“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out
early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After
he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion, he sent them into his
vineyard.
3 “Then he
went out around nine in the morning and saw others standing around the
marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into
the vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’ 5 And they
went.
“Again around noon and then at three in the afternoon, he
did the same thing. 6 Around five in the afternoon he went and
found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you just standing
around here doing nothing all day long?’
7 “‘Because
nobody has hired us,’ they replied.
“He responded, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
8 “When
evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers
and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on
finally to the first.’ 9 When those who were hired at five in
the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. 10 Now when
those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them
also received a denarion. 11 When they received it, they
grumbled against the landowner, 12 ‘These who were hired last
worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to
work the whole day in the hot sun.’
13 “But he
replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you
a denarion? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give
to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. 15
Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you
resentful because I’m generous?’ 16 So those who are last will
be first. And those who are first will be last.”
I like to work, to feel
productive, to feel that my time is accomplishing something significant. I’m a type-A personality, there’s a great deal
of personal satisfaction I get from seeing a to-do list crossed off and a
project completed.
Anyone else appreciate the value of honest, hard, work, and the
satisfaction of a job well done? The
American experiment sees work at the path to wealth; Benjamin Franklin said,
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” We are the land where anyone can be whatever
they want to be, so long as you work hard and apply yourself.
And yet, for every story of someone who worked hard and pulled themselves
out of poverty, there are 1000 who worked hard and remained just as poor. We all know people who scramble working
multiple jobs and wear themselves out and still can’t make ends meet, as we
also know sports car driving trust fund kids who have never worked a day in
their lives for anything they have. The
reality in this land of opportunity is that not all opportunities are created
equal.
The idea that the more you work, the more you should have is not isolated
to our time and place. It is a concept
that goes back at least as far as Jesus, as indicated in the parable we read
today. The 20h Chapter of Matthew is
often referred to as “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” but I’d like
you to think of it as “The Parable of
the Generous Master,” because the story isn’t about us, it’s about God.
As Jesus tells the story,
a landowner, at the peak of the harvest season, hired temporary workers five
times during the day at about three hour intervals. He negotiates with the
first workers to pay them the normal wage for a day. With the other workers he
only agrees to pay them what is right.
At the end of the day the landowner instructs his manager to pay each of the workers the normal daily wage. The workers who were hired first and worked for 12 hours expected to be paid more, especially more than those who only worked one hour. When they got the same amount as the others, they complained about its unfairness.
At the end of the day the landowner instructs his manager to pay each of the workers the normal daily wage. The workers who were hired first and worked for 12 hours expected to be paid more, especially more than those who only worked one hour. When they got the same amount as the others, they complained about its unfairness.
The landowner asks, “Are
you resentful because I am generous?” (verse 15); it is the translation of a
Greek idiom which literally translates as “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
An “evil eye” suggested a deeper problem than meets the eye. Jesus has already warned of the dangers of
having an evil eye, earlier, in Matthew 6: “The eye is the
lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of
light; but if your eye is unhealthy (that is, if you have the “evil eye”), your
whole body will be full of darkness” (cf. 6:22-23). In this account, the “evil
eye” was the opposite of generosity (e.g., jealousy, greed, stinginess, etc.).
The eyes are indeed a
window into the soul. It’s difficult to
pretend with our eyes. There’s a lot we can feign with our voice, our body and
gestures, our expressions. But the eyes? That’s harder. Maybe impossible. Because
to see into someone’s eyes is indeed to see into the soul. Something true.
Something hidden. Something deep.
And, if you get a chance
to look into the eyes of God? What will
you see looking into God’s very soul? Well, according to this parable, you will
see generosity. Sheer generosity.
Imagine getting your
paycheck and there’s way more in it than you expected. You point out the mistake to your boss, who
says, “I know. I meant for you to have every bit of that.” God is like that.
How our world could use
more generosity like God’s. A flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London was
boarding. A woman made her way past the
business travelers, down the aisle, and found her assigned seat, where her
neighbor was already seated. She looked
at the man seated in the seat next to hers, looked at her ticket again, and
frantically called the flight attendant.
“Excuse me, there seems to be some mistake. I am seated next to a person whose skin color
is different from my own, and this just will not do.” The flight attendant said, “Ma’am, it is not
our policy to move passengers unnecessarily, and besides, this is a full
flight.”
She lowered her voice and
said to the flight attendant, “Look here. I will not sit next to this man. I have enough cash in my purse to arrange for
an alternative. Go up to First Class and
see if there’s something available up there.”
She sat there for a few
moments while the flight attendant disappeared into the First Class cabin. He came back a few moments later, reached
across the woman, tapped the male passenger on the arm and said, “I hate to
bother you, sir, but we need to make a change in your seating assignment. Gather your things and come with me; it seems
something has just opened up in First Class.”
In the kingdom of God, a kingdom of love and grace, everyone gets First Class
treatment – and how beautifully scandalous that is! Whether we come to God’s vineyard early or late
in the day, whatever we receive from the generous hand of God is already beyond
what we deserve.
God’s business is to be
recklessly generous with all of us – though we value and devalue one another in
our own eyes, in God’s eyes, all people have value and sacred worth, all people
are worthy of a place at the table, all people are worth the reward of
redemption.
If you’re the early
worker, what harm is done to you if you receive what you were promised? So what if someone else receives more than
they expected, no injury has been done to you.
And if you’re the person who was invited to work late, how awesome is it
to receive something greater than what you expected?
The rewards of God’s
kingdom have nothing to do with how much or how little anyone did, but about
how generous God chooses to be. Again,
it’s not about us. It’s about God.
God really isn’t so
concerned that we make it into the kingdom early or late so long as we make
it. Maybe that seems foolish and
excessive if we were the one who came first.
But to the one who came last, that extravagance is likely the very
difference between life and death.
Further, being at work for
the Master is a reward in and of itself.
The work – participating in the life of the Church – is
life-giving. It changes us! It makes us care about the things God cares
about, helps shape us and form us in God’s image, makes God’s priorities our
priorities. The longer we work in God’s
vineyard, the more we see things God’s way.
God works in our hearts and lives to transform us more and more into God’s
image – that’s a reward we receive long before payday!
Having gone through that
transformation, we are able to rejoice with a fellow laborer who arrives later
than we did, but receives the same payment, recognizing that God has been good
to them even as God has long been good to us.
Whatever we have from God is a gift, one received in thankfulness and
rejoicing, and whatever God gives to someone else is never reason to be
resentful, but cause to rejoice all the more.
It’s a matter of whether we approach life as
an individual sport or a team sport. If
we’re in it alone and out for ourselves, we will always be suspicious, stingy,
jealous, and greedy. But if we’re in it
for each other as members of the same team, realizing it’s not about what God
does for me but what God does in and for and through us – not asking “What’s
in it for me?” but “What’s best for
the entire community?” then friends, that’s a God-pleasing game changer right
there.
Take the Fall Bazaar we had
yesterday. I am so proud of the way you
pulled together. It isn’t about any one
of us, it’s about all of us, together as a church family, a community of grace,
growing together in God’s love and doing something to share that love beyond ourselves,
and you did just that yesterday, and I am so proud of you!
Those whose lives have
been transformed by grace don’t ask, “What’s in it for me?” or start counting
up what has been given to others to see if they’ve been cheated or received
more. Come
early, come late, the reward is the same, which doesn’t seem fair, and it’s
not. Grace isn’t fair. It’s a gift of what we need, before we ever
ask for it. Where more grace is needed,
God pours it out all the more.
Here’s what grace looks
like when it’s lived out in community. Two
weeks ago, Thomas Hargis preached for our Homecoming Sunday, and many of you
got to meet his fiancé, Katie. I got a
really nice note from Thomas and Katie this week, and she talked about you, and
I wanted to share a little bit about what she said. She was glowing about Morehead Church, about
how warm-hearted and joyful you were. That
joy permeated everything she experienced that day. She felt the joy in worship, and even as a
newcomer, she fully participated in that joy.
She said it felt like a Resurrection Sunday – a time to experience the
joy of new life in Christ.
Being a community of grace
looks like exactly what you have done all week in surrounding and showering the
Davis and Aydelette family with one of the most extravagant expressions of love
I have ever witnessed. Love was pouring
out of this place, you could feel it every time someone opened the door – talk
about being a community of grace! In a
very difficult hour, this church has been at its best – the embodiment of
lavish and extravagant love if I’ve ever seen it, Morehead doing what Morehead
does best because that’s who Morehead is – and I have never, never, been
prouder of this church.
Friends, when our faith is
not something we do but who we are, when we, as people created in the gracious
and generous image of God are living in and reflecting that image, then being a
community of grace happens naturally, effortlessly. May it always be so.
Whether you’ve come to
faith long ago or more recently, whether you’ve come to this church long ago or
more recently, there is no first-class section, no waiting period before you
are welcomed as a full part of the community. That’s how grace works, and as community of
grace, growing in grace, we work the same way.
We celebrate every person because God celebrates every person – whether
you’ve been here all day or just got here, we’re just glad you’re here!
The story isn’t about us,
it’s about God, the God whose prerogative is to be far more generous than we
would be. The challenge for those of us
made in the image of God who follow God is not to resent God’s generosity from
the evil eye of stinginess, jealously, and greed, but to see things with God’s
eye of generosity, to be a community where grace is celebrated and shared just
as freely and recklessly as God would have it, where a win for one of us is a
win for all of us, and a win for all of us is a win for each of us.
Come early, come lately –
doesn’t matter, so long as you hear the Master’s invitation and come. There’s a place in the kingdom for all. There’s work to be done, but the rewards are
far greater than any of us deserve, thanks be to God.
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