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The Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: I am going to begin this morning by reading The Collect for last Sunday which was Proper 19: "O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever." I want to read that center section again: "...because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts" We have to understand that we need the active participation of the Holy Spirit in our lives if we are going to be able to please God. I believe that our Gospel reading this morning, supported by the Old Testament reading and the Epistle, is seeking to draw our attention to God's justice and mercy. That God is manifestly just and merciful in his dealings with us. But God's understanding of justice and mercy are very different from ours. It is only when we seek the intervention and participation of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can comprehend or glimpse what it is that God is calling us to. One of the ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives is to help us understand how the Lord longs for us to understand community and relationships. To do that without comparisons and without anxiety. Now, I have said before and I want to acknowledge again that many of us are facing struggles in our lives. But, I believe it is important to recognize that we often mistake challenges in our lives as justice issues when they are really just the issues of living. Often, how we understand justice and mercy is shaped by our experience of the society around us. Or how we have been taught justice and mercy are applied - sometimes painfully applied personally to us - by the society that we find ourselves living in. Sometimes the things that we become anxious about in our lives are a result of how we see justice and mercy playing out in our lives. Oftentimes, this is a matter of comparison with someone else in our circle of acquaintances or our community. It seems to us that they are somehow advantaged over us or before us. The Collect for today which is Proper 20 says this: "Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever." I would suggest that we actually can't achieve what this Collect is suggesting without linking it to last week's Collect. It is only by the work of the Holy Spirit that we can even comprehend or glimpse what it is the Lord requires or desires for us. To not allow ourselves to get caught up - not to be anxious about earthly things - in justice or mercy issues with others around us. The parable Jesus uses in our Gospel reading, this morning, is a challenging one because of the cultural and societal differences between then and now. I believe that most of us have to just say "Well, that must have been how society worked back then, it wouldn't happen that way now." Perhaps that is true. But I think we can miss an important opportunity for growth and challenge if we do that and leave it there. What is at the heart of the issue for the workers who complained to the landowner? Well, they believed they had a justice issue that they wished to have resolved. Someone else gained more than they did. The landowner was not just in his dealings with them. This is not what they expected to happen when they agreed to the situation. They felt cheated out of their reward. Now in the reading from Exodus, we heard the Israelites complaining to Moses about their circumstances as they traveled through the wilderness. Now, it is not a completely similar situation but at the heart of the matter, there are some very similar issues. The Israelites believed they had a justice issue that they wished to have resolved. They only remember how good they had things in Egypt. Moses was not just in his dealings with them. This is not what they expected to happen when they agreed to the situation. They felt cheated out of their reward. Can I suggest this morning that the central issue in both situations is that they are not seeing, or they are ignoring, the blessing that they have received because they are so busy making comparisons? They are caught up in how they see justice and mercy. Perhaps I can illustrate what I am saying by referring to a different story that Jesus told. We are all familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We know that the younger son took the opportunity to squander everything that his father gave him. He went off and made himself poor, so poor he was living in the pen with the pigs he was supposed to be caring for. Suddenly he has a realization that he would be better off returning to his father as a servant. He heads home and instead of his father accepting him as a common worker he reestablishes his place as a son. He throws a party in celebration. This is a great story and we often concentrate on this aspect of the joyful restoration. This morning I would like us to think about the reaction of the older brother. I will summarize that story to remind us all of that story: The elder son has been hard at work in the field, and he comes home and hears music and dancing. He is told his younger brother has come, the father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound. He becomes angry and refuses to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. He answers his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ The elder son is so caught up in his justice and mercy issues that he compares his father's response. He is so caught up in comparing what was happening for his younger brother, that he hasn't stopped to think about what he actually has himself. He has lived his life without joy and celebration. He has seen his own life as a dreary and rule-bound existence. He hasn't taken the opportunities that he had to revel in his relationship with his father. My question for us all this morning is: "Is that how we are living our lives in Christ? Are we caught up in comparisons, justice, and mercy issues, and are we forgetting the wonderful opportunities we have to celebrate and enjoy our lives in Christ? I believe that in the reading from Philippians for this morning, Paul helps us to understand the possibilities we have in our relations with the Lord. "Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God's doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well-- since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have." How do we invite the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us so that our lives are filled with the joy of knowing Christ and not anxiety over earthly things? Come Holy Spirit and dwell within us for Christ's sake. The Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35
Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: So, can I just say that this Gospel passage from Matthew is one of my least favorite Gospel readings that we encounter? Now, I know I am not supposed to have favorites. But let's be honest there are ones that roll around and we just go "Yay! I understand this one. I get how I can apply it. I recognize how I can be working on making it a reality in my life." When it comes to this passage from Matthew this morning I just shake my head. First of all, Peter asks the question we all want to ask and just don't know how to. I mean how many times have we found ourselves "back in that same old situation" with some individual who we thought we had processed and dealt with? Only to find that we are again, back where we were before, and everything is difficult and unrelentingly hard. Now, I have to say that sometimes that is because of my actions, sometimes it is the actions of the other person. Then sometimes it is just a memory loop that I get stuck in and can't find my way out. I am associating what has happened with something that happened in the past and it has all come back again. Those memories can be as vivid as the actual incident. Let's admit it forgiveness is hard! It is no wonder that Peter is seeking the Lord's help in understanding forgiveness. Peter says "Should I forgive seven times?" Peter probably thought that he was being particularly spiritual when he offered seven times. He probably was referring to the study of scripture known as the Midrash. Peter would have known that the Midrash from his life in Judaism. The term Midrash denotes the exegetical method by which those who study the Jewish oral tradition, interpreted and elaborated on the scriptural text. According to a Midrash, "All sevens are beloved": There are seven terms for the heavens and seven terms for the earth; Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam; Moses was the seventh generation from Abraham; David was the seventh son in his family; Asa (who called out to God) was the seventh generation of Israelite kings; the seventh day (Shabbat), month (Tishrei), year (shmita) and shmita (jubilee) all have special religious status. Jesus answers Peter in an astounding way. He says: "Not seven times but seventy-seven times." Jesus almost seems to put forgiveness in the realm of the achievable. Then he goes on to tell a parable. Oh good, we think. This will help us understand what Jesus is saying. But this parable is challenging and to some extent even more difficult to understand than the answer he gave Peter. In some ways, it is more an illustration of unforgiveness and it is forgiveness. Now, I have preached on this parable before and I have worked to understand it, but it is always tough. So, when it comes right down to it we have to admit today that forgiveness is hard! What are we supposed to take away from this Gospel passage? The commentators I listened to this week took a completely different approach to anything I have ever heard before. They said that perhaps we needed to understand that forgiveness is hard, and that is something that we need to be continually working on to achieve. They spoke about forgiveness in terms of it being an ongoing spiritual work. They used words and phrases like the spiritual practice of forgiveness and the art of forgiveness. I got thinking about what spiritual practices and art have in common. Both are, in one way or another, a discipline. Not discipline as in how we correct or admonish someone, but a discipline, as in a branch of knowledge. The way that we talk about art or creative endeavors. For example the discipline of painting, pottery, stained glass, or creative writing. All of these things are disciplines that people study and work at. When someone commits themselves to the art form, and to the necessary time, effort, and concentration they should improve in their ability and skill. Now it may be that in the process the student has failures and disappointments in their creative endeavor. But, if they don't give up, over time their proficiency in the discipline will improve. In other words, these disciplines demand a commitment to the study and practice of that particular art form. The commentators suggested that we as Christians need to understand that we need to be committed to the art, to the discipline of forgiveness. It is in exercising forgiveness that we get better at forgiving. We may stumble and fail, and we may find ourselves disappointed in our ability to forgive, but it is by being committed to forgiveness that we will grow more skilled in forgiving. Which brings us to the question: "Why is it important to forgive?" Well, I don't want to make too much of one short verse, but the last verse of the Gospel this morning is stunning and powerful. "So, my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart." Jesus uses the example of the servant in the story to set up or illustrate, how the way his followers forgive will be used as the measure that the Heavenly Father will use with regard to them. Or as we say each Sunday in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us, as we forgive those, who..." There is also great freedom for us when we are able to forgive someone else. When we hold unforgiveness we often find that we are trapped in a cycle of constantly remembering what has happened. The emotional drain on us wears us down and often means we live our lives constantly watching out that the same thing won't happen to us again. We find it difficult to trust, we find it difficult to be open and caring with others. We sometimes find it difficult to forgive because we somehow think that releases the person and they will not have to face the consequences of what they have done. I want to encourage us this morning in the belief that forgiveness releases us to live full and rich lives. Forgiveness enables us to walk free from the burden and guilt that so often entraps our lives. May the Lord give us the strength and courage to forgive today. That we might experience the fullness of our life in him. |
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