Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Michael Van Velzer
Matthew 20:1-16
Faith Healing or Healing Faith?
Pentecost 18
Story Interrupted
Focus: The grace of God is greater than any reward.
Function: That the hearer accept the grace of God for his or her life.
“All in a day’s work.”
We have all used this common expression.
In this parable, we see two different perspectives of work done on a given day in a vineyard long ago.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborer for his vineyard.
After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
Imagine being one of the workers on that day.
You got up early that morning to get to the market place.
Here workers would gather and people willing to pay for work would go to this place, seek the best-qualified workers they could find.
A good wage for a days work is a denarius.
Sometimes, men are stuck working for less, especially if they are not fully fit, or too old or too young.
This is a good day, because a man who has a lot of work that needs to be done in his vineyard comes in and hires everybody.
When you get to as vineyard, you can see that there is a lot of work to be done.
Stones need to be moved and sorted by size.
Vines need trimming.
There are trenches to be dug.
Like most vineyards around here, this one is on a hillside.
Rocks and stones are abundant in this soil, but they are also useful.
Rocks make terraces to increase the tillable area of the hillside.
Stones make fences.
There are walls to be built.
The guard tower needs repairs if it is to be of any use during the next harvest.
So, today is your lucky day.
There is plenty of work for the day, and the pay is good.
In fact, wee need more men.
There are too many stones, and it looks like it has been some time since any serious work and been done.
There goes the owner of the vineyard, back to town at the third hour, which our clocks would be about 9:00 AM.
“And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.”
So they went.
“
Now you notice the owner returning with much needed help.
These men must have been from outlying areas.
It may have taken them a little longer to get to the village square to the marketplace.
But you’re glad to see them because there’s so much work to be done.
Before long, everybody is bustling around, picking up and sorting stones.
Others are tilling the soil; others are rearranging the vines and trimming them so that they hang down the terraces in a way that makes the best use of the sunshine and scarce water.
You’re probably not too concerned at this point about what these men would be paid for their work.
In a sense of fairness would indicate that you would get a little bit more money than they, but mostly it’s just good to be working for a fair wage.
The owner of the vineyard seems like a fair man.
There is still a lot of work to be done and it is too bad we can’t have a few more people a few more workers here to get it done.
Wait a minute, isn’t that the landowner?
Where is he going?
There is work to be done, and he is heading off to town.
It must be nice to be the boss.
It is the middle of the day now and it sure is hot.
But, that’s what working in a vineyard is all about.
You can’t have grapes without a little sunshine.
Besides, in a few hours it’ll be cool enough, and you’ll be on your way home again with a whole denarius in your pocket for your day’s work.
“Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same.
And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing.
And he said to them, “Why do you stand here until all day?”
They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.”
He said to them, “You go into the vineyard too.”
Well, look here, you say.
I guess the landowner found some more workers.
Here it is halfway through the day, and we have workers still trickling in.
Some of these guys don’t look too good.
A couple of them look a little old to be working this hard in this heat.
A couple guys look to be too young and not strong enough to lift some of these rocks in the heat of the day.
There is even a guy with a slight.
Seems likely these guys just aren’t in good enough shape to be hired for the real work around town.
I guess the landowner is so desperate that he would hire men everybody rejected.
One thing for sure, though.
These guys will work a lot cheaper than me and my buddies will, that’s for sure.
Besides, we’ve been here all day.
“And when the evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.”
And when those hired about the eleventh hour came each of them received a denarius.
And now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong.
Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
Take what belongs to you and ago.
I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
So the last will be first, and the first last.”
*Hey, wait a minute.
What’s going on?
These guys are only been here an hour, some of them.
They’re getting the same pay that we got.
We got up early.
We got to town early.
We were hired first.
When been here all day!
It’s been hot!
I don’t get it, these guys only been here an, when it was already cooling off, and they’re getting the same pay the rest of us are getting.
This isn’t fair!*
Now, what’s going on here?
My guess is that all of us can think of times when we felt like we worked hard but for under-appreciated.
I can remember a time when I worked as a studio musician.
I’d show up for recording session to be paid incredible sum of $16.00 an hour.
(This when the minimum wage was about a dollar fifty.
Oh, by the way, gas was only 20 cents a gallon.).
I was there to put some music down.
Without my talent and the talent of the other singers, there would be no recording session.
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