“As You Do God’s
Work, Think God’s Way!” Matt. 20.1-16 Pentecost 15A, Sept. 21, 2014
1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
message from God’s Word this morning comes to us from the Gospel according to
St. Matthew the 20th chapter.
Today Jesus reminds us in a parable that, “As You Do God’s Work, Think God’s Way!” As Christians, we may think we’re earning
God’s blessings (vv. 1, 2, 10–12). But,
God wants to give us what we haven’t earned through His grace and mercy given
to us through His Son Jesus Christ (vv. 3–9, 13–16). Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
There
was once a class of school children who loved to go outside and have recess.
Their teacher was very generous. If the class had been good and finished their
work, the teacher would let them go outside for a few extra minutes. Usually
the class was very good. They always finished their homework, always tried to
be good, and always looked forward to their reward. But one day the class was a
bit rowdy. Paper airplanes were flying. Hair was being pulled. Talking was
nonstop, and homework was simply not getting done. All of a sudden, the teacher
called everyone to attention and said, “Time
to go out.” All of a sudden the students’ eyes fixed on their teacher,
their mouths dropped a bit, and almost in unison said, “But why? We don’t deserve to go out. We’ve been terrible. We haven’t
listened. We haven’t finished our homework. We don’t deserve to go out.” “I know,” said the teacher, “but I want to show you that sometimes in
this world things are given to you even when you don’t deserve them. Sometimes
things are given to us especially
when we haven’t earned them.” And with that, the students slowly stood up
and walked outside, still a bit confused and unsure about the new world they
had just stepped into. For the first time, some of these students experienced
what grace, what a gift, truly was. They were given something that wasn’t
earned or deserved.
3.
Listen to this
what Jesus says here in Matthew 20! They all got the same! Did you hear that?
They all got the same! It’s a scandal. Is this any way to celebrate human
achievement? It goes against everything we hold dear. It goes against all our
notions of what’s right and fair. One of the first rules of economics is that
people get what’s coming to them. If you’ve worked harder, longer, and more
faithfully than others, you get more. It’s what our whole economic system is
based on. The more you do, the more you get. If not cash at the end of the day,
then influence, power, and position.
4.
That’s why one of
the great inventions of modern Western society is the trade union. For far too
long those with money, land and privilege shamelessly exploited those who had
none. When, after a long struggle, workers with no power except their own labor
managed to stand together and force the issue with the rich and strong, it was
a great day for freedom and justice.
But, over the course of the 20th century things changed. Exploitation
and injustice often continued, and the unions often did a fine job in checking
or reversing it. But other issues came into the picture, and made life more
complicated, more morally ambiguous. In many Western countries now, the role of
the unions has become quite different from what their founders imagined. In
some cases this has been for the better; in others, for the worse.
5.
One
of the ways in which some unions have changed from their original purpose is
that they’ve often set workers against one another. They’ve insisted on
different pay for different jobs, even if the employers had other ideas. Such
unions would have been horrified at the story Jesus told about this employer
and the workers who labored, some for the whole day, others for part, and
others again for only the last hour. That’s why we’re not surprised when, in
the story, the workers themselves grumbled. Where’s the sense of fairness, of
justice, in paying the last workers the same as the first. That’s why Jesus teaches us this parable to
remind us, ““As You Do God’s Work, Think
God’s Way!” “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God.”
6.
But, the problem
for us is that even in the church, where we talk about living by grace alone,
we still like to think that we will receive based on what we give. Grace is for
sinners. But folks in the parable are workers. There’s no sin in an honest
day’s work. We go to church. We attend
meetings. We give generously. We “bear
the heat of the day.” We labor long and hard, and do you mean to say that
it all adds up to nothing? We believe that it should count for something, if
not here and now then in the grand scheme of things at the end of days when the
Owner returns. But did you hear what the Owner said? “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me?”
7.
It’s a terrifying
thought—God does what he wants with what is his! God our OWNER speaks to us saying in Psalm
24:1, “1The earth is the Lord’s
and the full- | ness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” And God
says in Psalm 50:10, “10For every beast of
the for- | est is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. And last
week from Romans 14:8 St. Paul reminds us, “8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So
then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” And God
says to us in Exodus 19:5, “5Now therefore, if
you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.”
8.
Jesus reminds us
here in Matthew 20 that as hard as it is for our old Adam to accept, our
strivings count for nothing. Some
workers do labor from dawn to dusk; they really do bear the heat of the day (vv
1–2). Many of us know what it means to
work for the Lord all day. We’ve been Christians
since infant Baptism. We’ve been Sunday School teachers, board members,
faithful givers, regular in attendance all our lives. And, of course, we don’t mind at all when the
Master goes out and hires others later in the day (vv 3–7). We like to look around in the pews this
morning and see folks who’ve joined us through adult instruction, at the
invitation of friends, by coming to be our guest one day and liking what
they’ve heard. We even give thanks to
God for those occasional deathbed conversions we hear about.
9.
But, then look
what the master does (vv 8–15a). He
gives the last as much as he gives the first.
Wait a second! I’m glad these last
minute converts scrape by and get into heaven—I think—but they’re not
quite the same as I am. In the parable
the only reason that some came last and others came first is that the master
chose to call them in that order. But
listen again: “Do you begrudge my
generosity?” (v 15b). That’s why
Jesus teaches us this parable to remind us, ““As
You Do God’s Work, Think God’s Way!” “By grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
10.
God does what he
wants instead of treating us as we deserve!
Even our best work is soiled with sin.
My heart hasn’t always been pure as I’ve been laboring all my life. I’ve been proud of myself, resented others. The wages of sin is death—this is the payment
we deserve. But, above all else God is generous! God’s ways are not our ways (Is 55:8). He will freely pardon (Is 55:7). In Jesus, God shows his utter generosity. We remember how Jesus at different times fed
4,000 people and then 5,000 people (Mk 6:35–44; 8:1–9). Jesus
reminds us of God’s amazing grace shown to the wayward/prodigal son (Lk
15:20–24) And, of the forgiveness offered to those who crucified him when
Jesus cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Lk
23:34) Jesus even promised the gift
of heaven to the repentant thief on the cross (Lk 23:39–43), Christ is
generosity incarnate!
11.
In Jesus, God
does what he wants with what is his! In
Holy Baptism he pours out his generous forgiveness upon you. In his Word he speaks his abundant
forgiveness upon your sins. In his
Supper he feeds you as generously as he fed the multitudes—not just a bit of
bread and a sip of wine—but his very body and his blood generously and freely
given for you.
12.
Listen to this!
They all got the same! Did you hear that? They all got the same! It’s a blessed
scandal. It goes against everything we hold dear, against all our notions of
what’s right and fair. And praise God for that! He doesn’t operate according to
our standards of what’s right and fair. Instead, he does what he wants with
what is his! And what he wants above all else is to be generous! So don’t cast an “evil eye” or a “stink eye”
on that generosity. Instead, rejoice in it. When you go back to your work, know
and believe that in the end it won’t depend on your efforts or your labors.
Instead, we live in his generous grace, in Christ, now and always. Remember,
““As You Do God’s Work, Think God’s Way!”
“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God.” Let
us pray: Keep me ever mindful, Lord, that it is only by grace that I have been
included in Your kingdom and am privileged to serve in it. Amen.
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