Sermon: September 24, 2023

Reading: Matthew 20: 1-16

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to share God’s love and grace. We are not to sit back and try to determine who is valuable or unvaluable, what is fair or unfair. We are to first seek God’s extravagant grace. Jesus once said what you do to the least of these who are my sisters and brothers, you do to me. What type of grace are you willing to offer those who are devalued and rejected? What type of grace are you willing to offer Jesus?

God has called us to be a part of his vineyard. He has poured out his love and grace upon us and invited us into his kingdom. We are reminded that every human being begins the day the same way, as a child of God. A child whom God loves and freely pours out his grace and mercy upon. God continually goes out to the marketplace looking for more of his children to invite into the vineyard, into his kingdom. And because of God’s extravagant grace, it is never too late to answer his call, and everyone is worthy of coming into his kingdom.

At the end of today’s parable, Jesus never tells us how the laborers respond to the landowner’s words. Do they see beyond their sense of fair and unfair and come back the next day grateful for the grace shown by the landowner? We don’t know.

But then maybe we aren’t supposed to know what they did. Maybe the ending of the parable is left up to us to fill in. Are we willing to see beyond what we perceive as fair and unfair, just and unjust? And write an ending to the parable by being a living example; by opening ourselves to see all of our human family through the eyes of God and demonstrate God’s sense of extravagant generosity, mercy, and compassion so we all may celebrate as God’s beloved Children.