It was a good Sunday at Faith Lutheran, in Bristol, Tennessee. I didn't have any brilliant new ideas for a youth sermon, so I went with a standard approach, modified a bit from last time. I encouraged a thought experiment, stressing that no actual money would be given out.
The text was Matthew 20: 1-16: laborers in a vineyard arriving at different times, all paid the same amount of money at the end, regardless of arrival time.
The 4 youth who are regulars, I asked if they would make a banner for the church. It would be an all day project, from 9-6, and I'd pay each one of them a thousand dollars. They agreed--no surprise.
What if I included some newer members of our youth church? They could come at noon and be paid the same. A bit of hesitation, but nodding heads.
What if toddler Malachi joined us at 3 p.m.? Same amount of money, but starting much later. Wrinkled noses, less agreement.
Now what if I included some adults, let's say, Carl, Pete, and Diane? They could come at 5 p.m., work for an hour, get $1000 each--are we O.K. with that? Definitely not.
After the thought experiment, a brief talk about God's generosity and ideas of fairness. The adult sermon covered much the same ground. I think that the youth sermon was more engaging, as it often is, on some level, even though the ideas are developed differently.
You can see the adult sermon here, on my YouTube channel. If you'd like to read along, I posted the sermon manuscript in this blog post.
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