The sermon for February 12 was based on Matthew 20:1-16.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I think that all of us here this morning are in sympathy with the workers who spent the whole day laboring and were paid no more for their efforts than those who were hired in the 11th hour. We each feel quite strongly that rewards should go to those who earn them. We look askance at the huge incomes "earned" by rock stars especially when compared with those of nurses and soldiers and firemen. There is an injustice at work in our lives that is simply galling.

How often do we see the lazy rewarded, the incompetent promoted, the corrupt elected to office? How often have we paid outrageous prices for entertainment while passing on even charities that are important to us? We are surrounded by a confusion of value and worth and we are a part of that confusion. We don't know what's fair let along what's right and it shows.

We feel jealous even of those who have indeed earned their rewards, as if their good fortune came somehow at our expense. They old begrudge the young their youth as if it had been stolen from them rather than simply spent. The young pine for the liberty and confidence of their elders. The rich long for the simplicity of the commoners and the everyone wants to be rich. We can't believe that anyone other than ourselves could actually deserve to be content so we come to think that those who have what we do not have somehow gotten away with something.

We are especially peevish when trouble comes along. There's nothing like a little crisis to turn our ordinary discontent into a full blown hissy-fit. If we are persuaded when everything is fine, that we, more than our doctors and lawyers and enterprising neighbors, deserve to be at ease, how much more sure of it are we going to be when things go wrong? We know that we deserve to be in trouble. Other people might deserve this kind of suffering but not us. Let our sickness and heart-ache and sorrow be delivered to the rich and idle. We're too busy working!

We waste a lot of time whining and crying and comparing our sorry lots to the way we think they should be. We burn away the hours asking stupid questions like "why me?" and "why us?" when the beginning of peace and tranquility begins with the question "why not me?" We would all be much better off if, when trouble came to us, we asked ourselves whether there was any good reason to think that we should be exempt from the aches and pains of life under the curse. Why shouldn't you and I suffer? Even at our most self-absorbed we know that we're not the only ones who are in pain. Why should we be any different than anyone else?

Maybe you're like me and you add your own layers of misery to the pain that comes to you. When I am suffering I often scold myself for being unhappy in the midst of pain. I accuse myself of being insufficiently enlightened. If I were more pious I would be whistling and happy while I was bearing this cross I tell myself. It is a lie of course. A damaging and self destructive lie but it's the kind of thinking that gets at the heart of our darkness. If Jesus could cry out when He was on the cross what makes me think that I can't? Do I hold myself to a higher standard than Jesus? Do you. Some of you do and it accounts for a good part of your unhappiness. Anther good question to replace the useless "why me?" is what have I done to bring this on myself. The answers of course will vary depending on what you are experiencing. Sometimes you will have done nothing to bring on your troubles at other times you will be entirely to blame. Most of the time you will be partly to blame. The amount of blame though isn't what matters. What matters is that by asking yourself what you have done to contribute to your misery you are putting yourself above your circumstances, you are taking charge of your situation. We cheat ourselves of much tranquility by thinking that the way to take charge of our lives is to blame other for our misfortune. It is the wrong answer almost every time. Blame never helps us get where were going. Confession, on the other hand, is more than merely good for the soul.

It is the work of the devil to point fingers and assign blame. He does it to us and he does it through us. He is the great accuser, the fiendish prosecutor. It is the hallmark of the Christian, on the other hand, to confess his sins. We Christians beat the devil at his own game. Before he has a chance to sniff out our sins and point them out to Almighty God we run to our Heavenly Father and tell him ourselves what we have done, begging His forgiveness and praying earnestly for His help in avoiding such sins in the future.

We are quickly approaching the season of Lent. Already the mood of the Church is changing from Epiphany awe to Lenten repentance. Confessing our sins take a special prominence during the coming weeks and well it should. In the confessing of our sins our suffering begins to be transformed. To confess our sins is to entrust them to Jesus. It is like taking a sickness to the physician. In a very real way, once we go to the doctor with an ailment it becomes his problem and we are freed to do other things with our energy, freed to live our lives.

A few years ago I was in the field with my Marines and I had occasion to observe within myself the power of a shift in thinking while on a long march. The short version of the story is that we a had a half crazy CO who insisted that every one of our 50 lbs pack would be carried by hand back to camp. If anyone fell out of the march and had to be driven back or to the hospital his pack would have to be carried by someone else. Well one guy fell out and had to be driven to the hospital and guess who wound up having to carry his pack for the last up-teen miles! At first I was mad at the CO for making me carry 100 lbs. Then I got mad at my pal for having dropped out. Then, as usual, I got mad at myself for being mad. At one point this thought popped into my overheated brain. At least I'm not the guy who fell out. It sounded so much like the self righteous priest in the presence of the tax collector that I was startled by my own wickedness. My next thought was, at least I'm not in the ambulance with an IV stuck in my arm. At least I'm able to carry an extra 100 lbs. My thoughts climbed steadily upward from there. Once I got rid of the false idea that I was somehow exempt from carrying my brother's burdens I found new strength of both body and soul. When we got back to camp, my RP took my picture. I hang that picture on the wall to study and look at it every day to this very day. Who am I that I shouldn't be weighed down too?

What is even more strengthening than that is the realization that I am the 11th hour worker. I'm not the one who has born the heat of the day and brunt of the load. I'm the Johnny come lately who loafed for most of the day and was smiled upon by an unreasonably generous benefactor. I am blessed and will be rewarded far beyond what I deserve. The troubles I have are not so unusual. Neither am I particularly entitled to the blessings I've received. I'm lucky to have and be what I am, not lucky, blessed. God has smiled on me just as He has on you. Even in our hardships He is with us and gracious to us. When they lay us to rest in our tombs. Jesus will be there smiling benevolently and telling us that He knows what its like to be laid to rest and that He also knows what its like to be resurrected from the dead. There is no hardship that precludes Jesus' comfort.

God's grace to us is real. If you are sick and dying. Jesus assures us that it doesn't mean we are being unfairly punished. He has been sick and dead too. If we are being hurt and maligned Jesus assures us that He is with us and that He has been hurt and maligned too. If we are lonely and heartbroken He assures us that He has been too and that being together with Him is more that enough to get us through. The point here is that God is better to us than we deserve and that we are always the 11th hour workers and never the ones who carry the bulk of the labor. You may work hard for your daily bread but you don't make the sun shine or the rain fall or the seed to sprout or the plant to mature. You probably don't even harvest the grain or bake the bread yourself. You are fortunate to have bread at all. Set aside your complaining and stop looking at what lies on other people's dinner tables. Be content with what you have and be thankful that God has blessed you as He has. The lesson of this Gospel is not that Christians are exempt from suffering and injustice but rather that they can suffer injustice like the saints which is to say quietly and with some hint at least of gratitude to temper their sorrow.

I know that I rejoice in different things when I am aware of my unworthiness. The denarius that offends my fellow man delights me. He is hurt because he thinks he deserves more I am delighted because I know I deserve so much less. I also rejoice to know how good my God is.

The gifts that are beneath the world's contempt and sometimes even notice are likewise a joy to us. The Word of God, the Means of Grace, the company of the saints the fellowship of ordinary believers, are all invisible to the man of the world but they are priceless to the broken hearted child of God. Bring your broken hearts here to your Father's table, gather round with your family and let Him knit you back together. Remember how good it is to be loved more than you deserve and resolve, if only for a little while, to do the same for your brothers and sisters. Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 7/15/2008