SEPTUAGESIMA

The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

What the Jews once said to the Prophet Malachi, "It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?" Mai 3:14, has been the opinion of countless people of all ages. And this is true: If Christians in serving God could expect no other reward than the one they receive in this world, it would indeed appear that no one has expended more labor in vain than a zealous Christian. For what is the Christian's usual reward in this world? The more he tries to be a friend of God,:the more the world hates him; the more faithfully he follows Christ, the less people want to know about him, yes, the more he is despised and persecuted by them; briefly, the more conscientiously he proceeds in all things according to God's Word, the narrower and more miserable his life becomes. To become a Christian and take up his cross; to become a Christian and deny and forsake everything which is pleasing to the flesh; to become a Christian and lose this world's happiness are inseparable things, yes, one and the same.

Septuagesima Sunday 79

Therefore, though it may seem as though one serves God in vain, it only seems so. Malachi adds.to those words above, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord harkened, and heard it" (namely, what they do and suffer) "and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. . . . Then shall ye return" (the Lord says) "and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." Mai 3:16,18. You see, it shall not have been in vain to have been in the Lord's service. Some day God will make the difference between his servants and the servants of the world so clear, that the world will see it with terror and the pious with amazement and rejoicing. God's faithful servants will receive a wonderful reward-of grace. Not one good thing which a person has done here for God's sake, and though it be but a cup of cold water which he gave someone for Christ's sake, will be forgotten and go unrewarded.

Therefore, if for God's sake he always had to remain poor in earthly things on this world, in heaven eternal riches in heavenly things await him; if for God's sake he was, always despised and reviled and he was called a godless person, inexpressible honor and glory before God and all the angels and elect await him there; in short, though here he may have had to sacrifice and leave much for God's sake, all that will be restored more than a thousandfold in heaven. Oh, no eye hath seen nor hath ear heard nor hath it entered into man's heart what God has prepared for those who love him. Where Christ is there shall also his servant be; whoever dies with him shall live with him; whoever endures with him shall rule with him; whoever suffers with him shall at the time of the revelation of his glory also rejoice with him.

Would it not, therefore, be proper for a person to serve God only for the sake of this future reward? would it not be proper for a person to be pious just -so he can merit heaven and salvation by his piety? - No, my friends; such a mercenary piety has no worth in God's eyes; yes, it makes him worthy of being rejected in God's eyes. Christ warns us against that in our today's Gospel. Let us hear it now and be warned.

The text. Matthew 20:1-16.

There is a great difference of opinion over what Christ really intended to say by this parable. However, if we examine the context and the occasion which prompted him to tell it, there can be no doubt as to its real purpose. In the preceding verses we hear that Peter asked him, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" 19:27. Then Christ declares not only that the apostles, can expect a wonderful, gracious reward, but he continues by telling the parable of the workers in the vineyard; it is clear that Christ means to warn not only his disciples but all men against asking, "What shall we have therefore?" when they look at their works. Therefore, on the basis of Christ's parable may I speak to you about:

MERCENARY PIETY

I. Its Nature and How it is Revealed, and

II. Its Worth and How it is Rewarded.

Oh Lord God! From you we have everything which we are and have; therefore, everything, our body, our soul, and our whole life belongs to you. Even though we would do everything which you have commanded us, we would still be unprofitable servants, for we would have done only that which it was our duty to do. Lord, alas that none of us does even this much; in your eyes none of us is innocent, none are righteous. Therefore, protect us from the idea of

wanting to earn something by our works but give us the mind which cries only for free, pure grace and mercy. To that end bless your Word in this hour and we will be helped for time and eternity. Amen. Amen.

I.

Christ commences this way in our today's Gospel, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard." Vv. 1,2. Christ says that the householder did the same again in the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour; that is, dividing the day as we do, early at nine o'clock, at twelve noon, and in the afternoon at three. Then we read, "And about the eleventh hour," that is, at the last hour of the day, "he went out, and found others standing idle.and saith unto them. Why stand ye here' all the day idle? They say unto him. Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them. Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." V. 6,7.

"So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it. they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us. which have borne the burden and heat of the day." Vv.8-12.

In this portion of our parable Christ sketches the picture of mercenary piety in vivid colors. First of all, Christ without a doubt had the Jewish people in mind. The Jews were the first ones whom God caused to be called into the vineyard of his Church through the prophets; he made a covenant with them and gave them the promise of sending them the Messiah to be their Savior. On the other hand, the heathen, as it were, were first called in the eleventh hour, in the last hour of the existence of the world, into the vineyard of the Church; through the apostles the same share in the Messiah and his grace was promised also to them as to the Jews who were the first ones called.

But what happened? The Jews murmured when they saw that the heathen, with whom God had not made an agreement about the reward as he had with them, that is, with Whom he established no covenant and to whom he gave no promise, received the same grace and that they, as the chosen people of God, were to have no preference over them. The Jews thought: We should bear the burden and heat of the day, we should observe the burdensome Law of Moses with its feasts and sacrifices and sabbaths and fasts and be subject to circumcision and now these uncircumcised heathen are to be made equal to us? Have we not labored and served more than they?

Although Christ certainly had the self-righteous, murmuring, mercenary Jewish nation first of all in mind when he related his parable, he without a doubt also intended to present in general this mercenary piety in its true form as found amongst all men. By nature we are all so minded that here and there we still do what is good and avoid what is evil, in other words, we want to be pious, only because we expect a reward from God for doing that; therefore, by nature no person would do something good and avoid something evil if he thought that this could neither help nor hinder his chances in this world or in the one to come. If men by nature did not have the fear that there is a hell for the godless and did not have the hope that there is a heaven for the pious, we would

soon see why most do good and avoid many an evil deed; we would see that it is not love to God their Creator which drives them but that only fear of punishment and the hope of reward is the impure source and the rotten reason for their so-called piety.

Yes, is it not now preached publicly by many preachers and accepted by countless numbers and confessed without reserve that a person can and must make himself worthy of God's good will by his own works, by his own virtuous life, and merit for himself a happy lot in the world to come? In our days no one is accounted an enlightened person who does not swear allegiance to this heathenish principle and does not declare that heaven is the reward for one's virtue.

However, the mercenary, piety of most is first clearly revealed when the Gospel is preached and when even the gross sinner is converted by the Gospel. When Christ invited all the laboring and heavy laden and when at his invitation even great sinners drew near to him, were converted, believed in him, and were received by Christ, some of whom followed him as his disciples, this greatly offended the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes. Contemptuously they exclaimed, "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them;" he is a friend of publicans and sinners; they thought: What kind of a Messiah is that who promises grace and heaven to even the greatest sinners? what? adulterers, publicans, robbers, and murderers should some day enjoy heaven just as well as we? is all the trouble we went to to keep God's Law to be in vain? Away with such a religion!

And as the scribes and Pharisees and especially most of the Jews thought, so even now not a few Christians have the same thoughts. If the Gospel of Christ is preached and if all sinners are called to Christ, and if many a sinner lets this Gospel enter his heart, if they believe in Christ and join the true Christians, and if they are received and accepted by them, then the honorable people of the world rise up and say: A godless person who from his youth has lived in gross, manifest sins, having now become tired of sin, humbling him self before God and believing in Christ, he should be able to be saved just as well as we, who have lived blamelessly from our youth, dedicating our lives to virtue and distinguishing ourselves by so many noble works? Absolutely not!

This mercenary piety, however, does not always reveal itself in such showy garments; there are only too many who say with their mouth that they intend to build only upon Christ and want to be saved only by grace, and yet fundamentally are pious only because of the hope of reward. Why do many associate with Christians and not with the world? why do they go diligently to church? why do they pray every day morning and evening? why do they read the Scriptures and other pious books? why do they make many a sacrifice to maintain divine services and spread the kingdom of God, and the like? Is not the real reason with only too many not that free love to Christ and their neighbors but the hope that God will for those reasons consider them Christians and save them? What else is that but a mercenary piety?

Yes, nothing more! There are Christians who first arrived at the certainty of their state of grace only after many prayers and tears, after experiencing great sorrow and much anxiety, and after long hours of wrestling and struggling. What often is their attitude toward those Christians who did not have to go through such severe struggles, whom God led more gently, easily, and lovingly, and after their first fright over their sins immediately gave them the grace of being able to comfort themselves in a childlike faith in Christ, his grace, and his Word? Not seldom is it that those Christians do not wish to recognize that these are true Christians; they are suspicious of their easy conversion, and think, First I had to wrestle much and bear the burden and heat of the day before I found peace, and he should get off so easily? That I can

not believe! What do these Christians betray? Nothing else, than that their Christianity is mercenary.

So you see, my friends, that the shapes and forms of this piety are more manifold than one thinks and that even those who seem to be Christiane can be taken in and soiled by it. Therefore, everyone must examine himself to see whether perhaps he serves God only for the sake of the reward. Now that we have seen the nature of this piety and how it reveals itself, let us in the second place ponder its value and therefore how it is rewarded.

II.

Those who were first called to work in the vineyard supposed that, they earned a greater reward by their work; they, therefore, expected more than those who had not worked as long as they, and when they did not receive it they murmured against the householder. What did he answer them? He said, "Friend. I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is. and go thy way; I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" Vv.13-15. Thus the householder declares that by working just for their pay alone they had not earned more; what he promised them for their labors .and what he had agreed with them, that they should consider as right; they had their pay; their work was worth no more.

So we hear just how valuable the piety of those is who are pious only for the sake of the reward; it has absolutely no value. All works which someone does in order to be repaid have only the appearance of good works; but actually, they are anything but that; they are gleaming slugs which bear the same stamp of a gold coin but are worth nothing. For only that work is valuable before God who sees the heart which a person does not out of self-interest, nor with the hope of being repaid, but which is done only out of love to God and his neighbor. If those were good works for which a person hopes to be repaid, then all of man's works would have to be good works, for all works, even manifest sins, are done by men in order to profit by them.

Suppose you tell me, if you would consider it a noble deed, when a person gives his money to merchant in order at least to receive for it goods of the same value? Would you consider him one who helps his poor neighbor, if he would work for him but under the condition that he be paid? And what would you think of him who gives you a small present when you know that he has given it to you only to expect a greater present in return? Would you say that he is generous? Certainly not! You would rather despise such a giver as a hypocrite. You see, as little as any value is attributed to such works among men, so little has mercenary piety value before God; yes, it is nothing but hypocrisy.

What is therefore their reward? Christ shows us in the words of the householder, "Take that thine is, and go thy way." And in the closing words, "So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen." V. 16. That was the pay which the Jews received for their mercenary piety. They were the first and became the last. They were the first to be God's people but they looked askance when they saw that the heathen would also be taken into the covenant of grace; they murmured that they were considered on the same level and supposed that they merited more with their labor under the yoke of the Mosaic Law - and what happened? They lost God's grace; angrily God said to them, "Take that thine is. and go thy way." God's countenance is now turned away from them; Jerusalem was destroyed, the poor nation, just as Moses predicted, was scattered like a despised rabble among all nations, and the heathen were received in their place.

Their fate is a picture of the fate of all those who want to serve God only for the sake of reward, who do their good works with the hope of being rewarded by God for them. All their works will some day be found to be light upon God's scales. God will say to each of them, "Take that thine is, and go thy way,", that is, you have your reward; your life on earth with its good things was the penny which I have already paid you; I owe you nothing; for you have done nothing to me out of pure love; depart from me, you hypocrite; I never knew you, you evildoer! Then the mercenary will be rejected forever; on the other hand, those poor sinners, who had placed their hope alone upon the goodness of the householder will not be sent away with the penny of temporal blessing but will be eternally received into his heavenly mansions.

Take this to heart, my dear hearers! Do not be so foolish as to want to purchase his heaven from God with your wretched works and your miserable virtues and piety. If you wish to handle your piety as a business deal, you will someday find out how worthless all your works were; God will show you. that you had received your reward most richly in this world and forever reject you. But you who say that you want to be saved alone by grace, examine yourselves well, whether you really do everything only out of love to him who loved you from eternity and accepted you through Christ; whether you do not consider yourselves better than the greatest sinner; whether God's mercy in Christ is the basis of your hope, and whether out of thankfulness for this grace you seek to become rich in good works; whether you can say with the poet:

I build on this foundation,

That Jesus and His blood

Alone are my salvation,

The true, eternal good.

Without Him all that pleases

Is valueless on earth;

The gifts I owe to Jesus

Alone my love are worth. (528,3)

Happy are all you who are of such a mind! Your life pleases God well. You look on your works as worthless, but rejoice, rejoice! God for Christ's sake places a high value on them and some day he will graciously reward them beyond measure. Amen.