“Love for the Least” Matt 20.1-16, Pent. 16A, Sept. ‘20

 

1.                Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word for this 16^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 20:1-16, it’s entitled, “Love for the Least,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Imagine a world where love is given to the least. That is what Jesus is inviting His disciples to do in His parable this morning from Matthew 20. In her “Introduction to A Memoir of Mary Ann,” Flannery O’Connor remembers Nathaniel Hawthorne’s visit to a workhouse in Liverpool, England. There, Hawthorne was struck by an experience of strange wonder. He found himself giving love to the least. A young child, sickly, discarded, came to him and pestered him for attention. Hawthorne was repulsed. But, in time, he found himself drawn into love: Love for the least.

3.                Hawthorne’s experience shaped some of the fictions he told. But, more importantly, it shaped the life of his daughter, Rose. As a Catholic in nineteenth century New York, she saw the poor dying of cancer. They didn’t have the means to secure adequate care in their dying. In response, she created a home where she, and later an order of nuns, cared for them until they died: Love for the least.

4.                The story is familiar to us. A master hires laborers to work in his vineyard. Although they start at different times of the day, he pays them all the same. Living in a country where we have a problem with income inequality, we are prone to question the master’s actions. We may sympathize with the first workers. We know situations of inequality and we want to work for justice.

5.                Employers today would never follow the tactic of the owner of the vineyard in this parable. If they didn’t intend to give compensation that was equal to work, they certainly would be more discreet than this. Maybe the wages would be placed in a sealed envelope and distributed without fanfare, and certainly the longest working would be paid first so they would be on their homeward way without knowing what the latecomers received. But this parable isn’t about fairness; it’s about grace, and grace is not doled out secretly. It’s lavishly given for the entire world to see.

6.                Satan and our sinful flesh team up to cause us to grumble in a similar manner to the workers who went out early in the morning. As we consider our years as Christians or the extent of our service in the Church, it might be easy for us to pharisaically wonder how much better our congregation or community would be if everyone were like us. We resent that others don’t seem to do their part or contribute their fair share. We self-righteously long for recognition or reward, as our inner self all the while becomes more agitated and wants to cry out, “It’s not fair!” Sentiments such as these betray a serious problem. Envy and resentment mean that we regard serving the Lord as a chore rather than a privilege.

7.                In this parable Jesus, isn’t trying to teach us about labor in this world. He is telling a parable of the Kingdom. As far as labor in this world is concerned, the apostle Paul’s counsel for workers still stands. A worker is worthy of his or her hire (employers take note!) and workers are to serve their employers mindful that their service is being rendered to God.

8.                But, when it comes to the Kingdom of God, Jesus is revealing something different. He shows us something strange that is breaking in upon this world: Love for the least. In this parable, Jesus reveals the joy of His Father’s Kingdom. Strangely, He hides that joy in the closing words of the master whose actions we question and whose accusation stings.

9.                To the first workers, the master says, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” “Who are you to accuse me?” the master says. “I have given you what I agreed to give you, now take your money and go. When you have your own kingdom, run it the way you want. But this is my kingdom and I will govern it with grace and generosity: Love for the least. I would love for you to stick around but your heart will have to change because I am generous and that will never change.”

10.             Within this master’s accusation is an invitation, a call to experience a strange wonder. The joy of the Kingdom. Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners. He didn’t come for the healthy but the sick. In the Kingdom of Jesus, no one earns their place as children. It comes to them freely, graciously, mercifully, surprisingly as a gift. This never-failing mercy of Jesus changes hearts from grudges to gratitude. Even today, as we listen to this parable, Jesus calls us to remember, we are all saved by grace through His death and resurrection. In His Kingdom, love will be poured out for the least.

11.             This parable of the Workers in the Vineyard should also be seen from the perspective of our Savior Jesus Christ. Imagine the bitterness Jesus could’ve experienced, the grumbling He could’ve uttered. He left the Father’s throne in heaven to come to earth. He kept God’s laws perfectly in thought, word, and deed. Not once did He sin. He went about healing, preaching, and teaching the kingdom of God, showing kindness and love to all. What reward did He receive for His efforts? He was sentenced in a mockery of justice and died the death of a common criminal. But, He never uttered a word of complaint despite all the injustice and unfairness that were imposed upon Him. Were it not for God’s unfairness to Jesus, we would never have His grace. The injustice that the heavenly Father showed toward His own Son resulted in our salvation. Faith in the crucified and resurrected Savior gives us a new perspective. We are grateful for the joy and satisfaction of each day that He gives us to live under His grace and serve Him in the world. And we rejoice that others also receive this grace before it’s too late.

12.             This never-failing mercy of Jesus changes hearts from grudges to gratitude. Jesus does more than invite us to imagine a world where love is given to the least. He calls us to live in it. Such a world exists… in Him. In Jesus, God delights in giving what isn’t deserved: Salvation to sinners and the joys of Heaven to those suffering the horrors of hell. The poor in spirit receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, like His Father, delights in grace that is truly grace: Unearned, free, life giving and life changing.

13.             Jesus tells this parable not to have us sit and ponder. No, He invites us to join Him in His Father’s mission. Jesus knows that working in the Kingdom can be difficult. We can forget about the joy. So, He reminds us what the Kingdom of God is like: An orphan being welcomed home; a person dying of cancer being treated like a person loved by God; an enemy receiving the welcome of a friend. We could go on and we should go on, but not just in words. Instead, we go on in deeds.

14.             Today, Jesus brings the joy of the Kingdom and calls you from begrudging the generosity of God to sharing that generosity with the world. Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

 

“The Power of Forgiveness” Matt. 18.1-20 Pent. 14A, ’20

 

1.                Sanctify us in the truth, O Lord, Your Word is truth.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this 14^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 18, specifically from verses 15-20, it’s entitled, “The Power of Forgiveness,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Ravi Zacharias, a famous Christian preacher and defender of the faith in our day, tells a story of a woman named Edith Taylor from Waltham, MA. This is a story that was originally published in Guideposts magazine in March of 1959 about the power of forgiveness.  Edith Taylor was married to a man and started a family with him and then her husband went over to Japan.  And when her husband was over in Japan letters would come over regularly and she would correspond with him.  Edith and the children would look forward to the letters and then all the sudden the letters stopped coming.  Several weeks went by when all of the sudden she received a letter in the mail from her husband.  In the letter he told Edith that she wouldn’t believe what he was going to tell her, the news would crush her, but that he had fallen in love with a girl in Japan.  Edith’s husband wouldn’t be coming back home.  The heart of this woman was broken, for many days she didn’t break the news to the children.  One of the children asked if something was wrong, why daddy wasn’t writing anymore.  One of the children said, “Is daddy not coming back home.”  Edith then told them what had happened.  And then one of the little boys said, “Mommy, just because daddy doesn’t love us anymore doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to love him anymore.”  Edith said, “No I guess we can continue to love him.”  The little boy said, “Would you please tell daddy to continue to write, we want to love him and we want to continue to keep hearing from him.” 

3.                Edith’s ex-husband did continue to write even after he married a 15 year old servant girl from Japan.  And the letters kept coming, and with every letter Edith might as well should have had a steam roller go over her heart with the pain of hearing that her divorced husband now had a new wife and children over in Japan.  Each letter was crushing her more and more, when finally a letter came telling her that her ex-husband was stricken with cancer and that he didn’t have very long to live.  In that letter he was asking Edith if she would be able to send money to support his wife and children in Japan.  Edith wrote back to her ex-husband saying that she hardly had enough money to support her own family in the United States, but that if her ex-husband would send his family over to her home she would provide for them and teach them English, help them stand on their own feet etc…  When her ex-husband’s family arrives in the United States she can hardly contain herself.  She sees the children from a betrayed love and can hardly contain it, but loved them as Christ would have loved them and raised them up.  She culminates her testimony in saying that in that dark dreary situation; I thank God for the ray of light and hope to share the love of Christ in this very dismal setting.  Jesus Christ enables you to take a disadvantage and turn it into an advantage for the glory of God.       

4.                Wow what a story!  Edith Wharton’s story reminds us about the power that God gives to us as Christians through His Holy Spirit to forgive our neighbor.  And this power to forgive doesn’t come from our own power or might.  No, instead we must become like children in order to forgive, like Edith’s little boy who said to her, “Mommy, just because daddy doesn’t love us anymore doesn’t mean we can’t stop loving him.”  Isn’t that amazing?  Out of the mouths of children and infants God’s amazing grace and wisdom can still come through to shame our sinful pride and desire for power and dominance

5.                Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz, the former Lutheran Hour Speaker, has said, “The church is where you learn to love those who you don’t like.”  Those words are so true, aren’t they?  They remind us of Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 5:18 where He reminds us that, “Christ has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation.”  We are to reconcile the world to Christ Jesus by the preaching and teaching of the Gospel.  And yet, the power to forgive flies in the face of our sinful passions.  The world says to us don’t get mad, get even when someone sins against you, but God says to us overcome evil with good, just as we learned in our Epistle lesson last week from Rom. 12:9-21.

6.                In Matthew 18:15-20 our Lord Jesus tells us, ¹⁵“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

7.                Now I know what you’re probably thinking, “Pastor this word from Jesus is all fine and good, and this story about Edith Wharton is wonderful, but Pastor you just don’t know who I have to deal with on a regular basis…”  I understand what you may be trying to say here.  Some people are difficult to live with.  They are unlovable, quarrelsome, unkind and spiteful, always having a negative remark.  They’re the glass is half empty people.  You know who I’m talking about.  And these people can get on our nerves.  What can we do to live successfully with such people?  Well, our Lord gives us an answer; in fact, Jesus commands us on how we as Christians should forgive one another, just as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven us through His death on the cross.  Jesus tells us two things.  First, go and tell your neighbor what he has done against you.  Don’t hold in your feelings of anger.  Talk to him about his offending conduct—but do so in Christian love.  Be sure to pray about the efforts you’re making, and ask others to pray with you.  Be sympathetic.  Second, forgive 70 times 70, in other words, forgive unceasingly.  Overcome evil with a forgiving spirit.  Some souls are sensitive, so why dwell on the unpleasant past and yesterday’s quarrels with them?  Some people like to pick a fight, but always remember that it takes two to quarrel.  Be forgiving.

8.                But Pastor you may say, “This person has offended me so often!”  Well then, consider this, How often have we offended God?  And yet he daily forgives you.  As God forgives you through His Son Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, shedding His blood to cover over your sins, so should we also forgive our neighbor when he sins against us.  Coming from the throne of God, where we have been forgiven we must be kind and compassionate to one another as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven us.  Because the Lord has been so gracious to us, we can’t demand an eye for an eye, can we?

9.                CS Lewis has written on forgiveness in his book, “The Weight of Glory,” with these words, "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.  This is hard.  It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single person great injury.  But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it?  Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers each night "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us."  We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves."  (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, "On Forgiveness")

10.             Forgiveness isn’t always easy.  In fact, forgiveness can at times be among the hardest things as Christians we are called to do.  When we have been hurt deeply or repeatedly, it can be next to impossible to forgive.  How do you forgive the person who has abused you?  How do you forgive the spouse who cheated on you?  How do you forgive the person who stole from you?

11.             In this quote, C.S. Lewis says that the key is keeping in mind the consequences if we do not forgive.  God will not forgive us if we do not forgive someone else.  And why should He?  He offers us a priceless gift.  No matter who you are, you have been forgiven much. It is true that some of us have been forgiven more than others, yet, we all have been forgiven the unpardonable; namely, we all have been forgiven for turning our back on our Creator.  Accordingly, if we refuse to forgive others we are rejecting God's mercy that has been freely given to us. God does not "command" us to forgive because He wants us to do the impossible.  The opposite of forgiveness is bitterness and bitterness eats at your soul. The person who refuses to forgive destroys their own soul.

12.             I remember my Hebrew Professor Dr. Reed Lessing describing to us the book of Jonah in the Old Testament.  At the end of the book in Chapter 4, Jonah the Prophet is upset that God has had mercy on the Ninevites, who are enemies of God’s people.  God reminds Jonah that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Jonah chapter 4 says, “1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?..”11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Dr. Lessing then told our class that having a spirit of unforgiveness is like taking a gun and pointing it to your head, pulling the trigger and then expecting it to hit the person that you are angry and bitter about.  Holding a grudge and having resentment hurts us more than it hurts the person we are angry at.

13.               God wants us to forgive others because He knows it’s impossible for us to lead healthy lives without forgiving. There’s no magic bullet to be able to forgive easily. However, the person who refuses to forgive has not readily accepted how much God has forgiven them.  God will always give you the strength to forgive if you willingly ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. Let's be people who are quick to forgive and extend grace to those in our lives.

14.             Here in Matthew 18 our Savior Jesus teaches us that our lives as Christians aren’t lived in isolation from one another.  In fact He says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them.”  More than that, on the 6^th day when God was creating man, He said that it wasn’t good for man to be alone.  Brothers and sisters in Christ we are created for community, just as there is a community within the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so too we have a community in which we are called to here in the church where we are to love one another and bear each other’s burdens.

15.             So as much as we might seek to be alone on occasion, the fact remains that we live in community and daily interact with people God puts into our lives.  Therefore, human relationships are a concern for the child of God.  Because we communicate with and live among both believers and nonbelievers, our personal associations give us opportunity not only to show our Christianity but also to share our Christianity. 

16.             It’s important that this section of Matthew’s Gospel isn’t merely considered a “how to” guide to relationships with a law oriented approach regarding what we must do and not do.  Instead, it’s a vivid description of the way life works when the Gospel of our Lord Jesus is the operating principle.  Our Savior Jesus, who came to this world to be among us, not apart from us, brings us peace between God and us. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, “8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”  A natural result of this reconciliation is that we live in peace with one another.  Amen. The peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.