Cold Ashby & Hollowell. 21[st] September 2014

Our reading today about Jesus' parable of the labourers in the vineyard contains  one of the best known quotations from Jesus:  " The last shall be first and the first last".
This comment in Matthew Chapter 20 comes after an incident described in the previous chapter when a young man asked  Jesus  what he had to do to receive eternal life.  Jesus tells him to keep the ten commandments and the young man replies that he already does so and asks what else is needed.  And when Jesus tells him to sell everything he has and give the money to the poor, that proves to much and the young man walks away.    
Giving it all away is a big ask, as they say.   Slightly tongue in cheek ?  E
Especially today when possessions are regarded as nine points of the good life. 
I knew someone who did it  -  gave away everything he had  -  and some books to Chrystal and me  -  to become a Jesuit.  He stuck it out for some eyes  and then decided that not he life he wanted. And returned to a life in commerce.   
I don't know about you, but I would find it tough to follow that requirement of complete self sacrifice to obtain eternal life.    It's even tougher when Jesus adds  that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  
The disciples were surprised, and I imagine a bit exasperated, to hear that and asked  him :  "who then can be saved? " 
And Peter adds "  Lo we have left everything and followed you.  What then shall we have ? "
 Jesus reassures them by saying that everyone who has left his family to follow him will receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life.   Then enigmatically:  " But many that are first will be last and the last first."
And he repeats that  thought,  almost word for word,  in the  next chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, in the passage about the vineyard and the labourers that we heard this morning.   
Unfair that guys who worked all day should get the same as the latecomers.  But they did agree to a daily wage so can't complain.  It's the boss who makes the contracts and decides what to pay.  
 " Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me ? " says the boss.  It's up to me to choose who gets what in the way of reward.
God's grace as a reward. The family, the friends, the countryside, he music, the art, even he food.  All part of God's grace towards us on earth. 
Reward in the kingdom of God is not dispensed by virtue of time served but by grace extended to the chosen ( the willing; many are called but not willing). Seniority does not necessarily mean honor.  
As in the well known hymn, the amazing kind of grace is God's gift of redemption, the grace which prompts us to repent, causing us to think again when we find ourselves in a bad way, and which prompts us to return, putting us back on a more godly path.  

Many Christians who read this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day's work, rather than the add-ons who turn up at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer's strange behaviour baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the story's point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages.

Experience in years doesn't promise greater  pay. Remember, it is all based on grace - not ordinary human calculations.   "Sometimes a man dies full of years and full of honor, with his day's work ended and his task completed. Sometimes a young person dies almost before the door of life and achievement have opened at all.  From God they will both receive the same welcome, for both Jesus Christ is waiting, and for neither, in the divine sense, has life ended too soon or too late."    
Two cases: Stephen Sutton (19)  who raised almost Pound5 million for teenage cancer charities. 
Ian Paisley the loud mouthed Northern Irishman  88  who ended up as the catalyst for peace in Northern Ireland.  Martin McGuinness.   
Paisley who put the fear of God into people ended up by changing.  " I made it possible to have the day we see today and to see the miracle happen" .
 
It is not merely the time that we put in. It is the heart that we put into the time we have that matters.  That means our behaviour throughout life.   




