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"Well Paid" Some days, it just doesn’t pay. Doesn't pay to be a good Samaritan. A charitable Christian. Consider: A pastor is in bed with his wife when there is a rat-a-tat-tat on the door. He rolls over and looks at his clock, and it's half past three in the morning. "I'm not getting out of bed at this time", he thinks, and rolls over. Then, a louder knock follows. "Aren't you going to answer that?" says his wife. So he drags himself out of bed, and goes downstairs. He opens the door and there is man standing at the door. It didn't take the homeowner long to realize the man was drunk. "Hi there." slurs the stranger, "Can you give me a push??" "No, --listen, it's half past three. I was in bed." says the man and slams the door. He goes back up to bed and tells his wife what happened and she says "Dave, that wasn't very nice of you. Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on that man's house to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost??" "But the guy was drunk." says the husband. "It doesn't matter." says the wife. "He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to help him." So the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed, and goes downstairs. He opens the door, and not being able to see the stranger anywhere he shouts: "Hey, do you still want a push??" and he hears a voice cry out "Yeah please." So, still being unable to see the stranger he shouts: "Where are you?" And the stranger replies: "I'm over here, on your swing." Have you ever been there? Tried to do the right thing only to have your patience tested. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to do the right thing. Listen to this little story Jesus tells to give his disciples and us, a picture of what the kingdom of God might be like. “The kingdom is like a landowner who goes early in the morning to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. They agree on a wage, and so he sends them to work. Then, about 9 o’clock, he saw some other workers standing idle in the marketplace. He says to them, “you also go into my vineyard, and I will pay you what is right.” So they went. The man went again to the marketplace at noon. And again at 3 o’clock. Both times, he did the same as before. At 5 o’clock, he went out and found still others standing around. “Why have you been idle here all day?” he asks. “Because no one has hired us.” He says to them, “You go to work for me in my vineyard.” When evening came, it was time to settle up with the day laborers. And the man calls his payroll clerk. “Give the workers their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When the 5 o’clock workers came, they were given a full day’s pay! And those hired at the first of the day took notice. Each worker received a full day’s pay. And when those who put in a full days work came to the clerk, they also received a full day’s pay. But they had expected more. After all, hadn’t they worked all day, and those who worked just an hour received a full day’s pay, then shouldn’t they receive more? And the man who owned the vineyard heard them grumbling. And he reminds them, who it is who owns the vineyard--reminds them who it is who hired them. He reminds them who it is who signs the checks. “If I want to be gracious, what is that to you?” I don't mind it when God is generous with me. When God is merciful in loving me through all my brokenness, then I'm all for grace. When it’s my shortcoming, my faithlessness, my sin....then I’m all for mercy. You won’t hear me grumbling when I’m on the receiving end of God’s mercy. But then Jesus begins to talk about this last being first and first being last business. What really begins to bother me is when I sense that God is more gracious to you than he is to me. Or worse, when God demonstrates mercy for someone I think doesn’t deserve it. And the worst of all is when Jesus calls me to exhibit that same generosity with those who have wronged me, hurt me, or upset me. Once, I preached a sermon, well, not really sermon, I more or less pulled a gimmick in the pulpit. I was preaching on the text from Matthew 18, when Peter asks Jesus how often he should forgive. Seven time? Jesus says, no, how about seventy-seven times. So I simply said, “Forgive them,” in a slow, steady mantra, seventy-seven times. Ten minutes of nothing but “forgive them.” As far as sermons go, it didn’t require much preparation. Yet, it created a tremendous amount of conversation. Everywhere I went, people wanted to talk about the “forgive them” sermon. Why is that do you suppose? Reckon it’s because “forgive them,” are words that get under our skin? Tell me, can you really forgive the people who never paid you? Can you really forgive the person who hates you and talks behind your back and tears at you every day? Can you really forgive the person who slanders you and vandalizes your property? Jesus calls us to, but the truth is, we probably cannot. But there’s more scandalous news than that. And it’s found in this little parable. And it is this....those we cannot bring ourselves to forgive . . . God is willing to extend mercy. And if they respond, they received the same pardon we receive. Even those who come to the field an hour before quittin’ time. God is generous with grace, crazy and foolhardy with mercy. William Willimon tells about a church service he attended several years ago that speaks of this “unfair” measure of grace and mercy we’re trying to get a handle on here today. ...in a service about a dozen people, mostly adults, were being received into the membership of the congregation. The service was impressive. We made our way through the liturgy, through the vows and the gestures of welcome in the service. Then the pastor stood before the assembly, looking at the new members and said, "In case we have not been clear about this in our preparation for membership, let me be clear. You are being received into the congregation on the basis of the same membership standards which our Lord used for his own disciples. Are you sure that among you are found liars, adulterers, thieves, gossips, misers, and rogues? If not, you need not apply here. For the Bible is clear that our Lord came only to seek and to save the lost, he came only to call sinners to new life in his kingdom. That's who this church is for. Those are the ones for whom he died. Welcome to the church." Willimon then says, “I thought it was a stunning statement of the scandalous grace of God.” Our way of looking at things causes us to believe that it just doesn’t pay to get up early and go to work, if those who show up late get paid the same. But of course it does pay, to labor long on the Lord’s payroll. And the pay is good. It is generous, it is gracious. We only begin to grumble about our pay when we begin to make our own judgment about who truly deserves it and who does not. Who is worthy of God’s mercy and who is not. Who is justified in receiving God’s grace and who is not. But when we move our focus from those we don’t think are deserving...to our own worthiness as we wait in line for our wages, we realize. It’s better pay than we deserve. For if we are going to be paid for our work, our service, our faithfulness, our goodness, our steadfastness in doing God’s work....well....really now, just how much do you really think we are worth? Any of us? How much are we worth? You see, I know the truth. That IF the gift of God’s mercy depends upon how faithful I’ve been, or how good I’ve been, or how closely I have modeled my own life after Jesus, then I don’t need to bother standing in line, cause it’s hard to cut a penny. The real scandal of the mercy of God is that Jesus died for me. That God’s grace is available to me. Even me. That God’s mercy is reserved for me. Even me. And I am well paid—very well paid, only because God is generous. Only because of the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the steadfastness of God. That’s mercy. That’s grace. And we have each been paid far more than we are worth. |
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