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“Always Remain Centered” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler –
September 24, 2017 Centenary United Methodist Church
Philippians 1:21-30, Matthew 20:1-16 This morning we are going to consider a parable that is quite
different. What Jesus was trying
to do with his storytelling was to teach his listeners what the Paying laborers the same wage when they were hired at different
times during the day is a sure way to create hostility.
After hearing complaints about how unfair it was to pay all the
workers equally, their vineyard owner addressed their complaints in this
manner: I have not
cheated any of you. After
all, you agreed to do a day's work for one silver coin. Now take your
pay and go home. I want to
give this man who was hired last as much as 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? A large class-action law suit is being brought against
Google regarding wage
differences that are paid to women who are doing the same jobs as men.
The documentation presented by the plaintiffs clearly demonstrates what
Google has consistently
denied -- unequal pay to engineers for the same task. The pay scale
favors men over women. So, the drama in Jesus' parable is quite timely
even for our day. Jesus certainly chose a magnificent illustration to point out how
fragile people are when it comes to matters of their wages. In this
respect, the values of people have not changed.
Rather than having gratitude for
a silver coin at the end of the day, most of the laborers expressed just
the opposite.
If
we believe we are totally in charge of our lives, our thoughts and our
emotions, why would we grumble?
Why allow what someone else gets paid to excite our
passions? The answer is
simple. There was no
justice when a man who worked eight hours should be paid the same as the
one who worked only one hour.
However, were any of these men actually cheated? What other responses could these disgruntled men have made?
They could have been grateful to the man for hiring them.
They could have walked away knowing they had a silver coin that
they did not have the day before.
They could have decided never to work again for someone with such
an unjust pay scale.
Think of the reaction in a Court of Law if
Google's management used
Jesus' logic in their defense: These women who
applied to work at Google accepted the salary packages that we offered
them. If they are not happy working for us, they can go to work for
another company. If we choose to pay our engineers different amounts,
don't we have the right to do that with our own money? Or, are these
women jealous because we are more generous to some of our engineers? Jesus struck a nerve by his illustration.
All the symbolism in Jesus' parable, however, makes a lot more
sense when we realize that he was teaching what life is like in
heaven.
When
people remain centered with their lives, little bothers them in the
external world.
Albert Einstein was invited to deliver a series of lectures at a
very prestigious university for which he was paid quite handsomely.
He would have delivered his lectures without receiving a monetary
thank you because of his
passion and love for teaching. When Einstein died, his family members discovered that he had
been using a $10,000 check from that university as a bookmark in a text
he had been reading. Einstein would have passed the test that Jesus was
using to challenge his listeners. Some years ago, there was a survey that was taken among thousands
of women that focused on what they most desired when looking for a
potential life-partner. Their list of values was quite extensive.
Here are some of their desires: Women wanted their potential
life-partner to exhibit kindness, a sense of humor, inner confidence,
being a good listener, being sensitive to their needs, not taking
themselves too seriously, warm and loving attitudes, being flexible,
opinions that are lighthearted, visionary, and imaginative, an interest
in their own health, taking responsibility for the spirit by which they
live, being alert, centered and optimistic while still holding on to a
degree of mystery about who they are, being able to take risks and the
ability to smile every day. Jesus was talking about what
heaven is like.
Most of the qualities identified in that survey could easily be
applied to both men and women.
They also represent attitudes and values that would prove very
useful after they leave this world.
Notice that all the qualities that surfaced from these women were
coming from a person's spirit. These qualities add an emotional and
spiritual value to a relationship.
Could anyone put a monetary value on any of them?
People who are highly evolved spiritually and display these
qualities in their lives probably would not be disturbed by God's love
being bestowed equally on newcomers.
Here is Jesus' point --
God is like this vineyard owner who was handing out one silver coin to
all the workers at the end of the day.
Would we really be satisfied with God's generosity? Think about
your answer. How far
would we go in loving
our enemies in
heaven
if we were unable to accept them and live with them in peace while in
this world?
I am always reminded of an interesting poem that illustrates
this point: I was shocked,
confused and bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door, not by the beauty of
it all, nor the grandeur of its décor. But it was the folks in Heaven
who made me sputter and gasp – the thieves, the liars, the sinners, the
alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid
from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my
old neighbor who never said anything nice. Herb, whom I always thought
was rotting in Hell, was looking remarkably well.
I asked Jesus,
‘What’s the deal? I would love to hear your take. How did all these
horrible people get up here? God must have made a mistake.
And why is everyone so quiet and somber – give me a clue.’ Jesus
said, ‘They, too, are all in shock.
No one thought they would be seeing you.’ This kind of
response strikes at the heart of where most of us live. We allow people
to agitate us because of their political positions, because of their
negative attitudes and because their character on every level is highly
questionable. How would we
respond if we discovered that Adolph Hitler, suicide bombers, hate
mongers, scam artists and other
scoundrels
were in heaven
because God's loving forgiveness has no
limits? How
would we feel if God did absolutely nothing about people who never
spiritually awakened while on earth? What if King Solomon was right when he wrote: The wise can see
where they are going and fools cannot. But I also know that the same
fate is waiting for all of us. We must all die -- the wise and foolish
alike. What have I gained from being wise?
Nothing!
In the days to come both the
wise and the foolish will be forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 2:9-17) King Solomon, as wise as he was, could not experience the value
of living a life where all his physical needs were met and where he had
plenty of assets to share with all the people in his kingdom.
Solomon was filled with regret because he thought that criminals
and wise teachers shared the same fate.
Even if they do, why would he sabotage his thinking instead of
enjoying how his life had turned out?
Like all the earlier wage earners in Jesus' parable, Solomon was
using his imagination to compare himself to others. This was the point of Jesus' parable.
Are we able to accept
life as it comes while exhibiting all those qualities that were
mentioned in the women's survey?
We will never understand what God has in mind for other people.
Why go there in our thinking?
Why even ask the question?
We are in
charge of only one life, our own.
Everything
around us will test us to see how centered and committed we are to this
one task.
The workers in Jesus' parable were highly distracted by how unfair the
vineyard owner appeared to be by treating everyone with the same
compassion, generosity and love. The
rub for us is that Jesus used
money to make his point.
Remember Jesus' words, "Where your treasure is, there will your hearts
be also." (Matthew 6:21) Life is not fair. We
were not created with the same abilities.
Most people in our world were
not born in a culture that supports the growth of sound values and
attitudes. There are no guarantees of what will come up for us during
our journey on earth. Our task is to remain centered regardless of what
happens. Every day is a gem that
only we can polish with our compassionate attitudes. Someone sent me an email that ended with these words that provide
a good summary of the point Jesus was making about life in
heaven:
"Work like you don't need money.
Love like no one has ever hurt you. Dance like no one is
watching. Sing like no one
is listening. Live now like
you will in heaven."
When we remain centered, we can celebrate our lives by receiving
our one silver coin with
gratitude regardless of what other people have been given. Life is good
everyday for those of us who are happy being who we are.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Gracious and ever-present God, we thank you for the magnificence and
bounty of our physical world.
We confess how easy it is to allow our senses to guide our
appreciation. Often, we do not pursue with equal enthusiasm what heals
our spirits, what mends our broken dreams and what deepens our
understanding of life’s cyclical frustrations.
How often we need to be reminded that, "To have faith is to be
sure of the things we hope for, and to be certain of the things we
cannot see."
Teach us, O
God, to bring peacefulness into every realm of our living.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER Ever faithful God, we enter this place
eager to find the peace that will still our spirits. The highways
of our minds so often seemed clogged with traffic of our own design.
There are times we must face experiences we have labeled as unpleasant
and we face them with dread. There are moments when the list of
our necessary chores appears as a mountain, and our desire to climb it
is not there. And yet, O God, how often do we find
ourselves being lifted by your felt presence and those mysterious unseen
hands? How often during a moment of doubt, have we heard you
whisper within us, "Trust me, we can do this together"? How many
times have we been in the midst of fragile moments when someone has
appeared to help us?
There
have been moments of a sudden insight where we have found the ability to
navigate in troubled waters. When we move away from being preoccupied
with ourselves, your guidance is clear. Your love is overwhelming. Today, as world politics preys on our
minds, we ask that you inspire us to become eager teachers, diplomats,
and peacemakers in our communities as more national boundaries become
blurred.
We know that
reconciliation needs to exist everywhere for all of us. Help each of us
to remain examples of what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus
Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |