Sermon - 9/18/2011

Matthew 20:1-16

20“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; ⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. ⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ ⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. ¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It’s just not fair. The workers in the vineyard are saying the exact same words that I said all my childhood.  I was the younger brother.  So throughout my childhood, I saw my sister get to do things that I wanted to do but couldn’t because I was not old enough.  It just wasn’t fair.  

When I think of this parable of Jesus, I am reminded of two jobs that I held.  While I was in Jr. High, I worked in the summer months as a Detasseler.  We would walk through fields of corn and remove the tassels or corn that the machines had left behind.  Let’s just say this was not the most glamorous job.  It was a job in which you had to be on the bus by 5AM so that we could be in the fields and doing our work.  We would often work until lunch.  You did not want to stay past lunch because then you would be working in the heat of the day.  If the early morning was not enough, you had to walk row after row of corn.  It would get to the point after a few weeks, that you would begin to close your eyes and you still saw corn, you would dream corn.  However, it was a job in which we got paid by the hour.  The more we worked, the more you made.  For someone in Jr. High, with no real expenses, it was great.  Yet it was something that you became accustomed to, the more you work, the more money you would get.  

Although my other job that I had, I was a paper boy.  I would get my papers sent to me by 2:30.  I would sit on the kitchen floor and read the comics and fold the newspapers.  By 3:00, I was on my bike and delivering the papers.  It did not matter if I took an hour to deliver the 50 papers that I had or if I delivered them in 2 hours, I would be paid the same amount, each month.  

Well this got me thinking, which one is better? However, I soon realized that I cannot compare the two.  They are two different jobs. Plain and simple.  Within today’s Gospel reading, we see the workers comparing the work that they did to another worker.  Yet it is not something that we can compare.  The land owner soon reminds the workers that it is his wealth that is being given and he is giving all the workers what he sees as fair.  

With every parable, there is a lesson, not only for this world but for the kingdom of God as well.  The question of how can we receive the Kingdom of God is answered. This parable reminds us that there are those of us who work our entire lives.  We work and strive to do God’s work every day.  Yet there are others who live a life of sin.  However, towards the end of their days do the work that God is calling them to do.  Yet both are given the blessed gift of eternal life in Heaven.  Is that fair?  Absolutely not.  If we were to be given what is fair to us, we would be put to death and separated from God forever.  Now this does not mean we should live a life that is full of sin and in the last part of our life, we should change and live the way God would want us to live.  No, God calls us to work in many ways and at different times.  And it is God who gives His Kingdom and not something that we can earn.

It is for this reason that we can be thankful that we have a kind and loving God who shares the wealth and glory with all the people whom God calls into the fields to work.  It is for this reason, that we can give thanks that God is our Judge and is willing to bestow upon us, not what we deserve but is generous with mercy and grace for all the laborers.