“Changing Your Mind”

September 27-28, 2008

Pr. Tom Schoenherr

Matthew 21:23-32

      What is God asking of us? How do we know we have faith, or have enough faith? I remember when our granddaughter, Kayla, was born. She was a couple of months pre-mature. Her parents, Neil and Lisa, and our whole family were afraid of what could happen to this 3-pound wonder. As they rolled her away to take her to Children’s Hospital, we were praying that God would strengthen her, but we didn’t know what the future might hold. Did Jesus have the authority to heal, to take care of this baby? Our faith was being challenged.

      I know there have been other times in my life when I said “Yes” to God with my head, saying that I believe, but my heart was saying “No” or “I’m not sure.” And I know I have said “no” to God, but then have been amazed as I follow in his way. We are not perfect people, and we don’t have perfect faith or obedience to God. I think that I put myself and my comfort in the way of believing and being obedient to God’s call. Faith does not always lay out a clear path for us, and we often find ourselves straying or uncertain of which way is the Christ-like way. We may lose the Promise of Christ altogether.

      Father Walter Ciszek answered God’s call to obedient faith. He became a Jesuit priest and wanted to serve in Russia. Instead, he was sent to Poland, but when the Nazi’s invaded Poland, Ciszek fled with other Polish refugees to Russia. Shortly after he arrived he was arrested and accused of being a spy, and he was sent to Lubianka prison in Moscow for 5 years. He spent day and night questioning God as to why this was happening to him. He had answered God’s call, saying “Yes, I will go!” but how could he serve God’s people while in solitary confinement. He was then sent to 15 years of hard labor in Siberia.

      There he endured deep cold, 14-hour work days, punishment, but he was able to be a priest to people. His once “childish” faith was maturing to be a child-like faith in Jesus Christ.

      First, Walter Ciszek had to adjust to the new realities of his life. Being obedient to God’s will and to the authority of Christ may put us in places and situations we never expected, like when pre-mature Kayla was born.

      Second, in these challenging and dangerous circumstances, God was calling forth gifts from him he never knew he had. Father Ciszek saw each day, not just as a period of time to be endured or survived, but each day is a gift from God’s hand, alive with opportunities for faith and trust and doing God’s will for others. Each new day for Kayla has been a gift filled with new possibilities and opportunities.

      Finally Walter Ciszek also learned to trust God. In prison and labor camps everything seemed to say that God had forgotten him. But the Holy Spirit kept working in him to overcome doubt and to trust God in everything. He learned from the peasant people he lived with who saw God as close as their own family or best friend. Each day was an experience of God’s grace.

      After 23 years in prison and labor camps in Russia, Father Walter Ciszek was returned to the United States in exchange for 2 Russian spies in 1963. He lived until 1984, and his books reflect the faith and trust and obedience to God’s will in his life.

      We are living in fearful and economically uncertain times. Our jobs, our savings or retirement accounts seem to be in question. The hunger and poverty grows among people who already have very little. Jesus Christ may be asking us where our faith is founded, and by whose authority we live.

      I believe and trust that God accepts me who sometimes say “no” and sometimes say “yes” to him. I believe that God calls us to be obedient to him in the face of very difficult challenges, but he does not leave us alone there. He is alongside of us, giving us his Supper, his Word, and he works through the witness of other people to draw us closer to him. I believe that God loves you and me, not because we are so good, but because he is so good to us.

      Our Gospel reading happens on the Monday after Palm Sunday. It is Holy Week, and Jesus will be arrested by these same priests and elders who asked him the question. He will be crucified on Friday. Jesus’ faith is also being challenged. What does the future hold for him?

      Jesus Christ takes our prison sentence and the sentence of death that we deserve, and he sets us free. On Sunday he rises from the grave and there is new life for us too. We have a changed mind and a changed heart through faith in Christ, who dies and rises again for us. What we get to do now is to work in God’s vineyard today. Even if we said “no” before, or said “yes” but didn’t go, we are welcomed into Christ’s mission to love the world.

      With Walter Ciszek and those who have gone before us, we have been given faith to trust God’s promise for each day. We live in that Promise in the face of the fears and the uncertainties that can imprison us. We are sent into the world, to people who, like us, have said “no’ or “yes” to God in the past. God’s promise is that he died and rose again for all of us, and we have hope and new life in him. In Jesus’ name. Amen.