WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:09.570 I love the international flavor of what it is that we are doing this morning. 2 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:12.750 Have you noticed the difference in the accents? 3 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:17.100 Whether it is H-I-R-E is hire, 4 00:00:18.570 --> 00:00:24.510 or whether the choir sings Hallelujah, all of them are 5 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.360 slightly not the same as what we're used to. 6 00:00:27.930 --> 00:00:33.481 And it says something, frankly, to me, quite lovely, about who we are as the 7 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:36.930 internationally gathered people of God. 8 00:00:38.401 --> 00:00:43.500 In looking at the lesson, particularly the gospel lesson this morning, I want you 9 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:49.051 to know, it is for me anyway, a not particularly comfortable parable. 10 00:00:49.680 --> 00:00:55.410 Why? Because this parable of the landowner and the workers that the 11 00:00:55.470 --> 00:00:59.551 landowner hires challenges one of my deeply 12 00:00:59.610 --> 00:01:05.461 sustained beliefs. Beliefs about fairness 13 00:01:06.270 --> 00:01:11.071 and how fairness might apply or not to God, as at least I see it. 14 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:16.920 You see, I was taught that it was just and right for humans to treat one another 15 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:21.390 equally, fairly, and that it was, in fact, also godly. 16 00:01:21.690 --> 00:01:26.640 That Jesus loves all people equally regardless of who they are. 17 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:31.200 And I still believe every word of that. 18 00:01:31.830 --> 00:01:36.750 That no matter who you are, where you have come from, what you have done, or what 19 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:42.540 your background is, when you come into the presence of God, Jesus looks at you with 20 00:01:42.601 --> 00:01:48.360 great love and receives you as his own, even as you are opening up your hearts to 21 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:54.180 him. And while it is true that I believe that Jesus loves all people 22 00:01:54.330 --> 00:01:54.750 equally, 23 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:01.260 I want to add something to that. Kind of a codicil. 24 00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:04.801 An addendum, perhaps. 25 00:02:06.301 --> 00:02:12.240 Because I want, along with equality and fairness, a reward 26 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:17.910 system that blesses our best efforts with perhaps even better 27 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.851 blessings. There are plenty of churches that teach that, 28 00:02:22.141 --> 00:02:28.110 blessings that I would receive because my hard work qualifies me, as it were, for 29 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:33.750 such blessings. Just as a boss rewards employees who work harder than others and 30 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:39.150 bring more to the job than someone else, and therefore duly compensated for their 31 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:44.851 talent and their effort, so would God also reward those with greater effort and 32 00:02:44.910 --> 00:02:46.891 perhaps even greater faith. 33 00:02:48.210 --> 00:02:51.930 Thankfully, the parable challenges what I believe about that. 34 00:02:52.980 --> 00:02:58.800 And instead of affirming that which I would desire, actually gives me 35 00:02:58.950 --> 00:03:00.810 what I need. 36 00:03:02.070 --> 00:03:07.650 Because in my expectation that blessings be tied to effort, 37 00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:13.830 only a slightly more religious version of God helps those who help themselves, 38 00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:18.601 Ben Franklin among others. This parable does not teach that. 39 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:25.440 In fact, the real picture of what this parable is teaching can be seen in baptism, 40 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:29.250 which was celebrated here at both nine o'clock services. 41 00:03:30.451 --> 00:03:35.791 Because you see, if you believe that there really was such a codicil where more was 42 00:03:35.851 --> 00:03:41.640 given to some when it comes to faith rather than others, it 43 00:03:41.701 --> 00:03:46.260 gets kind of uncomfortable when you think about that in terms of baptism. 44 00:03:47.160 --> 00:03:52.320 This baptism, this gift that God gives us, this entryway into eternal life. 45 00:03:52.590 --> 00:03:56.910 Does one child get more grace in baptism than another? 46 00:03:58.110 --> 00:04:03.630 Or what if one parent prays more, gives more financially, more faithful in church 47 00:04:03.720 --> 00:04:08.791 attendance than another? Does that qualify the child, in fact, for more grace? 48 00:04:09.421 --> 00:04:15.060 To put it rather crassly, does merit pass down to children? 49 00:04:16.231 --> 00:04:19.951 Most Christians, I would think, would say, "Of course not." 50 00:04:22.020 --> 00:04:27.091 Does not anyone with even the most remotely Christian conscience recoil at the very 51 00:04:27.210 --> 00:04:32.250 idea of judging a child on the basis of the track record of that child's parents? 52 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:36.750 Although there are plenty who do. He's from that family. 53 00:04:39.781 --> 00:04:45.360 What if one child is baptized as an infant and another gets baptized as an adult? 54 00:04:45.630 --> 00:04:49.170 Does the adult get more? The answer is no. 55 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:54.630 Fairness and equality in the eyes of God mean that we all get the same grace. 56 00:04:55.650 --> 00:05:01.591 Or to use the language of the parable, we all get the same wages no 57 00:05:01.650 --> 00:05:04.860 matter when we come into the vineyard. 58 00:05:05.730 --> 00:05:11.490 The one who shows up at the end of the day at 5:00 and works only an hour gets the 59 00:05:11.580 --> 00:05:17.490 same wages as the one who shows up at 6:00 a.m. and puts in a 12-hour day. 60 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:22.140 You see, what this parable does 61 00:05:24.150 --> 00:05:28.830 is look at us, and in fact, see us as we are. 62 00:05:29.670 --> 00:05:34.770 That even if many of us think we might qualify for some more than others, there's a 63 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.650 kind of laser that God brings into the picture. 64 00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:43.770 The one before whom all hearts are open, all desires known, from whom no secrets 65 00:05:43.890 --> 00:05:49.740 are hid, and says out loud the words that God says to Jonah when he 66 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:55.410 speaks of the people of Nineveh, who do not know their right hand from their left. 67 00:05:56.370 --> 00:06:02.341 Is it not true that the more we actually grow in Christians that faith, the 68 00:06:02.550 --> 00:06:03.960 smaller we feel, 69 00:06:05.341 --> 00:06:11.220 the quieter our hearts are, the desire even more deeply to know this God, 70 00:06:11.640 --> 00:06:17.460 who, in fact, loves the unlovely just as he does anyone 71 00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:22.680 else. And for anyone who has ever thought of him or herself as unlovely, they would 72 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:28.380 say, "Thank God that is true." It also shows us things we wouldn't have 73 00:06:28.470 --> 00:06:33.390 noticed about the owner of the vineyard, who personally goes out and hires the 74 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:37.860 workers. A foreman doesn't do it, a manager doesn't do it, which you would think 75 00:06:37.890 --> 00:06:42.990 would be the case. But the owner instead is taking a personal interest in each 76 00:06:43.050 --> 00:06:47.701 hire, even when it comes to picking up workers for the very last hour. 77 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:51.841 When it was the last hour, you would think the owner should be asking questions 78 00:06:51.901 --> 00:06:54.990 like, "Well, why didn't anybody pick you before now? 79 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:59.970 What did you do that maybe I don't know about that would cause you to be looked 80 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:00.510 over?" 81 00:07:03.811 --> 00:07:07.710 But notice, the owner asks no such questions. 82 00:07:08.460 --> 00:07:13.800 Instead, the owner hires with equal gusto and with equal pay, 83 00:07:14.430 --> 00:07:19.680 the last as well as the first. So that what happens, I would think, for the person 84 00:07:19.740 --> 00:07:24.270 who was picked last, particularly if he or she were just standing around all day 85 00:07:25.831 --> 00:07:29.910 seeing everybody else getting jobs and wonder how they're going to be able to live 86 00:07:29.970 --> 00:07:33.780 in the next 24 hours if they don't get their pay. 87 00:07:34.770 --> 00:07:40.380 There for them is the wonder of relief of being picked finally at the last 88 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:44.581 hour, paid at the last hour, the same as everyone else. 89 00:07:44.820 --> 00:07:48.480 The joy and the relief of the worker should not be overlooked. 90 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:53.311 The generosity is shocking if you think about it. 91 00:07:54.420 --> 00:07:59.130 And the message is very clear. Beloved, no matter where you have been, what you 92 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:04.350 have done, what you have secretly harbored all your life hoping no one else would 93 00:08:04.410 --> 00:08:06.360 know, what you did not do, 94 00:08:07.561 --> 00:08:11.910 not because you were any more virtuous, but because you didn't have the opportunity 95 00:08:11.970 --> 00:08:17.341 to express some of that that was still in your heart, you also can lay down 96 00:08:17.430 --> 00:08:23.220 whatever the burdens are that you carry and know that for you, too, it is not 97 00:08:23.341 --> 00:08:29.250 too late. There is equal grace and equal freedom, even for 98 00:08:29.311 --> 00:08:34.530 those who in their own eyes think they have been picked last. 99 00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:43.440 Lining up for our wages at the end of time because yes, there is that apocalyptic 100 00:08:43.561 --> 00:08:49.500 edge to this parable. I know that those who have worked all day will, on that day, 101 00:08:49.950 --> 00:08:55.020 look over at those who only worked an hour, and unlike those in the parable, will 102 00:08:55.140 --> 00:09:00.690 see the astonishing joy of the recipients and the twinkle of merriment on the 103 00:09:00.780 --> 00:09:05.580 part of the owner giving out the wages, almost like Santa Claus. 104 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:08.190 It's a day for everyone to be excited. 105 00:09:08.550 --> 00:09:13.980 And those who have worked all day will not in any way begrudge the latecomer. 106 00:09:14.370 --> 00:09:17.431 The relief among all will be palpable. 107 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:23.790 All who receive what he gives will be received with gratitude, and he will look 108 00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:29.838 at each one as he does in the parable and call us Friends. 109 00:09:32.058 --> 00:09:36.078 Yes, we don't know our right hand from our left. 110 00:09:36.918 --> 00:09:42.528 Yes, there are things about even our well-chiseled reputation that doesn't 111 00:09:42.678 --> 00:09:45.438 always show the real part of who we are. 112 00:09:45.738 --> 00:09:51.528 God sees both of those, and He is inviting us to lay down the burden 113 00:09:51.588 --> 00:09:57.528 of being an actor in one's own life, and to receive in great mercy, before 114 00:09:57.618 --> 00:10:03.438 whom we are open, all that He would desire to give us that would relieve us 115 00:10:03.528 --> 00:10:09.498 of the burden of pretending, and know the relief 116 00:10:09.588 --> 00:10:15.349 of real joy. He whom the Son has set free, are 117 00:10:15.438 --> 00:10:17.148 free indeed. 118 00:10:19.788 --> 00:10:24.349 That is the good news of this parable. 119 00:10:25.608 --> 00:10:31.248 The love of Christ freely given, washing away fears, healing our wounds, 120 00:10:31.638 --> 00:10:35.778 the shackles of condemnation broken by the yoke of Christ. 121 00:10:36.108 --> 00:10:41.958 The self-centered lives that we carry, inherit in our own aspirations, give way 122 00:10:42.048 --> 00:10:45.858 to the joy of a new kind of life, and an invitation to service. 123 00:10:46.128 --> 00:10:49.938 These are people who have been hired to work, and it is in the working that we 124 00:10:49.998 --> 00:10:52.908 discover purpose that we did not know that we had. 125 00:10:53.208 --> 00:10:57.349 Talents that God had placed within us that we never ever thought would ever find 126 00:10:57.408 --> 00:11:03.138 expression. Because when God forms us, He in that formation, as well as in the 127 00:11:03.168 --> 00:11:08.178 redemption, equips us for a very clear and specific role and calling. 128 00:11:08.448 --> 00:11:13.668 And there is a fulfillment that happens when God uses you, and you know the very 129 00:11:13.758 --> 00:11:19.518 best of who you are is used and the very worst of you is forgiven, and you walk 130 00:11:19.638 --> 00:11:21.738 in that light with purpose, 131 00:11:23.028 --> 00:11:28.908 zeal, relief, and the joy of knowing that you 132 00:11:28.969 --> 00:11:34.338 are His above all else, just as you are, 133 00:11:35.508 --> 00:11:37.428 and that He will never let you go. 134 00:11:39.768 --> 00:11:45.469 In the midst of that kind of audacious generosity, family of God, why hold 135 00:11:45.618 --> 00:11:48.978 on to these kind of superficial 136 00:11:50.268 --> 00:11:55.099 papier-mâché divisions over who's better and who's not? 137 00:11:58.008 --> 00:12:01.878 I'm glad you're with us now, but I've been an Episcopalian all my life. 138 00:12:03.228 --> 00:12:03.858 Welcome. 139 00:12:06.198 --> 00:12:10.188 Or the family you grew up in, or the neighborhood where you happen to live. 140 00:12:11.328 --> 00:12:16.368 All of these things are things that people hold onto because they've never really 141 00:12:16.458 --> 00:12:21.888 yet discovered the gift of what it means to be a fully alive human being who no 142 00:12:21.918 --> 00:12:27.588 longer cares about such things, because there's too much great work to be done. 143 00:12:29.538 --> 00:12:34.158 As Isaiah writes, "Why spend your money on that which is not bread, 144 00:12:35.538 --> 00:12:39.108 and your labor for that which does not satisfy?" 145 00:12:40.578 --> 00:12:45.738 Beloved, Jesus has picked us, even if it is in the last 146 00:12:46.188 --> 00:12:52.098 hour. He has accepted us as we are. And to our surprise, Jesus 147 00:12:52.189 --> 00:12:57.918 picks us as we are to serve Him, whose very choosing qualifies us, 148 00:12:58.278 --> 00:13:03.528 even when we feel disqualified. Qualified to serve Him for all 149 00:13:03.618 --> 00:13:09.198 eternity. We are not disqualified for our 150 00:13:09.318 --> 00:13:10.488 shortcomings. 151 00:13:12.018 --> 00:13:17.928 We are chosen because of His love, greater than all of 152 00:13:17.988 --> 00:13:23.388 our sin, all of our shortcomings. Invited into a 153 00:13:23.448 --> 00:13:29.298 brand-new life, for which, thank God, we are 154 00:13:29.418 --> 00:13:30.798 always grateful. 155 00:13:32.148 --> 00:13:32.628 Amen. 156 00:13:32.628 --> 00:13:32.628 Amen.