Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sept. 19, 2011 14th of Pentecost

Matthew 20:1-16
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
   3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
   “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 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?’
   7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
   “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
   8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
   9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These 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.’
   13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
   16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“Gods generosity far exceeds Gods fairness”
God is more generous than we want God to be.
God is more generous than we want to be.
God is so generous it seems unfair to us.

To complain about the pay is to miss the joy of having labored long and hard in the Kingdom.  It is to miss the emptiness of “ standing idle in the market place.”

God calls us, invites us, urges, to get involved in Gods Kingdom on earth.  There is something God needs doing that no one can do like you.

Riddle:  “What do you have that nobody else has?”
Answer:  “You!”
Your slant on things;
your way of doing things;
your creative thoughts;
your twist on things.  
To turn this loose is to try something which has never been tried before.  Make what you can of that!


  “Is God Fair?” 
No!  God is not fair.  God is generous!

None of us deserve God’s love; all of us are loved by God.  The good, the bad, the indifferent.  This parable drives home the truth of the old hymn, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”  All have sinned and fall short.   All enter by grace alone!

The challenge for we who enter Kingdom work early is that God’s generosity (grace) can easily seem unfair when we are not included.  We are included but when we work so hard we subtly and not so subtly begin to think that we deserve it.  That is the great danger of being religious!  

What we need to remember is that no matter how religious we are, no matter how long we have labored in God’s Kingdom it is “By grace we are saved through faith.  It is not a work...lest anyone should boast.”
 “The Unfairness Of Grace”
Jesus is lucky there were no unions around in his day.  He would have been in big trouble.  Even though the master in this parable did no wrong.  He acted with generosity toward the late comers, and fairness toward the rest.  This was his right and privilege.

There is something inherently unfair about grace.  It doesn’t try to be just, but merciful; fair, but forgiving, equal, but special, uniform but unique.  Our God is a God of grace!
We can never predict what God will do and we can never limit who God will do it with.

It is a privilege to be hired at the first hour.  These are the lucky ones who know the joy of living in the kingdom.  Idleness is not a blessing.

Norman Cousins in “The Anatomy Of An Illness”, says there are two things necessary for longevity of life:  creativity and meaningful  involvement with others.

We who have never known what it is to be without a God we call Father (Mother); who have never known what it is to not  be forgiven, loved, cared for;  who have never known what it is to be “lost in a haunted woods,  children afraid of the night who have never been happy or good.” (Auden)  We are the lucky ones.  And we dare not forget it nor resist God’s graciousness towards the less fortunate.

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