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A LESSON FROM BUSINESS
ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Rev. Fr. Kevin L. Baker
Matthew 20:1-6
September 18, 2005
INTRODUCTION
A certain medieval
monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The
Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in
through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the
darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to
the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next,
the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the
hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There
was nothing else to say.
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Today, I am preaching
on the love of God. If I were a gambler, I would bet that some of
you are hoping I will learn to preach like the monk!
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In the Gospel Reading
today, we hear Jesus teaching the Apostles about the Kingdom of
God.
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The Lord was on the
road to Jerusalem where he would celebrate his last Passover with
them.
·
He was talking slowly,
trying to be concise, so that they would understand well what he
asked of his followers. There was a spiritual harvest that needed
to be brought in before the end of the day.
·
He gave them, as a
comparison, a parable saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like the
landowner who went out at dawn to hire workers for his vineyard.”
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Before we go any
further, I want you to stop and think about this—the grape harvest
was ready to be brought in, it has to be done in one day, and the
landowner cannot do it by himself—he needs workers to help him.
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So, going on, the
landowner agreed on a salary for them—a denarius—which was a coin
that was a days wage back then. The workers agree to this pay.
LET US BEGIN TO SEE THE LOVE OF GOD
NOW
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After hiring workers
for the vineyard at 6:00 a.m., during the day, the landowner went
into the marketplace at 9:00 a.m. and saw unemployed men standing
idle so he hired them to go work in the Vineyard. He needed more
workers to get the harvest in before the end of the day.
·
He did the same thing
at noon, 3:00, and the last time at 5:00 p.m.—an hour before
quitting time.
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What can work and
wages, welfare and unemployment tell us about the kingdom of God?
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In the parable of the
laborers in the vineyard, we see the extraordinary generosity and
compassion of God. He takes people without purpose, and they become
his partners in the harvest!
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There is great tragedy
in unemployment. In Jesus’ time, hired laborers had to wait each day
in the marketplace until someone hired them for a day’s job. No work
that day usually meant no food on the family table.
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Jesus is showing us as
businessmen how God runs His business—with generosity and
compassion. This is not always what is taught in business school
MBA programs, or what you learn in the world of Donald Trump and
Martha Stewart.
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So, here is how God
does business. When it got dark, the landowner told the foreman:
“Call the workers and pay them their salary.” And he paid all of
them equally-a denarius—a days wage for a days work.
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The laborers who had
worked all the day and received their payment complained that the
master paid the late afternoon laborers the same wage. The master
undoubtedly hired them in the late afternoon so they would not go
home payless and hungry—His motive was love, generosity, and
compassion.
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What the landowner did
could seem strange to some. It also seemed strange to those who had
been hired first. They got angry because they expected that the
others would be paid less.
LET’S LEARN HOW THIS BUSINESS LESSON
TEACHES US ABOUT GOD’S KINGOM
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This parable shows us
God as the owner of the vineyard—Israel in the Ot, The Church today.
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There is a harvest of
souls—Jesus said the harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few,
and we need to pray for God to send workers into the harvest because
it has to be brought in or it will rot.
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All around us right
now, the harvest is being brought in—and when you are a farmer and
it is harvest time, everybody works the field! God is out there
looking for more workers.
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There will be some who
ask at the end of the day: Why did he pay the same to those who
worked in the Church all day as he did to those who only worked a
few hours? Why do we all get heaven as a reward?
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What Jesus shows us is
that we do not know how God thinks. He combines love and justice in
a way that surpasses human intelligence.
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He will pay everyone
according to how they lived their lives without caring who arrived
in heaven first or who arrived last. The important thing for him is
that they arrived.
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The important thing
for us should be arriving. In heaven there are saints who were
great sinners for many years. They came to know God very late in
life. Their lives show us that it is never too late to repent, to
stop sinning and ask God for forgiveness.
·
God is so generous in
opening the doors of his kingdom to all who will enter, both those
who have labored a lifetime for him and those who have come at the
last hour.
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While the reward is
the same, the motive for one’s labor can make all the difference.
Some work only for reward. They will only put as much effort in
proportion to what they think they will receive.
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Others labor out of
love and joy for the opportunity to work. Lord, make us those kind
of people.
CONCLUSION
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Today, God the owner
of the earth, says the harvest is ready. He is looking for workers
to go into the harvest and work to bring it in.
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What happens when it
is harvest time and you do not harvest? The fruit goes to waste.
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Today, the harvest God
wants to bring in is one of people who are ready to be harvested.
All around us are people who are seeing that life is empty; that
material things only make you happy for so long; that there is must
be more meaning to life than what they are experiencing.
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Some of those people
are in pain; hurt; depressed, scared; lost; lonely; on the brink of
not making it; their marriages are falling apart; their finances
aren’t paying the bills; their kids are breaking their hearts
getting involved in things that are leading them down the wrong path
in life—and in all of this they do not know what to do.
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So, this is the
harvest that is ready. Ready to be brought in from the field of the
world where they are vulnerable-- if workers don’t go and pick them
while they are ripe, they will sit there and rot—a picture of death
at the last judgment.
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God is calling us.
Who will work for me? Some of us are already serving God in the
harvest. How hard are we working? Are we harvesting? Are we
bringing it in?
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God will save others
to come and work because the job needs to get done. There are
people today who have not yet encountered the love of Jesus in their
lives who will be joining us in the harvest.
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God is out there at
9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and 5:00 finding them to get the work done.
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So, when they come,
and they will, let us not complain, but welcome them to join the
joyful work of being laborers in God’s Vineyard with us.
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