Praying Together 24th September 2023

Collect for Trinity 16

O Lord, Hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Philippians 1: 21-30

Matthew 20: 1-16

Doesn’t seem fair, does it? We’re taught that hard work brings its rewards – and it does. The ones who worked all day go the reward they had agreed that morning – and no doubt they were delighted to be offered work for the whole day. Then at the day’s end, they saw the last workers being paid and thought they would get more. But they didn’t, and felt they were victims of injustice.

There are people who as young people confessed Jesus as Christ and Lord and gave their whole lives to His mission, often at great personal sacrifice. They will certainly receive their promised reward of a welcome into the Kingdom of Heaven. There are those who spent their lives without Him, and who only came to faith at the end of their lives. They too will share in that Kingdom.

Is God unjust to receive them? Should the latter group endure some form of purgatory – a sort of halfway house between earth and heaven – with a duration commensurate to the length of their secular lives? It would seem to be only fair.

Unfortunately for those who think so – and thankfully for sinners, that’s not what the Gospel says.

One of the criminals crucified next to Him asked Jesus to remember him when He comes into His Kingdom. Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
Luke 23:42,43

Heavenly Father, help us to work to accomplish your will for us according to our individual gifts without comparing ourselves to others. Help us to acknowledge our own failures and avoid condemning others for theirs. And to know that the only reward we must seek is the knowledge that we do your will.

Teach us, good Lord,
To serve thee as thou deservest;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not for seek for rest;
To labour and not to ask for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do thy will.
St Ignatius Loyola