26TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A
God’s vineyard is not a place for a solo one man show. It’s a place where you are doing something for and with other members of the Body of Christ. Working in God’s vineyard is getting involved in service that brings glory to God and lifts up, encourages, and edifies another person.
The call to work in God’s vineyard is a call to get your focus and attention off yourself and focus on others. This may be one of the things that the father in our parable this morning was trying to achieve when he told his sons to go and work in the vineyard.
The father owned a vineyard – he was likely a wealthy man. And so, his sons may have been spoiled, self-centered, and entitled. What the father may have wanted his sons to understand is that life is not all about our own needs and issues and challenges. And there’s no other place like God’s vineyard that can make us come to terms with the needs and problems of other people.
I believe the father in our parable wanted to expose his sons to work in the vineyard so they could see people facing their own challenges – challenges that were more serious than any issues his two sons would likely ever have to face.
When we see people wearing designer clothes, who seem to have more money, who live in bigger houses, we may assume that life must be a bed of roses for them. When we see people in second-hand clothes, who struggle financially, who live in poorly kept homes, we may assume that they’re lazy and have no ambition.
But when we roll up our sleeves and go to work in the vineyard of the Lord, we discover that underneath all the clothes and financial situations and the condition of their houses are people with serious pain and challenges.
When God sends us to work in his vineyard, he is telling us to think less about ourselves. He is telling us to get out of our comfort zone, and to reach out to others. Do not allow your personal needs, issues, and challenges keep you from service and from being a blessing to others.
The fact that we are sons and daughters of God doesn’t mean that somewhere along the line we won’t make mistakes – we won’t fall into sin. Both sons in our parable did something wrong. The first son refused at first to obey his father. The second son told his father a lie. They both messed up, but one repented his action, the other did not.
The first son changed his mind because he had not hardened his heart…Jesus makes clear in our gospel that tax collectors and prostitutes – the most unlikely people – will be welcomed into the kingdom simply because they often have broken and repentant hearts. Jesus doesn’t cast away sinners or treat them as worthless.
You see, it is not sin that keeps us from God or prevents us from working in his kingdom. It is the failure to acknowledge and repent of our sins. God doesn’t bless and reward us for what we say we will do or what we intend to do. It is our actions that are blessed by the Lord!