Freeville/Homer Ave. UMC's - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - 09/21/14 Sermon - “How late in the day can we come to God?"

Sunday 09/21/14 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s

Sermon Title: “How late in the day can we come to God?”

Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Exodus 16:2-15

                                            

New Testament Scripture Lesson: Philippians 1:21-30

Gospel Lesson: Mathew 20:1-16

          Brothers and sisters, this morning we continue our journey into the weeks after the Feast of Pentecost. In fact, we are now in the Fifteenth week after Pentecost. Pentecost, that day so long ago that the Christian Church was born, as a result of a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and the early followers of Jesus Christ. We will find ourselves in this post or after Pentecost season until we have our All Saints Sunday on Sunday November 2^nd. It might seem hard to believe, but the summer is now behind us, and we are moving towards All Saints Sunday, and beyond.

          This morning however, Jesus provides us with what I think is a powerful parable or story. With this parable or story, Jesus so eloquently explains salvation, grace, and the love and the generosity of God. This parable that Jesus will teach us this morning, will beg the question of us, “How late in the day can we come to God?”

          With this said, how many of you were ever told by someone that you were “going to hell?” How many of you have ever heard a pastor or someone else say to someone you knew, or someone that you had never met that, that person was “going to hell?”

          So often, I find that when people say such things, they are looking at a person, and are looking at what they perceive to be the person’s sins in the here and the now. So for example, if a person were to tell at 20-year old, that they were “going to hell,” but that person ended up living until 90-years of age, then how would the person who told the 20-year that they were “going to hell,” know how the other 70-years of the 20-year old’s life would turn out?

          You see as Christians, we generally believe that faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is how we obtain salvation right? That by believing in Jesus Christ, by living for Jesus, by living for God, than we are on a path of righteousness and salvation. Yet as righteous as we may in fact become, do we not all still have to stand before Almighty God one day? We all do, don’t we?

          Through what Jesus did for us on the cross, through God’s grace, we are now acceptable to God, as sinful and as wretched as we are.

In this way, I very much believe that Christ is at the center of our faith, but what I don’t believe, what I don’t think that God has given us the authority to decide, is what happens to others when they die there earthly death. While the Bible has clear words of what Jesus said, when in John 14:16 he said, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” I don’t think that we have the divine authority to tell anyone their fate in the hereafter. We can show them scripture, we can explain Christ to them, but only God makes that decision.

          So we follow Christ, we focus on building our faith, the faith of others, loving our neighbors and all people, and making the world better. In looking at what happens to non-believers when they die, or believers of different faiths when they die, let’s keep that in God’s hands.

          While I firmly and confidently proclaim salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, the question that Jesus then raises to us this morning, is “How late in the day can we come to God?”

          Perhaps growing up we were as the term goes, “a hell raiser.” Perhaps we were as far from Christ as one could be, but what about now? Perhaps you knew people who used to reject and rebel against God’s love, but yet now they believe. When is the best time then to develop faith in Jesus, in God? When is the best time in our lives to come to God? Is it when we are 5-years old, is it when we are 20-years old, is it when we are 50-years old, is it when are 70-years old, or how about when we are 90-years old? Further, what is our reward for coming to God at those different ages? Certainly we might think, if we have been a Christian for fifty or more years that we get a special pin and some sort of high honors in heaven? I mean the Christians that have had faith longer get seniority in heaven don’t they?

          While we will all have to account for everything we have done one day, Jesus Christ tells us, if you come to me, if you repent, and if you believe in me, if you labor in my vineyard, then your reward will be the same, no matter when you started working in the day. That as soon as we believe in Jesus Christ with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls, and as soon as we repent, we are in the “Lambs book of Life.”

In fact, consider the criminal that was on the cross next to Jesus Christ’s cross. Speaking of the criminal who got crucified next to Jesus Christ is says in Luke 23:39-43, “One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Now how long did that criminal on the cross next to Jesus Christ then live after this exchange of words? Did he live for 20-minutes longer? Did he live for 1-hour longer?

The point, is that this criminal that was on the cross next to Jesus Christ, came pretty “late in the day” of his life to God. To close for comfort if you ask me, but his faith saved him. Perhaps someone earlier that day told him he was “going to hell,” but Jesus, God, had different plans.

In the reading from Exodus from this morning, the Israelites who had just been lead out of slavery in Egypt are complaining as they are walking along in the wilderness. They said at least in Egypt “we could sit by pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread.” Then of course God tells Moses that bread from heaven, and then quail will come down and feed the Israelites daily.

So the now freed Israelites are complaining that God’s provision was better when they were under slavery in Egypt. The Israelites are worried that God will not provide. That God will not do what he said he would do. They are trying to renegotiate their contract with God. They are trying to negotiate with the landowner of the great vineyard. You see they had faith in God, but they questioned that faith.

In the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the church in Philippi or the Philippians, the Apostle Paul talks about how sometimes he wishes that he could just leave this life and be with Christ now, but that he realizes that God still wants him to stay and labor for him. In fact, the Apostle Paul says, “I’m sure of this: I will stay alive and remain with all of you to help your progress and the joy of your faith.” Paul then tells the church in Philippi that God is faithful and that while we might suffer for “Christ’s sake” that God is faithful. That when God promised us heaven and eternity with him, that we meant it.

When looking at our gospel of Mathew reading from this morning, Jesus tells the parable or story of the landowner. Jesus begins this parable or story by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion, he sent them into his vineyard.” By the way, a “denarion” was the equivalency of one Roman silver coin, which was about a day’s wage.

Jesus then continues to say however, that the Landowner then went out again at about “nine in the morning,” and again “around noon,” and again in “three in the afternoon,” and again “around five in the afternoon.” All of these workers that were hired at different times, were also promised to be paid. Instead of being told that they would receive a denarion for their day’s labor, the landowner said that he would pay them “whatever is right.”

So when the sun went down that day, “the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on finally to the first.’

To the surprise of all of the workers hired at different times of the day, they all received one denarion, or one Roman silver coin, or one day’s wages.

The workers that were hired earliest in the day “grumbled against the landowner” however, and thought that because they worked longer, they should get paid more money. You see they had all agreed, and all had made a contract with the landowner, but they were trying to renegotiate their contract with the landowner.

The landowner then said to the workers, “Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you.”

The landowner then said, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I’m generous?”

The landowner, who of course in this parable of story, being God, says, “So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”

My brothers and sister, no matter where we find ourselves in the day or evening of our lives, Jesus tell us, that if we come to him, come to God, no matter when in the day or evening it is, the reward will be the same. That we don’t need renegotiate our contract, we just need to believe and trust God. We don’t need to tell someone else what happens to them when they die, rather we need to trust and believe in Jesus, believe in God.

The logical question one might though, is why shouldn’t I just live awfully, and then repent right at the end. My answer to this, is because there is no better place to be than working in God’s vineyard, under God’s guidance and love, working with all of God’s people. Believe me when I tell you while the reward for coming to God might be the same, the blessings that you will receive in this life grow the longer you serve God, who is the great landowner. So while we can all have eternity, we can lives of victory, peace, grace, and mercy, in the here and the now. Or we can live corrupt lives, and hope that at the very end of our lives, that we can pull a rip cord to deploy a “golden parachute.”

Jesus asks us, to come and work for him and serve him now, not tomorrow, not the next day, because tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. Instead playing a game of “Chicken” with our hearts, our minds, and our souls, let us come to God today. While we might struggle, while might try to renegotiate our contract with the landowner or God at times, let’s have faith in his promise, in his truth.

Brothers and sisters, I want to close with a short story about an experience that I had. I was on a men’s retreat about 7-years ago, and at that time I was working as a Family Caseworker in Tompkins County. In this job I made very very little money. On this weekend that I was serving on, we had an opportunity to sit and pray with some of pastors that were present, as I wasn’t yet even a seminarian.

I remember sitting and pouring my heart out to a good friend of mine, who has been a United Methodist Pastor for well over forty-years. I told him how little I made, and how it was hard to get by. He listened intently until I was finished, and then asked me if my house had heat. I said it did. He asked me if I had food to eat. I said that I did. He asked me if I was able to arrive to drive where we were in my own car. I said I was able to. He said even further, can you and wife even do a little something fun once and while. I said that we can. He said, does your wife love you. I said she does. He said does God love. I said he does.

What he then said next destroyed me. He then said, “So let me get this straight Paul, you are telling me that God’s provision is not enough for you. You are telling me that you are trying to renegotiate your contract with Almighty God. That his promise and what he has given you isn’t enough.”

That night back in 2007 was a pivotal point for me in my faith development, as I heard God saying, “Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? Take what belongs to you and go.”

Brothers and sisters, let us come to God, the landowner today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, because he will bless us, he will guide us, and his reward and his provision will be enough. “How late in the day can we come to God.” Amen.