"It is Enough to have Enough"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Proper 20 year A
The Church of the Good Shepherd
Matthew 20:1-16

How do you react when someone near you is blessed? Pretend you're working in an office as a manager of a certain department and someone who's been working under you, as one of your assistants, is promoted to management, maybe the manager of a parallel department. He's an okay worker, not the best, not the worst, average. How do you feel about that? Let's say you've been working in this office and with this company for 10 years and that you were only made a manager last year, whereas this guy has only been working there for two years and has already been promoted to a position just like yours. How do you feel about that? Okay, let's say a few months later the same guy gets called into the general manager's office and comes out an hour later as the new general manager, your boss. How do you feel now? Would you be angry? Would you start to grumble about the guy behind his back? Or would you be happy for him and rejoice with him. How do you think Jesus would want you to react?

Well, open your bibles to Matthew 20:1-16 and we'll take a look. Jesus begins by saying “This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.” That means the story isn't a real story, but it's a window into the kingdom of heaven, not the place where angels play harps all day. He's describing God's kingdom on earth that began with Jesus' own ministry, that will be fully established when he returns; that is present here and now in the Church, the body of believers, you and me. So this story gives us some information about the new world God is creating, how it works, what the laws are, how believers here and now are to relate to one another and to God.

In verse one Jesus sets the scene. A landowner goes out early in the morning and finds a group of men to work in his vineyard. He promises to pay a dinarius for the day. Does anyone know how much this is in today‘s money? A dinarius was a little above the average daily wage at the time. Roman soldiers were paid a dinarius a day. Common laborers a little less. This is a good deal.

So, they head out and start to work. But the landowner wants more workers, so, verses 3-5 he goes back out, this time at the third hour, 9:00am, and hires more workers. Notice what he tells them. “work in my vineyard and I'll pay you whatever is right.” He doesn't give them an amount, he just tells them he'll pay them fairly and they head out to work too.

But the landowner isn't finished. He goes looking for workers again at the sixth hour, noon, and the ninth hour 3:00pm.

Then, in verse six, late in the day, 5:00pm, only about an hour before it gets dark and everybody comes in from the fields the landowner goes out one last time and hires yet another group of workers who‘d been just kind of loitering around all day. Look at what he says, “Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?” “Well, no one hired us.” “Well, I'm hiring you, go and work in my vineyard.”

Not once after verse 2 do we hear the landowner get specific about pay. He told the first group he'd pay them a dinarius, promised the second group he'd pay them fairly, whatever that means, and we don't hear anything at all about the other groups.

Now, if you were a member of that first group and you'd been working in the vineyard since dawn and you saw these other groups come into the fields and start working, at 9:00am, at noon, at 3:00pm and then at 5:00pm, how would you feel about yourself and what expectations would you have about the end of the day? Well I'd feel a little proud of myself for having the good sense to get out early and find work before everyone else. I'd expect that the other groups would be paid less than a dinarius, especially those lazy guys who just pulled into work at 5:00pm. It's only fair that since I worked longer I should be paid more. Or well, that they should be paid less. Seems fair right?

But when the day is finally over that's not what happens is it? When evening came, the owner has the foreman call in the workers and pay their wages beginning with the last and ending with first. Now, look at verse 9, “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour, [these are the lazy 5 o'clockers] came and received a dinarius.” What? Can you imaging what was going through the minds of the men who'd been there all day? “A dinarius, they only worked an hour!” This can't be right. Well, they think to themselves maybe he's paying them a dinarius and he's planning to pay us more?

But, verse 10, “When those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a dinarius.” What do you think they were thinking? This is unfair! Verse 11, “When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner, ‘these men who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

This seems like a totally fair complaint. But think about it for a moment. Why are these men upset? Were they themselves were treated unfairly, were they docked any wages? No? Were they underpaid? No? Were they forced to do something they weren't hired to do? No? Did the landowner give them their wages in a timely manner? Yes. So, what are they upset about? They're upset because the landowner decided to bless their fellow workers. They're upset because the landowner is overflowing with grace. What's grace? It's an undeserved gift. The landowner has blessed their fellow workers out of his abundance and this blessing, this gift, stirs up resentment in their heart. Instead of rejoicing with at the good fortune of their fellow workers, they're angry. But what are they failing to recognize?

The landowner didn't have to give them work in the first place did he? He didn't have to hire anybody if he didn't want to. But he found these guys early in the morning and picked them. They wouldn't have had a job otherwise. And then he didn't have to promise to pay them as well as he did. He could have paid them the going rate for common workers. He paid them above it. So they have been given all they need and they are not content. Instead of an attitude of gratitude toward the landowner for the blessings he's given them these guys are full of resentment toward their fellow workers for what they have been given. They've been blessed, why can't they rejoice at someone else's blessing? Why do we sometimes have such a hard time rejoicing when friends, co-workers, or relatives are blessed or promoted or win a place on a team that we don't win or buy a bigger house or get more attention than we do?

Jesus told this story to people who were resentful that Jesus was hanging out with people who'd lived sinful lives, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, and offering them a way back to God. Why is Jesus helping these people who don't deserve his help when we've been devout all of our lives.

And in the face of their resentment, Jesus is saying, God is like the landowner. He is full and overflowing with grace and he gives his love and forgiveness and mercy to any who call on his name be they Jew or Gentile, free or slave, black or white. You've worked long and hard for the kingdom of God, spectacular. You're a beloved child of the Almighty, but you are where you are because God has called you to his vineyard. He didn't have to. You've been forgiven. He didn't have to forgive you. You've been saved from your sins. He didn't have to save you. God has held out his hand to you as well and but for the grace of God you wouldn‘t even be in the vineyard. Shouldn't you spend more time thanking God for all that he has given you rather than resenting all that he gives someone else.

Jesus is pointing to the difference between contentment and resentment. Contentment comes when you turn your eyes from your neighbor's car or boat or house or promotion or whatever it is and look instead at all of the things God has given you, starting with the fact that you are alive. God brought you into this world. He didn't have to. He gave you your mind, your hands, your skills. He didn't have to. And because he gave you these things you can also say that He's provided you with food and with clothing and with shelter. I know sometimes we like to point to our stuff, puff out our chest, and say look what I did. Look how much I've accomplished. Look how much I have. But we would have none of it, if God had not first given us the mind, hands, body, and skills to do what we've done, not to mention the very breath in our lungs. So everything we have is directly attributable to God. Everything. He didn't have to give you these things, but he did, because before you were in your mother's womb he loved you.

The believer in Jesus Christ of all people on the earth should be content. God has not only given you life and breath, shelter and food. IF you've given him you're heart, he's given you his Son. He lives right there in your heart right now. That's why Paul says in Philippians, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Beginning the day you gave your life to him you have a billion years and more of never-ending strength and joy and peace coming to you not because you earned it but because God gives it freely to all who turn to him. Who cares whether in these 80 or 90 or 100 years you die with the most stuff or whether you're famous, or whether you've had a great and illustrious career or a mediocre one. It doesn't matter. You have to leave it all behind anyway. You can‘t take it with you. It's enough in this life to have enough. And we believers have more than enough. We have Jesus. He's our treasure. He's our peace. He's our contentment and our rest.

Is there someone you resent. Drop it. Today. This morning. And recognize that God has dealt with you abundantly. Is there someone in your life who God has blessed? Rejoice with them. Be happy for them and thank God that he has given you enough.

Amen