The Gospel
Matthew 20:1-16
Psalm 145: 8-14 I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for welcoming me in so warmly today. It’s good to be here in Camden, ME. Amen? Amen. I was here at the beginning of August as well. The first night I was here I felt this quiet call to be out on the water. So I took a kayak out here in the bay. As the setting sun was setting, it was illuminating the Camden Hills like a halo. The breeze was blowing just enough so that you could feel it in your soul, but not too much so that the water was as calm as could be. I thought to myself, This is a kind of peacefulness that you can only find in two places: Camden, ME and HEAVEN. I sat there in the kayak, with the birds flying way overhead, and I prayed, Dear God, let heaven be just like this. Amen? I remember when my parents first moved here, I remember my father raving about Camden’s perfection. With the enthusiasm of a man plagued by decades of Boston and New York City traffic he explained to me, “THERE’S THIS FIVE-WAY INTERSECTION RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN! AND THERE ISN’T A SINGLE STOP SIGN! EVERYONE IS POLITE AND JUST LETS EACH OTHER GO! THERE AREN’T ANY STOP SIGNS AND SOMEHOW IT JUST WORKS!!!! IT’S LIKE HEAVEN!!!!!” It’s like Heaven, he said. And he wasn’t far off. These are two very common images of what Heaven is like: A glorious place of such peaceful beauty that it draws you in. A place where there are plenty of 5-way intersections with no need for any stop signs, because everyone helps each other out, and somehow It all just works. We see this type of image of Heaven all throughout our culture and our Bible. Look at the psalm we read earlier... “They shall speak of the GLORY of your kingdom, and tell of your power...and the GLORIOUS SPLENDOR of your kingdom.” With all that emphasis on the GLORIOUS SPLENDOR of God’s kingdom, I imagine myself right back on the water, staring at the glowing Camden Hills. Glorious. Peaceful. Somehow It just works. Dear God, let heaven be just like this..... ....Like a quiet sunset......like a 5-way intersection....like a landowner hiring day-laborers....... Quiet sunset....Ok, I got that one. 5-way intersection.....I guess that makes sense too. Landowner hiring day laborers......? That last one doesn’t sound quite right, does it? Heaven is like a landowner hiring day-laborers? That doesn’t quite call to mind the GLORIOUS kingdom of the Psalm. That doesn’t quite remind me of the peaceful sunset over Camden Hills. That’s not even a place, it’s an action. But that’s what the passage from Matthew says: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.....” It might have made more sense if Jesus had said, “Heaven is like a beautiful vineyard....” That’s something I could understand. I bet you can imagine that vineyard. If you’ve been to the vineyard in Linconville, you may not have to try so hard. Can you imagine the splendor of that vineyard in Ancient Israel? Can you see the rolling hills and the setting sun and the rows of grapes? Can you see all of the men and women working the fields? It’s glorious. It’s peaceful. But in this story, the vineyard is not heaven. Heaven is like this......... The landowner goes out early in the morning. He’s in need of workers, and frankly, with the tax codes as they are since the Romans took over the government, it’s a whole lot easier to just pay someone under the table. Am I right? So he goes out and he picks up some day laborers to work his vineyard. He’s an honest man, so he offers a more than fair wage for their full-day of work. And as the story goes, this landowner went out again mid-morning, and again at noon, and again at 3, and again at 5. He’s got all the laborers he needs, but he goes out from the vineyard anyway. He leaves his glorious oasis, his heavenly home, he goes out and he sees these men still standing in line, waiting for work, left behind. He doesn’t need more workers. But their idleness piques the landowner’s curiosity. He can’t understand why or how they would have fallen through the cracks of this economic system. So he asks them, “Why are you still standing here idle?” “Why are you standing here idle?” “Why are you standing here idle?” We ask this question over and over, of our politicians, of our churches, of each other. “Why are you standing here idle?” We ask each other all the time, but its usually more of a rhetorical question. It’s more of an expression of frustration: “WHY AREN’T YOU DOING ANYTHING?!” What if we actually asked someone standing idle on the streets? What if we actually listened for their answer? What do you think the response might be? Why are you standing here idle? Imagine my friend Diego’s response. Diego might say, I am standing here idle because no one will hire me. I am standing here because I left Mexico with a legitimate passport and a legitimate work visa and a job offer on a farm in an exotic land called Maine. But when I got there, my boss took away my passport and my visa for “safe keeping,” but what he meant was safekeeping from me. He stole my passport so that I couldn’t leave! He didn’t pay me for 6 months. He didn’t give me any food. He made me sleep in a shack. He made me sit in the back of a full pick up truck to get to the fields. When the truck crashed one day, and the rest of my friends died in the crash, and both my arms were broken, I couldn’t take it any longer. So I ran, but I had nowhere to run, and I had no documents to get work and no money to get home. I am a LEGAL immigrant, but I stand here idle because I am undocumented and no one will hire me. Imagine Jason’s response. Jason might say, I am standing here because I wore a turban to work. I am standing here because I grew up in Boston, and I have a thick Boston accent, so I used to fit in. Then I converted to Sikhism. As my religion would have me do, I started wearing a long beard and a turban. I am standing here because I am different. I am standing here because my bosses mocked me and fired me. I am standing here because I practice my religion and no one will hire me. Imagine Jody’s response. Jody might say, I am standing here because I am in love with my partner of 15 years, and the school where I work found out. I am a woman in love with a woman and I am proud of our daughter, and I am proud of our family together, and somehow that threatens them, somehow they think that puts their children in danger, so they fired me. I am standing here because I love my wife and no one will hire me. So the Landowner looked at all of the day laborers. The Landowner looked at Jody and Jason and Diego and you and me. He didn’t need any more workers, but he had now seen their need. He could not turn and leave them there idle like everyone else had. He had seen their unjust rejections. He had seen the way the system had left these able workers to stand idle in the streets, and he said, “Come to my vineyard. I will pay you what is right.” And this is Heaven. It’s not a place we go; it’s a thing we do; it’s a verb; it’s a labor of love. The scripture doesn’t say “Heaven is like a beautiful vineyard.” The scripture says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out and hired some laborers, and then kept going out to hire more and more and more....” Heaven is the process of leaving this, your sanctuary, leaving your vineyard, leaving the glorious splendor of your heavenly bliss, in order to see all of the people left behind by this unjust system. Heaven is inquiring about their need, and then inviting them into your sanctuary. The vineyard isn’t heaven until the end of the day, when every worker is paid, and every worker is reminded that they are all valued equally in the eyes of God; that they are all loved equally in the eyes of God. Heaven isn’t a place; it’s an everyday action. It’s not something we have to wait for at the end of our lives; it’s something we can get a glimpse of every single day. It’s something we can CREATE every single day in our daily actions. Because you may not know Jody, or Jason, or Diego, but I bet you know someone like them, and I bet you’ve read about them in the newspaper. Diego lives just up Route 1 in Maine, and Jason lives right down the street in Camden, and Jody sits in the pew right next to you. So if you want to know what Heaven’s like, all you have to do is leave your vineyard, and look, and ask, and act. THIS is what calls me to ministry. I have met Diego. I have met Jason. I have met Jody. And I have seen the world that rejects them over and over and over again. I have seen the world that says they’re not good enough. I have seen the world that leaves them standing idle and alone out on the street. And I have read the scripture. I have heard the Word of God in this scripture. It’s a Word that says, Heaven is like a landowner who goes out over and over and over again. It’s a Word that says no one gets left behind. It’s a Word that says everyone gets paid equally, because God values each and every person no matter who they are and no matter where they are on life’s journey. It’s a Word that says, sometimes you’re the landowner helping out and sometimes you’re the day laborer in need of love, and that’s okay. It’s a Word that says the cost doesn’t matter, God will give you what is right, because we are at a 5-way intersection and somehow it just works. Dear God, let Heaven be just like this. Amen? Amen. So, why are you standing here idle all day?
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