I invite you to turn back the clock and remember the early 90’s. It was a simpler time–no smartphones, no social media, even the internet wasn’t really a thing. These were the days of my early childhood. I was just getting ready to start Kindergarten. One of my most enduring memories from that time is meeting my best friend, Kris. Of course, at the time he wasn’t my best friend, he was just the kid who lived three doors down.
I would see him kicking himself up and down the sidewalk past our house on his red Little Tikes scooter. For a time, I just looked at him through the window, too shy to go out and introduce myself. But finally I did make a move and we quickly became inseparable. Throughout elementary and high school we made so many memories together: countless sleepovers at each other’s houses, celebrating birthdays together, playing countless board games and video games together, taking Prom pictures with each other and our dates, coming to each other’s graduation parties, going on an epic road trip together after our senior year, and even being in his wedding. I’m so grateful for our friendship, which continues to this day.
This weekend Jesus tells us a parable about two sons. The Father asks one son to go and work in the vineyard and he says he won’t, but then has a change of heart and does. The other son says that he will, but never actually does. This simple image of the two sons is a powerful example of what true love looks like and what its opposite looks like. I think that many of us can relate to both.
There are times in our lives when, with fervor, we have said ‘yes’ to our Heavenly Father not just with our lips, but with our actions: through choosing to forgive someone with the help of His grace, through taking time to listen to a loved one, through sacrificing our wants for the good of others, through taking time to serve God in tangible ways. At our best, we allow the love of God to pour into us and strengthen us to lovingly respond.
But we also know too well what it looks like not to respond. The love of God is there for us, but we don’t move. We are indifferent. We choose ourselves and our wants over others. We ignore the tugging of the Holy Spirit on our hearts. We put things off. We don’t listen to what others are trying to tell us. We fail to forgive.
I pray that we all grow in our ability to live like the son who has a change of heart. Words truly are cheap. It is the easiest thing in the world to say, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” But it takes action to live out those words. It isn’t easy, but the good news is, the grace of God is here for us at every moment.
Every day, Jesus gives us abundant grace to actually live in His Kingdom and do the Father’s will. The will of God for us and the building of His kingdom isn’t abstract, it is supremely practical. Every day, God wants to reveal simple ways we can follow His will: turn off the TV and call that friend you’ve been meaning to call, put down your phone and look at the person right across the table from you, forgive that person you haven’t forgiven, take time to listen to that coworker who is always talking your ear off. God invites us to loving action each and every day when we allow Him to open the eyes of our hearts.
Listen again to the beautiful words the Holy Spirit put on St. Paul’s heart in our second reading today:
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
This isn’t an abstract set of principles. It is an account of what God DID for us out of love. He came down from Heaven, took our flesh, bore all of our sins on the Cross, died and rose to give us all new life. That is what true love in action is. The love Jesus pours out gives us the strength we need to pour ourselves out in action, each and every day.
Think back to me and my friend, Kris. A lifetime of friendship began with one small boy out riding his scooter looking for a playmate, and another small boy’s timid step out of the door. Our invitation today and every day from Jesus will sometimes call us out of our comfort zone, but He is with us all the way. He gives us everything we need to respond to His great love by living in it, by doing things to know, love and serve Him now, so that we can be happy with Him forever in Heaven. So let us ask the Lord to change our hearts today so that more and more we can do those simple, loving things He challenges us to do.
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for the great love you have shown us through everything you’ve done, especially in sending us your Son as our savior. Jesus, please help us to embrace the self-giving love you constantly pour out for us. Holy Spirit, help our hearts be converted from the selfish emptiness of sin to the selfless joy of love in You. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +