Vicar’s sermon at Eggleston 27.9.26 Matthew 21.23-32

Matthew 21.23-32
Why is it so difficult for people to change their mind? Why do I find it so hard? Why would it be hard to convince a MAGA supporter NOT to vote for the Donald? Or to persuade an adamant anti-Brexiteer to jump into the ‘Brexit was a good idea category’?
Last week David Harper – the TV antique celebrity- gave a talk at Whorlton church about his journey to faith and his book the God conundrum. David explained how his daughter’s conversion to Christian faith set him off on a journey of discovery: about the bible; about Jesus; about creation and ‘the meaning of life’. David spent 11 months reading and studying, scrolling through page after page on the internet, listening to experts speak about science and religion, the bible, Jesus – you name it he studied it. Slowly, slowly he became more and more convinced of the faith – that there was solid evidence behind the stories of Jesus, that the resurrection demands an explanation and that the best explanation is the one given in the New Testament. But what struck me about his testimony was that despite all his efforts, the thing that convinced him of the truth of the Christian faith had been sat in front of him before all his investigations began: the changed life of his daughter. There came a point where no more ‘head knowledge’ could or would make a difference. It was his daughter’s transformation that moved the faith in his head down into his heart and enabled him to ‘become a Christian.’
Changing your mind is hard. There are reasons for this. Earlier this week I was up in Durham learning about the ‘teenage brain’ – don’t ask! What I learned was that adolescence sees the greatest transformation in an individual’s makeup since birth and the first months of childhood. As adolescence kicks in it is as if the brain shifts some of its furniture about, making room for the challenges of puberty and adulthood, jettisoning or mothballing bits and pieces (connections and synapses) that are not needed so much or that can just use less energy in a sort of ‘sleep’ mode. This process carries on into a person’s twenties but the teenage years see bits of the brain moving at different speeds. The amygdala (which is associated with emotions, fight and flight, impulse and reaction) sits at the base of the brain and does its thing: teenagers are frequently moody, impulsive, risk averse. The prefrontal cortex however struggles to catch up. This is the bit of the brain that deals with rational thought. So, when your child or grandchild does stuff that appears extreme, or their mood swings rapidly some of this is not their fault: it is part of who they are. Where this connects is that if a teenagers ‘rash’ impulses are rewarded (‘thanks very much’ says the amygdala) and not regulated (through wise counsel or mentoring) then the brain ‘bakes’ in what could be destructive or antisocial practices. At my meeting was the vicar of Billingham- living with the disturbances of recent weeks following the deaths (and reactions to the deaths) of two police officers and 5 young people involved in that car chase. I wondered what is being baked into the lives of those who experience the recent social unrest as ‘fun’ with no consequences.
Where I’m going with this is to highlight that our plastic, malleable brains lay down ways of thinking and being that then become a part of who we are. These patterns of thinking become associated with the people who agree with us and affirm us, with the result that our thinking is reinforced emotionally. Anyone who looks to us to change really has to start from a long way back. Change disturbs us, it unsettles us at the core of our being. It threatens our identity and the way we express it in society through the company we keep, the attitudes we share, the food we eat, the clothing we wear. Changing one’s mind is plain hard.
The Church Times this week followed up the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘change of mind’ about an interfaith award she gave to Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi but which she has since has withdrawn. You may have heard about this in the news. The Moderator of the Church in Pakistan responded to this news. The Muslim scholar had described Osama bin Ladin as ‘a sword of God’ at the time of Salman Rushdie being knighted. But, since then he has actually risked his life in speaking out against terrorism and particularly because he has sought to protect the Christian minority in Pakistan. He condemned the mob violence against Christians in Jaranwala in 2023 and was responsible for obtaining the release of Christians from the mob and saving them from being lynched. The Moderator of the Church in Pakistan is clear that people can change, Mr Ashrafi has clearly shown that he has changed. The Archbishop’s change of mind seems to have damaged the reputation of the Pakistani church.
A change of mind. A change of heart. A change of action. These things are there in our gospel reading. The leaders of the people questioning Jesus in the temple seem unable to change, they are fixed, immoveable in their belief. It’s easy to criticise them but it is hard, it was hard, for them to escape one way of thinking (that had been reinforced down generations, ‘baked in’ to their very being) and to begin to think differently. It was hard for them to even contemplate that they had got things wrong abut John the Baptist…or that the man sat in front of them could possibly be God’s Messiah.
And then the parable about the two brothers. The son who appears willing to do what his father asks but does not act – and the other who says no but rethinks, changes and acts according to his father’s wishes. Change: a life ‘upturned’.
The tax collectors and sinners had changed and were entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of the religious leaders. Why? What was it that enabled them to change whilst the religious leaders would not budge an inch? I’m guessing, but I wonder whether it was something to do with Jesus spending time with them…making room for them, including them at is table, willing to eat with them at theirs: the New Testament equivalent of the evidence needed to affect change being right in front of their eyes. It’s easier to change if someone else does…someone you know, or whose favour or influence you might seek. Jesus could quote scripture, He was capable of holding his own in a theological argument but I suspect what converted people was their simply being with him long enough to see, in His life, a way of living that showed them the Kingdom of God open before them.
Years ago Bishop Stephen Croft said that people ‘belong before they believe’. Jesus made it possible for ordinary folk to be embraced by his vision of God and His kingdom: it was his relationship with them, a relationship of openness and inclusion that converted them. If the scribes and pharisees had given him a chance then perhaps they too would have found their way into the kingdom, but no. It was not to be. That door was firmly closed. For us though the lesson is clear: Your knowledge of the faith will only take you so far. It is the faith lived out in you and (crucially) in how you care for others that will bring others to faith: living in hope, going the extra mile to help, being generous of heart, forgiving in nature – ‘Christ in you’ says to others ‘you can live this way too’. If she can be Christian so can I. If his life has been changed, so can mine be. Why do people find it hard to change their minds? because they need lived out examples of the difference a change of heart or mind makes. Only we can provide that.