious leaders intentionally unleashing this kind of wrath upon themselves, but it happened just the same.  Why?  Because they weren’t listening.  Jesus said to them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written, ‘The people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”  God asks, “How many times do I have to tell you?” The Law is not about rules and regulations that can be numbered and written down in books. The Law is about justice, mercy, faithfulness. The Law is  about the heart and that is what the religious leaders were not hearing.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “This is the religious leaders problem. This here is Fr. John’s issue – not mine.  God will smite him if he goofs, but I’m off the hook on this on.” Please allow me to retort: 1 Peter chapter 2, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter goes on, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

The things of God are not secret knowledge locked up in the heads of the ordained. As Luke says, “The kingdom of God is within you.”   This is not just an issue for religious leaders. It is for God’s chosen people, His royal priesthood, His Holy Nation, and His special possession. It is for you and it is within you. The Gospel of Thomas has been classified as heretical by the church and perhaps by quoting from it I make myself a heretic, but it would seem to contain some truth.  In it, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is within you, not in buildings and mansions of stone.  When I am gone, split a piece of wood and I am there, lift a stone and you will find me.” Understanding the things of God is not some secret knowledge. The knowledge of God is within the heart of every believer – you need only to listen.

The words of Jesus teach us that the Law of God was not originally intended for scholars and theologians, for books, and ivory towers. The Law was for the heart.  It was not about whether you could recite it verbatim, but can you live it. Paul said in the letter to the Philippians, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” He wants to know Christ by listening to the things of God, not up here – in his head – but here – in his heart. The boxing great Rocky Marciano reportedly once said, “Hit the heart and the head will follow.” He also said, “Why waltz with a guy for 10 rounds if you can knock him out in one?” We can try all sorts of ways to know God, but the quickest way to this knowledge is to listen with our hearts.

Thomas a Kempis wrote, “O God, You Who are the truth, make me one with You in love everlasting. I am often wearied by the many things I hear and read, but in You is all that I long for. Let the learned be still, let all creatures be silent before You; You alone speak to me.”

Say to God, “You alone speak to me.” Then listen.

In the Far East the emperor was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided to do something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you.” The children were shocked, but the emperor continued. “I am going to give each one of you a seed today–one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor.”

One boy, named Ling, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it, carefully. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Ling didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by–still nothing in Ling’s pot.

He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn’t say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But his mother asked him to be honest about what happened.

Ling felt sick at his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful–in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other children laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, “Hey, nice try.”

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the emperor. “Today one of you will be appointed the next emperor!”

All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. He thought, “The emperor knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!”

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. “My name is Ling,” he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, “Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!”

Ling couldn’t believe it. Ling couldn’t even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!”

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Many read the Book of Revelation and are frightened by things like the dragon, the woman in the desert, the crashing star, Wormwood, not to mention the Four Horsemen, but this little section toward the end should really grab our attention. Everything that takes place before is leading up to this event. It is the time of God’s final decision with regards to our soul’s eternal destination.

Now, you’ve probably picked up on the fact by now that I’m not a “Hellfire and Brimstone” kind of preacher, and I’m not going to start today, but it was the passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans that we read today that made me consider this. Paul writes:

“We will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.”

During your lifetime, whether you confess Jesus as Lord or not, on this day of judgment, you will, for Paul and John both state that we will all come before the throne of God. Therefore, the question for us is: what will we present?

In the story of the Emperor, all the children had been given the same opportunity and the same place to begin. Each had the command to take what they had been given and care for it. Each experienced the same frustration when their seed did not grow. Each had the choice to persevere, even though they believed they had failed, but only one chose to be true and faithful to the Emperor.

Jesus says, “many are invited, but few are chosen.” Why is that? The Book of Genesis states, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God has placed within each of us the gift of his breath, of life, of spirit – a soul. Although our external circumstances may be different – some are rich others poor, slave or free, male or female, American or Zambian – we all have different external circumstances, but internally regarding the matters of the soul, we all have the same opportunity when presented with the knowledge of God. Our soul is ours to care for and to nurture. It is also ours to corrupt and neglect. In light of our failures, we all have the choice to persevere and remain faithful, or abandon what God has place within us for something that is unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven. So, coming back to the question: what will you present?

Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What will you present? “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” By doing so, on the day of God’s final decision, He will say to you, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”