“HIS HEART, HIS BLOOD IS GOOD”
Saint Matthew 20
Septuagesima: 13 February Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
You’ve heard this famous parable of Christ’s many times—many times right here in this parish. You’re a little bored by it?
Repent.
Give The Lord thanks that you are not the workers hired at the 11th hour; that you have had a long and fruitful work session in His vineyard. The joys that you have received from His good gifts have surrounded you since the day of your Holy + Washing: Hallelujah (“Praise The Lord”). He has given you everything you have and ever will have (go through the list that Luther gives you in his explanation of the 1st Article of The Creed). You know Him and His Word better this year than you did last year because of your reading and meditation on Holy Scripture…correct?
The Law which condemns you in this text comes from the fact that you are jealous and selfish. Oh, maybe not exactly like the workers hired at the first hour, but close enough in sin to smell the brimstone and hear the bubbling of the Lake of Fire—if unrepented; stiff-necked; hard hearted.
From the young girl who gets angry that her little sister gets the same size of a portion of cake; to the teen worker at McDonalds who’s incensed that the recent hire gets the same bonus as he does after 6 months on the job; to the group of ladies in the Church guild that are resentful that the brand-new member also gets an award from the Church Council; the list goes on and on, Amen.
Okay, that’s all generic and non-specific to you, right?
You delight in sharing, in giving up your excess to help, provide for, and take care of the newly arrived, joined, hired, “fill-in-the-blank.” You are the font of generosity and are just plain “super-laid back” when your boss (secular or spiritual) treats everybody exactly the same way…I mean, what have you lost, save “bragging rights” and ego-enshrinement?
And then there’s the issue of Salvation. This strikes home, hard, for all of us. Yes, I want that little lying weasel-traitor, Fauci saved. Yes, I want the former Vice-President who lives in the White House redeemed and rescued. We must all resist the old-Adam urge who wants to base reward on work, success on effort, knowledge on study, and salvation on discipline, moral rectitude, and obedience! Synergy doesn’t save. The Savior Saves. Working hard and almost-perfectly all day in the vineyard does not give you your wages. The Master of the vineyard gives you your wages. It’s all from the goodness of his heart.
Payment, i.e., blessing only comes in God’s way. The vineyard is His. “Let there be light.” “God so loved the world that He gave…” The work is his. Jesus obeyed The Father and never sinned. Jesus suffered on the cross not the “workers” who bore the brunt of the sun, not those hired the last hour, not any of you. The payment is His. The Holy + Baptism is His and He gives it to you. The Supper is His and bids you come to eat and drink.
You are only able to receive “blessing” and salvation in God’s way, as in how He has set up His things to be given and handed out.
One of the most pernicious misunderstandings of the Church, the individual parish, or Augsburg, is to think it’s much more theologically aware and “sharp” and “smart” and “knowledgeable” then the normal run-of-the mill of hypocrites, libs, pagans, and sectarians. Yes, Catechesis is both good and necessary—constantly. But a congregation that pats itself on the back because it thinks it’s a “notch” above most of the others because it’s got a really deep-thinking and deep-reading corps of veteran Christians; Historical and Scriptural scholars…is shamed by the humble church with illiterate and low-IQ Saints…who simply trust and believe The Creed, are sorry for their daily sins, yearn for and find Peace in the Mass, and who are given joy and release when thy receive The Sacrament.
What matters in the end, is He Who is Omega; that Christ died on the Cross, setting aside the glory that was His, for the forgiveness of your sins.
He hired + you (point to font). It matters not at what hour. And now He pays you (point to rail) not wages but eternity.
Whether you experience smidgens of success and glory in your lives or only setbacks, devolutions, chronic maladies, and a painful sickly death; through faith by His giving Grace, not wages, you are IN Christ, and He gives you all that He is and all that He has to that you will be with Him forever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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