God Is Generous

Prayer: O God, we are so please that you are here with us. We find comfort and joy in knowing that you walk beside us. You are a merciful God. Lord you will be done. I call forth the light of Christ to protect this community of faith. Heal our community Lord. Help us to move forward in a way that is pleasing in your sight. Amen.

Sermon:

Yesterday, I arrived at church about 8:30 am and I notice several police cars driving through the alley way and I thought to myself, that’s strange, what are they doing? What’s going on? When my first appointment got here at 9:00 AM. She asked me if I was sacred being here alone, and I said no. My second appointment got here and soon after the evangelism/outreach team got here and right before we went out, I called Elaine and got the horrible news about former councilman Ken Harris. Needless to say I was shocked. As we walk towards ralworth passing out fliers we come upon two gentlemen, who promised to come to church and sing in the choir and one of them even gave us a sample of what he was going to do if an when he joined our choir. There was a man fixing his car at the corner of Ralworth, who just needed to talk and needed to hear words of encouragement. Although our city has a lower murder count than that of last year, guns are still on the streets, senseless crimes are committed and our community and entire city is in mourning over the murder of Ken Harris, who leaves behind a wife, two children and a mother who raised him to be one who would advocate for others. In times like these we are being pulled together to pray and to advocate for the end to violence.

What can we do? We could join our neighborhood watch and community groups or organizations and we certainly can go out into our communities and be a recognizable presence. It will take time and commitment, and I know, very few of us even live in this area, but wherever you are, I pray that after today you become empowered to do something, if you have not considered doing it before or that you do more if you are have been lacking in your commitment.

Within Our Gospel text the questions is proposed, “why are you standing idle all day?” And the workers said because no one has hired us. The landowner says, go out into the vineyard. An hour later the wages were given to each of the workers, and the ones that were there since morning grumbled and complained to the landowner of the injustice of what they felt had happened to them. Calmly the landowner said, “Friend, I am doing no wrong: did you not agree with me for this amount of pay, take what belongs to you and go, I am generous and I will give what I desire to give to whom I desire to give it to, regardless or not of your enviousness. So the last will be first and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)

The lord also call us to work in his vineyard, it should not matter to others if you have been working for the lord, fifty years or three months, but for some strange reason it does and even if when there is lots of work to be done, because of human condition we grumble and complain about others being invited into this relationship into this process that calls us to go out into the world, to teach, preach baptize in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit. Children of god, what are we waiting for? We have the resources. Those that have the time to do for the Lord, do so with joy and thankful hearts. I am confident in doing so, our savior will see our efforts, hear our prayers and enable us to do more. This is indeed the Good news.

This week we saw our economy just go up and down and back up a little again. Pockets, wallets, purses and portfolios were no doubt hurting, what I saw that amazed me was our government stepping in to help those big corporation, because millions, not just dollars, but people would be more effected, and I thought about those that work for the bare minimum, how they are scrap, borrow, to make something out of nothing everyday, and still their cries for justice, for empowerment, seem to fall upon deaf ears. As God has shown mercy on us, I pray that all of our economic leaders in the world and especially, here in America will show mercy on others and give them wages that would be conducive to the cost of living in this time, More Good news, The Lord wants us all to be encouraged, times are hard, we are not the only ones facing difficulties, God is working it out. allow him to use our hands to bring more workers into the vineyard. Allow God to heal and restore. Open up our hearts and Well here is an illustration, everyone ball up your fists, as tight as you can, when you do this, we cannot receive but if we open those fist, I know that the blessings will come because our Lord is gracious and generous and let all the people of God say. Amen.