Matthew 21:28-32
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
September 27, 2026
One day, while Mom was folding laundry and three-year-old Beverly was playing on the floor across the room, Mom noticed that the girl had a dirty shirt and needed to change into a clean one. After calling her over twice and getting no response, Mom gave her the full three-name call: “Beverly Elizabeth Provost, did you hear me?” Beverly answered, “Yes, Mama. My ears did, but my legs didn’t.”
Too often, our ears hear God, but our legs don’t.
Yet, our faith only gains real substance if, hearing Him, we put our legs into action to obey Him. Our behavior substantiates what we actually believe.
God gave us the Bible, not so much to increase our knowing, as to improve our living. All the best ethical and spiritual precepts are in the Bible. All that remains is for us to put them into practice. Performance matters more than profession!
Holding to that perspective costs us because it requires us to make sacrifices and to take pains to do God’s will. Maybe that’s why many say to God, “Thanks but no thanks!” Comedian Louis C.K. has a mocking rift on this refusal. He says, “I have a lot of beliefs. I like to think about them, but I live by none of them. I just like believing in them. They are, I like to say, my little ‘believe-ies’. Having believe-ies makes me feel good about myself. But if they get in the way of a thing I want, I sure as heck just do what I want.”
Faith of real substance has no believe-ies, but convictions that create consistent conduct. Jesus illustrates that point by today’s parable. While an ideal son would both respectfully promise to obey Dad from the start and faithfully fulfill that promise, the first son – who initially refuses to help but eventually changes his mind and does – is a way better son that than the second one who initially promises to work but never gets around to doing a thing.
In Jesus’ day, the first son is exemplified by the hookers, and by the turncoats collecting taxes for Israel’s evil occupying power. Though they initially disregard God’s will, they in the end fulfill it. The second son is exemplified by the hypocritical religious leaders. Though they talk the talk of obedience, they in the end fail to walk the walk of doing God’s will.
While we may like the first group more, we probably have more in common with the second. Religious leaders don’t have the market cornered on hypocrisy. Anyone who has standards of right and wrong and views them as incumbent on everyone is susceptible to hypocrisy. For example, doctors always tell us how to take care of ourselves, but don’t always follow their own advice. For instance, while surgeons often warn their patients about stress and burn out, a study from John Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic shows that 40% of surgeons report feeling burned out. A physician of internal medicine said, “We tell our patients to…not work too hard, to balance their professional and personal lives. Yet, many of us who dole out this advice completely ignore it ourselves.”
Of course, the temptation to hypocrisy, to letting our preaching outpace our practicing, is common to people of faith as well. What are we to do? For me, it helps to honestly own up to my inconsistency, share my struggles with certain friends and build into my life little habits that embed best practices into my day-to-day conduct. Those little habits involve regular worship, prayer, charitable giving, acts of service, and the like.
Yes, it’s true that a faith of real substance leads to righteous action. But it’s also true that regular righteous action leads to a faith of real substance. In other words, our conduct works on our character, and we become what we habitually do.
That’s why the best musicians and athletes practice continually. They never stop working to preserve and develop their skill.
In her book, Better than Before: What I Learned about Making and Breaking Habits, Gretchen Rubin calls habits “the invisible architecture of daily life. We repeat about 40% of our behavior almost daily, so our habits shape our existence, and our future.” She observes that habits reduce the need for self-control, saying, “With habits, we conserve our self-control. Because we’re in the habit of putting dirty cups in the dishwasher, we don’t need self-control to perform the action, but do it automatically, without thinking.” She then adds, “Our habits are our destiny. And changing our habits allows us to change our destiny.”
And what will keep us steadfast and consistent in keeping our habits? One big help is bearing in mind what is at stake in keeping them!
Gordon MacDonald, a much-in-demand Christian speaker, who often flew across the county to give talks, always tried to get a seat in the exit row for the extra leg room it provided. But he didn’t at first realize that with privilege comes responsibility.
One trip, a flight attendant came up to his seat, bent down to get eyeball to eyeball with him and asked, “Have you read the instruction card that tells how to open the door in case of emergency? I need a verbal answer.” Gordon fudged and said Yes – when in truth he hadn’t read it, rationalizing to himself that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you swivel the handle and push the door out and to the side. But she was perceptive and said, “Sir, if an emergency happens, I’ll be relying on you to open that door. Dozens of people will be relying on you as well. Are you sure you know what’s on that card?”
Suddenly she had his attention. Suddenly, it occurred to him that, just as folks at his speaking engagements relied on him to give them God’s truth, so folks on the plane relied on him to give them a safe exit. From then on, Gordon reviewed the card every trip he took. His heightened sense of what’s at stake motivated him to make sure that he knew what to do to save lives and that he had so embedded that knowledge in himself that he would do the right thing instanteously, without having to think about it.
God wants us to practice our faith, not just for ourselves, but for others too. Our faith needs to be of real substance if we are to please God and bless others.
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