GOD’S BUSINESS OF GRACE Rev. Kevin Anderson 2/5/12
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
Be acceptable to you Almighty God now and forever, Amen
One of the Scriptures that keeps me up at night
Comes from Matthew 20:1-16 found in your pew Bibles on page: 899
Hear now these words of Scripture
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
Who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others
Standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard,
And I will pay you whatever is right.’
So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon
And did the same thing.
About five in the afternoon
He went out and found still others standing around.
He asked them,
‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his supervisor,
‘Call the workers and pay them their wages,
Beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came
And each received a denarius.
So when those came who were hired first,
They expected to receive more.
But each one of them also received a denarius.
When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.
‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said,
And you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
“But he answered one of them,
‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you.
Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?
Take your pay and go.
I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.
Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
Or are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
***This is the Word of God for the People of God….Thanks be to God:
In the parable of the workers in the vineyard
Jesus presents us with a business model, a life model
Which stands in stark contrast to that in our own society,
In this parable were we have the landowner, instructing the supervisor
To pay each one of the workers the same amount of money
Regardless the hours of work.
The Supervisor is even instructed to pay the last workers first
For those workers that started in the early morning,
Even for those workers that arrived at midday
This act of who gets paid first, and how much they received
Would have seemed unfair, and an unjust
So they Grumbled….
Look….. we do not know anything of the lives of these workers
called at nine, twelve and three,
we do know that they were in NEED of work, they had NOT been hired
but we don’t know their personal struggles, or hardships
and we hear about the HEAT,
We know that working in a vineyard, outside in the middle of the day, would be a LOT hotter than coming to work when the sun was already setting
And we’re talking about Jerusalem HEAT not a Virginia’s WINTER
From this point of view it can be easy to grumble along with them,
It can be easy to identify with those workers who were hired
At nine twelve and three
And if we are honest with ourselves, haven’t there been times
where we have felt that we might deserve more
simply because we have been here longer,
or have felt like we have worked harder?
That we should remain in front of the line,
because we have waited the longest?
That our sports teams the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers
should be playing in the Super-Bowl this year!
And grumbling, can be felt as individuals and as a group..
….There have been times that instead of extending Grace
We have put our own Needs, wants, desires, or entitlement ahead of Grace
And this is what the Parable is actually about……..GRACE
God’s Business of Grace
In this parable told to the Disciples,
The owner of the vineyard represents God
The Supervisor represents the Disciples
Whom God is instructing
The Workers hired in the morning “BY GOD”
represent the Jewish community, the Jewish leaders
who came into Covenant with God
in the times of Noah, Abraham and Moses
While the workers who were hired later in the day
represent the Gentile community of that time
That leaves the workers hired at five to represent
those that have heard the Gospel later in life,
Maybe those people who had yet to hear of the Good News.
And the payment received to all these workers in the story,
regardless of time IS GRACE.
No matter the hour of someone coming to faith,
The parable tells us that the same Grace is given
That the same promises hold true for all people at all times
In this light…..
WHO CAN ARGUE WITH THE PAYMENT, WITH GRACE
And STILL WE GRUMBLE……
This is a Scripture that can keep me up at night;
This Scripture highlighting one of humanities greatest weaknesses
Our own feelings of entitlement
Our own desires for Just Rewards,
Our own insistence that we know best,
That we are the best judge of another’s actions
Even the people journeying with Moses to the promises land
After praying for food from God,
After receiving Manna which fell from heaven,
Still grumbled It’s almost like they wanted Jam to go along
with all that bread!
This is something that we struggle with as individuals,
As the Church, as Christians,
We have struggled and grumbled with the best of them
We have struggled with the concept of what we DEEM to be FAIR,
To receive what WE feel we are OWED
For the work of faith that we have done.
Like the eldest brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son we say to God, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you
And never disobeyed your orders.
Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours who has squandered your property
With prostitutes comes home,
You kill the fattened calf for him!’
To which the father replies:
My son…
You are always with me,
And everything I have is yours.
But we had to celebrate and be glad,
Because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again;
He was lost and is found.’”
The theme of the parable of the workers and the parable of the Prodigal Son
IS about God’s generous Grace,
NOT the unfairness of God.
Yet it is still so easy to make a list of our grievances
Rather than to count our Blessings.
How many of us remember the man who cut us off in traffic
In an UNFORGIVING way
And forget the women who let us MERGE onto the highway?
How many of us remember the 10 car pile-up
In a fast food drive-through, or remember how we got a diet Dr. Pepper instead of a regular Dr. Pepper….(I do!)
Yet we get so wrapped up in these grievances that we forget what we even ordered and ate or we forget the face of the person who handed us the food
We are a people that when we fall into grumbling
And feelings of being wronged; forget how to be communicate
We concentrate on what we think we are owed, or what makes us mad
That we forget to show compassion, mercy, love and grace
Isn’t GRACE ENOUGH?
I have personally experienced that sense of entitlement, justice, and just rewards waiting for the bus leaving Magic Kingdom in Disney for the parking Lot…..
Beth, the girls and I were in a group of about 20 people,
IN THE Front of the line, (the first time we had been in front of a line all day long) for a bus to return us to our car, so we could start driving for the Georgia border headed back home after vacation at 10pm at night.
We were standing in front of the line for about 20 minutes.
After having an extremely amazing and magical day full of rides, shows, fairies, princesses Muppets, and more we were tired.
When the bus was approaching, a group of three people;
Out of nowhere, came cutting into the line in front of everyone.
We ALL had a right to be angry and upset
They paid no heed to the unwritten rules
And unspoken agreements of proper Line waiting edict.
How DARE someone come cutting in front of us.
It was NOT JUSTICE, Justice needed to be served.
And with that thought, that collective murmur of all those who waited, the entire line took it upon ourselves to move around them.
To show them OUR rules of law
And in doing so made sure that they went to the BACK OF THE LINE.
THE Last was going to Remain LAST as far as we were concerned.
Until recently I still believed that this was a great story
Of how a group can stand up in RIGHTOUS ANGER, a story about community action, a grass roots movement, showing those LINE-CUTTERS
How the world really works!!
How wrong I was,
Even if these folks knew exactly what they were doing,
There still was probably a better way of handling the situation.
Like I said, when we are angry we forget how to communicate.
I could have just told them where the line was??
And Regardless of my feelings
Matthew 20:1-16 clearly tells me that I was wrong.
These are the kind be the things that keep me up at night.
THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST AND THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST:
I know we were tired, the group was tired,
But does that justify a reason NOT to extend GRACE to another person?
Well along with all those waiting in Bus lines at Disney World
We are still not alone in our wrestling and weakness.
Even the people closest to Jesus; the Disciples
Struggled with the longing for entitlement and Just rewards,
They wanted jam for their bread too!
In Scripture, Peter raises a Question of assurance and Just Rewards
Peter is afraid for his own salvation
After a Rich Young Ruler whom talked with Jesus about salvation
Left unable to let go of everything he had to follow him,
Peter asks, “Who then can be saved?
“We have left everything to follow you!”
To which Jesus responds Peter and to the Disciples
Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers sisters or mother
Or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
Will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age
And in the age to come eternal life
But many who are first will be last
And the last first.
With Jesus promising eternal life to his disciples,
In promising the fruits of the Kingdom,
The next question that arising from the disciples is
“What else do I get?” “What is behind door number 2”
“I’ve played a good game…”
As the Gospel of Matthew points out with the mother of James and John kneeling before Jesus begging Jesus to,
“Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right
And the other at your left in the kingdom.”
To which Jesus replies to the mother, James, John and all the Disciples, “you do not know what you are asking”.
“You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left
Is not for me to grant.
These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared
By my Father.”
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
And their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.
“Instead whoever wants to become great among you
Must be your servant.
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
But to serve,
And to give his life as a ransom for many”.
Jesus reminds the Disciples and all of us
That we all may drink of the cup of Christ, but God is in-charge of Grace”
GRACE is not something that holds a greater value for some & not for others
Grace is not dependent upon the hour we acknowledge and accept it.
God’s Business is a Business of GRACE
The blueprints are all in front of us;
God is quite clear on the matter.
It is one of those places where God makes it clear
That it is NOT about us, our grumblings, or our reward,
We are called to the understanding that GRACE IS ENOUGH,
Enough for those that were called at 9
Enough for those that were called at 12
Enough for those that were called at 3
And enough for those who were called at 5
GRACE IS ENOUGH,
“Don’t I have the right to do what I want with GRACE? God asks
God is not unfair, but generous with GRACE,
We have talked about those that have come at 9am,
Those that came at noon and 3, but what about those folks that comes at 5pm,
The LINE-CUTTERS?
What is our role and our responsibility to them?
The novel, musical, upcoming film and play Les Miserable’s by Victor Hugo,
Has helped me in my understanding of our responsibility to others
As well as just to all of the parables we have studied this morning.
I have gotten the chance to see many of our Messiah youth do fantastic performances in this musical over the last few months,
While the whole story itself speaks volumes to these parables,
The Character of Jean Valjean models the example of how a person
Should accept Grace from God and extend it back to others
How to be in the business of grace as the Church and as individuals.
Jean Valjean is an ex-convict who has been given a second chance for God
By the Church. Shown mercy by a Bishop. In the Biblical sense Jean Valjean
Has stepped out of the role of the prodigal son
And into the role of the landowner, the owner of the vineyard.
In the story he becomes mayor of a town and owner of a factory
Which employs the poor of the poor.
Just like those workers with nothing,.. Found in the marketplace
Throughout the story he works at redemption,
Leading a life extending the Grace of God to others even his enemies
As he says, “To love another person is to see the face of God”.
He has taken the Great Commission
Which God calls us all to into his very being
The Commission that God gives to each and every one of us
Is a call to “go and make disciples of all nations”
Baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
And teaching everything that is commanded.
At times we have all grumbled,
And at those times and now God reminds us,
‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you.
Don’t I have the right to do what I want with GRACE??
Are you envious because I am generous?’
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
And finally if this Scripture and the Gospel Message
Does not keep us up at night,
Maybe we need to try reading it again
Thanks be to God, AMEN
