The Generosity of God
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 3, 2021
Sirach 43:1-2, 11-12, 27-33 • Galatians 6:14-18 • Matthew 20:1-16
Matthew 20:15 “... are you envious because I am generous?”
Wise parents, teachers, and preachers – at our best – know a simple truth. Vicar Jane reminded us of it last Sunday: “If an audience isn’t listening to you, you do have to get their attention!’ Even our pets know this! They don’t like to be ignored. St. Francis knew this, and socialized as much with the flowers and animals as he did with people.
Jesus faced this awesome challenge not only with the crowds, religious leaders and politicians of his day, but with the twelve disciples. To be more precise, Jesus’ patience was tested again and again by Peter’s inattention.
The one nicknamed “Rock” could be dense and distracted. Jesus had to repeat things with regularity. I call this the sacrament of Holy Redundancy – No, you will not find it in The Book Of Common Prayer unless you read between the lines. It shows up in every Eucharist as Jesus says again: “Do this In remembrance of me.”
In the story of the Rich Young Ruler, just prior to today’s Gospel reading, an affluent inquirer sadly refused to join Jesus because it would have meant giving up his possessions. In today’s world we might place him among the “nones,” the spiritually curious but not affiliated. Peter – an eye witness to this encounter- commented later: Well, Jesus, we have given up everything for you, so what do we get?
You and I are tempted to do this sort of thing ourselves. We compare the best in ourselves to the worst in others and come out winners in the merit badge contest of life. Jesus ends this story with the words that Peter apparently did not hear: “But many who are first will be last and the last will be first.” Then follows the parable of The Laborers in the Vineyard.
If you sense holy redundancy in this sequence, you are awake and listening. Jesus is preparing to give Peter and the disciples another chance to hear again what they failed to hear the first time.
It begins with a vision of what the world would look like if the reign of God truly appeared among us here and now; if what we pray for each time we say the Lord’s Prayer, really happened! “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But the disciples’ minds sweep over the first words from Jesus’ mouth and rush to a lecture on employer-laborer relations. The same thing happens among us today.
Years ago, a young man named Kenneth, knowing that I would preach on this text the next Sunday, offered to help me prepare the sermon. We met early in the week and talked. He thought the idea of paying laborers the same wage promised at the starting hour to those who worked only some of the workday, even to the one who served only one hour, was economic quackery. It was just unfair, even if the latecomers were unemployed through no fault of their own. In the labor union halls that I know, he would have been applauded.
However, Kenneth came back late in the week and wanted to tell me something before I preached. As we sat together, he admitted that he had changed his mind. It had been a frigid winter in New England and an elderly neighbor asked Kenneth to shovel heavy snow from his walkway and driveway, for generous pay. When he was more than half done, his pesky younger brother showed up, uninvited, to help.
In silence they finished the task and the owner came out say thank you and pay Kenneth the agreed upon cash. But, the owner, without warning, handed the little brother the same amount. Kenneth fumed. It was unfair. Now he saw himself in Jesus’ parable and was ashamed. With his permission, I included his story in my sermon the next day. Winter still held us in its grip. But I saw a congregation melt that day.
At the close of this parable, Jesus says to Peter and the other disciples not “The first will be last, and the last will be first” but “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” The inverted phrases have a purpose. No matter which camp we start in, those who learn the way of servanthood, whose lives point not to themselves but to the Author of all life, are “first” in faithfulness to the reign of God.
Peter knew that later, after Jesus’ ascension, when he said to a paralyzed man: “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” The Fisherman once concerned about rank and status became a living ikon of the generosity and grace of God. By the way, Kenneth became a loving Pastor!