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Building Life Together: Renewing

Date:10/24/21

Passage: Matthew 20:1-16

Speaker: Rev. Dr. Stephen Graham

Like the older brother lost in his own backyard, those hired first were lost in the poverty of their own achievement. The eccentric landowner hired workers for his vineyard and paid them in a surprising fashion. This is a vivid parable illustrating that the first will be last and the last will be first; the round dance, a circle in which there is no one who is first or last. The story bristles our outrage. Those who worked one lone hour are paid the same as those who worked a twelve-hour shift.

But that is not at all the point of the parable. The point is the generosity of the landowner. The One upon whom each one of us depends. We are radically dependent, as John Claypool said, like a chandelier hanging, held in place by something other than itself. The story calls forth our trust in the One who is greater than ourselves. If Jesus taught us anything at all, it is that when we get to the end of our ropes, we are not at the end of everything. There is still then another, and that other is good.

The landowner went out early in the morning to hire laborers and then again at nine and at twelve and at three o’clock in the afternoon. At five there were still those eager to be hired. At the end of the day, he paid those hired last, first. Can you imagine, as they scrambled to wait in line, expecting only a pittance? But that is not at all what happened.

Someone has described this story as being about a world where comfortable expectations are withdrawn and the unexpected prevails. Those who had given up even being hired were paid a whole day’s wage. They discovered the amazing generosity of their employer. The unexpected prevailed.

Hearing a complimentary review of a movie before I see it has a way of building up my expectations and it can rarely live up to what I am then expecting.

We expect this story to unfold differently. Hard-working, “good” people have always asked: what kind of God would offer the same reward to those who have earned it and those who have not?

Who among us does not have expectations of just rewards for doing good and even punishments for doing bad? It can even be disappointing if we are not rapped on the knuckles, but grace is offered instead. Do you think that is what the deacon was trying to tell me when he said, “Pastor, you believe too much in grace.”

This is the dilemma of grace. Birth is a windfall. Life itself is a gracious offering. We were called out of nothing into being, an astonishing act of generosity.

The Master does what the Master wants to do with the abundant generosity of grace. To be the church is to be those who come early with others who come late. Both are graced by God. The church is not people who know God best or love God most, but those people who are being sought, hired, graced, and sent out by God through Jesus Christ. The church is a people graced and sent by God.

Carlisle Marty once said he knew all he ever needed to know about primal guilt. What he needed to know about was primal grace. Our story is about One who is greater than ourselves, searching for us, taking us where we are and then offering us grace. Grace is an anytime, anyplace opportunity. Now is the time for grace. This is a place of grace, the community of the Godhead, where The Holy Spirit, the Son of God, God the Creator—the Trinity, in relationship as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer seek community not only with each other but also with us. Coming to find us after the fall, while we are yet sinners. Imagine God in the Garden looking for Adam, and he says, “Where’s Adam”? Translated to mean, “Could Adam come out to play with me?” God has come to grace Adam.

Grace offered freely to all—those who were first and those who were straggling last.

As the people of God at Royal Lane we have this in common---there was somebody here before we were here. Somebody was here before they were here. It goes that way all the way back to the garden experience where the first man and the first woman were “hired” by God. And it comes even to this present hour where we are all offered grace. God shares grace with us because it is needed by us not because it is deserved. God’s generosity is beyond our wildest imagination.

The building blocks on the Lord’s table are symbols of the grace we have received, and therefore are symbols of the servanthood to which we are called. A sign that God’s grace has touched our lives. It is a brave thing to let anyone know how you have been graced. It becomes your calling. When grace is given ministry begins. In this regard, we are like the laborers hired last. Who deserves such pay?

Quite easily we discount our own grace gifts. Elizabeth O’Connor, in her book, The Eighth Day of Creation, says sharing our gifts is like being a co-laborer in the creative process with God. When we are graced, we are transformed into becoming co-laborers.

Our grace check is signed, “The gracious generosity of God.” Therefore, we should be careful about discounting our own giftedness. O’Connor defines discounting our giftedness and elevating someone else’s giftedness is envy. Envy is a lack of appreciation for our own uniqueness and our own self-worth.

Those hired early begrudged those paid the same who were hired later. Begrudged means “your eye is evil,” a term for envy or stinginess. They envied downwardly; we covet upwardly, but at the same time, we are missing the grace that seeks us all. The grace that seeks us is the grace that sends us.

Father Richard Rohr says, “This parable reminds us that we are not important but that we do have infinite worth.” Our value is not in anything we can defend or claim. Our value is in our participation, our joining with God as co-laborers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together, said, “It will be well therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community. That he or she may know in hours of doubt that he or she too is not useless and unusable.” This season of Building Life Together is a season of renewal making clear to each of us in hours of doubt that we are not useless and unusable. Let us be renewed by this extravagant thought: there is value in our participation in the Kingdom of God.

I am wondering if you saw the post. God is looking to hire, even at this late hour!