Portage Congregational
Church
September 21, 2014
Life for His Children
Good Morning, my name is Ray
Foss, and I am one of the District Lay Leaders for the Northern Maine District
of the United Methodist Church. My wife is Pastor Ruth Foss at Stetson Memorial
United Methodist Church in Patten.
I was blessed to join you
last year on September 22, 2013, which was the next to the last Sunday of the
summer worship calendar here. Is next Sunday the last service for this year?
I looked at some of the
pictures on your Facebook page seeing the faces of the congregation sharing
that final meal of the season last year and seeing how beautiful the church was
getting ready for this year.
It is a joy for me to again
be with you in this sacred space. We are fed here, we grow within the
sanctuary, we remember the saints who have gone before us and their stories of
faith, the things that unite us as Christians, and as people of this land. We
gather today knowing the seasons are fast changing and the harvest is upon us.
In choosing to use the
Revised Common Lectionary, I wanted to see what the scriptures were there, to
see what truths they may speak to us today, that were written so long ago.
We are connected to these
stories, the scripture that we read today. Can you see yourself in these
stories. I know I can, and I’m not always happy about that, as a man, as an
American, as a person who claims the name Christian, in a country and a world
that has far too much meaning embedded in that phrase, “as a Christian”.
It is fitting that we are
reading these two passages in the time of the potato harvest, in the gathering
in.
We are challenged in our
time and place, in the 21st Century, in this land of abundance. Do
we see the harvest as the work of our hands or as gifts from God. Do we grumble
in a place of bounty, are we jealous of others who seem to get paid without
working as hard as we do?
We are like the story of the
grumbling people in Exodus 16, who so recently were enslaved in Egypt, who
walked through the Red Sea, who were led to freedom by God, who now were not
satisfied.
We are like the laborers in
the fields in Matthew 20, especially like those called first, envying our
neighbors, not working in this life, wanting things simple, as if given to us.
We are like the older
brother in the Prodigal Son story, wondering why the Father slaughters the
fatted calf for the younger brother, when we had been faithful all along and
never had so much as a goat slaughtered for us.
God is the same as in the
story of Moses, the people grumbling, not understanding. God providing manna
and quail, water in the desert. God provided for His people, for His chosen
children, given them all they needed, asking only that they followed, that they
trusted in Him.
The same was true of the
people coming out of the fields, wanting to be paid, like Adam, sweating for
his food. But they forgot about grace that they did not earn salvation, that
they chose to enter the fields, in response to God’s gifts.
They all misunderstood, like
us needing the lesson, God provides for our needs. We must trust in His
promise. We are all saved by grace, not by our works, that we are gifted to be
giving, to work in this life.
We are to be working, in the
fields, in the vineyards, by the seas, wherever God plants us, when we say yes,
but God is the owner, the Creator of all that is. These are God’s fields, His
vineyards; we are to be yoked with Christ, sharing the load with us.
The wages the same, at the
end of the day, life for each believer, grace to sustain us, life at the end no
more and no less, the same whenever grace finds them, loved like all the rest.
None of us are better, none of us worse, the same gate to heaven, through the
sacrifice of the cross.
We are to be working, our
oil ready, our lamps burning, when the day ends, when the bridegroom comes; but
we must be joyful, for each new believer, even those who come at the eleventh
hour. For there is joy in heaven, as each one believes, like Clarence in the
movie, reminding us of the praises in heaven, for each new life.
My wife shares the story of
a prayer group she went to one time and someone said they only pray for someone
who has already accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. My wife asked them
had they ever thought that the prayers they might lift up might lead them to
God, to Christ, to a redeemed life.
We all receive the same
wages when the work is done and we are gathered home, for the wages were paid
by Christ and we receive the free gift of salvation.
That is the same as the
manna and quail the Jewish people were gifted for forty years in the desert.
They never planted crops for forty years. God provided for their needs. He
still does today, and He will gift us richly if we believe and if we follow
Jesus.
We don’t earn our way into
heaven. Our works, our fruit, by ourselves is not so pleasing to God as the
offering Christ made. We are to be workers in the vineyard, in the fields,
sharing the Good News of life in Christ who bought our salvation with His blood
on the cross.
We are to be joyfully
serving, knowing that the wages the owners will pay us on the last day are the
keys to the kingdom, the gate of salvation, the doors of paradise at the end of
this walk.
That is the joy in these
stories, the common stories of our faith, of God’s faithfulness to us, God’s
provision for us, even when we doubt, when we grumble, when we stray, when we
judge someone else’s walk. God alone is faithful, His promises are true, our
joy needs to be shared, to the ends of the earth.
Amen!
-----
September 20, 2014
Matthew 20:1-16
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
Exodus 16:2-15
manna in the desert
Genesis 3:19
Ephesians 2:1-10
Luke 15:11-32
Parable of the Prodigal Son
edited September 15, 2014
Life for His Children – v2
edited September 15, 2014
Life for His Children
September 15, 2014
Life for His People
sermon, “Life for His Children”
by
Raymond A. Foss
Portage
Congregational Church
Portage,
ME
September 21, 2014
All of my
poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. All rights reserved. Contact
me at
Ray Foss
for usage. See all 33,020+ of my poems at
www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
