Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Grace, mercy and peace be yours this morning from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
So our sermon title is all about perspective. And a little personal story is that perspective matters, especially when you're in church. When I was growing up, I only ever saw the church from down there. And I remember sitting in the pews, listening to our pastors, one of them was very exuberant. In fact, when I would start falling asleep, he always seemed to know when he needed to scream, and scare me away. But sitting down there is very different than coming up here. And the perspective is very different, because of how I'm seeing everything. Because I'm so used to looking at things from one viewpoint. When I was at my congregation, when I was still, in the civilian side of the house, I actually made my congregation do this, I'm not gonna make you do this. But it was to help people be a little bit uncomfortable and to shift their perspective by asking everyone to stand up and switch sides of the church. I already heard some Oh, noes. I'm not gonna make you do that. But it's uncomfortable because we have where we sit, we have what we do. We have where we go on a weekly, daily hourly basis, we have our routines. And so when I made them stand up and switch sides, one of the very first things I heard the moment they sat down was I don't like this. Well, yeah, it's uncomfortable. It's not what you're used to. But the thing about perspective is that perspective is actually shaped by the habits we do, but more specifically, by how we think. There's a term in psychology, and I'm not formally trained in psychology, I'm trained as a pastor. But I've done a lot of reading on psychology, how the brain works, talked with a lot of different counselors, and interesting thing that has come out in recent years in the world of counseling, is that the words we use impact the reality around us. It's called neuroplasticity. And what it focuses on is that our brains, actually based off of the way we interact with the world, the language we use, our brain gets wired to react a certain way. Because as smart as our brains are, it has so much information that it has to try and process that it's looking for shortcuts. So when we use language in the interpretation of reality around us, it creates Oh, danger, I need to react in this way. So, Lion sitting there, or maybe just I'm nervous and scared. My brain reacts the same way, because it's created this pathway that ties the words we use with the action we do. So when I say the language we use creates the reality around us. I don't mean like God, when He says, Let there be if only let there be a million dollars, let there be no war let there be. And it would be nice to know, this use of language, actually, is to help shape shape, our perspective and how we interact in this reality. The cool thing about neuroplasticity is that you can change that pathway. And you do so by changing the language you use. So if I think I'm worthless, I'm no good. How am I going to interact in this world? It's like I'm worthless. Like I can't do anything, right? If I think and use the language of I am loved, I am worthy. From a Christian side, I am forgiven. And how does that shape how we interact in this world? I asked you this morning to think about the language you use to describe yourself. I dare say in many of my interactions with people, the language we use to describe ourself is very, very bad.
And that we kind of fall in that I'm not good enough.
I'm worthless. I I'm just not up to par, I can't do anything, right. There's nothing ever good. That's important that we address that. Because from a Christian side, that's not how God views us. And I often ask people, if you were to hear someone saying those things out loud to another person, those very thoughts that you're having in your own head, if you were to hear someone say that to someone else, what would your reaction be? And they'd be, I'd be upset. Because how dare they say that to another person? To which I always reply, so why are you saying that to yourself? From a Christian side, I say it like this. That's not how God views you. That is not the story of Christianity at all. It's the story of Christianity of Christ is the one that comes into the broken world into the people who are hurting and struggling, who think they have absolutely nothing to offer. And he says, I am making you my own, you are now my child you are loved and cared for. And the whole point of the cross is to shift our perspective. To shift first and foremost, how we view ourselves. That's the thing of love, that we've been going over these last three weeks, is that love isn't about me. First and foremost. It's about the love of Christ for you, to help shift who you are. And then what that does, is it shifts the perspective to what we talked about last week, is that it's no longer about me. It's about others. So the language you use in describing yourself is very, very important in this journey we have in the Christian faith, because how you view yourself is also going to impact how you view other people. How do I view people in this building? First and foremost? How do I view people when I step outside these doors? How do I view people? When I'm driving on the five?
For me, it's usually with anger. But how do I view people that are not me? If I don't think I'm very good, I very well may not think other people are either.
But what if that perspective, perspective shifts? What if we see ourselves the way Christ sees us the way God the Father sees us through Christ as one who is worthy of dignity, respect, love, care, all of these things are no merit of our own. We know that it's a free free gift given to us by Christ. How does that shift our perspective to those outside the store? I'm going to say it shifts dramatically. When we come to today's text, that's the shift that Jesus is trying to highlight in how the Kingdom of Heaven functions completely differently. In my world, and many of you are from the military as well, military backgrounds, but in my world, a lot of it has to do with how do we get promoted? How do I make myself look good? How do I keep progressing more and more and more and more and more? And it gets all about me? That's what these workers were thinking. It's a very rational thought, right? So the story is, this master goes out at six in the morning, and he hire some workers and he goes, Hey, I need some people to go out of my field and do some work. I'm going to give you all a denarius. We're going to work a 12 hour day, normal, excuse me, normal pay, you get a full day's wage. You go work and they say, sounds good. I want to eat today. So they go out and they work for him. And then the master goes back to those town yard and it's now nine o'clock, 12 o'clock, three o'clock, and he does this over and over and says hey, I need more people to work. And finally it's five o'clock in the evening. Almost time you Know the bell is about to ring time to go home, get your wages go enjoy time with your family. And so he goes out into the square one more. And there's these guys still standing there. And he goes, Why are you just being here? Why haven't you done anything all day and goes, nobody wants to hire us. We have nowhere to go. And it looks like we're not going to have our day's wage. So we can't go get food, we can't do these things for our family. And he goes, Listen, go out there to I'm hiring you. So the rational thought process, when he starts paying these workers that only worked an hour, the denarius is that oh, my gosh, I finally get more. Because they work there all day. And the perspective that these workers have, is that they deserve more because they've done more, because they've endured more. What's their reaction? When they get paid the exact same wage? As the people that worked one hour? You gotta be kidding me. You made me equal with them. I've been out here, I've got a sunburn now. I'm dehydrated. And I don't, this is totally unfair. But the whole point was, their perspective was that I need more. What the master brings forward is that I am generous. That's the perspective shift, are we who are Christians here, who have this message. It's not about us in this very kind of consumer mindset about getting more getting more getting more. It's about who the master is, and what he gives freely to everyone. That He is Generous, to the point where everything that he gives is more than enough. And that highlights a danger or a caution that Jesus wants to highlight, which is don't make it about you shortly after this part, and it closes with. The first will be last and the last will be first. Well, shortly after this just a few more verses, it talks about James and John and the request that was made to Jesus that was said, Hey, can we be on your left and right hand we want to be in positions of authority and power. And the disciples get irritated at them and start yelling at them not because what they asked was wrong, but because they didn't think of it first. That's why they get upset. And Jesus says, You don't know what you're asking. It's not about being first. It's about what is given to others. Our perspective, and the language we use shows how we view this. How do we view this message of Christ? Do we view it as one that is for me? Or do we view it as one? That's for us? For you? That's the beauty of this message. Is that the language that is shifted, as we start to be shown more and more of who we are in Christ, that this love is first and foremost for you. And then for others that are not me. It shifts how we interact with people. So as you go forward looking at this, where is our perspective? What is our orientation?
What are we looking for? Where are we oriented as an individual? And as a group? Where do we want to go? And then the big fun stuff comes? How do we get there.
But in all of this, what Jesus is highlighting is the kingdom of heaven does not work like the rest of the world. It's not about being the greatest not being about being the strongest, not about being the most popular with whatever. It's about the message of forgiveness, and maybe even some suffering for the sake of that. But what has he done for us? And so our perspective is always oriented on the cross, and how we view ourselves and others. Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai