The Benefits of Use

Continuing with Matthew 21:23-32

There are groups and experiences that only benefit us in the doing.  I can join a fitness club and feel virtuous about joining.  But I will not benefit from the membership unless I actually show up regularly and do the work.  So perhaps the second son in the parable is not so much a hypocrite as he is a fool.

He makes a verbal commitment but fails in the follow through.  So he never benefits from the commitment.  The hypocrisy comes if and when he takes credit for the commitment without doing anything about it.

A library would be another example.  How many people get library cards and never check out a book?  Or the people who join service clubs to pad their resumes but rarely show up?  Perhaps a marriage is a similar institution...

Membership in God's kingdom is a gift of grace.  No one earns a way to the table.  Thus the tax collectors and prostitutes are welcomed along with the religious folks.  But it is a gift to be used, not merely displayed.

This makes me think about Luther's discussion of baptism in his Large Catechism.  How shall we use our baptism properly, he asks (see paragraph 44).  Baptism into Christ's death and resurrection is in and of itself purely a gift.  If it remains merely a label, however, it is valid but not very effective.

Baptism that is not used becomes little more than the fitness club membership.  It was begun with the best of intentions but has been abandoned through absence and apathy.  Parents who "get the kid done" for example (for whatever reason) may think that the label is enough.  And in one sense it is, because God never goes back on a promise.  But the benefits of the gift come from use not from an entry in the church records.

How shall we use this great gift, we who have been called into God's work in this way?  Our baptismal vocation is announced at the end of the rite.  "Let you light so shine before others," the pastor reminds the baptized one, "so that people may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

We depend on the gift of baptism to sustain and defend us when we are assailed with doubts and despair.  Then we put that gift to work in loving our neighbors as ourselves.  In this way, we become more and more of what the Creator intends for us to be.

So perhaps this parable is about reaping the benefits of the work rather than about sheer obedience for its own sake.

P.S.  We just returned from the Western Iowa Synod's Fall Theological Convocation.  Our presenter was the Reverend Doctor Anna Madsen of the OMG Center For Theological Conversation.  She was a wonderful presenter.  Please check out her web page and like the OMG Center on Facebook.