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St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

215 N. 7th, Terre Haute, Indiana

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A Word: Facing What’s Coming

Sermons · April 5, 2020

Palm Sunday helps us see that the story isn’t about greatness or even weakness, but of facing an uncertain future through the grace of God.


Palm Sunday and the glory of God
Palm Sunday | Matthew 21:1-17

Facing What's Coming
Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels

On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus tells the disciples a parable. One that we could use right about now.

Jesus says that “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” The landowner offers a full wage for a day’s labor and brings them into the vineyard to work. He goes out again at 9:00 and finds more laborers looking for work. So he sends them in to work alongside the others.

The landowner goes out again at noon and 3:00 and 5:00 and keeps finding more people looking for work.

Now, we usually get caught up with this parable’s ending. When the day is done, the landowner pays all the laborers in the opposite order: the last ones in are the first ones out. And he gives them all the same pay: the day’s wage.

This parable messes with our sense of fairness and pride. Even though the laborers agreed to a wage that would give them enough, they wanted to tie that to their work…AND their good fortune. We often treat our means of survival as a reward. Something not only earned, but given as a bonus.

The landowner takes a different approach. He keeps looking for laborers. And when he finds them, he marvels at the fact that they are jobless. By the end, we realize what the landowner is actually thinking: Why isn’t anyone else helping these people survive?

The wage isn’t earned or tied to the fortune of being in the right place at the right time; the providence of their birth. The landowner pays them all, every last one of them, enough to live: a living wage…


The full text may be found here.

For a limited time, you may find the audio here.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Holy Week, justice, kin-dom, Matthew 21:1-17, Palm Sunday

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CONTACT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
215 N. 7th St
Terre Haute, IN 47807

812-232-5165

officeadmin@ststephensth.org

ABOUT

St. Stephen’s is a sacramental community following Jesus’s Way of Love.

We worship on Sundays at 8 & 10.

AFFILIATIONS

St. Stephen’s is a member of The Episcopal Church and congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

St. Stephen’s is a member of the Wabash Valley Homeless Coalition

PARKING

St. Stephen’s is across from Indiana State University. Nearby parking lots are run by ISU and are free after 5pm weekdays and are free all weekend long. 

Five marked spots in the lot directly behind the church are available during the week.

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