| "Calculating Our Worth” Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – September 18, 2011 Centenary United Matthew 20:1-16
Years ago a book was printed entitled, “The Humor of Christ” by
Elton Trueblood. In it the author
chronicled a number of instances where Jesus
played with people either to
observe their responses or to capture and hold their attention for a
lesson that he wanted to teach them.
A typical example
was the time when Jesus was enjoying a vacation in a small community on
the east coast of the A Samaritan woman
from the area approached Jesus and begged him to deliver her daughter
from a demon that was
occupying her body. Because
we were not there to witness his verbal exchange with this woman, we
missed watching Jesus banter with her.
Jesus was being
playful when he used the race card
in his response to her.
Jesus said, “Let me first feed the children of The woman apparently
understood Jesus’ intent and quickly responded with a brilliant retort.
She said, “Sir, even the dogs under the table get to eat the
children’s leftovers.” No doubt, Jesus had a smile on his face from her
imaginative response. He said, “Go home and you will find that your
daughter is well.” (Mark 7:24f) Another example that
Trueblood described in his book was our lesson for today.
Jesus used a bait and
switch method as once again he enjoyed watching the response of his
listeners. He told them the
story by beginning with these words, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like
this.” We can almost
imagine the dramatic hush that fell over the audience as once again he
was going to tell them what the experience of Heaven is like. He told them this
story: Early in the morning,
a winemaker hired men to work in his vineyard. He negotiated with
them to pay each the regular wage of one silver coin. They agreed and
went to his vineyard. He made the same offer to other workers at
9:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., and at 5:00 p.m. At the end of the day, he
told his foreman to pay everyone the wage for which each worker had
agreed. It did not take long
for the winemaker to hear grumblings of discontent coming from of the
workers. “Wait a minute!”
exclaimed a spokesman, “We worked for eight hours and you are paying us
the same wage as those who worked only one hour?” It is interesting how
the winemaker responded to the workers.
He said, “That’s what I decided to do.
Don’t I have the right to spend my money as I wish?
Or, are you jealous because of my generosity?” What happens to our
thinking when we put ourselves in the shoes of the workers that were
hired first? If
there is any parable of Jesus that evokes a visceral response from us,
it is this one. The reason we have this reaction is that we
want to be treated fairly.
Whether or not we care to admit it, many of us spend time comparing our
life-experiences with those of other people.
We always want life to present us with a level
playing field. For years women have
questioned why it is that they can perform the same job as a man in a
similar position with their company and often there is a sizeable gap in
what they are paid. Women
want to be treated fairly.
They have every right to question their salary level just as a number of
the vineyard workers did at the end of the day.
Our society has made
a science out of teaching us
why it is important to compare everything.
We want what is best for us.
For example, when we hear
advertisements that cause us to compare Bayer
Advanced Aspirin over other pain relievers we want to buy a product
that really works. When we go to
the voting booth during the next election, we want to elect the
political candidate that truly places Bermudians first above all the
special interest groups. We have been
thoroughly trained to want the very best for ourselves and our families.
Self-interest is at the heart of many of our countless decisions.
This is why Jesus’ story was so challenging for his listeners to
interpret. In spite of how
generous the winemaker was, what he did was a terrible business
practice, particularly if he wanted to hire workers in the future. Knowing how quickly
his listeners were identifying with the poor laborers who worked all day
and how the winemaker paid all his workers the same wage, Jesus had his
audience right where he wanted them. They had to pay attention in order
to hear how Jesus was going to bring his story to a satisfying ending.
They may have gotten so caught up in the drama of his story that
they missed hearing how he started it -- “The Kingdom of Heaven is like
this . . .” The point of Jesus’
story had nothing to do with the wage of a silver coin being given to
all workers in spite of how long they worked.
His point was that this is how God treats everyone in spite of
when or even if they awaken to God’s presence in their lives.
His
parable was not about how fairly people were being treated; it was about
how generous God is in loving all people equally. This interpretation
of God’s nature was confusing to his listeners, particularly when
religious practices and faithfulness had been influenced and defined by
the Pharisees. These men spent their lives modeling total obedience to
the Hebrew Laws. Obedience
was the goal of these righteous men who sincerely believed that this is
what God wanted from all humanity. They
had been taught to think this way by their teachers. The people listening
to Jesus could not begin to approach the faithfulness of the Pharisees.
Many of them felt that there was little they could do to improve
their relationship with God.
This is the reason why Jesus told them this story.
All his listeners were God’s beloved children whether or not they felt
worthy of that honor. Some years ago a
woman was dying of AIDS and her priest came to visit her. He found her
very depressed. She said to him, "Father, I have disappointed everyone
who has ever loved me. I
made a terrible mistake and I cannot repair the damage I have done to
the love of my parents, my family and my friends.
I have no one to blame but myself.
Soon the ravages of this disease will consume me.
What then, Father?” The priest looked
away from her and said, "Tell me about the picture on your dresser. Who
is that lovely young girl?" The woman said, "She is my daughter." The
priest asked, "If she made a
terrible mistake in her judgment, would you ever abandon her?
Would you refuse to go to her if
she had a need?" The woman said, "No, in spite of how sick I am, I would
make every effort to be by her side." Then
the priest said, "I happen to know that God has a picture of you on his
dresser." She smiled and said,
“You think so?” The priest
said, “No, I don’t think so, I know so.
The love you have for your daughter cannot be greater than God’s
love for you, Sarah.” Then he quoted the words written by the Apostle
Paul to that small community of Jesus’ followers living in This was the point
of Jesus’ story about the winemaker.
There are always going to be people around us that appear to be
more worthy in God’s sight.
We believe they make fewer mistakes and live more faithful lives.
Their spoken prayers are beautiful. They can quote
Scripture better than most pastors. They seldom miss any function
happening in their churches. They are obedient and faithful in their
responsibilities. They know in their hearts, minds and spirit that
they are among the saved. These are the people
that worked the eight hours.
However, if these Christians grow unhappy when they discover that they
received the same degree of God’s love as those who awakened to God’s
presence very late in life, they will have missed the mark.
They did not hear the end of Jesus’ parable, “I choose to give
the man I hired last the same wage I gave you.
Don’t I have the right to do as I wish with my own money?
Or, are you jealous because I am generous?”
If there is any
doubt about the message Jesus was teaching, he told another parable that
contained the same message.
A tax collector and a
Pharisee went to the While living in my
former community, I was a close friend with the Rabbi of a large Jewish
congregation that was located near my church.
He had a problem. His
synagogue was too small to accommodate the large number of Jews that
always attend services during the days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur –
their holiest of days. I
gave him the use of our building without cost simply because I felt it
was the right thing to do for our brothers and sisters of another faith. Sheepishly, the
president of his congregation came to me and asked if his people could
take some liberties with our sanctuary.
He asked if they could build a structure out of PVC pipe from
which curtains could be hung that would shroud the gigantic wooden cross
located near our altar. He
also asked if we could remove all the Christian symbols from the
sanctuary as well. I
understood his point completely and readily complied with his wishes.
Our Altar Guild removed everything and they built their shroud. At the same time,
classrooms were being used in our building by another church in town for
their high school students while their church was experiencing a
renovation program. A woman
from that church was on her way to pick up her son and she confronted me
when she learned what the Jews had done in our sanctuary.
She said, “How dare you allow the
Jews to come into your church and also give them permission to shroud
the cross on which our Savior, Jesus Christ shed his precious blood.” She caught me
totally by surprise. I said
to her, “Do you think that when Jesus entered his synagogue to worship
that he would have felt comfortable being faced with a Roman execution
device that someone had erected in his sanctuary?”
I went on to tell her, “When the Jews are in our sanctuary, that
space has become their temple.
Instead of the cross, they have their She just glared at
me with complete distain. She briskly turned and walked away to retrieve
her son. Perhaps she had
forgotten that Jesus was a Jew, a Jew that never became a Christian.
Perhaps she had forgotten what love enables us to do when we are
asked to accommodate others of a different faith.
Perhaps it is the self-interest in our
human nature that causes us to believe that we are more deserving of
God’s love than other people.
Our value system is different
from God’s creative processes. Rather
than understanding that life is a constant evolutionary process of our
spiritual growth, many of the faithful believe that people are either
saved or remain among the
lost for all eternity.
When we grasp the
meaning of Jesus’ parable, we understand that the final response to each
person who ever lived is up to God alone, just as the amount to pay each
worker was the winemaker’s to decide. God is very generous!
This insight into God’s nature is what Jesus was teaching his
listeners. Now that
understanding is ours. This
story was preserved in Scripture to give us hope that the best part of
life still awaits all of us. |