Weekly Sermon | cedarvalley

Pentecost 17A September 20, 2026 Matt.20:1-16

This story of a generous landowner really upsets the proverbial apple cart of what we consider to be fair. Everybody got exactly the same regardless of the amount of time they spent working. Granted, they all got an honest day’s wages, but the fact is that not all worked an honest day to get it. And the complaint is that it is not fair … it isn’t fair for all of those who worked all day to get paid the same as those who worked only an hour.

I wonder, however, if we take another stroll with the landowner returning to the marketplace throughout the day looking for people to work for him, that our sense of justice might shift a bit. So, think about that first trip early in the morning and consider what kind of workers the landowner picked. Looking over the possibilities, my guess is that he picked the ones who were the strongest, the fastest, the fittest, and the most capable. They would be the workers that he knew would work hard all day and get the best results.

When the landowner returned at nine to get extra workers, my guess is that again he chooses the best of those who were left and puts them to work. And likewise, he would do the same every time he came looking for more.

Now, try to imagine who is left when he comes back for more workers when there is only an hour left in the day. At that point, he is looking at the elderly and the frail, he is looking at the disabled and handicapped, he is looking at the very young who haven’t worked before. These are the kind of people the landowner has to pick from … the kind of people that probably would not have survived the whole day in the field had they been hired first. But they are people, just the same. They have the same needs, desires and aspirations as the others. They need to provide for their families just the same as the rest. They have bills to pay and obligations to meet even though fate has put a cruel shadow on them. For many of them the burdens they carry is work in and of itself, let alone the demands of employment.

So, taking all of these factors into account, it is easy to see why the generosity of the landowner doesn’t simply look at a balance sheet whereby everybody gets what they deserve and how much they can accomplish. Instead, this generous landowner sees that everyone has value and worth even if they are deemed to be the weakest and the least and the most useless among us.

Still, in this story there is grumbling and those who grumble loudest are those who have the most potential and have the greatest opportunity to succeed. Yes, it’s unjust that those who worked all day long got the same as those who worked fewer hours. Living, as we do in a free-market economy that is ruled by supply and demand, we get why they grumble … the landowner’s actions rub against our ideas of what is just. This is why we have fair labor laws and unions to protect our rights. But Jesus is trying to help us see how the way God sees things is different from the way the world sees things. Jesus is trying to help us to look not only at what is fair according to accounting practices, but also what is unfair about the way life has worked out for those who are the last and the least among us … those whose difficult circumstances have limited their potential and restricted their opportunities.

Jesus is trying to help us realize that the radical good news of the gospel isn’t just for the privileged few who can earn it, but that it is meant for everyone, even the most undeserving among us. Like the landowner in this story, God keeps coming to the marketplaces of our lives, seeking us out … inviting us to join in the labor of grace regardless of the skills we have to offer or the strength of faith we can muster.

Let me say this again. More than anything else this story underlines the basic message of the good news of the gospel. It pushes in front of us the extreme ways of God; that we are saved by grace and not by works. It is not how good of an education we have or the amount of money we have in the bank or the positions we hold or the power we wield. With God it is all a generous gift of grace. This story brings us back to the truth that we are defined and valued and given dignity, not by how well we compare to others, but purely by the generous outpouring of the love God has for us. And for that, I say, “thanks be to God.”

Pentecost 7B July 7, 2024 Mark 6:1-13

We see in our gospel reading for today the continuation of a theme that has been running through the life and ministry of Jesus from the beginning. Again and again, Jesus has been forced to deal with rejection: rejection for what he teaches, rejection for what he does, and rejection for who he is.

The Pharisees criticize him for healing on the Sabbath. His disciples chastise him for sleeping in the middle of a stormy sea. Even his mother and his family try to get him to stop working so hard because his zealousness is proving to be an embarrassment to them. And today, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth and it happens again. The people who sat next to him in worship, who celebrated with him at festivals, who watched him play and grow up, can’t accept what he has become.

At first, listening to Jesus teach in the synagogue, these family friends and neighbors are astonished by his eloquence and spiritual insight. They are impressed: “Where did he learn all of this?” they ask each other. “How did he get to be this good?” they wonder. “When did he get so wise all of a sudden?” they question. “After all, he is one of us. Up until recently he was just a local handyman, patching our roofs, framing our doors, and fixing our wobbly tables and chairs.” What happened? Where did Jesus get all of this?

Well, the answer to their questions is that he got all of this from them. He got it from his parents and siblings and relatives. He got it from his teachers at the synagogue. He got it from the values kept by his neighbors and from the stories he learned of his hometown heroes and his local scallywags. Jesus, in essence, is a mirror, showing them who they are and the role they played in shaping his identity and his place in the world. And the same is true for us. So much of what it is that makes us who we are and the things we do is shaped by our environment. And the history we carry and the people who have left a mark on our lives play a big part in our identity.

But their amazement suddenly shifts and they take offense at him. Someone in the crowd – perhaps a jealous neighbor, or maybe a childhood rival, or possibly the village gossip who loves to stir up trouble – questions the fact that Jesus has stepped out of his lane and ignored his place in the community. “He was one of us and now he thinks he’s something more – he has become something we didn’t expect him to be – something that doesn’t fit into the box we put him in.” And their doubts leave him powerless to do what he would love to do for them – what he has done for so many others.

But before we judge them too harshly, let’s imagine that we are also standing among his homies wondering the same thing ourselves. Like them, how often have we missed the holy among us because we could only see what we wanted to see? How often have we missed the new thing God is doing in Jesus because what we could only see is the old and familiar? How often have we not allowed Jesus to surprise us?

I remember something a wise friend told Pam and me when we were newly married. She said that we should surprise each other every once in a while with something unexpected. That surprise, she said, keeps the intrigue and the mystery of love alive in a relationship. I believe that part of the gospel mission for us involves an element of surprise. Because our openness to being surprised, keeps us open to the intrigue and mystery of God’s deep love for us so that it doesn’t get old and boring and meaningless.

My prayer for you, my friends, is that when you listen to Jesus you can hear a new thing God is doing underneath the comfortable traditions and the familiar habits of your faith. I pray you will be surprised by the mystery of the abundant life God has for you in Jesus – a life filled with love and grace … with mercy and forgiveness … with freedom and peace. May you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the surprising good news God has for you in Jesus Christ, our Lord.