Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32 Psalm 25:1-8 Philippians 2:1-13 Matthew 21:23-32

“I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,” says the Lord God.  “Turn, then, and live.”

[Ezekiel 18:32]

The prophet Ezekiel is speaking to the exiled people of Israel.  We can imagine that having been conquered by invading armies, having their homes and Temple destroyed, being carried from their homeland, and held in exile in a foreign land would prompt discussion of God’s justice and fairness.  They say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.”

No doubt, we, too, would all be trying to decide who was to blame.  Was it the poor judgment of our parents?  Was it the poor leadership of our rulers?  Or, is God just brazenly unfair?  Yet, none of that energy devoted to blaming someone for our state of affairs is going to get us back home to Israel.

Prosperity Gospel preachers will use these words from Ezekiel’s prophecy to validate their belief in God’s system of scorecards assigned to each of us.  God is looking over those pledge envelopes in that alms basin and assigning blessings accordingly.  Regretfully, that sermon is being preached in far too many places of worship even today.  Using isolated passages from the Bible so irresponsibly does not bring life.  Rather, the Bible becomes a weapon that brings death to the spirit of those who are seeking, and God takes no pleasure in death.

And, so, we turn, then, and live.  The people of Israel would eventually heed the word of the Lord; they would accept the responsibility for their own actions and their own faithfulness; with God’s help, they would renew their hearts and spirits [v. 31]; they would turn and live; they would be restored to their homeland and their life of faithfulness to the Lord.

The account of the life of North Korean born Yeonmi Park is one of choosing to live.   Portions of Park’s story have been disputed; there are some inconsistencies, many due to language barriers and confusing childhood memories.  What we do know is that Park was born in 1993 into the brutal dictatorship of North Korea.  Her father spoke openly with his family of the inhumanity of life under Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for black market trading, which he had undertaken as the only means of feeding his family during the economic collapse of the 1990’s.

Left on their own for the years to come, Park and her mother and siblings suffered poverty and near starvation.  Being close enough to the border of China to view the night lights there, Park and her mother vowed to escape.  At the age of thirteen, mother and daughter set out across the frozen river under the constant threat of heavily armed border guards and ongoing uncertainty of survival.

Arriving in China, there were even more horrors to be encountered.  Mother and daughter were sold into slavery.  Park reports that because she was such a young virgin her price of purchase was $200.  However, it seems that as part of her sex slave contract, her owner agreed to arrange for the purchase of her mother and the release of her father, whose health after so many years of torture and hard labor was quite poor; her father survived only a short while beyond the reunion with wife and daughter.

There was much more unimaginable hardship to come.  Finally, her plight came to the attention of Christian missionaries who smuggled them to the Mongolian border from where they crossed the Gobi Desert in midwinter with the stars as their compass, finally arriving at the plane that would fly them to South Korea and freedom in 2009, and eventually, to new life in the United States.

Park confesses that there were times throughout the ordeal that she considered suicide as her only means of escape.  But, Park was surely bolstered by the lifeblood of her father’s spirit of survival – a father who dreamed of freedom but would never know what it would be to live in freedom.  Park kept close to her heart her father’s dying words as he implored her never to consider killing herself because “Life,” he said, “is a gift you should never give up.”  The message of turn, then, and live would remain Park’s impetus for perseverance.

“Turn, then, and live” was God’s message to the people of Israel being held in captivity.

“Turn, then, and live” is Jesus’ message to the tax collectors and prostitutes of our Gospel lesson who have, thus far, spent their lives making decisions that have brought death into their lives, but have now turned to follow Jesus and live.  In the Temple, in the last days prior to the Crucifixion, tension between Jesus and the religious leaders is at the breaking point.  Without answering their ill-proposed questions that were designed to catch him in blasphemy, Jesus challenges the chief priests with a parable that serves as their own self-incrimination, contrasting the authenticity of the belated coming to the faith of known sinners with the lifelong superficiality of the chief priests and elders – the designated representatives of God.

“Which of the two did the will of his father?” Jesus asked.  They said, “The first.”

The tax collectors and the prostitutes, redeemed from their life of sinfulness, believed.  They turned and took up the work of the vineyard.

Conversely, the chief priests had verbally committed themselves to the work of the vineyard, but had only pursued that commitment half-heartedly, believing they were entitled to God’s blessings by virtue of their birth and position; too many had used and would continue to use their priestly positions as weapons of death, spreading hopelessness among the very people of God to whom they were called to bring life.  It would be the tax collectors and the prostitutes who, so belatedly had accepted God’s grace, would precede them in the Kingdom.   There is nothing unfair about God’s grace.  We turn to God’s grace and we live.

What are the obstacles in your life that bring death – distractions that leave you feeling empty, separated from God, and your neighbor or family member hurt by your actions?  How have we, the Church, brought death to the spirit of those who are seeking to know and serve God, yet are turned away by our elitist pharisaic attitude.

Daily, we are called to reflect on our thoughts and words and actions that bring death.  Daily, we are called to turn, and live.