Book of Common Prayer
Abraham is the father of all believers
13 The promise, you see, didn’t come to Abraham or to his family through the law—the promise, that is, that he would inherit the world. It came through the covenant justice of faith. 14 For if those who belong to the law are going to inherit, then faith is empty, and the promise has been abolished. 15 For the law stirs up God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no lawbreaking.
16 That’s why it’s “by faith”: so that it can be in accordance with grace, and so that the promise can thereby be validated for the entire family—not simply those who are from the law, but those who share the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all, 17 just as the Bible says, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.
Abraham’s faith—and ours
18 Against all hope, but still in hope, Abraham believed that he would become the father of many nations, in line with what had been said to him: “That’s what your family will be like.” 19 He didn’t become weak in faith as he considered his own body (which was already as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old), and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He didn’t waver in unbelief when faced with God’s promise. Instead, he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God had the power to accomplish what he had promised. 22 That is why “it was calculated in his favor, putting him in the right.”
23 But it wasn’t written for him alone that “it was calculated to him.” 24 It was written for us as well! It will be calculated to us, too, since we believe in the one who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was handed over because of our trespasses and raised because of our justification.
The workers in the vineyard
20 “So you see,” Jesus continued, “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed with the workers to give them a dinar a day, and sent them off to his vineyard.
3 “He went out again in the middle of the morning, and saw some others standing in the market-place with nothing to do.
4 “ ‘You too can go to the vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I’ll give you what’s right.’ 5 So off they went.
“He went out again about midday, and then in the middle of the afternoon, and did the same. 6 Then, with only an hour of the day left, he went out and found other people standing there.
“ ‘Why are you standing here all day with nothing to do?’ he asked them.
7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they replied. “ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you too can go into the vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the vineyard-owner said to his servant, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay. Start with the last, and go on to the first.’
9 “So the ones who had worked for one hour came, and each of them received a dinar. 10 When the first ones came, they thought they would get something more; but they, too, each received a dinar.
11 “When they had been given it, they grumbled against the landowner. 12 ‘This lot who came in last,’ they said, ‘have only worked for one hour—and they’ve been put on a level with us! And we did all the hard work, all day, and in the heat as well!’
13 “ ‘My friend,’ he said to one of them, ‘I’m not doing you any wrong. You agreed with me on one dinar, didn’t you? 14 Take it! It’s yours! And be on your way. I want to give this fellow who came at the end the same as you. 15 Or are you suggesting that I’m not allowed to do what I like with my own money? Or are you giving me the evil eye because I’m good?’
16 “So those at the back will be at the front, and the front ones at the back.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.