August 20 2016 – Devotions from Rio Olympics
Soccer

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 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 the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:1-16

Did you know that the soccer team that has won the World Cup has not gone on to win the Gold medal in the Olympics? When watching the USA women’s team lose to Sweden the other day, they show a graphic on the television that show that since 1996, the soccer team that won the World Cup has never done better than a Silver Medal. Often they are eliminated before the medal round. Unfortunately, the USA women’s team has suffered the same defeat. No, the first are not last, but the first will not be first.

Hearing Jesus say the first will be last and the last will be first does not always sit well with me. It brings on a lot of questions. Who will be first? Who will be last? Where do I stand in the process? The best answer I can come up with for myself is: why worry? The more I worry about my place in the kingdom of G-d, the more I focus on my accomplishments rather than on my deeds. What does that mean? It means, the more I worry about my accomplishments, the more I may try to convince myself that G-d is keeping a score card. G-d is not keeping a score card in heaven. What G-d wants us to do, I believe, is live our lives as Christ-like as we can. You see, when we focus on the Christ-like life, rather than focus on our accomplishments, then we lose track of the accomplishments because the Christ-like life is lived always engaged in loving, forgiving and Grace-filled actions.

The USA women will move on from this defeat, and they will learn the lessons they are supposed to learn. Hopefully, they will learn that we cannot always be first, and in not being first, we can learn to focus more on deeds than accomplishments.

Pastor Dave (Happy Anniversary (28) to my loving wife)