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Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 20, 2020
Matthew 20:1-16
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you have heard me tell the story of the first baptism I ever did. It wasn’t at all what I imagined it would be like in seminary. It was not the baptism of beautiful new baby dressed in a flowing white gown, accompanied by beaming new parents. My first baptism was of an 80-something year old man in a nursing home. His name was Ray, and he was known throughout this small town on the Hi-Line in north central Montana as the embodiment of every negative stereotype of a cowboy. He was a drinker. He was a womanizer. He was a brawler. He was like someone who walked straight out of a Waylon Jennings song.
By the time I met him, Ray was in a nursing home. He knew his life was drawing to a close, and he called for a pastor. We weren’t able to visit much as his health deteriorated, but through the conversations we were able to have it was obvious enough that he was ashamed. He was full of regret for how he had lived his life. Now that it was ending, he was afraid. He asked to be baptized, and so in the little nursing room chapel, using a bowl I had borrowed from the kitchen, I baptized Ray in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, washing away a lifetime’s worth of sin. Tears ran down his face as I made the sign of the cross on his forehead and declared that he was a child of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever. I buried him just a few days later.
Word of Rowdy Ray’s baptism made its way through town, and the reactions were interesting. Some of my church members’ eyes grew big with surprise. “Really? Ray? Are you serious?” they said. There were also some questions. Questions like, “You mean to tell me that ol’ Ray spent his life honkytonkin’ and whooping it up and he gets all of Christ’s gifts just like that, while I’ve spent every Sunday morning in church since I was a child, I’ve tithed faithfully, I’ve given up plenty of weeknights coming to Bible studies and council meetings? It just doesn’t seem fair.” These questions were mostly asked in good fun, but there was an undercurrent in those questions that smelled a little bit like envy.
I think back to this first baptism I did every time this lectionary reading comes around. We hear in this reading a parable which Jesus introduces as a parable of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus describes a landowner who hired laborers for his vineyard. He hired some first thing in the morning. He hired some more at nine o’clock, and still more at three o’clock. Finally, he hired a few more just before quitting time, at five o’clock. At the end of the day, those who were hired last, who probably didn’t work for more than an hour or two, received the full daily wage. When those who were hired first and had put in a full day under the hot sun came to receive their wages, they thought they would receive more. But they didn’t. They received the same amount. They weren’t being cheated. This is what they agreed to. But it sure didn’t seem fair, and so they grumbled. And the landowner said to them: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
Jesus isn’t teaching employment law here. He isn’t teaching us how to run a business. Fairness in the civic realm is indeed important, and there are plenty of scripture passages which attest to this. The Lord Jesus himself in other places says that workers should be worthy of their wages and shouldn’t be cheated but treated fairly, a sentiment that is echoed again and again in the letters of Paul. So Jesus isn’t prescribing some kind of economic system here. As Jesus himself says, this is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. He is teaching us how God deals with us. And the truth is, God doesn’t deal with us fairly!
That might be jarring to us, but think about it – is that what we really want? Do we really want God to be fair? Do we really want God to give us what we deserve? Do we really want God’s justice applied to us? Be careful what you wish for, my friends. Because scripture teaches us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Do you really want to get paid according to what you deserve? Do you really want those wages? Because the scriptures tell us: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) Thankfully, God doesn’t give us what we deserve! That’s what this parable is all about!
Jesus concludes this parable by saying that the last will be first, and the first will be last. What could this mean? It means that those who come to him with nothing, with no claims to righteousness, with no expectations of rewards, with no illusions of having earned their way, those are the ones who receive the kingdom first, because they have no choice but to receive this kingdom for the gift that it is. On the other hand, those who come with a timecard of hours served, thinking they’ve earned their way in, thinking they deserve their place, are going to be too full or arrogance and envy to receive this kingdom. It isn’t until you lay those timecards and trophies down that you can receive this gift. It isn’t until you admit you are last that you will find yourself at the front of the line.
God isn’t fair. God is something better than fair. God is generous. God is gracious.
The trial that Jesus endured wasn’t fair. He didn’t get a fair hearing. It wasn’t fair when he was crucified for our sins. But he endured that long day for our sake because he is God’s generosity in human form. He is grace in the flesh. He did all the work necessary for our salvation. And because of him, when we show up a day late and a dollar short, God doesn’t give us the wages we deserve. Instead, God gives us everything Christ has earned for us. He gives us all his wages, all of his benefits. He gives us the kingdom of heaven.
This isn’t fair. It is something better than fair. This is God’s generosity. It is God’s freedom to do what he wants with what is his. It is God’s graciousness. Let there be no enviousness among us because God is generous. Let there be gratitude rather than grumbling. For the very same generosity God has shown towards Rowdy Ray is given to you and me. And we need it too.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church