.: for those with ears to truly hear :.

I have been working through the parable that Jesus told about "the workers in the vineyard" (Matthew 20:1-16) for my Preaching and Worship class. I am one week away from preaching for my second time in my tutorial lab, and my heart is heavy with thoughts revolving around how to best present this text. How can I open up this story so that we all might enter into it (rather than me dragging my own presuppositions and "isogesis" - reading into the text rather than drawing things out of it - into it)? How can I speak to this story in such a way that it is as fresh next week as it was when it was first told by Christ to His listeners? How might I place myself in this scenario and tell my own listeners of what I sense, feel, hear, and see "all around me"?

This is the wonderful power of effective preaching!

Some of my initial stages of thought are as follows; Christ is telling us a story in the form of a parable (heavenly truths hidden within earthly language)... He is addressing Peter's claim in 19:27 ("What then will there be for us?"), a seemingly fair question since he and the other disciples have been with Christ for so long and have not bailed on Him yet... Jesus is emphasizing a principle here (both 19:30 and 20:16; "The first shall be last and the last shall be first")... and in turn, He is explaining it (which I love because rather than giving us detailed facts, He tells a graphic story which infiltrates our "guard" and hits us right in the source of one of our most deeply rooted complaints: "God is not fair!")... the contrast in verse 8 through 10 stir up scenarios in our own hearts and minds of times when we have either been given "too much" or what feels to us as "too little" (which in fact is truly fair, in this story being the price that they agreed upon with the landowner)... and ultimately, we see both God's justice (with the 6AM crew) and God's grace (with the 5PM crew).

Here is where the story enters into my own life - the place that I hope and pray that the Spirit will allow my words, accomplished through His work, to cause my listeners to enter into! This parable that Christ is telling is not just about being thankful as someone who has received God's grace, but even deeper, it is speaking to my deeply rooted longings of wanting what others have. (OUCH!) This parable is giving us a vivid picture of what the Kingdom of God is going to be like... what it is being manifested as even now in our own world. The Kingdom of God is built upon this balance of fairness (justice) and lavishness (grace), especially in terms of eternal rewards (which is at the heart of this story). In contrast to this rich truth, I am a person who consistently lives by comparisons, which Christ is exposing as a value that is not of His Kingdom through telling me this story.

When I live like this... when I take up the cry of the workers in the vineyard and accusingly cry out, "God, this is not fair!", I blame Him and in turn end up (subtly) cutting all ties with Him. And when I live like this, I not only blame God, but I also inevitably lose tremendous amounts of joy. And even more, one element of that joy is being able to enter into the joy of others as they receive portions of God's incredible grace into their own lives. When I enter into this text, I am confronted with the staggering fact that the heart that truly believes that God has ripped it off can justify anything! When in my own life, I believe in the core of my being that the Almighty has somehow held out, or has even somehow scammed me, I am able to justify any kind of behavior! I am certainly well aware of the times in my life that I have made such claims against God. But as I place myself in this story, I am confronted by my own misguided, improper ways of thinking.

Christ is calling each and every one of us, as workers in His own Kingdom, to eagerly and expectantly enter into this reality (of both God and His Kingdom). That begins by focusing on His blessing and grace in my own life, no matter what the circumstances! Even if I feel like God has emptied me out, and has taken away everything that I once held so dear, I am able to (if I so choose, deciding to look beyond my own feelings of comparison to others) see that the Father is still with me. James 4:8 tells us that if we draw near to God, He will in turn draw near to us. As my preaching professor often says, things are not always what they seem (what we expect in our hearts to receive may not be what we truly get in the end). And in light of this passage, we are called to live in this type of life (focused on His grace rather than my own subtle comparisons)... with this kind of God - one who is not just fair, but is truly lavish and extravagant!