Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

All three of our lessons today meld together to form one tight united whole.

In our First Reading today [Isaiah 55:6-9], the prophet Isaiah spoke God’s Words that have always been of particular comfort to me: “For My thoughts,” says the Lord God, “Are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways.” Now at that point, we may not find a whole lot of comfort, but God continues. As difficult as it may be at times for us to believe this, the Lord God goes on to say, “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are better than your ways.”

Isaiah’s prophetic utterance of God’s Words plays itself out in a concrete way in our Gospel today, Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard [Matthew 20:1-16]. Talk about the thoughts and ways of people being very different one from another. The workers thought one thing. The vineyard owner did something very different, something that didn’t sit too well with the workers. That was even pointed out by the vineyard owner himself when he asked the one worker, “Are you jealous because I am generous, because I have chosen to operate in a way that you would have never imagined?” Talk about thoughts higher! Talk about ways better!

Then along comes St. Paul in our Second Reading today [Philippians 1:12-30]. In a way it’s bizarre that it’s St. Paul who picks up this topic. But, then again, maybe it does make perfect sense.

Paul began his career as a church worker under the name “Saul.” He was indeed a church worker, just not a worker for the Church of Jesus Christ. He was a church worker for the church of the devil. His task was persecute the Church of Jesus Christ, to be an earthly embodiment of the devil himself, to make it as difficult as possible for the Church of Jesus Christ to succeed. The best way to ensure failure of the Church of Jesus Christ was to kill off the adherents. No adherents. No church. So one by one Saul would kill the followers of Jesus Christ, standing by and watching as they suffered painful deaths, never once giving up their belief in Jesus Christ. As despicable a career as that was, Saul did quite well. In fact, there is little doubt he was the devil’s number one worker. He was, by far, “Employee of the Century.”

Meanwhile, Peter, James and John and all the other disciples – Nathaniel, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthias – they were all out there trying to spread the news about Jesus Who had died and rose again for them and for the entire world. All the while they’re out there spreading that Good News about Jesus, they have to constantly keep one eye looking behind them because they knew that they were numbers 1-12 on Saul’s “Most Wanted” list.

One day Saul caught up to the disciples. He came knocking at their door. He came with a marvelously fantastic story about being on a horse and being knocked off the horse and being blinded and having his sight restored [Acts 9], and, “Oh, by the way, guys, I am now one of you. Jesus Himself changed my name to Paul and told me that I am now an apostle on an equal level as all of you and I am going to become His greatest missionary, greater than any of you.”

Can you imagine St. Peter with that news? “Now you wait here just a second...”

But that’s not how it was. Somehow, what Jesus had taught about the workers in the vineyard had actually sunk into the minds of the disciples. God’s generosity, known as His grace and mercy, had reached into Saul / Paul’s like just as it had called Peter, James and John out of their fishing boats, just as it had called Matthew out from behind his tax collector’s booth. Once they got past their initial and justifiable fear of Paul, there was no complaining to God about the young upstart convert who actually thought he was equal with them. There was no more arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. The life-changing importance of the message about Jesus Christ took priority over everything.

And Paul did go on to surpass the other disciples. He went on to become the world’s greatest missionary. He traveled far and wide and the Name “Jesus” was always on his lips. He had much of which to boast, yet when he found himself imprisoned he didn’t send out the clarion call that the mission of the church was completed, that since the church’s greatest missionary was in jail that was the end. No, Paul wasn’t one of “those pastors” who gets jealous when someone else does mission and ministry. Instead, as he had been called by the higher thoughts and better ways of God and as he had been welcomed into the fellowship of the disciples, so he viewed his own imprisonment as a “God thing,” as something God had orchestrated not for him to become jealous or envious about, not for him to become depressed about, but as something for him to celebrate. And Paul did celebrate, knowing that there was not just one Paul out there in the world speaking about Jesus but that there were now many “Pauls” who had found their own voice because his was now silenced. Again, the life-changing importance of the message about Jesus Christ took priority over everything, the fact that God, in Jesus, is gracious and merciful, that He is lavishly generous, that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.

So let’s bring it back to the here and now. What are our thoughts? What are our ways? How do those differ from God’s thoughts and God’s ways?

First of all, let’s go back to the parable. There’s no time for people to just stand around. Did you hear that? You can use whatever excuse you’d like (“Nobody’s asked me ... I’m too busy ... It’s too late in the day ... I’m retired”), but the fact remains that God wants to put you to use. And He’s not going to ask you. He’s just says “Go! Work in my vineyard!”

Secondly, let’s look at again at St. Paul in prison. The Church was not synonymous with Paul. If it were, the Church would have come to a screeching halt when the key of Paul’s jail cell was clicked locked. The Church is not the pastor. The pastor is just a cheerleader, just like Paul was. The pastor is here to support, to resource, to encourage you, just as Paul did. The Church is the message about Jesus Christ. The Church is all of you. No one is any greater. No one is any less. One person shares his faith one way. Another person shares her faith another way. In the end, all that matters is that Jesus Christ is being lifted up, this time not on a Cross, forgiving the sins of all, but that He is being praised and worshiped in our daily lives in a life-changing way that others can see.

Those are God’s thoughts. Those are God’s ways. They’re thoughts higher than our thoughts. They’re ways higher than our ways.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena