by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels
Old Testament Reading
When God saw what the people of Nineveh did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
—Jonah 3:10-4:11 (NRSV)
Gospel
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
—Matthew 20:1-16 (NRSV)
Today we are talking about our priorities versus God’s priorities.
Buddy and his wife Edna went to the state fair every year. Each year during their visit Edna would say, “I’d like to ride in that helicopter over there.”
Buddy always replied, “I know Honey, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”
Last year Buddy and Edna went to the fair and Edna said, “Buddy, I’m 85 years old and if I don’t ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance.”
To this, Buddy replied, “Edna, that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”
The pilot overheard the couple and said, “Folks, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say a word, I won’t charge you a penny! But if you say one word, it’s fifty dollars.”
Buddy and Edna agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word. When they landed the pilot turned to Edna and said, “By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn’t. I’m impressed.”
Edna replied, “Well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Buddy fell out, but you know, fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”
I think it’s fair to question Edna’s priorities, don’t you?
We live in a culture in which we are taught to put ourselves ahead of anybody else for the most part. In fact, that is demonstrated for us constantly isn’t it? We are told we must “satisfy our needs” and we are told that we need to be in relationships that “satisfy our needs”. How often are we told that owning the biggest home in the right neighborhood, driving the most expensive car, eating in the finest restaurants, and keeping up with the Jones’s and away from those “other” people is the road to happiness? So why in the world would a people choose to put others ahead of themselves even in a pandemic, like the people of this church do every week in the care each other and of those less fortunate?
To address this question let’s start by examining the priorities of God as opposed to those taught by society as presented in two of our scripture lessons today. The first is a reading from Jonah. I love the story and quote it often. Please allow me to summarize.
God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and tell them they were in trouble and God was upset with them. But Jonah didn’t want to do it. In fact, Jonah refused to do it, and decided to run away where God couldn’t find him. He booked passage on a ship to parts unknown. Well naturally we understand you can’t run away from God, so after they set sail a great storm arose on the sea and everybody was afraid the ship was about to sink.
To make a long story short the folks on the ship decided finally that Jonah was the problem because they recognized the power of Jonah’s God, and they threw him overboard. Well sure enough the storm ceased immediately. Then God, being God, sent a big fish that swallowed Jonah whole, saving his life, and the fish finally spit him up on shore, safe and sound, three days later.
These events helped to get Jonah’s mind straight. He decided to go to Nineveh as God had instructed, and tell them they had forty days left before God destroyed the city and did so.
Now the politicians of that day must have been very different from the politicians of today. Some of them actually listened because the King heard Jonah’s warning and decided to take heed. Can you imagine?
In any event the King repented and so did the entire city. And what happened? God changed God’s mind. God decided to forgive them their prior transgressions and didn’t destroy the city. And brother did that ever make Jonah mad.
“That’s exactly why I didn’t want to do what you asked. That’s why I ran away in the first place. Being a prophet for you just sucks. I knew you would change your mind and make me look bad. That’s the way you are. You threaten to punish someone and then change your mind making me look stupid. You know what? You are just too nice for the God business.”
Jonah stormed off in a funk as we heard in the story. Jonah knew what God was like. And we know a little more about God ourselves now having heard it. This story isn’t about Jonah and it’s not about a fish. It’s about God and the nature of God. It’s about God’s love for God’s creatures and God’s willingness and eagerness to forgive and get back into meaningful relationship with us.
And the gospel story is about the nature of God too. A landowner needs to hire some workers to toil in his fields and goes into town to find them. He goes first thing in the morning and promises each a day’s pay. He goes a little later and promises to do “what is right” for them. He just keeps going into town hiring people every couple of hours until late in the afternoon.
The rub comes at the end of the day when it was time to pay each of the workers their wages. They each received the same amount, a day’s pay. Those that came early to the field thought they deserved more than those that came later and were upset. I also imagine that those who came later were pretty happy having earned a full day’s wages for less than a day’s work. I can see both of their points of view, can’t you?
However, Jesus said that this story was a metaphor about God. The story is not about the workers. It’s about God. Jesus was trying to teach us something about God, and something about God’s nature, by telling this story. The point of the story is that what God has to give us, the wages if you will, is so valuable that we cannot possibly earn it whenever we come to work in God’s field and no matter how hard we work.
God is a generous God. Sometimes we are the workers who arrive early and expect more because we value our time and input (perhaps we are talking about those who have been members of the church for decades), and sometimes we are the workers that arrive late and are delighted with the unexpected amount we receive (perhaps these are the folks that just showed up or come occasionally). But in each case what we have received is more than we possibly could have imagined or have earned, and for the old timers they have had the privilege and enjoyment of working in God’s kingdom longer. This is the nature of God. God is grace. God loves us beyond our wildest dreams or expectations. The ticket to get on the train is of incredible value and is also free and cannot be earned no matter what.
So, let’s summarize. In the first lesson God is an incredibly forgiving God and can’t wait to be back in good communication with us. In the second lesson God’s wages, God’s grace, is of incredible value and all we need do is show up. If we get there early, we are blessed with even more time in the Kingdom.
And so, we come back to the question of our priorities. Why are we willing to help those in need? Why are we willing to put others ahead of ourselves? Our society sure doesn’t seem to want to reward that behavior.
Well we could honestly answer the question with a few answers. One of those would be that it’s a pleasant thing to do. It’s good camaraderie to work with other like-minded individuals in a common cause. Another answer would be that it brings happiness to those we help. Another would be that helping others just feels good, and it does. There is nothing like helping someone else to take your mind off your own issues for a little while.
I think the nature of God is the biggest reason. God loves each and every one of us more than we can possibly imagine. God loves the people we love and God loves the people we don’t love. In fact, God loves the people we can’t even stand as much as God loves anybody else. That’s a hard one to get used to, but true never the less. Each person standing in the Soup Hour line waiting to receive a meal is loved by God. God is absolutely crazy about that person. God walks with that person everywhere they go. God is hungry when they are hungry. God cries when they cry. God walks with them every step of their lives for better or for worse.
And we are the hands of God in this world. We are God’s partner in the care of God’s creation. We and God make this world a better place for all of God’s creatures. We are helping in God’s vineyard no matter when we arrived. We do what we do because of God’s love for us, and God’s love for all of humankind. We need no other reason. It’s all about the nature of God and the wages are beyond value.