Change Your Mind

Homily for Sunday, September 27, 2026
The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

One of the primary ministries of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, a monastic order for men over in Cambridge, is leading retreats.  Most of the brothers have a full schedule of retreats to lead, be they at the monastery or in churches around the country.  Br. Bernard, however (of blessed memory), would insist, “You don’t want me leading retreats.  I’m happy in the kitchen.”  Bernard was for many years the cook at Emery House, the Society’s rural property in northern Massachusetts.  When he cooked, Bernard liked to hum.  Being of a certain generation, the songs we heard Bernard hum when we walked through the kitchen were songs like, “Only You (And You Alone),” a 50’s doo-wop hit by The Platters.  Which might then merge into “Love Me Tender,” by Elvis Presley.  Which might then give way to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” by Frankie Valli.  Hearing Bernard hum, we would tease him,saying, “Bernard, you could totally lead retreats.  Just base it on the songs you know.”  “Open with, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love;’ and then move to  ‘I Am Loved,’ by Frank Sinatra.  And you could close with that song about self-offering that we hear you hum all the time, ‘All of Me. Why Not Take All of Me?’”

Last month up in Derry, New Hampshire, the alternative rock group Sister Hazel played a concert.  Though the group is not overtly religious, I have to wonder if perhaps they are (shall we say) “religious-adjacent,” given that on the set list for the evening were songs such as, “All for You,” and, “This Kind of Love,” and, “Lay Your Worry Down.”  And I want to get back to Sister Hazel and music that may speak to our life in God, but first, some scriptures.

Today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 21 comes almost immediately after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem created a stir with the religious authorities, and in chapters 21 and 22 the authorities pose a series of five challenges to Jesus.  Today’s Gospel tells of their first:  “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question… Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” “If we say, ‘from heaven,’” they argued with one another, “’He will say, “Why then did you not believe him?”  But if we say, “Of human origin,” we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’”  “So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’  And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’”  

Jesus then tells a parable unique to Matthew’s Gospel, the so-called “Parable of the Two Sons” in which two sons are asked by their father to go work in the vineyard.  The first answered, “’I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went…  The second… answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go.  Which of the two did the will of the father?”  Jesus asked.  

One of the themes of Matthew’s Gospel is not merely knowing the will of God but doing it.  As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (Matt 7:26).  Or again, in chapter 12 Jesus asks the crowd,“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (12:48, 50).  In today’s parable, though the first son initially said he would not go work in the vineyard but eventually went, it is he – and not the second brother who said “I go” but did not – it is the first brother who went who did the will of the father.  

Easily-missed in today’s passage are four key words, spoken twice: first about the first brother who initially said he would not go:  “he changed his mind,” said Jesus.   Then, in words following the parable, Jesus said to the authorities:  Even after John “came to you in the way of righteousness… you did not change your minds and believe him.”  The tax collectors and the prostitutes could change their minds.  But “even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”  “Can you,” Jesus asks the Pharisees, in effect, “like the first son, change your mind and believe?”

If from a narrative point of view today’s Gospel ratchets up tension in advance of the crucifixion; if from a thematic point of view today’s Gospel begins to assert that it is Jesus and not the Pharisees who is the most credible authority (a credibility, by the way, that culminates in his crucifixion); from the standpoint of us readers– to whom Matthew throughout his Gospel begs the question not merely “Do you know…” but “Will you do” the will of the Father – today’s passage invites us to consider the extent to which we might in some way be called  to “change our mind.”  We all have ways in which – like the second son, our intent may be good – yet we do not do.  

If we discover in our lives places in which we might think about but do not yet do the will of the Father, might we with God’s help be able to “change our mind” about Jesus, and to give him and his words their proper place at the center of our lives?

Here we return to music that may speak to our life in God and to Sister Hazel’s concert in New Hampshire.  [Again, though I don’t believe the band is overtly religious, I have to wonder, given some of their songs.]  On the set list that evening was a song, “Change Your Mind.”  Which Sister Hazel might sing to the religious authorities in today’s Gospel lesson.  Or which they might sing to us in the places in our lives in which we have not yet fully committed to going into the “vineyard” and to following Jesus.

Did you ever think
There might be another way
To just feel better,
Just feel better about today

If you never want to have
To turn and go away
You might feel better,
Might feel better if you stay

If you’ve had enough
Of all you’re tryin’
Just give up
The state of mind you’re in:

If you want to be somebody else,
If you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself
If you want to be somebody else
Change your mind…

May God give us the grace, where we might not yet fully follow, to “change our mind.”  To “let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.”

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