On Our Final Reward

[Sermon delivered at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Phoenix, Arizona

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 20, 2026. The propers for the Sunday may be found at https://lectionary.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary-post/97?date=2026-09-20&year=Year%20A%20%2F%20II ]

✠ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in Essence and Undivided. Amen.

“Thy Kingdom Come.”[1]

We pray this prayer frequently, many of us daily, some of us multiple times during the day, echoing the prayer Our Lord taught His disciples twenty centuries ago. There are multiple mentions of this Kingdom within the pages of Holy Scripture, and much other ink and breath has been spent discussing it. The discussions ask questions such as:

·         What is it?

·         Where is it?

·         Who is part of it?

·         How does one become part of it?

·         What are its characteristics, its laws, its customs?

·         When is it (that’s a vexing one and has gotten many into trouble)?

·         How shall it come to be (that one has gotten lots of us into further trouble)?

Our Lord has taught us many things about this Kingdom, which at times He refers to as the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven; He taught how it is already here, yet coming into fulfilment, who can (and cannot…again, speculation here has gotten lots of us into trouble…) be part of it, and what it is like. We hear similes and metaphors of mustard seeds, pearls of great price, lights taken out from under bushel-baskets, lost coins, lost sheep, and many others. Some of them are very comforting, soothing even.

Then we get today’s parable.[2]

In the context surrounding today’s passage, St. Matthew has Jesus relocating from Galilee to Judea. He had been speaking of who would be the greatest in the Kingdom, how forgiveness is a paramount trait of those who are members of the Kingdom, and how useless status and wealth in this world is to the Kingdom. In fact, the previous chapter ends with Him saying, “But many that are first will be last, and the last first.”[3] This passage we have before us today is a further emphasizes that point. It is not an employment model, or a business plan, or a bonus programme (although there are many who try to take us in that direction, which is not Our Lord’s intent!). Instead, it is a demonstration of how the Kingdom upends every expectation that is part of this current age.

In this parable, we see a progressive narrative, which I am going to distil down to the bare bones for those without an agricultural background. There is someone who has an important, time-sensitive, and very big project. As time goes on this person brings on more and more resources to achieve the goal. So far, for those geeks into project management, the path is predictable: if time is inflexible and the amount of work is inflexible then the resource expenditure to accomplish the work in the allotted time has to increase (and yes, I paid way too much money to learn that…I even have the textbooks). Now, here is the upset: the resources brought in later, who expends the same rate of expenditure of effort, are compensated the same amount as the resources who have been working longer and who had arguably expended much more effort than the last-minute staffing additions.  I will be honest; like them I would be a bit resentful myself.

I think it may benefit us to retell the story reflecting more the truth behind the parable.

Joe has been devoted to God all his life, praying since he could utter his first words, partaking of all the sacraments he could, and dedicating his life to acts of charity and mercy. Jasmine had a conversion experience in college, had a bit of a rocky start in her prayer life, and had some ups and downs in her spiritual journey with a major backslide in her 40’s only to find her faith again and go on to found and run a major ministry to the homeless. Annalisa just surfed through her life as a nominal believer, but in her 60’s somehow quietly caught fire and just as quietly nurtured souls around her in volunteering for Sunday School and other children’s ministries. Jack lived a fast and hard life and was not one that you would want to spend time with and DEFINITELY would not let your daughter date, but shortly before he died (it’s immaterial how or why), he gave himself over to God and spent the rest of his days paying restitution to those he wronged wherever he could. They all eventually passed on, and at the consummation of the age they all were received by God with the proverbial, “Servant, well done.”[4]

I am not going to say that Joe got his surplice in a twist or any of the others expressed resentment of Jack receiving an equal reward. The point the words of those who were hired on early in the day in the parable were expressing the expectation of this current age, that length of effort is directly proportional to the size of the reward. The point is that eternal communion with the Source of Life, Light, Love and all else that is good is offered equally to all in the Kingdom without distinction and without measure. At the consummation of the age, no one shall be thinking their reward to be greater or lesser than that of any other, for they shall have eyes only for the Lord their God. The reaction of the early labourers is not for the benefit of those receiving their reward at the end of days, but it is for us to be mindful of the love of God, God’s limitless grace, and God’s impartiality.

Let us sharpen this focus. In our own lifetime, God shows his love for all of us, not just because “…He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,”[5] but also because “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”[6] God is not interested in meting out a hierarchy of rewards; No, He is interested in bringing back to His embrace as many who would, “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”[7] Through the Prophet Ezekiel, God has told us, “As I live…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”[8]

Indeed, there are multiple passages where the long service of the righteous is overshadowed by the return of the unrighteous. We have the parable of the lost sheep, where Our Lord Jesus teaches, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who need no repentance,”[9] and the lost coin, where Our Lord Jesus repeats, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”[10] More memorably, however, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father, representing God the Father, states, “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”[11] This is by no means a slight to the righteous, for as the Father said in the parable to the good son, “…You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”[12]

What does this all tell us? If we truly listen, we hear that:

·         God desires the death of no one, but desires that everyone turn to him.

·         The unrighteous who return and repent are the cause for greater joy.

·         The prodigal that returns receives every good gift that God can give.

·         The righteous who had remained already have everything that God gives.

·         God gives all that He has to all who turn to Him, regardless of when they do so.

Truly, if God gives all in the Kingdom full communion with His Divine being, indwelling each of us without measure, how then can any of us say we have been shortchanged in the deal? We all shall partake of the river of Living Water flowing from the Temple of God,[13] and truth be told, it is a firehose. Being indwelt by the fulness of God, who is infinite, limitless, and boundless will take each of us an eternity to comprehend, meaning that this will be a well that will never deplete, a light that will never fade, warmth that will never wane, sustenance that will never fail, love that will never cease, life that will never die. My family in Christ, none of us will be in any position to compare the gifts we receive with those of any other, it is only in this age where we might care whether one is greater or has more honour or receives a greater reward, because in this age our sight is dimmed by darkness, our love is cooled by corruption, and our fulness of life curtailed by death. The message today is for us to see past the deceits of this age and to discern the truth of the age to come, where there is more than enough of God to go around, unto the ages of ages.

✠ Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, Holy Dominic, and all the saints, Saviour save us. Amen.

[1] Mt. 7.10, Lk. 11.2

[2] Mt. 20.1-16

[3] Mt. 19.30

[4] The names and characters in this paragraph are fiction and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

[5] Mt. 5.45b

[6] Jn. 3.16

[7] Jn. 3.17

[8] Ez. 33.11

[9] Lk. 15.7

[10] Lk. 15.10

[11] Lk. 15.32

[12] Lk. 15.31

[13] Cf. Ez. 47.1-12