Septuagesima – Vineyard Work

1 Corinthians 9:24-27       St Matthew 20:1-16

You go into the vineyard too…

Today we are making a shift in our church year.  We are turning our minds from Christmas and Epiphany seasons to the even more radical (if there could be!) aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry – his journey to Jerusalem.  Jesus will confront demons, he will confront the religious authorities, he will encounter the power of Rome and his body will be broken and his spirit crushed on the Cross before he is raised from the dead.

And we are invited to join this journey, this pilgrimage, that we too might undergo a radical transformation of our lives – even a kind of death and resurrection.

And we have three Sundays, called Pre-Lent, where we will prepare ourselves to join this pilgrimage and to figure out in what way we will engage ourselves in this journey.

For every Christian, we know there is still much work to do in our souls.  In our closest relationships, we can see much room for growth and maturing.

How real change happens in us, how we will continue to grow, is spoken about in our readings today.

In the Epistle [1 Corinthians 9:24-27], St Paul reminds us that self-discipline is necessary in the Christian life.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 
But I discipline my body and keep it under control,
lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

St Paul reminds us that athletes who are in training are able to exercise self-control in how much they sleep, in what they eat, in how and how much exercise.  If they are professionals they have trainers to guide them in all of these areas of life and physical training so that they may have success.  So the human soul – even without grace – has the capacity to choose to perfect in some way its behaviour.  What is needed is both the knowledge of what to do, and the motivation to do it.

What motivates an athlete to enter extreme discipline to change is the hope of some reward – in their case, the desire to win, the desire for a kind of earthly glory.  But St Paul says that glory is perishable, because it will fade away over time – their success will be forgotten as others come to beat their record.

For the Christian, our incentive, Paul says, is the goal of an imperishable wreath - think of the golden crowns adorning the twenty four elders in Revelation.  It is the gift of eternal life, and the perfection of our love for God, for others and for ourselves, being infilled with wisdom and virtues.

But maybe this motivation is less clear for us now.  Maybe we are resting in the promise of our justification by faith – that if we have faith in Jesus, we are saved.  This is true.  And yet that justification is really only the beginning of our life in Christ.  How do we become more certain that my bad habits can be done away with for all time and the virtuous aspects of my life strengthened and adorned and beautified by Jesus to remain forever? What will move me today to keep growing in love and virtue?  To continue to change for the better?

This imperishable wreath is perhaps easier to understand as a motivation if we had a kind of radical conversion to Jesus Christ out of a lifestyle that was very destructive.  For some of us, including myself, in a moment of grace we saw more fully God’s mercy and love towards us, and we, in response to that love we experienced, desired and were given strength, to radically change our way of life – giving up a wrong ideology, or a vain way of living, or a drug addiction or moving away from some other destructive path.

Maybe you experienced this radical change of life when you first fell in love with a person who inspired you to put away a vice and become more virtuous.

But maybe the intensity of that “falling in love” experience with God or with another is less now – in fact probably none of us could handle always being in that state of mind.  But the advantage of that state was that we were really motivated and took actions to change our lives out of true love.

The Church has taught that if we have become complacent, neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm in our love – it is something God despises [remember his warning to the Church of Laodicea! Rev 3:15-16].  If this is the case with us, a disruption of our normal patterns of living can be helpful to recover our first love, to ignite us into a living flame.

For those who are not already suffering or struggling enough, the Church has suggested, following Jesus’ words, that fasting as one of the ways of disciplining our bodies, that we might re-ignite our love for God and bring some aspects of our life under better control.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus does not say, “If you fast” but “When you fast...” [Mt 6:16-17]
And a little later, describing his own disciples: “The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them (meaning himself), and then they will fast.” [Mt 9:14-15]

And we see in the Acts of the Apostles, times where the disciples of Jesus fasted and prayed before making big decisions. [13:2-3; 14:23] or fasted in a time of danger [27].

Again, it’s not for those who are already super stressed, but for those who feel they are becoming complacent in their Christian journey – to induce a kind of disruption of the normal patterns to draw closer to our Lord and to enable, by grace, our growth in virtue.

Different Christian traditions have different suggestions for this discipline of fasting.  But in Lent we enter into a time of fasting together, for mutual encouragement.

Our fasting might include, beyond food and drink, our use of technology, it might include the images we place before or our minds, it might include an excessive attention to news, something which I struggle with.

What is important today is that we have three weeks before Lent proper to reflect on what seems to be out of control in our lives and what we might want to do about it so as to continue to grow in the Christian life.  I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

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In our Gospel today [St Matthew 20:1-16], Jesus calls us to enter a spiritual work.

There are other parables where Jesus calls us to engage in the work of His kingdom – the parable of the Faithful and Wise Servant (Matt 24:45-51/Mk 13:32-37); the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30). If we are attending to our work, within our homes or outside our homes, in love, doing it with diligence and justly and wisely, consciously as a Christian, that is being engaged in the work to which we are called in His Kingdom.

But why does Jesus refer specifically in today’s Gospel to work in his vineyard?   He says the Kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.  Remember Jesus says elsewhere, I am the vine, you are the branches. [John 15:1-8]  We could see this work in the vineyard as the attending to that branch that we are, in the Vine that is Christ.  Do you see how fitting this Parable is today as we consider our coming Lenten preparation before Easter?

Maybe you know something about how vines grow best?  Vines need to be set out on trellises to grow, not along the ground where the fruit will spoil but up in the air; and they also need to be trimmed back in some ways, so they will be more fruitful.  Here is not an added burden on us when thinking about Lent, but actually a kind of rethinking of how our lives could be more fruitful in the Spirit.  Rather than being fully immersed in the dust, the things of this world, we are called to rest a little above the earth, in the light of God, that our spiritual fruit might not be spoiled.  And if we were less busy, cutting away some useless activities that are simply draining our energy, we would have more time for reflection and to attend to what is most important – love of God and of our families, our neighbours.  Can we re-imagine our lives?

The Gospel also gives us assurance, that it is never too late to start this task of working in the vineyard – whether we are in the first hour, the early part of our life, or whether it is the eleventh hour – near the end of our life – we can all enter into that work.  And we will all receive the same reward – the gift of eternal life.  Our salvation is not dependent on the amount of work, but our responding to the call to be engaged.  The gift is free and the same to all – enter in and enjoy the fruit and enjoy resting in the Son.

How do we change?  Disrupt our normal pattern of living by entering a Lenten fast.  Discern in the coming weeks what fast would be most helpful for you.  And be motivated by the promises of Jesus – eternal life and the inheritance that we are promised even now if we discipline our bodies.

Today, as every Sunday, we are here to do some of that resting in the Son of God, that we may be recreated and become more fruitful.  Let us prepare ourselves to receive Christ, to strengthen our union with that Vine that is Christ and to bear more abundant fruit.

You go into the vineyard too,
and whatever is right I will give you.

Amen +