Welcome
* Thanks for reading this on-line version of our weekly worship.
* To see a shortened version of this service go to https://youtu.be/dq7Juv5PYa4
Call to Worship
One: Just as sunrise breaks through the darkness each day,
Many: So God’s grace, mercy and justice shine forth.
One: We gather together, with devotion and doubt,
with weariness and wonder;
Many: trusting that God’s peace and love are present here.
One: Come and worship as you are, knowing you are loved.
Many: We come rejoicing, to praise God’s holy name.
Opening Prayers
Loving God, compassionate Son, healing Spirit,
You meet us in so many places and in so many different ways,
when our need is deep and we long for you,
and when we think we can manage on our own.
You draw near to us in kindness,
regardless of our state or condition.
You turn weeping into laughter, sorrow into joy, death into life.
You speak a word of challenge and a word of comfort
to draw us to you.
In gratitude, we come before you this day,
to seek your word for us,
and to enjoy your gift of life in its fullness.
[Receive our praise and our prayers this day
offered in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.] (Video)
God, you are the giver of all good gifts,
yet we confess that our own generosity is limited.
We share what we have, but often reluctantly.
We complain about our lot.
We compare ourselves to others
and see what they have that we lack.
We fear running short of things
rather than trusting your attention to our needs.
Forgive us our worries about tomorrow
and give us generous hearts that trust in you.
Remind us again that your is from everlasting to everlasting.
Your generous love reaches out to embrace everyone.
We thank you that in Christ,
we are forgiven and set free to begin again.
Accept the worship we bring as your people gathered this morning.
Amen
Hymn: Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Prayer for Understanding
Holy, healing God,
your thoughts are not our thoughts, and your ways are not our ways.
As we hear your Word read and proclaimed, guide us by your Spirit,
so that our thoughts and our ways are transformed by your grace,
through Christ, your Living Word. Amen.
Scripture
Matthew 20:1-16 – Parable of the Vineyard
This parable follows Jesus’ welcome of children into the Kingdom of God who have nothing
And Jesus encounter with a rich young man who wants eternal life who has everything , but the courage to leave his wealth behind to follow Jesus.
Sermon: The Generous Employer
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen
Most people who I have met believe that it is “right” to be paid fairly for the work that one does. When this doesn’t happen, we feel cheated and undervalued as an employee. This has led to employee protests, strikes, and work to rule campaigns in various jobs and occupations.
Our wages we believe represent what our employers and in many ways what our society believes our labor is worth. Although we know that is not always the case.
We all have our own opinions as to who is underpaid and who is overpaid in our society. One extreme example was demonstrated in boxer Mike Tyson 1995 fight against Peter McNeeley in Las Vegas Nevada. Tyson was paid $22,000,000 for the 89 second win over McNeeley. McNeeley was paid $400,000 for the 89 second fight. And those who set up and cleaned up the MGM Grand Hotel for the event were paid less than $5.00 /hr. Those making minimum wage would only have made only $0.12 during the 89 sec. fight.
I know this is an extreme example, but it highlights the reality of the value our society places on different kinds of work by way of material compensation for that work.
As with all of Jesus’ parables, his stories always have a different twist to them. His perspective doesn’t always go along with the conventional wisdom or practices of our time. That is why the ending of the story is unexpected. It does not follow the conventional thinking of “just pay for a fair work day.”
At the end of work day, each laborer is paid a Roman denarius.
A denarius was what a day’s wages was worth in Jesus’ day. With it one could take care of one’s family. The wage that the Landowner paid would be especially helpful to the extremely poor, who in fact, were standing around idle in the marketplace. The ones hired last would have included widows, orphans, the sick, disabled, and newcomers to the community who were hardly ever given work.
They were probably expecting to be paid very little, but what a surprise and relief to them when they received their generous gift of the denarius, a day’s pay.
The landowner goes out of his way to meet the needs of the poor in his community. The Landowner goes out his way to meet and exceed the Jewish Laws in Deuteronomy 24 regarding the treatment of laborers, aliens, widows, and the poor in the community.
The pay offered by the Landowner in our story is not based on the hours worked, but rather is based purely upon what the employer offers to each group.
The first group agrees to work for the daily wage of denarius. The midday laborers agree to work for “what is right or just” which is not clearly defined, and for the last group no wages are agreed upon.
At the end of the day, everyone from the first called to work to those called last to work are paid the same wage.
From a modern business perspective, all laborers being paid the same runs counter to our current capitalist model of economics. It is unsettling to us with our 21st century sensibilities, for no one in our society pays everyone the same wage regardless of how many hours they worked. We hardly, if ever, will one run across an employer who is THAT generous. That is why the parable doesn’t connect with our “JUST PAY FOR FAIR WORK DAY” practice.
While the intent of the parable is not to propose a new economic system for our society, although some have suggested it does, it does join a significant amount of Biblical teaching on economics.
You have God creating for Israel before it settles the Promised Land new patterns for the fair treatment of workers, the establishment of a social net to care for the least in the society. God warns Israel of how wealth can too easily become an idol. Israel is reminded again and again that it was freed from unjust slavery in Egypt by God almighty acts.
In the New Testament, there is more talk about wealth than sexuality. There is advice to indentured servants and their bosses in how to live with each other. Jesus teaches that his followers are to be servants not tyrannical Lord’s over one another. The lowest household slave is raised to a position of honor.
If we are wise, then we will not be afraid to humbly listen and reflect upon what the Scriptures teaches us about Kingdom of God economics.
In Jesus’ parable, the focus is on the Landowner’s actions toward his labour force. God is the landowner and the laborers are various groups who come into God’s kingdom at different times.
When the Landowner pays all the workers the same amount and the end of the day, the first group becomes upset with the generosity of the landowner.
My guess is that there is some part of each of us who are like those who grumbled, questioned, and told the landowner that it was unfair to pay everyone the same wage.
The first group acts as those they have been deceived by the Landowner are being treated unfairly by him. But in our story, the group who complains is the same group who agrees to work for a denarius.
The others agree to work for “What is right” and they accept that. There is no deception and nothing unfair done by the landowner here.
The first group of laborers are the only ones to complain about the landowner in the parable. The complainers in the story represent the pharisees who question and criticize Jesus at every turn for not following agreeing with or following their perceptions of who God is and how they expect God to act.
Like the Pharisees before us, our imperfect perceptions of God get in the way of fully understanding just how gracious and loving God is to all.
We are confronted with the creative Tension between God’s Truth and God’s Grace. The landowner follows the rules laid out my Moses, but also follows God’s command to do justice and love neighbor as self.
The parable by focusing on God’s gracious and generous character highlights the new spiritual economy in the Kingdom of God that triumphs and supersedes all understandings human merit and value.
Our society’s reward for work system is so much a part of the way we think that we have a difficult time with God’s grace and generosity. We have difficulty with grace, because you can’t work for it, or earn it, and you can’t ever repay God for it. Our birth, lives, families, our work, gifts, opportunities, friends, talents, and our salvation are God’s gracious gifts to us that flow out God’s generous heart to us.
God’s generous and gracious character is a stumbling block for anyone who refuses to give up their own or our society’s ideas of justice and merit. It doesn’t matter how long or how hard a person has worked within the church. What matters is “have we responded to the gracious call of God to work in his vineyard today?”
Eduard Schweizer, a biblical theologian once wrote…
“The `person’ who imports `their’ own ideas of what is right and just cannot understand this (that is God’s grace). To measure God’s goodness by the standard of people’s works does not do justice to either. Anyone who fails to understand that God gives infinitely more than a just wage also fails to understand that the reward given by God is an expression of his goodness.” (Schweizer, Matthew, p. 393)”
The landowner exerts his authority over all who have worked for Him. To the workers who grumble at his generosity, the landowner declares
“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?’
God’s generous and gracious character is to have a profound mark and effect every aspect of our lives.
In all things, we are to celebrate and focus on the spiritual plenty that God’s gives to us in Christ. We all stand on equal footing at the cross.
We all need God’s Grace, God’s Mercy, and God’s abundant care for us. God as our Creator has claim on each person.
If we live in God’s grace, then we will want to follow God’s demonstration of his love and mercy towards all people.
We celebrate the plenty of an expanded vision and understanding of God and his Kingdom that leads us to see the needs of others as well as our own.
We welcome all who God welcomes into in the labor force of Kingdom of God, be it those who have worked long and hard in God’s vineyard, or whether it be those who come to work at the “11th hour.”
We celebrate God’s gracious generosity, which creates a new alternative community that opposes our world’s emphasis on valuing some more than others. The church, like Israel, stands as a beacon of hope, a people who live out God’s graciousness in all their relationships. A people who when hurting themselves do not cease to help others who are hurting.
And maybe, just maybe, we value God’s teaching on wealth and economics more than our society’s so that that we might be more vocal and active advocates for those who struggle financially in our communities.
The parable ends with the declaration,
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Mt 20:16).
One could hear that as a threat or a warning to get in step with God and be better people who don’t complain about God’s generous character.
Or you one can hear it a statement of blessing from God to those who have embraced His gracious upside down and right side up Kingdom economics.
May we be followers of Jesus Christ, who seek to embrace and embody the gracious character God, in our everyday lives.
AMEN.
song: Come thou fount of every blessing Sung by Sarah Noëlle
Moment for Mission – International Day of Prayer for Peace
Today, there are millions of people around the world
living in conflict-affected countries.
Many have been displaced from their homes
and have limited access to basic needs.
Children are unable to go to school.
Families do not have enough food to eat.
There is no telling when home might be safe again.
Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D)
continuously provides emergency relief in conflict-affected areas.
By reaching out to the most vulnerable
to address immediate needs such as food, shelter, and water and sanitation,
as well as long-term needs, such as
livelihood recovery, education and psychosocial support,
we help to restore strength and hope for
the future for the world’s most vulnerable.
PWS&D responds to conflict
Prayers of the People
God of Hope,
When the world is bleak and dim, you pierce the shadows with light.
You help us see new paths and possibilities.
For hope in times of despair, for clarity when we felt confused,
for a way forward when we thought all was lost,
we give you thanks.
We pray today for those who feel hopeless;
or those who are sick or dying;
for those who mourn; and for those weighed down by heavy burdens.
May each of us know and share your gift of hope.
God of Peace,
All around us there is conflict: in our world, our communities,
our families, even our closest relationships.
We thank you for steps toward reconciliation in our lives,
our communities, and among peoples of different cultures and histories.
We pray today for places where pain, violence and cruelty
seem to have the upper hand.
May each of us know and share your gift of peace.
God of Joy,
We give you thanks for moments of delight and occasions of celebration;
for happy gatherings, gentle solitude, pleasure given and received;
for laugher, friendship, and love.
We remember those who do not taste such joy;
those who are lonely or bitter, hurt, or difficult to love.
May each of us know and share your gift of joy.
God of Love,
In Jesus Christ, your love was born in a human life.
Jesus was rooted in a particular family,
yet his love stretched far beyond to include outsiders a
and those rejected by others.
We are so grateful to be part of his circle.
We pray for our families, those closest to us or and anyone estranged.
We pray for friends and for acquaintances, strangers,
for those very different from ourselves, and even for our enemies.
Help us draw our circles of affection wider,
seeing our kinship with all people.
May each of us know and share your gift of love.
Hear us now as we pray in silence for those who have come to mind this day.
(Silence for at least 15 seconds.)
And now, in one voice, we pray the prayer that Jesus taught.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours now and forever. Amen..
Song: By Grace Alone
Charge and Benediction (2 Cor 13.13, The Message)
We go to be laborers
in God’s Vineyard in the world.
We go to be gracious laborers supporting each other.
We go to witnesses to God’s gracious character.
May the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ,
the extravagant love of God,
and the intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit
be with all of you.
Congregational Blessing: “The Peace of Christ be with You”
Prayer Partnership
Monday, September 21 (International Day of Peace) We pray for the safety and well-being of those living in conflict situations around the world and that hear the call to be peacemakers and to speak out against forces of violence.
Tuesday, September 22 We pray for justice and safety of all the minority groups in India who are persecuted for their faith.
Wednesday, September 23 We pray for Cyclical PCC participants who are gathering to prepare to learn about and work towards starting new worshipping communities.
Thursday, September 24 We pray for peace for those affected by ongoing conflict around the world as Presbyterian World Service & Development provides emergency assistance.
Friday, September 25 We pray for campus ministries’ chaplains and volunteers and the congregations that support these ministries that show God’s love and care to young adults facing many stresses and challenges.
Saturday, September 26 We give thanks for the faithful generosity of congregations across Canada as we share in mission and ministry together through Presbyterians Sharing.