Sermon for Septuagesima, 2025

“Whatever is right you will receive.” That is all the landowner told the last laborers. Even so, these last went out into the vineyard in trust—in faith, confident that that landowner would do right by them. They went out, saying of the landowner, “Thy will be done.” They were workers of faith, not of merit, these last—these least, these despised by the first, they, who had been standing idle in the marketplace all day. That little detail is given special attention by our Lord, for He, in recounting this parable, spends time having the landowner ask them, “Why? Why have you been standing here idle all day?” And they said to him, “Because no one hired us.” Whereupon he says to them, “You go also.” Now, what’s the significance of that exchange? You see, these workers of faith did not try to muscle their way into the vineyard or do work that had not been assigned to them. They waited for the landowner to call them into the vineyard. To everyone else, they appeared to be idle, perhaps lazy, even. Yet the landowner does not condemn their idleness; upon hearing their acknowledgment of their state, he simply says to them, “You go into the vineyard too.” Beloved, let this be you; these last laborers, let them be you. Your place in God’s kingdom is not because of some business arrangement; by grace, He called you into His kingdom. Therefore, let this be you, going as one called, having confidence in the Lord in advance, because you know His heart, which is to do what is right by you. Let this be you; these last—these workers of faith, let them be you. Just as you did not enter His kingdom by your own striving, so too, it is also not your business to do work that is not yours to do. Because it’s not your place to atone for yourself or to make yourself acceptable to God, nor is it your business to be your own redeemer; no, rather, that work has been already finished by Another—by Christ Jesus, your Saviour. Therefore, let this be you, who goes, then, doing as He would have you do after the work of your salvation has already been done. 

Readings:

• Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-7

• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24–10:5

• Holy Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon: