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That's NOT fair ! · Exploring The Holy Scriptures with Rev Dr David Wright

• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, sisters and brothers, and peace be with you.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: May the words on my lips and the meditations in our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's not fair.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have you heard people say that?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can all understand a reaction like that because somewhere deep inside most of us there is a strong sense of fairness.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: We believe that people should get what they deserve.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Work longer, receive more.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Work harder, receive more.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do more receive more.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that is precisely where Jesus' parable in Matthew chapter twenty verses one to sixteen begins to challenge us.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' story of a landowner who goes out at different times of the day and hires workers for his vineyard is well known.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: As is the conclusion of the parable, when the workers line up at the end of the day to be paid, and everyone receives a full day's wage, irrespective of how long they actually worked.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's not fair, shouts some of the workers.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then comes the question that goes right to the heart of the parable.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you envious because I am generous?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Leading Jesus to conclude So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those gospel passages that can make many of us uncomfortable, because if we're honest, we may find ourselves standing with the workers who were hired first.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We understand them.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: They worked all day, they carried the heat, they did the hard work, they earned their money.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then someone comes along at the last minute and receives exactly the same.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't seem fair.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: However, Jesus isn't giving us a lesson about employment contracts.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: He is giving us a lesson about grace, and grace is often profoundly uncomfortable, because grace means that God's love cannot be calculated according to our achievements.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't love us more because we've been Christians for fifty years.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't love us less because we came to faith yesterday.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't measure his love with a stopwatch.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't have a spreadsheet in heaven with columns headed prayer, church attendance, good works, failures, mistakes, and then calculate exactly how much love each person deserves.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: God's love is grace unbounded, and that grace means that God's goodness is not something we earn.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is something we receive.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: There is another important detail in this parable.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: The people who were hired last weren't lazy.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't necessarily refusing to work.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were standing in the marketplace because no one had hired them.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: They had been overlooked.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: They had been passed by.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they were older.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they lacked experience.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they weren't as strong as the others.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they simply hadn't been in the right place at the right time.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus reminds us that God's kingdom sees people whom society overlooks the last the forgotten the rejected the person who thinks there's no place for me.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: The person who thinks Ah I've wasted too much of my life.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The person who says I've made too many mistakes.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The person who says surely God couldn't want someone like me.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: To all of these Jesus says, Come into the vineyard.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: There is still work to do.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is still a place for you.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: There is still grace.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful truth about God's kingdom this is.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: But perhaps the hardest part of this parable isn't that God welcomes the last.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it is that God asks the first to rejoice when he does.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's much harder.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to celebrate God's grace when we are the ones receiving it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is much harder when somebody else receives the grace we think they don't deserve.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Huge danger sign.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is where comparison becomes extremely perilous.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We look at another person's life and we think why should they get that?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why should they be forgiven?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why should they be welcomed?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why should they receive another chance?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: After everything I've done?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why should they be treated the same as me?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the gospel of Jesus Christ asks us a different question.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why should anyone receive grace?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is they shouldn't.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Neither should we.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But that is what makes it God's unbounded grace.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus is not a competition between Christians.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus is not about keeping score.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: God's generosity of grace is a gift offered to everyone, to the first, to the last, to the strong, to the weak, to those who have been faithful for decades, and to those who have only just begun.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is something wonderfully hopeful here.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: The man hired at five o'clock didn't have much time left, but one hour was enough.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: One hour was enough for him to enter the vineyard.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: One hour was enough for him to become part of the work.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: One hour was enough for him to receive the generosity of the landowner.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: This tells us something about God.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is never too late, never too late to turn back, never too late to begin again, never too late to discover faith, and never too late to say Lord I am here.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps someone listening today feels that they have wasted years.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps someone thinks that they should have come to God sooner.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps someone thinks their past disqualifies them from God's future.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says there is still room in the vineyard.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, perhaps the question that this gospel leaves us with is not what do I deserve?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But instead what am I going to do with the generous gift of God's grace that I have received?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Will I use it to compare myself with others?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or will I use it to welcome others?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Will I use it to compare myself with others?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or will I use it to welcome others?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Will I resent God's generosity?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or will I rejoice in it?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Will I ask why someone else has been given another chance?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or will I thank God that another person has been given another chance?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we truly understand grace, we discover something extraordinary.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: God's generosity towards another person does not diminish God's generosity towards us.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is enough grace, enough mercy, enough forgiveness, enough love.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: The vineyard is big enough for all of us.