September 21, 2008, P19A. version2
Pastor Harman - St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA.
Title: Being Satisfied in Our Service.
Matthew 20:1-16
Why do people do the jobs they do? I went to the Amana Colonies'
furniture shop. The guide said, "these men would be here even if they
didn't get paid, they love this job so much." MAYBE. Farmers don't farm
for the big money; same for pastors and poets. If you don't enjoy what you
do, usually more money won't make you happy. People say: "I have ___ in my
blood." or talk about love of the craft, the land, the people. There is a
satisfaction in knowing you've done your job well: as a mother, a
caretaker, or a singer.
But there can be a great dissatisfaction, even anger, when someone else
does the same job and gets more praise or more pay. Someone gets a "lucky
break" and they get more money. Someone avoids hard work, but it is
overlooked, and he gets as much pay. One farmer gets rain; another hail;
another no precipitation at all.
That same Old Adam which is in every person shows up in the Christian
who gets jealous over a fellow believer's amount of blessings. Today's
readings contrast our jealousy with God's generosity; our thoughts and ways
with the LORD's thoughts and ways. We see how God's generosity and grace
can be perceived WITHOUT the eyes of faith. We also see how as partners in
the Gospel, God's love changes and fills us to joyfully serve Him.
*Being Satisfied in our Service*
Satisfaction Doesn't Come When WE are the Motive and Goal. Jesus'
story begins like a typical rabbi's story about the rewards of hard work,
but He swiftly changes it. There's urgency in the work, a need for more
workers, more urgency in the harvest! Hard work needed to be done before
prices went down or weather turned bad. Harvest can mean hot hours and
tedious tasks. The workers all toil for the promise of a payment. Then the
comes Christ's reversal. The workers cry: "That's not right! That's not
fair!" In whose eyes? By whose viewpoint? By God's view, or mans'
opinion?
How that applies to Christian life! Some work harder and longer than
others! It seems like some people hardly have to work at all yet they have
health and wealth. Others try with all their might, and can't make it. I
think of a report where people begged to be confirmed by a pastor because
the Russian government prohibited it for 70 years; and those who see
Confirmation as just another Sunday. I think of Sudanese Lutherans who were
gunned down in church and American Lutherans who sit at home because they
feel church doesn't tickle their itching ears. Or those who say: "It's
time for younger people to step in. I've done my duty." Or those converted
to Christ literally on their deathbed. Is that fair? Is that just?
Key to understanding the parable is the motivation: both the workers',
and God's. Are we jealous when it seems like God blesses some people more
than us? Or He seems to deprive us? We want to believe we deserve more
because we work more! No wonder envy is listed among the 7 deadly sins!
Again, the parable. Look at the heart of the workers. They were
promised a day's wage and got it. ALL of it. They grumbled at "enough".
They weren't glad for others' success. It's easy for you and me to have the
same view. What will God give ME because I work harder and longer than
others? If life seems unfair, whose eyes are we looking through? . Not
the Lord's.
Satisfaction Comes When Christ is the Motive and Goal. The owner paid
by grace and generosity. The Landowner searched for workers; they did not
search for Him. He owed no one a penny more than He had promised. They
didn't have to be hired. They griped over His generosity. They put
themselves in God's place. "You should NOT have been good to them-or at
least You should have been BETTER to me since I worked more!" Do you work
HARD for the Lord because you believe God will love you more OR give us a
bigger bonus? More than "just" eternal life?
God owes us nothing. Not heaven, not a day's wage, no, not even life
itself. In our wicked ways and evil thoughts, we feel God does owe us more.
We need to seek the LORD while He may be found and call on Him while He is
near; to turn to Him for mercy and for pardon.
For NO good reason, He gives it to us! This parable is lush with God's
pardon and mercy! We didn't deserve His call to work as "partners in the
Gospel". Our work, our faith, is often spotty. Often we DON'T "conduct
ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel" as Paul writes. Yet He offers
heaven; and more. "His thoughts are NOT our thoughts, nor are our ways His
way". Without earning it, He gives daily bread, and life, and eternity.
Last Sunday's parable was a two-edged sword: forgive others, or risk
God's unforgiveness. One of the great problems in the Christian church
today is that believers do not have "joy in salvation". One cause of that
is faith with little depth, or thinking that God owes us more than grace.
We need to constantly be filled with God's mercy and look to the Cross
of Christ. That's what bought deliverance from death and the devil. Rather
than harmfully boasting about what we have done, we need the Holy Spirit to
work in our hearts to lead us to boast about the goodness and grace of the
Lord, and all He does for us.
"Conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ" is no
less than to rejoice how God has called each of us to be His own; just as
the landowner searched for and called vineyard workers to work on His earth.
God has given us meaning and purpose in life; rather like the vineyard owner
who saw men idly doing nothing and having no future. We rejoice that God
has given us eternal life in Christ Crucified - we have been "paid" more
than a day's wages!
"Conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ" is no
less than to rejoice whenever God calls people to be His own. Some may be
an "11th hour conversion" and seem to work less than us. Others may work
far more serving God and man in grueling exertion overseas all their lives.
We don't envy God's generosity, we praise Him for it and pray that He will
be gracious to all people through His Word of peace in Christ.
Let us seek the LORD as partners in the Gospel, and let Christ's love
in us give us the satisfaction in living. May the Spirit fill our hearts
with joy over the Lord's generosity, and may we reach out to others in that
same spirit. In the holy name of Jesus! Amen.
This is a "liturgical" sermon that follows all the lessons. I'm posting
this for your re-work since I'm not happy with how the line of direction
wonders - but it is preachable. I will post a different sermon and version
in a few minutes. Eric, I hope you don't get grief over this one!
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