베델 크리스천교회 9월 20일 (성령강림 후 제16주) 예배 영상, Sermon Summary (English)

9월 20일 주일예배 영상입니다.

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Bethel Christian Church – Sunday Sermon (September 20, 2020) 

Not differentiation but generosity and respect (Matthew 20:1-16) by Baek Hee Kim

 

• Stats, differentiation, categorization
  • When you see the stats of the Major League Baseball, you will find very detailed categories. Average, Home runs, RBI, OBP, SLG, OPS, etc. for the batting side; and ERA, W, SO, WHIP, BAA, IP, etc. for the pitching side. Do you know what these acronyms mean? Not only baseball but almost all professional sports have a highly complicated stats system. Why? Teams and managers collect statistics and value each player and pay salaries according to the statistics.
  • Everyone knows that all companies in our society gather information from consumers and analyze everything through the data. This process analyzes every person thoroughly. But it does not mean they value each person’s life. Instead, this process transformed (or interpreted) people and their lives into numbers and categorizes them for their benefit. A person’s individuality disappears, and there is no respect for life.
  • However, Jesus emphasizes that God’s kingdom (no matter it is in the heaven or on the earth) shall be different from the way the current society works and what the world values. Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.” Let’s see what the landowner does.
• Class differences among the workers
  • The landowner hired men to work in his vineyard five times in the day: 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, and 5 pm. It is easy for the reader of this parable to think the men, who were hired at 5 pm, are lazy people. We tend to think they just woke up late and came to the marketplace late afternoon. But it is not the case. Read the story closely. At 5 pm, the landowner “went out and find still others standing around.” He asked them, “Why have been standing here all day long doing nothing?” They had been there all day long. And the workers replied, “Because no one has hired us.” Yes, nobody hired them. Why? We can speculate that they are older and physically inferior to those hired at 6 am.
  • According to the general statistics of the vineyard owners, they are in a category that does not pay. But the landowner of this parable allows them to work, too. Although the workers (5 pm) were unable to find work by some standards, the landowner focused on the fact that they were people who had to live with their families in search of work. And he hired them because he was in a position in which he offers the generosity.
  • “God’s kingdom is like the landowner.” In God’s kingdom, principles of generosity and respect for life should work rather than principles of classification, differentiation, and categorization.
• “That’s not fair!”
  • But a problem emerges when the day’s work is over, and the owner pays them their wages. Each of them, from those hired at 5 pm to those hired first, got 1 denarius, the same salary. Those who worked all day long at the vineyard angry and complained, “These men who were hired last worked only one hour. And you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
  • How do you think? Do you think the landowner is unfair? Yes, this is controversial. But the owner says, “Are you envious because I am generous?” The owner’s generosity does nothing to do with the deal between the owner and the workers hired early in the morning. We need to think about why the owner’s generosity is regarded as an unfair action.
  • I believe that Jesus wants us to ask ourselves questions. “What would you value, and with whose perspective? Are you the owner or the workers who came first?” “Don’t you happen to jealous or upset about the generosity experienced by others?” Jesus said that God’s kingdom is like the vineyard owner.
• In God’s kingdom
  • Jesus delivered this parable with his disciples in mind. Before and after this text, there was a big issue among the disciples: “who is the greatest in God’s kingdom?” They even were indignant with each because of this issue. Jesus would have said, “what if even you guys to that? What would the world be like if you classify people and be envious of what others have?” Dr. Stanley Saunders notes, “They [the disciples], too, like the workers in the vineyard, will splinter and become alienated. The parable is meant for them. It is a harsh reminder that there is no justice, no kingdom of heaven, when we end up alone in the world.” (Working Preacher)
  • Let us reflect on the church and ourselves. Did not the church judge, grade, and categorize people like that? By what standards do we put people in boxes that we rank? Can people and lives really be classified and categorized? In the movement of God’s kingdom, we should follow the principle of generosity and respect for life.