A Thankful Giving

“A Thankful Giving”

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ Matthew 20:1-15 NIV

Intro: Today’s scripture reading is a parable about belonging and membership in the Kingdom of Heaven.

It teaches us three important precepts or rules. Write these down.

1. God is the landowner and believes are the workers.

2. Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven is not about rewards but about salvation.

3. Getting into Heaven is by Grace alone.

These three things are very often difficult for us to understand.

God’s Grace is countercultural. (in other words)

God’s character is substantially different from that of mainstream society.

God’s norms of behavior are in opposition to the worlds ideas of normal behavior.

Grace is about mercy and God’s mercy is about divine fairness.

What would have been fair, based on work and reward, would be to

pay the later workers who started at the last hour less

pay the early workers who started at the beginning more.

But God does not operate that way with either believers or unbelievers.

That is why grace is so difficult for us to understand.

Grace is amazing because it is so surprising.

Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them.

We would never give those who came in at the last minute the same pay (We would say you did not earn it.)

As those who worked from early morning all throughout the heat of the day.

We would be just like the workers in this story who began to grumble and complain about how unfair it is.

Why should the thief and prostitute and the criminal who repent get the same membership

into the Kingdom of Heaven as the Mother Teresa and the Billy Graham and the John Wesley.

God answered them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for one denarius?

Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.

Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

This means we have to give up the need to be flawless for the opportunity to be AUTHENTIC.

The truth is life in this world is often a mess.

The tyranny of the moment will sometimes cause you to make the wrong choice.

The impulse to act overpowers what people have learned.

It is sometimes called a “mind gap, when you act before you think about outcome.”

This is why there is “candy and chocolate” at every checkout line at stores—it is an impulse buy.

Everyone has came out of a store with something you did not go in the store to buy.

It is the same way with sin.

We don’t set out to sin.