Matthew 20:1-16 - Balancing the Book (9-21-08)

I never could balance my checkbook down to the penny. Like many of you I usually balance it down to close to a penny so that I wouldn’t bounce a check. Well maybe a bounce a couple. However, once Microsoft money software was available, I balanced the checkbook down to the penny. I keep track on line of our debit card expenses and keep every penny accounted for on a monthly basis. There isn’t a month that goes by that I know what the balance is in the account. I know the upcoming expenses that chart them for me in the software and pay them on time without delay. It’s important to be responsible in balancing income to expenses.

This image of balancing the books comes from the image of the ledger that listed income in the front and the expenses in the back. If things weren’t balanced, that wasn’t good. It seems as if our government is trying to balance the books of the economy of whatever it takes to make a quick buck.

While everyone else this week is balancing the books of the economy, we are called to balance the book of faith as we focus again on the book of faith initiative of the ELCA. We are called to open the Bible and join the conversation. So how is their balance in this book? Well we look at how we understand the Bible today. First of all, Jesus is the living word of God as revealed in scriptures. Secondly, and the focus today, we Lutheran-Christian view the Bible as law and Gospel. Law and Gospel; but it is not a balancing act between one and the other.

So I ask you to open your Bibles under the chairs to the table of contents. You see that there is the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many times people believe the Old Testament is the Law and the New Testament is the Gospel. God is mean in the Old Testament and God is finally nice in the New Testament. Yet the Bible is unified in expressing law and gospel everywhere. When you read Genesis 1 and it says that God created everything, you can get a deep sense of grace in the smelling of a flower like this one I hold in my hand. This is good news. But you could hear this as law if you hear it like this, “God made it all and you didn’t, you can’t take anything with you when you die.” That same passage can be heard as law as well. Yet take the 23^rd Psalm when you read “Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I am with you.”

So when we talk about the law, it is a way that God says you shall do this for yourself. The law is created to deal with the sin in which we are born into and give order to the chaos of life. There are two uses of the law. It provides good order (civil) and convicts us of sin (like a mirror).

The Gospel is what God says God will do this for us since we can’t do it for ourselves. God has been trying to balance the books of our sin since creation. We sometimes think that we have to keep track of the good and the bad we’ve done so we are rewarded appropriately. Many see the law in the scales of good and bad that have to be balanced more toward the good or you will not make it to heaven. You see there has been an accounting problem in our relationship with God. God is inviting us to see the imbalance in our accounting and receive grace.

Martin Luther said, “These, then, are the two works of God, praised many times in Scripture; God kills and gives life; God wounds and heals; God destroys and helps; God condemns and saves; God humbles and elevates; God disgraces and honors.” [1]

So we find ourselves tipped toward grace today. Jesus tells a story about grace in the story of the Vineyard Owner Seeking Workers. The workday is from sunrise to sunset. The harvest was ready and in prime condition for harvesting. The investments made all season are ripe for picking. So the owner of the vineyard started going out and finding workers in the marketplace where people who had no farms would seek day labor. It was the monster.com place or more like the walmart or home depot where migrant workers seek work.

When the day was over, they were all paid the agreed upon amount. They were then all paid what they all agreed upon, which was a denarii, a day’s wages. So the person who just started got one coin like this Eisenhower Dollar; the person who worked half a day and then the person who worked the whole day. Some people complained about how gracious God is to those who didn’t follow Jesus as long as others. Perhaps we don’t like it when others receive more recognition than we have been serving longer or invested longer.

Then Jesus said, “Are you envious because I am generous?” To paraphrase this statement, “is your eye evil because I am generous”. Then the vineyard owner said, “Take what belong to you and go” – this is a statement of no relationship and bitterness. If you want to still justify yourself by the law, Jesus is bidding us good luck doing that on your own without grace. If you want to hold onto how unfair it is that God treats people with grace, then leave and work your way into heaven.

A Lutheran campus pastor was teaching a college course on the life and teachings of Jesus. As the date for the final exam approached, the class spent several hours reviewing the material. Some students requested extra individualized time with the pastor. Other students met in peer study groups, cramming for the test. One student, realizing she had to be gone the day of the exam, arranged for a make-up exam, only to be told that the make-up test would be much more difficult. The day of the exam arrived; students sleepily filed into the room, obviously tired from a night of little sleep and lots of study. The campus pastor walked in, looking very serious. “Before we begin, I would like to read a passage from the Gospel of Matthew.” The parable of the laborers in the vineyard was read. The pastor closed the Bible and said, “This reading says that it’s all a gift – it’s all grace. So you’ve all made an A on your exam, and you’re free to go.” The students sat, stunned, for a moment; and then something unexpected began to happen. A murmur arose from the class – a murmur of discontent. “You mean we studied all this time for nothing, and those who didn’t study or even show up today get an A too? You’ve got to be kidding! It’s just not fair!” [2]

“Life is not fair, which is why it seems all that much more important that God should be”.[3] But if grace were deserved, it wouldn't be grace. Grace deserved is called a reward. We gather to ask God to bring healing and peace to that kind of resentment.

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[1] Martin Luther, Volume 39, page 188

[2] Daily Discipleship Written by John and Robin McCullough-Bade Copyright © 2005

[3]Barbara B. Taylor, “Beginning at The End” - Prof. Thomas Long handout