At the End of the Day

Reverend Philip Stringer

Matthew 20:1-16

Jonah 3:10-4:11

LET US PRAY: Gracious Lord, Bread of Life, feed us with your Word, and speak to our hearts, that we may love and serve only you, now and forever. AMEN

We all love a story with a happy ending, and today we have two stories with two happy endings... except, as we heard, not everyone is happy with the endings. It turns out that determining if a story has a happy ending or not is subjective.

Today the Good News comes to us through stories of grace to remind us that the fullness of life is experienced best through a thankful heart.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus invites you and me into a life of purpose and meaning — a life of joy rooted in the knowledge that we have a place in vineyard of God.

Jesus tells a story about the economy of God.

Economics is a word with which we are familiar. We hear it used most commonly in matters of money and systems of business. People’s wellbeing and the prosperity of nations rely on sound economic practices. The machinery of the modern age relies on the flow of money through all the segments of society. The money has to be moving for the world to work. That is basic economics. The worker must have money to spend to buy bread for the table so that they can work. The bread is made from flour grown by the farmer. The bread is baked in an oven that requires wood to be burned. The oven comes from workers in an oven factory. The wood comes from a lumber mill. The oven factory needs iron to make the oven. The iron comes from a mine. The ore from the mine is moved by barges. And on and on.

The worker in the mine and on the barge and in the factory and in the lumber mill and in the bakery all need money to buy their bread so that they can convert that bread into the work they do — that is basic economics.

When we hear the word “economics,” we think: money. But the word “economus” actually means “work.” Economics is actually the study of how things work.

Today, Jesus tells us a story about the economy of God. It is a story that tells us how things work in the mind of God. In God’s economy, value is not something earned; it is something given. And at the end of the day, those who are satisfied — those who go to bed with peace in their hearts — are those who are thankful that they were given a place in the vineyard.

In Jesus’ story, everyone wins. Everyone. But not everyone in Jesus’ story is happy with that outcome — and it isn’t hard for us to understand why. In the world economy there are winners and losers. In a world of sin where selfish hearts are at work and the power of fear drives people to fight each other for control of resources, there will always be winners and losers.

In the world economy, bread is a weapon. Those who have bread have power over those who do not. If we have bread, we like to believe that we deserve it because we have earned it — and we like to believe that those who do not have bread don’t have it because they don’t deserve it — they haven’t earned it.

What is so brilliant about Jesus’ story is that it shows us a collision between the economy of the world and the economy of God, and it invites us to switch economies — to switch in our minds the equation of how things work. What Jesus shows us is that those who are unhappy at the end of the day are those who are proud of themselves. Their focus is on themselves.

They are proud of the work they have done. In their minds they have earned their wage — but the VALUE of that work is based on measuring against others. They ascribe value to themselves by comparing themselves to others.

We have a host of sayings that convey the wisdom of doing this in an economy of the world.

Energy in — energy out. You get out of it what you put into it.

You get what you pay for. If it’s cheap, it won’t last. If you want quality, you have to pay for it.

It’s all basic economics.

But at the end of the day, those workers who are living in an economy of the world go away unhappy. In their minds, justice means that you get what you deserve — and you deserve what you have earned.

Jonah was mad. And by the world’s economic measure, he should have been. God had commanded him to travel to a corrupt and immoral city to proclaim God’s condemnation, and Jonah didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to do it so much that he tried to run away — you’ve heard the story — he hops on a boat to go the opposite direction, but a storm arises — the crew throws him overboard and he is swallowed by a huge fish that eventually pukes him up on the shores near Nineveh.

So, Jonah travels to the heart of the city — stands on a street corner and preaches a hell-fire and damnation sermon, and then he goes out on a hill where he has a good view of the city to watch the show — he expects God to blow them up — but instead, they people have listened to Jonah’s sermon and have repented, and so God forgives them.

God doesn’t blow up the city, and Jonah is really ticked off about this. “I knew it!” he exclaims. “Isn’t this exactly what I said would happen when I was sitting in my house back home?”

He is angry that God doesn’t live by the principles of world economics. “After all the trouble I’ve gone through to proclaim the destruction of Nineveh, I at least deserve a good show." Jonah believes he has earned the right to watch thousands of wretched people get what’s coming to them.

And here, also, we see the collision of God’s economy and the world’s. What is ironic is that Jonah’s name in Hebrew means, “dove.” And a dove, as you may know is a symbol of both peace and of the Spirit of God.

His father’s name, “Amittai” means, “truth.” So, it is as if — from the time of his birth, the truth is that God intends Jonah to be an instrument to bring about peace — and to the people of Nineveh, who previously had been living in an economy of wickedness and selfishness — to them, Jonah has indeed been the means by which they have turned from their evil ways and have been washed in the peace of God’s grace.

Jonah has saved thousands upon thousands of lives. Because of him, these people will live on — each new day they will experience another gift of God’s grace. Living in God’s economy of grace, they will have joy and peace, knowing that they have value and purpose and are loved by their creator.

But the one person who is NOT at peace is Jonah — the one whose name literally means the image of peace.

If Jonah’s heart could only be converted to give him eyes that see God’s economy, he would see that the reward for his work isn’t anything he has earned. The reward is the work itself. What a privilege — what an honor to be included in God’s plan for saving Nineveh.

When we pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” Luther pointed out that God’s kingdom comes whether we pray for it or not. In this prayer, we pray that we become a part of its coming.”

The author of Jonah’s story ends it right there. It is left for you and me to ponder whether-or-not Jonah will find peace in the economy of God.

So also in Jesus’ parable of the vineyard, he doesn’t tell us if the unhappy workers have changed their view of things.

You and I live with one foot in each of two kingdoms — we live in a world with an economic model of winners and losers. You and I must work for our daily bread. But even now the kingdom of God — the economy of God is breaking in upon this world. God’s economy of grace has washed over us and we have a place in the vineyard of God. And not only that — we have purpose and meaningful work in the vineyard of God.

In the Lord’s Prayer we also pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” And similar to the coming of God’s Kingdom, God does give to us our daily bread, whether we pray for it or not. But the invitation for you and me is to see that the bread is a gift — yes, we work for our bread, but at the end of the day, even the ability to work for our bread is a gift. All of life is a gift.

The unhappy workers in Jesus’ parable were proud of themselves. When they looked at what they had done compared to what others had done, they had earned the bragging rights. When St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, he told them that we don’t brag about ourselves — we brag about the greatness of God.

When I was a kid, I remember that bumper stickers kept popping up on cars around town. The bumber sticker simply stated, “I FOUND IT.” I asked my dad, “what is it? What have they found?” He told me the stickers were from a church in the area, and they were celebrating that they had found Jesus and their salvation. And then he said that what we celebrate is not that we have found God, but that God has found us. Jesus has found us.

Now to be fair, perhaps what the members of that church meant by putting those stickers on their cars is that they are celebrating the conversion of their hearts from an economy of the world to God’s economy of grace. I hope so. And I have that same hope for ourselves.

Here is the good news for you today — You have a place in the vineyard of God. You are included, through no merit or effort of your own. The way things work in the vineyard of God is that you belong there because God loves you — and because you are loved, God not only includes you in the place. God includes you in the work.

You are instruments of God’s peace in the world. You are instruments of grace — and the work that you and I have been given is to brag about the wonderful economy of God. We brag about the God who has found us — who finds us all and loves us all.

In the parable of the vineyard, all of the workers are included in the benefits of the vineyard — whether they appreciate it or not. The fullness of life comes not from what is earned, but simply in the privilege of being included in the work. Peace and joy come through thanksgiving for this.

At the end of the day, there is peace in this:

No matter what today’s economy of the world serves up for you today —good or bad, joy or sorrow, fair or unfair — this one thing will not change: You have a place in the vineyard of God.

And at the end of the day, this will always be true.

Today is a great day to be a worker in the vineyard of God.

AMEN