Sermon - Pentecost 19 - Matthew 21:33-46

It is Tuesday of Holy Week, and Jesus knows exactly what is coming.  He knows that in a few days, the Jews will arrest him, hand him over to the Romans, and that he will suffer, be crucified, and he will die.  It is the culmination of his work.  It is his mission and his goal.  But he still mourns the loss of those who reject his steadfast love. 

He tells a parable.  And it's most certainly a re-working of the Song of the Vineyard from Isaiah 5. A man planted a vineyard.  And he went to quite a bit of trouble to do so.  First there are the grape vines themselves, planted carefully in the soil.  We assume he had to procure the land first to do even this much.   

He puts a fence around the vineyard, to protect his precious grapes and grapevines.  We don't want the wild animals or some other invader getting in there.   

Then he digs a winepress in it, the place where the grapes will be processed.  Digging is work.  This is no light chore.  

Finally, for more protection, he builds a watchtower for the whole compound.  Because, it seems, enemies abound.  And this way you can see them coming from afar, and prepare your defenses.  It's a vineyard but also kind of a compound, a fortified outpost. 

Every detail shows another aspect of the man's great care and preparation for this vineyard.  He spared no expense, took great effort, and did everything just right.   

You'd think he would get busy growing grapes and making wine.  And perhaps surprisingly, he then leases out the vineyard to some tenants, and goes far away.  They are the beneficiaries, in a way, of all his hard work and preparation.  You'd think they'd be grateful.  You'd think they would at least pay the rent. 

But when the time finally comes and the master wants some of the fruits, they treat his messengers progressively worse and worse.  Finally, he sends his son, and they do not respect him either, but kill him and try to steal the vineyard for themselves.  Wicked tenants indeed.  You can see why the owner of the vineyard comes, he gives them what they deserve: death.  And he lets out the vineyard to others. 

The Lord God, Yahweh, took great pains with his people.  For hundreds, really thousands of years, he prepared for this moment.  He called Abraham, and made him fruitful and multiplied his descendants.  Be blessed Jacob and his children, protecting them from famine in Egypt, and grew them into a nation while they were there.  He saved them from slavery in Egypt in dramatic fashion.  Sent the plagues.  Parted the sea.  Gave them his law.  Established his presence among them.  Fed them the whole time with daily bread, and water from a rock.  Drove out their enemies before them.  Destroyed the walls of Jericho.  Gave them the whole promised land.  Delivered them, time and again, sending judges and kings and to lead them.  He sent prophets to call them to repentance, sometimes to no avail, sometimes to the death of the prophet. But as often as they strayed his steadfast love never gave up.  Even through the times of discipline, even in their exile, he remained faithful.  For he had made a promise.   

A Messiah was to come.  A seed of the woman, to crush the serpent.  An offspring of Abraham, to bless all nations.  A Son of David, to rule on his father's throne.  The prophets foretold him – a suffering servant, to be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem.   

And then, when the time was right, God sent forth his Son.  He prepared for him a faithful family.  He protected him from Old Herod.  He saw that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature.  When the time was right, he was baptized and began his ministry of preaching and healing.  He did all things well.  He kept the law perfectly.  He loved people steadfastly.  And he never wavered from his mission.  He set his face toward Jerusalem and took great pains to obey his Father even unto death, even death upon a cross.  He did everything necessary to prepare salvation for you, his people.  That you might live and thrive in his vineyard. 

And God has steadfastly taken pains with you, his dear child.  Your stories are all different, but they are much the same.  He has given you a body and soul, eyes, ears and all you members, and still takes care of them.  He gives you clothing and shoes, house and home, all that you have.  Daily bread.  And more.   In him you were baptized and in his word you have been instructed by faithful parents and pastors and teachers.  He feeds you along the way with a holy meal that strengthens and sustains you.  He forgives your sins and shows steadfast love even to you, along with a thousand generations of those who love him, of those for whom his Son has died. 

Sadly, some rejected him.  Along the way they rejected his messengers, his prophets.  After Jesus came many rejected his apostles and evangelists.  Some today continue to reject the pastors and preachers of his word.  For the ancient Jews it meant destruction, and for anyone who persists in unbelief it ultimately means the same.  The grapes of wrath will be revealed at the final harvest. The rejecters of the cornerstone are themselves finally crushed. 

Some will always reject the steadfast love of the Father, shown in the dying and undying love of the Son. And yet somehow, through the rejection, salvation comes nonetheless to those who believe.  The Stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  The Son that the pharisees and scribes rejected, and killed, has risen from the dead.  And by his rejection, we are accepted.  By his death and resurrection, we too die to sin and rise to new life.  His steadfast love endures forever, even death cannot stop it or even hope to contain it. 

Sadly, sometimes we also reject his steadfast love.  Sometimes we have better things to do than to receive his gifts.  We have better ways to try and produce fruit in other vineyards than the one he has established.  Like Paul listed all his credentials as a zealous Jew, righteous and blameless under the law – or so he thought.  But the steadfast love of Christ opened his blind eyes to see that all of that is rubbish. He counts it all as loss, compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.  And so should we. 

The vineyard is ours.  The steadfast Lord has given us all good things, richly and daily, blessings physical and spiritual, human and divine.  He has sent us his Son.  And he feeds us and protects us and even forgives our wicked rejection of his love, ever calling us to repentance and faith.  Always hiring us again for fruitful labor in his vineyard.  So live and thrive in his vineyard always, giving his Son the fruits he's looking for – repentance and faith, and the good works that follow.  In Jesus' name. 

Sermon - Pentecost 17 - Matthew 20:1-16

Some of us who are a bit older might remember an American pseudo-holiday known as "Sadie Hawkins' Day."  It actually originated from a comic strip called "Lil' Abner" and the main feature was a reversal of the norms.  Women, on this particular day, were supposed to ask the men out on a date.  And sometimes there was a dance to accompany the day, where women took the initiative, the usual male role. 

I also remember as a child having various "opposite days" as part of school spirit week, in which students would dress like teachers, or vice versa.  And one day where everyone was supposed to wear their clothes backwards.  I remember wondering how my friend Bill got his cowboy boots on backwards. 

Today we have the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.  And in it, Jesus shows some of the backward-ness of the Kingdom of God.  It's at the heart of what God's grace is all about – flying in the face of our worldly, human expectations, thanks be to God! 

At the end of the previous chapter, Jesus gives us an aphorism, a little principle, that describes an important aspect of the Kingdom of God.  And he repeats that same phrase at the end of this parable. 

He says, "many who are first will be last, and the last first." 

This parable springboards from and fleshes out this principle.  It is also as Isaiah says, God's thoughts are not your thoughts.  His ways are not your ways.  The way of the world is that the first come first and the last come last.  The way of the world is that things are supposed to be "fair", whatever that means.  The way of the world is you get what you deserve.  You reap what you sow.  Garbage in, garbage out, but hard work is rewarded.  This world is transactional and merit-oriented.  And that's not all bad, either. 

But when it comes to the kingdom of God, things are different. 

And so we see it here, too.  The parable tells of workers who are hired at various hours of the day.  And at the end of the day, when the wages are distributed, the ones hired latest are paid a full day's worth.  But the ones hired first, who worked the longest, still only receive a day's wage. This leads to them grumbling against the master.  It's not fair!  We worked longer than they did.  We should get more than they do! 

The Master's thoughts are not their thoughts.  His ways are not their ways.  They would have paid each one in proportion to his work – the ones who worked longer and harder should get more!  And the johnny-come-latelys should get less.  That's the way it works in the world.  That's only fair.  But that's not the way in the kingdom.  And that's not the way of the king. 

This master is generous with the latecomers.  And he shames the early workers for begrudging his generosity. 

So what do we make of this? 

For one thing, Jesus is shaming the pharisees for grumbling that he would forgive even prostitutes and tax collectors.  These latest converts had lived a life of corruption and wickedness, and only just now come to the party of salvation.  Why should Jesus regard them, when these religious leaders have served God their whole lives?  It's a similar idea to the parable of the prodigal son, where the older brother begrudged the Father's receiving back the younger brother.  Why throw him a party?  He doesn't deserve it.  But I have been working for you all these years... 

And that leads to another thought, the false conceptions of what we deserve.  The very wrong-headed idea that I, even I, deserve anything but temporal and eternal punishment.  That my labors, my works, my goodness or merit is even a thing.  Scripture is quite clear on this point:  Your best good works are as filthy rags in God's sight.  No one is righteous, no, not one.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  And the wages of sin is death.  The soul that sins shall perish. 

So the wage you should, by rights, be expecting at the end of the day is death itself, and even eternal death.  It's what you've earned.  It's what your sins deserve. 

But the master is generous.  In the parable, he hires all these slackers in the first place.  They were all standing around unemployed.  But without looking at resumes or conducting interviews, he simply hires them. This is a picture of God's grace.  To even be on the payroll is a blessing.  To be called to faith by the Spirit through the word, to be baptized and adopted into the kingdom.   

And then also, at the end of the day, things are all backwards.  At the end of the day, the wages we receive are not based on our work.  They are given to us not as a wage, but more as a gift, a blessing.   They are what Christ has earned by his perfect, complete, flawless labor.  They are what he has paid in his holy, precious blood, with his innocent suffering and death.  Christ takes your wage of death, and he gives you the wage of God's grace.  He gives it freely, with no respect to what you have or haven't done.  That's grace.  That's the mystery of the kingdom. 

The generosity of the master still scandalizes many.  But the problem is never the master's generosity.  It's always in the attitude of the all-day laborer.  In fact, to identify with the grumbling workers in this parable, you don't need to have worked all day.  You don't need to be one who was born and raised in the faith, who's been a Lutheran all your life.  These are the people who, in pride and self-righteousness, think they deserve God's blessings.  Save us from this kind of heart, O, Lord! 

But rather, may we all see ourselves in those 11th hour workers.  May we ever be amazed and astounded when he places that denarius in our hand.  Let our hearts be surprised and thankful at his grace in Jesus Christ, for we didn't bear the heat of God's wrath and the burden of sin – Christ did it for us.  And he continues to distribute those blessings to his people freely. 

You laborers in the vineyard will line up here, soon, to receive the blessed sacrament of his body and blood.  And here, the last will be first.  No, it doesn't matter what order you come forward, we're all "last".  And one by one, he places in our hand, in our mouth, that blessed forgiveness – take and eat, take and drink.  Wages you haven't earned, but Christ did for you.  Generosity from the master, who loves to love and forgive his people. 

And at the end of the day, that is, at the end of this world, when Christ comes again in glory, the dead will be raised, the books will be opened, the sheep and goats are separated.  And we will again be surprised when he commends our good works, calls us blessed, and welcomes us to the final reward in the mansions of heaven. 

So, until then, do your fruitful labor.  Let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.  Like Paul, whether we live or die, so be it.  To live is Christ, and to die is gain.  Either way, the reward of grace is ours.