Sermon for September 21st

What if you heard that you never had to go to church again? You heard that God loved you and your sins were forgiven without any work on your part? Nothing more was necessary. What if you never had to tithe another cent to any church or religious organization because you heard that Jesus didn’t love you for your money or your goodwill? Your were made right with God and you didn’t have to pay for it? That would be a pretty good deal wouldn’t it?

Today, the gospel lesson told the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The story starts with a group of people waiting for work and hoping for a break. Some work all day, some get called in for just half a day and the rest only have to work one hour for the same full day’s pay. They all get paid the same for an unequal amount of work. The people called in last get paid first and the people that worked all day get paid last.

In the 16th century, Martin Luther had a disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church regarding one aspect of this story: What happens the next day? You see, the way this vineyard owner runs his business, all the workers might just show up the next day at 5:00, work one hour and expect a full day’s pay again! What would he do then!? You can’t run a business that way! But Martin Luther believed that this was exactly the way the church should be run.

You see, Luther argued that Jesus was sent down to preach the forgiveness of sins to real sinners. Real sinners. He argued that Jesus wasn’t primarily an example of obedience and good works, even though he was obedient and did good works. Luther argued that Jesus wasn’t primarily a blank check to pay off God for the balance of sin that Adam had created. Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, forgave sins AND he did it all freely. No strings attached.

But what if real sinners, the lost of this world, the bad guys out in society find out that Jesus just hands out grace free of charge! They might just be . . . well . . . forgiven! Just like that! And, well, who would want to come church anymore? What if people just stayed for the confession and absolution and then left! Before the offering! Without even attempting to become more moral people! What would the church do then?

In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church was selling things called indulgences. Indulgences were these little pieces of paper that were marketed as a way you could buy your way out getting punished in purgatory for what you had done wrong in your life. In other words, if you were worried that you had made too many mistakes, you could buy yourself some forgiveness. All of this was authorized by the leader of the church himself, the bishop of Rome, the pope.

Martin Luther argued: Jesus has already forgiven all your sins. Don’t trust in that little piece of paper you bought, or in the church that authorizes it, trust in the words of Jesus Christ alone. Luther maintained that if the pope had the power to forgive sins through the selling of indulgences, it would be most Christian of him to just forgive all the sins free of charge without having to go through all that trouble. Luther maintained that this is exactly what Jesus Christ already did and people needed to hear about it.

What if you heard that you never had to go to church again? You heard that your sins were forgiven without any work on your part? What if you never had to tithe another cent to any church or religious organization because you heard that Jesus didn’t love you for your money or your goodwill? Your were made right with God and you didn’t have to pay a cent for it? That would be a pretty good deal wouldn’t it?

Well, I’m glad you came to church today! Have I got some news for you! Your sins are forgiven on account of Jesus Christ forever. You don’t have to come back to church for this to take place, it has already happened once and for all. You’ve heard it. The forgiveness is yours. You don’t have to give any money to make it stick, you are free. I don’t care if this is your first time hearing it or your 100th year as a Christian. This forgiveness is all yours. You are a sheep in the fold of God and nothing will snatch you out of his hand.

There was a man living at the time of Luther named Desiderius Erasmus. Now this guy, Erasmus, argued against Luther with this question, “What would happen if preachers forgave sins just like that, by God’s authority, so easily, without any strings attached? Well, no one would have any reason to act well and to follow the rules. People might never show up to church again! It might be ok for the learned people to hear all this, people who already knew right from wrong. But what about the “common herd”? They might become anarchists! There might be chaos! What happens the next day when everyone shows up at 5:00 for a whole day’s wages!? Sure, it might be true, but people want to be taught morals, not be given freedom. Freedom is too scary.”

Remember the story of Jonah? The same problem is present there. What happens if horrible people suddenly start asking God for forgiveness and— GULP!—He starts forgiving them! They might go do something horrible again! Shouldn’t we expect more before we start handing out the goodies!

In the story of Jonah, in the story of the laborers in the vineyard, in the story of the one lost sheep, God says he’s willing to take the risk and just up and forgive. In the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, in the story of Saul becoming the apostle Paul, in the story of the ten lepers who were cleansed and in the story of the prodigal son, God says that he is willing to take the risk and just up and forgive. God shows that he is going to forgive with no strings attached for the sake of having you as his beloved child once and for all.

What do you think will happen that next day in the vineyard? Do you think that the vineyard owner is worried about the people who were paid more than they deserved? No. The people who showed up at 5:00 the day before and got paid a whole day’s wages will most likely be there bright and early the next day. Why? Thankfulness. They have been given a new heart and a new spirit. Jesus put it this way in the gospel of Luke, “For those to whom much is forgiven, great love is shown in return. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.”

Throughout the gospels you often hear the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” That is the phrase that starts the gospel passage today in fact. Unfortunately, we often hear this phrase incorrectly, we believe that Jesus is saying “The kingdom of heaven should be like . . .” We think Jesus is trying to convince us to do something. To live into it or something. To deserve the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus is not telling you to do something to get into the kingdom, he’s describing what the kingdom he is giving you is like. This is what happens now that you have been forgiven.

“The kingdom of God is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” And I ask you, do you think that merchant kept his fine pearl in a safe place and never looked at it again? Yeah right! I bet he wanted to see it all the time! Staring at it, admiring it, enjoying it. What will happen when a person has just heard that theirs is the greatest gift of all time, eternal life and the forgiveness of sins? Never come back to hear about it? Never step a foot into church again?

“The kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he had and bought it.” And I ask you, do you think that this man never went back to this field? That he forgot about his great treasure? That he became an anarchist? No! That man probably dug up and hid that treasure a thousand times just to get another peek at his good fortune. What will happen when you’ve heard that Jesus has stored away treasure in heaven for you? Never come back to hear about it? Never give a penny to the church?

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He went out many times to hire laborers, but at the end of the day he paid them all the same daily wage.” What will happen the next day? Will those those laborers who didn’t deserve it, come back for more? You better believe it! That’s just how it goes when you’ve heard this gospel message Jesus says, when you hear that you are forgiven by God with no strings attached.

So then, why do people come to church and never come back? Why do so many churches have money problems or volunteer shortages? Should we blame the church? Should we blame the people? Should we blame God? Should we just go back to teaching morals as our highest goal in life?

We all have ears, but as God points out so often in both the Old and New Testaments, our ears don’t always hear. People don’t always hear something even when they are told over and over again. So should we stop telling them? Save it for the learned people who already know right from wrong? Give up and just focus on being good people? No. We will continue telling people that their sins are forgiven. No strings attached!

We won’t add on demands that aren’t there. We don’t stop telling the story. We pray that we are all given ears to hear. And when we do hear, we can trust that we will all suddenly find out what the kingdom of God is like. Like living waters that overflow from our hearts with faith and our mouths with praise and our clocks with an abundance of time and our bank accounts with giving and our churches with worshippers. This is the forgiveness that is yours today. I’m not going to hide it from you. It’s yours forever. Even if you’ve found out late in the game. You are forgiven. No strings attached. You can come back next week and hear it all over again. Amen.