Septuagesima Sunday, 2010

Text: Matt. 20:1f-16

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

           

“Don’t Let Envy Steal Your Joy”

 

Septuagesima is the Latin name meaning the “70th”. Today is the 70th day from Easter. And so we have begun the Pre-Lenten season. We’re not quite in Lent, but we’re no longer in Epiphany. For three Sundays we prepare ourselves for the discipline of Lent, or should I say we ought to be preparing ourselves.

 

It was way back in the 6th century that this tradition of Pre-Lent began. In the Church of Rome these three Sundays were specially set apart to be days of prayer for God’s protection against the ravages of war, plague, and famine. And we can still hear these ancient prayers reflected in our collects for the season.

 

Today we prayed, “O Lord, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we who are justly punished for our offenses, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy name.”

 

This prayer could originally have been penned in response to any one of the three afflictions: war, plague, or famine. But in sixth century Rome it was war that was the constant threat and often the cause of plague and famine.

 

This morning I want to tell you the story of a war.

 

There once was a great and powerful king whose realm extended not only to the four corners of England, but reached across the channel into France as well. Many of the largest and best duchies and earldoms of France - Normandy, Brittany, Maine, Anjou, and Aquitaine - were under the sovereign rule of this mighty English king. Now that obviously did not sit well with the king of France, and so a war ensued, and the armies of these two kings fought for possession of these vast tracts of land. Many of the barons and counts and knights who owned manors and castles in these lands fought on the side of the English king, and fought many long, hard, and bloody years. And because the war was so brutal and so hard, some of these barons and counts and knights lost their castles and estates to the invading French armies, some even lost wives and sons and daughters. But they fought on; they were loyal to their king and they would fight with him to the last.

 

Then finally, after years of fighting, the king of England won a decisive battle and gained the upper hand, and it seemed certain he would soon win the war. And just about that time a young count, who had been fighting with the French, decided to switch sides: to renounce his loyalty to the king of France and fight under the banner of the English king. The king himself believed him to be honest and true, but the king’s men - the barons and counts and knights - received him a bit more coolly, this late comer to the king’s good fortune.

The war continued for only about a month or so after that, with very few losses to the English. Finally, the king of France was forced to sue for peace, and under the new treaty the English king would gain new lands in Burgundy and Gascony.

 

The war now ended, the king would not forget the great sacrifices his men had made to secure his kingdom. And so he assembled his barons and counts and knights together to reward them for their costly service. To all he gave estates and castles greater than they had before the war. He gave equally, even to the young count who was so late to make his bid for the king and sacrificed so little.

 

Well, this infuriated the others, and so they came to the king to voice their protest. “We’ve given up everything to see your kingdom established and advanced. We’ve lost our homes, our lands, and our families. But this man, he was never even wounded in battle. He lost nothing and risked nothing, and yet you reward him equally with us!” But the king answered, “Yes, I know your service and your sacrifice - your loyalty to me without thought of how you might gain. And for this I am eternally grateful, and indeed I have lavished upon you my royal favor. But my favor is mine to give.  And if I choose to reward a lesser man equally with you, how does that diminish your reward? Would you not have had great joy in your new lands if you had not discovered my generosity to this man? But now envy has stolen your joy.”

 

And so the barons and counts and knights stormed back to their new lands and withdrew into their new castles, and brooded, and eventually died without ever having appreciated just how great and wonderful the king’s reward really was. The End.

 

Now, who do you identify with in the story (which by now I hope you’ve gathered is just my medieval rendition of our Lord’s parable from our Gospel lesson today)? If we’re all honest, I think we’ve got to say that until the very end we had to identify with the barons, counts, and knights. We have this built in sense of fairness. We believe in compensation commensurate to services rendered. That’s our capitalistic creed. But our identification with the king’s men and with their complaint shows us just how little we know of grace and mercy.

 

God’s grace and mercy is so much greater than our own that sometimes we can even become resentful towards God, and envious towards others because of the grace they’ve received. Jesus told his parable because he knew that this basic deficiency of the human heart, this lack of grace and mercy, and love, is what drives us to the sin of envy and to the loss joy in God’s blessings to us. He knew that, even for his closest friends and followers, there was always the tendency to look at grace as something earned - a matter of strict fairness: I do this, therefore I get that. He knew that this was in the heart of Peter when he came to him and said, “Master, behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee: what shall we have therefore?” In other words, “Look, Jesus, we’ve given up everything to traipse around the countryside with you, so what’s in it for us?” And Jesus answered, “Much, indeed.” “Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” This is the great promise he made. But, “many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first”

 

Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first, he said, and then he illustrated what he meant by telling them the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

 

And what is the message of the parable? The message of the parable is that God’s kingdom is the important matter, and everything that we are, and all the labor and sacrifice we have to give, is only what is expected of us - it is our duty as loyal subjects our great king. And our labor and service will indeed be rewarded with God’s favor.   

 

But God’s favor is his to give, and whatever we have received is due purely to the fact that he is a good and gracious king. He could very well have required all our labor and not promised any reward. Or He could have required all our labor and still damned us eternally because none of us have every been perfectly loyal. Time and time again we have sided with the enemy. If reward was a matter of strict fairness Hell is what we would have received. As R.C. Sproul says, don’t ever ask for fairness; you just might get it. Instead ask for grace. It is only for God’s immeasurable grace that we have any reward at all.

 

And therefore if God in his immeasurable grace chooses to give the same blessing to a latecomer to his kingdom, to someone who perhaps hasn’t labored as long or sacrificed as much as you, what right do you have to be envious? You ought instead to rejoice that another person has received the same good fortune that you’ve received.

 

I can remember an occasion which caused me to become envious of another for the grace he had been given. It was during one of our daily chapels at Cranmer House. We had just received a new group of students about a month previously, and one these new students was scheduled that morning to preach his very first sermon. After every sermon at Cranmer House, the other students are given the opportunity to evaluate it - to rip it to shreds basically. And a few of us, myself included, were sitting there thinking, “Ah, new meat!” But this young guy got up there and gave one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard. He blew us away. And as we sat there during the evaluation time, I just couldn’t find anything bad to say about it. And I can remember thinking, “Who is this guy? Who does he think he is, coming here giving such a great sermon. How dare he! He hasn’t even ever had to suffer any criticism, or to work over years to refine his style or delivery like I did, and he’s still better than me. And I’m a senior; and what’s more, I’m an ordained Deacon in the Church! And I just remember feeling that, even though it was a wonderful sermon, I couldn’t find any joy in it because I was envious.

 

But why should I have felt envy? My preaching is not for myself, nor was his for himself. Our preaching is for God, and for his Church, and so I should have rejoiced that God had been so glorified and we so blessed. I should have rejoiced that another had received grace in such abundance. But I turned it all inward. I said in my heart, “God, I should have been the one so blessed, because I’ve worked harder and longer.” But the first shall be last, and the last shall be first, and glory be to God.

 

Now that’s just an example from my own life. You’ll have to dig up one from your own memory to illustrate the point, and don’t worry, you’ll find one.

 

But do you see the point? Do you get the message of the parable? Recognize that all the blessings you have are purely of grace and are given you to give back to God, and then you will not envy the grace given others but will rejoice that God has blessed them with you. +