The Workers in the Vineyard

Scripture:

Matthew 20:1-15

Quick Summary:

Jesus tells this story: A man hired workers through out the day; some, first thing in the morning, some just an hour before work was done. Then he paid them all a full day’s wages. The first men were upset because they thought that wasn’t fair, but the man pointed out they were given a fair wage for their work. 

The Point:

Jesus says the point is that the last will be first and the first will be last. Jesus gives us all plenty, and doesn’t want us to compare and compete for God’s love with each other.

Questions for Family Time:

1.Tell me the story you heard today.

        a. (see above)

2.  Why were the men hired first upset?

        a. Because the guys who only worked for an hour were given the same amount of pay.

3. That does seem unfair. Why is it fair?

        a. That was a fair wage for a day’s work AND the men agreed to work for it. He wasn’t being stingy with the first men hired, he was being generous to the last men hired.

4. How did you practice being generous?

     a. Last week we helped people who have worked hard for God’s kingdom through the church. This week we are helping babies who haven’t even been to our church. We are going to be generous and help them just as we helped members last week.

Deeper:

I am going to start by admitting that of Jesus’ parables, this one is one of the hardest for me to practice. Mostly because I would fall in the category of the workers hired in the morning. I have been serving others through the church really my whole life. I began to follow a call into pastoral ministry when I was in Jr. High and have never run from serving God and others. That call has led me into some hardships. 

One of those times was when I was in seminary. I had to take a part-time pay church with no benefits while my kids were in daycare. We had to move to a tiny town where it was hard for my husband to find consistent work. We had to rely on government assistance to help us care for our kids. At the same time, I was going to seminary with a lot of people going into ministry as a second career. They had experienced financial security. I heard people in the church talk about how amazing those people were because they had sacrificed that big paycheck to go into ministry. And it was hard to not go to God and question whether this was fair, like the workers in our story. 

God gave me an answer like the man in the story. He reminded me that I knew what I was getting into by following his call. He reminded me that he would be more than generous to me because of my faithfulness. He also reminded me that I would do better to not compare my life with others. 

Maybe, like me, you have been working for God for a long time. You see people just starting to work for God and how God blesses them. And it is hard to not feel jaded. But it is in those moments that we need to remember that God is generous. He gives us all enough. We should not confuse his generosity with unfairness. And we would do well to love others with generosity no matter how long they have been working. 

It seems fitting that last week in our project we served those who have been working for God a long time: some of the oldest members of our congregation. And that this week we will be serving babies in families that aren’t even regulars at our services. This week we will be making baby blankets for the local crisis pregnancy center. Because, like Jesus, we can be generous to both, love both, and serve both.  

Personal Reflection:

How has God been generous to you? How has he rewarded you for your work for his kingdom?

The Sheep and the Goats

Scripture:

Matthew 25:31-46

Quick Summary:

Jesus separates people into two groups like a farmer separates sheep and goats. He welcomes into heaven those who: fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, invited in strangers, clothed the needy, visited the sick and imprisoned.

The Point:

Jesus says when we help others, it is as if we were helping Jesus himself.

Questions for Family Time:

1.Tell me the story you heard today.

        a. (see above)

2.  Who does Jesus call sheep?

        a. the people who help others.  

3.How did you help others like Jesus said to?

        a. We fed the hungry, (and visited) the elderly    

4. How does our church do these things?

a. Feed the hungry and  give drink to the thirsty - help at the food pantry, Feed my Sheep

       c. invite the stranger- welcome people into our church; Heart House shelters the homeless, YES home provides housing for teens

       d. clothe the needy- help at the food pantry, make blankets for babies

       e. visit the sick and imprisoned- visit those in the hospital; Bible Study at the jail

4. How can you help others?

     a. Come up with some creative ways you can do each one of these: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, invite in strangers, clothe the needy, visit the sick and imprisoned.

Deeper:

          This is one of those stories Jesus tells that is pretty foundational for how we understand who we are and what our responsibilities are as followers of Jesus. This passage says that if we are to call ourselves Christians, our lives are to be filled with acts of compassion. Jesus’ disciples are to treat every person they meet as if that person was Jesus himself.  We are to help those in need, whatever that need is.

  

I think Jesus was intentional to make a list of needs that we can easily look past. It is easy to avoid people struggling with these needs. It is easy to say that it is someone else’s responsibility. But Jesus says his followers go out seeking these people, stuck in their home because of their health, or even tucked away in jail out of the view of the community. He tells us to find ignored people, people struggling with the daily necessities of life, and to help them. He tells us that we are to be proactive with our compassion.

          Jesus is such a strange king because rather than bowing at his feet, or demanding our praise, he instead says he is The Poor. The God of the Universe says he is the person who can’t afford their next meal. He is the child who walks miles each morning to find clean drinking water. He is the kid who grows too fast for his parents’ income to manage. He is the refugee running for their lives with only what they can carry. He is the sick patient. He is the inmate. How we treat the poor is how we treat Jesus. If we choose to demonize them and blame them for their struggles, we do it to Jesus. If we choose to come alongside them, empower them and treat them as wholly human, we do it to Jesus. When we love them like neighbors, we love Jesus.

          It’s easy to lose sight of these people in our busy lives, to say we have too much on our plate already. I get it. But, it’s important for us to teach our children compassion now. It’s important for us to notice Jesus in our midst, dressed in rags instead of robes. So I want to encourage you to start seeing the invisible people in the world. Let us teach our children that we have a responsibility not just to help those closest to us, but to all humankind.

Personal Reflection:

Answer #4 for yourself and your family. When have you specifically done each one? How can you show compassion in a new way in the next month?

The Good Samaritan

Scripture:

Luke 10:30-35

Quick Summary:

Jesus told a story about a man beaten by the side of the road. Two honorable men pass him by, but then a third man stopped to help. The third man was a Samaritan, which Jews didn’t like. Even though he came from the wrong family and community, he still stopped and helped the hurt man.

The Point:

No matter who is hurt or even what they think of us, Jesus wants us to help them.

Questions for Family Time:

1.Tell me the story you heard today.

        a. (see above)

2.  Who would be hard to stop and help for you? Why

            a. (this is a personal answer. The why should by along the line of “we don’t get a long.”)  

3.Who would you be surprised if they helped you?

        a. (similar answer to above)    

4. What does it mean to “love your neighbor”

       a. To help people when you see they need help, even if they are not people you like.

Deeper:

We throw around the term “Good Samaritan” a lot. It has become short hand in the news for a stranger helping a stranger. But Jesus did not call the Samaritan a stranger. He called him a Samaritan. He also didn’t call him good. For the first hearers of this story, Samaritans were neither strangers nor good.

Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried and chosen to worship God on holy places that were not considered holy to those in Jerusalem. They were living reminders of the sin that Jews felt had caused their national downfall in the Old Testament. Also, in times of national crises, they were unreliable allies. Good Jews often chose to cross the Jordan River into Gentile territory and then cross it again to avoid Samaria. That’s right. The pagans Gentiles with NO belief in God were better to travel by than the Samaritans.

That means our society’s “Good Samaritans” were not like what the readers imagined this Samaritan to be like at all. They would be the ones our society looks down upon. They are the people we expect just by the label we have given them to be unreliable.

And yet, Jesus takes this “Samaritan” and makes him the one who fulfills God’s law. It is this Samaritan who chooses to stop rather than the most respected men of the community. Which makes this parable hard for us to swallow.

First of all, because it makes us confront the fact that even when we try to treat everyone equal, we have biases about people that our society has labeled. It makes us call the person we would rather protect our children from the hero of the story.

Second, it makes us redefine our neighbor. Dearborn County residents are very good at dividing by honor. There are desirable neighborhoods and undesirable neighborhoods. We place ourselves among people like us, just like the Jews did, and avoid neighborhoods that have reputations like Samaria. Like the man who asked Jesus who his neighbor is, we find it easy to love people in our geographical neighborhood because, for the most part, they are like us. But then Jesus comes and says, your neighbor is the person in need, not the person next door. Jesus tells us we aren’t allowed to ignore the needs of others just because it isn’t happening outside of our front door. He says we are to love people in other neighborhoods.

Third, if we are really being asked to love our neighbor like the Samaritan, it means we have to be willing to help those who look down their noses at us. It means we have to love the naysayers and snobs who have torn us down and told us we are not worthy. When our hearts are cheering, “they finally got what they deserved!” Jesus bids us to show them kindness and help them get back up.

It would be easier if the Good Samaritan was just about a nice stranger. Loving your neighbor like Jesus calls us to is much harder. Not complicated. Just Hard. Thankfully, God is there to help us do the hard things he calls us to do.

           

Personal Reflection:

Who are the Samaritans that you avoid? Who are the people who treat you like a Samaritan? How is God calling you to love those neighbors?

The Parable of Mustard Seeds and Yeast

Scripture:

Matthew 13:31-35

Quick Summary:

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that is planted and then grows to a large plant. It is also like yeast that is small when added, but then works through the whole dough and makes it large.

The Point:

God can take our little work, and make a big transformation.

Questions for Family Time:

1.What is the kingdom of heaven like?

        a. mustard seed.

2.  How?

            a. When you plant a mustard seed it so tiny, but then with time it grows all by itself into a really big plant.  

3.What is the kingdom of heaven like?

        a. yeast.    

4. How?

       a. Yeast is also small, but it is worked into the other ingredients and then over time it makes the whole bread rise.

5. How are those attributes like the kingdom of heaven?

a. We may do something that seems small for God’s kingdom, but God can take it and do something big, something transformative. All he needs is a little time.

Deeper:

The problems of our world today are vast and enormous. So big, that one person cannot make much of a dent in them. Violence, Suffering, Poverty.

          

But Jesus encourages us that actually we can make a difference. No matter how small we are, God can take the little we offer and do something transformative with it. There is a popular story of a man picking up starfish off a beach completely covered with them. He is asked why he bothers when he cannot save most of their lives. He picks one up and says, “True, but I can save this one’s life.” This story reminds us that even little things can have a big impact on another person.

          

But Jesus stretches this concept even further with his parable. He says that God can take a small act and when we leave it alone, He makes it into something greater. Even when we have walked away from the garden, or left the bread on the counter, God is doing something with it that we cannot. Something more than what we can do. God does not stop when we stop. He keeps on working. He keeps on healing the brokenness.

          

This is why when we invite someone to Junior group and they don’t come, we haven’t failed. It’s why when we put on community activity and no one new comes to church that next week we haven’t failed. It’s why when we try to start a transformative program in our community we may not see results for months or years. Sometimes our work for God’s kingdom takes time.

          

In 2014, my kids experienced their first group of learning God’s word with others. That first year, 12 kids gathered in the church basement. Faithful adults worked hard to share God’s love with these kids. In 2017, that group had expanded through invitation and excitement of those 12 kids to a record number of 49 kids. Through this program 10 people, ages spanning from infant to 60s, began attending church regularly and joined the church.

         

In 2013, a small country church started raising funds for megachurch pastors in Sierra Leone to get seminary degrees so that they could begin a seminary in Sierra Leone. In 2018, those men graduated with the help of Indiana Conference and other local churches.

          

We often feel too small to do something truly powerful in the world. We often feel like a failure when we see the same 12 kids for a year. In those moments, it is always good to remember that we serve a living God and long after we have given up or finished our job, he is at work growing something much bigger than we could have imagined.

           

Personal Reflection:

When have you seen God transform your small deed into something big?