Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Septuagesima (February 8, 2009)
Matt. 20:1-16

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “Grace Abounds…More Than Fairness”

A Sermon on Faith and Good Works

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the parable of the men working in the vineyards from St. Matthew chapter twenty.

This morning’s parable is about the grace of God and the fairness of God. The grace of God is that He sent His Son to die in our place, to forgive our sins, and to draw us into His loving embrace. Our life in God is not measured in comparison to others. There are no degrees of sonship in God’s family. You are either in or out. Either you are a child of God or you are a child of the devil. Fortunately for us, you are in by virtue of your baptism into Christ. As St. Paul writes in Galatians 3, “…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27 ESV)

But it is so very easy for us to fall into the trap of wanting God to be fair. If God were fair, bad things wouldn’t happen to me! If God were fair, I would get a greater portion of the good life. I mean, I’m not perfect, but I am sure a lot better than many of the poor miserable sinners who are out there. Like the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sin, at the first sign of trouble we bolt, forget God’s mercy, and want God to be fair.

But do we really want God to be fair? Really? What would fair mean? Fair would mean everyone receives equally what they are owed. Fair would mean no mercy. Fair would mean exacting payment for every misdeed, and for rewarding every good dead. Is that really what you want? Do you really want God to be fair like that?

God being fair means that we are are all cast into hell, every one of us. For what we deserve for all of our labors of sin is eternal punishment. It’s that simple. The wages of sin is death, as St. Paul writes in Romans chapter three. That’s what you deserve. That’s fair. That’s all square, even steven. That’s getting what you deserve.
This is very disappointing, frankly. We live and operate with the delusion, and we do this all the time, that the reason good things happen to us is because we have worked hard for them. Now I suppose that from a worldly point of view, that may appear to be the case. But all it takes is one financial catastrophe to wipe out your life savings, and then we can see how fragile our lives really are. Or think of the Hebrews in our old testament lesson for this morning. God has delivered them with a mighty hand from the power of cruel Pharaoh, and at the first sign of distress, they grumble and complain and want to go back into slavery.

But in order to understand the kingdom of God and our place in it, we have to understand a little bit more about families and sonship and what it means to be a part of the family. Let me explain. In most households, the children do chores. You usually start small and work your way up. Emptying the dishwasher. Helping to put away laundry, starting to work on snow removal, you know how your household works. Inevitably, one of the great, uh, discussions regarding these chores is the matter of payment. An allowance. The children believe with all their heart that they should get paid for all their labors, and if they don’t get paid, what is it? IT’S NOT FAIR. If they don’t get paid what they think they’re worth, IT’S NOT FAIR. If their brother or sister get paid as much as they do, even though in their mind they did more work, IT’S NOT FAIR.

Now parents have a different perspective on this. For the parents, they want to teach their children to be a part of the family. They want them to learn how to pull their weight, to be sons and daughters and to contribute to the good of the whole. Parents look at this as a part of living together as a family. These children shouldn’t have to get paid for doing chores. Why? Because they’re a part of the family. So to the father and mother, what do they think of having to pay their children an allowance? You guessed it: IT’S NOT FAIR.

So why do we do things this way? We do things this way because we’re a family. As a father, ultimately I do like giving my children things, even an allowance. And children do learn that working on chores at home gives them a place as a part of the family. But one thing is for sure, it isn’t fair. It’s grace. If it were fair, every time a child spoke back, disobeyed, or in some fashion didn’t do what they should, then they would have allowance taken away. Or every time a father or mother lost their temper, the allowance would go up. It doesn’t usually work that way, though. We are not finally as a family about keeping score. We’re above lover each other as Christ has loved us. That’s grace, friends.

Now let’s take this and apply it to our text for today. Some laborers go into work at the beginning of the day, others midday, and still others at the end of the day. But they are all paid the same, a day’s wages. Why is this so? It worked this way because first of all, it’s what they agreed to, but secondly and more importantly here, that is the way it works in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, you are all sons and daughters. You have a place in God’s kingdom. You also have work to do. Everyone does. There are no benchwarmers in the kingdom, the family of God. Remember St. Paul’s words from our Epistle:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25 ESV).

In other words, the work that you do here on earth has been prepared for you to do from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 2:10). This work isn’t here in order for you to gain God’s favor, merit salvation, get a higher place at the table, or anything. Your place in God’s house is settled, because you are Baptized. God gives you these works to do because you are sons and daughters. He doesn’t give them to you so that you can become sons and daughters. He gives them to you because you are sons and daughters. You’re part of the family. You’re in the kingdom.

While we’re on the topic of fair, we must also remember the cross and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about unfair! He was completely innocent, obeyed the Father’s will in every way, and what did He receive? He received shame, suffering and death on the cross. He took your sin and paid the price for it? Why? Because that’s what families do, they love each other and give to each other, even to the point of death. It’s not fair. It’s grace, friends. And it’s what makes us who we are as God’s children.

This day we rejoice and remember God’s mercy. Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live, as our hymn puts it (LSB 555:8). Your place is settled here. God isn’t fair. He is merciful, and He loves to set you up, give you a place in His holy kingdom, and for you to be fed with His Word and Spirit. So come, rejoice that you have a place in the vineyard! You are part of the family. You have a place in God’s kingdom. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Septuagesima (January 20, 2008)
Matt. 20:1-16
On the Baptism of Beata Susan Peperkorn
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Naked God and the Covered God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the parable of the men working in the vineyards from St. Matthew chapter twenty.

What are we to do with a text like this? We have the complaining, grumbling Israelites, the complaining, grumbling workers, and in our Epistle we find St. Paul encouraging the Corinthians not to grow weary in the race of the faith. It seems as though complaining and grumbling is what we do best.

A part of it of course comes from our natural sense of entitlement. God had rescued the Israelites from slavery and death under Pharaoh, and they questioned whether he would take care of them in the wilderness. In our Gospel, the workers at the beginning of the day looked at those at the end of the day who received the same wages, and knew that somehow they had been cheated. Both groups believed that the master, God, owed them something, that they were being mistreated and not getting what was their due.

That sense of entitlement is our inheritance. We believe, in our heart of hearts, that if God was really fair, that we would come out right in the end. After all, God knows who we are, doesn’t he? He knows how much we do for others, for the church, for our family, at work, at home. He knows our good intentions. Surely God would reward us for our good deeds and good intentions, and would overlook any accidental mishaps along the way.

That, of course, is the problem. If God were fair, we would be cast into hell. This is what the theologians call the naked God. The God of Law, the God which the world cannot get past, is oh so fair. He is perfectly fair, painstakingly fair, and before Him we stand condemned. If that’s the God you want, that’s the God you get. The naked Law is not something we can stand up to and live.

That’s what the workers in the vineyard couldn’t handle. They thought they were working their way up the food chain, doing the right things, and that the master would promote them and everything would be just as they had planned it. But it was not to be so. After they complain about their unfair treatment, the master says,

‘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?’ (St. Matthew 20:13-15).

So the miracle and the point of the parable isn’t that some worked all day and others worked for just an hour. The point of the parable is that they were in the vineyard. The master gave them a place, and their reward was not based upon their work, but upon the generosity of the master.

This parable, dear friends, is about faith. It’s about the hidden God who gives you what you don’t deserve. It’s about the God who doesn’t follow the rules, at least not in the way that we expect. Our own distorted view of our self-worth makes it so that what we believe we deserve has nothing to do with reality. But our Lord, who clothes Himself in the unlikely and hides Himself in the most common, gives us not what we deserve, but what His Son deserves.

For it is Jesus who has toiled for you in the heat of the day. It is Jesus whose work for you on Calvary that has brought you into the vineyard. It is Jesus who feeds you from that same vineyard with His own body and blood for life everlasting. It is Jesus who takes what is fair for you, death, and exchanges it for life.

God is not fair. Thank God. He is not fair; He is merciful. He gives you credit for work you never did, and He forgets the sin that you always do. So it is that you have an inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, just as Beata was given through Holy Baptism this morning. Our hymn-writer has said it best:

Let me not doubt, but truly see
Your Word cannot be broken;
Your call rings out, “Come unto Me!”
No falsehood have you spoken.
Baptized into Your precious name,
My faith cannot be put to shame,
And I shall never perish. (Paul Speratus, LSB 555:7)

The naked God of the Law cannot save you. But the hidden God, the God of love and mercy, He has saved you by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Come to His Table, eat, drink and live. You are in His Vineyard, you are His children, and you are holy and precious in His sight. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Septuagesima (February 4, 2007)
Matt. 20:1-16

TITLE: “God Plants You in His Vineyard”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the parable of the men working in the vineyards from St. Matthew chapter twenty.

Just so that we’re clear up front, the point of this text is that God has placed you in the vineyard, His own Garden of Eden remade in His Son. Whether you came to the vineyard at the first hour or the last, it matters not. Our Heavenly Father has given you a place, and rewards you with eternal life, not because you work so hard, but because of His love for you in HIs Son, Jesus Christ. That’s where we’re ending, now let’s back up and see how to get there.

You have to admit, it’s a union nightmare. Each man starts working at a different time of the day, all the way up to closing, and then they are all paid the same thing! They are all paid one denarius, a day’s wage at the time. When the workers at the beginning of the day start to grumble about this unfair treatment, the owner tells 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?’ (St. Matthew 20:13-15)

It isn’t how we think, that’s for sure. We think in terms of fairness, Equal Rights Amendment, negotiated pay, and an adversarial relationship with our employers. We may like them, be happy with them, and get along with them, but at the end of the day, we want them to pay us what they owe us, or even more, we want them to pay us more that they owe us, because obviously we are worth more than we are paid.

This is your sinful human nature speaking to you. It’s true when it comes to work and family and friends here on earth just as much as it is true in terms of faith and eternal life. Who of you have not secretly harbored ill will toward your boss? Or your husband or wife? Or even your friends? They don’t appreciate you. They don’t know how much you do for them. If they really knew all the stuff you did, then you would have a parade thrown in your honor. The Law speaks clearly here, and it condemns you and I quite clearly.

Now that we understand what the parable means according to the Law, let’s talk about what the parable finally means in Christ. What this text is talking about is the fundamental unfairness of faith. We all seek to measure faith by the Law, just like we do our bosses and spouses and friends. We can’t help it. It’s in our character and inherited from the Fall. But that is not, and has never been, how the Law works. Paul Speratus, our hymnodist for the sermon, perhaps put it best:

It was a false, misleading dream
That God His Law had given
That sinners could themselves redeem
And by their works gain heaven.
The Law is but a mirror bright
To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.1

But this is so often the case with us! We act like the workers at the beginning of the day, look down our spiritual noses at those sinners whom we believe are worse off than us, or have (in our minds) sinned more and say to ourselves, They have no place here. They don’t deserve it. Why are they even in the same room as I? Have you done this? Have you thought yourself better than others because they have more problems with you, because their sin is more public than yours, or because you have a better life in your own eyes? Repent. That is not the way of faith, that is the way of the flesh.

he way of faith, which God in his gracious mercy gives you, is this: God has done it all for you. He has won the battle, died your death, worked off your debt, flooded you with His forgiveness, and filled your chalice with everlasting life in His name. None of you deserve this. Neither do I. But this is what our gracious God gives to you freely, out of His love for you through His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s the Gospel. The fact that you are in the vineyard is sign enough of God’s mercy toward you. It doesn’t matter who else is here, what sins they or you have committed. None of us deserve to be here, but that’s not the point. The point is that you are here, cleansed in the waters of baptism and made ready to work in His Garden, not because you must, but simply because you can’t help yourself. It all flows from Christ, from faith to good works and even to suffering.

erhaps a word here about the laboring in the vineyard is in order. The laboring in the vineyard, which is more for some and less for others, are the good works that God has given you to do (Eph. 2:10), particularly the suffering that you endure in this life for His Name. God gives suffering to each Christian, some greater, some less. Why? Because He loves you. I know it’s hard to understand. But God gives or allows the suffering you face, particularly for the faith, to temper your faith as iron sharpens iron. If we try to ignore it, or act as if our suffering doesn’t exist, we become afraid of it, just as Job did (Job 9:28). St. Paul reminds us to rejoice in our suffering (Romans 5:3), not because the suffering itself is good, but because of the benefit it gives your faith. It is a mystery, that is true, but it is a sweet mystery, to know that God works all things for the benefit of His Church, and that means you.

So you see, dearly baptized, God’s love is completely unfair. Thank God. He forgives you out of His mercy, puts you in His vineyard, and sets you at the Table. You may receive the chalice of suffering in this life, but it is no comparison to the glory which shall be revealed at the Last Day (Rom. 8). In the words of the poet:

To my shepherd I’ll be true.
Though he fill my cross’s chalice,
I’ll rest fully in his pleasure,
He stands in my sorrow near.
One day, surely, done my weeping,
Jesus’ sun again will brighten.
To my shepherd I’ll be true.
Live in Jesus, who will rule me;
Heart, be glad, though thou must perish,
Jesus hath enough achieved.
Amen: Father, take me now!2

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

1 Lutheran Service Book 555:3

2 From Bach Cantata for Septuagesima, BWV 92.