Grumbling over Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Welcome! Today we continue our series on parables, looking at a parable from Matthew that I suspect on some level makes us all uncomfortable. Most translations of the Bible, in order to make things easier to find, add headings or titles to sections of Scripture. It is important to remember that these headings are not part of the Scriptures themselves; they are additions made by the editor of the particular translation. Our passage today is Matthew 20:1-16, and the heading in the NIV is “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” but I prefer a title more like “The Parable of the Unconventional Landowner.” 

When a landowner, or more generally, a business owner, is unconventional in a good way, especially when it is obvious how much he cares for his workers or clients, we take note, because this is, generally speaking, a rare thing. I think of the classic movie as It’s a Wonderful Life an example. George Bailey, the central character, was the epitome of a generous and selfless man. Although George as a young man had big plans to go to college and build a career away from his home town, a series of circumstances leads George to forgo these and other plans in order to help his brother and to save his father’s business, a bank. Although it is not his desire, George eventually takes over the bank and starts a housing project, and there he is generous, kind, and merciful to his clients and tenants, so much so that when George himself ends up in a severe financial and legal bind as a result of his uncle’s carelessness, the entire town comes together to cover his financial needs. 

Planning Ahead

Luke 16:1-15, 19-31

Our title for today holds a certain irony for me, as I was well on my way toward preparing a message on the Parable of the Talents, until on Friday I realized that my passages for today were supposed to be from Luke 16: the Parables of the Shrewd Manager and of The Rich Man and Lazarus. So my “planning ahead” had gone awry, except that I will be speaking on the Talents passage in August, so my work was not actually wasted. There is also overlap in some of the concepts that Jesus is teaching about, so it has been good to think about those beforehand. So anyway, you can think about today’s message as the first of two that I will do on the teachings of Jesus concerning how to handle money and possessions.

You may be aware that 16 of the 38 parables in the gospels have something to do with money and possessions and that the Bible as a whole has more verses on money and wealth than on prayer, faith, and salvation combined. Jesus recognized the importance of wealth and possessions – but also their potential to lead us away from God. The function of wealth has been corrupted by sin. What God intended as an expression and source of blessing has become a source of pride and security apart from God. People think that money gives them control over their lives and allows them to live autonomously. Money is a source of status and power – just look at our political system. As 1 Timothy 6:10 puts it, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Losing and Finding

Luke 15:3-32

Welcome! Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus, and we come to some of the most well-known, most discussed parables of all. Lots and lots of people who have never cracked open a Bible to read it for themselves still know something about these parables. And for those of us who have gone to church for many years, it can be hard to look at these parables freshly, attentively, because we think there is nothing else that can be said, nothing new to learn.

 But I challenge you today to fight against this attitude, to believe in faith that God can still stir your heart freshly with these parables. These parables are well-known, oft-discussed for a reason: they are powerful. They are deep. Actually they are amazingly rich, in my opinion the magnum opus (great work) of parable writing for all time.

When we began this series I explained that a parable literally a “laying alongside,” a telling of a story with common everyday scenes and situations to draw an easily understood picture to tell us something about something else, a spiritual truth, something more abstract, something deeper, something that is otherwise harder to understand. Now there are lots of different reasons spiritual things can be difficult to understand. One that you might first think of is that it is strange, complex, seemingly even self-contradictory, like the twin Biblical truths of predestination and free will, or the nature of God as three-in-one. But another reason a spiritual truth can be hard to grasp is because we just can’t accept it; it goes against a core belief we have that we just can’t seem to abandon. I would argue that today’s parables are really in this latter category.

Being a True Disciple

Luke 14:25-35

… Jesus … said:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Luke 14:25-35