Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time · Year A · Matthew 21:28-32
The two sons
For Sunday, September 27, 2026
A father has two sons and a vineyard. He asks the first to go work in it today. The son says, “I will not,” and afterwards changes his mind and goes. He asks the second the same thing. “Yes, sir.” And he never goes. Jesus asks the chief priests which of the two did what his father wanted. They say the first, and they are right, and that is the trap.
Every house has both of these kids, sometimes in the same kid on the same afternoon. The one who argues and then does it. The one who agrees nicely and doesn't. Notice that Jesus never says the first son's answer was fine. “I will not” is a rough thing to say to your father. He just counts what happened next.
Then He turns it on the people listening. Tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom ahead of you, He tells them, because they heard John the Baptist and changed their minds. You watched them do it and still didn't. The people everybody had written off said no and then went. The people with the right answers said yes and stayed home.
Five minutes at the table
- Do you think you are more like the first son in Jesus's story, who says no but decides to go, or the second one, who says yes but doesn't?
- Which one is harder to live with?
- Has anyone in our family changed their mind about something and turned out to be right?
Class discussion topics
Sept 23 — Chosen Lesson 1, “Why am I here?” The class signs the covenant.
“Why are you here?”
The lesson opens by going around the room with that question. Some will say Confirmation. Some will say their parents. Some will say they don't know. The program was written for the kid who is eager and for the kid who was made to come.
Sunday's Gospel is for the kid who was made to come. A father asks his son to go work in the vineyard, the son says “I will not,” and then he goes. Jesus says that son did what his father wanted. So the one who did not want to come Wednesday and came anyway is in good company. That is the first son. Showing up counted.
It is also the night the class signs the covenant, the one built from the sticky notes you and they wrote last week. A signature is the second son's “Yes, sir.” Easy to say. I am pretty confident the yeses this group is signing will not end up like the second son's. Each week this year we will know more.
In class they write down five things they want out of life, and the challenge for the week is to take one real step toward one of them. Same parable. Writing it down is the yes. The step is the going.
A question for the ride home: with what you committed to in the class covenant, do you think you will be more like the first son or the second this year?