09/12/10 – Kingdom of God: Participating in the Kingdom
Today we wrapped up our sermon series on the Kingdom of God by looking at two parables of Jesus that address what it means to participate in the Kingdom. The first comes from Matthew 20:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 ” ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Mat 20:1-16 (NIV)
The workers in this parable are frustrated that they were compensated at a lower rate then those who came later, even though they were paid a fair wage to which they had already agreed. This brings up the question of what is fair in the Kingdom?
Some things are equal:
- Being a part of the Kingdom requires that we contribute to its advancement. That is the charge for everyone.
- The end is the same – The culmination includes absolute forgiveness and eternal life.
While those things are equal, other things are not. Some people are going to give more, and some people are going to get more.
In heaven there are going to be saints standing next to serial killers. There are going to be people who have sacrificed everything – their possessions, their careers, their friends, even their lives – standing next to people who just barely made it in.
That doesn’t seem fair does it? Well guess what – it isn’t. At least not if you are trying to live by worldly values. But, being a part of the Kingdom means you live by a different set of values.
The problem is, the workers were comparing themselves to the wrong people. Rather than looking at those who were better compensated, they should have looked at how lucky they were to have been able to work at all.
Being a part of the Kingdom is an amazing blessing and privileged. As Christians, we should reflect on this, rather than who may receive more grace.
The second parable we discussed concerns how Christians are to view their resources:
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ 21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 ” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Mat 25:14-30 (NIV)
To put this in perspective, a talent was a very large amount of money: the equivalent pay of roughly 6,000 days of common labor. So to be entrusted with that sort of money was a big deal. I mention this because I think it is import we realize this parable is primarily about resources and how we handle them. While there is an interesting wordplay with the word talents, we cannot ignore the primary meaning.
When we view the parable in these terms we see a few important lessons in this scripture:
- All we have belongs to God
- The return we get goes to furthering God’s work
- We are responsible for what has been given us
- What God gives us is much larger than what we can get ourselves
- Not being faithful with what you have been given is also a sin of the greatest magnitude.
I can sum all that up into one axiom: All we have is to be used to further God’s Kingdom. If I have a car, it is to be used for the Kingdom; If I have a political influence, it is to be used for the Kingdom; If I have money, and the ability to make money, it is be used for the Kingdom.
In scripture, anytime a person is blessed, they are blessed so they can be a blessing for others. For us, this means that all we have is to be used to for the good of all of humanity and the Kingdom. God has an answer to all the world’s problems; from hunger to poverty to addiction to abuse — God’s answer is teh church.
It is my hope that as we move forward as a church and as individuals, we will continually be assessing our work and contributions in these terms.
[...] at church we ended a 1.5 month sermon series on the Kingdom of God by discussing what it means to participate in the Kingdom; one of the passages we looked at was Mat 20:1-16, the Parable of the Workers in the [...]