The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Gary and I have started a new sermon series on the parables of Jesus. Gary started us off with three weeks on The Parable of the Prodigal Son, and I followed with a sermon on The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. You can listen here.

I really enjoyed this sermon. As I reflected on how to preach a parable, I kept coming back to how much of a parable's "punch" is tied to the medium of a story. By changing the medium from story to sermon, we diminish the power of the passage. So, instead of preaching a sermon, I thought I would tell a story.

For this sermon I wrote an original 5,000 word short story and I read it. There is a short introduction and a short conclusion, followed by the reading of Matthew 20:1–16, upon which the story is based.