17th Sunday After Pentecost
Jonah 3:11-4:10; Matt 20:1-16
And I am betting this
story probably annoys you a little bit. It’s
okay, it does me too. It violates our basic
common sense of fairness. What the owner
does just doesn’t seem right. Some
people worked so hard and the others that came late barely worked at all. It’s not a great way to motivate your
workforce, it sets a terrible precedent and if this becomes the norm, what
incentive would anyone have to do any hard work at all? It’s just not a good look.
Well you are not
alone. Apparently, there is nothing new
under the sun because in our first lesson today, Jonah shares all these same sentiments
about God’s unfairness. At the beginning
of our story today, Jonah is already spitting mad that God has decided to spare
the city of Nineveh after they listened when Jonah very begrudgingly called on
them to repent. So Jonah goes outside the city and sits down
to pout about it and God graciously gives him a bush to sit under for shade and
he is happy about the bush. And then
just as quickly God takes away his bush.
And this makes Jonah so livid that when God asks him if he is mad about
the bush he replies with one of the greatest lines in all of scripture. “Yes, angry enough to die.” It is a tantrum truly worthy of my oh-so-dramatic
pre-teen children. Because we are all in
favor of fairness right up until we are the ones to benefit from undeserved
generosity.
Jonah is wildly angry
when Nineveh is (in his opinion) undeservingly spared from destruction by their
sudden repentance (while conveniently forgetting his own recent sudden
salvation from the belly of the fish when he changed his mind and decided to
listen to God). And he is equally wildly
angry, maybe even angrier when he doesn’t get to keep his little tree which he
had done nothing but whine and pout to deserve.
And I love it because, this reaction is so human. It is in certain ways it is what it means to
be human.
Because really the
problem in both of these stories isn’t God’s action, but our perception of scarcity. This persistent belief that there is not
enough to go around. That fairness
involves loss. That there has to be
winners and losers in every transaction.
That there are only so many slices of the pie, so by definition if you
get more, there will be less left for me.
That everything ultimately is a zero-sum game. Because when resources are scarce, we end up
with competition.
This perception of
scarcity is fundamental to how we as humans tend to see the world. It is central to our sense of fairness. Those who work hard do better. Those who refuse to do the right thing face
the consequences. And by and large. We are not wrong. Scarcity is a real thing. We live in a world of mostly finite resources
and societies can’t function without consequences. If everyone tried to act like the land owner
all the time, it would never be sustainable.
It is just the reality of living in a finite world.
But guess who doesn’t
live in a finite world. God. God isn’t constrained by physical
reality. God can’t ever run out of anything. He is by definition limitless. Which means none of our rules apply. Which means thinking about God requires a
massive shift in perception. Because all
of those limits and scarcity we experience in our world don’t apply to
God. There is nothing that decreases or
limits God. If he loves you, gives to
you, bless you, saves you that in no way detracts from his ability to do that same
thing for others. And loving others
doesn’t detract from his ability to love you.
Where God is present, scarcity is impossible.
And I think that is the
point of this parable that Jesus tells us.
It is to remind us that God is not like us. That the kingdom of heaven is not like the
world now. That the rules that govern our world today are
not what will hold sway in the reign of God.
That there could be a world where the rules demanded by scarcity no
longer exist, where everyone can get paid the same no matter how hard they work
because everyone has what they need. Where
everyone benefits from God’s generosity because there is always enough to go
around. This parable offers us an
opportunity to glimpse behind the curtain to a world beyond our own and allows
us to think beyond its constraints to a world where true generosity is not only
possible but normal. And that we can all
benefit from it.
And one more
thing. Just like Jonah and the people of
Nineveh, this parable tends to make us angry because we tend to envision
ourselves as the 6:00am workers. We who
have grown up in the church, we who toil to serve the mission of Christ, we who
work hard and make sacrifices to live good and upright lives. We tend to assume that we are and should be
the early arrivers to the kingdom of God.
The first come and last paid workers who have been short changed by the lazy,
late-coming slackers.
But what if you aren’t. Consider instead that we are actually far
more like Jonah and the bush. The
reality is this dear people, no matter how long you have been at this, you are
still just Jonah enjoying the comfort and shade of a salvation you did nothing
to earn. A beautiful salvific tree grown
up without our input in the form of the cross of Christ, comforted and protect
by a love given to us even though we did not earn or deserve it. We, each and every one of us, are and always
will be 5:00pm laborers. Late and
undeserving arrivals at the door of the kingdom of heaven. Eager to receive a reward we did not earn and
reliant to God’s unbridled and unlimited generosity.
And that is okay, that
is the point. Because there is enough
for you here. There is not scarcity but abundance. There is plenty of love and grace to go
around. Enough for you, enough for your
neighbors, enough for the whole world.
Even in this time of uncertainty and fear. There is and always will be more than enough. Amen.
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