1st
February Trinity
Matthew
20: 1-16
The
kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out
early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one
denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.
At
about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he
said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is
right.” So they went.
He
went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he
went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you
stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said,
“You, too, go into the vineyard.”
And
when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the
workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going
on to the first.”
Those
who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius.
Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to
receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it,
but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were
hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne
the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
However,
he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you
not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to
give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to
do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am
generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “
1st
February Trinity
Feb.
4, 2007
Matthew
20: 1-16
In
a garden, some plants blossom for a year, vigorously all season long. Others
come back every year; but they flower in their own particular time. Some bloom
in early spring; some at midsummer; some even wait until fall. The wise
gardener knows how to place each type according to its nature, how to place it
in the garden so that something is in bloom through the whole season.
We are all like plants in God’s garden. Some of us
can work vigorously doing what we do for Him all of the time, all of our lives.
Others return and bloom early; some mid-season, some late. But we are all part
of the larger community of His garden. He has chosen us for His work, and for
His pleasure, according to His timing, because of our individual natures.
 |
| Patricia Brintle |
The
congregation is another of God’s gardens. Some of us appear all the time;
others have their seasons. Together we make up a garden of blossoming, fruitful
hearts. God and his angels walk among us, taking pleasure from the beauty and
fragrance of our souls, taking nourishment from our hearts’ fruitfulness. In
the Act of Consecration of Man we are practicing setting seeds for a new life.
Offering ourselves up to Him is like a little death.
Over
the course of the day, the Act of Consecration of Man blossoms successively
across the face of the earth, beginning in the east and ending in the west.
Whole congregations become areas in the garden of the earth. One after the
other they give up the blossoms of their most selfless thoughts, the warm
fragrance of their noblest feeling, offering the fruit of their devotion. We
are offering God a concentration, the seeds of our life substance for his harvesting
of life. With the poet we pray as He walks the garden of earth:
The great death that
each of us carries inside
is the fruit.
Everything enfolds it.[1]
We stand in your
garden, year after year
We are trees for
yielding a sweet death.[2]
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