Brown's Daily Word 11-12-10

Good morning,
One of finest blessings of this week was to have our grandchildren with us by ourselves. It was very rich and sweet. The Lord blessed us with their childlikeness. We played and did many childlike things. It is a very blessed gift to see the world again through the eyes of children.
Last weekend's conference on prayer was a wonderful time of waiting on the Lord and dwelling in His presence. Kelly's sweet spirit and her closeness with the Savior pervaded the weekend. We were so blessed to have Sunita and Andy with us for the weekend, to have time to sit with them and simply share their presence. Laureen also spent much of the last week with us, for the prayer event as well as time this week with Micah and Simeon.
On Wednesday, Janice and Jeremy arrived for their little ones. Micah was barely able to keep her eyes open until their arrival, but eagerly greeted them and then fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. We made the most of our hours together, chatting and antiquing, before they headed out yesterday afternoon. It was a sweet time with their sweet family.
We looked into Mathew 20 during our Wednesday Evening Bible study. In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners.
Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God, however, starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in our salvation. In the end grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. God specializes in saving really bad people.
Matthew 20:1-2 relates, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.” This would have been a typical scene in the days of the Bible. Just as we have employment agencies today, in the first century, there were places where day laborers gathered to seek work. These workers were unskilled at a trade and were near the bottom of the social-economic scale. In fact, many lived at a level not far above beggars. They worked from job to job, many of which lasted no more than a day. Because they had no guarantee of work beyond what they might be doing at the time, they would gather in the market place before dawn to be available for hiring.
Working in a vineyard was not easy work. The Jewish workday began at 6:00 AM. This was called the first hour. The third hour began at 9:00 AM, the sixth hour began at noon, the ninth hour began at 3:00 PM, and the eleventh hour at 5:00 PM.
At this point that the parable takes a dramatic turn. By the eleventh hour--5:00 PM --the work on most plantations would have been winding down. The laborers waiting for work at this time would have lost hope. Yet on this particular day it was different because of the generosity of the landowner. It is clear that he is interested not only in his vineyard but also in the unemployed.
So we see that there are two groups of workers, those hired early who went to work after negotiating a wage and those hired later who went to work without a contract, choosing to trust the goodness of the master.
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'” This was contrary to the more typical payment back then, which was “first come first served.” Not surprisingly, Jesus turned it around to, “last come first served.” I am certain that those who worked all day were beginning to get a bit confused at this point.
“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.” Though Jesus did not say it, the implication was clear that ALL the workers up to those hired first were paid a denarius. Because of human nature, we can imagine how the laborers who worked all day felt as all the workers got paid one denarius. The natural thought would have been, “If the owner gave them 50 bucks for working one hour, those of us who have worked twelve hours stand to gain a bundle!” However, their hopes were dashed. They received the same pay.
Working in a vineyard was very hard work. It involved laboring on a hillside in the heat of the day with few breaks! We can sympathize with these workers. We can understand their complaint. Their joy turned to anger as they realized that they received the same pay as those who had worked for only one hour. As such, they were determined not to leave until they received “satisfaction” from the landowner. However we find that this is only a symptom of the real problem, which was that they were upset that the landowner had made the other workers equal to them.
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Here the owner completely refutes the workers’ argument with a crushing blow. The word friend is not the term for a close friend, but rather a casual companion. Since the landowner only addresses one person the implication is that this “friend” probably was the spokesman of the group. The owner then clearly stated, “ ...I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree to work for a denarius?” Before 6:00 that morning, they had “agreed” with the owner on a price for their labor. At that time 50 bucks was a fair, generous wage for their work. Both sides had lived up to their end of the bargain.
What the landowner paid other laborers, or what the landowner did with his own money, was no business of anyone else. In fact, if the landowner had wanted to give half of his wealth to one of the workers, he would not be unjust and we would admire him for his generosity.
Then Jesus brought the parable to its appropriate end in verse 16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” In the kingdom of God, our perceived position makes no difference because God shows no partiality. In God’s economy, things are often just the opposite of what we expect.
Grace offers us a fresh start. The Christian life is really a series of new beginnings. That’s what grace is all about. No one is first, and no one is last. I’m not better than you and you’re no better than me. You’re no worse than I am and I’m no worse than you are. We’re all covered by the grace of Christ.
When we get to heaven, there will be no contest to see who was the most deserving of God’s grace, because no one deserves it. There will only be one contest in heaven. When we look back and see what we were before, when we see the pit from which he rescued us, when we recall how confused we were, when we remember how God reached out and hired us into His family, and how he held us in his hand, and when we see Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us, the only contest will be to see which of us will sing the loudest, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
We will meet for our weekly Saturday Evening worship this Saturday at 6 PM for coffee, and for worship at 6:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott. Laureen Naik will be leading in worship and I will be preaching. Come, Share, and Rejoice. Join us for our weekly TV outreach this Evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable Channel 4. We will meet for our Sunday worship at 8:30 and 11:00 at Union Center and at 9:30AM at Wesley UMC.
In Christ,
Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAyKmYD2Zg8
Please note: we are currently planning the various events of the Christmas and Advent seasons.
We will "kick off" the Christmas celebrations with a Christmas banquet on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at the First UMC in Endicott. The meal will begin 5 PM. Chef Justin Clark will prepare the meal. We are inviting many of the civic and business leaders of Endicott for this meal. Dan Babcock will be speaking at the dinner.
Following the dinner, at 6:30 PM, there will be a service in the sanctuary at First UMC, which will be a concert by the St. Petersburg ( Russia)Men's Ensemble. "The Russians", a quartet of gifted musicians, will be presenting a musical feast which consists of sacred, classical, and Russian folk music. If you have never heard them before, come this time and be fully blessed.

The children of the church will be presenting a delightful musical program, "Inside the Outside Inn" on Sunday, December 5. Please watch your bulletin and newsletter for further information as the day approaches.

The adult choir will be presenting the cantata, "Follow the Star, Follow the King" at both morning worship services on Sunday, December 19. This program is a beautiful mix of timeless Christmas carols, many of which are set to other melodies, both rich and sweet.
The Handles Messiah , will be presented by the Down Town Singers on December 17at 8PM at the Forum.
We will be presenting A Living Nativity on Friday December 17 from 5-7 PM at The Wesley Premises. 1000 Day Hollow Road, Endicott.
Joy to the World.