Here are a few additional hymn preludes, by Edwin I. Lawrence of Bennington, Vt. and Williamstown, Mass., that we recorded for our summer services. Shared with permission.
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Words: Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871)
Music: Quebec (Hesperus), Henry Baker (1854)
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest;
and in your weariness lay down your head upon my bresast.”
I came to Jesus as I was, so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.
Words: Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), alt.
Music: Kingsfold, English folk melody
We who would valiant be: let us not waver,
but in true constancy follow the Savior.
There’s no discouragement shall make us once relent
our first avowed intent to live as pilgrims.
Words: John Bunyan (1684), alterations © 1992 The Pilgrim Press hymn text. Used with permission under One License #A-727270. All rights reserved.
Music: St. Dunstan’s, Charles Winfred Douglas (1867–1944)
Though the order in which they are placed in Scripture might lead us to think otherwise, Paul wrote his epistles before the evangelists wrote their Gospels. Scholars think Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, for example—from which we just heard—some 25 or 30 years before Matthew wrote his Gospel.
Had Matthew reversed the order in which the landowner paid the workers—had Matthew’s landowner given wages first to those who began work first: “Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the first”—Matthew’s story might read differently. Had Matthew reversed the order in which the landowner paid the workers, our attention might then be drawn, not to those workers who had “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat,” not to their surprise at not receiving more than the usual daily wage, not to their grumbling against the landowner, 
My homily this morning is ultimately about resisting God, which we all do. And I want to begin by telling about my resisting the apostle Paul (which many of us do!).