A Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Jonah 3:10--4:11
Psalm 145
Philippians 1:21-27
Matthew 20:1-16
Well, here we go again: Might as well call this week's sermon "God is not a Math Whiz, Part Two." Last week Jesus didn't know that seven times is more than enough to forgive anyone. This week it seems that he's clueless about business economics as well.
There's just no way that this is fair. Those who work only a few minutes get the same pay as those who worked all day long? It's about as fair as God giving the same beautiful summer afternoons by the lake to all of us – those who stick it out through all those miserable February Minnesota mornings get just the same payoff as those who are here only a few choice months.
It's enough to make me want to go sulk with Jonah and say something like, "God, I just knew it! You tricked me again. It just isn't fair!"
I should have known better. I spent all that time preparing to understand God, getting ready to be a priest. Eleven years of praying and arguing with God before I even began. I might as well have run away and been swallowed up by some big fish for what it got me. I spent years in discernment. I sold my house, gave up my horses, and moved my family a thousand miles from home. All those years of full-time seminary and five-figure student loans still to be paid off. Internships, and field education, and discernment, and interviews, and tests. Even after ordination, for a year it was "the pits" – that's "p" "i" "t" – as in "priest in training." Finally, after all that, in fifteen years or so, I am a parish priest.
And look what God does now! Total Ministry. In a few months, a bunch of little churches point their fingers at a few parishioners. Then after a couple of years of getting together a few times each month, Tah dah! The team becomes the same as a parish priest. No selling houses or horses. No moving families or mounting debts. And they have just what I do. They preach, they stand at the altar, they teach, they do it all. Some of them get called ‘reverend' and wear their collar backwards.
It's just not fair. Move over, Jonah. I think you're right. God has no standards at all. First God tells you those rotten Ninevites are gonna die. Then God forgives them. Probably forgives them 490 times, they're sinful enough to need it. What kind of calculations are these, anyway? Work twelve hours, get daily wage. Work one hour, get daily wage. Since when does twelve hours equal one hour? And $27,000 for a year of seminary equals $100 for a year of EFM? It's all the same to our Divine Math Whiz.
Who want's to work for a God like that? Next Sunday all of us might as well sleep late. Pays the same anyway. The last are gonna be first. Jesus said so. Might as well be last now so we can win later.
But then again, those who are last, even if they suddenly get moved to the front of the line, might have missed a lot. Winter in Minnesota can be lovely. And though it is long, hard work, there are many blessings to be found in seminary that EFM can never match.
It's not fair, but who really wants fair? Do you really want God to pay you as you deserve? God offers the same reward to all – the wages are eternal life. Those who find work in the vineyard at the last minute receive the same daily wage – their life – but those who went out earlier have had time to make something of that life. Those who went to the vineyard early, have begun to know God, and learn to take joy in the journey.
The question is not "Who worked longer or harder?" The question is not "Who is paid more or who is paid less?" The question is "Is there enough?" And the answer is one of absolute abundance. Everyone gets their daily wage. Everyone gets what they need to live. It's like the answer to a prayer – "Give us this day our daily bread."
And the land owner in our story keeps going back again and again looking for workers, as if he wants to be sure everyone is there in time for payday. God doesn't want anyone left out. Sinners and latecomers all have a chance to receive their daily bread.
So this is what God's kingdom is like. Absolute abundance. More than enough love and life and forgiveness and grace for all of us whenever we show up.
When we start to add up our lives, to count our sins and shortcomings, and total up the many times we've been late in beginning God's work, isn't it good to know that God is not a math whiz? God is not fair, but God IS good. Everyone who turns to God receives abundant life. Even now, God is still around looking for workers, so let's get to work.