Monday, 21 September 2026
SERMON 240 - SUNDAY 20 AUGUST 2026 - TRINITY 16
Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Winterslow – 16th Sunday after Trinity – Sunday 20th September 2026
Jonah 3:10-4:11; Philippians
1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16
May I speak in the Name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words of yours be a joy and
blessing to all who hear them. Amen
A good few years ago, a fellow member of
this congregation and I went to the Bournemouth International Centre to see the
“Pub Landlord”, otherwise known as Al Murray, muse on life in general in his
persona as the satirical, right-winger including his thoughts on the French and
on religion. Included in his musings was his thoughts on some of the parables
and teachings of Jesus and, in particular, the apparent unfairness of two of
the teachings in particular – the parable of the talents and the one we heard
today – the parable of the vineyard workers.
He questioned why Jesus was teaching what appeared to be a policy of
total unfairness to others and what was the purpose of such teaching.
Well, you probably know that far from being
the uncouth right-wing publican he portrays on stage, Al Murray is in fact a
well-educated modern history graduate of Oxford University and I am sure really
knew the answer to the questions which he posed to his audience, but it got me
to thinking how well do we, those of us who attend church regularly, understand
the messages contained in some of Jeus’s parables. How often do we misunderstand what scripture
is telling us? How often do we mistake grace for unfairness? For it is indeed grace which we are being
taught and our readings this morning emphasise how our human condition can lead
us to not understand the heavenly condition.
Starting
with our Gospel Reading this morning, like the “Pub Landlord” we immediately
think that if someone has worked for eight hours, we expect them to receive
more than someone who has worked for one hour. If someone has stood patiently
in a queue for a theatre ticket, we don't expect somebody who has just arrived
to walk straight to the front. If we have worked hard for something, we quite
naturally believe that we deserve the reward. In effect We are brought up with
the principle that effort should be rewarded and that people should receive
what they deserve. And, in many circumstances, that is perfectly
reasonable. Today's Gospel presents us
with a story which challenges that instinct very deeply.
Jesus
tells us about a landowner who goes out early in the morning to hire workers
for his vineyard. He agrees with the first group to pay them the usual daily
wage. Later in the morning he finds more workers, then more at noon, and again
in the afternoon. Finally, even at the eleventh hour, he finds men who have
been standing idle and sends them into his vineyard. At the end of the day, the workers are paid.
And here
is where the story becomes uncomfortable. Those who worked only one hour
receive the same amount as those who have worked all day. Immediately, our
sense of fairness begins to protest. We can almost hear the workers who have
been there since dawn saying: “That's not fair!” And, on the face of it,
we probably agree with them. They have worked through the heat of the day. They
have given up their time and energy. They have done what was asked of them.
Surely, they deserve more than those who have worked for only an hour?
Yet the
landowner replies: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with
me for the usual daily wage?” The
issue, Jesus tells us, is not that the landowner has been unfair. The issue is
that the workers have allowed someone else's generosity to make them
dissatisfied with what they themselves have received. They were perfectly
content with their wages—until they discovered that somebody else had received
the same. And there is a profound lesson here for us.
We can
be quite happy with what we have until we discover that someone else has
received more. We compare salaries, possessions, opportunities, recognition and
achievements. We compare our lives with those of other people. My father, for
example, I remember being quite bitter when he was passed over for promotion at
work.
And
sometimes we even compare God's grace.
We may
unconsciously think:
“I have
been a Christian for many years. I have attended church faithfully. I have
tried to live a good life. Surely, I have earned a greater place in God's
kingdom than someone who only turned to God at the end of their life.”
But that
is not how grace works. Grace cannot be earned. Grace is, by definition, a
gift. God does not give us his love
because we have accumulated enough points, performed enough good deeds or
served him for a sufficient number of years.
God gives because God is generous.
That is
precisely the point Jesus is making in this parable.
The
workers who arrived at the eleventh hour were not rewarded because they had
worked hard enough. They were rewarded because the landowner chose to be
generous. And that is what makes the Gospel both challenging and wonderfully
reassuring. If God's grace depended entirely upon what we deserved, none of us
could stand confidently before him. God's grace is greater than our deserving.
Our
first reading this morning, from the end of the Book of Jonah, gives us another
striking example. Jonah has been preaching to the people of Ninevah and warned
them that their city will be destroyed because of their intense wickedness. As
a result, the people repent and thereby God chooses not to destroy the city.
You would have thought that Jonah would have been delighted that his preaching
had been well listened to but instead, Jonah is angry. He thinks that God has
been too merciful. Jonah
wanted justice according to his understanding of justice. He wanted Nineveh to
receive what he believed it deserved.
But
God wanted something different. God wanted the people of Nineveh to turn away
from evil and live. Jonah's problem is remarkably similar to that of the
workers in the vineyard. Both are unhappy because God is generous to people
whom they believe do not deserve it. Jonah effectively says, “I knew you
would do this!” He knows God's character. He knows that God is gracious and
merciful. But he doesn't like it when that grace is extended to the people he
considers unworthy. And perhaps that is one of the most uncomfortable
questions these readings put before us:
Are we
happy that God is gracious—or only when he is gracious to people whom we think
deserve it?
It is easy to
rejoice when someone we love receives God's mercy. It is much harder when the
person receiving it is somebody who has hurt us, disappointed us, rejected us
or, in our judgment, behaved badly. Only
last week, I spoke to somebody about a family member whose behaviour has hurt
me and my family badly, somebody I find it hard to forgive or have any
relationship with. I was challenged by their response about having compassion
for them.
Yet
God says to Jonah, in effect: “Should I not have compassion?” That is the heart
of the matter. God's concern is not simply about giving people what they
deserve. God's desire is that people should turn, be restored and live.
This brings
us to the saying with which Jesus concludes the parable:
“So, the
last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Jesus is not
simply talking about the order in which people are paid.
He is
overturning an entire way of thinking. Human society tends to arrange people
according to status. We have leaders and followers, successful people and
unsuccessful people, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, important and
apparently insignificant. We naturally place people in categories.
But the
Kingdom of God does not operate according to those human rankings.
In God's
Kingdom, the person who appears insignificant to the world may be enormously
significant to God. As we have already seen, the person who arrives late may
receive the same grace as the person who has been there from the beginning. The
sinner who repents may be welcomed with the same love as the person who has
faithfully followed God for decades. The person whom society has placed at the
back of the queue may be brought to the front.
This is why
Jesus emphasises that the first will become last and the last first.
It is a
warning against spiritual pride. We must never assume that because we have been
Christians for many years, or because we have served the Church faithfully, we
have somehow earned a greater claim upon God's love.
And equally,
it is a message of hope. If you feel that you are last—if you feel that you
have failed, that you have wasted opportunities, that you have come late to
faith, or that your past separates you from God—Jesus says that you are not
beyond the reach of grace. There is no “too late” with God. The eleventh-hour
workers are still invited into the vineyard.
In
Philippians, Paul writes about his own situation. He says:
“For
to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
Paul's
whole perspective has been transformed by his relationship with Christ. His
life is no longer centred upon himself. His purpose is Christ.
Paul has
learned something that the workers in the vineyard struggled to understand: the
Christian life is not fundamentally about calculating what we deserve. It is
about responding to what God has already given us.
We do not
follow Christ because we have negotiated a better deal with God. We follow
Christ because we have encountered grace. And grace changes how we see other
people and changes our definition of justice to extend it to incorporate mercy
for God sees the whole person, he sees what we cannot see – the possibility of
repentance. God’s mercy doesn’t replace justice – it reveals a deeper purpose –
to restore, redeem and bring people home.
So perhaps
there are three questions we should take away from these readings.
First:
Can we
accept God's grace when it is given to somebody we believe does not deserve it?
Second:
Can we
stop measuring God's generosity by comparing what we receive with what somebody
else receives?
And third:
Are we
prepared to accept that God's Kingdom may reverse the priorities of our world?
The great
comfort of the Gospel is that God's grace is not limited by our deserving. And
the great challenge is that neither can we place limits upon whom God chooses
to love.
The landowner
says: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs
to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
That question
reaches across the centuries and comes directly to us. God is generous. God is
merciful. God welcomes the repentant. God's love is not a prize to be earned by
those who have worked the longest.
It is a gift
offered to all.
And perhaps
the greatest sign that we have understood the Gospel is not simply that we are
grateful for God's grace towards ourselves, but that we can rejoice when God's
grace is extended to others.
For in the
Kingdom of God, there is no place for spiritual superiority.
There is only
gratitude.
There is only
grace.
And there is
always room in the vineyard.
And so, in conclusion, let us say the Grace together :
“May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the
Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and for evermore”
Amen MFB/240/19092026