Westminster Podcast
Westminster Podcast
"Is it worth it?" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 09.20.26
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"Is it worth it?" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 09.20.26
Our parable for this morning comes in response to a rich young man who asked Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus responds by saying, Why do you ask me what is good? There is one who is good. Keep the commandments. Which ones? Came the response. And Jesus rattled off a list. Don't murder, don't lie, honor your father and mother, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, I've done all that. What else do I laugh? And Jesus said, If you wish to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and there you will have treasure in heaven, and then come and follow me. The young man went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples said, Well, then who can be saved? And Jesus said, With God all things are possible. And then Peter said, Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? And Jesus said, When the Son of Man makes his judgment, everyone, everyone, everyone who has left houses, brother, sister, father, wife, children, fields, for my name's sake, will inherit eternal life. The first will be last, and the last will be first. Or to put it another way, listen to this parable from Matthew 20, verses 1 through 15. Hear the word of God. After agreeing with the laborers for denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, Why are you standing here idle all day? And they said, Because no one has hired us, he said to them, You also go into the vineyard. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first. When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received a denarius. But when the first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, These lasts worked only an hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this the last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last. The word of the Lord. When I was sixteen, I worked for a landscaper for a couple of summers. I learned something called manual labor. And that's why I do what I do today. I remember our little landscaping company being hired out one day to work behind a ball bearing plant in the town that I lived in. We were to plant trees and shrubs, and I would guess maybe a five, seven-acre plot of land perfectly flat with green grass. Lovely. We arrived early in the morning, a truck full of trees and shrubs. I found a shovel and I found the ground. And I went to work for a moment. It came to me that this lovely five acres of green grass was once an asphalt parking lot, that the grass had just grown over the top. And so I replaced the shovel with a pickaxe. Morning light became afternoon scorch. And it stands to this day as the hardest day I have ever worked in my entire life. And for $5.50 an hour, I don't know if it was worth it. It wasn't like the day before when I was working on the irrigation problem in the muddy soil near a swimming pool when the lovely Amy Morrison just happened to say hello to me on her way to work on her suntan by the pool. Focus, focus, focus. Five and a half an hour. Was it worth it? It depended on the day. I remember one Saturday when I was the only laborer who showed up for work. I called my boss on the Saturday, who answered rather groggily because the night before it was his 50th birthday and it was quite a celebration. I called and I said, What am I to do today? And he said quite softly, why don't you um just make sure everything's watered and call it a day? And I said, Um, there's a truckload of sod here. He responded with words that I cannot repeat in here. What he knew and what I knew and what you will know is that a sod load of truck left on a truck over a weekend does not fare well. I said, where does it need to be delivered? And I spent the morning laying sod in a front yard all by myself. It was probably the second hardest day I've ever worked. On Monday, my supervisor and I rode out to the house to see how the sod was faring. It was all green and good, and I was looking for something from my supervisor along the lines of Well done, good and faithful servant, uh, enter the joy of your master. What I got was him saying, you know, there's a bump in the yard over there. This critique coming from a guy who spent Saturday with a hangover, and I can tell you that $5.50 an hour was not worth it. When I got my landscaping job, I was happy to have it. But I wonder if I had known what I was getting myself into, would I have gotten myself into it? If it had been possible to show me a video of me being a Saturday sod savior and then cut to me with my hands and knees in mud with the aroma of Hawaiian tropic suntan oil just feet away, or pickaxe parking lot in the heat of the day, would my 16-year-old brain agree to the job? My 64-year-old brain tells me that the experience was so formative that there's no price you could put on it. When we are offered a job, who knows what we're getting ourselves into? When I was called to serve here, there was no mention that I would have to do with blue bows and red bows and COVID and fires in the sanctuary and ice storms and John Bailey. None of that was mentioned. I just blindly took the job. But sometimes we know. Sometimes we know what we're gonna get ourselves into, and that's not exactly what we want from life. And so we turned down the job. It isn't worth it. The rich young ruler, a fine example. Eternal life, sure, you can have it. Sell your possessions, give your possessions to the poor, and the rich young man said, you know, that's just not worth it. Peter saw the young man walk away grieving and said, Well, we left everything for you. What's our reward? Apparently, Peter never read the contract. Check that. It seems to me that Peter's contract changed over time. When he was there in the fishing boat, Jesus just hollered at him, Come, follow me, and I'll make you fish for people. And for some reason he said, That's worth it. We left uh everything for you. What do we get? The contract changed. Suddenly it became if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. The contract changed. If anyone, we left everything for you. What do we get? Everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone who makes the sacrifice gets paid the same. The cross. Peter got the same pay as Martha, Martha got the same pay as Mary, Mary got the same pay as Paul, Paul got the same pay as Timothy, Timothy gets the same pay as Teresa, Teresa as Francis.
SPEAKER_01Is it worth it?
SPEAKER_00We know the answer. We know the answer. Is it worth it? Somehow the call of Jesus overwhelms our own desires. We know the answer. We know the time when what's in it for me doesn't even bubble up into our brains. It's about you. I heard that in this room on Friday for a memorial service. Grandchildren said it well. One of them, whom I watched grow up in this church, said Grand Annie, that's what they called grandma, grand Annie, she said, had steadfast love. Those words are God words. We attribute them to God. God has steadfast love. She used them to describe her grandma, who was one who was working in the vineyard. She said, being the youngest of three, my parents began to be empty nesters prematurely. But grand Annie and grandpa opened their doors to me whether a weekend, a week, or a whole month. She said, even in my moody teenage years, grandannie gave me space to be myself, loving me through every stage without hesitation. She said, I remember being sick and overwhelmed in a bathtub without the energy to even move. Definitely too old to need help in the bathtub, Grand Annie appeared without judgment, gently, gently, gently, gently, bathed me and lifted me up. Of all the days in the vineyard, the young woman remembered that one as being priceless. How much did it cost grandnie? How hard is it to go to work in the vineyard and find your only job is a moody teenager? And do you think that young woman will, without judgment, gently, gently, gently give herself away for someone else? Is it worth it? What's in it for me? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not about that. We know this. We know this. I heard it in this room from the lips of another granddaughter who gained her independence and took the wings of the morning and traveled to the farthest limits of the sea, an island in the Pacific, on her own, a complete unknown, shaved her head. What's life about but sea and sun? And then you get a letter from Steadfast Love. The grandma that says, You cannot hide your beauty and loveliness with an ugly mohawk. It is all yours to do with it as what pleases you, as it should be. It surely must be easy to take care of. I only wish that I could have all the hair that you don't want to fool with. We really miss you over Christmas. But we know you are happy. How many times do you think that young woman read that note? We really missed you over Christmas. But we know you're happy. We really missed you over Christmas. Calling out to the prodigal. I love you. I miss you. I know you're happy. Of all the days in the vineyard, she remembered that one. She held on to that one. She read that one right up here. Do you think there might be a day when that young woman will reach out in truth and grace and say to someone half a world away, you're beautiful. You are beautiful. I need you. I love you. We do this work. We do this work in the vineyard for those whom we love. We do it so beautifully.
SPEAKER_01It just comes right out of us. We just give. We are quick to sacrifice. Without thought. It's not about us.
SPEAKER_00And we will be remembered by family and friends for all those times when it just so beautifully. We worked for nothing. We just gave. And what we need to do is just work on the size of the vineyard. It goes beyond friends and family. Jesus says, Go ye into all the world. Jesus says, you know how to do it. You have a taste for it. Just see that you do it. Bigger. It's so worth it.