“A Kingdom
of Grace”
“My kingdom
is not of this world” Jesus once said. And if you had any doubt, take a look at
the parables he tells about his kingdom.
Here we have
another. The parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. As a story it's simple
enough. Even the meaning is easy to determine. But fully appreciating the
mysterious sense of Divine justice that lies underneath - this is something
that takes great faith. For our Lord and Master is generous with us, and in
Christ has given us more than what is fair.
The kingdom
of this world is a kingdom of rules and laws. We live under them and know them
well. You stand in line at the grocery store and get a ticket at the deli
counter. First come, first served. When you get to a stop sign, the person
there first has the right of way. And when you do your job, you expect every
two weeks or so, for that little piece of paper you can take to the bank. It's
the way the world works – you earn something, it's yours. Those are the kinds
of rules we live by every day. You get
what you pay for. You reap what you so.
From the
earliest child who utters those words, “hey, no fair!” to the citizen pursuing
legal recourse in the courts of law – we have a keen sense of what is fair and
what is not – especially when we feel we are bearing the brunt of injustice. “It's
not fair” we say, when a neighbor sins against us, and we are right.
But most of
our dads have told us, “life isn't fair”. This sinful world doesn’t always
operate by the rules of fair play. Quite
often, it does not. People take
advantage of the rules for their own gain.
And they skirt or break the rules when it’s convenient, often to the
harm of their neighbors. In earthly
terms, in everyday experience, we expect fairness on the one hand, but on the
other hand we know not to expect it, because life isn’t fair.
And we teach
our children ways to cope with its unfairness.
Work harder than the next guy.
Keep your focus. You can only
control your own actions, not someone else’s, and so on.
And those
practical tips are good as far as they go, but at its most fundamental level,
when it comes to ultimate reality, when we stand before our God, will he be
fair? Will he treat us as we deserve? Is he consistent and reliable and just? Is he fair, or not?
What exactly
is Jesus saying about life in his kingdom? Sometimes life treats us unfairly,
people treat us unfairly, we should just toughen up and take it? Stop whining?
Is that the point?
Take a close
look at this parable. Our Heavenly
Father, of course, is the Master who gives generously. The vineyard is his
kingdom, the church, and we are the workers. And things get a bit strange in
this vineyard, this kingdom that is not of the world.
For one, what's
important isn't so much how much or how long we work, but that we are his
employees. We belong to him.
He pays a
wage we could never earn standing around outside his kingdom. And that is where
we are, without his grace. Idle, lost,
aimless and hopeless. But the kind
master keeps coming to the market and calling more and more workers. By the end we get the picture it’s not so
much because he needs the work done, but because he wants to be generous.
It's really
not a wage, you see, after all, you see. It's a gift. There is nothing
mentioned about the quality of the work, or the nature of the duties. He doesn’t measure how hard they’ve worked or
how few coffee breaks. And he certainly
isn’t concerned with when these workers clocked in for the day. The wage isn’t tied to the work. It’s a gift,
from the master’s generosity.
And while we
all think we're the ones that have worked the longest and hardest, we should
all see ourselves as the ones coming late and working least. As St. Paul wrote, “I am the chief of
sinners”.
Scripture
tells us what our good works are worth before God – filthy rags. No one is
righteous, not one. We can't earn it, deserve it, or have it coming to us. We
have incurred a debt of sin, but instead we often act as if God owes us! How
foolish and arrogant. How like the sinner.
The only one
whose work in the vineyard amounts to anything is the owner's own Son. In
another vineyard parable, Jesus tells how the tenants mistreated the messengers
and bloodied the servants, but when the owner of the vineyard sent his very son
– they murdered him.
Yes the
wages for the workers were won at the cross. Jesus' own precious blood, shed
there for the world, worth far more than gold or silver or denarius or
dollar.... he paid the price for the wages we really deserve- the wages of sin
– the penalty of death.
And here's
the secret of the vineyard, that really is no secret – Jesus, by his Spirit,
does it all! He plants the vineyard, that is HE builds his church.
He calls the
workers: calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the church, calls each of us
by name in baptism, and calls each of us to tasks and offices in the church and
in the world.
He makes the
fruit grow, and he provides the harvest. He gives us strength for our tasks
through his Spirit, wisdom to accomplish them, and a reward at the end we don't
even deserve.
To which
someone might say, “hey, not fair”. Not fair that he does it all, all the work
of fulfilling the law, all the work of dying for sins, all the work of bringing
us to faith, even, by his Spirit. In fact, our old sinful nature is always
trying to take part of the credit for all this, trying to do the work, at least
in part. But the work of our salvation is not the work we are called to do.
We are
called to work, though. In this vineyard, there is the work of sowing seeds and
tending vines. Teaching, preaching, showing mercy, encouraging, singing,
cooking, cleaning, caring for children. What are your talents and abilities? In
Christ's church there is always lots for us to do.
And outside
of this church building, the church is still at work – we do what we are called
to do in everyday life as service to God and neighbor. Fathers and mothers,
employees, coaches, students, volunteers, whatever. Whatever God has given us
to do, the Christian does in faith, and the work is done for God. The neighbor is served.
But none of
it earns the reward. Not the heavenly reward, anyway. Here's another strange
way of God's kingdom – the workers work for free. We do it because we've
already been paid well more than we could hope to earn. Such is life in the
vineyard, so is the way of his kingdom.
A very
different kingdom. Where you don't earn your pay. Where you don't get what you
deserve. Where God serves man. Where death brings life. Where the last are
first and the first are last. And where sinners are made righteous because the
righteous one took all sin. A kingdom not of this world – a kingdom not of
fairness, but of grace.
All praise
and thanks to the king, the Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, for calling us to
faith and service. For his is the kingdom and the power and glory forever and
ever. Amen.
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