On Reaching for the Common Good
September 27, 2026
Rev. Tracey May Kalvaitis
Psalm 78:1-3
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
Matthew 21:23-32
When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “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; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘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.
“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it you did not change your minds and believe him.
Philippians 2:1-8
Paul writes: If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
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Today’s sermon is titled On Reaching for the Common Good.
Has anyone ever asked you that question about who you would invite for a dinner party? Usually the question is posed with some qualifiers, like you can only have a total of 4 or 6, and they can either be from any time in history or they must still be alive. If the parameters allow me to invite anyone, first on my guest list is Jesus of Nazareth.
The passage from Matthew today gives us a rare insight into how cheeky Jesus can be, especially considering this audience. In our passage for today, Jesus is not preaching to his disciples, or to a gathered community somewhere on the shores of Galilee. Jesus is in the temple, in the heart of Jerusalem, and he is speaking to the highest echelons of temple authorities, the Chief Priests and the Elders of the Temple. These individuals hold the most power, within the temple, within the wider community, and with the occupying Roman government. The occupying Roman government depends on these Priests and Elders to keep the delicate balance of peace among the Jewish population, a population overtaxed and under-resourced, with no say at all in how they are governed. Keep in mind Jesus’s audience as we consider the parable today. Keep in mind that in his insinuation that his audience is like the brother who says one thing and does another, he is making enemies in very high places.
This week, millions of people are considering this same account of Jesus sparing with the religious elite of his day. Like hundreds of thousands of Catholic and Protestant communities across the world, we follow the Revised Common Lectionary. Millions of people are considering the parable of the two sons and wondering why it is only included in the book of Matthew and not in the other gospels. So we join them in their questioning knowing we are in good company.
First, we have to catch up on what has happened between our reading last week and this week. It turns out that a great deal has happened. We have jumped ahead a few chapters and when we
find Jesus this week, he is nearing the end of his ministry in human form. Jesus entered Jerusalem for the final time, riding on a colt to the shouts of Hosannah (which means “save us”), and Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They laid down branches and their outer garments to give him a king’s welcome. It was Passover and Jerusalem was packed with Jewish people from far and wide, a perfect time for a mass uprising. Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes straight to the temple where he is overcome with sadness and frustration that the temple has been turned into a marketplace with vendors selling living animals for outrageous prices, animals that will end up as sacrificial offerings while people are, literally, starving for lack of food. Jesus goes into a rage, physically turning over the tables of the moneychangers, accusing them of turning the temple into “a den of thieves.”
What the reader can not know from these passages is that shortly before Jesus’s birth, the temple, still under reconstruction, became the site of a daily sacrifice offered to the Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar. The daily sacrifice consisted of two lambs and an ox. Now I’m no math whiz, but in my head I can figure the yearly sum to be 365 oxen and 730 sheep each year for 80 years. Daily sacrifices to the leader of the occupying forces, edifying that leader, that Emperor, to the status of a god. Daily sacrifices endorsed and administered by the religious leaders of the day. Just to drive home how insulting this might be, Friends, imagine if you will that we were living under foreign occupation. Imagine that our tax dollars were going to support improvements in Moscow while our bridges crumbled and it became difficult to put food on the table. We might well come to church looking for some ray of hope and assurance but in order to still have the right to gather and worship as we choose, we would have to include a special offering each week in honor of Vladimir Putin, maybe even have his picture hanging here in the sanctuary somewhere. After church, we would all return to our own meager dwellings to scrape together some lunch knowing full well that the Conference Minister and the Associate Conference Minister were having their lunches prepared and served to them in their beautiful dining rooms Theologian Doug Reed writes, “Jesus’s greatest opponent was not the greatest sinners of his day [Jesus’s greatest opponent was] the religious establishment.” Specifically, I would add, that Jesus’s greatest opponent was the liaison of power between temple and the Roman government. Because the Chief Priests and temple Elders were benefiting greatly from their submission to and collusion with the Romans, they were fiercely protective of their quite comfortable lifestyles.
Now, Friends, let’s be very careful here not to narrow our focus so much that we think this corrupt spiritual elitism is a problem unique to the Jewish community of old. This corrupt spiritual elitism is alive and well in many places throughout the world, in Christianity, to be sure, but also in theocracies around the world. The Christian Nationalism movement in this country is seeking to blur the separation of church and state. Imagine how convenient that would be for those who wish to restrict our freedoms of the press, and our freedoms of speech and religion.
In every organized human system, there is the tendency to amass wealth and the influence that comes along with it. Jesus railed against this tendency at every turn and eventually it cost him his life. Jesus was not the only one who sought to call the priesthood to account. John the Baptist came before him calling the religious elite a “brood of vipers.” Before John came the Essenes, a Jewish community living and worshipping in the desert. “The Essenes believed that the Jerusalem priesthood that administrated the temple was corrupt and that the sacrificial system and the calendar were also corrupt. Thus, while the Essenes passionately believed in the temple, they did not participate in its rituals in Jerusalem.”*
How common it is in human systems to create ways for a few to benefit while the many shoulder the burden of those benefits. Just look at our income tax system and you will see it, in painful clarity. When religious communities are infected, religious leaders, like the second son whose words said one thing and whose actions said another, cease in their reaching towards the common good and instead cling to their positions and the privileges those positions allow.
As followers of Christ we have such a poignant example in our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, an example of someone never ceasing to reach for the common good even though he could have gained all the worldly power. Jesus subscribed to the model of power with, not power over. Through his life example, his teachings we study, and his reminder that the gift of the Holy Spirit is available to us always, to lead us in the ways of love, we are empowered to continue reaching…reaching for the common good for all. Last week I saw a bumper sticker that can help us stay on track. It read: If freedom doesn’t include everyone, it’s just privilege.
In closing, I will leave you with a similar instruction from Paul in a letter to an early Christian community in Philippi. He writes, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” Friends, may we continue Christ’s work on this earth, not clinging to power and privilege, but reaching always for the common good that benefits all. So be it. Amen.
*https://rsc.byu.edu/new-testament-history-culture-society/temple-herod
Pastoral Prayer
Infinite Love we call God, I pray your guidance within us through the challenges of our lives. We have been told that nothing can separate us from your everlasting love; help us to be open and trusting enough to experience that as truth, and as grace. When we struggle and when we
soar, remind us to look beyond ourselves and expand our awareness that we may begin to fathom the workings of the Divine, even in the most mundane aspects of our lives. Guide us in ways to care for ourselves, and as we extend ourselves in service to others, help us to maintain a healthy balance within. Grant us peace, that we may then listen and be ready to act in a way that allows for healing, hope and possibility. This I ask in Jesus’s name
Benediction
I leave you with these words from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 2:
“May your hearts be comforted, and well-equipped in charity and in all the riches of complete understanding, so you may know the mystery of God, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”