"Transactional Theology" Septuagesima Commemoration of Philip Melanchthon (birth), Confessor February 16, 2014 Matthew 20:1-16
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." Today's Gospel reading presents us with a transaction. There's a guy who goes out to the marketplace so that he can hire some laborers to work in his vineyard. It's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. He needs work to be done, they need the work. They need to earn money and are hoping to get hired, this guy gives them what they need, he hires them. There's something that's not so simple, though, about this man. He doesn't hire them according to the normal wage. At least, not the ones who are brought on later in the day. If you got hired midday you would assume the guy is going to pay you for half a day's work. In other words, for only how much you worked. And if you were brought on board toward the end of the day, when the light was already beginning to fade, you would expect to get paid for an hour's worth of work. It's better than nothing and so those guys who were hired throughout the day and at then end of the day were glad to get hired, even if it meant getting paid just a little money. They were surprised, then, when they were paid a full day's wage. Guess who was even more surprised? The guys hired at the beginning of the day. This is going to be great, they thought, we'll get paid even more than we were expecting! This surprise, though, paled compared to the insult they received when they got paid what they originally expected, a day's wage. Those people hired later on in the day, even the ones at the very end of the day, got paid the same thing--a full day's wage! What kind of racket was this landowner operating? The kind of transaction he was doing was not fair at all. Never mind that it wasn't very sound business acumen. When word got around that this is the way he operated, there would be guys sleeping in, lounging around, going to the beach, and then about 4:00 clock, heading over to the marketplace to get hired by this guy so that they could work very little and get paid a whole lot! This is the kind of thing we don't like to hear, because it goes against how we think things should be. Things should be fair. They should be right. They should be according to the commonly held agreements of business transactions. You get paid for the amount you work. And it's this kind of thing that Jesus loves to toss onto our lap and say, "There it is. Have fun with that!" Well, let's take a shot at it. We'll start off with the fact that it's completely unfair. Jesus will agree with us here. That's one of the underlying points He's making in this parable. God is unfair. You don't like it? Then you will grumble and complain against Him just like the ones in the parable who were hired first. Jesus' response to you will be the same as the owner's to them: Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. I've chosen to give to these other guys the same as to you. Am I not allowed to do what I want with what is mine? Take your money and go. This is what is called Law. It's that message from God that hits us hard. It doesn't pull punches and it takes no prisoners. It comes swinging down like a hammer and clashes like a thunderbolt. It doesn't care how we feel or what we think is right or wrong, and perhaps most especially, what we think is fair. No, God doesn't care about that at all. You don't like it? Take your money and go. Bye bye. This is the kind of stuff that people will tell you drives people away from the Church. All this Law business. This stuff God tells you about how it's His way or the highway. That if you don't like the way He operates then you can just take what is yours and go. He won't lose sleep over it. Because you know what? He will keep operating in the same way. He will continue His transactions in a way that is unfair, that is not according to what you think is right or wrong or what you deserve. Take your money and go. So those people will say, how is that loving of God? Why would He want to send people away? Why would He want to operate in a way that is unfair? The reason God operates this way is because He knows what we don't. Also, He can do what we can't. Further, He's far too loving and gracious to operate according to our pathetic notions of how He should be interacting with us. That we want Him to operate in fairness with us shows just how deeply depraved our sinful heart, mind, and nature is. If He were to be fair with us, He never would have given us the time of day, let alone go all the way out to the marketplace to meet us! No, God is not the God of fairness, but rather the God of grace. One problem here is that we don't really understand grace. Fairness, we get. Everybody should be treated according to what they deserve. Here's the thing--if God were to do that, we'd get nothing. Actually, we would get what we deserve. We would get the due punishment for our sin. So fairness isn't going to work with Him. He is all about grace. He is all about loving us and giving us what we don't deserve. He wants to give us what He knows we don't deserve but what He delights in showering down upon us. It is the opposite of the eternal punishment we deserve. It is eternal life. So this is what grace is. It is favor God rains down upon you that you have not deserved. It is forgiveness, and life, and salvation all out of His Fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in you. It is giving you what He delights in giving you, not the paltry amount that you seek from Him. That's why Jesus tells parables like this. To break you out of your narrow box you're in. You seek a little. He wants to give you a lot. And so God gives His Son. You want fairness, God does what is most unfair and places all your guilt and sin on His Son. That is grace. That is how God operates. You want from God a transaction, where you do something for Him and He pays you in return. God, He purposely does not act toward you in this type of transaction, otherwise you would be toast. His transaction, rather, is carried out on the cross. It is most unfair and the crowning achievement of grace. You're stuck in a miserable theology that is nothing else than a transactional theology. It is a theology that all people are born into. You are born in sin and are looking for ways you can do something to be in a good position to get whatever good there is to get when you die. God, He operates in exactly the opposite way. He will enter into no transaction with you because you would forever be cursed and suffering. Rather, He gives you grace. He gives you His Son. What you deserve He does to His Son. And then He gives you what you don't deserve, and that is forgiveness, and it is life, and it is salvation. The last will be first, and the first last. This is the heart of God and it is the core of true theology. Your theology, a transactional theology, says that the first ought to be first and the last ought to be last. Thank God He doesn't see things from your narrow view! Rather, the First, His only-begotten Son, has become the last, for you. And because of that, you who are last and don't deserve even to move up a spot or two, are brought to the front. You are the first. You are invited to His eternal Feast, the big dinner after a long hard day of living as a Christian in this life, where there is no standing around in the marketplace, there's no laboring in the vineyard and bearing the heat of the day, no waiting for your paycheck. Just grace upon grace. And more grace upon that. God giving you His Son so that you may be His son or daughter who doesn't begrudge His generosity but rather basks in it! Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
