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Mark Wheeler
Matthew 20:1-16
08/29/2021
“Kingdom of God … Bragging Vs. Begrudging!”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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Welcome everyone! Happy Sunday to you! Can you see our new carpet up here?! WooHoo! Thank you Just-for-Fun for making this happen!!
I often find myself caught somewhere between bragging about the church I’m allowed to serve as pastor and super jealous of churches with big budgets and seemingly zero finance worries.
I used to be the same way when in 1990 I owned a 1976 Honda Civic – I bragged that it was paid for and that I got 40 mpg, but I envied my neighbor’s new Ford Mustang or Dodge Charger….
Maybe some of you can relate to that kind of inner conflict. Maybe it wasn’t your church or your car, maybe your flower garden or your level of income…. Join me in that battle for a minute, and discover where God is in the midst of it.
As a Church, a city, a state, a nation and even as a whole globe, we are in a similar turmoil over masking, vaxxing, and how we socialize or go about our days with all of that. We’ve obeyed the rules, we’ve debated the vaccines, we’ve washed our hands, we’ve kept our distance, and we are still wearing masks! Hoping for the day when we can “go back to the way things used to be”. (Something that will never happen – both for better and for worse.)
With the Delta Variant still as vicious as it is, we are still holding on to some caution.
Here’s our current policy regarding masks and seating:
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Things are so much better than they have been for much of the last year,,, but you may have seen than Spokane is spiking again with new cases,,,, so ,,, while ,,, we have removed the pew-separators for folks who are fully vaccinated – please politely ask before sitting near someone to make sure everyone is as comfortable as we can all be with seating arrangements!
For now we are again asking people to listen to the newest CDC guidelines, which recommend that we:
“Wear a mask while inside the building.”
No one should feel judged, and everyone should feel safe, about their masking or unmasking, so continue to be gentle with each other.
“If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” Philippians 2:1-4
We are gathered in our church sanctuary – a holy place – and it’s also a safe place – where the divine and the human connect together. Welcome to this holy sacred and safe place today.
CAMERA
Let’s take a second to welcome each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, “We can find our delight in the Lord when we trust in Him!”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
Join in our Call to Worship led by … Ken Stone – from the Psalm 37, hear God’s call and discover your prize!
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Our opening song of praise and devotion –– #45 – Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing – sung by Diana Nelson – join in as you feel ready
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Through the Written Word,
And the spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Look at this picture… What do you see here? What are these people doing? What do you see in their faces? What do you think they are hoping for?
Today’s parable in this series on Jesus’ stories is in Matthew 20. Just before today’s Parable there’s a story about a rich ruler who decides that it costs too much to follow Jesus. This is not a parable, it’s an actual historical person who is not willing to humble his lifestyle and live in a way that honors God and serves his neighbors. And then Jesus promises His disciples the staggering reward for giving up their lives to follow Jesus of sitting on “thrones” in the heavenly Kingdom. (Immediately followed by some of the disciples arguing about which of them gets to sit on the thrones closest to Jesus!
That’s what’s going on when we turn the page to Matthew 20. Listen to the Word of God, from Matthew 20:1-16 —- ….
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Jesus tells this parable: 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. 4 He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’
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5 So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. 6 And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’
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8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages starting with the last hired until the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay. 10 And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage.
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11 When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’
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13 And the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn’t you agree with me to work for the standard wage? 14 Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. 15 Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
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So, what were they doing in that last picture? They were waiting for someone to hire them for the day! They needed a job! They had families to feed, bills to pay, feet to put shoes on…. They were worried they might become homeless. They worried that their kids wouldn’t have what they needed to go to school. Imagine their plight. Maybe you’ve been there.
Now look at this picture! This is the end of the parable. Those who worked the longest day … at the end of the line … expect that they will get paid enough to retire, after all the guys up front who only worked one hour are getting paid a whole day’s wage!
Right? The vineyard owner seems to do things wrong. Why would he pay the last workers first? Was it so the first workers would see how generous he was with those last hired? Was he setting a standard to test the loyalty of the first workers?
We can feel the pain they felt, right? But the truth is, no on e was cheated out of anything in this story…
In the history of the church, we have explained this parable in several ways:
- The five different hiring times represent five stages of world history during which God has called people to Himself
- Or the different hiring times represent different stages of a person’s life when we might respond to the Gospel
- Or maybe this parable is a picture of God’s future Kingdom where all saved people receive the same reward regardless of how much they worked for God
- Probably the most popular interpretation is simply that God is super-generous with His grace
The truth is – all of these explanations are probably right! There are plenty of non-parable Bible stories that tell these same truths. But, if context means anything – and it does – then there’s more to be seen here.
Remember the setting. The rich ruler just rejected Jesus, the disciples just argued about which of them should get the best seats in the House. And Jesus tells this Parable about the vineyard day-laborers and the vineyard-owner’s unexpected hiring and paying policy.
Dr. Jonathan Pennington, New Testament professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, says that the “context shows us that the parable is hitting right at our hearts, at the twin issues of self-congratulation and envy” – of pride and prejudice, of bragging rights and begrudging others! “When the [rich] ruler goes away empty-handed but then the lowly disciples are promised to be rulers, it was impossible for the disciples not to be a little self-congratulatory, to take a little pride in their wise accomplishment, their better choice to follow Jesus.”
In the parable Jesus reminds us that all we have is from God, that every blessing is from God’s generosity, not our own doing. The disciples here are no better than the rich ruler. And neither are they any worse off than the lowliest!
When we envy our neighbors or when we are pretty sure our neighbors envy us, either way, we are missing the truth that God, through His Son, is the One who gives every good gift (James 1:17).
This parable gives us a vision for God’s generous grace toward us and toward others. We discover real life, eternal life, Holy Spirit Life, when we fix our eyes not horizontally on each other, but vertically on the generosity of the whole-earth-landowner, King Jesus. He’s the One who gives us what we don’t deserve.
The only way to ever stand righteous before God is in trusting in God’s righteousness! “Mustard seed faith” is about loving the Kingdom of God – enough to seek it, discover it, and then sacrifice for it so that we might experience all that God offers us through His seeking, finding and sacrificing for us!
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Prayer Page – Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, Bought me with His precious blood;
God is so good. He answers prayer. I love Him so!
Come, Holy Spirit, reign. We welcome You!
17-19 We pray this day for … [call out a name or a situation]
20 [Lord’s Prayer] Amen.
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– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
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Expedition Song – God Is So Good #75 –! Diana Nelson – proclaim this beautiful song, and join is as you are ready.
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We close with this benediction: As followers of Jesus, , may we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ,be filled with the power of Holy Spirit Life, , and give glory to God today and every day! Amen.
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26-27 Announcements
Resources:
Pennington, Jonathan T.; “The Laborers in the Vineyard”; TableTalk; February 2020; Pp. 24-26.
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