The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 6:24-34
In Christ Jesus, whose promise to provide for us is far more powerful than our worries and troubles, dear fellow redeemed:
He says it five times!
- “Do not be anxious about your life.”
- “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
- “Why are you anxious about clothing?”
- “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
- “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.”
Jesus thinks we have an anxiousness problem, a worry problem, and Jesus is never wrong. He also identifies another problem: our little faith. Both of those go together—worry and a lack of faith. We worry because we do not believe God will do what He says, or at least we have doubts that He will provide for us in just the way and at just the time that we need it.
But what is it that causes our worry? What is our worry based on? Our worry is not based on anything we find in God’s Word. We don’t read about an arbitrary or a fickle God who sometimes chooses to bless His children and sometimes chooses to harm them. At times He does chasten and discipline us, because He wants to lead us to repentance and a stronger faith. But this is done out of love. He is always faithful. He does not change. So worry is not based on uncertainty about God’s will and work which are clearly revealed to us in His Word.
Worry is based on our own experience and the evidence we see around us in the world. We can think of times when we had more expenses than income, more responsibilities than we had the ability to meet. Maybe we were worried about paying our bills, and then more bills came. We didn’t know where the money would come from to cover even the essentials like food and utilities. Or one of our family members was sick, and we didn’t know if we could afford the medicine needed for healing.
We also look around us and see many people who go hungry, who can’t afford clothing, who have no place to go home to. If God feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, why doesn’t He feed and clothe all people in need? And if doesn’t do this for the people who really need it, how can we be sure He will do this for us? So we worry. We give more weight to our experiences and doubts than to God’s promises.
When we allow worry to come in, we are taking matters that God wants to handle and holding those matters in our own hands. We keep the burden on ourselves of providing for our needs and fixing our own problems. Or we look for another provider, another god, whose promises seem more reliable.
This is how many people view the government. They trust the government to take care of all their needs. But as necessary as government is—and God has certainly ordained it for good order and for our protection—yet government is made up of sinners, who are often ready to take as much or more than they promise to give.
Our worries really come down to 1) having enough and 2) keeping what we have. A person just out of high school or a married couple with little children might especially worry about having enough. They do without new clothes, new cars, and a nice house. Retirement is a long way off—there’s lots of work to do! But older individuals whose work has been blessed and who are able to afford the finer things, now worry about having enough to retire on and having the good health and energy to enjoy it.
When we worry about the future like this, we behave like “the Gentiles.” Jesus says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” Now many of us are Gentiles in the sense of not having Jewish background. But Jesus is referring to the unbelieving Gentiles, the ones who did not have the Scriptures. That isn’t us, but we act like the unbelievers when we worry about having what we need.
Instead of worry, Jesus teaches us to do this: “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” He says that when we put our faith in God and His Word—little though our faith may be—, all the things we need for this earthly life will be provided to us. That’s quite a promise! It’s a promise that we have difficulty accepting.
We think that if we are going to prosper in this life, we have to make it happen. We have to outwork our co-workers, we have to come up with new solutions to get ourselves noticed by the “higher-ups.” We have to be in the right place at the right time. Then we will have a shot at our dreams. Then we can have a chance at the life we always wanted.
This is not a criticism of hard work. God wants every one of us to do our work to the best of our ability, whether we are in the classroom, in the workplace, in our homes, or at church. God never endorses laziness. In teaching us not to worry, Jesus is certainly not teaching us to sit back and wait for everything to drop in our lap. The apostle Paul couldn’t have said it more clearly than this: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2Th. 3:10).
The difference is working for selfish gain or working for godly gain. We work for godly gain when we recognize that God is the one who gives each of us our unique abilities and strengths to employ in His service. We trust that He will bless our efforts as He sees fit. He might give more to some of His children and less to others, but all of it is a gift from His gracious hand. So it is not helpful to compare what we have with what others have, since God is the Giver, and “He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Psa. 136:1).
And how do we know this is true beyond any doubt, that God really is so good and merciful? We know this because the Father who created and provides for all things also gave the greatest gift of all—His only-begotten Son to save us. When Jesus says, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” He is referring to His own holy work.
God the Father sent Him to do for us what we could not accomplish, no matter how much we worried after it or worked for it. Jesus the Christ was born under the Law, so that He might redeem us, buy us back, by His own holy life. While we are anxious and doubtful about God’s care for us, He perfectly entrusted Himself to the Father’s will. He did not worry about tomorrow; He focused on God’s Word today.
Wherever we have failed in our work through our worry, our selfishness, and our laziness, Jesus fulfilled the holy Law through His faith, His love, and His perfect commitment to the work of saving us sinners. “His righteousness” is the righteousness we must seek if we will stand before God in heaven. And this is the righteousness we already have by faith in Jesus.
Yes, our faith is “little” and never as strong as it should be. But even a little faith has salvation in Christ. Our eternal future does not depend on how strong our faith is, but on how strong our Savior and Lord is. And He is strong! He is stronger than hunger and want, stronger than worry and fear, stronger than sin, death, and the devil.
He suffered when He went to the cross, but He was not worried. Just before He took His last breath, He cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luk. 23:46). Then He was taken off the cross and closed up in the tomb, but He was not worried. Death was no match for Him, and He rose from the dead on the third day to prove it.
It is this Conqueror of sin and death who tells you: “Do not be anxious; do not worry.” If your needs and concerns are like ten enemies threatening you with pocket knives and pitchforks, God’s care is like an entire army right behind you outfitted with the best weapons and equipment. Worldly cares are scattered by the powerful promise of God’s care.
He will provide for you. If He needs to say it again and again, even every day, He will: “Do not be anxious. I have not forgotten about your needs. I know how to turn trials into blessings. I will come and help you. Have no fear!” In His care for you, God the Father already sent His Son to rescue you from eternal death. That must mean He will not forsake you in your times of need (Rom. 8:32).
And you know this to be true. You know that your cares and worries have never done anything for you. You know that God’s care for you has never failed. Even when you were anxious, even when you complained, He kept on loving you. And if He didn’t give you everything you wanted at the time, He gave you everything you needed.
God knows your needs even better than you do. He gives you His kingdom and His righteousness for your eternal life, and He gives all that you need for this body and life besides.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of Jesus and the lilies from stained glass at Jerico Lutheran Church)
The Fifth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Luke 5:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who did the work we had hardly even begun and were not about to finish, dear fellow redeemed:
What would it take for you to feel like you have really “made it”? When would you consider your life a success? Would it be rising to a prominent position in a company? Being recognized and awarded for your accomplishments? Making a certain amount of money and achieving the standard of living you always dreamed of? We look up to actors, athletes, and singers, because it seems like they have everything they want, the perfect life.
King Solomon had more than all of them. He looked back on a lifetime of hard work, of success and fame, and concluded that “all was vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecc. 2:11). He said that “there is more gain in wisdom than in folly,” but in the end, “the wise dies just like the fool!” (vv. 13, 16). He also recognized that everything he had worked for would one day be turned over to another to keep and manage, “and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?” (v. 19).
So our satisfaction will not be found in climbing higher and higher and getting more and more. There is a better focus for our work, and we learn it today from the example of Jesus’ disciples.
When Jesus visited the fishermen by the lake of Gennesaret, they were not in good spirits. These men fished for their livelihood, not for leisure, which made a night’s work with no return especially frustrating. We might have expected Simon Peter’s response to be a bit saltier than it was when Jesus directed him to row to the deep part of the lake and let down his nets. For one thing, it was not the right time of day for fishing. And the deeper parts of the lake were probably not the best places to find fish. But Simon replied respectfully, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.”
It wasn’t long before the fishermen saw the nets start to drag along as though they were filling up. In a short time their nets were so full, that two fishing boats could not handle the load. So much for all their fishing wisdom! This Jesus came along and prompted the greatest catch of fish they had ever seen! Now they were keenly aware of a power in their presence that was much greater than their own. They did not doubt that they had just witnessed a miracle, which meant Jesus was either a prophet of God or God Himself. Simon fell to his knees and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
What Simon had forgotten at that moment is something that we lose sight of too. We forget that we are always in the presence of God, and that we cannot prosper in work without His blessing. So often we experience some success at work and are praised for what we accomplish, and we think of this as well-earned recognition. We worked hard for this and did what others could not do.
It is not wrong to take pride in a job well done. But it is wrong to take full credit for it. If you are a farmer, who is it that sends the sun and rain for your crops? If you work for an employer, who gave you the mental and physical abilities you have? If your kids grow up to be reasonably responsible citizens, who granted you the patience and care you needed to raise them?
To act as though God has nothing to do with our successes—which is what every unbeliever thinks—is to greatly dishonor Him. Unbelievers see their success as entirely dependent on themselves and even flaunt their riches in God’s face, as though He had nothing to do with it. But unless He opens His merciful hand and gives His blessings, no creature could live. He satisfies the desire of every living thing, as the Psalm says (145:16).
But we do not always feel satisfied with His gifts. Sometimes, like the disciples, we work hard and come up with nothing. Why is that? Why do we wear ourselves out and lose ground while the unrighteous appear to prosper? Has God forgotten our need? It is easy to question God when we are struggling, but it is just as easy to forget Him when we prosper. This may be why God sometimes gives us more and sometimes less—to remind us to trust in Him.
No matter how hard you work, if your work is not done to the glory of God, it is empty. No amount of money and goods will satisfy you without Jesus in view. Peter, James, and John recognized this. Even after the greatest catch of fish they had ever seen, they left it all behind. “[T]hey left everything and followed [Jesus].” They followed Jesus because He called them to a different kind of fishing. Now they would be “catching men” for God.
But they were not prepared to help fill God’s net until they were caught themselves. When Simon saw the great catch of fish, He begged Jesus to leave him, because he was a sinner. What sin do you suppose was on his mind? Was it that he doubted any fish would be caught when he “put out into the deep”? Or was it just a general awareness of his sinfulness as He stood before his Lord? The prophet Isaiah reacted in much the same way in the presence of God in heaven, “Woe is me! For I am lost” he said; “for I am a man of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5). But the last thing Simon Peter needed is what he requested. When he said, “Depart from me,” he should have said, “Save me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Being in the presence of God and hearing His Word forces us to reckon with our sins. We hear the standard that God sets and realize how far we fall short of meeting it. But instead of crying out to Jesus, “Save me!” we try to make things better on our own. We know that the sin we have fallen into is condemned by God, and we want to stop doing it. But instead of trusting in Him, we put our trust in ourselves. “I am strong enough to overcome this,” we think. “I know I am better than this, and I will prove it!” And what happens? We fall again and again. And eventually, we lose the will to fight anymore. Sometimes we continue in the sin despite the conflict we feel in our conscience, or we begin to justify the sin in an attempt to rewire our conscience.
Our flailing attempts to get free of God’s accusing law are like a bird caught in a fishing net. The harder it tries to get away, the more tangled up it becomes. This is how it was with Martin Luther. Luther had tried to get right with God by his works. He even gave up a promising career in law in order to become a monk, so that he could dedicate his life to righteous living full-time.
But the harder he worked, the more his net of righteousness came up empty. He expressed this painful realization in a hymn verse: “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay; / Death brooded darkly o’er me. / Sin was my torment night and day; / In sin my mother bore me. / Yea, deep and deeper still I fell; / Life had become a living hell, / So firmly sin possessed me” (ELH 378, v. 2).
It wasn’t that Luther was more sinful than the common man. But he was more honest about his sinful condition than many are. No matter how hard you and I try, we are still sinners who deserve death. St. Paul lays it out clearly, “the wages of sin is death.” But then he speaks the good news for us sinners, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
By God’s grace, we learn that the righteousness God requires of sinners is supplied by Jesus. To try to get to heaven without Him is to come up empty. But to place one’s entire life and being in His hands through repentant faith is to obtain everything. By faith in Jesus, your net is filled with forgiveness for your many sins, with eternal life instead of death, and with salvation from your enemies. Faith receives such abundant blessings from God that you sink beneath their glorious weight. God’s grace surrounds you and covers you, so that your flimsy attempts at righteousness can no more be seen. All that is now in view is the righteousness of Jesus and His cleansing blood.
That is why we follow Him. He gives us what we could never get on our own. Our Constant Toiling Nets Nothing without Jesus. Romans 4:5 declares, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” It is not your work that justifies you before God, but faith in Jesus who did all the work that was necessary to save you.
He worked hard to save you, and He isn’t about to let that hard work on your behalf go to waste. He comes to you still and continues to work in you through His Word and Sacraments. Through these means, He supplies forgiveness whenever your God-given work falls short, and He grants the strength that you need to carry out your work to His glory alone.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of the miraculous catch of fish by Raphael, 1515)
St. Joseph, Guardian of Jesus – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 13:54-58
In Christ Jesus, whose coming was prophesied for thousands of years, but whose arrival still caught everyone by surprise, dear fellow redeemed:
Sometimes we wonder how our life would be different if we had chosen a different path. What if we had taken risks instead of playing it safe, or the other way around? What if we had followed the advice of this person instead of that person, turned right instead of left? Maybe we would have been more successful, more respected, more happy. Maybe we could have reached our full potential. Maybe we would feel today like we had really done something significant. Unsettling thoughts, and we’ve all had them at one point or another.
There is encouragement for us in the example of St. Joseph. Joseph was a descendant of the great King David, but it had been hundreds of years since a member of the family had occupied the throne. Joseph lived a ways north of the capital, up in the territory of Galilee in the town of Nazareth. We get a sense of the town when Philip told Nathanael about “Jesus of Nazareth,” and Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Joh. 1:46).
Today’s reading tells us that Joseph was a carpenter of some sort, working his trade in the community, working with his hands. He was neither wealthy nor well-known—not a person expected to make an impact on history. But God had other plans for him. He brought a faithful woman into his life—Mary—and they made plans to be married. They were “betrothed” to each other, which was a legally binding arrangement that came before the public marriage ceremony. Until the public ceremony, they stayed in separate homes and did not share a bed.
Then the shocker! Mary informed Joseph that she was pregnant. He obviously was not the father, and Mary’s story about a visit from an angel, and the Holy Spirit conceiving a holy Child in her womb, was difficult to accept. The evangelist Matthew writes that “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly” (1:19). That tells you a lot about Joseph. Even in his heartbroken state, he did not want to make an example out of Mary or bring the Law down on her. He resolved to move on and go back to his work.
But before he took that step, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and verified Mary’s story. He referred to Joseph by his royal lineage, showing that God was laying out this path for Joseph. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (1:20-21). Joseph listened. He set aside his reason. He ignored any doubts. He trusted the Word of God. He married Mary, and when her Son was born, he called His name “Jesus,” which means, “the LORD is salvation” (1:25).
We hear only a little more about Joseph. He had Jesus circumcised at eight days old and then brought Him to the temple at forty days old to present Him there as the Law of God required (Luk. 2:21-22). He rushed Jesus and Mary to safety in Egypt when King Herod wanted the Child dead (Mat. 2:13-15). He moved the family back to Nazareth after some time had passed (Mat. 2:19-23). And each year after that, he brought his family to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover (Luk. 2:41). All of these things show Joseph’s character. He was a man of faith committed both to the Word of God and to his family.
Jesus learned from him, which is surprising to think about. The evangelist Luke writes that as a youth, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature” (Luk. 2:52). In His state of humiliation, Jesus did not make full use of His divine power. He was able to learn and mature. And Joseph was right there to model a life of faithful adherence to the Scriptures and faithful attendance at the synagogue each week—a good model for Christian fathers today. He also taught Jesus how to build with His hands—a carpenter just like him (Mar. 6:3).
What we learn in today’s Gospel reading is that the people of Nazareth couldn’t get past the image of little Jesus working with quiet Joseph. They had heard about the miracles Jesus had done in the surrounding territory, and now they were listening to Him teach with authority in the synagogue. But instead of seeing Him in a different light and opening their ears to Him, they closed their minds. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” they wondered. They thought about His humble parents and their simple way of life. “What makes Jesus think He can teach us? Does He think He’s something special?”
They were wrong, of course. But we’ve been wrong like that too, judging people by our perception of them instead of by what they actually are. This is especially tempting in small communities like ours. We can judge people by the way we thought about them in elementary school or junior high. Or we can put them in certain categories and tell ourselves that they are all the same as before, and they aren’t worth our time.
But God tells us to love our neighbors, no matter how far back our history with them goes, or what we have perceived them to be. There is always a chance that we have gotten them wrong. There is always a chance that they have grown just as we’d like to think we have. Clearly the people of Nazareth got Jesus wrong. They had gotten His parents wrong too. Joseph was not just a carpenter; he was the legal guardian of the Christ-Child, whose coming had been prophesied for thousands of years. And Mary was not just a mother; she was the bearer of the Son of God, who came to destroy the work of the devil by His innocent suffering and death.
Neither Mary nor Joseph had chosen this for themselves. God chose them for these things. Who would ever feel qualified to raise the Christ-Child? They must have felt like failures, and not only when they lost track of the twelve-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem. They knew that the best they could do was not good enough. But they still carried out their calling from God. They trusted that since He had chosen this for them, He would bless their efforts—imperfect though they were.
This is your encouragement as you carry out your callings from God. Looking back on your life, you may feel that your life has been one long string of bad choices, failures, and missed opportunities. But that isn’t how God sees it at all. He sees you as His dear child, washed clean by the blood of Jesus and covered in His righteousness. He sees your light of faith shining in your home, your workplace, and your community. He sees you surrounded by neighbors who need your love and service—a life full of purpose.
It is the devil who wants to discourage you and make you discontent. He wants you to question if you married the right the person, if you can really give your children what they need, if your job is right for you, or if anyone actually cares about you. He wants you to think that maybe everything would get better if you just walked away, if you just started over. Then you could do what you were meant to do. Then you could reach your full potential.
But while giving way to selfishness may feel like a sort of freedom, it will only drive you more deeply into sin and its darkness. You are not here to serve yourself. You are here to serve the Lord by serving the people He has placed in your life. Jesus told His disciples, “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” (Joh. 15:16). It is the Lord who has planned the good that you would do. He is the one who has set the course for your life.
You haven’t missed out on some higher purpose, some greater thing you were supposed to do, by being where you are today. The Lord has big plans for you and important work for you to do right where you are. You are no failure to Him. God sent His Son to prove the value of your life by giving His perfect life for yours. He cleansed you of your sin and sanctified your life for His work at your Baptism. And He invites you continuously to feast on Him, the Bread of Life—to receive again and again His forgiveness and to be strengthened for your callings by His grace.
Joseph and Mary needed this too. Even while they were raising and providing for Jesus, He was living a perfect life on their behalf. He was keeping the holy commands of God for them and all people, and He would keep these commands all the way to His death on the cross to pay for sin—for His parents’ sins and for yours. His cross is where you take your selfish behavior, your discontentment about your station in life, your thoughts about leaving it all behind. You confess these sins to your merciful Lord, and He declares you forgiven, washed clean by His holy blood.
He chose you for the work you do for the neighbors around you, starting with the neighbors in your own home. Like Joseph, you will not carry out these callings perfectly. But your worth, your success, and your salvation do not depend on how perfect you are. They depend on how perfect your Savior is, and the work He perfectly completed to save you.
What He has done frees you to give with generosity and serve with gladness. Because the work the Lord has given you to do for others is His work. And if it comes from Him, then it is a gift, a gift for which He deserves all the glory.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Holy Family with a Little Bird” by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1650)
Septuagesima Sunday – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 20:1-16
In Christ Jesus, who chooses to give what belongs to Him to those who have not earned it and do not deserve it, dear fellow redeemed:
If you have ever baled hay, butchered chickens, shoveled out a barn by hand, or even weeded the garden, you know the difference between a full day of work and about an hour of work. And I expect you have had the experience of working hard at something and then having someone stop by to help when the work is almost done. You would rather they didn’t help at all instead of acting like they had been part of the crew all along.
You can imagine how the workers in our parable felt after putting in a full day. Of course they expected to receive more than the latecomers! But the foreman paid everyone the same. What a shock this was! The latecomers were shocked to receive so much for so little. And the full-day workers were shocked to receive the same as the latecomers. Jesus’ parable shocks us too.
But there are some details that Jesus leaves out. He tells us how long the workers worked, but He does not tell us how well the workers worked. We naturally assume that the ability and effort of all the workers was about the same. But that isn’t necessarily so. It could be that the workers who spent the whole day in the vineyard were the poorest workers while the ones hired last were the best.
Think about your own experience. Have you ever seen one employee do more in an hour than another employee does in a day? Or is it always the case that the workers with the longest tenure somewhere are always better than the workers who are relatively new? Quantity does not equal quality. Just putting in the time does not mean that higher compensation is deserved.
We don’t know who the best workers in the vineyard were. Jesus does not tell us. His point, which He makes right before today’s reading and at the very end of it is that “the last will be first, and the first last.” He says that those who expect to receive the most from God will receive the least. And those who expect to receive the least will receive the most.
So what will you and I have? Jesus’ parable is a picture of the members of His Church. We have been called away from our idleness in the world and have been put to work in the Lord’s vineyard. Many of us here have been in the vineyard a long time. We were brought into God’s kingdom through our Baptism when we were babies, and we have remained in the kingdom by faith in our Savior.
Being a part of this kingdom has required some sacrifices. The all-day workers said they had “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” We bear the burden of the curse of sin brought on by Adam and Eve. There is pain in child-bearing and child-rearing, conflict in relationships, difficulties in our jobs. And the devil, the world, and our own flesh are opposed to righteousness and a life of humble faith. Their pressure and persecution can seem like a scorching heat that we will not be able to endure.
So then the longer we do endure, the more we expect we deserve. But as soon as we start thinking about what we deserve from God, the less productive we are in our work. You’ve had co-workers like this. They spend the entire shift telling you how badly they are treated by the boss, how much more they should be paid, and how much they hate the work. And all along, you think to yourself: “I know why the boss gets tired of you. I know why you aren’t getting a raise. And I know why you are so unhappy at work. It’s because of YOU!”
Now it certainly can be the case that your boss is not qualified, that you should receive better compensation, and that your work is no fun. But even if those things are true, you can make the most of it, give it your best, and thank God for what you have. You and I don’t have to grumble and complain. We don’t have to point our fingers. We don’t have to focus on what we don’t have; we can focus on what we do have.
What do we have? We have a place in the vineyard, a place in the kingdom of God. There is work to be done in the kingdom, but everyone who was invited to the vineyard went. Work in the vineyard was obviously better than sitting hungry in the marketplace. Being a member of the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, is obviously better than wasting away in the world, choking on the cares, riches, and pleasures of life, watching the shadow of death creep closer.
It is a great gift to be invited to work in the vineyard, to be called by the Gospel. God did not call you into His kingdom because of your impressive qualities, your amazing work ethic, or your great potential. He called you into His kingdom because He is merciful. What does the all-powerful, all-holy, all-knowing God need from you? He did not call you to believe because of what you could give Him. He called you to believe because of what He wanted to give you.
And what did He want to give you? One denarius. A denarius was a good day’s wage. But it is not the amount that matters here. What matters is that this wage is given no matter how much or how little one works. But isn’t that like communism? And what happens in communism when compensation is not tied to labor output? Everyone does less work, since they are all going to get the same anyway. Isn’t that what would happen to the vineyard owner the next day? Everyone would linger in the marketplace until the end of the day knowing they would receive the same as if they would work all day.
But let’s put this in spiritual terms. You could step out of the vineyard, you could step out of the church. You could set aside God’s Word and follow the passions of your heart. You could tell yourself that there is always time to enter the vineyard later. Now is the time to really live and do what you want. But that is labor too. St. Paul poses this question, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16).
If you are not serving God, you are serving yourself. And if you are serving yourself, you are playing right into the devil’s hands. He knows that if you are not with God, then you are with him. Then you are his. How many Christians do you know who are grateful for all the sinning they did in the past? Grateful for the lying, the stealing, the sexual sin, the drunkenness, the selfish decisions? No, they are ashamed about those things. They wish they had not indulged in them. Paul writes that “the end of those things is death” (v. 21). That’s what standing idle in the marketplace and despising the vineyard gets us. It gets us death, for “the wages of sin—what we earn by our sin—is death” (v. 23).
But the workers in the vineyard—the members of Christ’s body by faith—receive different wages. They receive the gift of grace which leads to eternal life. That is the whole point of Jesus’ parable. It is not to promote communism or a new kind of business model. It is to teach us about grace. Grace is God’s undeserved love. That means it is given apart from any work we do, whether we work a long time or a short time, whether we are among the best workers or the worst.
The spiritual payment we receive from God is pure grace. It is true as Paul says, that “the wages of sin is death.” But there is more: “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 23). The gracious payment of salvation and eternal life is yours because of what Jesus has done. It is His work—and only His work—that matters. We can make a big deal about what we have done for God. “Look what I have sacrificed for You. Look what I have borne for You. Look how well I have served You, how hard I have worked.”
But it isn’t our work that gets us into heaven. It is only Jesus’ work. Jesus is the one who truly bore “the burden of the day.” He humbled Himself and took all the world’s sin upon Himself. He carried it to the cross and suffered the punishment for every one of our sins, every complaint, our impatience, our selfishness, our weakness. He felt “the scorching heat” of hell for all these sins—the eternal separation from His Father in heaven, so that we never would.
He could not be accused of going halfway with His work or wasting His time as we so often do. He applied Himself wholeheartedly to the keeping of the Law, and He presented His perfect life on our behalf to God the Father. And all our imperfections, all our laziness and grumbling, He washed away with His holy blood.
Everything comes from our merciful Lord as gift. The blessed vineyard of the Church is His. So is the gracious desire to call us out of the darkness of our sin and death to lives of righteousness and fruitfulness in His service. He dispenses to us the riches of His kingdom, not because we have earned them, but because He chose us to receive these gifts. He does not manipulate us. He does not play favorites. He does not treat us unfairly. He gives and gives and gives some more.
So Have You Been Properly Paid for Your Labor? The answer is “no.” Jesus has not given you what you deserve for your imperfect work in His kingdom. Instead He shares His earnings with you. You have nothing, and He gives you everything. You were last, and He makes you first.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from 11th century Byzantine manuscript of laborers working in the vineyard [lower portion] and receiving their denarius [upper portion])
Septuagesima Sunday – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 20:1-16
In Christ Jesus, who knows how to turn something ugly and forsaken into something beautiful and fruitful, just as He has done for each of us, dear fellow redeemed:
We have been learning more about the Saude church over the last two weeks. We can now see what the walls looked like before they were paneled. We can see where changes were made, like lowering the pulpit and the door that leads to it. We have taken a fresh look at the ductwork, the electrical wiring, and the amount of insulation in the ceiling and walls. Everything we see gives us a greater appreciation for this structure built in 1904 and maintained to the present day.
It is good to understand the things that happened before us that make our current work possible. Not many of us start our jobs from scratch, building a business from the ground up. Even the ones who do, learn from the work of others who were engaged in similar efforts. In my case, I am just one in a long line of pastors who have served our congregations. And you are just one in a long line of members who have attended here. Our work here is only possible because of the work done by others before us.
In Jesus’ parable for today, He doesn’t give any backstory. There is a master of a house who owned a vineyard, and there were workers in the marketplace waiting for employment. But every piece of cultivated land has to be brought into operation. We think about the settlers in the Great Plains who had to break the sod and clear trees in order to have tillable land. The same must have been true for the owner of this vineyard.
So imagine a plot of land about 15 acres large. It is the ugliest piece of ground you have ever seen. No one would expect any good to come from it, since it is so full of stones small, medium, and very large. Twisted around and over the stones are great thorny shrubs and weeds. Sour-looking critters dart out from dark holes in the ground. Crows break the silence with their sharp cries as they keep a close watch on everything.
“You’d have to be crazy to buy that land!” the people said. “You’ll walk away before you clear a square foot!” But he had gone ahead anyway. It may not have been good land, but it was his land. He went to work. He had no tractor, skid loader, or backhoe like we have today. He carried every rock in his arms to the edges of the property and set them in place for a wall. The stones he couldn’t lift, he chipped away one piece at a time. He pulled out every thorny shoot and branch. His hands ached and bled. Every muscle hurt. The sun scorched him. Progress was slow.
It was terrible work. Lesser men would have left it long ago. But he had set his mind to it—he wouldn’t give up. First one acre was cleared. Then two. Then three. His hands became rough and calloused, almost permanently molded around the handles of his shovel and ax. His shoulders were rounded from hours of bending over, pulling, and lifting. It looked like a burden weighed him down even when His shoulders were empty. Day after day, hour after hour, minute after painful minute, he kept on.
You’d think his determination would earn him the respect of his neighbors. But all he got was ridicule. “You’re a proper pair!” they jeered. “You’re just as ugly as that wretched land!” He was a laughingstock. “What a waste!” they said. “He could do better begging!” He shut all that out. He started the job, and he was going to finish it. Ten acres. Eleven acres. Twelve acres. The ground was taking shape. The wall was up on three sides, tall and straight. And then everything was done.
No one who saw it before would have believed it was the same plot. It was totally transformed. The hard, rocky ground now looked like it had potential. He planted grapevines, and they soon poked through the soil. It seemed like they grew an inch or more every day. That forsaken, twisted ground was now lined with row after row of green-leafed vines. The landowner hadn’t given up. He earned that land, every last inch of it, and he deserved every penny it produced for him.
Now imagine that this man is the one “who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” He offered the laborers he found a denarius a day. He knew the value of money, and this was good pay for a day’s work. Then he found more workers at the third, sixth, ninth, and even the eleventh hours. He promised to compensate each of them with “whatever is right.”
The vineyard owner wasn’t looking to cheat anyone. He knew what it was like to work every inch of that piece of land. He knew the feeling of those slow midday hours in the scorching heat. He knew what the workers were experiencing, but they didn’t know what he had experienced. They hardly thought about what it took to clear this land. All they could think about was how tough they had it and how ready they were for the work to be done.
At the end of the day, the vineyard owner told his foreman to distribute payment to the workers—payment from his hard-earned money. Those who had hardly gotten their hands dirty from one hour of work were stunned to receive a denarius! The same went for those who had worked three hours and six hours and nine hours—each of them received payment as though they had worked the entire day. And finally the ones who did work all day received the same amount—exactly what they had been promised from the beginning.
They expected to receive more than the others and were angry when they didn’t. But no wrong had been done. “I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you,” said the vineyard owner. “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” And that’s right. He had earned it. The vineyard was his. What it produced was his. He was not required to hire any of the men he had hired. But in fact he hired a great many—some of whom hardly did anything. And he rewarded them most generously, even though their work in the vineyard was nothing like his had been.
Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is like” this. The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom in which work is rewarded not according to the effort of the laborers, but according to the generosity of their Lord. That’s not how it works in the world. That’s why the people of the world—especially us Americans—feel and act so entitled. “Well I’ve put my time in; this is what I deserve. Nobody has worked like I’ve worked. Nobody has suffered like I’ve suffered. I’ve had it tough—everyone else owes me.”
This is the kind of mentality that leads workers to treat their bosses with disrespect. It is the reason why some justify giving a bare-minimum-effort in their job. It is what causes some to take advantage of their employer and even to steal little things here and there in order to “balance the scales.”
We’re all good at focusing on what we deserve, and we try to take the same approach with God. We think that since we have worked so hard to be good, we should be rewarded more than those who have done little good. If we endure the scorching heat of temptation and trouble more than others have to, we should receive more blessings from God. If we wager more for God’s kingdom through our offerings, our time, and our efforts, we deserve a better standing before Him.
It’s all very reasonable. But it doesn’t account for the big picture. It’s like those grumbling workers who didn’t understand or appreciate how hard the landowner had to work to earn the money that he delivered to them. They just saw their own situation and how it compared with the state of the people around them. They didn’t see what had to happen before to put them in the position they were in.
This is what we forget about God’s work on our behalf. We forget about the rich love of God the Father that caused Him to send His Son to be our Substitute. The world was like that ugly plot of ground, full of rocks and thorns, unfit for anything good. And Jesus went to work. He worked in the hot sun, under the heat of those who hated Him and wished to destroy Him. Every sin that had polluted His good creation, He dug out and hoisted up and carried on His shoulders. His will to finish the task was stronger than any scheme of the devil to distract and discourage Him.
He completed the work. He carried every sin to the cross and cleansed the world of all its ugliness by pouring out His holy blood. That same blood cleanses you even now. It flows over the rocky ground of your heart. It removes the boulders and uproots all the prickly thorns of your sins. His blood makes you a new creation, a new and fruitful plot of ground. Because of the work He did in your place, Jesus credits you with His holy life. He gives all His riches and success to you, all His glory to you.
He has called you to work in His vineyard, in His holy Church, and you don’t have to worry about proper compensation. You already have everything that is His. You already have it all! If He should decide to give the gift of salvation to other poor sinners like you and me, who will begrudge His generosity? It is a privilege to work in the beautiful vineyard of His kingdom.
The only way into this vineyard is by grace, by our Savior’s undeserved love for us sinners. So we sing: “Salvation unto us is come / By God’s free grace and favor” (ELH 227, v. 1), and “By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless” (ELH 226, v. 1). Jesus Gives Us Everything by Grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from 11th century Byzantine manuscript of laborers working in the vineyard [lower portion] and receiving their denarius [upper portion])