I am working on Matthew 20:1-16 this week for my sermon. My District Superintendent was kind enough to give me Reuben P. Job’s devotional book “When You Pray, Daily Practices for Prayerful Living.” Job’s book follows the Lectionary, and has been very helpful in keeping my mind on what I am doing. As I was rereading the passage this morning it occured to me the owner of the vineyard in this story is a lot like God’s work through Prevenient Grace. For those of you who are not Methodist or do not know what Prevenient Grace is the the Doctrinal Standards of the United Methodist Church defines Prevenient Grace this way.
“We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God.
God’s grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith.”
(2008 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church ¶101 p46)
John Wesley explain prevenient grace this way in an article he wrote called, “God’s Preparing, Accepting and Sustaining Grace;”
“God’s prevenient grace is with us from birth, preparing us for new life in Christ. “Prevenient” means “comes before.” Wesley did not believe that humanity was totally “depraved” but rather God places a little spark of divine grace within us which enables us to recognize and accept God’s justifying grace. Preparing grace is “free in all for all,” as Wesley used to say.”
In the story from Matthew the land owner goes out and looks for workers five times. Every time the master finds people looking for work, and every time the master puts them to work in his vineyard. This story is not dissimilar to the employment situation in United States right now. Similarly our God, King, and Master is always looking for people to work in His Kingdom. The payment is offered up front – salvation, and the work brings satisfaction and joy the way only Kingdom work can. Why should we grumble and feel as though those of us saved as children are the last to receive our pay when people ask for God’s grace on their death bed? The truth is God’s grace has already been at work in us, and just because we have been saved doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to be done. Perhaps we should spend a little less time grumbling and a little more time working for the glory of the Kingdom.
In His Peace,
Richard
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