Rev. Frances Savill, Minister
September
18th, 2011
Richmond
Presbyterian Church
Matthew 20:1-16
Good news?
Prayer; Our Father in heaven, compel us all
simply to take you at your Word.
Touch us with the Holy Spirit, we pray, and do not let us get away
from your Word without being caught by its promises and powerful joy.
Amen.
What is the Kingdom of
heaven like?
What do you hope for?
I think many of us just
want the next kingdom – the
kingdom
of God- the kingdom of
heaven as Matthew names it, to be fair and just.
Jesus begins teaching
again.
The Kingdom of heaven is
like…
It
begins like the world we know, a landlord goes out to hire workers,
nothing surprising.
We are at home in this
world…
The landlord hires workers
and he agrees to pay them a generous day’s wage.
The parable continues the
landlord goes out again to hire more workers, and he tells them; “I will pay
you what is fair.”
So far the kingdom of
heaven looks like what I expect, workers work, we are made for work, work
helps us pay the bills, we take care of our families, put food on our
tables.
The kingdom of heaven is
like people working for a reasonable landowner, who pays a reasonable wage,
and treats workers fairly, and seems concerned that people work.
We are made for good work
to fill our days and give us a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment after
a days work.
So far I’m liking the
parable, the kingdom of heaven is a place where I can plant my feet and
things make sense.
But as the story continues
I get disoriented.
The land owner goes out to
hire workers again and again and again.
It seems everyone is
invited to work, not one is excluded.
The landowner doesn’t seem
motivated by the size of the harvest, or his own needs.
He doesn’t say “the
harvest is too much, I need more workers.”
It seems more that he is
concerned that all are invited to work in his fields.
He goes and invites more
to work in his fields even when there is only an hour left.
I want to pause for a
moment and ask what this might mean for the church.
Some commentators have
said this means there should be no ageism in the church.
We’re to invite young and
old to work into the world of the kingdom of heaven.
It doesn’t matter if
there’s only a short time left, it’s never too late to say “yes” to God.
But notice that God
doesn’t call us to come to his rest and retirement home.
We are called to work in
God’s fields.
“Workers” is what we are
called.
Do you remember Matthew
9:38, Jesus said to his disciples; “The
harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of
the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’”
Here the God of the harvest, the landowner is calling
labourers into his field to work and witness, to labour and work to bring in
the harvest, serving God in his kingdom.
A member of our church now 101 was very sick in hospital
when she was about 97.
When I visited her, I was quite concerned that she wasn’t
going to make it.
I prayed for her, and left.
Two days later I was back, she was sitting up in a chair
having lunch and wanted to talk to me about a concern.
What was her concern while in hospital, after being very
seriously ill, at age 97; the church nursery.
In the weeks before at church I had been asking people to
care for our babies in the nursery.
This great saint of our church was concerned because she
wasn’t sure she was really able to step up to take on that ministry any
longer.
I asked her to make her ministry praying that God would
raise up others with the same heart for the children of the church that she
had.
She still had a vital ministry of prayer, and reflecting
the love and grace of God to the people she was in contact with every day.
We are meant for work, we are meant for service and
witness for God.
Ministry, all ministries are God’s gifts to us.
Hearing God call your name saying, “go work for me” and
laboring for God is a great blessing.
Whether God calls you to serve him in your place of work,
or in the community, or in the church, whatever your ministry looks like, it
is God’s gift.
Consider any of God’s servants.
They are grown, changed, set off on an adventure from the
moment they say “yes” to God.
Service grows us.
Whether we’re cleaning toilets for the Lord, serving in
the nursery, visiting at the nursing home, working at the Food Bank, or
making the ethical decisions at work, intentionally witnessing to God’s work
in our lives, serving God grows us.
We see God’s face, God reveals himself to us, when we
serve him.
It develops in us the fruits of the Spirit – peace, joy,
love, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.
It doesn’t matter the time, our age or stage or energy,
God calls us to go and work for him.
Then our parable takes a decidedly kingdom twist…
The day is over, the workers are being paid, starting with
those last hired, those who worked only an hour, they were paid a denarius,
a whole days wage.
How they must have thanked the Master, what joy, to be
given so much, enough that their family would eat, enough to live on.
What a generous, gracious Landowner.
What a great God!
The first labours get up to the front of the line, anxious
for their pay.
They worked 10x’s the time of those who worked the hour,
they bore the heat of day.
What would they receive, surely 10x’s more, at least,
maybe more, the landowner is generous.
But their pay was a denarius also, a fair wage, a generous
wage, but surely they were not equal to those who had worked so little.
This parable is not about how to run your business.
If you paid those who started to work in November the same
per year as those who started to work in January, you’d soon never have any
employees working for the first half of the year.
So it’s not about astute business deals, it’s about he
kingdom of heaven, and about the God who rules his kingdom.
This God is generous and gracious.
But we don’t have the corner on who God is generous
towards.
Peter, back just a moment
ago asked Jesus about the reward they will receive.
Lord, we have left
everything to follow you, what will we receive, is his question.
Jesus said to them,
“I tell you the truth, at the renewal
of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have
followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as
much and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be
first.”
The disciples who will
labour long in the fields of the Lord, will receive a great reward… beyond
their imagining… a 100 fold return on all they have given up and eternal
life…
But how does this reward
work?
Jesus continues his
teaching; “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early
in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard….”
At the end of the day,
when the landowner pays all the workers the same, some are mad because they
have worked harder, longer.
The Landowner’s response
is “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
Or are you envious because I am generous?”
And that’s the rub…
We want God to be generous
to us…
We want God’s grace poured
out upon us…
But then there’s that
“fair” thing…
Until we remember it’s the
kingdom of heaven… we’re labourers for God, God grows us every day we serve
him, that we labour in God’s fields is God’s gift, that God called us is
into his service is part of his gift to us.
In the parable the first
labourers are paid what they agreed to… Jesus has already promised Peter
that he will receive 100 fold all he has given up and eternal life.
Do we really begrudge
God’s generosity to others?
Where do you think you fit
in this parable?
Consider one final
question – can you imagine the thankfulness of some of the workers compared
with the grumbling of the others?
Do you really want what
you deserve from God?
Prayer:
Gracious God, you have named us as your own people.
Send us out clothed with compassion, kindness, and patience, thankful
that we are called to serve you.
May we learn your ways of generosity and grace.
Amen
Rev. Frances Savill, Minister
Richmond
Presbyterian Church
Richmond BC
September 18th 2011