Wisdom

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

There are very few recreational activities that challenge one's body, mind and spirit and reveal a person's true character like the game of golf.

The legendary movie character Baggar Vance described a person's true character saying "a man's grip on his club just like a man's grip on his world."

The late entertainer Bob Hope once said, "If I'm on the golf course and lightning starts, I get inside fast. If God wants to play through, I let him."

One of my favorite golfers, Mr. Arnold Palmer, once said, “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.”

Author Michael Murphy wrote, "Golf is a game to teach you about the messages from within, about the subtle voices of the body-mind. And once you understand them you can more clearly see the ways in which your approach to the game reflects your entire life. Nowhere does a man go so naked than on the golf course."

As a golfer, I know there is nothing more exhilarating than hitting the ball with sweet spot of the club. I also know there is nothing more humbling than slicing your tee shot into the next fairway with a crowd of people looking on. The high points and low points we experience playing golf parallel the high and low points of life.

The Greek poet Aeschylus wrote, “In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” Wherever we find ourselves riding the rollercoaster of life, whether we’re up or down, wisdom is there to tell us who we really are, who we belong to and what we are called to do.

Good stewards pay attention to what wisdom offers. We can say that Wisdom itself should be the first voice we listen to before we venture into any part of life, whether it's on the golf course or at the beginning of a new day. Proverbs 8 imagines Wisdom as a female figure created by God who stands at the crossroads beside the gates of the city and cries out to the people, "O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it" (Proverbs 8:1-5). We can almost imagine her standing on the first tee and telling us to get real about ourselves before we take a swing at life. We are "simple" when we don't have a good sense of who we are, and we need to listen to and learn from God and God's Wisdom in order to match our character with our actions (v. 5). Wisdom reveals the truth and what we need to prosper and grow.

Wisdom reveals that God has been a consistent Creator and Sustainer since the beginning of time. God created Wisdom right along with the Earth. Wisdom was there beside God like a "master worker" in whom God delighted. Wisdom also rejoiced and delighted in the people God made (vv. 30-31). God has always loved his creation and his people, and reveals this most clearly through the incarnation of Jesus, who John says is the logos, or the wisdom of God (John 1:1-14). Despite our human tendency to arrogance, God's logos, God's Wisdom, God's love has come to perfect the imperfect and offer a way of life that keeps us on the fairway toward the image of God we were created to be. That way of life is the way of Wisdom.

Good stewards allow wisdom and discernment guide their steps. Sometimes we speak, sometimes we hold our tongue and listen. Sometimes we step out and take the lead, sometimes we allow others to be leaders. A good, wise steward is honest with him or herself. Golf instructor Percy Boomer once said, "If you wish to hide your character, do not play golf." Better to be honest, forthright and wise before hitting that first tee shot! Here is what that looks like.

A wise player plays by the rules. "Happy are those who keep my ways," says Wisdom (v. 32). Even the best golfers know that they need constant instruction from teachers in order to keep their swings intact and make their balls fly straight. Those who want to keep their lives intact and walk the straight path will also hear Wisdom's instruction and "be wise" (v. 33). Happy is the one who listens to Wisdom's instruction from the first tee at the beginning of every day (v. 34). The wise person will also look for God's Wisdom, instead of beating the bushes to try to find himself. The wise person knows that whoever seeks God will obtain God's favor, not because he has done everything perfectly but because everything he or she does is aimed at pleasing God (v. 35).[1]

A wise player practices regularly. That kind of consistency requires practice. One of the so-called “pro” golfers who showed up at last year's U.S. Open qualifier shot in the high 80s during both rounds and told the USGA, "I only hone my game for the U.S. Open every year." You can't hone your golf game or your discipleship only once a year and expect to be successful. Those who miss the daily discipline of practicing wisdom will "injure themselves" in more ways than one, and those who refuse to listen to Wisdom wind up with a life that looks like the equivalent of a bad round of golf: a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment, laced with words that would make a sailor blush and bad arithmetic. It's the kind of round that ultimately leads to the way of death (v. 36).[2]

A wise player is honest. It's easy to come up with a host of excuses why we haven't been following God and God's Wisdom. God isn't looking for excuses, however; God is looking for those who are willing to admit that their game is not all that great; that their handicaps are poor but who want to undergo the instruction necessary to get better.[3]

Wisdom is a gift from God. Nowhere was this more evident than with the first responders and residents of Moore, Oklahoma. This week has been a crazy one for extreme weather, especially with our neighbors to our north. The amount of destruction brought by the EF-5 tornado earlier this week in that town was devastating and overwhelming, perhaps the most destructive storm in our nation’s history. In the midst of that terrible tragedy, the wisdom of God was evident through the amazing stories of survival; stories such as how quickly first responders arrived and worked tirelessly day and night to find the injured, the lost, those buried beneath rubble and helping reunite loved ones: children with their parents, pets with their owners. One story that caught my eye was one of an elementary school teacher who physically covered several of her students in order to protect them from the falling debris. Cindy is a first grade teacher. She opened her classroom door and saw the tornado coming. “There was no turning back”, she said. “It was coming right at the school.” She immediately got on top of the kids, saying this is not a drill and to get down and cover your heads. One of those children with her was her own son. As they cried for their own moms they had desks covering them and chairs and tables. This teacher had the wisdom to do the right thing by her students, even if that meant putting herself in harm’s way. Cindy was wise enough to do what she did that day not because she had been through this before but because she welcomed wisdom into her life and it had made a home in her heart long ago. The way of life is the way of wisdom.

A wise player who practices, who is honest, and who retains Wisdom as his or her "coach" will become a better player. When we listen to Wisdom, listen to the voice of the Spirit of God, improvement in our games is inevitable.[4]

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[1] Bob Kaylor, our Senior Writer, and Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Bob Kaylor, our Senior Writer, and Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.

Get Powered Up!

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Acts 2:1-21

In the tale, “Hope for the Flowers” by Trina Paulus, the heroes are two caterpillars named Stripe and Yellow.  Stripe and Yellow want something more from life than eating and growing bigger.  They get caught up in a "caterpillar pillar", a squirming mass of bodies, each determined to reach a top so far away it can't be seen.  Disillusioned, they discover that the only way for caterpillars to find who they REALLY are, is to enter the cocoon and risk becoming a butterfly.  Surrendering to the cocoon is the only way for the two caterpillars to finally soar to the top.

This was not the end of the caterpillars; it was a new beginning.  Risking the known, placing themselves at the mercy of the unknown of the cocoon, Stripe and Yellow are transformed by the power and energy created within the cocoon.  The caterpillar chapter of their life is over.  Now they begin a new life as a butterfly, a life filled with unknowns and new possibilities.

Pentecost is also a day of endings and new beginnings; a day of transformation and new life.  It’s a celebration; a celebration in the life of the Christian church when we rejoice over the coming of the Holy Spirit, an outpouring of God’s power and energy upon those early followers moving them out of their comfort zones into the unknown realm where the Living Christ lives.  It’s a day of great change; a day when new life arrived as promised: sudden, unmerited and irresistible new life.  The old and familiar is made new and fresh.

If you look carefully enough, you can see new life take shape all around us.  There is a boat shop in Pemaquid, Maine called the Carpenter’s Boat shop, a Christian ministry that teaches people of all ages how to build boats and Shaker style furniture.  They build mostly new wooden boats, but they also restore old boats in disrepair.  Now and again someone brings over an old boat that was rotted, worn out and in disrepair.  The folks at the boat shop gladly put their “Hands to Work” and their “Hearts to God” to bring new life to these old boats.  It is tedious, time-consuming work that requires a lot of energy with great attention to detail.  Replacing old rotted wood pieces, restoring the original hardware, and a quality paint and urethane job in the finishing room brings new life to these old boats.  A boat that had been thrown away, discarded and once considered junk is now a new creation. 

For the Carpenter’s Boat Shop it would have been easier to not bother restoring old boats with all the time, treasure and talent that’s involved.  To restore something, to transform someone’s life or the life of the church, it takes the power and energy of the Holy Spirit revealed by God through the time, talent and treasure each of us has to effect change in our homes, communities and in our church.  Through restoration and transformation, the old is gone and the new has come; there is both a simultaneous ending and beginning.

The promise of Pentecost is we have been given the Holy Spirit, the mighty power of God to transform our culture, our world and our own lives, so we may have new life and have it abundantly.  Like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly and the old wooden boats given new life, the dry bones that lay barren on the valley floor and the dry spirits of the believers in the upper room are given new life from God through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

With the Holy Spirit, the disciples are powered up for a new day has arrived.  No more hiding out and no more running away.  The past is left behind.  They are no longer afraid of change.  They have no fear of the future because the future is an open book of unlimited possibilities through the Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit becomes the dominant force in the growth and life of the early church.

The Holy Spirit became the source of all guidance for Peter and the others.  We see it at work throughout the Book of Acts.  The Apostle Philip is moved by the Holy Spirit to engage an Ethiopian eunuch with the Good News.  The Holy Spirit prepares Peter to receive the messengers of Cornelius and moves him to go visit with Cornelius.  The Apostle Paul is led by the Holy Spirit on his missionary journeys through Asia Minor, Europe, Greece and Macedonia to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.  It is clear the early church is guided by power of possibility from the Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit serves we as believers as a source of courage and power each and every day.  In Acts 1:8, the disciples are promised the power of the Holy Spirit from Christ.  We see the power of the Spirit in Peter when he addresses the crowd in our text this morning quoting the prophet Joel.  Remember Peter was the one who denied knowing Christ three times after Jesus was arrested.  He ran away and hid.  The power of the Holy Spirit made a home in Peter and has replaced the fear and insecurity Peter once felt with courage and power.  This once fisherman turned disciple of Jesus Christ speaks with a boldness and eloquence he never had before.  The work of the Holy Spirit is visible and real in that the Spirit gives us courage to confront dangerous situations; the Spirit gives us power to cope with life more than adequately; the Spirit gives us eloquence in moments when eloquence is needed; and the Spirit gives us a joy independent of the circumstances where we find ourselves.  These and more are attributed to the leading and influence of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives.

The early church was a spirit-filled Church and that was the source of its power.  It’s the Spirit that led them into unknown adventures and unfamiliar places.

My friends, where do you see the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your own life?  In the life of your family?  In the life of your co-workers and classmates?  Where do you see the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of this congregation?

I have heard it said that we, the Presbyterian Church (USA), have missed the mark, we’ve lost our edge, our energy, and the courage of our convictions.  After all, why are so many churches declining in membership and so many others closed because they are no longer viable.  I’ve heard it said that we’ve lost touch and out of tune with the power of the Holy Spirit.  And perhaps we are…perhaps.

Are we truly asking ourselves what does God want to do through us in this time and place to build the Kingdom of God?  We need to bow before the throne of grace seeking guidance and direction on how we can be Christ in our time and in this place.

My friends, I believe it’s time to get powered up!  It’s the time to move forward seeking new ways of being the church of Jesus Christ.    The Bible says, “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we shall see face to face.”  We have an idea of what is to come, but its fulfillment is not yet known.  The Festival of Pentecost is a new beginning and an ending.  It is the time when the past is left behind, the past of fear, safety and complacency, doing things the way we’ve always done it and we see a new beginning emerging on the horizon.

I think about those who have graduated and are graduating this spring, one phase of life is ending and a new phase is beginning.  This new beginning is both exciting and scary because you don’t know exactly what will happen.  The familiar and comfortable is replaced with many unknowns and new beginnings.  With a new beginning, there is great potential to excel, to make a difference in the world, to make a positive contribution to society.  We see a part of the picture, but what will the rest of the picture show?  The old life is gone and the new life has begun.

When our youth get to a certain age, they are invited to participate in a confirmation class.  Confirmation marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood in the life of the church.  Yes, the youth of our church have learned a great deal from their years in church school, church camps and worship.  But this is just the tip of the iceberg!  There is so much more to learn about the Christian life.  There is so much to experience following Christ each and every day.  There are new responsibilities to meet and new opportunities to share the love of God in Christ Jesus with friends, family and the church.  The old life is gone and the new life has begun. 

To all our youth and young adults and the young-at-heart, I say to you: You are no longer a caterpillar.  It’s time for you to fly!  It’s time for you to speak truth to power and to lead our church into a deeper relationship with the Living God.  It won’t be handed to you.  You gotta assert yourself.  You gotta get up and just take it!  Take it!  The old life is gone and the new life has begun.

The meaning of Pentecost is new life: new life for the church, new life for you and me in the church, and new life through the Holy Spirit.  The only way for you and me to find who we REALLY are, is to enter the cocoon and risk becoming a new creation.  Surrendering to the cocoon is the only way for each of us to finally spread our wings and soar, allowing God’s power and energy to move us out of our comfort zones into the unknown realm of tomorrow.  Amen.  

Shackled and Drawn

Acts 16:16-34

I can’t begin to imagine the heartbreak, the pain and the panic a mother feels when their child goes missing even if it’s just for a brief moment. Imagine what it must be like if that moment is ten years. The big news event this week has been the discovery of three young women in Cleveland, Ohio, who had been missing for ten years, long thought to be dead, held captive against their will. For ten years the mothers’ of these three young women were also held captive. They were held captive and shackled by their grief and mourning. They had no answers, no closure for such a long time leaving their spirit wounded. An experience like this can cripple you spiritually and hold you back mentally. You can’t forget what happened. You can’t easily put something like this behind you and move on. You can’t stop thinking about what happened. A Mother Never Forgets.

What shackles do we carry today? What responsibilities, what burdens are holding you back from becoming the one God created you to be? What parts of your life have shackled your spirit?

Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that even though God’s love for us is unconditional and a free gift to us in Jesus Christ, we don’t always take it or own it or even want it. God sent his son Jesus into the world to take our sins away, but do we always allow that to filter into all the dark, narrow places inside ourselves? Despite God’s amazing love for us, all of us find ourselves shackled and drawn.

Paul is no stranger to knowing what it’s like to be placed in shackles.

When Paul and Silas arrive in Philippi, they were greeted in a most unusual way. At first they thought this young girl is just weird, perhaps she has a screw lose, perhaps the lights are on but nobody’s home. Regardless, she is not in her right mind. When Paul recognized that the spirit possessing the young girl was confusing his listeners and drawing attention away from the gospel, Paul banished that spirit using the power of Jesus' name. She cries out, “These men are slaves to the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation”. This went on each time Paul and Silas came into the center of town. After a few days, Paul has had enough. He finally calls on the evil spirit to come out of her. She has been shackled by an evil spirit. To be shackled in this way is to be so controlled by it that the person says and does things that would otherwise be out of character. Also, when the demon speaks, it recognizes the power of God for what it is and, in the end, obeys that power. This young girl was shackled and drawn by this evil spirit. She was enslaved also by her owners for financial gain. These unnamed persons were manipulating her and her spirit to their own advantage, and they perceived the power of God, vested in Paul and Silas, as a threat to their power over the girl. But now she is free!

Those reaping the financial rewards from the possessed young girl are angry because she is no longer useful to them. In their eyes Paul and Silas are a threat to their business interests and economic well-being. They seize Paul and Silas and take them to court where the magistrates had them stripped down, beaten with rods and thrown into the inner most cell in the prison with their arms and legs shackled to the floor. If you speak the truth, as Paul and Silas did, you should be prepared for whatever comes your way: it’s either adulation or accusation, loving or loathing, thrones or prisons, recovery or relapse, plaudits or audits. Paul and Silas did what was right by freeing the girl from the evil spirit and were prepared for whatever the consequences would be.

Locked up in a maximum security prison, with no hope for parole, Paul and Silas are enduring some of the consequences of doing God’s will. It appears to be a hopeless situation. There are no windows to escape through. And even if they could, how would they get out of the shackles. Is this it for our holy dynamic duo? Is this the end of their missionary journey? Will these shackled jail birds be singing the blues? What will happen next? How would you react if this was you instead of them?

Despite their situation, they don’t sulk in their despair and hopelessness. They don’t roll over and give up on their ministry. They don’t even whine or complain to one another about their situation. They are praying and singing hymns of praise to God in their cell. The sound of their voices echoes throughout the prison so the other prisoners could listen. They don’t give up hope. They don’t lose faith. They are in it to win it. They’ve come too far to turn back, to go back to the way life was before for each of them.

And God’s timing couldn’t be better!

The earthquake comes, the prison cell doors all open and you have the makings of a prison riot if you’re not careful.

I don’t know what kind of man the jailer was who was on duty that night. I think it’s safe to say that he was the type who lived for the job. His job as a guard at the jail was his identity. It’s what he lived for even though he has a family to come home to. But the jailer is shackled to his job. He’s a workaholic. He’s ready to die at his own hand when the earthquake hits thinking that everyone escaped, but we know that nobody in the whole prison escaped that day. This is a turning point in the life of our jailer friend.

In the January 24, 2000 issue of Newsweek, Diana Reynolds Roome wrote a story entitled, “What’s wrong with using the ‘V” word? (The word is vacation.) She writes comparing the attitude we have toward vacation with Europeans. She writes, “…in Europe, for the most part, four weeks of paid vacation a year is mandatory and six weeks customary… Meanwhile, the effects of vacation starvation are all around me. For many people I know, 50 weeks of the year are used up in a blind struggle to get to work, retain a foothold and move upward. At home, essentials of family maintenance - paying bills, helping kids with homework - take up the little time left. There's hardly a spare hour for pursuits that remind people they are more than corporate ciphers. While our economy may be thriving, we are not. Marriages are starved of time. Children hardly ever see their parents unhurried and unharried. Anger, depression, exhaustion and stress-related illness are epidemic amongst all ages. Yet the V word is almost never mentioned as a solution. Like sleep (another commodity we don't get enough of), vacation is a remedy without harmful side effects. But because it's considered an indulgence, it doesn't fit well in our busier-than-thou culture. It's fine to want more money, but there is something shameful about asking for more time.  Of course, the spirit of hard work is part of what has made America great. But there is another side to that coin. Americans, who consider themselves the freest people on earth, shackle themselves to their jobs, in the process giving up the most basic of human rights: time to be who they are.”[1]

It’s ironic that the jailer had the keys to freedom, but shackled himself to his job. But the shackles have been removed. His eyes have been opened to a new way of living; to a new way of seeing the world. “What must I do to be saved?” he asks. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household”, is the answer he receives. It is the one he accepts.

What duties shackle you today?

Is it your job? Perhaps at one time you really enjoyed going to work every day and enjoyed the work that you were asked to do. But lately, it’s as if you are just not into it anymore. So many days you feel as if you are simply “going through the motions”, doing enough to get by. Do you really want to live this way? You need resurrection power!

Is it your insatiable need for entertainment? You cannot get away from it these days. Entertainment content of all types and varieties is offered 24/7 on our computers, TVs, tablets and smartphones. It’s so much easier to sit and watch a show or play a video game rather than doing something physical and getting your hands dirty. I’ve heard it said that, “Freedom is a dirty shirt; the sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt. The shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone.”[2] Our insatiable appetite for entertainment steal time from our jobs, children, spouses, and friends isolating us from others. We become an island onto ourselves. You weren’t created to live this way! You need resurrection power!

Is it an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, or gambling? Does a coworker, friend or family member need an intervention desperately? Or is it you? What are you wrestling with? You try to deal with it on your own because you’re too embarrassed to admit you have a problem but over and over and over you find yourself stuck in a moment you can’t get out of. The shackles of addiction are too strong to break alone. You can’t deal with it by yourself. You gotta have help! You need resurrection power!

Is it the shackles of an extra-marital affair? Whichever part of the love triangle you find yourself, you’re shackled into the relationship in some way. The lying, the cheating, and all the energy it takes to keep the truth hidden out of plain view is daunting. But we all know too well that no lie can live forever. What do you do? You need resurrection power!

Are you debating whether or not to point out illegal practices and/or immoral attitudes present within your company? You know it’s the right thing to do, but with a tough job market you really need this job. You don’t want to lose it. You need the courage of your convictions! You need resurrection power!

Resurrection power is the power that we receive from Christ our savior on that first Easter morning. It’s the power we receive from Christ when we come to this table to take part in the meal he has prepared for us. This bread and wine give us strength for today and hope for tomorrow. Through this meal, our shackles are gone, we’re set free. Our God, Our Savior has ransomed each one of us. And like a flood His mercy rains. God’s unending love is amazing grace.

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[1] Diana Reynolds Roome, What's Wrong With Using the V Word? Newsweek, January 24, 2000, 10.

[2] Bruce Springsteen, “Shackled and Drawn” from the CD Wrecking Ball.  2013 Sony Music Entertainment.

It's Not About You!

Exodus 16:2-15

Matthew 20:1-16

Philippians 1:21-30

Everywhere you look these days you see the message, “It’s all about you!”.  It’s all about what YOU want, it’s all about your desires, and your interests.  I think this started way back in the day when Burger King advertised that they would make their Whopper burgers just the way you like it.  BK was the place where you could have it made your way.  As a kid I was completely sold on this idea because I didn’t like tomatoes and onions on my Whopper.  I learned that you could get your Whopper with cheese, hold the onions and hold the tomatoes.  I learned at an early age that, when it came to fast food, it was all about me.

Dr. Kenneth P. Landon, director of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies at American University, makes this autobiographical comment: I grew up in an era when it was still respectable to say, 'Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.' Now it is more in style to say, 'Lord, I don't believe much. Help thou my use of cybernetics in determining my probabilities and options.’  All too often we discover ourselves placing our faith and trust in material things and human endeavors rather than in the God of all creation.  We may pray when it is convenient for us.  Most of us are more likely to skip more than anything else our prayer time and scripture reading on a given day when we feel pressured and stressed by our earthly responsibilities.  It’s all about you and me.

There was a group of people in the Bible who thought it was all about them.  Recall with me the story of Moses, Aaron and the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt and crossing the Red Sea with God’s mighty hand.  They have traveled for about a month now and have entered the wilderness of Sin.  There is nothing there for them to eat and they are hungry, so they complain to Moses and Aaron about the situation.  It’s all about them and their needs.  Don’t they remember?  Did they forget about God’s mighty deeds?  For they cry out they want to go back to their days as slaves in Egypt where they had plenty to eat and drink and were fairly comfortable besides the fact they were whipped, beaten and enslaved to do the Pharaoh’s bidding.  The Israelites are fickle.  They forgot what God has done for them.  They can’t see the big picture.  They are unable to look beyond their own selves and simply trust in God.  They only trust what they think they know and remember from “the Good Old Days”.  What the Israelites failed to see was that it’s not all about them, it’s about God.

Despite their whining and complaining, God meets their needs.  God is not stingy with his people, for God is a generous God, a giving God, and a gracious God.  God provides them with quail to eat and bread or manna from heaven to eat each morning. 

Our God is a sovereign God.  God is powerful, creative, and decisively-present in all creation.  God is the creator and master of the universe.  Who we are as creatures of the Most High God is freely given to us from God.  We are completely and utterly dependent on God for our abilities, our gifts, our every breath, and our entire lives.  And what God is testing and teaching the Israelites and us, too, is that the only reason we are alive and exist is because of the gracious, generous, loving hands of the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt from slavery to freedom.

Unless I’ve missed my guess, there is someone here today who is trying to do it all, trying to be all things to all people, striving for perfection and constantly falling short, and doing so all on their own.  Is there someone here today who thinks it’s all about them?  Is there someone here today who perhaps is looking for some help, some strength, some healing, some grace, some relief?

Our God is sovereign and generous.  He meets our needs not our greeds.  The laborers in the vineyard learned this the hard way, for they too lived their lives as though it were all about them.  Jesus tells our story in Matthew in an effort to describe to us what the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is like.  The owner of a vineyard hired workers for his vineyard one day at five different times throughout the day.  He agreed to pay all of them the usual daily wage or “whatever is right”.  In those days the usual daily wage for a day laborer was a silver coin or a denarius.  A denarius was about enough to feed a large peasant family for one day.  So peasant families are completely dependent on wealthy landowners for work and wages to survive from day to day.  No matter how hard or long the laborers work, everyone is getting the same deal.

Now hold on a minute!  That’s not fair, is it?  Any lawyer will tell you this landowner is guilty of unlawful labor practices.  It’s not right to pay the same wage to someone who worked 12 hours as someone who worked only one.  It just doesn’t add up!  And the laborers who worked all day didn’t think so either, so they took up this issue with the landowner.  Did you catch what the laborers said?  Here it is again,

“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.” 

Made them equal to us, they said.  What does this say about who God is?  We know God is sovereign and God is generous, but now we know that God is impartial and gracious.  Like God, the landowner chose to treat all the laborers equally.  He shows no impartiality and demonstrates what amazing grace is all about.  The Grace of God is always amazing.  It can’t be calculated or expected.  If it could, it wouldn’t be grace to begin with.  So in the eyes of God, through his loving and gracious and impartial eyes, God places each of us on equal footing.  It’s not about you, it’s not about me.  It’s about God.

The Apostle Paul expounded on this in his letter to the Philippians.  He says, “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that…I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel…” 

In other words, because God has given us everything and blessed us beyond measure, our response requires that we move our focus off of ourselves and focus on God.  It’s not about you and it’s not about me.  It’s about God in Christ Jesus and showing the world what it’s all about.  Through countless joys and sorrows, we are to live together, striving side by side with one another with one mind, one focus, and one faith.

Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to God.  So it’s completely ridiculous to try to ignore God, to put God in a corner, to pretend he’s not even there.  We are absolutely, positively dependent upon God for everything.  The Israelites didn’t get it.  They didn’t understand.  One minute they’re praising God for delivering them from the Egyptian army and the next they are complaining against him.  They didn’t get it.  The laborers in the vineyard didn’t get it either.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first puts all of us on equal footing with God so we may experience God’s grace together.

It’s not about you.  It’s not about me.  It’s all about our sovereign, generous, impartial, gracious and risen Lord.  For it was the sovereign God of the universe, who created us and gives us life, who meets us at our point of greatest need, our sinful nature.  And God in his gracious and loving way, in an extreme effort to show us that it is not about us, that we can not save ourselves from sin, sent us his son Jesus so that we could know the truth of who God is and know who we are meant to be and be set free by it.  In John’s gospel, chapter 3 verse 17 it says, “God sent Jesus his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, not our own actions, not our own abilities, not our own intelligence, not our own efforts and not our own work, that we are saved from the bondage of sin and set free to live for Jesus Christ. 

You can’t save yourself on your own.  Ask anybody who has been saved from drowning.  Ask anyone who has ever been plucked up from a rooftop while flood waters surround them what it means to be saved from death and destruction.  Like the Israelites and the laborers, I had to learn this the hard way, too.  In high school I thought I was indestructible.  I thought I knew everything.  I thought that I made such great achievements in high school and college based on my own hard work and effort.  But through my 20s, through various personal life experiences, my parents’ divorce and my grandma’s death from cancer, I realized there is so much that is beyond my control.  And I’ve come to realize that it’s okay.  I’ve learned that there is more to life than what I can control, what I can get my hands on, direct and order.  I’ve learned that I need to let go, take my hands off the wheel sometimes, and let God do the driving, for God is the one in control.  God is the one driving this finely-tuned sports car.  I gave him the keys awhile ago and what a crazy, exhilarating, exciting ride it has been and continues to be.  It’s not about you.  It’s not about me.  It’s about God in Christ Jesus.

My friends, we need to allow God to be in control, to save us from ourselves and our sinful nature.  We must be able to push our pride aside and allow grace and forgiveness and love to fill our hearts, minds and souls.  My prayer for each of us and I believe its God’s prayer, too, is this: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.  Choose to put your ego aside, let Christ make a home in your heart, and let us work together, striving side by side with one mind in mission and service to one another and to a hurting world.  It’s not about you.  It’s about God in Christ Jesus, and He will not let you down or disappoint you.  Amen.