Rev. George Miller
August 31, 2024
Matthew 20:1-16
Tonight, you’re going to hear the 2 scariest words in the English
language:
Junior High.
Now, just 3 weeks ago we celebrated our children going back to school.
We blessed Backpacks. Watched a video made by our Children’s Ministries.
Joked about where we went to school and proudly wore our school colors.
But let’s take a moment to be honest.
Is it fair to say, that for some of us…many of us…
…the most treacherous, confusing era in our entire lives was Junior High?
The lunchroom where the cool kids sit here; nerds sit there.
English class when introverts are forced to stand up and read their book
report infront of everyone.
The group project in which 1 person does alllll the work while 1 person
does nothing.
Science when the teacher says, “Choose your Lab partner, you’ll be
working together all semester.”
Picking teams during gym class and that sense of “please don’t let me be
picked last.”
Could this be another way to hear today’s reading?
What if the Landowner was an athletic coach who lets everyone play on the
team?
Imagine this: Those picked first
are the athletically astute, the tall, the agile, the quick, the strong.
That would be a winning team, BUT the coach goes to the theatre
department, gathers the drama geeks and the tech nerds.
Now we have a team that will not only win but put on a great show while
doing it!
The coach sees there are others who’d like to play.
So, he goes to the outcast table in the lunchroom and says “C’mon, I want
you to be part of the team.”
Though they may have acne, glasses, or funny sounding accents, they get
to play alongside the jocks and the theatre kids.
Not only are they now a winning team that puts on a good show, but they
are a team that has become wonderfully diverse.
But that’s not enough.
The coach goes out behind the school building, under the bleachers, and
finds
the ones who are smoking, skipping class, and being oh so goth.
“C’mon, I want you to be part of the team.”
At 5 pm the coach goes to the room delegated as “special education,”
reaches out to the students listed as “special needs.”
The coach asks “Why aren’t you playing on the team.”
And someone, perhaps in a wheelchair, says “Because no one will pick us.”
With great love in his heart, the coach says ““C’mon, I want you to be
part of the team.”
Here’s a field full of jocks and beauty queens, muscles and mathematicians,
computer techs and trombonists.
There are students of German, Bosnian, Irish, Mexican, French, Caribbean,
Scottish, Afghanie descent.
At the end of the event, the coach says “Congratulations, you have all
won the game!”
“Congratulations- you all get 1st prize!”
Would that upset you?
Perhaps if you were the jock selected at 7 am.
But for the students selected at noon or 5 pm, it would be a joy!
...but what if we look at today’s reading another way.
What if the vineyard is not a place.
What if the vineyard is a person…and the person is you?
What if the hours represent eras in your life?
What if the people are you at those different eras?
Think of this for a moment.
If you were born before 1960 there is a good chance you were raised going
to church.
Perhaps you were that sweet innocent child who got to sing “Jesus Loves
Me” and attend Confirmation.
But then as you became a teen, go off to college, get your first job, and
date,
church was no longer a priority or a regular thing.
Then, maybe around the noon hour of your life you have a kid, raise a
family, so you decide it’s time to go back to church.
But then the kids grow up, and they leave, as children do…
…And with no more need of Christmas pageants and bake sales, your
participation at church begins to wane.
Then comes that moment-
death and disaster break in at the 3 pm hour, and when it does, you may
find the desire to come back to church; come back to God….
…or some may pull themselves further away.
Then there is the 5 pm hour in our lives.
The long day has begun to come to a close.
We’ve done it all, seen it all, know it all or discover we don’t know a
thing.
We find ourselves asking “Was any of it worth it?”
As the night begins to fall, there can be the thought:
“Does God still care about me?
Does God still want me to be part of the team?”
“Am I still a beloved child of Heaven?”
To which the owner of the vineyard comes along, extends a hand and
says...
“Yes. Yes YOU are!”
Maybe today’s parable isn’t about us judging others on what time they
“arrive.”
Maybe it’s a story saying -
“No matter what hour of life you are in, God is seeking you, God is
extending an invitation to you, God wants YOU.”
Maybe the beauty of today’s story is that the Kingdom of God is a place
in which
-there is space for all,
-a time for all,
-a way for all to be part of the team.
No matter what age we are.
No matter where we went to school.
No matter what hour we are living our spiritual life.
It is good that God is there, God is with us,
and God loves having us as part of the team.
For that, we can say “Amen.”
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