September 27, 2026 "Whose you are"

18th Sunday after Pentecost

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Psalm 25:1-9

Philippians 2:1-3

Matthew 21:23-32

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

 from the one who enables us to will and work for God’s good pleasure. Amen.

It’s been a few years since I had to look for a job

outside of the pastoral call process

but from what I remember and having watched others look for jobs,

 who you know and who knows you can make a big difference in getting hired.

We humans are relational

and often averse to change

so when we have a choice between working with someone we know

or in lieu of that someone who is known by one of our friends

or a stranger

we will choose to work with the one who is known,

 even if stranger’s resume is as good or better.

 So often it’s not about what you do

it’s about who you are and who you know.

This inclination is why companies hire celebrities

 to endorse their products,

we think we know celebrities or at least we know of them

and are more willing to take a recommendation from them

 than some unknown person

 even if that person is better qualified to make a recommendation.

This is what we’re used to,

 who we are being more important than what we do.

And then along come our readings for today,

 taken individually and collectively

the message that comes through loud and clear

 is that it doesn’t matter who you are,

it’s about what you do. 

In our first reading

 God is facing accusations of being unfair

 from God’s own people who are in exile in Babylon,

 on the one hand they are complaining that God is unfair

because it seems like God is going back

on the gift of the promised land to the people of God,

 ‘we’re the people of Israel, you promised that we the chosen people

 would get to live there always’

to which God’s response is

‘well yes, but you all had a role to play too,

 keeping the covenant, and you didn’t and so exile is the consequence

 who you are doesn’t matter as much as what you do.’

 but even after that part of the message sinks in

the people still persist in focusing on identity over actions.

 ‘Okay we get that we’re in exile

 but we’re here because of what our parents did,

 and we can’t undo that

 so it’s hopeless,

now we’re just sinners in exile still being punished for who we are,

and that’s not fair either!’

At which point God is getting quite exasperated,

‘that’s not what I said, it doesn’t matter who your parents are,

you have agency you have a choice

 you can continue in sin and face the consequences

 or you can repent and live.’

“Yet the house of Israel says, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

  ³⁰ Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live. “ 

 It doesn’t matter who you are,

it’s about what you do.

In our second reading

the emphasis is on action over identity as well.

The Christ hymn in Philippians

 honors Jesus because he set aside his godly identity

and lived humbly and obediently even to death on a cross,

and that, what Jesus did

 is why God exalted him.

Jesus didn’t depend on who he was

 but his actions

and that made all the difference.

And Paul urges the Philippians to act in the same way,

what you do is more important than who you are. 

Even Jesus’ parable told to the leaders of the temple

 points to this lesson.

 The two brothers whose father asks them to go work in the vineyard.

 The first brother says I won’t go

 but later does go out and work

 and the second brother who says he’ll go

 but never does.

 “Which of the two did the will of his father?” Jesus asks

and of course the answer is the first,

it doesn’t matter what they say

 but what they do.

 Jesus then tells the temple authorities

 that the tax collectors and prostitutes

are going into the kingdom of heaven ahead of them

because they believed in John

and the temple authorities didn’t.

It’s doesn’t matter who you are, it’s about what you do.

So it’s a pretty clear theme running through the texts

but one which may ring discordant to our Lutheran ears

which are always on alert for any hint of works righteousness,

we have the refrain of Ephesians 2:8-9 ringing in our ears

 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We have been taught to be so suspicious of works righteousness

that we shy away from anything that might suggest otherwise

 because for us it is most emphatically not about what we do

 it’s who we are that matters,

our identity as children of God.

 But how did we come by that identity?

God claimed us at our baptisms

 and here is our key

 to help reconcile the message of our texts

 and the assertions of our faith

 because it’s not so much who we are that is most important

but whose we are.

We are God’s

and that comes before anything else.

‘Know this’ says God in Ezekiel

“that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine…”

before anyone does anything

God claims the people

and desires more to be in relationship with them than to judge them

which is why what they chose to do from here on out

is more important than what they’ve done,

 do they want to reconnect with God (that’s what God wants)

well then they will change their ways,

 if they don’t then there will be consequences for those actions. 

Paul urges an emphasis on action to the Philippians

 but also says to them “work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

 Any ability to work toward the kingdom of God

 is because God comes first

and if we are chosen by God,

if whose we are is well established,

then yes what we do is much more important than who we are

 because what we do reflects whose we are.

This is what Jesus is trying to get across to the leaders of the temple.

 The sons in the parable are judged based on their actions

 only after it is established that they are sons of the father,

their action or inaction doesn’t change that fact

 but it will change their relationship with the father.

notice Jesus doesn’t exclude the leaders from the kingdom of heaven,

 he just says the tax collectors and prostitutes will go in ahead of them

 because of their actions toward God.

God knows we are not perfect,

that we will all fall short,

 yet God still claims us

 and having been claimed by God

 what then matters is the willingness to be open to changing our minds and our lives,

what we do,

without that willingness who we are really doesn’t matter (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/9/21/is-god-with-us-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-seventeenth-week-after-pentecost)

We are God’s

and God has promised that nothing will change that

And in claiming us

God has joined us to God’s divine mission to transform the world,

 a transformation that will take a lot of work

God’s work, our hands

it’s about what we do after we have been saved by grace through faith apart from works

and maybe we Lutherans would do well

 to continue reading in Ephesians, just one more verse…

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”  And here’s verse 10

“For we are what he has made us, Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

If we are God’s

And we are

Then it’s not about who we are

It’s about what we do. Amen