Found in the Marketplace

Found in the Marketplace

Sept. 21st 2014

Matthew 20:1-16

15th Sunday After Pentecost

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (SE) Portland

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from our Risen Savior,

Most of us are somewhat familial with this parable I would imagine.  It is a commonly heard parable especially when we need to teach a child a lesson about humility (“The last shall be first and the first shall be last”)  But my question for today is, who do you most identify with?  Are you one of the labors from the beginning of the day, one that showed up half way through the day, one of the late comers?  

I often times find myself placing myself in the parable itself as one of the characters.  I have found it to be a very helpful exercise when trying to figure out the lessons that I am needing to hear, or the message of the parable for me.  So I ask you today, which character in the parable do you most identify with?  

There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but each character brings a different angle of our faith lives to light.  Many of us might be the workers that have been toiling away in the fields all day, some of us might keep our mouth shut about the wage earned for the day while others might raise a concern about the fairness of the wages.  Some of us might see ourselves as the worker that showed up halfway through the day and still got paid.  Finally, some of us might see themselves as those who showed up at the end of the day, worked for only a short amount of time and got paid like we had been there all day.

What I would imagine, is that we mostly identify with one of the two groups of people, either those who showed up at the beginning of the day or those at the end.  I am sure all of us are thinking it, and feel bad about it but the entire concern is that those who showed up late got paid the same.  This is a struggle is it not?  This wage system does not make any sense if you ask me.  Just like the other brother in the parable of the prodigal son…why does he get a party?

Maybe this is a part of our free market economics but it does not seem right that those that show up at the end of the day get the same amount of pay as those of us who were here from the beginning.  Doesn't sound right does it?  

For those of us that identify with the labors that have been working all day this sounds like an unfair deal.  “We have been the ones working all day and we get the same amount as those who have only been here for an hour.”  This sounds like the same thing I have heard in a few of the churches I have attended and been a member of over the years…”I grew up in this church and now all of a sudden these people show up and join as members” “I have been here all my life and have never been elected to church council yet they have been here for a year and they have been elected to church council.” or “I have never had a drinking problem unlike some members”  There has always been those comparisons, judgements and jealously amongst believers especially directed at new members.  But what is the issue at hand?  

It just doesn’t seem fair does it and doesn’t seem right that those late comers get the same treatment as the rest of us.  Well, I am sorry to have to burst your bubble that is the business that God is in.  God is the in the business of mercy, forgiveness and rehabilitation.  There is nothing that is outside the realm of forgiveness and God’s mercy is everlasting.  It is not a business about being fair or giving proportions greater to those that have been an active church member for longer.  But rather God is in the business of salvation and bringing the lost back to the flock.  

Those that are upset at this parable and think that it is unfair fall into a similar category as our brother Jonah today as well.  Jonah wanted so badly to see the city of Nineveh fall that he got angry with God for saving the people.  Jonah wanted to sit up on a hill and watch the city get destroyed, but once again that is not the business that God is in.  Once again mercy over rules and the grace of God is what shines through.  

So those of us that might more closely line up with those that showed up late for work we have been given that gift of grace.  This is the everlasting mercy of God.  It shines through in times when we do not feel that we are on the right track or have arrived up late.  It speaks a message of hope and forgiveness for all of us and possibility for us all.  There is a joy that exists for all of us that we are all forgiven and receive that same blessing.

No matter what side we fall on we have received grace and forgiveness beyond what we deserve.  If you ask me we are all those laborers that showed up at the need of the day.  I feel that each time we struggle with our faith, fall short and loose our way we find ourselves back in the marketplace and God continues to come to up, picking us up, paying us and telling us to get to work.  Each time we are feeling that tug, the nudging from the Holy Spirit that is the call from God for us to get to work and get out of the marketplace.  Our sin returns us to that marketplace but our Merciful Savior gathers us in and sends us back out to the field to work.

The writer of Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth- century said said this, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.  Your are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;  yours are the hands with which God is to bless people now.”

So let us be the hands, feet and eyes and get out into the field and show that mercy and forgiveness that we have experienced.