Septuagesima
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This Sunday begins the season of Septuagesima. There are a number of reasons why this season of the church year is foreign to us. The primary reason is that this season simply does not exist in the three-year lectionary cycle used by much of our Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Those who grew up with and remember the old red TLH hymnal might have vague memories of this season. But the 1982 publication of the blue Lutheran Worship hymnal unfortunately did away with this season as the hymnal shifted away from the church’s historic lectionary to the three-year cycle being espoused by the Catholics since their creation of it in the 1960’s. Though the season of Septuagesima is an unknown mystery to many present-day Lutherans, much is lost if we allow this crucial season to fade into distant memory.
Septuagesima is the name of both this day and the two-and-a-half-week season from now until Ash Wednesday. It comes from Latin, meaning seventy. Next Sunday is called Sexagesima, or sixty. And the Sunday just prior to Ash Wednesday is Quinquagesima, or fifty. If you are familiar with the old alternate title for the Lenten season, then the word Quadragesima might sound familiar, which means forty. The point is, the day of Septuagesima is roughly seventy days before Easter, and it begins our countdown to this central feast of our liturgical year. And this larger season of Septuagesima, given its inherent association with the number seventy, grounds our preparations for Easter in the seventy-year Babylonian Captivity recalled in the prophecy from Daniel chapter 9. So it is fitting that as last week’s closing hymn we sang the ancient hymn, “Alleluia, Song of Gladness”, by which we bid farewell to the joyous word “Alleluia.” In that hymn, we sang these words which associate us with Israel’s Babylonian exile:
Alleluia, thou resoundest, True Jerusalem and free; Alleluia, joyful mother, All thy children sing with thee, But by Babylon’s sad waters Mourning exiles now are we (LSB 417:2).
Like the Jews in the Babylonian captivity, the season of Septuagesima invites us to acknowledge the uncomfortable reality of our sin, which for a time causes us to live in exile here on earth as we await our return to the Edenic paradise of the new creation. But until that day: Christ calls us to labor by faith in the vineyard of His kingdom, even as we await our final deliverance from the exile of this mortal life.
And faith is the key. The short season of Septuagesima gives us opportunity to consider the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love—virtues which define and shape the Christian life in the exile of this world. But it all starts with faith. For it is by faith alone that we receive the benefits of Christ. It is by faith alone that we are freed from the exile of this life and granted a place in the new Jerusalem. Apart from faith we cannot know the love of Christ in this life and so receive this benefit. And apart from faith we have no hope for the life to come.
So it is that today’s Gospel text shows us the heart and center of the Christian faith—namely, that we are saved not by our own merits but by the gracious calling of God. His Holy Spirit calls us to faith by the Gospel and strengthens and keeps us firm in that faith through the Means of Grace until we die. Apart from God’s grace, we have nothing. In short, this is the point of our Lord’s Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, which is our Gospel text for this day.
You have been given life by the Lord God, and you have been called to labor in the vineyard of His world. We are all given different tasks according to our talents and abilities as we labor in this world. One labors as a teacher, another as a police officer. One labors in the trades, another as a businessman. One labors as a stay-at-home mom, another as a lawyer. And the Lord rewards each one equally with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, and, indeed, all that we have. To one He gives this, and to another He gives that. Where we can get into serious trouble, however, is when we start eyeing what another has been given and comparing it with what we have received. “It’s not fair that he got the promotion, that his house sold for more than mine, that she receives recognition when I don’t.” This is precisely the error of those hired first in our Lord’s parable. They compare themselves with others, claiming injustice when others who worked less receive the same pay. “It’s not fair!”, they say.
How often have we heard those words spoken or even said them ourselves? “It’s not fair!”, is an outcry of inequality grounded firmly in a misguided and mis-oriented faith. And so, the landowner says to the ungrateful laborers: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew 20:15a). In the end, he gave them what he promised—they have received a day’s wage as was agreed. But these ungrateful laborers possess evil eyes focused solely on the worship of the “holy trinity” of me, myself, and I. And so, their words reveal a lack of faith in the landowner. They do not believe that he is just and fair. All they care about is lining their pockets and squeaking every penny that they can out of him. And so, they are banished from the vineyard with the words: “Take what is yours and go your way” (Matthew 20:14).
All of this is an allegory for the Christian life of faith. You have been called by the Lord not only to labor in His world. You have been called by the Holy Spirit to labor in the vineyard of the kingdom of heaven. Some labor in the kingdom of heaven from infancy. They strive for long hours and years in the spiritual battle against the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. They know all too well the temptations of Satan and the allures of the world. They have labored like Saint Paul in the Epistle, disciplining themselves, resisting temptation, fighting the good fight, and keeping the faith. Others have come into the kingdom of heaven later in life. They know the fires of hell because they have lived on the brink of them. They can’t wrap their minds around the behavior of people who, like the Israelites of old, take their faith and place in God’s kingdom for granted and despise it. For they know the other side, and they are thankful beyond words that the Lord has called them to His kingdom.
No matter what our background, no matter what the nature of our labor in the vineyard of God’s kingdom, it is always a temptation to envy what has been given to another and to despise the good gifts of God. But, as we said before, such envy and jealousy reveals a misguided and mis-oriented faith. When we take our eyes off of Christ and begin to focus upon ourselves, our faith drifts and we become like the ungrateful laborers in our Lord’s Parable.
Dear friends in Christ, let us not despise those whose path of labor is different than ours. Let us not become like the ungrateful laborers who despise their master and so are sent away from his vineyard. For the essence of the Christian faith is to look to Christ and to receive all things from His hand. It is not your job to be God. God is God, you are not. Don’t worry about God’s stuff. Worry about what He has given you to do. This is the essence of faith—to accept your lot in life and to receive all things as a gift from the Lord.
And so, in order to cultivate the virtue of faith, we must start by rightly recognizing our own state. We are not the owner of the vineyard. It is not our place to make decisions as God and to decide who gets what. We are merely human—which is to say, we are living in exile on account of our sin. And life in this world is hard. It is a life of exile away from the paradise for which we were created. It is easy to become discouraged and frustrated, to let our minds drift into jealousy and discontentment with what we have been given. But the root of all our problems is the sin which keeps us apart from God. Indulging in the sin of envy and jealousy only makes matters worse. Therefore, let us confess our sins to God that we might daily and richly be forgiven of all our sin. For this is how we are reminded of who we are. This is how we keep our eyes on Christ and how much our gracious Lord provides for us as we await our final deliverance from the exile of this mortal life. And this is how we are kept with Jesus Christ in the one true faith until that day. God grant it.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
