Septuagesima - January 31, 2010

The Church Season of Epiphany,
Septuagesmia,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (January 31, 2010)
One Year Series

“Just Payment”

Readings:

Psalm 95:1-9
Exodus 17:1-7
1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5
Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 20th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verses.

Matthew 20:1-16 (NIV)

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. [12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”]

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Most of us would not want to work for a landowner like the one in our Gospel lesson. We are told the workers who started early got their daily wage, one denarius. How much is a denarius work in today’s money? Well we could do some quick figuring based on inflation rates, analysis of common goods, comparison of the statistics of household incomes then and now...And after all that we could come up with some kind of guess. But Jesus first told this parable in a way, so that it would be timeless. The parable fits across the spectrum of all who would ever here His Words. This denarius was a just days wage, you figure it out. You could ask yourself; What’s a days worth of work worth to me? What would I liked to be to be paid for work or what is a fair paycheck for working out in the sun for a day? Everybody here will have a different answer, some higher, some lower. And now that you have calculated all that out, it’s not the point of this lesson. In this parable, the worker’s received a denarius no matter what time they came to work, some came early in the morning, some came very late. Some worked through the heat of the sun, some came just an hour before the checks were being handed out. Some worked 12 hours, some worked 1 hour before the landowner called them all in for their pay.

And this landowner showed great audacity, he did something the likes of which we can not bear to hear. When the pay line formed and the pay began to be handed out, it was if the landowner closed his eyes, then stuck his hand down in his money bag, and drew out the pay for each worker. One denarius for the people who worked 1 hour. Well then that must be pretty good, if we look at exactly what the landowner said to the latecomers, He actually said nothing of their wages. So they must have thought they got a pretty good deal. And what about the workers who worked 3,6, & 9 hours, well they got 1 denarius too and they got exactly what they were told, and that was whatever is fair and just.

Now come the workers who worked all day. They were promised 1 denarius, they agreed to 1 denarius, but if all those other people got more than they should, these workers must have been expecting to make at least 12 times that 1 denarius, because they worked 12 times as long as some of the other workers. But, when paid they received their one denarius. How could this be? How dare that landowner pull shenanigans like that? How dare he make the 12 hour workers receive the same pay as the 1 hour workers.

Even today this parable makes us mad to think about it. Even today we couldn’t stand it if someone came in at the end of the day and made the same pay as we did. Whatever your career was, or still is, think about that newly hired worker making the same as you after you had worked your career for 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years. We too would begin grumbling about the motives of that owner.

But of course, Jesus told this parable so you would feel just the way that you do now, so you would apply this lesson to yourself. And when you get that little twist in your stomach about somebody coming to work late and still making your kind of time earned money then the point of parable starts to kick in and the blame game begins. Oh, yes of course the landowner is very generous, really generous in fact, too generous. And we know that God is the landowner and we know that God gives to each believer a full stake in the kingdom of heaven no matter how long they worked. And we certainly know that that kind of payment is not just.

So, what are we to learn? Is it that the kingdom of heaven is not just? What about this question, “Could the kingdom heaven be unfair but still just?” The kingdom of heaven is given to “all who believe and are baptized.”(Mk 16:16) But that’s not fair, some of us have been Christians for many years, some have only been recently baptized, we can’t all get to the same place can we?

Well let’s look at it another way. Suppose the landowner had seen that the people who worked one hour worked very hard. Suppose the landowner had seen that the people who worked 3, 6, or 9 hours had worked a bit and goofed off, or that the 12 hour workers had taken a nap during most of the day. Suppose much had been asked of these workers because they where promised that much would be given to them. Yet the longer they had been in the service of the landowner the less they did? What would the landowner think? Why would he even bother to pay those first workers at all? And taking it even one step further, who are the first workers here in our midst and who are the new workers in this congregation, think about it. If this congregation were to sell all it’s assets and divvy out all the proceeds. What if the people who joined last year received a portion equivalent to the charter members? Whether baby, or elderly, whether young, middle-aged, or older, everyone received an equal share. Would that be fair? Would that be just? I think we all know where that would all end, it would all end up in a courtroom somewhere. Some judge would have to decide what is fair and just.

Well then what is fair? We can ask ourselves we who have been given much, in fact we who have been given everything, how does our work measure up to the grace which we have received? How have you labored for your Lord? Have you lived the 10 commandments each and every day? Have you shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone every day? Have you lived a perfect life, in thought, word, and deed. Have you been perfect to those who are around you, no matter how they have treated you? You all know that you are to treat your neighbors as yourselves, but as Christians do you remember that much more is asked and required of you?

And don’t forget that at the end of your last day you and I will all stand before that judge who will determine what is fair, what is just. And will be the standard for fair? Well from the parable we know that “fair” is not based upon how hard you have worked, nor how it does not matter how long you have worked.

The landowner is God and it is He who gives to you His Kingdom. Jesus Christ saw you before you ever entered the harvest field, because he knew you before you born. He chose you, He called you by name, and then He placed His Name upon you in Holy Baptism. God is the landowner who pays us the same whether we were called early in the morning of our lives or whether He called us as the sun fades on our lives.

And if we want to say that’s unfair that we’re being treated equal to others when we should be treated differently, then thank God you are being treated unfairly. For God sent His Son into this world, and His Son was crucified so that we all may receive equality. It is who Christ took an unequal share of our sin, in fact He took all our sin with Him to that cross. It is Christ who is the only one who is truly just. It is unfair that Jesus Christ bore unequal burden to give us the promise that all the sins of the world would be paid. His payment of death was not fair, it was not equal, it was not just. Yet the grace which He freely gives us is given in equal shares. In your baptism you were offered an equal share, today in Holy communion your are offered an equal share. And the share Christ gives is His free grace. He forgives your sin sick soul, He renews your faith, He gives you the promise of eternal life. And at the end of the day, at the end of all your days on this earth...know that in a sense, you will be treated unfairly. For on the last day of your life, you will receive your payment and it will be equal to that of all who would believe. It will not be a time of angst or grumbling, in fact it will be a time of eternal rejoicing. For there will be no time of comparing notes to see who did the most, no looking back to see who just made it in. No the last will be first, and the first will be last, and that means that in the end it will be a heavenly tie and so the payment will be the same for everyone. Receive your pay, based solely upon Christ who is faithful and just, for it is Jesus Christ who give you eternal life and that is a just payment indeed. Amen.

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