You will notice that these doors are essentially useless without the two hinges, one on the top and the other on the bottom of the door.  Without the two hinges, this door just doesn’t work; it isn’t very useful; it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do.  For these doors to operate correctly, they need two hinges. One hinge won’t suffice.

If you go home to your house, I ask you to examine every cupboard door throughout your whole house or apartment.  Every cupboard door has at least two hinges; one on the top and one on the bottom.  If you examine every doorway door in your house, you will also notice that all the big doors in your house have at least two hinges.  If your house is not new, all the doors leading outside of your house will also have two hinges.  The codes have changes for newer homes, and three hinges are now found on the outside doors.  The point is; every door in your house or apartment has two hinges.  That’s just the way it is. You need two hinges for doors to work. 

Here in my hands I have two sets of hinges.  One pair is a smaller set of hinges that is used for any normal sized door.  The second pair is absolutely enormous; they are large decorative black hinges.  But large or small, the function is the same:  these are needed to make the door work.  The doors don’t work without these two hinges. 

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“Render to the Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

It’s still a long time until April 15th and I don’t mean to remind you of that prematurely but did you know that April 15th is not only income tax day, it is also the day the Titanic sunk and the day Lincoln was shot.  You see, it is just a bad day all the way around.

Another cynic has said, “Death and taxes may always be with us, but at least death doesn’t get worse every time congress meets.”

Arthur Godfrey once said, “I feel honored to pay taxes in America.  The thing is, I could probably feel just as honored for about half the price.”

Most people don’t enjoy paying taxes.  We just do it.  Well, the people had to pay taxes in Jesus’ time, too.  Even worse, they had to pay them to a government they despised.  Rome.  You see, Rome was occupying their land. A portion of their income ended up in Caesar’s pocket and this made the Jews very unhappy.  They were a proud people and resented this Roman domination.  Thus, Jesus’ dilemma when they asked him the loaded question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  Would Jesus offend the Jews by siding with the despised Romans or would he risk the wrath of the Romans by siding with Jewish sentiment?

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Theme:  Finding excuses to avoid fellowship with God.  

First and foremost, the purpose of this text is to be aware that to be a Christian is like being invited to a wedding feast.

People are always making excuses why they do not want to be part of God. People are always making excuses why they do not have time to pray. People are always making excuses why they don’t want to be part of the church. People are always making excuses for why they do not want to help make the world a better place. Let me amplify.

People have thousand and one excuses, and the excuses are so old, but Jesus’ illustrations are so contemporary. What are the excuses that people gave Jesus? They bought a field. How contemporary. How modern. How appropriate for today’s world. “I got myself a house. I got myself a business. I got a cabin. I am busy taking care of my property…..

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Theme:  Paying the rent by living a moral, righteous life.

What did Jesus mean by this parable that he told against the Pharisees?

The renters were the Pharisees who didn’t want to pay the rent and acknowledge that God was the owner of the vineyard and expected a rent payment. The Pharisees wanted the vineyard for themselves. These Pharisaical leaders silenced the prophets of God, the representatives of God, who God had sent to them throughout the Old Testament.

The Pharisees silenced the voice of God who was saying to them, “I own this vineyard. It is mine. Pay the rent. The rent is fruit. The rent is a righteous life of goodness, kindness and mercy. I have entrusted this vineyard to you and it is not yours. I expect payment.” The Pharisees silenced these representatives from God again and again in the Old Testament and killed them. God finally sent his Son, Jesus, the heir of the vineyard, the future owner of the vineyard. And they killed the Son too.

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to know that God knew they were the ones who killed the prophets. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to know that he knew that they were going to kill him in the near future. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to know that they would be punished by God for killing the prophets of old, for killing the Son, and for not producing the fruit of righteous lives that God had rightfully expected of them.

What does this mean today some twenty-one centuries later?

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Theme:  Jesus desires a “change of heart” in making a difference in a messed up world.”

We all have had these experiences, where the promises far exceeds the performance, where people say “yes” too easily and then don’t follow through.  Isn’t it aggravating when people say, “Yes, yes, we’ll do it!” and then don’t follow through.  Like when the grandparents are coming over for dinner and the children are asked to pick up their rooms, and they nod a passive “yes,” and you, the parent, find them lounging in front of the television.  Does this drive you up the wall?  It does me.

Or let’s say you help with a volunteer organization such as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, a soccer team, a church.  And let’s say that this soccer mom volunteers and says, “Yes, I will telephone all the parents and tell them about the change of time of the game.”  But she doesn’t do it, and nobody shows up because no one was called. Doesn’t that drive you up the wall?

Or let’s say that you are a computer programmer, and the programmer at the cubicle next to you says, “Yes, I can get that work done tonight,” and you come into the office in the morning and it isn’t done.  You can’t say anything, so you bite your lips and inside, shake your head in disgust and you do the work.  It’s aggravating when people make promises but don’t follow through on them.

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Jesus’ parables are never about church. Not one parable of Jesus is about church. Not one parable is about candles, canticles or choirs. Not one of his parables are about preaching, pews, or processionals. Jesus’ parables are from everyday life. They are from the market place, the farm, the family. Well, today’s parable is about salaries, wages, and a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.  Today’s parable is about the pocket book, the billfold, the daily or hourly income. People always get tense, anxious and nervous when you talk about money, salaries, and income.

What is the purpose of this story of Jesus? The key to the story is the contrast between those who came at the last hour and those who came at the first hour. Regardless of when they punched the time clock, all were given a full day’s wage

Those who were given a full days wage at the last hour felt that their wage was undeserved, unearned and a wonderful gift from the owner. The wage was a gift, a surprise, a wonderful delight. And there are Christians who feel that God’s generosity to them is unearned, undeserved, and they are surprised at the generosity of God. Such Christians have this attitude that life has been a wonderful gift from God such as these workers who came to work for only one hour and had received a full blessing from God.

Meanwhile, there are other religious people who were there at six o’clock in the morning and they worked all day long. They were born into the Christian faith; they were baptized into the Christian faith; they went to Sunday School; they went to Youth Group; they did confirmation; they worked in the Altar Guild; they sang in the church choir; they served on the church council; they came to church every Sunday. And they knew in their hearts that God owed it to them. They had the inner attitude: if anyone deserved to be blessed by God, they did because they had been faithful to God and his church all of their lives. God: I deserve your blessing. I have earned your blessing because of my faithful behavior to you and the church throughout the years.

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Jesus came to teach us the language of love, and the language of love is always the language of forgiveness.

Jesus came to teach us that we are called to forgive seventy times seven, infinitely. Jesus came to teach us to break our cycles of revenge. Jesus came to teach us to forgive ourselves and other people, no matter how painful that may be.

Jesus came to teach us to forgive ourselves and other people, no matter how difficult that may be. Jesus came to teach us not only to forgive our friends and people that we  like but also to forgive our enemies and people with whom we have deep conflicts.
Jesus came to teach us that forgiveness is the master key of all human relationships.

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The word, “church,” is a very common word used by the Apostle Paul, but in the four gospels, the word, “church,” occurs in two places.  Here in the Scripture passage for today from Matthew 18, and from a few weeks ago, in Mathew 16.

The Greek word for church is “ecclesia” which means church or fellowship.

The passage for today says that “wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The church is a community of loving people. The church is a community of people who love you, know your name, and are concerned about you. Is it not important for you that as a member of a church, that people know your name? Is not that your right? That they know what you struggle with? Isn’t that at the heart of a church? Where you are known and loved as a friend?

We recently had a seventh grade retreat. Those kids were wonderful. You can have a great youth program and have great singing and great energy around the campfire, but every one of those kids wants to be wanted. And the kids, in spite of the fancy camp and in spite of the fancy singing, and in spite of a fancy youth director, if a kid feels that he or she is not wanted and loved by their friends, those kids will not want to be part of it.

The same is true of us as adults. We want to be wanted. We want to be loved. We want people to treat us as friends. The church is a fellowship. The church is a community. The church is family.

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Simon Peter had the right answers, the right theological answer, but he didn’t understand. He said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” but he did not understand about the way of the cross and what it meant for his life.

Simon Peter had half of the story right. Part of being a Christian is to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The other half of the story is to experience the cross. The first part is to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the second part of Christianity is to experience the cross. To experience the cross is to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. It is to lose your life for Christ’s sake.

The question is: What does it mean for us to deny ourselves, to take up the cross and follow Christ?

In a book, “The Cross of Christian Experience,” the author C. M. Clowe makes the distinction between burdens, thorns and crosses.

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I would like to talk about keys.  See in my hand, a key from my key chain. Keys are so important to our everyday lives… as are key chains. Many of us adults have a key chain. In fact, having a key chain is a sign of becoming an adult.

Doesn’t it frustrate you when you lose your set of keys? Knowing we all have problems losing our keys, most of us have a key hook at home where we hang our sets of keys. If we don’t have that key hook, most of us lose our keys and that is so frustrating when we lose them.

Keys are incredibly small but open such great power. You know that and so do I. I think of Wendy who drives an eighteen wheeler which he sometimes parks in the church parking lot at night during the week. Wendy gets into that eighteen wheeler, turns the ignition, and Wendy moves tons of material just with that little key. Look at this key in my hand. Look how small it is. How much does it weigh? I measured its weight. This key weighs a fraction of an ounce. It is two inches long. But it can move many tons of machinery. This key is a small little bugger but it is important.

Most of us have other keys…..for our office, our building, our school. Most adults have jobs and often there are several keys that are connected with work. Sometimes we carry a master key. A master key will open numerous doors in the building.

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