Have you ever been a part of something bigger than yourself—an event or team of some kind of which you were a significant part and were made a significant difference in someone’s life or in the world?
Maybe as a doctor or nurse or technician as part of a medical team and you saved a life; you know you made a difference.
As a veteran, to look back at your service to the country, in what ever conflict, hot or cold, and know you made a difference to your fellow servicemen, and to the world.
First responders: firemen, police, medical personnel, many have those kind of experiences when you understand that as part of a team you gave yourself to something bigger than yourself, and you made a difference.
It is part of our experience as Christians here in this parish. It must be something for our long time members who look at this place today and know they have had a hand over 20, 30 years, in making Redeemer the strong, healthy, and orthodox church it is today.
You might have been on one of our parish mission trips, where as a part of that team you really ministered to people in need and you know you made a difference.
Some in this congregation today will have that experience in a few short years when they look at the new facilities that contribute to the health and vitality of this growing parish and know they had a hand in it, in making a difference.
I think there is really something in us that needs that kind of involvement, craves that kind of involvement, to be a part of something larger than self. Something of great significance that calls one to selfless involvement for a greater good.
President John Kennedy memorialized this need or ideal in his 1961 Inaugural Address when he encouraged his fellow Americans to: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Jesus gets at this when we hear him speak to the disciples in the parable this morning; a call to labor in something great.
This morning’s Gospel lesson is really a continuation of Jesus’ response to one of Peter’s questions occurring some verses before.
In the last two chapters or so Jesus has been teaching about the kingdom of God, what it is, and what is expected for those to enter it.
In response to this teaching at one point, Peter makes the statement: “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be there for us?”
Certainly a telling question and one that each of us has heard from others at times, and if we are honest, maybe have said or thought to ourselves in moments of decision in our lives: What’s in it for me?
This morning continues Jesus’ answer to that question in the form of a parable—a teaching story.
Jesus wanted his disciples to see themselves in this parable, as he wants us to see ourselves in the parable, and how we relate to him and his kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is like a landowner who goes out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
A denarius, by the way, is a silver coin that was a fair wage for a worker of the time. It normally had enough value to allow a man to care for his family for a day—it was his daily bread – as it were.
The parable goes on to state that he goes back at the third hour, about 9:00 AM, and hires others standing in the market place without work, and offers to pay them whatever is right.
He goes back at the sixth and the ninth hour, about noon and 3:00 PM, and does the same.
He goes again at the eleventh hour, about 5:00 PM, and again finds unemployed laborers and says to them: “Why have you been standing here all day long and doing nothing?” And they reply, “Because no one has hired us.” He tells them: “You also go and work in my vineyard.”
Note that it is the owner who goes to where the potential workers are. He is seeking them.
It is God who comes to us, who first seeks us.
It was Jesus Christ who comes to us in history as a human being, who calls us to work in the vineyard of his kingdom, a call that brings one to life and to purpose, if responded to.
In his classic commentary, Matthew Henry writes: “Whence they are hired? Out of the market-place, where, till they are hired into God’s service, they stand idle (v. 3), all the day idle (v. 6). note, first, the soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other; it was (as all the creatures were) created to work, and is either a servant to iniquity, or a servant to righteousness. The devil, by his temptations, is hiring labourers into his field, to feed swine. God, by his gospel, is hiring labourers into his vineyard, to dress it, and keep it, paradise-work. We are put to our choice; for hired we must be; choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”
As the proverb goes: Idle lives are the devil’s workshop.
Note also that there were no qualifications asked other than to respond. Be they early or late, skilled or unskilled, young or old, all that was required was for them to respond to the offer given and they were employed.
Jesus doesn’t ask for resumes or what their skill set is—he just invites us to join his team in the field. Jesus is not very selective about who he hires to work in the vineyard. If you look at the church at large through history, that should be evident enough!
One cannot be good enough, holy enough, educated enough to be on the team. All that is required is to respond to the call. And you discover you have a place and a purpose.
Then comes the end of the day– the time of reckoning and two interesting things happen—he pays the last hired first, and he pays them all the same amount.
We might immediately think something wrong with this.
The first hired might have been the youngest, the strongest, the most skilled. They were certainly those who accomplished the lion’s share of the work.
The first hired would have expected to be paid first, to ensure that the their pay would be on hand; they would not want the cash to run out and have to take an IOU. Additionally, they would have expected to have made more than all those hired after.
And so they began to grumble about the supposed injustice.
But the Lord replies to them: “I am not being unfair to you. Did not you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man 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.”
Note God’s generosity.
There was plenty of cash to pay all. The rewards for those entering the kingdom early are the same as for those entering late, and that reward is sufficient and just.
It is not significant as to when one responds to the call to work in the vineyard, as it is that one does respond. It is never too late in the day to be hired and receive the full blessing that God has promised.
We need also to be warned of envying what God might be doing in others lives. To respond so to God’s acts of grace in others’ lives is certainly a bit of arrogant pride, and demeaning of God’s sovereignty and grace.
Matthew Henry again comments here:
“Note, there is a great proneness in us to think that we have too little, and others too much, of the tokens of God’s favour; and that we do too much, and others too little, in the work of God. Very apt we all are to undervalue the desserts of others, and to overvalue our own. Perhaps, Christ here gives an intimation to Peter, not to boast too much, as he seemed to do, of his having left all to follow Christ; as if, because he and the rest of them had borne the burthen and heat of the day thus, they must have a heaven by themselves. It is hard for those that do or suffer more than ordinary for God, not to be elevated too much with the thought of it, and to expect to merit by it.”
Most of all, we are taught that it is the vineyard that is important. It is the vineyard that all are called to. It is the vineyard that is at the heart of the owner’s concern. That vineyard is the kingdom of God in the world, his living testimony in and to the world. It is what defines one’s relationship with God.
To be a worker in his vineyard is to be brought under his care and rule, his provision. It is to be in a place where we humbly serve him and gratefully receive his mercy and grace—regardless of our skills, personalities, abilities. It is enough just to say yes.
It is in the vineyard we find grace enough to meet all our needs—the place where our lives come to full purpose and meaning in bringing honor and glory to God.
And at the end of the day, at the time of reckoning we can be assured, that by God’s grace we will receive much more than we expect, and never less than he has promised.
Our work in the vineyard is a part of God’s great work in the world– to make himself known and to bring the grace of salvation through Jesus Christ to all people.
Jesus seeks us where we are— he invites us to be a part of something much greater than ourselves—something that has significant and eternal consequences; and thus fulfill the reason we have been created—to bring glory and worship to God.
The question left to us today is: Have we said yes to taking our place as a worker in his vineyard. It’s never too late—he is still hiring. You will never find a better boss. And the benefits are really out of this world.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
16th Sunday after Pentecost
24 September 2017