Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 20A)

September 24, 2023

Text: Matt. 20:1-16

            “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16; ESV).

            “It’s not fair!  They don’t work as hard as I do.  They don’t care as much as I care.  They don’t suffer as much as I suffer.  They haven’t earned it like I have.  Where is their commitment?  Where is their dedication?  I’m fine with letting them into the Vineyard.  We could certainly use some more workers, more contributors.  But let’s get one thing straight.  I’ve been here from the beginning.  I’ve borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.  I helped get this thing started.  These third, sixth, ninth, and especially eleventh hour additions shouldn’t be counted equal with me.  Whatever they get, I should get more.  More credit.  More say.  More honor.  In this Vineyard, I should get what’s coming to me.  Anything less would be unjust.”

            This parable warns us against such self-righteousness.  It is self-righteousness when we compare ourselves with others.  It is self-righteousness when we insist on getting what’s coming to us.  It is self-righteousness when we charge the Master of the Vineyard with injustice.  And make no mistake about who this Master is.  It is God.  Self-righteousness declares God unjust.  We all do it.  We all bemoan the unfairness of the world, the Church, and our station in life.  We all resent those who have what we think we deserve, and they do not deserve.  Beloved, repent. 

            The point of the parable is precisely that we don’t get what’s coming to us.  And believe me, we don’t want to get what’s coming to us.  According to the holy Law of God, what’s coming to us is death and eternal condemnation.  The act of grace, here, is that, in spite of what’s coming to us, and because He took what’s coming to us, our Lord Jesus brings us into His Vineyard.  And we should simply be happy to be here!  Yes, He gives us work to do.  Yes, some work harder than others, care more than others, suffer more than others.  Yes, some arrive late to the party, and, frankly, don’t do much.  But there is no earning here.  We don’t earn our place in the Vineyard, the Kingdom.  We don’t even earn our wages: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  Rather, out of thanksgiving for the grace give us in bringing us in, and out of love for the Master of the Vineyard (and so, yes, love for our fellow workers), we work.  We do what needs to be done, what is given us to do.  We pray.  We confess Christ.  We support our Church, and invite others to it.  We help our brothers and sisters in time of need, and treat them with kindness and patience.  We love this place.  We love what happens here, what the Lord is growing, the fruit the Vineyard is producing.  We love it because it is Home.  The Master has taken us into His Home.  We belong.  We have a place.  And a Family, our fellow workers, whenever they were brought in, and whatever the circumstances, and whatever their strengths and weaknesses may be.  Stop comparing yourself to the others in the Church.  Just rejoice that the Master’s Home is now your home, and their Home.  The Vineyard, the Kingdom, the Church, is our Home.

            Some of you work very hard in this Home.  Believe me when I say, it doesn’t go unnoticed.  I appreciate you more than I can say, and I confess, I don’t thank you enough.  More importantly, your Father in heaven sees, and He will assuredly reward you.  Some work less than you do.  Some don’t do much work at all.  Perhaps it is because they haven’t had as much time in the Vineyard.  Perhaps they have some limitations of which the rest of us are unaware.  Perhaps they haven’t been asked to work, or don’t know just how to go about it.  Some have become weary and discouraged.  Some have slipped into laziness, or apathy, and so we must bear them in Christian love and patience, encourage them, and pray that they will take up their labors once again with joy.  But then, the fact is, there are some you wouldn’t even know are workers, and perhaps you’ve assumed that they aren’t, not because they don’t work, but because they keep it all under the hat, behind the scenes.  They do not let the right hand know what the left is doing.  In many cases, they work harder than us all.  Truth be told, we could all work harder.  We could all do more, and better.  If you really want to be judged by the Law (which is the realm of your works, and of fairness), no one is above criticism.  Thank God, that isn’t how it works in this place.

            “It’s not fair.”  You’re right, it’s not.  You want to know who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat?  You want to know who really does the work in the Vineyard… tills it, plants it, tends it, pours His blood, sweat, and tears into it?  You know who it is.  It is not you.  It is our Lord Jesus Christ.  Behold Him on a Friday afternoon, beaten, bloodied, languishing.  Pierced for your transgressions.  Crushed for your iniquities.  Having borne the burden of the wood, scorched by the unrelenting heat… of the sun, yes… that, too… but God’s wrath for the sins of the whole world.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).  Now a corpse.  Water and blood seeping from His sacred body into the accursed ground.  Penetrating the clay.  Hydrating the dust.  Softening the hard heart.  Driving out thorn and thistle.  Enlivening dead seeds so that they sprout.  Roots grown deep.  Life shooting up from the belly of the earth.  The Lord is risen.  Branches now growing from the Vine.  Nourishing sap flowing to the extremities.  Pruning, yes.  The cross touches every branch.  But now look.  Blossoms.  Fruit.  Lucious fruit.  Clusters of ripe, juicy grapes.  Overflowing wine.  Christian love.  Faith and hope.  Joy.  Life! 

            “It’s not fair.”  It has nothing to do with fairness.  “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  We’re all here by grace, and grace isn’t fair.  It is merciful.  It is longsuffering.  It is extravagant.  It is prodigal.  It is generous.  And it is exceedingly patient.

            At my worst (which is to say, in and of myself, my old Adam), I begrudge the Master’s generosity.  The hypothetical complaint at the beginning of this sermon… I’ve said and thought those very things many times, God help me.  But at my best (which is to say, not me, but the new man emerging and arising in the risen Christ), I’m just thankful to be here.  And that is how it should be.  I don’t deserve it.  I didn’t choose it.  He chose me!  Found me, standing there idle, helpless to help myself, and doing nothing to help anybody else.  By grace He brought me in, He who loved me, and gave Himself for me.  “All that is Mine is yours,” He has said to me.  Amazing.  So yes, hand me a spade.  Some pruning shears.  A shovel for manure.  Send me into the Vineyard.  I’ll work it.  Purchase a plot of land and load me up with bricks.  I’ll go.  I’ll do it.  Because I love Him, the Master who loves me.  And I love His House, and His Vineyard, and all my fellow workers… you!  Because He loves you, and He has called you, and the angels rejoice, so I do, too. 

            My friends, look what we’ve been given.  Rejoice!  Receive this great gift from your Master, the Vineyard, and the stewardship that comes along with it.  Not as one who has earned it…  You haven’t earned it.  But as a free gift.  Grace.  Grace alone.  This is your Home.  And these are your brothers and sisters, given to you by God Himself, hand-picked for you, and you for them, from before the foundation of the world.  Don’t despise them.  Don’t despise God’s gift.  Love them.  Thank God for them.  Care for them.

            And what of those who have not borne the burdens you have shouldered, but still enjoy the fruits of your labor?  Look what the Lord has done.  Because you bore the burden, they have come in.  And they are at Home.  Thanks be to God.

            Whether it be the first, third, sixth, ninth, or even eleventh hour, by grace, He calls each one of us into His Vineyard.  One of His last words before giving up the ghost on the holy cross, was to assure a repentant thief that today, he would be with Him in Paradise.  It was to bring an eleventh hour worker into His Vineyard. 

            One of the first words of the risen Jesus to us here today, was to bring three more, at several different hours of their lives, into His Vineyard, by the waters of Holy Baptism.  Welcome, dear brothers and sister.  Here we are all equal inheritors.  So the last will be first, and the first last.  It is not a matter of fairness.  It is a matter of grace.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.