In the last week or so, we’ve started to discuss and make plans for our Christmas Fairs. And when we get to this time of year, I’m always reminded of the very first Christmas Fair I attended as a curate, in my Title Parish. I don’t really remember the Fair itself, but what I do remember very well, and I’m sure I’ll never forget is what happened on the day of the Fair as the stalls were being set up. One lady, a rather lovely, sprightly but ever so feisty 90-year-old arrived at church to find that her stall had already been set up and so she promptly turned around, walked out of church and went home! The vicar asked me to go and speak to her and get her to come back. I thought that was something he should do, but he wouldn’t, and so off I went. Now I must admit, the lady was very nice, and always was, to me at least, but there was no way she was going to come back to church and the Fair. It seemed she’d been running that particular stall at the Fair for over 30 years and so she was non too pleased to arrive and find it already set up and someone else sat behind it. I told her that, no one was trying to take the stall away from her and they were only trying to be helpful, saving her the trouble of setting things up, to which she replied,
“Well they should ask first shouldn’t they Father! I don’t need any help!”
And then in answer to another appeal for her to come back she said,
“No, it’s alright Father. I know he’s sent you over to see me because he’s too frightened to come himself, so you’ve done your duty. You go back, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I think that’s quite an amusing story but it’s one that does highlight an issue we often find in churches, and it’s an issue that can lead to problems.
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the situation of people in a church thinking that something they’ve done in the past, and that could be any number of things, is their job by right, simply because they have done it in the past. And the more frequently they’ve done that thing and the longer they’ve done it the more they, and not just they but other people in the church too, start to see that thing as something only they should be allowed to do, and woe betide anyone who seems to want to even get involved, let alone who appears to be trying to take that job over, especially if the usurper is fairly or even relatively new to the church.
Before I say anymore, I want to make it perfectly clear that without the faithful few who do take on jobs and roles for the church we’d be in a pretty sorry state. And there are some very faithful people in every church without whose commitment and hard work, not to mention long service, churches simply couldn’t function. So I’m very grateful to those who do this here, as we all should be.
At times though, such long-serving members of the church can start to be seen as more important than anyone else in that church. And that is a situation and an attitude we shouldn’t find in any church because we know that Jesus took his disciples to task for arguing about which of them was the greatest. And yet we do find this happening in many churches. I’ve served in churches in which a few long-standing members of the congregation, to all intents and purposes, run the show, or at least try to. If they don’t like something, it shouldn’t happen, regardless of what anybody else thinks about it. Dates for things like Summer and Christmas Fairs, are set according to their availability. And if those dates aren’t suitable for someone else, well that’s just tough for them, they’ll have to miss out.
And where this happens we often find knock on problems. If people’s views are ignored, if they’re made to feel almost like second class members of the church, if they’re not allowed to do something because it’s someone else’s job, and has been since Adam was a lad, to coin a phrase, they’re hardly going to be likely to want to help out when the church needs them to, are they. And as we go down the line, no matter how long someone has done something, no matter how well they do it, at some point they will have to step down from it because no one can go on for ever. And when that happens, someone else will have to take over. But if they’ve been made to feel as though they weren’t good enough to do that thing in the past, why should they be willing to do it at any time?
So a church where some people are treated as better than others, for any reason actually, but one way in which that often does happen is where long service brings this kind of discrimination, is not only acting in a way Christ himself forbade, but is simply storing up trouble for itself in the future.
In this morning’s Gospel we heard Jesus’ parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard. Obviously this is a parable which speaks primarily about the reward God will give to all those who answer his call and go about his business in the world. And the reward for all is the same, regardless of how long someone has been about that work. But there’s also a warning in this parable, a warning that those who’ve worked for the Lord for a long time should not be jealous of or discriminate against those who’ve worked for less time, even if that time has been very short indeed. God will not do that and so neither should we.
This is a parable of the kingdom of heaven, of course, but the life of the Church, and the life of all churches should be a reflection of the kingdom of heaven because we’re called to live by the values of the kingdom. As Jesus says in the parable of the Unworthy Servants,
“…when you have done all that was commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty’”.
And our duty to God starts when we accept his call to service, whether that was 50 years ago or 50 days ago. So as there are no special favours granted for long service by God, we shouldn’t treat people differently according to the length of time they’ve been a member of the Church or been helping out in a church.
As I said earlier, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be very grateful to those who’ve served our churches for many years. It doesn’t mean we can’t thank them perhaps even with some kind of long service award for all they’ve done. But it does mean that we shouldn’t treat them, or anyone else as in some way better or superior to those who haven’t served for so long. And we certainly shouldn’t discriminate against anyone in the church or take them, their gifts and what they do and have done as of lesser importance because they were called to service later than others.
Amen.
Propers for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 20th September 2026
Entrance Antiphon
I am the salvation of the people, says the Lord.
Should they cry to me in any distress,
I will hear them, and I will be their Lord for ever.
The Collect
O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law
upon love of you and of our neighbour,
grant that, by keeping your precepts,
we may merit to attain eternal life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Philippians 1:20-24, 27
Matthew 20:1-16
Prayer after Communion
Graciously raise up, O Lord,
those you renew with this Sacrament,
that we may come to possess your redemption
both in mystery and in the manner of our life.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
