You Can't Start Unless You Quit

Matthew 21:23-32; Exodus 17:1-7; Philippians 2:1-13

Like me, some of you are old enough to remember that great Green Bay Packer coach, Vince Lombardi. The Packers won the first Super Bowl in 1967 and the Super Bowl trophy is dedicated to him. He was a no nonsense coach and his motivational skills were legendary. He had a saying about giving up: “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

Stirring words, for sure. But, more often than not, wrong.

All through history, winners have quit one thing and moved on to another. Matthew tells us that Jesus “left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea,” where he began his ministry (4:13). Simon Peter and Andrew quit fishing and followed Jesus (4:20). Saul quit “spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” and became an apostle (Acts 9).

And the quitting has continued, right up to the present day. Evan Harris authored a book a decade ago entitled, The Art of Quitting. He says that quitting has always been cool. “Our country was founded by quitters. They left England and said, ‘Forget this. We are so out of here. We are not putting up with this anymore.’ ” The colonists quit paying the tea and stamp taxes and stopped letting the British army commandeer their homes.

Abraham Lincoln quit being an owner of a general store and entered politics. Julia Child quit being a CIA intelligence officer and became a world-famous cook. Harrison Ford quit being a professional carpenter when he was offered a part in a little movie called Star Wars. “Grandma” Moses quit selling potato chips and began to paint ... at age 80.

Clearly, quitting is not always what it is put down as. Quitting may be the best thing that could be done by a person.

I’m sure that you have heard the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again exactly the same way and expecting different results. Someone doesn’t know when to quit.

Jesus told a parable about quitting. The context was a question intended to trap him. It was asked by a group of leading priests and elders intent on catching Jesus in some heretical claim of being God. Not to be outmaneuvered, Jesus offered to answer their question if they would answer one of his own. “Where did John get his authority to baptize? Did he get it from heaven or from humans?”

Even though the religious leaders did not openly speak to the matter of John, their authority went south as soon as they started discussing among themselves the pros and cons of the answers. The question put them in a bad light whether they answered heaven or human about John. Did you notice that their fear of the crowd in the temple had a major impact on their thinking? The most learned people in the land decided to play dumb and feigned ignorance about Jesus’ question – “We don’t know.” Their failure to give Jesus a confident and decisive answer clearly showed that they were backed into a corner. Their credibility was severely eroded.

Jesus pushed the leaders’ discomfiture by telling a parable about man who had two sons whom he expected to go work in the family’s vineyard. The father approached the first son and told him to go work in the vineyard. We don’t know if this was the older son or just the first one he came upon. This young man had a full schedule and didn’t want to have to change his plans, so he said that he couldn’t go. Later he changed his mind, cleared his calendar, and went to the vineyard to work.

The father came to the other son and told him to go work in the vineyard. This son enthusiastically said “Yes,” but he never showed up at the vineyard.

Jesus asked, “Which one of these two did the father’s will?” The religious leaders couldn’t avoid the obvious conclusion. The first son, even though he had at first refused to go and then had a change of heart, was the one who obeyed the  father.

“Well, guess what?” said Jesus tells the religious folk. “Tax collectors and prostitutes, crooks and whores are beating a path to God’s kingdom and will get there long before you will.”

As they all gasped and gaped at him, he said, “Pay attention! John came pointing out the righteous road – the repentance route – and you all thumbed your noses at him. But the sinners believed him. They saw the truth of what John said and they did exactly what they needed to do.” As Jesus saw it, the religious leaders were totally oblivious to the change that took place in the sinners. They thought that the sinners were losers and that they were winners. They saw no need to quit what they were doing, no necessity to change their minds and believe John’s message. And if they didn’t believe John’s message, they certainly were not going to be affected by anything that Jesus would say to them.

So, the quitters, the ones willing to change, will lead the way into the kingdom of God.

What has God been asking, even telling, you to do? That would be a great question to break into twos and threes and discuss. Except that very few of us would be willing to admit publicly, let alone personally come to terms with, a direct request from God. It’s more than a matter of grapes not getting picked. And our refusal, probably doesn’t result in a life-threatening storm like the one that Jonah brought on the unsuspecting sailors of his getaway ship. Nevertheless, God calls us to quit and to start anew.

Most of the time God’s commands are not short and sweet. The father said to the sons, “Go work in the vineyard.” God’s commands are often broader and more general, like “Love your neighbor.” That allows us a lot of wiggle room for finding ways around them, ways of demonizing the other person so that we can hold our righteous heads high by calling them losers and sinners not worth our care, and thinking that God shouldn’t care about them either.

Unfortunately, that was the attitude of the religious leaders who pooh-poohed the Baptizer and were bent on discrediting Jesus’ message.

If we get off our holier-than-thou pedestals, there are ways to discern God’s will for us which faithful sisters and brothers have developed across the centuries since Pentecost.

A 16th-century spiritual director, Ignatius Loyola, asks us first to clarify the goal of our life: To have a loving relationship with God. We can make a number of choices about how we will achieve this goal, and every choice should move us a little closer to God. We might start a business, go back to school, get married, change jobs, even retire. The important thing is to begin with the goal in mind: to follow Christ into an ever deeper and more loving relationship with God.

With a clear goal we can tackle the hard work of decision-making. That includes figuring out how to stop avoiding what God wants us to do, and how to start working in God's vineyard. What are the pros and cons? What do truth-telling friends think? Spend time in prayer, talk to God about your decision, and see if you are given greater clarity about your choice. Ignatius believed that “we can discern the right choice by attending to the inner movements of our spirit.”

It’s not always a quick process. Sometimes, we have to live with a sense of restlessness as God pushes us in a new direction. At other times, we might feel peaceful about a decision but then discover that our serenity is really laziness in disguise. Ignatius wants us to continue examining our decisions and make choices that increase the feelings of faith, hope and love within ourselves.

When we quit doing what holds us back and what keeps us from God, we are in a position to start doing God’s intended work, and to change our lives for the better. If we feel that we're avoiding what God wants us to do, it’s time to stop what we're doing, examine our goals, define anew what it means to have a loving relationship with God, and make changes which will better use our time and talents as workers in God's vineyard.

When we quit keeping God out of our lives, we might become true winners, followers of Jesus and participants in a more loving relationship with God.

But you can’t start unless you quit.

Let us pray.

God of new beginnings, challenge us to examine our lives for the activities and attitudes we need to quit so that we may start the new things which will bring us into a deeper relationship with your Son Jesus, whose call, “Follow me,” is the most worthy goal for us. Infuse us with your Spirit, we humbly pray. Amen.

General Resource: Homiletics, September 2014, pp. 35-39.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.