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| (Updated 06/11/2009)
Mt 20, 1-16
I’d like to start this sermon with a short story. Pastor Havrila a senior pastor of Kosice Lutheran Church in Slovakia, where I served my first call shared this story with me. When he was still a student of theology, he was helping out with church services during holidays. Back in those days during communism there weren’t enough pastors and so during Easter or Christmas congregations requested a theology student to come and preach at their congregation. Pastor Havrila used to serve every Easter and Christmas at one of the congregations outside of the city of Kosice. It was in the year 1989 when he experienced something very powerful and amazing. He said that in the congregation where he led the Easter service there were almost no people in the church. During Christmas services of that same year the very same church was packed. He said there were crowds of people coming to church.
What caused this change of behavior in so many people? It was the well known Velvet revolution which took place in the fall of 1989. The communist regime fell, and people could freely go to Church again.
Now you might be asking: why am I telling you this story? What does it have to do with today’s Gospel? Let me explain. The story continues. All these people that started to go to Church all of the sudden caused a new situation in the Slovak Church. You know, especially people in small towns know each other very well. So when those who went regularly to Church during communism and were risking so much for their faith, saw people who were big communists before sitting in the Church, they said: What are these people doing here? How come they can sit here with us in the Church right now, when they didn’t come near the Church when it was too uncomfortable and risky for them?
This is how we people think. This is how we are. People that were working in Church through all those difficult years of persecution couldn’t simply accept, that they are supposed to be equal with those who were persecuting them. They thought: we deserve more! We deserve more, because we worked hard through all those years and now you come, and want to sit next to me? You want to work with me like nothing happened? You want to get the same reward, same church council position as me? But that’s totally unfair!
Many people that saw this happening in the Church stopped going to Church. They simply couldn’t get over the fact that all those people who didn’t believe in God, were and are welcomed in the Church. They simply couldn’t accept that God could so easily forget their past and would welcome all these sinners with open arms. And so the first became the last. The ones that were going to Church now stopped and lost their faith.
Yes this was and I think still is a situation in the Church in Slovakia. But I don’t think that this is something that is just happening there. The fact that Jesus talked about this kind of behavior tells us that there was such a problem two thousand years ago and He knew that there would be this kind of problem in the Church among believers even today. Because don’t we act sometimes like the workers in parable? Don’t we sometimes judge people around us? Don’t we think that certain people don’t deserve this or that? Don’t we think that certain people simply wouldn’t fit in our congregation?
In Slovakia I was involved in the prison ministry. And when I went for the first time to do pastoral counseling in the prison, you know which thought I couldn’t get rid of? What if these “bad” people are just pretending to believe now? I mean they did all these horrible things before, how is it possible that now they can come and be part of God’s family? (pause) Horrible example, but that’s how we think sometimes.
Instead of loving people and accepting them the way they are, we judge them. Sometimes we simply can’t accept that God’s unconditional grace and love can change human hearts. Sometimes it’s hard for us to accept that God can bring even those who seem in human eyes as a lost cause back to Him. And this is what Jesus is trying to tell us through the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
Yes this parable tells us a big and unchangeable truth about God and His kingdom. God’s grace gives forgiveness to everyone who comes to Jesus Christ. Christ’s love has power over everyone who believes in Him. It doesn’t matter when it happens. The important thing is that it does happen. What really matters is, that somebody, who was standing around in the “market place” doing nothing is now a part of God’s work team in vineyard and is fully participating in the work of God’s kingdom.
It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been walking and working with Christ. The important thing is that we are with Him. Because the reward, the wage that Jesus talks about in the parable isn’t for the amount of the work we do, but for the participation in this work itself. The reward is for the living faith which brings us to Christ, accepts His forgiveness and makes us his disciples.
We’re talking about a reward here and so you’re probably asking yourselves: “What is this reward Jesus talks about?” Well let me ask you something: Isn’t life with Christ, the peace of this relationship, the sense of belonging, the comfort of an ultimate friend, the strength of the most powerful Lord, the support of community of brothers and sisters, aren’t these things already great rewards? For all these things will be part of our lives when we accept the invitation to be Christ’s workers.
But there is something more. For God knew it won’t be easy to satisfy us. And so he prepared for a reward that’s bigger then we can imagine. Because no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. This is the reward that is waiting for all of those who love God, believe in Him, and serve Him with their lives.
And so now when we know that there isn’t a greater reward than the one we’ll receive, why shouldn’t we want others to get the same reward? This is what Jesus is telling us. Don’t be jealous of others. Don’t think that I’m unfair to you, because I’m giving others what I have promised to you. Or are you envious because I’m generous?
No, God doesn’t want us to compete in His kingdom, because if it wouldn’t be for His forgiveness nobody would win. God wants us to be one loving family. He wants us to be a Christian community of believers that works together towards the same goal. And to fulfill this goal Jesus asks us to do something: The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
And here is the second part of today’s parable that speaks directly to us. Jesus wants us to be like the landowner who calls people that are just standing around, with their hands in their pockets, to come to work in his vineyard. He calls us to be the ones in our communities that reach out for those who are standing around doing nothing. He calls us to reach out even to those who we think don’t deserve God’s reward of forgiveness. This is what we’re called to do so that the community of believers will grow. This is what Jesus calls us to do so more people will have a reward in heaven. We can do so in our families, within our closest friends or even in the wider community. We are called to witness about our faith, about the vineyard of which we are a part of and in which there plenty opportunities to get involved. The great reward of God’s love, peace and eternal life is here for everyone who comes in faith.
Our congregation certainly offers plenty ministries where we can invite new people. Whether it is worship, traditional or contemporary, Bible studies, starting small group ministry, youth ministry, ABO ministry and many others. It is up to us, to think of those around us standing around doing nothing, waiting for an invitation. Let us this week set a goal for us, let’s think of someone we know who doesn’t belong to any church community and let’s invite them next week to church, Bible study or other ministry we’re doing. If we’ll do so, I’m positive that people’s lives will be touched by God’s love.
Amen |
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